Posted September 06, 2018
Partially a reply and commentary on
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/2k_crying_into_a_pile_of_cash_begs_the_people_of_belgum_to_bring_back_lootboxes/page1
with a different argument.
---
First, kudos to Belgium for having the guts to do this. Unfortunately, this will never happen in the (now megacorporation-owned) USA simply because "App Store" (and similar) publishers take a cut of all purchases through their stores. Considering how Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store have massive market dominance, lootboxes alone generate a ton of tax revenue which means Washington DC won't do anything about it. This revenue doesn't even include lootbox purchases outside of mobile platforms, of which there are many in the U.S.
Realistically, the most I can see happening to improve the situation in the U.S. is Trump issuing a generic statement about Asian online games treating us very badly, very unfairly with lootbox odds and slapping a tariff on them.
---
How many of you want to live in a country where everyone's vote counts and makes a difference? All in favor, raise your hands? Good job, stand up for freedom and self determination. That's the traditional video game market before Japan started poisoning the industry standard with gacha, which later became popularized across Korean and Chinese games and then made its way over to the West as lootboxes.
Think of the free market as a ballot box. Whenever you buy a product, you support the developers and encourage them to keep producing. That's like voting for them. In practice, games larger than indie production grade will have expansions and DLCs. In that case, consider the economy to be a weighted and tiered ballot, where the magnitude of the vote corresponds to the price, and consumers can decide just how strongly they want to support a developer. In the end, the peoples' voice will be heard through collective purchases.
In a Western-style subscription-based MMO, the same principle applies. Everyone pays a similar monthly fee, therefore every customer is treated as valuable and listened to (or at least most devs will pretend to listen).
Now.... how many of you want to live in a country where the government uses your ballots as toilet paper and the voices of a select few oligarchs matter? All in favor, raise your hands. *sees only a handful of wackos raise their hands* "Get these whales out of here and into the psychiatric evaluation unit."
The biggest reason why lootboxes and gacha are so terrible for the future of video gaming is how they subvert the democratic process of the free market.
In the old days, everyone largely paid the same price for a boxed game, and perhaps then some more with an expansion or two. This means that everyone's a valued customer.
With lootboxes and gacha, keeping the majority of customers happy is no longer relevant. Usually, this happens in "freemium" games (99.99% of which are terrible, don't waste your time with them). If you're an F2Per (don't pay), obviously you don't matter to the devs and expect to be treated like freeloading crap. However, due to the skewed and toxic monetization model that lootbox games rely on, players who want a premium experience must be overcharged many times the reasonable price compared to a top-tier subscription-based MMO. It's commonplace for "dolphins" to spend roughly $50 each month on a lootbox games, while whales typically spend anywhere from $1000-$100K.
Obviously the devs are going to custom-tailor the game for the whales while everyone else has a thoroughly crappy experience. Lootboxes and gacha have become the de facto standard in mobile and the practice is spreading to other platforms - and I don't see any good way to stop it other than regulations and laws.
"Convince the app stores to be socially responsible and ban or restrict lootboxes": Doesn't work, the app stores take a cut of the lootbox purchases and they won't shut off such a promising revenue stream.
"Consumer boycott against lootbox/gacha games or devs who engage in such practices": Again, it doesn't work. The problem is how a lot of lootbox whales have a mental predisposition to habitual gambling - which the toxic lootbox business model feeds on. If the rest of us stop paying for this crap, so what? The devs will always have their whales, and they don't need anyone else. This would be similar to a dictator staying in power against the vote of 99% of the people, just because the oligarchs supporting the regime are more equal than everyone else.
This shows that you can't fix the problem from either end of the free market, simply because the nature of lootboxes and gacha is designed to subvert the process. The only solution is laws and regulations restricting the practice, which will produce a better video game market for everyone.
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/2k_crying_into_a_pile_of_cash_begs_the_people_of_belgum_to_bring_back_lootboxes/page1
with a different argument.
---
First, kudos to Belgium for having the guts to do this. Unfortunately, this will never happen in the (now megacorporation-owned) USA simply because "App Store" (and similar) publishers take a cut of all purchases through their stores. Considering how Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store have massive market dominance, lootboxes alone generate a ton of tax revenue which means Washington DC won't do anything about it. This revenue doesn't even include lootbox purchases outside of mobile platforms, of which there are many in the U.S.
Realistically, the most I can see happening to improve the situation in the U.S. is Trump issuing a generic statement about Asian online games treating us very badly, very unfairly with lootbox odds and slapping a tariff on them.
---
How many of you want to live in a country where everyone's vote counts and makes a difference? All in favor, raise your hands? Good job, stand up for freedom and self determination. That's the traditional video game market before Japan started poisoning the industry standard with gacha, which later became popularized across Korean and Chinese games and then made its way over to the West as lootboxes.
Think of the free market as a ballot box. Whenever you buy a product, you support the developers and encourage them to keep producing. That's like voting for them. In practice, games larger than indie production grade will have expansions and DLCs. In that case, consider the economy to be a weighted and tiered ballot, where the magnitude of the vote corresponds to the price, and consumers can decide just how strongly they want to support a developer. In the end, the peoples' voice will be heard through collective purchases.
In a Western-style subscription-based MMO, the same principle applies. Everyone pays a similar monthly fee, therefore every customer is treated as valuable and listened to (or at least most devs will pretend to listen).
Now.... how many of you want to live in a country where the government uses your ballots as toilet paper and the voices of a select few oligarchs matter? All in favor, raise your hands. *sees only a handful of wackos raise their hands* "Get these whales out of here and into the psychiatric evaluation unit."
The biggest reason why lootboxes and gacha are so terrible for the future of video gaming is how they subvert the democratic process of the free market.
In the old days, everyone largely paid the same price for a boxed game, and perhaps then some more with an expansion or two. This means that everyone's a valued customer.
With lootboxes and gacha, keeping the majority of customers happy is no longer relevant. Usually, this happens in "freemium" games (99.99% of which are terrible, don't waste your time with them). If you're an F2Per (don't pay), obviously you don't matter to the devs and expect to be treated like freeloading crap. However, due to the skewed and toxic monetization model that lootbox games rely on, players who want a premium experience must be overcharged many times the reasonable price compared to a top-tier subscription-based MMO. It's commonplace for "dolphins" to spend roughly $50 each month on a lootbox games, while whales typically spend anywhere from $1000-$100K.
Obviously the devs are going to custom-tailor the game for the whales while everyone else has a thoroughly crappy experience. Lootboxes and gacha have become the de facto standard in mobile and the practice is spreading to other platforms - and I don't see any good way to stop it other than regulations and laws.
"Convince the app stores to be socially responsible and ban or restrict lootboxes": Doesn't work, the app stores take a cut of the lootbox purchases and they won't shut off such a promising revenue stream.
"Consumer boycott against lootbox/gacha games or devs who engage in such practices": Again, it doesn't work. The problem is how a lot of lootbox whales have a mental predisposition to habitual gambling - which the toxic lootbox business model feeds on. If the rest of us stop paying for this crap, so what? The devs will always have their whales, and they don't need anyone else. This would be similar to a dictator staying in power against the vote of 99% of the people, just because the oligarchs supporting the regime are more equal than everyone else.
This shows that you can't fix the problem from either end of the free market, simply because the nature of lootboxes and gacha is designed to subvert the process. The only solution is laws and regulations restricting the practice, which will produce a better video game market for everyone.
