From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


I mean, of course they'll fight it.* They're being put on the hook for
billions of dollars of damages. I can't really fault them for that.
Not to mention a huge part (it's been estimated that it's more than
50%) of their yearly income is dependent on lootbox sales. You don't
easily turn your back on that sort of moolah.

But it's disappointing too. Because for all of Valve's high-sounding
words about how lootboxes are little different than McDonalds Happy
Meals or packs of baseball cards (both items where you don't know the
exact contents of your prize until you open the container), neither of
those items are (regularly) being used as markers for gambling sites.
Which the cosmetics and guns from Counterstrike (and other games)
regularly are. A fact that Valve is very much aware of, and does very
little to combat.

It's a disingenuousness right up there with Pachinko parlors in Japan
that argue they aren't gambling because they only give away
stuffed-animal prizes rather than cash when you win... but then work
in conjunction with shops right next door that buy those same stuffed
animals for cash. It's just an added level of complexity to loophole
gambling laws. At least the pachinko parlors aren't arguing that
attempts to close this loophole is the equivalent of banning stuffed
animals... which is what Valve is doing.

Valve is often held up as a stalwart of PC gaming --sometimes even by
myself!-- but the simple fact is that for all the good they are doing,
it's still largely funded by promoting gambling (through
third-parties) to the underaged. Valve /could/ have taken the high
road and disengaged from that practice. They could have worked harder
so their digital tokens couldn't be used as poker-chips by third-party websites. But instead they prefer to turn a blind eye, pretend that
what they are doing is harmless and all about Freedom!!!1! and roll in
the tens of billions of dollars it brings them.

It's predictable... but not in the least admirable.


====
* story here https://www.ign.com/articles/people-enjoy-surprises-valve-is-trying-to-dismiss-new-yorks-counter-strike-loot-box-lawsuit
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From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

I mean, of course they'll fight it.* They're being put on the hook for billions of dollars of damages. I can't really fault them for that.
Not to mention a huge part (it's been estimated that it's more than
50%) of their yearly income is dependent on lootbox sales. You don't
easily turn your back on that sort of moolah.

But it's disappointing too. Because for all of Valve's high-sounding
words about how lootboxes are little different than McDonalds Happy
Meals or packs of baseball cards (both items where you don't know the
exact contents of your prize until you open the container), neither of
those items are (regularly) being used as markers for gambling sites.
Which the cosmetics and guns from Counterstrike (and other games)
regularly are. A fact that Valve is very much aware of, and does very
little to combat.

It's a disingenuousness right up there with Pachinko parlors in Japan
that argue they aren't gambling because they only give away
stuffed-animal prizes rather than cash when you win... but then work
in conjunction with shops right next door that buy those same stuffed
animals for cash. It's just an added level of complexity to loophole
gambling laws. At least the pachinko parlors aren't arguing that
attempts to close this loophole is the equivalent of banning stuffed animals... which is what Valve is doing.

Valve is often held up as a stalwart of PC gaming --sometimes even by myself!-- but the simple fact is that for all the good they are doing,
it's still largely funded by promoting gambling (through
third-parties) to the underaged. Valve /could/ have taken the high
road and disengaged from that practice. They could have worked harder
so their digital tokens couldn't be used as poker-chips by third-party websites. But instead they prefer to turn a blind eye, pretend that
what they are doing is harmless and all about Freedom!!!1! and roll in
the tens of billions of dollars it brings them.

It's predictable... but not in the least admirable.

What about that you're relying on their random number generator to
determine what's in your lootbox? How do you know they aren't giving out "uncommons" to everybody instead of a few "rares" every once in awhile?
Or favoritism, where the people they like get more of the "rares" than
the people they don't know anything about or care about who just usually
get the "uncommons?"

For example if this newsgroup were an example of what would go on, PW
and Spalls would get a rare beautiful Furrbie every time they opened a lootbox, while bill wilson and I would get stuck with the ugliest
stuffed animals in the pool each time we opened a lootbox.

This kind of testing has been done with gambling machines. One of my electrical engineering professors was included as an expert in the case
on this, but the Valve lootbox mechanism is just another gambling
machine group popping up that hasn't been through this expert overview
and it's very likely they are cheating people instead of "randomly"
generating the good stuff. Not because I am saying anything about Valve,
it's just human nature to cheat people on your first iteration, and the
Valve people are human in the end.
--
War in the east
War in the west
War up north
War down south
War War
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