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China to force online games with loot boxes publicly announce item probabilities

C

chillybright

Banned
China has just passed regulations on online games, in which there are specific parts on games with loot boxes.

The regulation (in Chinese) http://www.mcprc.gov.cn/whzx/bnsjdt/whscs/201612/t20161205_464422.html

Translation regarding loot boxes:

2.6 ...Online game publishers shall promptly publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forge on the official website or a dedicated draw probability webpage of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.

2.7 Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on notable places of official website or in game, and keep record for government inquiry. The record must be kept for more than 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, some measures should be taken place to protect user privacy.
Click to expand...

The regulation will be effective on May 1st, 2017.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
This will actually be pretty useful since any Western game that isn't explicitly running different rates in China would have to share their setup.
 
S

Sjefen

Member
GO China, first step to end the lottery loot boox scam

200w.gif
 
E

Espada

Member
Sayad said:
This should be in every region.
Click to expand...

Exactly, some of the things developers are putting into their should be getting this kind of scrutiny.

Gnome Scat said:
Good, that should be public knowledge especially for games like CS:GO.
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Companies also can't oppose this request without looking bad. This type of shit is incredibly exploitative.
 
W

wiibomb

Member
ok this is nice.. may be we will find out the true probabilities of the Hearthstone packs and the Overwatch lootboxes
 
Y

Yukinari

Member
Didnt Dota 2 vastly change how its economy works solely cause of places like China since it had so many players in that region?

Cause Valve's other 2 games need a shakeup like this.
 
P

Pyros_Eien

Member
This exists already in Korea afaik, you can find most loot boxes probability from korean games with them(aka 99% of them) on official korean gov stuff. But they're not forced to do it when they port their games to the west even if they're self publishing and stuff, and they also often tweak numbers fo western market so korean numbers aren't very useful then.
 
J

Jebusman

Banned
Games are definitely going to start tweaking numbers for the chinese region. No way they're going to let the actual ratios be revealed for the US market.
 
W

wiibomb

Member
Nirolak said:
I'm curious to see how they display that one given the pity timers.
Click to expand...

in the case of HS, they will probably add that with each non-legendary pack the percentage increases... something like that, or that at 40 packs there is a much higher increase
 
G

Gai Murakumo

Member
Good on China. I would love to see it implemented here so maybe people will catch on to robbery of low percentage items in boxes.
 
G

Ghost

Chili Con Carnage!
Never really thought about that but it is kind of fucked up that you're gambling without knowing what the odds are (besides useless labels like 'rare' that could mean anything).

Even scratchcards aren't allowed to do that.
 
W

Weltall Zero

Member
Nirolak said:
This will actually be pretty useful since any Western game that isn't explicitly running different rates in China would have to share their setup.
Click to expand...

Indeed it is. Frankly this should be mandatory in all countries, I wonder how likely would it be for them to follow suit.

Qurupeke said:
China is awesome.
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Yeah, it's refreshing to see China's government focusing on the real, important issues over more trivial matters.

hydrophilic attack said:
better than the incoming us government
Click to expand...

I want to think even Trump's government won't be allowed to perform the kind of systematic abuse and civil rights violations that the Chinese government happily indulges in... but the terrifying truth is that I can't say for sure. With my own Spanish government appointed as the hilariously corrupt right wing party, I think it's time to leave the planet!

But I'll stop polluting the thread with political stuff. This is indeed good news, just supremely odd to frame it as "China's government is better than ours". Or almost any other, really.
 
S

SliceSabre

Banned
Reminds me how with Granblu Fantasy it shows you the rates of the anime girls characters you're trying to get.


Pretty depressing when you see the girl you want has a .0133 chance of showing.
 
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