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[FUNKNOWN iXi]

The last thing they want is for people to be put off by the loot boxes so much that they stop playing altogether, which is a growing sentiment I'm noticing.

They gotta do something about this.

 

[Arkeband]

I throw $20 towards the game because I support it. At the end of the day lootboxes are microtransactions so future content stays free. If I really like the skins during the event, will I give money? Of course, because at the end of the day its a great game and OW will still be here 5 years later without any bs season passes, etc...

So you're okay with throwing money at them so it stays free...

...you're now in a catch-22, where if you stop giving them money, it will no longer be free.

This of course begs the question of what you believe "free" means.

 

[XANDER CAGE]

I feel like the Overwatch loot situation actually started out okay, and has gradually gotten worse over the year it's been out. Now it's a complete mess.

At launch, the game cost 40 bucks (on PC at least, I know consoles had to get Origins for whatever reason) and you got loot boxes at a very decent clip just playing. You could toss a few bucks at it to get loot boxes even faster. There was a decent pool of skins and for a while this worked well - at least as well as this kind of system could, anyway. I know most of us would prefer there to not be any sort of real money gambling in the game at all, but for a big game Overwatch's at least seemed alright.

Now that we're several events deep and most players have been whittling away at the game for a while, it's become a bit of a nightmare. Leveling is incredibly slow for most of the level cycle. The more skins you own, the more dupe chances you get, and the gold payout for dupes is a pittance, especially come event season where 250 gold is 1/12th of the price of a new skin. The fact that you can get non-event golds during an event at all is insulting - especially given how slow getting boxes can be and how, for some players, beating the odds and getting multiple gold rarity items isn't feasible. It's a slow and frustrating grind.

It doesn't help that for this event, every skin is gold rarity, so the odds of walking away with every skin you want is even worse than usual. The flood of crap sprays and voice lines has never been interesting, but now it just feels actively antagonizing to open a box and not get an event skin or emote.

Over the course of the game's run, Blizzard has added more ways for you to get more loot boxes, but I honestly think that's the wrong solution. Getting more boxes with piddly odds just compounds how frustrating they are to open during events. They need to change the way this shit works. Obviously their goal is to funnel you into buying them; the stuff you want is always juuust out of reach to tempt you to buy. Right now though, the carrot on the stick is just rotten enough to make some people not want to chase it at all.

Also for the love of god put some more items in the basic rotation. When there's no event on, the item pool is hilariously tiny.

 

[Phu]

All the anniversary content should have been added as regular items at regular coin prices, period. I'm fine with other event-limited stuff but come on. We need more regular items in the rotation.

I'm kinda shocked they didn't make the anniversary stuff permanent. There's been so little added that dumping a bunch of new stuff once a year sounds like something I could get behind.

 

[Strakt]

So you're okay with throwing money at them so it stays free...

...you're now in a catch-22, where if you stop giving them money, it will no longer be free.

This of course begs the question of what you believe "free" means.

I'm throwing money ($20) because I enjoy the game and have no problem buying cosmetic items for a game i enjoy? Wtf are you even talking about. Have you never enjoyed something in life?

 

[Falchion]

The loot box setup is pretty ridiculous but that's why I don't spend any money on them.

 

[Jhn]

The last thing they want is for people to be put off by the loot boxes so much that they stop playing altogether, which is a growing sentiment I'm noticing.

They gotta do something about this.

Actually I don't think I'll be back if nothing changes. This event is wearing me out...
The loot system is incredibly unsatisfying and tiring, to the point that I'd have more fun playing if there weren't any lot boxes at all.

 

[Arkeband]

I'm throwing money ($20) because I enjoy the game and have no problem buying cosmetic items for a game i enjoy? Wtf are you even talking about. Have you never enjoyed something in life?

I'm examining your self described behavior of repeatedly giving money to a company so that a product stays free. The irony being you're just paying them in a different way.

 

[Strakt]

I'm examining your self described behavior of repeatedly giving money to a company so that a product stays free. The irony being you're just paying them in a different way.

You make no sense at all. Whether people buy loot boxes or not, the game's future content is always going to be free (as stated before the game even came out). The microtransaction $$$ just means that content will come out more often and sets the bar for higher quality. Any payments made are optional. I pay extra for micro transactions because I enjoy the game and its a game where I can put 3x more hours into than most $60 games nowadays. Please do yourself a favor go look up the word "enjoy"

 

[adversarial]

I'm examining your self described behavior of repeatedly giving money to a company so that a product stays free. The irony being you're just paying them in a different way.

Yeah, I read that statement like 6 times and thought I was missing something...

 

[AaronMT86]

All they have to do is give us double XP during an event.

 

[Team Filler]

You make no sense at all. Whether people buy loot boxes or not, the game's future content is always going to be free (as stated before the game even came out). The microtransaction $$$ just means that content will come out more often and sets the bar for higher quality. Any payments made are optional. I pay extra for micro transactions because I enjoy the game and its a game where I can put 3x more hours into than most $60 games nowadays. Please do yourself a favor go look up the word "enjoy"

You are sounding incredibly naive here. By your logic they should add a Donate option to the game so that should those are so inclined could give them even more money for more content updates of higher quality.

 

[DylanEno]

I bought the game, bought $40 worth of loot boxes to try and get witch mercy, got a million duplicates, didn't get witch mercy, never touched the game again. Fuck that noise.

 

[LAM09]

The amount of duplicates this year are something else. You should never be getting 4 dupes in a box.

 

[Strakt]

You are sounding incredibly naive here. By your logic they should add a Donate option to the game so that should those are so inclined could give them even more money for more content updates of higher quality.

Maybe you aren't reading clearly; more micro transaction sales will ultimately lead to bigger teams as the game grows even bigger thus more talented artists thus higher quality content. At the end of the day, everything is optional aside from the base price tag. As i said in the thread earlier, the loot system could use some work, but man there are some people in this thread who log on only for events and feel entitled to every new cosmetic item lol.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Maybe you aren't reading clearly; more micro transaction sales will ultimately lead to bigger teams thus more talented artists thus higher quality content. At the end of the day, everything is optional aside from the base price tag. As i said in the thread earlier, the loot system could use some work, but man there are some people in this thread who log on only for events and feel entitled to every new cosmetic item lol.

This is assuming an awful lot.

The more likely scenario is that more lootbox sales means the same amount of people spend more time working on lootboxes.

 

[Strakt]

This is assuming an awful lot.

The more likely scenario is that more lootbox sales means the same amount of people spend more time working on lootboxes.

This is also assuming an "awful lot".

 

[oti]

True, but the flip side is that I might actually buy more loot boxes because I would be guaranteed new stuff. It may not be stuff I want, or for a character I play, but I would feel less dirty about buying them.

The thing with those schemes is that you basically just said you're not the most important entity here. The most important entity here are the people who despite duplicates throw hundreds of dollars per month into this. How many more loot boxes would you buy if they did eliminate duplicates? Would that offset the loss of revenue from people who buy them no matter what? That's what these companies think about when it comes to monetization. It's not about being nice or fair, it's about getting as much money out of the whales as possible.

 

[TheRedSnifit]

This is also assuming an "awful lot".

It's a much more logical conclusion than yours, honestly.

Which seems more likely: Blizzard puts more artists on a finished game, or Blizzard has their existing team put more emphasis on the part of the finished game making money (lootboxes).

 

[Team Filler]

Maybe you aren't reading clearly; more micro transaction sales will ultimately lead to bigger teams as the game grows even bigger thus more talented artists thus higher quality content. At the end of the day, everything is optional aside from the base price tag. As i said in the thread earlier, the loot system could use some work, but man there are some people in this thread who log on only for events and feel entitled to every new cosmetic item lol.

Content could come out just as often and Blizzard could charge actual money for that content instead, were they so inclined. Major lols are had at you thinking Blizzard is doing this because they need it to support "higher quality content". I don't even play Overwatch (tried the beta, was meh on it) and am still appalled at how staunchly some people defend their loot box system. In my opinion, you and other defenders of their RMT scheme are like one step removed from somebody with a gambling problem rationalizing why they think it's okay to keep spending money on slot machines.

 

[Shaanyboi]

Done with gaming after this Gen.

Sure...

 

[mysteriousmage09]

I feel like the Overwatch loot situation actually started out okay, and has gradually gotten worse over the year it's been out. Now it's a complete mess.

At launch, the game cost 40 bucks (on PC at least, I know consoles had to get Origins for whatever reason) and you got loot boxes at a very decent clip just playing. You could toss a few bucks at it to get loot boxes even faster. There was a decent pool of skins and for a while this worked well - at least as well as this kind of system could, anyway. I know most of us would prefer there to not be any sort of real money gambling in the game at all, but for a big game Overwatch's at least seemed alright.

Now that we're several events deep and most players have been whittling away at the game for a while, it's become a bit of a nightmare. Leveling is incredibly slow for most of the level cycle. The more skins you own, the more dupe chances you get, and the gold payout for dupes is a pittance, especially come event season where 250 gold is 1/12th of the price of a new skin. The fact that you can get non-event golds during an event at all is insulting - especially given how slow getting boxes can be and how, for some players, beating the odds and getting multiple gold rarity items isn't feasible. It's a slow and frustrating grind.

It doesn't help that for this event, every skin is gold rarity, so the odds of walking away with every skin you want is even worse than usual. The flood of crap sprays and voice lines has never been interesting, but now it just feels actively antagonizing to open a box and not get an event skin or emote.

Over the course of the game's run, Blizzard has added more ways for you to get more loot boxes, but I honestly think that's the wrong solution. Getting more boxes with piddly odds just compounds how frustrating they are to open during events. They need to change the way this shit works. Obviously their goal is to funnel you into buying them; the stuff you want is always juuust out of reach to tempt you to buy. Right now though, the carrot on the stick is just rotten enough to make some people not want to chase it at all.

Also for the love of god put some more items in the basic rotation. When there's no event on, the item pool is hilariously tiny.

This just about covers everything. 100% agree.

 

[Strakt]

It's a much more logical conclusion than yours, honestly.

Which seems more likely: Blizzard puts more artists on a finished game, or Blizzard has their existing teams put more emphasis on the part of the finished game making money (lootboxes).

Actually your conclusion is pretty flawed. What I was saying is that.. as the game becomes more popular and makes more $$ (Thanks to game/micro transaction sales), the team gets bigger. Artists who work on skins don't determine whether it belongs to a lootbox, price, etc I don't know if you know this but usually companies have different teams that do different things.

 

[hbkdx12]

All they have to do is give us double XP during an event.

This seems like an easy and obvious fix but playing devil's advocate, i can see their justification in not doing this because they don't want to over incentivize people playing strictly during an event as oppose to just playing normally during non events.

Maybe it wouldn't hurt for this one event since its the one year anniversary but if i can rack up the same amount of lootboxes in half the time, not only does it undermine their economy but it subtly undermines regular play during non events.

Mind you, this was the exact reason why they patched the XP exploit when you "prestiged" after level 100. People were purposely waiting to prestige until an event came so they could earn lootboxes quicker in the earlier levels

Blizzard is clearly in a precarious situation in that the only leverage they have with the game in terms of progression and rewards systems is tied to these skins. So anything that gets these skins in the hands of people more frequently is going to be met with a ton of resistance.

What they should do is make is so that the free lootbox they give away for an event is hardcoded to give you a lengendary skin from that event. No one should be at the mercy of feeling like they've grinded for 3 weeks on end only to open a bunch of lootboxes and not even get a legendary skin at all even if its not one they want.

 

[Strakt]

Content could come out just as often and Blizzard could charge actual money for that content instead, were they so inclined. Major lols are had at you thinking Blizzard is doing this because they need it to support "higher quality content". I don't even play Overwatch (tried the beta, was meh on it) and am still appalled at how staunchly some people defend their loot box system. In my opinion, you're like one step removed from somebody with a gambling problem rationalizing why they think it's okay to keep spending money on slot machines.

I bet you're the type of person that actually supports season passes to split communities and likes to pay extra for upcoming guns / characters with stat boosts lol. You're probably also upset because you logged in once during an event rather than actually playing the game and didn't get your favorite mei skin.

Loot boxes are fine, they just need to make some adjustments.

 

[Team Filler]

I bet you're the type of person that actually supports season passes to split communities and likes to pay extra for upcoming guns / characters with stat boosts lol. You're probably also upset because you logged in once during an event rather than actually playing the game and didn't get your favorite mei skin

Actually I don't own Overwatch.

 

[Strakt]

Actually I don't own Overwatch.

There you go. Sums up your entire post in 5 words. Nuff said'

 

[Jebusman]

There you go. Sums up your entire post in 5 words. Nuff said'

I mean you're no better considering the continuous accusations that anyone complaining is "just mad that they didn't get the skin they wanted".

 

[Yarbskoo]

If you want my money, just let me buy skins, because I'm sure as fuck not buying loot boxes.

 

[giant_frying_pan]

Still can't buy the Tracer GBR skin....I sincerely hope they open up the Summer Games skins for redemption at the relevant time, otherwise it's just posturing again from Kaplan.

 

[Strakt]

I mean you're no better considering the continuous accusations that anyone complaining is "just mad that they didn't get the skin they wanted".

More like the majority of people who complain either don't play the game because they dislike it OR don't play the game consistently and only log in during the event and expect every item in the game. Not to mention, if you actually read my posts, I said "The loot system could actually use some adjustments but PERSONALLY i haven't had a single problem getting the items that I've wanted".

 

[MKIL65]

Pretty annoying yeah, 3000 is an absurd amount. And then you have all those dances for 750.

And not surprised to see Strakt constantly defending Blizzard and derailing the thread... Yet again.

 

[Team Filler]

There you go. Sums up your entire post in 5 words. Nuff said'

That's not the slam dunk argument that you seem to think it is. I regularly play Heroes of the Storm and enjoy myself reasonably, even put some money into it, and that games loot system is a pretty close copy of Overwatch's since the 2.0 update. I accept that as a reasonable tradeoff for the game being f2p and requiring zero monetary investment to start playing and have a "full experience".

Even we're that not the case I am still able to read and watch what others feel are problems for the game, and am able to discuss the topic with an understanding of what's being said.

 

[Psychoward]

More like the majority of people who complain either don't play the game because they dislike it OR don't play the game consistently and only log in during the event and expect every item in the game. Not to mention, if you actually read my posts, I said "The loot system could actually use some adjustments but PERSONALLY i haven't had a single problem getting the items that I've wanted".

No one says they shouldn't change anything, but the level of criticism reaches a point where people expect to have every single item available from events, which will NEVER happen.

Maybe you aren't reading clearly; more micro transaction sales will ultimately lead to bigger teams as the game grows even bigger thus more talented artists thus higher quality content. At the end of the day, everything is optional aside from the base price tag. As i said in the thread earlier, the loot system could use some work, but man there are some people in this thread who log on only for events and feel entitled to every new cosmetic item lol.

You keep saying people are mad that they aren't getting every event item but that's not even close to true. Most people are upset they can't get at least 1-2 specific items even if they play for a ton.

In fact I've never even seen it implied in any of the recent lootbox threads that people want every item in the events without paying money.

 

[Straight Edge]

Blizzard should start selling individual skins for ridiculous prices. $50 sounds about right.

 

[Dartastic]

I've been playing since the game came out, and I'm level 169 or so. I've almost never spent any gold, outside of the last event where I bought the D.Va selfie intro, and I think I've maybe purchased one, maybe two skins with my gold at most. I think of myself as a gold hoarder.

I've only got like, barely over 4000 gold. That's enough to buy one event skin. That's it, and with the amount I've played, that's kinda pathetic. With this event, I've opened somewhere around 15 or 16 lootboxes, and only gotten one legendary skin that was a dupe of a normal legendary. They really need to do something about this. As it stands, it's really unsatisfying.

 

[Enter The 36 Chambers]

The over-abundance of microtransactions and crates in shooters nowadays is the best thing ever.

I never buy any of them and I get all my maps and modes for free.

 

[Team Filler]

Blizzard should start selling individual skins for ridiculous prices. $50 sounds about right.

You joke but it's not outside of their wheelhouse. Look at the prices for the special mounts and services on the WoW store.

 

[Vital Tundra]

You keep saying people are mad that they aren't getting every event item but that's not even close to true. Most people are upset they can't get at least 1-2 specific items even if they play for a ton.

In fact I've never even seen it implied in any of the recent lootbox threads that people want every item in the events without paying money.

This. I play all the time and last event got nothing I wanted and 3 dupes of 1 of Torbs skins. It was bullshit in every way.

 

[Yarbskoo]

Blizzard should start selling individual skins for ridiculous prices. $50 sounds about right.

Considering how many boxes you'd have to buy before you got the skin you wanted, $50 is probably close to what they cost right now.

 

[The Last Wizard]

There you go. Sums up your entire post in 5 words. Nuff said'

Dude you getting really defensive for a company that's practically taking advantage of you. There's a better solution to the current system in place, but your just "nuh uh", I get why I want plus I can donate money for free content". It's not free since it's being footed by people in the community and on top of that it's not like blizzards would be making $0 if there was a change.

 

[Spman2099]

Like, come on... If they actually cared, if they REALLY cared, they could have fixed this problem the day after the game launched. Double (or triple) the amount of money you get from dupes. Are there more nuanced, smarter approaches? Sure. But the thing is, they have done NOTHING to even try to address the issue. For a full priced game (on consoles, at least) their loot box system was always shitty.

Anyway, I hope they do "fix" the problem at some point, but I have a very hard time believing this wasn't something they were keenly away of right from the beginning.

 

[Clipse]

Dupes aren't going anywhere and I doubt event items will ever get their own boxes. Things they could do to improve the current situation IMO:

- Event items cost 2x of regular items instead of 3x.

- Keep current prices, but have event dupes give 3x the gold.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

The main issue in all of this imo is the amount of gold you get for dupes. Like only 250 for a duplicate Legendary skin is ridiculous. I get they need to monetize and make money so getting the full 1000 gold is unrealistic, but you should at least get half of the items value

I already paid them $60 for this game. To hell with that.

 

[Zackat]

They need to adjust the amount of gold you get for a dupe and decrease the amount for event skins. 3k is so so much.

 

[N° 2048]

Stopped playing this game once the loot boxes became ridiculous. Let us buy the skins we want and remove dupe drops. Also why are event skins more expensive? Why can't we buy Gold with money? So many questions...rather just not play anymore because when I do I just can't help but think of the stupid decisions that went into the game.

 

[sonicmj1]

Actually your conclusion is pretty flawed. What I was saying is that.. as the game becomes more popular and makes more $$ (Thanks to game/micro transaction sales), the team gets bigger. Artists who work on skins don't determine whether it belongs to a lootbox, price, etc I don't know if you know this but usually companies have different teams that do different things.

Why would the team size depend on loot box revenue?

Blizzard will staff its Overwatch team with as many people as it needs to keep attracting new users and keep their existing base buying loot boxes, and not a person more. There are diminishing returns to adding new content. You don't need to make two maps for a content update when one map will do to draw players back in.

Most of their profits are going to go to making Activision's quarterly results look better. If they want to reinvest their profits, they'll apply them to new revenue streams instead of inefficiently spending on something that's already successful.

 

[Strakt]

Dude you getting really defensive for a company that's practically taking advantage of you. There's a better solution to the current system in place, but your just "nuh uh", I get why I want plus I can donate money for free content". It's not free since it's being footed by people in the community and on top of that it's not like blizzards would be making $0 if there was a change.

No one's taking advantage of anyone. If i enjoy something, why not pay extra for it? Cosmetics are optional. You act like what I'm saying is a fact when all it is is an opinion. I believe that if you play the game consistently without an event running, you can get the items you want from the event. If you're the player that wants to only log on during events then prepare to be disappointed. I think you have reading comprehension as well because apparently you missed the part where I said the loot box system in place could use some adjustments.. but I guess you only look for and respond to the negatives

 

[exYle]

More like the majority of people who complain either don't play the game because they dislike it OR don't play the game consistently and only log in during the event and expect every item in the game. Not to mention, if you actually read my posts, I said "The loot system could actually use some adjustments but PERSONALLY i haven't had a single problem getting the items that I've wanted".

I play consistently, have purchased a few boxes every event (barring this one), and I'm pretty damn frustrated. At this point, with six events occurring per year, it's clear that Blizzard is more interested in these time-limited cash-grabs at the cost of actual, substantive, permanent content. They are making items harder to get, adding more of them, and then refusing to give their players more than a month's break to build up gold.

 

[Karsticles]

Sometimes people lose perspective. Jeff has had a good history in regard to these issues, so I think he deserves more respect than he is getting right now.