Hawki said:
Originally I had some big speech planned, but I think I can do it better with the following points:
-If lootboxes are "gambling," then so are the Kinder Surprises and Pokemon card game packs I used to purchase. Also, unlike said suprises/packs, all the lootboxes I get are for free, whereas I had to spend money on the other things.
-I've no sympathy for the "would someone please think of the children argument?!" argument. Spending money is personal responsibility (as an adult) or parental responsibility if one has a child. If a child can't be trusted with credit card details, then don't give them said details. There's a reason why I didn't get a credit card until my late teens after all, and there's a reason why I didn't immediately go on a spending spree when I did, because I had over 1.5 decades worth of learning the value of money. Also, there's little distinction between lootboxes and direct purchases in this area, because anyone can still splurge on direct purchases (e.g. I think it would cost $300 dollars to buy all the champions in LoL at this time of writing) in the same manner as lootboxes.
-In the subject of lootboxes vs. direct transactions, honestly, it's down to specific games - I think direct purchases work fine in something like SC2 (where a skin costs around $2.50 AUD, and a commander costs around $7 AUD), whereas lootboxes in HotS are preferable to the old system where cosmetics could only be bought with real money - least with lootboxes I'm guaranteed to get something (also preferable to LoL in that you can potentially get every hero without spending a dime, whereas in LoL you need to grind for influence points, and spend money on Riot points). So far, I've never encountered lootboxes that directly affect gameplay (Halo 5 is arguably the closest, but even if you get more 'upper tier' cards than someone else, you still need to earn the right to use them per match, so everyone still starts out on the same playing field), and if they do...well, certainly against P2W mechanics, but on the personal level, I haven't encountered them.
At the end of the day, I'd rather it come down to personal responsibility than regulation. People can spend their money how they want, just as I can.
The main difference here is you can re-sell your Kinder Surprises/Pokemon cards when you're done with them therefore recouping some of the cost, whereas that is impossible with most current loot box systems (I think TF2 and CS:GO do let you trade). Further, AFAIK Overwatch doesn't let you keep duplicates, it just turns them into in-game currency and I'm willing to bet donuts to dollars that it is NOT an equivalent exchange (IE, if I have a skin that normally costs 3,000 and I get a duplicate, I will not get 3,000 coins or whatever Overwatch uses).
In Pokemon/Magic/TCGs/Kinder surprise, if I get a duplicate, I get a duplicate. Worth as much on the market as others of its kind. It doesn't get replaced by something worth 1/10th it's actual value or however much Overwatch does it.
I agree with your point about children, actually.
Regarding direct purchase, it's a preferable method for the consumer because they can get what they want, when they want it, with no fuss. Loot boxes add nothing except gambling-like practices and an average spending increase. Yeah, you can splurge on a direct purchase game, but
you get what you want, the difference is you can splurge on a loot box game and
not get what you want. There's a chance, of course, of getting what you want paying less than in direct purchase, but considering the developers control drop rate you bet your sweet posterior they are manipulating it so that the most desireable stuff drops way less, necessitating more money.
I'm not calling for it to be outlawed I just want people to realise it's a horrible business practice that has a dubious place in F2P games an no place at all in premium games.
Off Topic: I think buying every champion in League is now something like 700+ dollars, or so google tells me. Probably way more with skins and such. But then SMITE has all champions for 40 bucks or so. Obviously stuff varies, but it's still better for the consumer to be able to buy what they want instead of relying on RNG.
EDIT: Sorry Hawki, I did a dumb and erased most of your quote. Should be fixed now.