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A few days ago, South Korea's Fair Trade Commission started taking action on game companies that uses predatory business practices on their loot boxes and deceiving their customers. The first wave of companies that were hit by the regulations are Nexon, Netmarble, and NextFloor with a total fine of 1 billion won ($945,200 roughly).
If you haven't been following up the entirety of the loot box controversy, it all started with Electronic Arts and their game called Star Wars Battlefront 2. The fight against loot boxes and the shady business of the game companies started in Hawaii, and soon, the other states of US followed suit. After a few weeks, some European countries began investigating loot boxes and has been assertive to find any underhanded tactics that the gaming companies have been dwelling to feed on their greed. This has put ESA (Entertainment Software Association), who also created the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), under a lot of fire for misleading labeling on the games and have extensively told their customers and interviewers that loot boxes are "a fun way to acquire virtual items for use within the game, to personalize your experience".
After all the ongoing controversy and debacle on the loot boxes, EA has given up their P2W (Pay to Win) element in their game and issued an apology to gamers worldwide. Soon after, more companies like Big Fish (which is all about loot boxes and gambling) have been brought to the court for their greedy loot box business. A few weeks later, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War quietly removes their loot boxes as the game was infamously known for their paywalls and cash shop items that give an unprecedented amount of power to the gamers who decide to cash in on the said game. Activision,TakeTwo, Blizzard, and other giant gaming companies have been under the watchful eyes of gamers, investigators, regulators and the government ever since.
Fast-forward to the present, and now South Korea has entered the fight against loot box predatory practices. The gaming companies in South Korea have been altering the odds of chances of getting the rare goods, making the gamers purchase even more of the loot boxes to get what they want therefore misleading and lying to them. NetMarble was further fined for informing their customers of "Everybody's Marble" that they could obtain six special characters only during a certain event period, though the firm continued selling the exact same characters through other events (doesn't this sound exactly like Dragon Nest?).
The gaming companies in South Korea have been upset and angry over the actions their FTC has been doing and demanded further investigation before taking any more action against them. NetMarble has apologized and have ever since changed their system to bide by the FTC rules.
So what does all of this mean to us gamers and Dragon Nest in general? You could very well take this as a great news and the first stepping stone against loot box and P2W here in SEA. While China has already been doing big progress on the loot boxes, other Asian countries(aside from Korea) haven't been affected by it yet. The fact that Dragon Nest also uses all sorts of greedy tactics on their loot boxes and putting in some P2W items into their cash shop will definitely come under fire from the FTC in my opinion. If Eyedentity won't make any changes now, they will also face scrutiny and get fined for their shady business on their loot boxes. I am guessing that Eyedentity is quietly making some changes to their cash shop items in order to avoid getting fined. As for Dragon Nest SEA, I do not think we will have any changes here as there has been no motion of regulating the loot boxes. However, all we can do is wait and hope that we get the same treatment and have a better overall experience while keeping P2W elements at minimal impact to the game.
What do you guys think? Lets discuss in the comments below.
Source:
https://kotaku.com/korean-companies-...xes-1825129253
https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/10/...er-loot-boxes/
https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/30/16...oxes-returning
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...battlefront-ii
https://www.pcgamer.com/middle-earth...ng-loot-boxes/
If you haven't been following up the entirety of the loot box controversy, it all started with Electronic Arts and their game called Star Wars Battlefront 2. The fight against loot boxes and the shady business of the game companies started in Hawaii, and soon, the other states of US followed suit. After a few weeks, some European countries began investigating loot boxes and has been assertive to find any underhanded tactics that the gaming companies have been dwelling to feed on their greed. This has put ESA (Entertainment Software Association), who also created the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board), under a lot of fire for misleading labeling on the games and have extensively told their customers and interviewers that loot boxes are "a fun way to acquire virtual items for use within the game, to personalize your experience".
After all the ongoing controversy and debacle on the loot boxes, EA has given up their P2W (Pay to Win) element in their game and issued an apology to gamers worldwide. Soon after, more companies like Big Fish (which is all about loot boxes and gambling) have been brought to the court for their greedy loot box business. A few weeks later, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War quietly removes their loot boxes as the game was infamously known for their paywalls and cash shop items that give an unprecedented amount of power to the gamers who decide to cash in on the said game. Activision,TakeTwo, Blizzard, and other giant gaming companies have been under the watchful eyes of gamers, investigators, regulators and the government ever since.
Fast-forward to the present, and now South Korea has entered the fight against loot box predatory practices. The gaming companies in South Korea have been altering the odds of chances of getting the rare goods, making the gamers purchase even more of the loot boxes to get what they want therefore misleading and lying to them. NetMarble was further fined for informing their customers of "Everybody's Marble" that they could obtain six special characters only during a certain event period, though the firm continued selling the exact same characters through other events (doesn't this sound exactly like Dragon Nest?).
The gaming companies in South Korea have been upset and angry over the actions their FTC has been doing and demanded further investigation before taking any more action against them. NetMarble has apologized and have ever since changed their system to bide by the FTC rules.
So what does all of this mean to us gamers and Dragon Nest in general? You could very well take this as a great news and the first stepping stone against loot box and P2W here in SEA. While China has already been doing big progress on the loot boxes, other Asian countries(aside from Korea) haven't been affected by it yet. The fact that Dragon Nest also uses all sorts of greedy tactics on their loot boxes and putting in some P2W items into their cash shop will definitely come under fire from the FTC in my opinion. If Eyedentity won't make any changes now, they will also face scrutiny and get fined for their shady business on their loot boxes. I am guessing that Eyedentity is quietly making some changes to their cash shop items in order to avoid getting fined. As for Dragon Nest SEA, I do not think we will have any changes here as there has been no motion of regulating the loot boxes. However, all we can do is wait and hope that we get the same treatment and have a better overall experience while keeping P2W elements at minimal impact to the game.
What do you guys think? Lets discuss in the comments below.
Source:
https://kotaku.com/korean-companies-...xes-1825129253
https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/10/...er-loot-boxes/
https://www.polygon.com/2018/1/30/16...oxes-returning
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...battlefront-ii
https://www.pcgamer.com/middle-earth...ng-loot-boxes/
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