Jim Sterling (The Jimquisition)

Someone on that twitter thread pointed out the possibility of EA losing the Star Wars license from Disney over this.

Honestly, I'm not even a big Star Wars fan but that would be great.

Please.

I need Star Wars in Kingdom Hearts.

edited 21st Nov '17 7:06:00 PM by Karxrida

I want a Star Wars game that's actually fun to play and not burdened by all these Pay 2 Win systems. I have fond memories of the Rogue Squadron games and some of the old PS 2 Battlefront. Why is that so elusive these days?

That would also be fun, although with how MVC:I is going I dunno if I can trust Disney to take good care of their licenses.

edited 21st Nov '17 7:11:41 PM by AlleyOop

Is battlefront 2 the straw that breaks the camel's back? We'll have to wait and see, but it isn't looking good for them.

Interesting thing to note, dunno if this has been brought up; China is actually a bit ahead of the curve on this matter. It's not ideal, since Lootboxes are still open grabs for kiddos, but there's legislation that makes showing your droprates necessary so players will know their odds. Blizzard went through this loophole, because Activision-Blizzard.

Incidently this is the kind of loophole I am worried they'll leave behind. So you have lootboxes, and now people buy them with in game currency (And of course, the boxes are prized so you're short of currency each time you want one so you need to buy more. See how Bethesda prices its mods)

In game loot boxes are perfectly fine IMO, its just like killing a boss and getting a random drop and such. Its the second that you pay real money for them or the currency to buy them, now that is the problem.

Well it's a natural consequence of EA getting the license and the AAA videogame industry getting more greedy and predatory. We probably won't see a good SW game until Disney pries the license away from them.

Yep, as long as EA has the sole license we will never get a good Star Wars game.

All we will ever get is a pretty one.

edited 21st Nov '17 10:31:50 PM by Memers

The Hawaii Rep actually said "it's a trap" in the video.

You got a good Rep, Hawaii.

Considering people previously stated Jim Sterling was ruining his credibility with Star Wars references with comparing EA executives to Palpatine, doesn't this "Its trap" joke kind of vindicate him?

Anyway, yeah, seems like people are finally starting to notice "Hmm this seems like gambling" as everyone assumed would happen eventually

Also, I have to give serious props to these people who managed to adequately explain the problem to a room of people who clearly aren't gamers.

Who knows, maybe it'll actually get somewhere.

The opening song roulette continues as Jim addresses the latest news regarding the legal status of lootboxes.

Regulators working exactly as they're supposed to and the Greedy Corporate Shitbags panicking like they're supposed to... ah, there is no greater music to my ears.

Pigs must be flying, because Moral Guardians and gamers are on the same side. Well done EA, well done.

Don't celebrate too early. While other countries will have an easier time with it - Australia in particular is ban-happy and will almost certainly drop the hammer on EA over this - the United States government is currently dominated by the Cult of Ayn Rand, who are likely to see absolutely no problem with rich people getting richer off the manipulation of the middle and lower class.

I kinda wish Hawaii had waited to make a fuss over this until such a time as Democrats are in a stronger position Congressionally. So far as Republicans are concerned, EA's business practices are Reaganomics working exactly the way they're supposed to.

edited 22nd Nov '17 4:06:42 PM by TobiasDrake

This could easily end up being regulated at a state level, that’s where most laws are passed anyway.

edited 22nd Nov '17 4:29:05 PM by Silasw

Honestly you just need a few continental states with high enough population to legislate against this and it'll be basically as good as having a country-wide legislation, as it'll become nigh impossible for publishers to apply mechanics that can take into account where the game is played at state level to alter its own mechanics (and without counting how the game can move across state lines if its owner moves)

You’d literally just need one (relatively) major market. The loot box thing tends to be built into the structure of the game, so removing it for some regions would mean rebalancing it, which would mean having to gate off the multiplayer between regions, and it would also mean a negative PR reaction if they just didn’t release it somewhere like Australia. “You’re so focused on loot boxes that you’d literally rather cut a chunk out of your playerbase than remove them?” Stuff along those lines.

Possibly losing out on one-and-a-half^note I don't know if Australia means the country or continent in the provided context continents is kind of big.

edited 22nd Nov '17 10:04:53 PM by Karxrida

The big games will usually have dedicated servers there so they are already kinda cordoned off. Without them the country’s entire internet is absolute shit to the point it’s not worth playing.

That's not how it usually works. Australia has always been banning games and everybody blamed Australia except the developer. So if the lootboxes ban causes the game to be unreleased in Australia, once again the government will take the blame.

Not that it doesn't actually deserve blame most of the time... they finally got the "R18" rating the abscence of which kept getting games banned, yet... the government just kept banning games anyway.

There's also the fact that this ban has always been easily circumvented by Australians themselves with Steam codes and buying the game from abroad.

Plus Australia is a relatively minor drop in the ocean compared to US. There are more people living in the state of California alone than in Australia.

However, if the entire European continent puts the drop on lootboxes (since IIRC that's what Belgium would like - a continental wide investigation on the system) then that would be a real cause for concern.

edited 23rd Nov '17 7:30:50 AM by PippingFool

Destiny 2 delivers a less than thrilling lootbox experience, by secretly cutting players' ability to gain experience.

This being Activision-Blizzard, I really worry that at one point this kind of thing will make it into Overwatch.

Make it into?

Overwatch is one of the core progenitors of this bullshit.