dev_null@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
I agree it’s gambling, but where is the line? Is killing a boss in World of Warcraft not gambling? You also have various chances of getting random rare items, which you can then sell for real money on third party sites.
Where is the line between random outcomes being part of the game, and it being gambling? CS:GO is really obvious, but what if they didn’t have the box opening thing, you just got the random skin directly after winning a match, without having to explicitly open the “loot box”? Would it still be gambling then? I genuinely don’t know.
Killing a boss in WoW isn’t gambling because you don’t need to pay anything to do so. With CS, unless something has dramatically changed since I last played, when you get a box you need to typically buy a key to open it and get the item.
If you just got a random skin after a match, it would not be gambling. The value of the item received, or resellability of the item, doesn’t really matter here as much as whether or not there’s an entry fee.
Also, them putting that level of abstraction, - buying a key, not the box - makes it look even more shady. They intentionally add another step to deny liability and comparison to traditional gambling. And, being not gambling per law, they are npt even controlled by the regulation existing for gambling machines, e.g. distribution of loosing and winning outcomes.
The gambling line for me would be “Does it cost me financially” to do it again or is an option. If I just have to play again, then it isn’t. It could be gambling-like, for example Balatro, but that isn’t actually gambling.
I agree and this is why the solution is that steam should give players the funds to buy these loot boxes themselves; create a fictional currency (lots of these games do that anyway) and give players the power to just play the game for that currency, or better yet just give them that currency so they can buy them; you maintain the lootboxes and their random nature and players get to avoid spending real world money buying them. There’s a lot of games today that already incorporate that mechanic where you can earn in-game currency to buy lootboxes. As for players then turning around and selling their accounts or items for real world money, the buyer is not getting a CHANCE at that item, he’s buying something he knows he’s getting for certain.
To avoid turning killing bosses in WoW into gambling, the game can make it so you can fight those bosses for free, and instead incorporate costs into the game via (again) a fictional currency that allows you to buy consummables to make the fight more manageable. This way the player avoids spending real world money on this boss, and then whatever he gets, he can sell as a concrete item that the buyer knows for certain he will get.
Anberibaburia@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 hours ago
The line is real money, that’s it. No randomization should happen anywhere near where we spend money. Buy thing get thing, grind it you get chance.