• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

To comply China's new law, multiple games have released loot box rate in CN region.

Ataru Moroboshi

Neo Member
I swear the numbers for Overwatch loot boxes were out there (by item rarity), but I can't find it anywhere...
I think purple was something like 1/1000
 

Espada

Member
(Legit) grambling is up-front about the odds and actually has a chance of getting you real money

This is worse

Ah, thanks. I actually didn't know that gambling establishments actually published the odds of you actually winning. That definitely makes what these games are doing worse, it's just exploiting the fuck out of people at this point.

MrStickenstein said:
It's worse than traditional gambling IMO, because you're gambling for virtual goods and you don't know the odds. It is also way less regulated.

Maybe that's one of the reasons why they're doing this? Bringing in as much money from this as possible before it's made illegal or heavily regulated.
 

Cels

Member
we'll have information for games in china but what's to say lootboxes in the EU or NA versions don't have different droprates?

business models for china (well, asia) are often different than the models for the rest of the world after all
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
But do these numbers apply to those games in all regions? Is there any variation between NA version and CN version?

I will highly doubt there are differences. I know in JPN, once they published the rates for many of the mobile games. Quite a few had to boost them up or do change.

So I'd assume these rates are probably the same or at least proportionally the same in terms of cost to chance. I.E. 50cent boxes has a .5 chance, while the 3 dollar may have a 3%.
 

Trickster

Member
I swear the numbers for Overwatch loot boxes were out there (by item rarity), but I can't find it anywhere...
I think purple was something like 1/1000

Uhm, what? I hate the lootboxes in OW as much as anyone. But purples are nowhere near 1/1000. If that was the case you'd get a purple around every 250 lootboxes
 
Iirc this came into effect because it was feared to be a public health crisis for addiction. I doubt we see something similar in NA until it reaches a comparable situation. Which sucks, shit should be straight up banned imo, it is gambling with stacked odds and zero transparency.
 

mnannola

Member
k96OIys.jpg

What the hell do those percentage ranges mean?

1% - 95%?
 

Hairsplash

Member
Take it a step further: I want to see why duplicates are so prevalent even in legendaries. Seeing orange and it turning around to be a card you already have is the worst.

Happened to me... And i received a genji duplicate! Lol the worst... and only 200 credits 20% of the value... really should be higher... like full value if you buy the loot boxes in Overwatch (on legendaries at least...)
 
Not only should it be standard practice, but they should also have to be kept up-to-date in real time. I wonder how often companies adjust the rates either up or down depending on active events or other factors.
 

Satch

Banned
What about... I can just buy the freaking skin I want form the store?

Is that so hard?

Is the improved margins from all the random drop bullshit going to justify the long-term expense of regulation in every territory, eventually? Maybe in the short term, benefitting current executives. In the long term it's poison for the industry.

That's not how they get your money. Why let people buy the skin they want for 5 bucks when they can convince people to spend 20+ bucks on x amount of lootboxes for the chance to get something they might not even find in the box? We have people on this very forum that drop 20 dollars on boxes, don't get what they want, get angry, and then buy another 20 dollars worth of boxes... every single event. Over and over. It's much more lucrative.

And that 20 bucks is on the low end. People will happily spend more to get trash in return.
 
It's gross and should be governed no different than actual gambling, I know someone who has basically ruined their life and lost almost everything because they got hooked on buying thousands (yes thousands) of dollars worth each month, when his wife finally found out why he was hiding and designated himself as the one paying the bills it was already far far too late, he's sunk their house and everything over this garbage.

Like a few mentioned before at least with real gambling you are told the odds, and can potentially win REAL money not a virtual shit in the mouth.
 

GeoNeo

I disagree.
lootboxes nothing more than slot machines for kids. Disgusting how these companies get around gambling laws around the world. Good stuff to China for enforcing this new law.

Edit:

It's gross and should be governed no different than actual gambling, I know someone who has basically ruined their life and lost almost everything because they got hooked on buying thousands (yes thousands) of dollars worth each month, when his wife finally found out why he was hiding and designated himself as the one paying the bills it was already far far too late, he's sunk their house and everything over this garbage.

Like a few mentioned before at least with real gambling you are told the odds, and can potentially win REAL money not a virtual shit in the mouth.

Fully agreed.
 
It's gross and should be governed no different than actual gambling, I know someone who has basically ruined their life and lost almost everything because they got hooked on buying thousands (yes thousands) of dollars worth each month, when his wife finally found out why he was hiding and designated himself as the one paying the bills it was already far far too late, he's sunk their house and everything over this garbage.

Like a few mentioned before at least with real gambling you are told the odds, and can potentially win REAL money not a virtual shit in the mouth.

So much this! Its ridiculous it took this long to begin with.
 

Zafir

Member
Agree with everyone saying this should be the case all over, and on the fact it should be governed more.

It's especially bad when you consider young people are playing these games and could easily get taken in.
 

ChrisD

Member
My first thought upon reading the charts was, "Why are Ward Skins and Summoner Icons such low chances in LoL?" It's strange to me that those would be the rarities.

lootboxes are dumb. I like free stuff as much as the next guy (as I don't put money into any games' boxes), but it's a really nasty tactic.

I don't even like Rocket League's implementation, and you can turn it off completely.
 

M3d10n

Member
Don't know why but none of the Blizzard games has released their rates yet.

Maybe their "rates" aren't simple fixed chance percentages.

Seriously, I don't have evidence but I suspect this is way more common than people give it credit. Loot results have great impact in both retention and monetization, it would be hard for a developer to resist the temptation of using something more "complex" than a plain random number draw in order to "optimize" the loot experience.
 

hawk2025

Member
Maybe their "rates" aren't simple fixed chance percentages.

Seriously, I don't have evidence but I suspect this is way more common than people give it credit. Loot results have great impact in both retention and monetization, it would be hard for a developer to resist the temptation of using something more "complex" than a plain random number draw in order to "optimize" the loot experience.


I'm sure they do -- Then publish a conditional probability lookup table.

It is a statistical fact that however complex the lootboxes are, they can always be summarized by a probability distribution, and as such one can always calculate conditional probabilities.

They can waffle and make it sound complex. Nevertheless, anyone can turn their algorithm into a dynamic lookup table in a few hours.
 

hawk2025

Member
They don't post lottery or slot machine odds.

Those ones are basically pissing your money away and you have millions of people buying those.


1) lottery odds are in fact public, and easily calculated
2) When your point of comparison is fucking slot machines, which are already regulated, you know you have a disgusting business model.
 

Stop It

Perfectly able to grasp the inherent value of the fishing game.
They don't post lottery or slot machine odds.

Those ones are basically pissing your money away and you have millions of people buying those.
The first is public knowledge as it's easily calculated.

In the UK the latter is actually a legal requirement. All slot machines must state the payout rate as a percentage.

This should have the same regulation. You're literally playing a fixed odds betting machine and you should be entitled to know the odds.
 

Head.spawn

Junior Member
I swear the numbers for Overwatch loot boxes were out there (by item rarity), but I can't find it anywhere...
I think purple was something like 1/1000

I literally bought the game on PC a few days ago, by my second loot crate I was already getting item doubles. That trend kept up with pretty much every crate.

Shit is so rigged.
 
This loot box/gacha trend is a disease that needs to be regulated asap, I hope publication of these gambling rates becomes mandatory in other regions sooner rather than later.
 
I'm pretty sure that developers will either lie or change percentages if this becomes normal (which I hope it does).

The chinese government, like I showed with the lootbox stuff in chinese overwatch, is pretty strict.

There is a reason why you cant get any more lootboxes in Overwatch after 3 hours each day.
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
I literally bought the game on PC a few days ago, by my second loot crate I was already getting item doubles. That trend kept up with pretty much every crate.

Shit is so rigged.
Getting doubles is one of the biggest dick moves I've seen Blizzard do.
 
Top Bottom