344 replies to this topic

[213374U]

Loot boxes are officialy gambling in Netherlands.

Not all forms of them, but still the first official step to fight them, has finally been taken!!!

http://www.siliconer...boxes-gambling/

https://www.vg247.co...ming-authority/

Close, but no cigar:

"Each game featured paid loot boxes containing items which could be traded, providing the trader economic value. Trading items provided the player with earning money should a rare item drop from the loot box.

As a result, these games violate the rules of chance per the gaming commission

[...]

Six of the ten games investigated with loot boxes were found to contain items which could not be traded. These titles were found to be in compliance with gambling laws; however, the Gaming Authority was still critical over how these were implemented."

 

(emphasis mine)

 

So, Battlefront II would be in the clear, but PUBG and CSGO are probably going to have to do something about their model. I wonder if Valve saw this coming when they made changes to their CSGO item trading policy just a few weeks ago.

 

Also, they apparently want to make it a EU-wide thing.

 

This is a good thing because it's going to put a dent in professional cheat programmers' profits, hopefully driving some of them out of business. But beyond that I don't think it'll make much difference—strong consumer-side response as with SWBF2 is probably a much more effective way to fight the practice than hoping for regulators to find their asses with both hands.

Edited by 213374U, Yesterday, 02:55 AM.

[TrueNeutral]

Yeah, holy heck that stuff was blown out of proportion. Our gambling authority said nothing of value regarding loot boxes.

[Rosbjerg]

'Much ado about nothing' is -and will always be- a prevalent part of journalism it seems..

[Keyrock]

Journalists are in the business of selling newspapers, or clicks these days, I guess.  Sensationalism sells.

 

Valve has acquired Campo Santo, so, if nothing else, it looks like Valve will be releasing a walking simulator sometime in the future.

[Mamoulian War]

Yeah, holy heck that stuff was blown out of proportion. Our gambling authority said nothing of value regarding loot boxes.

If I understood it correctly, the authority said also, that the 6 other publishers should reconsider selling any kind of lootboxes to underage kids/teens. The way how it works, does not break the law per se, but the "carrot and stick" in their game works very similar to slot machines or other gambling stuff, and they do not like it.

Please correct me if I am wrong, because google translate sometimes fails.