Why is EA/Respawn the bad guy for loot boxes?

[DadPhilly]

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@powermadmatt wrote:
F2P will be complaining they are getting 0 items for free and they are 'looking after the whales'trust me as a mobile game dev I have seen it all, tried every approach, the ones who don't want to pay always feel shafted. People are too entitled these days

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Maybe the ones u talk to, but there are tons and tons of guys like me.

We love the idea of free to play and we use such services in that way.

I never pay a cent for anything in free to play games, because just me playing the game is enough reward to the devs.

All they need is people playing to keep the numbers up and the small percentage of whales will furnish us with all the nice things we like in time.

I really appreciate the whales for paying for all this stuff for me, and I think this is the ultimate gaming model, zero barrier to access is the only way to fly imo.

Dont worry, this game will make a billion dollars soon enough, it doesnt need my money, just my time.

I am fine with what-ever little rewards I get for just playing, virtual clothes mean nothing to me so if they hide some behind a paywall I think its great bait to catch the whales.

All F2P games need these whales, if u let them buy what they wanted up front these games would not make billions like candy crush and fortnite.

Yes some people have gambling issues, they need some mental help for certain, but can we really expect game devs to cater to all mental disorders?  Where to draw the line?

This is the free market everyone screams about with joy!

[DadPhilly]

U need to realize if they sold skins straight up they would need to be extremely expensive or they would cannibalize the loot box sales completely.

Imagine them selling $30-$40 for a single skin!! People would scream bloody murder and EA is evil, etc, lol.

U cant have both and u cant please everyone, the whales dont care they are usually single boys in their 20's with nothing to spend their money on anyways, if not this game it would be online poker or porn getting their cash.

[AyothaKAT]

Buttkiss all you want, but why do the loot boxes slow down on the way to 100 and end at lvl 100?

Why can't people spend the second currency on boxes or getting the actual skins you want?

Why are the skins twice what you should be?

Guess what? Fortnite has proven if you don't completely gouge, people will buy skins. More then when you charge too much.

This generation is just way to ready to just take it from companies. Believe me, they likely have already made back their dev costs at this point

And still, lootcrates = gambling, which they offer to young kids

[FantasyFreak1988]

I agree. I don't have a lot of money, but I love the game so I bought the starters pack just to give a little support and thanks.

[aimdunce]

I agree with most of what you're saying, as are other people in the thread but as has been pointed out. Lootboxes are a contentious aspect of the f2p model. Though honestly I think the people you are complaining about are a very vocal minority. I think most people are fine with the f2p model and will either put a little cash into the game every once in a while or never spend a cent on it but will play for free anyway. These people don't usually complain as they understand what a f2p model is. But yeah, the lootboxes are annoying but as long as Respawn/EA keeps the game from being p2w by allowing other avenues to unlock new characters/weapons that don't require an ABSURD amount of grinding there shouldn't be too much a problem, I imagine.

[QuickyTime]

I do agree with what the OP is saying but I also kind of agree with
players not exactly getting much for playing free, loot boxes i'm not really
talking about, I'm more talking about crafting materials and Legend tokens
you get none of these items for playing games, you get them from leveling your account, and 600 legend tokens per level is iffy, you can lean either direction on it bit you get 0 crafting materials for leveling,
those you can only get from Loot boxes and that I do kind of have
and issue with.

Fact is not everyone can afford to buy Apex packs, I for one do not
make a fortune and for the most part my money goes to bills, food
etc with very little extra cash for buying stuff for my gaming.

So not being able to obtain those crafting materials aside from
Apex Packs does sorta grind my gears, because if you don't buy the
packs you may never get that legendary skin you really want.

If they truly wanted to be fair to players of all incomes I would say they should give like 50 materials per account level.

Just my two cents.

[Allen_Booth]

@DadPhilly

Your logic is fundamentally flawed. Why in the world should any game have the ability to soak $200 or more from a single player for additions that a lot of developers and games can give way at a fraction of the price and/or free?


The issue isn't about getting everything for free it's about getting your moneys worth.


"A now-deleted thread on reddit made the rounds a few days ago cataloguing the plight of a guy who spent $500 on loot boxes to try and get the ultra-rare Wraith “heirloom” set, thinking that with guaranteed legendaries every 30 boxes, he’d be bound to get it. He didn’t. Loot boxes, cosmetic or not, trigger something bad in people and it's not a healthy business model." - This directly citing Forbes

[Prupisek]

@Allen_Booth and thats why lootboxes exist because people are willing to spend 500 usd to get something from random chance, it would look stupid if heirloom was 500 usd in shop right? Stop blaming EA and start looking on that people who are willing to spend insane amount of money to take their chances.
Btw friend got that heirloom for free from lootboxes, so now he has no reason to spend money.
Also idk if that chance 1/500 is official but obviously not since he didn't get it and counting on 1/30 guaranteed legendary well thats way low for only 500 to have it guaranteed.

[prankstar2]

Statistically less than 1% of the people playing make up 98% of lootbox profits, those people are the gambling addicts who don't know when to walk away and stop spending.

[lord_cherubi666]

Totally agree, people should take a moment to think about how much does it cost for a developer to make free titles. What i don't understand is the shop system. I mean the skins you can buy with tokens, you have to pay 20€ for a skin you don't even want/need in order to get acces to the skin you want. Dunno, seem very strange to me xd