I see you chose not read the rest of my post. This is not a gamble. You WILL achieve your goal if you spend enough here. This is not true in a casino.
You are paying for a chance to receive a reward. Whether you are buying a lottery ticket, or a meat raffle or placing a blind in poker, you're doing no different.
What you are trying to say that is unlike the lottery, you will achieve the same thing simply because there is an alternate, less attractive path (made intentionally far less attractive to push the user to the gambling option). And that may be true, assuming this mobile game goes on indefinitely or close to it, but that doesn't make the more expedient path not gambling.
That is not what I’m saying at all. My point has nothing to do with the fact that these characters will be made available F2P eventually.
My point is that when you buy a marquee pack, there is a minimum non zero number of shards you will receive. Therefore, there is a theoretical maximum to your spending to achieve the goal of maxing the star of the character. There is variance in the number of shards you will receive, but it is always >0. You are not gambling in the sense because the reward will be achieved.
In your example, you could spend millions of dollars playing the lottery or poker, but not win a cent. You are gambling your money because there is a chance you will win more, but there is also a chance you will win less than you spent, or none at all.
In other words, there is a guaranteed return on your investment in these lootboxes. It may be better or worse, depending on how “lucky” you are. There is no such guarantee in true gambling.
So at the casinos what happens when you win a jackpot? Blinky lights and cool sounds. When you pull an extraordinary reward from Bronzium, chromium, or limited time packs you get a cool sound when you win an extraordinary one and cool effects surrounds it.
So psychologically a player’s brain is pumping out endorphins and your brain is hit with that “feel good rush” which is very similar to gambling.
Furthermore there are folks from the community who have come out with their stories of how they spent thousands on the game and were absolutely addicted. Some to an unhealthy level where they are spending money they can’t afford to spend.
Not everyone has an “addictive” personality. But there is a portion of people that absolutely does and it’s tricky to find the balance between making money and “exploiting” those who do.
Years ago Facebook spent $$$ researching how to get people to spend more and more time on their ap. They studied human behavior and have managed to get more people to spend more & more time on FB.
Mobile games do the same exact thing. They study behavior and do various things to get people to spend more time in the game. I guess I’m just saying this is because to dismiss gambling/addiction as a part of the game is... not well thought out. (Though you do have some great points on the differences between the two bro).
Oh, the game is certainly addictive, and I’m sure it is made with that goal in mind. Because it and gambling both are addictive doesn’t make them equivalent. Many, many forms of entertainment are created with the same goal in mind.
I don’t mean to dismiss the addictive quality of this or other games. It took me years to get that WoW monkey off my back.
The point that the game is arguably amoral by creating something so addictive with such a high price tag for a slight edge...I can’t disagree with that. BUT that doesn’t make it the same as going all in in a game of hold em.
I see you chose not read the rest of my post. This is not a gamble. You WILL achieve your goal if you spend enough here. This is not true in a casino.
You are paying for a chance to receive a reward. Whether you are buying a lottery ticket, or a meat raffle or placing a blind in poker, you're doing no different.
What you are trying to say that is unlike the lottery, you will achieve the same thing simply because there is an alternate, less attractive path (made intentionally far less attractive to push the user to the gambling option). And that may be true, assuming this mobile game goes on indefinitely or close to it, but that doesn't make the more expedient path not gambling.
That is not what I’m saying at all. My point has nothing to do with the fact that these characters will be made available F2P eventually.
My point is that when you buy a marquee pack, there is a minimum non zero number of shards you will receive. Therefore, there is a theoretical maximum to your spending to achieve the goal of maxing the star of the character. There is variance in the number of shards you will receive, but it is always >0. You are not gambling in the sense because the reward will be achieved.
In your example, you could spend millions of dollars playing the lottery or poker, but not win a cent. You are gambling your money because there is a chance you will win more, but there is also a chance you will win less than you spent, or none at all.
In other words, there is a guaranteed return on your investment in these lootboxes. It may be better or worse, depending on how “lucky” you are. There is no such guarantee in true gambling.
In that case the lottery isn’t gambling. If I buy the maximum number of tickets, let’s say 13 million, to cover any combination of numbers, it’s a guaranteed win - by your logic, not gambling.
I personally liked them showcasing new characters before they were released. I believe every character can find a place somewhere when 7 starred and geared up. Territory War/Battle, Arena/Grand Arena, etc. I used to gear up everybody to at least g7 and have fun with them. Now I rarely gear anyone up because 1) I don't wanna get penalized in Grand Arena and 2) sometimes reading someone's kit can give you a false idea and you end up wasting a lot of resources that will take a pretty long time to get back.
I thought the 'G' word was forbidden? I won't debate any of it on this forum.
Anyways, I hope the gamechangers can start releasing videos again soon of previews of characters and new content. I mostly only watch the videos now that involve theory-crafting as most of the other stuff is purely for entertainment purposes or for less advanced players that don't know what they should be working on.
1. I liked MG's videos of the pack opening. It was a very real reaction/experience. Did not deter me one bit from playing this game or impact my views negatively on spending in this game.
2. I think there's benefit to the game changers releasing promotional videos up front. As someone else posted, it got me more excited for the content. I also think the community reaction to the grievous release would have been better not worse for cg if we had more information up front.
3. Stricter ramifications should be put in place for those caught breaking NDA (sure they can be hard to catch but it might be more of a deterrent).
Replies
Oh, the game is certainly addictive, and I’m sure it is made with that goal in mind. Because it and gambling both are addictive doesn’t make them equivalent. Many, many forms of entertainment are created with the same goal in mind.
I don’t mean to dismiss the addictive quality of this or other games. It took me years to get that WoW monkey off my back.
The point that the game is arguably amoral by creating something so addictive with such a high price tag for a slight edge...I can’t disagree with that. BUT that doesn’t make it the same as going all in in a game of hold em.
In that case the lottery isn’t gambling. If I buy the maximum number of tickets, let’s say 13 million, to cover any combination of numbers, it’s a guaranteed win - by your logic, not gambling.
Fee free to close it. Question answered.
Anyways, I hope the gamechangers can start releasing videos again soon of previews of characters and new content. I mostly only watch the videos now that involve theory-crafting as most of the other stuff is purely for entertainment purposes or for less advanced players that don't know what they should be working on.
1. I liked MG's videos of the pack opening. It was a very real reaction/experience. Did not deter me one bit from playing this game or impact my views negatively on spending in this game.
2. I think there's benefit to the game changers releasing promotional videos up front. As someone else posted, it got me more excited for the content. I also think the community reaction to the grievous release would have been better not worse for cg if we had more information up front.
3. Stricter ramifications should be put in place for those caught breaking NDA (sure they can be hard to catch but it might be more of a deterrent).