Pwning the anti-microtransation wave riders.

[Kugelfisch]

Italian company specializing on collectable stickers. Might just be the largest company of it's kind. Another big one would be Topps.

[AngrySpoonySnob]

Italian company specializing on collectable stickers. Might just be the largest company of it's kind. Another big one would be Topps.

Basically an european substitute for the american tradition of collecting baseball cards. No idea why the guest thought it was a game lol.

[Kugelfisch]

Pretty much. Just that nobody would ever buy a Panini sticker for hundreds of dollars. I'm also fairly sure that there's nothing like a rarity in the packs. Wouldn't make much sense for stickers of football teams and their stadiums anyway.

[Charlar]

Pretty much. Just that nobody would ever buy a Panini sticker for hundreds of dollars. I'm also fairly sure that there's nothing like a rarity in the packs. Wouldn't make much sense for stickers of football teams and their stadiums anyway.

I think Panini did some Transformers comics?

[Kugelfisch]

I only know of their stickers but there's always a magazine to put them into. They make those for sports leagues but also for successful movies and such. Wrastlin as well.

[Stranger]

It's tapping into the same feedback loop as gambling and they're making most of their money off of addicts. I think that's a problem even if it's not technically gambling.

This is the crux of the issue. "Pwning," people by playing the semantics game or trying to be, "technically," correct (the best kind of correct), is completely missing the point.

Maybe people aren't voicing their displeasure the greatest way, by directly saying that it's actual gambling, but the idea of the argument is what matters, here-- Loot Boxes, and their ilk, are pretty shady and they won't go away until the consumers do something. It's only becoming such a big issue, now, because more and more AAA, heavily pushed titles are starting to do it with higher frequency than ever before.

EDIT: Keep in mind that I have nothing against games like Warframe and their microtransactions. You get what you pay for, there, unless you buy one of three mod packs and said mod packs are frequently available in the game for in-game currency, anyway, so nobody buys those. Also I have a problem with them existing.

If you exchange money and are guaranteed to get what you exchanged money for then it's fair game. If your prices are bad then you don't make sales. That's how capitalism works.
If you're putting random rewards out there for money then I have an issue. I pay you 5 bucks then I expect a concrete item worth 5 bucks (relatively speaking, of course).

[Charlar]

Lootboxes are shit

[Poonoo]

Loot Boxes, and their ilk, are pretty shady and they won't go away until the consumers do something.

The main problem with Lootboxes and shit like Free to Play is that the majority of people can say "fuck that shit" and it can still make money because a small minority of people who are insane addicts spend stupid amounts of money to counteract the people who won't pay it. As long as there are enough players for a few servers it's not going away, this isn't like normal DLC where the majority of people not giving a shit can end a bad practice like when EA and co tried to charge people to unlock online play for used games.

[Stranger]

Loot Boxes, and their ilk, are pretty shady and they won't go away until the consumers do something.

The main problem with Lootboxes and shit like Free to Play is that the majority of people can say "fuck that shit" and it can still make money because a small minority of people who are insane addicts spend stupid amounts of money to counteract the people who won't pay it. As long as there are enough players for a few servers it's not going away, this isn't like normal DLC where the majority of people not giving a shit can end a bad practice like when EA and co tried to charge people to unlock online play for used games.

Those whales are still consumers. They're included in, "consumers do something."

[rabidtictac]

Loot Boxes, and their ilk, are pretty shady and they won't go away until the consumers do something.

The main problem with Lootboxes and shit like Free to Play is that the majority of people can say "fuck that shit" and it can still make money because a small minority of people who are insane addicts spend stupid amounts of money to counteract the people who won't pay it. As long as there are enough players for a few servers it's not going away, this isn't like normal DLC where the majority of people not giving a shit can end a bad practice like when EA and co tried to charge people to unlock online play for used games.

And this is the crux of the problem, and why people use gambling as a comparison. These companies are exploiting people who have an addiction. I realize it's not TECHNICALLY gambling or whatever, but as I said, this poisonous shit is being mainstream'd hard by AAA companies now and it's as consumer-unfriendly as a practice gets. It's predatory in the extreme.

We can't just not buy the microtransactions either, because now pay2win is being pushed into full-price, single-player games. But supposing we did take the L and grind for hours to beat our shiny new game (so that we avoided spending more on it,) there would always be those addicted cucks who spend $500 on microtransactions. Those guys make it worth it no matter what, since this shit takes no effort to throw into a game. Lootboxes are effortless.

I realize there's always some fag who touts a thing as "the death of gaming," but TBH this practice could actually kill video games really hard. Or at least mainstream ones. It'll reduce every game to a subscription service or pay2win a la WoW and freemium mobile games.