Loot Box Odds Law Begins May 1st: Will it affect SWGOH?
April 29, 2017 1:46PM
edited April 2017
We've discussed this in the past, and it's been speculated developers may find ways to skirt it initially. Even so, the law is pretty clear cut. I wonder how this may affect SWGOH?
"On May 1 - just a few days from now - if you sell a loot box, chest, crate, container or other assorted randomised item dispenser in China, the odds of what it can spit out must be public. The question is, what will developers do?"
See here:
Loot box odds will be visible by law in China, but publishers don't want to talk about it yet
"On May 1 - just a few days from now - if you sell a loot box, chest, crate, container or other assorted randomised item dispenser in China, the odds of what it can spit out must be public. The question is, what will developers do?"
See here:
Loot box odds will be visible by law in China, but publishers don't want to talk about it yet
SnakesOnAPlane
0
- 61.2K General Discussion
- 9 Developer Q&A Archive
- 2.6K New Players
- 30.6K Arena and Character Strategy
- 4K Individual Events
- 4.6K Guild Events
- 4.6K PVP and Rivalry
- 50.2K Guild Recruitment
- 732 Art and Media
- 4.1K Off Topic
Howdy, Stranger!
Replies
So even if you know what the loot chances are for the Chinese version, that doesn't necessarily mean the info says anything about the loot chances in other regions. Developers could just give different regions different loot chances according to regional disclosure laws, and players would be none the wiser.
Yes, that's true, but any loot chances published will have an impact, as it will surely spread through the gaming community.
One company actually already publishes such information (Freejam for Robocraft). Talk about being forthright:
“At the time we thought, ‘We could put that information out ourselves on the Robocraft website.’ But then we [considered], ‘Well, the information is out there - if people want to find it, they can’ and we thought nothing more of it. Then your email came in and honestly we [realised], why not share the data with the community via our website so players can make an informed decision? That's exactly what we've done on our official FAQ.”
China's ministry is pretty clear that this can't be skirted, and stated they will change the law as necessary to prevent such.
It will be very interesting.
I agree the regional separation might help slow the spread.
Not sure it changes much, all complaints will just be more accurate....
Seemingly China's law already covers in-game currency loot boxes:
6) online game operators to take a random way to provide virtual props and value-added services, and shall not require users to directly into the legal currency or online games virtual currency way to participate. Online game operators should promptly display the name, performance, content, quantity and extraction or synthesis probability of all virtual props and value-added services that may be extracted or synthesized on the official website of the game or randomly selected pages. Public information on the random selection should be true and effective.
(Google Translate, FWIW)
https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&nv=1&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=http://www.mcprc.gov.cn/whzx/bnsjdt/whscs/201612/t20161205_464422.html&usg=ALkJrhjjTrbQbtig3phD4cqUpclpmO_NCg
I would like to see the official odds..... Most of which are already available offsite. Would be annoyed if the odds are different between regions. I.E. odds of Falcon dropping in ship packs was 10% in Europe but 1% in NA...
Seeing the odds will cause me to buy packs. But I think it will increase sales. Right now I spend my spare crystals on Gear in shipments...
I wonder how it will be audited. I mean if EA says a pack has a 10% droprate, but drop rate is actually lower... will there be anyway to confirm that? Is there anywhere to send a complaint?
See my post just above yours: Apparently it covers in-game currency packs, too.
I can't really tell what that means, but if it follows previous patterns of EULAs and such it wont make much of a difference. A typical way of restricting the purchase of in-game currencies or items is to make it possible to obtain them without the use of money, and I'm pretty sure that is already the case for everything in swgoh
edit: also another way is to make purchasable materials that cannot be obtained for free have only cosmetic effects and no game play advantage, but there aren't any of those in swgoh
The way I read it: It states that game operators who do not require users to use legal currency to buy loot boxes, or require to use in-game currency (ie crystals) to buy them, have to abide by the same requirements.
Never tell me the odds!
iN DarthJarJar | Team Instinct Δ
I don't see anywhere in China's law that makes acknowledgments or amendments to anything you're arguing. Also, from what I've been reading online, other game makers, who follow the same methods as EA, are already abiding by the law.
I edited the post to elaborate but it got deleted or something. Anyways what I meant is everything that is bought with money already has a clear label, stuff bought in-game (ex: stuff bought with crystals) can be done for free so it doesn't require that
Where do you see in China's law saying it doesn't require that? Or are you saying in a general sense from other regional and/or country requirements?
As I mentioned above, other game makers, who utilize the same methods as EA, are already following the law.
Well to be honest I can't tell what it means exactly, but in the past the rules have been pretty clear about free to play vs. pay to win. The most similar game to swgoh is dc legends and I don't see any changes yet. I guess we will find out what needs to be changed by at least May 1st
In china, it's a law so there is probably a method or governing body that will deal with complaints and verify.
Anywhere else, it's a crap shoot and therefore with the regional aspect of the game could make this a null point for many.
Side note, why would they lie, it doesn't give them any advantage, it would be more of a disadvantage as people already flip over confirmation bias and would go a little more crazy if they had the numbers.
Overall effect, complaints will have accurate data to complain about....not much will change beyond that. And I don't think many will believe the odds anyway.
Well, thanks for not answering my question and using as a platform to talk about confirmation bias again.
To be a little clearer, what method do they have in place to verify stated odds match the implemented odds?
I'm sure where the governing body has the authority they can get the code and I'm sure to comply with the law in China they have to run some sort of validation and provide the data.
I don't know what methods are used in casinos but they have to do the same thing and be transparent about it, so this will be similar.
How you spend your crystals is up to you, but the law doesn't cover purple crystal spending.
According to snake, it does affect purple crystal spending. My earlier question was if it applies to purple crystal spending then it should also apply to energy spending.
IF purple spending is not covered then that is is a BIG loophole.
Casinos use chips... you buy chips with money... That does not mean they do not have to tell you the odds because they use in house currency...
Section eight of the law seems to address that. Loot boxes purchased with real money by proxy through virtual currency. Though, I wish these gaming "news" sites would use something other than Google translate, it's horrendous for Chinese.
This. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if devs in various games boosted chances in the Chinese version, knowing that those rates will be shared worldwide, in order to drive purchases outside of China on packs with lower chances.
I'm sure that seeing the percentage chances would dissuade some from purchasing as many packs. The new character and ship packs that grant 5-30 shards would likely dissuade many people from purchasing after seeing the chances. There have been a few threads of people claiming they spent a couple hundred dollars or more, and only received 5 shards each time, and are upset about it.
As a consumer this is a law I can really get behind, and wish they did it everywhere. I know in the US this likely won't happen since the general culture here is to be in favor of the corporations, and limited regulations.