I have been avoiding multiplayer Valve games like Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2, due to their in-game economies that have created an underage gambling gray market, which Valve has done little about. However, I am on Linux, and the choices for multiplayer shooters are few. Besides, my small boycott is not stopping Counter-Strike 2 from being the most played steam game. Are boycotts really the best solution to stop this epidemic in gaming? How can we best prevent these gambling grey markets and the gaming to gambling addiction pipeline?
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Many of us have been doing this from the beginning, but it represents a fundamental misunderstanding of how gacha games work.
Most people do not pump loads of money into these. Many don’t pay anything at all. But those people are not the target audience. These companies are going after the whales. Basically gambling addicts who will destroy their entire lives to pump everything they have into it.
Which is exactly why these games either need to be illegal, or the law needs to put caps on how much individuals are permitted to spend on these.
Don’t get me started on magic the gathering
Ohhhhhhhhhh boy
Just not buying something isn’t a boycott. Don’t buy bad games, and it’s a good idea to include dark patterns in the criteria for what makes a game bad.
I’ve bought singleplayer games with loot boxes and no anticheat and just used cheat engine to get the ingame currency for them. I think I’m doing my part.
WTF there are singleplayer games with lootboxes?!?!?
Some assassin’s creeds.
Now I realize why i never play those games
Yeah. I liked Origins as a game but since playing that one, which I got for free anyway I think, I haven’t looked at the series since.
I’ve never played Assasins Creed but why on earth would a game like that need loot boxes? That just sounds crazy to me.
They decided to give the game a wardrobe system with loot rarity so you could get EPIC MOUNTS and RARE SWORDS.
But there’s no point to it because the game just gives you the Chocobo mount for free and that’s the only one worth using.
Borderlands, iirc
Does that really count? As far as I know, the golden keys mechanic was just a way to get some good gear. It wasn’t exclusive gear, and you could get it just by playing the game.
Right, but the fifa series afaik makes most of its money by selling packs of cards with players in them. Packs and players that you can get by just playing. But they still sell those packs for $$, so why wouldn’t it count? Afaik, that’s one of the main culprits besides counter strike that are named when talking about loot boxes
Borderlands the same, you can buy random gear with cash. I guess it’s less fomo and less abusive, but they’re still literal loot boxes that they sell for money
The Gatcha system is why I never finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The first game was phenomenal… But the second game required a gatcha system to unlock new party members. There were even quests that were locked behind certain ultra-rare party members. It’s an entirely single player game.
You’re not though, you are still buying those games. Go the extra mile and pirate them if you really feel the need to play games containing loot box mechanics while trying to “stick it to them”
empress is dead
I already do, but I’m also not as avid a gamer as I once was. Every FPS became borderline unplayable when loot crates became a thing. Call me old fashioned, but I liked when games had the same weapons for everyone, and there weren’t random cards or whatever that made people’s guns more powerful / reload /shoot faster, etc. It really brings an imbalance to the game, and enables these stupid gambling sites. The companies making the games are making money hand over fist, so they aren’t going to stop any time soon barring regulation, and looking at this administration, good fucking luck with that. Boycott away.
I’ve never bought or played one & have no plans to.
Are boycotts really the best solution to stop this epidemic in gaming?
Consumer boycotts very very rarely work. I’ve never heard of a single successful video game boycott.
How can we best prevent these gambling grey markets and the gaming to gambling addiction pipeline?
Lobby for appropriate legislation with your government representatives. We could have legislation that forces companies to transparently show the chance of specific rewards, and even show the money you have to spend on average to get XY specific item. (I think there is already a law like this in the works in the EU?)
One of the major psychological tricks gambling games (including lootbox and gacha) employ is to obscure the true costs behind premium currencies. Once they are forced to remove this, and you are shown that yes, guaranteed acquisition of a single Genshin character will cost you ~300 USD, it might make you do a double-take before you pull out your bank card. (There are many more psychological dark patterns these developers employ, so it wouldn’t be a single miracle solution, unless of course legislation altogether bans random chance rewards buyable with cash.)
One of the reasons why Valheim is one of my favorite games these days… You buy it and then you play it… No loot boxes, no in game shop, Doesn’t force you to be online and a minimal amount of RNG at all… But the grind is real though…
Do I have to start playing games with loot boxes before I can start boycotting them?
The only one I’ve ever played was overwatch, but overwatch 2 is garbage, so…
Sad what happened to that game. OG Overwatch was freaking awesome, OW2 is complete garbage.
Almost everything about OW1 is now back in OW2! 6v6 is back, loot boxes are back. You can even play the OW1 metas if you want, though they pretty much only show just how much better the game has gotten over the years.
I’ve been playing OW1 since launch and have really liked OW2, my only complaint was that they were making playable heroes unlockable, but that was fixed a long time ago.
No, if anything, we need to boycott games with battle passes. I’m not a fan of lootboxes but I’d take them any day over a battle pass. Don’t pressure me to play specific ways, don’t exploit FOMO to try to get me to grind or spend money. I find that a LOT more predatory than lootboxes, at least in games where they’re optional.
Dont you also have to grind for lootboxes?
Not in every game. Some games make it reasonably fair, such as Elder Scrolls Online which makes it possible to obtain the lootbox items in other ways.
Yes but loot boxes is gambling and is an addiction and gaming companies know this and exploit this.
Yes.
Do what you think is right, but spend some time to consider whether you want to reward someone or some organization with your hard earned money if you consider what they are doing immoral or bad.
I pretty much can’t play anything any more because I refuse to play anything with loot boxes or timers or in-game currency.
There are very few games on Android you can just buy and play casually to relax for a few hours.
Stardew Valley
Balatro
Slay The Spire
Lichess
Final fantasy tactics is decent on android too
can add Loop Hero and most of Kairosoft games.
As for android games… If you like puzzles like sudoku, check out Simon Tatham’s Puzzle collection. Simple ad-free online experience with a varied collection of puzzle games.
Definitely boycott paying real money for lootboxes or games with real money lootboxes.
If you’re not paying, then it’s just a factor to consider, the companies won’t care about you much
I’m still waiting for a reliable way to pirate games with micro transactions and lootboxes.
Like, I know Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has daily quests and a rotating cash shop, and that must be talking to some sort of server that isn’t guaranteed to be there. Surely there’s a way to mock that server?
