The lootbox drama

So, the international lootbox controversy continues.

If you're not in the know, a rising trend in recent years in the video game industry has been to sell players so called lootboxes. In benign situations, these boxes are awarded for free in-game, and only contain cosmetic items. No game changing content at all.

But, in many games, these boxes have essentially replaced progression. Instead of being given some kind of increase in ability or equipment designed to be fun and fair, you get boxes of random stuff. Stuff that are completely game changing if you are lucky. To make matters worse, unscrupulous developers and publishers also sell these boxes for real money. Not in-game money, but actual dollars and cents, giving players who are willing and able to wave their credit cards around an unbeatable advantage.

This is the short version, it goes much deeper, but for the purpose of this post, this is what you need to know.

Now, in the past year, governments and legislative bodies have noticed the fury of players sickened and outraged by these business practices. Especially when the words “Gambling” and “Children” started being bandied around.

The problem is that in many games you can win rare in-game items, items that can then be sold off to other players for real money, even up to thousands of dollars. Again, that's actual dollars and euros. And unless their parents are paying attention, children are doing this.

It began small, with Belgium. Belgium went to far as to deem these lootboxes as illegal gambling and banned them on penalty of heavy fines and potential jail time. The AAA game publishers recoiled in horror but complied. All except Electronic Arts (EA). They refused to give up their supreme cash-cow, FIFA 18 (with 19 on the way). EA claimed that they don't agree with the interpretation of the law, and kept on selling in-game stuff for real money. Belgium wasn't too happy and are now dragging EA kicking and screaming to court. If Belgium wins (and I hope they do), EA could be fined about $1.8 million or so, and someone could be going to prison. We'll see how that goes.

But our saga does not end there. My native country of Finland has also jumped into the fray. The Finnish police are now investigating if these lootboxes are breaking the law. In Finland you must have a license from the government to run anything even remotely gambling related. My information might be a little outdated, but at least it used to be that if your club or school wanted to run a lottery for whatever prizes you had, and the tickets cost real money, you had to get the approval of the police. So I can understand why the police are looking into this.

But wait, there's more.

A panel of experts in Australia has decided that this kind of system of lootboxes are absolutely gambling and now, 15 countries and the U.S. State of Washington are scrutinizing the disgusting little boxes. The countries are:

Austria

Czech Republic

France

Gibraltar

Ireland

Isle of Man

Jersey

Latvia

Malta

The Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Spain

UK

If even a few of the bigger countries come down against lootboxes with the same kind of penalties as Belgium, then the AAA publishers are screwed. Their golden geese are slaughtered and it's all their own faults. The standard excuse is that it's too expensive to make games these days, but many many developers are managing it just fine without predatory micro-transactions. Imagine if the car industry did the same. You buy a car, but there are no seats and the roof is a net. All because it's too expensive to make cars. Yeah right.

As the drama unfolds, I'll be talking about it here. And until next time, have a great week!

Slice of history

Good morning fellow eccentrics. Short entry today, because of reasons, so I present to you a Estonian made documentary about the fall of the Soviet Union.

I'll see you again next time, so until then have a great week!

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYD6ouVHXbo

Foyle's War

Usually when I talk about a TV series, I've seen it through, but today is an exception.

Today we're talking about Foyle's War.

Foyle's War is a crime drama set mostly during World War II in the south of England, mainly in Hastings. The last two seasons are set post 1945 in the early Cold War.

The show was commissioned by ITV and started in 2002 in order to fill the vacancy after Inspector Morse ended in 2000. It's written by Anthony Horowitz, the brain and pen behind Midsumer Murders, so that's some serious mystery chops right there.

As of writing this, I've seen series 1 and two episodes of series 2. Each episode is about 90 – 100 minutes long, so it's really more of a series of interconnecting movies than a regular TV show. This of course demands a lot more time from the viewer, but it allows the plots to develop more, which is important.

The titular character Christopher Foyle is a soft spoken, and doggedly determined Detective Chief Superintendent of the police. He's usually assisted by Sergeant Paul Milner and his driver Samantha “Sam” Stewart seconded from the Mechanised Transport Corps, as Foyle can't drive. Another regular character is Foyle's son, Andrew, a pilot in the RAF.

As far as I've seen, each episode consists of a main mystery and a couple of side plots, and usually they all connect somehow. A small incidental happening can be the key to solving a major crime, and so far I'm very impressed with the writing, it really is first class.

So what separates this show from the myriad of other British crime dramas is obviously the war. The production values are amazing with uniforms, clothes, everyday props, vehicles even Spitfires everywhere.

Plot wise, the war has an immense impact. From the evacuation of Dunkirk and bombings to rationing and black-market racketeering you feel the conflict in every episode, but in such a way as to make it natural and not forced. The script shows it doesn't tell. Again, first class work.

So what are the negatives? Well, there aren't that many to be honest. The pacing can be a bit slow at times, and some events are pretty predictable. Like in one episode, Sam is undercover, and despite being ordered to safety she sticks with it, but gets into a bit of trouble. Things like that. Due to the grim nature of the war, some scenes can be hard to watch, but this is British television, not a Hollywood gore fest, so not to worry.

Finally, if you have a good memory for faces like me, keep IMDB handy. Like many British TV productions, you'll find familiar faces everywhere, and if I couldn't look them up they'd have to lock me up. This seems to be one of those shows everyone has been in at one point or another.

If you want to give it a go, you can catch it on Netflix.

That's me done for this time, join me again next Monday and have yourself a great week!

Sniper Elite 4

Today we're talking about Sniper Elite 4.

I have a long history with this franchise, starting quite a few years ago when I bought Sniper Elite 1 and 2 as a bundle during a Steam Summer sale. I started playing the first game, but gave up fairly quickly as the graphics were muddled and grainy by modern standards. The game was released in 2005, so maybe that wasn't so strange. Besides, the reason I bought the bundle was SE 2. As it turned out, this wasn't a problem as SE 2, released in 2012, is a remake of the first but with modern graphics, a much better gameplay over all and the famous kill-cam featuring a realistic x-ray camera showing you exactly what kind of damage your bullet has done.

I played SE 2 several times so I was pleased when they released SE 3 in 2014. What's important to note is that SE 3 is a prequel to SE 2 as is SE 4. One thing that confused me a little, is that the protagonist in all games is Karl Fairburne and in SE 2 he clearly works for the American Office for Strategic Services (OSS) but in 3 and 4 he works for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Karl is an American you see, so it confused me a bit, but the fact that 3 & 4 are prequels explains that very well.

Anyway on with Sniper Elite 4.

First off, almost everything that has been featured in the previous iterations is still here, but with a lot more stuff added. The one thing I do miss from SE 3 is the ability to set fires as a distraction or to blow something up. It was a useful mechanic, but whatever.

You still sneak around and quietly take out soldiers, sabotage ammo dumps and assassinate important targets. It's a true part of the franchise, and no mistake.

The first thing that should be mentioned is that the maps are huge. They have never really been small, but in SE 2 they were pretty linear, and in SE 3 they were expanded if not enormous, but in 4? They are gigantic. I was constantly surprised at how big and detailed they are. There are ten levels which doesn't sound like much, but if you want to do all the side objectives, it can take a couple of hours easily to complete a level.

Next up, the weapons. All the old favorites are back, with a couple of additions like a pump action shotgun and the German paratrooper rifle, the FG42. My complaint here is that quite a few weapons are DLC only, meaning you have to fork over more money to get them all. On the other hand there are more than enough to go around and they have a new upgrade system I'll talk about next.

Another new feature is the upgrade system, both for Karl himself and for the weapons. When Karl reaches certain milestones you get to choose one out of two abilities that go into effect. An example is choosing between taking less explosive damage or defusing mines faster. It's very much up to you and your personal play style.

Weapons get better when used enough according to certain challenges. Improved damage and stability, that sort of thing.

I have a small complaint with these upgrades and choices, and that is that the game doesn't explain their presence at all. It's new to the franchise, and Rebellion could have done a better job pointing out the new things.

The final point I want to talk about is the information you get on the enemy. As in previous games you still use the binoculars to tag enemies so that they are visible even behind cover. What is new is the level of information you get for each enemy if you keep the binoculars on them. Ostensibly it's “British Intelligence” but to know the name, weapons carried and personal detail about every soldier and officer is perhaps stretching the believability a little. Furthermore, you can pick up not only mission vital intelligence from people you've shot but also letters from home, letters to home and last letters. This little detail really hammers home that it's people you are shooting. Not just fascist or nazi goons. It sells the grim reality of war quite well.

Final thoughts. I could go on nitpicking the good and the bad, but in broad strokes, I'll say this: if you liked the earlier games, there is no reason why you wouldn't like this, and if you've been thinking about starting your own Sniper Elite journey, this is as good a place as any.

That's that. Until next time, have a great week!