Well, it
just keeps going.
Last week
I talked about AAA game publishers and pay-2-win loot-boxes sold for
real money. Since last Monday, it's gotten more interesting, and
here's how.
The
Belgian gambling commission is still looking into it, but the Belgian
Minister of Justice has said that in his opinion these loot-boxes are
indeed gambling and incredibly harmful for children. This is his
private opinion, but if
Belgium finds against loot-boxes and classifies it as gambling, then
it will become regulated and taxed. Oh, and no one under eighteen
years of age can buy them. If this happens, it's a very short
step for the entire EU to adopt a similar stance. If
that happens, kiss loot-boxes and predatory gambling practices
goodbye. The EU market is enormous, and while I'm sure the big AAA's
can ignore Belgium (11 million people), they can't afford to ignore
the 743 million that reside in the EU as a whole.
As I
mentioned, Holland is investigating this, as is Sweden, it would
seem. Oh, and as a fun piece of trivia: in France, you can only
gamble in resorts. No where else.
Gambling
authorities in Australia are also investigating this, and while the
gambling commission in Victoria indeed do think that it is clearly
gambling, they can do very little about it as long as it's only on
the 'net. Like online poker for example.
The really
surprising thing is that State Representatives from Hawaii have stood
up and condemned these micro-transitioned loot-boxes as a “casino
for children”. I'm sure Disney was happy about that one...
Now, it
turns out that Destiny 2, developed by Bungie (Halo series) under
Blizzard-Activision has been caught with their pants down and their
hands in the cookie jar.
Destiny 2,
the sequel to the pretty popular sci-fi multiplayer shooter Destiny
(no, really?), was released not only on console but unlike the first
game, also on PC.
When it
got released, people were a bit grumpy about the whole
micro-transaction thing, but at least you earn loot-boxes (called
bright engrams) in-game for free, you just have to go to the in-game
store to open them.
Why do you
open them in the store? Well, the speculation was that you would get
tempted to put down some money and buy a couple of extra crates. OK,
bad, but not villainous.
What is
pretty damn villainous is what Reddit user EnergiserX discovered:
Bungie was cutting away the XP you were earning without telling you.
The way it
works is like this: once you reach max level, you still earn XP, but
every time your XP-bar gets filled up, instead of getting a new
level, you earn a Bright Engram (loot-box). What EnergiserX found out
was that players were earning between 4-50% of what they were
supposed to be getting. Isn't that fun? You work hard, grinding away
to earn more loot-boxes, and earn 4% of what you should have gotten,
all so that you would be frustrated enough to fork over you sweet
sweet money!
Once
caught, Bungie said that “they weren't happy either and that they
have fixed the issue.”
Yeah, I
bet they're not happy. No one is happy when they're caught stealing,
lying and cheating.
Sadly some
players have reacted with joy that “it's fixed now,” and “see,
Bungie are good guys”. Come on. That like saying the guy who mugged
you is a good guy because he gave back your wallet after taking all
your money.
Finally, I
want to address the claim the AAA publishers are constantly pushing:
“Games are too expensive to make these days. We have to make money
somehow.”
Pure and
utter garbage. One might even be tempted to say Bullshit. Hellblade:
Senua's Sacrifice, was made with $12 million, three years and a team
of twenty people. It's a commercial success after a mere three months
after release.
If these
mega developers can't figure out how to make a budget, how to make a
compelling and fun game that people want
to play, then good riddance. Go out of business, and leave the
industry to those who can figure it out. Stop spending hundreds of
millions on games that are soulless boring grinds and then claim we
have to buy extra loot-boxes because you're so poor.
The
AAA's have proven time and time again that they can't be trusted.
Their word is as rotten as a dead rat under a porch in the summer.
Give
your time and money to those who deserve it, until the “Big Boys”
prove they can do
better. Don't believe them when they say they'll change. Talk is
cheap.
Ultimately
what I find so ironic is that these monoliths, these gargantuan
behemoths became what they are because they were the best, the most
successful, the most beloved. But as they say: you either die a hero,
or live to become the villain.
Until
next time, support the good stuff and have a great week!
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