Germany passes new law for lootboxes in games - what does this mean for ESO and Crown Crates?

VoidCommander · March 2021

Sarannah wrote: »

More and more countries are working on lootboxes and gambling. So it would be wise for ZOS to come up with a secondary method for generating revenue.

That said, ESO has one of the most fair lootbox mechanics there is. As we can target specific items in the boxes, even when we fail. This happens in the form of crowngems. So all ZOS would have to do is give radiant apex mounts a crowngem price. Which would 100% remove the gamling part of the lootboxes, as there would be a fallback method for everything in them.

Yeah, but you know what would work even better than spending 20,000 crowns to get 400 gems to get that apex mount? If they actually operated like other loot boxes and didn't give duplicates. If they did that, you could get everything in the crown crates with like 20 boxes. The illusion that you are still winning something is a total scam, because it makes it instead take 100 boxes to get everything in a season.

starkerealm · March 2021

Kiralyn2000 wrote: »

dcam86b14_ESO wrote: »

Ever play TERA online? you think ESO is bad, yal haven't seen anything lol

And I've seen even worse games than TERA.

(like, I made the mistake of trying a terrible f2p game by Aeria a few years ago. It had multiple levels of $3-5 loot boxes, it had 'temporary' inventory & bank increases, it had crazy expensive costumes, it had cash boosts for enchanting your gear, it had open-world pvp... and they had monthly "contests" where, as you spent more money total in that month, you earned prizes. And the spending scale reached up to $1000+. For a month. And the top prizes included things like "ask a favor of a GM". This is why I laugh when people call ESO "pay to win". )

I'm trying to remember which MMO I ran across years ago that actually offered temporary GM status as a paid perk. But, yeah, monetization gets a lot worse than ESO. That doesn't make the crown crates okay. And, ESO's cosmetics are (universally) overpriced, but they are, actually, cosmetics (with a handful of exceptions.)

starkerealm · March 2021

I'm not familiar with German law, but this sounds like it's just a classification restriction. The one thing that would make this incredibly relevant is if Germany has consumer protection laws related to underage players getting access to the content regardless, and then the service provider continuing to advertise to them.

Honestly, this sounds like it's going to be a bigger issue for the EA Sports titles than ESO, but... like I said, I'm not familiar with German law.

merevie · March 2021

There's also Microsoft's own gaming policy, which has not been implemented. The writing is on the wall for this type of gambling but I'd say they still have some time left before changed is forced. It's something that is in our own control in the meantime, drunken nightmare stories notwithstanding lol.

redlink1979 · March 2021

Well as OP stated, not +18 everywhere:
- [ Australia & New Zealand ] - OFLC CTC
- [ Canada ] - ESRBCA Rated M
- [ Central American & South America ] - BR 14
- [ Europe ] - PEGI 18
- [ Germany ] - USK 16
- [ Russia ] - RR 18
- [ United States ] - ESRB Rated M
Updated 02/28/2018 11:18 AM
What age rating has The Elder Scrolls Online received?

Nord_Raseri · March 2021

Fyi Rated M is

redlink1979 wrote: »

Well as OP stated, not +18 everywhere:
- [ Australia & New Zealand ] - OFLC CTC
- [ Canada ] - ESRBCA Rated M
- [ Central American & South America ] - BR 14
- [ Europe ] - PEGI 18
- [ Germany ] - USK 16
- [ Russia ] - RR 18
- [ United States ] - ESRB Rated M
Updated 02/28/2018 11:18 AM
What age rating has The Elder Scrolls Online received?

ESRB and ESRBCA Rated M, for those who don't know, is 17+

tmbrinks · March 2021

All for banning gambling mechanics for under-"age of majority" customers.

But, I'm completely against banning gambling for customers who are of the age of majority in their respective country. Adults have the right to spend their money how they see fit, especially in a game like ESO where there is exactly ZERO competitive advantage for taking part in the gambling.

Athan1 · March 2021

ESO should be 18+ anyway. Also crates are gambling and these items should be immediately available in the cash shop, but whatever generates profit.

MyKillv2.0 · March 2021

It means the end of the game. Quick! Sell all your stuff

robertthebard · March 2021

It means that, just as other companies have done, they will remove those items from the stores in those countries. For the adults, that don't mind spending money on them, sorry about your bad luck, but at least the government will take care of that parenting.

Seraphayel · March 2021

I don’t know how it works with an increase in age rating and how games have to properly deal with it. I think Crown Crates shouldn’t be part of the game as it’s gambling, even with the gems you can get out of it - due to the fact that radiant apex mounts are not even buyable via gems and you are forced to gamble if you want them (sure, it’s not mandatory, but gambling isn’t mandatory either and so many people around the world are addicted or have problems with that).

Scardan · March 2021

ESO will just get 18+ rating, thats all.

Goregrinder · March 2021

I don't think I've ran into anyone under the age of 18 that I know of. ESO already has it's bases covered for this though, they're already 2 steps ahead.