Baseball cards can at least be traded and sold because they are tangible objects with real-world value. Lootboxes are money sinks because the items found within are self-admittedly worthless.
Except if Topps goes under or moves onto making other things, their customer's collections don't just vanish into thin air.
I have no idea about CS GO lootboxes as they stand today. I do remember they could be financially traded, but after that Youtuber scandal Jim Sterling covered I don't know if that's changed.
Are there bigger gains and losses on the line with baseball cards when it seems the most valuable ones are out-of-print rarities anyway? Also, it's not like baseball cards engage in slimy advertising practices. There's no flashy colors and bright lights, no seasonal items, no FOMO, no (as far as I know) social hierarchal aspect to the acquisition of items therein. They're just...baseball cards.
Hear, hear!
In contrast to baseball cards, lootboxes:
- Have a higher rate of play
- Have audiovisually stimulating jackpot effects
- Provide near misses
- Can be adjusted before opening
- Can be adjusted based on prior purchases
- Lack oversight in rate of purchase
- Lack oversight in age of buyer
- Are infinite
- Are not a zero-sum game
- Cannot be bought separately
- Cannot be traded
I swear, in every thread...
Baseball cards you have to get dressed, turn on your vehicle, go to a store, buy the packs or boxes, are limited by the inventory the store has unless you want to drive to another place, etc etc. There is natural delay between the desire and the payoff and a hard limit to how much you can get at once. Lootboxes have none of that, and have tiered "deals" that incentivize passing more and more in a single sitting with no way to cancel or return unopened items if you change your mind.
Lmao. People have been trying on gaming side to argue this SO Fucking hard. It's gambling, loot boxes are gambling.
please explain what you're trying to be snarky about here. I'm curious.
This is something that should have been a cause for concern for years now, since we don't know the odds, etc., and have to rely on a big company to be trustworthy to not fix the game in the house's favor and commit frauds. And now there's an investigation going that some may have worked with streamers and fixed the odds to better benefit the streamer advertising their game and its lootboxes which is a form of fraud to make the odds appear better than they are.
You can't say it's a "life or death" issue and then cop out when someone asks where the death is.
Probably referring to financially. Remember, most people in the States can easily go bankrupt with one bad accident and insurance delays.
For some people believe it or not yes.
As someone who lives off of disability checks, yes. It can be very easy to go overboard and have little left in the bank if you're not careful.
What's the point in being Private Pedantic here? Obviously it's a euphemism used to describe how dire the situation is. Even then who's to say that lootboxes don't send someone down a spiral that could inevitably lead to their deaths?
Keep on reading though. "Problem gamblers" also report spending an average of $20-$139 per month on non-lootbox in-game transactions. If they're so hard up for money, why are they spending so much on straightforward purchases? If you can spend $120 on micro transactions are you really that desperate for money? How are lootboxes a life or death issue when more money is actually being spent on DLC and cosmetics and add-ons?
So what you're saying is it's there fault.
Nope. Just saying that $60 spent on lootboxes probably isn't killing a player, especially if they have an additional $140 each month that they are already spending on other superfluous digital goods. It was already kind of dubious to say that lootboxes were life-and-death, but even more so when you consider that more money is actually being spent on other digital items.
