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Alternatives to Lootboxes/Lockboxes

ghost2448ghost2448 Member Posts: 83 Arc User
In a number of jurisdictions around the world the lootbox or in STO's case lockbox are a bone of contention, as an example in Belgium lootboxes are banned and most recently one of the committees of the House of Lords in the UK has recommended that lootboxes are considered gambling and therefore would fall within the confines of the Gambling Act.

Rather than wait around for the various jurisdictions to ban Lootboxes, I would think that it would be prudent for any organisation that is a responsible, to have created an option to enable consumers not to overspend, so I would like to suggest the following:

* That there is a maximum amount a person can spend on the account per day and/or that there is an option to set an amount that once reached the person cannot make any further purchases for Zen for 24hrs.
* That every item that is available in a lockbox can be bought separately in the C-Store.
* That the main ship in every lock-box can be bought for a set fee say $40 or the equivalent and is available account-wide.
* That every ship and item which is on lobi is both reclaimable and available across the account.
* That there is the ability to gain a master key by completing a series of tasks as an alternative to purchasing them or that we can use a number of in-game currencies to convert these into Master keys such as Lobi, dilithium.
* That the player if they so choose can freeze their payment options on the site, for a day, week, month.
* Each time a player gets to a certain level or makes an accomplishment such as reaching level 65, completing a storyline they are granted master-keys.
* That at the completion of tier 6 of each reputation, considering the amount that is placed in there, the player receives a number of master-keys.

Anyone comments or does anyone have any suggestions for additions???

Comments

  • seriousdaveseriousdave Member Posts: 2,777 Arc User
    There already is a limit on how much zen you can buy. At least once a month or so someone wanders in here and complains about it.

    As for the rest, they're in the middle of figuring that out right now. Mudd's store is an experiment on how they can sell all that premium stuff without the lootboxes.
  • ghost2448ghost2448 Member Posts: 83 Arc User
    In regards to Mudd's store, I think it might need tweaking, prices are still too dear for a player, there needs to be different avenues to get the ships, items that everyone is looking for, I realise of course it is a business but the balance is not there yet.
  • seriousdaveseriousdave Member Posts: 2,777 Arc User
    valoreah wrote: »
    ghost2448 wrote: »
    In regards to Mudd's store, I think it might need tweaking, prices are still too dear for a player, there needs to be different avenues to get the ships, items that everyone is looking for, I realise of course it is a business but the balance is not there yet.

    I certainly hope all those out there decrying lockboxes are prepared to start paying Mudd's prices for everything should lockboxes get removed. The lost revenue will need to be replaced somehow and they are not going to give the stuff away for free.

    I'm sure that even then there will still be plenty of people who will drop insane amounts for the newest and shiniest stuff.
    Take SWTOR as an example. It now sells the lootbox content directly along with their boxes and they are pretty successful. Mind you we're talking about lightsaber hilts without stats that are sold for 10-20+ bucks per piece with an extra 5-10 bucks depending on rarity to unlock that single item for your whole account. The lootbox itself only sells for like 3 bucks but as industry standard there's also only like 1% chance for that thing to drop.
    While I'm sure there'd be a lot of complaining about price gouging I'm also sure that would settle after while and people would regulary pay like 60 bucks for a ship. Just look at the latest romulan bundle.
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