Wednesday, September 5th 2018
2K Brazenly Asks Belgian Fans to Contact Local Government on Loot Box Ban
In a bold, bold move that is already backfiring on them, games publishes 2K put out a statement clarifying their stance on the Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC) ruling against the specific loot box implementations on multiple games. In particular, the gaming commission made it clear that loot boxes were against the gambling laws of the country and several game publishers quickly complied, including Valve with CS:GO. 2K's NBA 2Kxx series (where xx is the year of the current decade) was one of the affected titles, with the "MyTeam" packs using a loot box-based mechanism for microtransactions.
The statement put out says that 2K is working to comply with the ruling and have made changes to the MyTeam mode, but they also disagree with it and are going to be, and I quote, "continuing conversations with the BGC in order to explain our view" to get around the ruling. Furthermore, they are actually asking players to contact their local government representatives, assuming they share this view, to try and get BGC to allow the old loot box system to be placed back in. To no one's surprise, 2K is collecting a ton of flak for this and we can only hope that fans of the NBA 2K franchise vote with their wallet and let the publisher know exactly what they feel about all this.
Source:
2K Statement
The statement put out says that 2K is working to comply with the ruling and have made changes to the MyTeam mode, but they also disagree with it and are going to be, and I quote, "continuing conversations with the BGC in order to explain our view" to get around the ruling. Furthermore, they are actually asking players to contact their local government representatives, assuming they share this view, to try and get BGC to allow the old loot box system to be placed back in. To no one's surprise, 2K is collecting a ton of flak for this and we can only hope that fans of the NBA 2K franchise vote with their wallet and let the publisher know exactly what they feel about all this.
31 Comments on 2K Brazenly Asks Belgian Fans to Contact Local Government on Loot Box Ban
As for 2K games they are asking players to make this politcal and asking them to become lobbyists which could illegal in some places. Hats of to desperate stupidity of 2k, btw FK EA.
so go ask the gov official that may all ready think that PC games are the root cause to delinquency , terrorism , bullying , ect...
ya, I see that working out
1. Make things take a jillion years, bypass this with pay to win system
2. Create a more relaxed system that doesn't take a jillion years to work through without paying
Seems they went with option number 1. Wonder why...
Battlefield 2 was the first game I played with things that could be unlocked (and 2142, got both at the same time). Back then, you couldn't even pay to unlock anything, you just had to play. And you could rise to the top pretty quick in 2142, moreso than in Battlefield 2. Surprisingly, EA seemed like an okay company back then, and my biggest complaint about the series was the silly ads in 2142. You could see ads for Core 2 Extreme processors on billboards in game. But it was all good... getting ads in a product you paid for and all... now look what we get to deal with?
Stop asking money for stuff that should be in the game period.
2k you didn't learn from EA with Starwars do you?
BTW, thsi quote:I have no problem with being able to buy equipment instead of grinding for it (depending a bit on the game and the specifics, I mean if you can get a weapon that means you instawin the match for $200 that wouldn't be ok), but that is completely unrelated to lootboxes.
I just cannot fathom how this is in any way positive or 'okay' to anyone. You have got to be extremely dim witted to see paid cheats as an advantage. Especially in a mostly offline game; eg. ME: Shadows of War...
Imagine the next Borderlands with top-end gear purchasable from the shop - hidden behind a lootbox or not - it would destroy the entire game's purpose.
I wouldn't necessarily mind the existence of the option to pay for advantages like skipping some of the grind in MMOs and the like, if the prices (and advantages) were within reason and you knew what you were paying for. Not all people have the time to spend hundreds of hours in every game they want to play, so providing for-pay "shortcuts" isn't a bad thing per se (even if this too has some very dubious attributes). Having people pay for cosmetic upgrades is ... problematic (especially when it targets kids and teens, to whom coolness and status are of ridiculous importance, and who haven't yet learnt the value of money), but not outright evil. Lootboxes, though? That is just pure greed and malice, whether what you get in them is purely cosmetic or actually gives an advantage in the game. If the latter is the case, it has the same potential to undermine the balance of the game as outright purchases. And in any case, the only reason for them to exist is this: why have people pay for the thing they want, when you can get them to pay for a chance at the thing they want? Playing off vulnerabilities in human psychology for profit? As I said: greed and malice.
So while it may 'feel' less malicious to not put gameplay advantages in a lootbox, it really isn't. It's just part of the illusion of progress to keep you coming back for more. The exact same psychology, really. Experienced firsthand, learned a few things, it really is all the same just packaged differently and if there is one thing I'll teach my kids, its to stay far away from that. I could care less about guts and gore, but this, this is just not happening. I sincerely hope but also believe this practice will land in the gutter, it just needs time, and banning lootboxes is only the first step.