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Lockboxes possibly to be classified as gambling by German authorities - decision in March
sophlogimo
Member Posts: 6,507 Arc User
Relevant to STO in Germany.
https://www.golem.de/news/landesmedienanstalten-jugendschuetzer-pruefen-verbot-von-lootboxen-1802-132614.html
"German state governments' media offices investigate a prohibition of lockboxes"
In short, they may classify lockboxes (or lootboxes) as gambling by March. That would basically put STO out of business in Germany, unless PWE implements a strict age verification system or make lockboxes unavailable in Germany (and I don't even see how they could do that).
From the article, there seems to be a similar intiative in the US.
Considering how important lockboxes seem to be for STO's business model, thats big news.
https://www.golem.de/news/landesmedienanstalten-jugendschuetzer-pruefen-verbot-von-lootboxen-1802-132614.html
"German state governments' media offices investigate a prohibition of lockboxes"
In short, they may classify lockboxes (or lootboxes) as gambling by March. That would basically put STO out of business in Germany, unless PWE implements a strict age verification system or make lockboxes unavailable in Germany (and I don't even see how they could do that).
From the article, there seems to be a similar intiative in the US.
Considering how important lockboxes seem to be for STO's business model, thats big news.
Remember, STO is nothing but a cosmetics game, where only the rule of cool matters. The game mechanics are intentionally out of balance, don't try to "optimize" anything, as it would just frustrate you.
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"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
What is more likely, and would be fine for STO, is if they added the requirement that the odds be published. Compared to some MMOs the odds for lock boxes and R&D packs are good.
Last time this topic of discussion was brought up, I pointed out that all Cryptic potentially needs to do, is re-brand them 'Lobi Boxes' (which deliver Lobi, and with themed bonus-prizes) and bam, no more 'gamble' applies, because they would be identified, as the thing which they always deliver: 3 Lobi crystals (and themed bonus prizes)
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
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A full prohibition, indeed, seems unlikely. But it would be nice if Crytic got obligated to publish the odds. But truly no big deal: the odds are pretty much known already - be it unofficially -- so I doubt anyone would buy any lock box less because of it.
They'd have to judge it on a case by case basis. STO is actually very generous with their lockboxes, and Team Fortress 2 has 4 ways of acquiring items in crates. Its games like Star Wars Battlefront II that ruin it for everyone with corporate greed.
This. It's political point scoring with us peasants.
They'll talk about it to make it seem like they're paying attention to the voters then it'll fizzle out and onto the next "big deal".
There's people who are quite willing to ram £200 down a one-armed bandit on a Saturday night, yet nobody tries to do anything about that. Don't want your kids blowing your money on lockboxes? Don't give them the means to do so. Everybody else is on them.
Would allow minors to play and have access to the store while not exposing them to the gamble boxes.
Lotro's gamble boxes have keys as random drops and I think possibly also earnable with a lot of effort, so that would be another possible workaround. Kind of amazed that PWE hasnt gone this route as it would be a better hook for luring folk into the boxes than the current spamming of loot-tables and tweaking the drop rate to push a popular box (disco box drops far more often than the kethi one)
PoE's boxes are opened at purchase rather than loot drops and they clearly state the value is never less than the asking price, debatable for stuff like the fireworks but for cosmetics and stash tabs its pretty accurate. In comparison keys are a slightly more fluid price due to the exchange and the minor prizes are certainly not worth the same in a lot of cases.
Because the boxes have been in sto for so long now they can't as easily remove keys from the game.
I'd love for them to remove the padding from the boxes, be upfront and publish the %'s, have the boxes themselves on a fixed drop rate and just put the cosmetics into the boxes as an item not a chance of a chance via the weapon crates.
Only downside for me with moving keys out the store and web based would be I'd have nothing to spend stipend on until a t6 kar'fi arrives.
So the lockboxes might get changed or game companies will have to
invest in getting a gambling lic.
Original STO beta tester.
^Words that every player should keep in mind, especially whenever there's a problem with the game...
The real issue, is that there is no Universally agreed upon Age Approval system on the internet. There's nothing stopping a kid swiping a credit card from their parent, or getting the parent to sign up on their behalf. The Nanny-State Compliance Mongers, are saying that one of their areas for concern is 'the kids' and 'those who may be vulnerable to addictive behaviours' and they can leverage that, against the lack of a Universally Agreed System. A company could just say they'll make their game credit card subscription only. But that doesn't stop a kid siping the card, or getting the parent to sign up for them. Nor does it take into account adults who don't have credit cards. Then there's the issue of the fact that the game went F2P (I would guess, due to not enough subscriptions) People have been playing the game for free for the better part of a decade: I question how many of those players, would continue to play, if a subscription was the only way to play. The issue goes way beyond 'LockBoxes are gambling!' faux-outrage in terms of its implications on the future of the game. I just hope cooler heads prevail and shut this nonsense down, before it kills, not just our game, but many games which many people enjoy...
"I was here before you, I will be here after you are gone. I am here, regardless of your acknowledgement or acceptance..." - The Truth
The only boxes I support are the Phoenix Prize packs, but already I don't know if I will participate again, I have all the low gear already for my alts, I have only received the Jem Attack ship from one so far, which to be fair was awesome, but I don't need anything other than the super high rolls from that pack. So I might as well use that Dilithium to make my gear better or help my fleet projects.
The problem is that not enough people will put money into MMOs by other means like subscriptions and C-Store sales.
Would you rather have lock boxes in STO, or half as many story episodes and no Trek voice actors? Speaking for myself I'd choose the gamble boxes.