**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Comments
You already know the chance is low on rare drops. We all do. We still go for them because we want them. If we're not as interested, we don't. We don't need specific numbers for that.
Yeah - you could do that, or you could complain that the drop rates suck, and demand that the game is improved, if you aren’t satisfied with the quality.
All they have to do is stop selling them. Most crystals are purchased with in game currency or shards earned in game.
I doubt they wil have to release any drop rate info. They will get around it somehow.
Employee 1: Make this game android exclusive!
Employee 2: Milk everyone once more and shut the game down!
Employee 3: Have the legal team on this!
Employee 4: Share the drop rates?
Kabam CEO: Throws employee 4 out the window*
I don't know why you think Apple would be this stupid so as to fall for that. Apple is getting in front of what will eventually be federal regulations in the USA. They are not going to allow the app developers to weasel around it using your method. Further, Kabam would not dare try to weasel around it. If they got caught and booted from the app store it is lights out.
Of course, Kabam could also get ahead of all of this by doing the stand-up thing (and shut down all conspiracy speak) by releasing actual drop rate odds. What do you think about that, Ad0ra?
Dr. Zola
Yes. And unregulated gambling at that.
Dr. Zola
Yep as units cost money and 90% of the playerbase buy their units.
Don’t disagree with you. That would be a highly legalistic argument. But there are a lot of legalistic distinctions that are the law, both in the US and abroad. And here we aren’t talking about a court of law, but rather terms between two private companies. They can agree that “purchased” means anything.
Dr. Zola
Lol we shall see.
This is Apple's rule right now. If Kabam tries to mess around and find a loophole they risk getting the boot from the app store. That is risk they will not take. I suspect that they will have no choice but to fully disclose and find a new way to make money or improve drop rates.
The obvious difference is that Apple operates in the US. The Chinese government could not, and cannot, enforce their laws upon companies that do not directly operate in their country. Apple can enforce their appstore rules on anyone anywhere that distributes their apps on the iOS app store.
I have a feeling that Google Play will not be far behind. Apple is probably operating under a combination of altruism and self-interest. They probably care that their customers care about this issue, and they probably want to get out ahead of potential legislation that might be coming.
Personally, I'm all in favor of it. My game design philosophy has always centered around informed choice. In general, except where temporarily necessary for gameplay requirements, players should always be informed about the choices they are asked to make in the game when those choices are irreversible and non-repeatable (in the sense of being able to be redone without significant expense). Whether to buy (with money or in-game currency) a loot box is a choice that should be an informed choice: knowing what the odds of winning certain things is a core requirement for that choice to be informed.
I always knew that the game industry wouldn't choose to do this without a gun to their head, but I always assumed the government would be holding the gun. I didn't think the app store operators (Apple and Google specifically) would be the ones forcing game developers hands. In retrospect, it now seems obvious to me they would want to get out ahead of the problem.
Apple can also change the terms at any time to close any loophole the moment any game company attempts to invoke it. I think it is highly unlikely that Apple will allow any game company to loophole their way around the requirement, because there's no benefit to Apple to allow every game company to get around their new requirement. Someone very high up the food chain at Apple has decided it is better for Apple in the long run if they are seen as policing this effectively. Given Apple's history in the past with creating and then enforcing new App store guidelines, there's no reason to believe this is just a paper tiger. Apple doesn't tend to fold paper tigers.
That seems unlikely to me simply because most lootboxes in most mobile games are purchased indirectly through in-game currency and Apple had to know that before they wrote the rule. The app store guidelines do not specifically mention "real money." It state:
I'm reasonably certain that the intent is "purchased with real world currency or in-game currency" and if too many rules lawyers try to pick the wording apart Apple will just add clarifying language to state purchased includes with in-game currency or real world currency.
I believe the reason the word "purchased" is in there is to distinguish between loot boxes as the game industry normally defines them, and things like random drops that occur during gameplay. For example, 3* and 4* "chests" we run into on maps are not loot boxes, because we just get them we don't "purchase" them in any sense of the word. If MCOC gives them away, or we win them through gameplay, or we get them through some means other than buying them with in-game currency or in-app purchase, they wouldn't fall under this rule.
If that's the cost of having informed choice, then I'm willing to pay it. Or to be more to the point, if the cost of making that extra money is hiding information from the players, then that's not a cost I would be willing to pay.
This is mostly hypothetical. Lotteries function extraordinarily well publishing their odds. Most people can't understand probability anyway, and half the people who currently complain about the odds won't believe the published odds. People will post videos of twelve openings that "prove" the published odds are wrong. Publishing the odds won't necessarily change everyone's behavior much. Powerball has a net rate of return that makes MCOC crystals look like malfunctioning ATMs, and they bring in more money in a day than MCOC probably makes in a month.
I still believe in publishing them. Maybe only a fraction of the players can actually make good use of that information. But once you eliminate the willfully ignorant, the conspiratorially opaque, the mathematically illiterate, and the just plain foolish, you still have a large number of players that I believe should be given the best possible chance to make an informed decision with the best possible information.