But you can buy loot crates for real money, and you can sell what's in them for in-game money.

Am I right in thinking that you won't know what's in a loot crate until you buy it and open it?

That's what defines a 'loot crate' and is pretty much why they're so fucking horrific. If you're buying a 'loot crate' and you know the contents up front then you're just straight up buying the contents.

None of this is new. Panini sticker albums have run the same business model targeted at kids for decades, albeit without providing you with an actual game to enjoy along the way.

Broadly similar, sort of, ish, but I'm not convinced you're comparing apples with apples.

Have you seen the pyrotechnics and design structures around lootboxes in games? This isn't opening up a few crappy stickers out of paper packets in the school playground, and the 'rewards' are almost infinite, getting a 'full collection' in a game like Star Wars Battlefront 2 isn't like filling out a Football '84 album.

You’ve clearly forgotten the reaction a kid gets when he finally gets the holographic World Cup sticker

I was that kid, I have clear memories of Football '82 - '85 Panini sticker albums, and yes it was quite exciting, but I also remember never going particularly nuts over it either.

I think it's disingenuous at best to try to make a clear equivalence between that 'system' and what we see now see some 30+ years later which is an ultra-refined and very deliberately designed system of pseduo-gambling using every single trick in the book, to entice folks to sink large amounts of cash into something that masterfully steers clear of being 'gambling' by any currently recognised definition, and yet is clearly exactly that.

And it's certainly shiny and whizzy when you open a loot box.

I'm slightly worried for you people if you find a loot box that exciting.

And it's certainly shiny and whizzy when you open a loot box. You don't have to buy them, though, you can earn them as you play.

Isn’t the entire progression system linked to the loot boxes?

I thought there weren’t any additional weapons/skins/cards/whatevs unlocked through traditional levelling up and it was just dependant on what you get in a loot box which you earned through in game points.

Is that not the case?

You shouldn't worry about 'us people' because we probably don't. You should worry for the people with compulsive tendencies who might already struggle to resist gambling mechanics in general because they're being exploited here.

You shouldn't worry about 'us people' because we probably don't. You should worry for the people with compulsive tendencies who might already struggle to resist gambling mechanics in general because they're being exploited here.

i am tempted to get this.. Do I have to wait till Friday now?

isn't it out friday unless you pre-ordered?

Apparently, following the "customer feedback", they've dropped the price of Luke and Vader by 75%

I don't think I'd have time to put 40 hours into a game to unlock a thing. Having an option to get there quicker seems reasonable.

You can’t buy it outright. You can only buy RNG loot crates. Thus, thence and therefore you’ll never know how much money you’ll have to spend before you get the thing you want. This is unacceptable.

I don't play Forza to drive a Focus, I want to powerslide a Venturi around Monaco in a cloud of cocaine in whilst a supermodel gives me road head and MONEY CANNOT BUY THAT EXPERIENCE?

ETA: assuming all this is true obviously.

Yeah, they're called 'whales'. Mobile gaming obviously uses this mechanic too. They even create customised items based on the personal information they can scrape from them.

Isn’t the entire progression system linked to the loot boxes?

I thought there weren’t any additional weapons/skins/cards/whatevs unlocked through traditional levelling up and it was just dependant on what you get in a loot box which you earned through in game points.

Is that not the case?

pay-to-win shit

I bet when you open them there is a convenient way to buy more in the same menu.

Lol, and it's not even if you pre-order the normal version; you need to pre-order the £70 "Elite Trooper Deluxe Edition" because of course you fucking do.