MCOC banned in The Netherlands?

Hey all! So recently there have been discussions in the country I live in, The Netherlands, about banning loot boxes entirely. This is kinda a terrifying thought, not being able to play MCOC anymore. I know a law already passed in Belgium, deeming them illegal, but I found the announcement post of the summoner showdown of 2021, saying people in Belgium could participate. Could anyone that maybe lives in Belgium, is knowledgeable about how all these laws work, or a staff member comment on this on how it would work if The Netherlands truly banned them. It would be incredibly disappointing if I'd lose the ability to play it. Even with all the issues, this game and interacting with its community is one of the few genuine pleasures I get out of life.

Comments

Zeft5ara

None of what you said applies to me but ill suggest something that could help, using a vpn service may allow you to get around this issue if such a law is passed.
I hope you never have to stop playing and wish you well.

ItsyaboyStephy05

None of what you said applies to me but ill suggest something that could help, using a vpn service may allow you to get around this issue if such a law is passed.
I hope you never have to stop playing and wish you well.

Thanks for the tip! I know VPN's can be used to circumvent the law, but I just wanted to know if there's any knowledge on how it's being handled in Belgium. Rather just be able to just continue playing as usual instead of using VPN's and such.

Chikel

None of what you said applies to me but ill suggest something that could help, using a vpn service may allow you to get around this issue if such a law is passed.
I hope you never have to stop playing and wish you well.

But payment from there won't work right?

Giuliameij

Curious to follow this post. I do not think the game will be banned in our country completely.
But still curious how this unfolds.

ItsyaboyStephy05

But payment from there won't work right?

I wouldn’t know. Payments go through iTunes and Google play store like any other part of the world, the VPN might work but having a dutch credit card linked to your iTunes account might set off some system. Maybe if a lot of countries start banning loot boxes, kabam could set up something similar as to what Fortnite did with a different method of making transactions if push comes to shove.

ItsyaboyStephy05

Curious to follow this post. I do not think the game will be banned in our country completely.
But still curious how this unfolds.

I know the majority of representatives voted for the law, but usually laws undergo many changes before they get enrolled. Maybe they’ll just ban the lootbox aspect, not the entire game. We’ll just not be able to buy crystals with cash or units. From what I’ve read however, Belgium completely banned games such as Mario Kart Tour, which employ similar lootbox methods as MCOC. This might be wishful thinking, but I believe the law won’t have much effect or be very minimal, as you and I both know that a lot of people here play so many Gacha games. Don’t think the public would be too happy about it.

mgj0630

I'm unfamiliar with what you're lawmakers passed, but if the law explicitly bans the purchase of loot boxes, wherein you're using real currency to purchase something you're effectively gambling on, the work around would be pretty straightforward.

Use that real currency to purchase units, (not considered a lootbox, as what you get is guaranteed), then use the units, and in game currency with no real monetary value, to purchase the lootbox.

It's definitely straddling the line, but again, depending on the specific verbiage of the law, that would be a way around it.

That would still exclude you from unit bundles like July 4th and Black Friday though....that would suck.

Giuliameij

Curious to follow this post. I do not think the game will be banned in our country completely.
But still curious how this unfolds.
I know the majority of representatives voted for the law, but usually laws undergo many changes before they get enrolled. Maybe they’ll just ban the lootbox aspect, not the entire game. We’ll just not be able to buy crystals with cash or units. From what I’ve read however, Belgium completely banned games such as Mario Kart Tour, which employ similar lootbox methods as MCOC. This might be wishful thinking, but I believe the law won’t have much effect or be very minimal, as you and I both know that a lot of people here play so many Gacha games. Don’t think the public would be too happy about it.

Oh wow, if things will go similarly in the Netherlands the 3 games I play will all get banned. (Mcoc, Mario Kart Tour and Mirrorverse) that would be sad.
Just making you unable to purchase anything will be a problem aswell. Since Kabam won`t be making any money from Dutch people anymore, so they are most likely to pull the game from the country aswell.
We will wait and see. Would feel pretty much like 5 years of playing down the drain

ItsyaboyStephy05

I'm unfamiliar with what you're lawmakers passed, but if the law explicitly bans the purchase of loot boxes, wherein you're using real currency to purchase something you're effectively gambling on, the work around would be pretty straightforward.

Use that real currency to purchase units, (not considered a lootbox, as what you get is guaranteed), then use the units, and in game currency with no real monetary value, to purchase the lootbox.

It's definitely straddling the line, but again, depending on the specific verbiage of the law, that would be a way around it.

That would still exclude you from unit bundles like July 4th and Black Friday though....that would suck.

To answer your questions, there was a previous law in 2018 that stated that lootboxes aren’t gambling because they’re part of a bigger experience, with the example they give being Fifa. By that logic, mcoc is also a bigger experience than just gambling.

As for us not being able to purchase stuff anymore, it gets really complicated, real fast. From what I’ve gathered, players in the States and players in Europe play on the same servers, unlike Asia. Kabam knows what region players play in because of the leaderboards having an option to show your ranking in your region. So if they had to enforce law, there really isn’t much they could do, since it’s all on the same server.

The most that could happen is the game gets removed from game stores and we can’t purchase stuff anymore through iTunes. They were able to shut down Chinese servers so easily because those were separate in the first place. It’s still very confusing but I were to say, I don’t think kabam has any way of zoning out players here from the rest of the world to ban us from logging in.

Malreck04

I'm unfamiliar with what you're lawmakers passed, but if the law explicitly bans the purchase of loot boxes, wherein you're using real currency to purchase something you're effectively gambling on, the work around would be pretty straightforward.

Use that real currency to purchase units, (not considered a lootbox, as what you get is guaranteed), then use the units, and in game currency with no real monetary value, to purchase the lootbox.

It's definitely straddling the line, but again, depending on the specific verbiage of the law, that would be a way around it.

That would still exclude you from unit bundles like July 4th and Black Friday though....that would suck.

Isn't that exactly how most lootbox games work? It's the premium currency offered for cash, not the boxes directly