CCP is selling loot boxes now for real money?!

Capitalism :grin:

As a US-based attorney I just want to put out there that regardless of the format or structure of the deal, if the gist of the transaction reflects that the primary thing driving the sales or the primary thing people are buying the items to actually acquire is the bonus item which consists of a random chance to receive one of a number of known skins, some of which are extremely valuable, far more than the actual cost of the item necessary to get the bonus, the law is more than flexible enough to see through the structure or arrangement of the deal (the pretext, in effect) and to treat the thing like that is functionally is. If functionally the thing people are mainly buying is the random chance, you don’t have to look too far in news articles from other video games who have recently run into trouble for all the reasons the people in this thread have already covered: age restrictions, liability associated with encouraging gambling without safeguards in place for addicts or support for them, failure to regulate the opportunity in line with local gambling laws in each jurisdiction where it is played (where typically the actual risk and chance of success for the various results are regulated and must be within certain ratios or above a certain chance for success for the participants…), or failure to make required disclosures for this type of sweepstakes/gambling required in each jurisdiction where the game will be played. Whether they actually get in trouble for it is another story, but it is beyond question that this sort of offering can give rise to liability or can cause the feature to operate in an illegal way which could lead to regulatory or other liability for CCP if left in place in this format. I don’t see how or why this is so controversial and why this seems impossible to some of you, but that’s the reality. There are other companies that have gotten in trouble with regulators in the EU and in the US for this type of thing already and age verification laws in the US are in a state of emergent development which would render liability for any company operating in this way uncertain enough that any attorney advising them on structuring these types of offerings in the current environment would have to discuss these risks that something not per-se illegal now could be found to be illegal down the road once the regulators catch up to these emergent format offerings, particularly in games and other electronic medium.

Perhaps more importantly though - it is astonishing to me how rude and arrogant some of the discussion comments are in this thread. I understand the eve community is not known for holding hands and singing kumbaya with each other all the time, but it is really striking as someone who is licensed to give people legal advice in this subject area in my jurisdiction and does so to see people perpetuating incorrect information and asserting viewpoints that are unjustified and demonstrably incorrect but nevertheless asserting them with absolute conviction and with a caustic arrogant and dismissive tone that smacks of personal insecurity despite the front of confidence through which it is presented. I am left with the burning question for which I unfortunately will likely never have an answer:

Are the people taking this tone just rage baiting… or are the trolls basically just primitive savages who are victims of themselves to some extent - dashing off to rudely disseminate their conclusory and incorrect views as disrespectfully as possible because that is simply how they operate as a matter of course…

Regardless, I wanted to take a second to weigh in with my opinion that regardless of who is right or wrong we should be able to have better decorum than this, as a community. This thread makes me embarrassed for us as a community. Lets please try to do better and to treat each other more respectfully when disagreeing with one another. Fly Safe! o7

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Nah. We Troll, disrespect, and disagree with the Make believe characters not the Fat and Ugly strangers behind the keyboard. :grin:

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The skin ( I got one today ) cannot be redeemed for any monetary value…it doesn’t even go in your inventory. All you can do is ‘activate’ it.

Objection - compounding, argumentative, leading.

With legal regards
-James Fuchs

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Interesting, because DeMichael Crimson reported the opposite today and said you could trade the skins:

Which means the skins have monetary value and can be used to buy PLEX and save you real money when buying Omega or other NES items.

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Can you specify which SKIN it was exactly?

And did you acquire the Historic SoE Crate from CCP online store, 3rd party supplier, or from in-game market?

I bought 1000 PLEX and along with it came the SOE skin crate. I think it was a silver one for a Nestor. Anyway my first thought was to try to sell it, after opening the box. But no sell option appears…just ‘Activate’.

Well, maybe you can trade the actual boxes…I didn’t try that. But then you would not know what was in it. I opened the box, got the skin….saw it was a skin for a ship I don’t have…and tried to select sell but all i could get was ‘activate’.

Bought the lvl 2 mastery pack from the website, got the Nestor One Eden skin. It can not be sold but it can be contracted.

The Astero skin I got when I resubbed today went in my hangar when I opened the box, market value was 28mil for the Astero skin.

That’s certainly odd. Either it’s a SKIN-specific thing (some SKINs have historically been released only as injectable anyway), or maybe it’s some bug? Relog and see if it still can’t be sold?

It would be extremely uncommon if CCP randomized not only SKINs in the crates but also whether they can be sold, contracted, or injected only. Never heard of such a thing before.

I guess it is skin specific, as these skins have originally had different sources.

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Same thing. Still can’t be sold, still can be contracted.

Walls of text are not admissible in court.

Its the same as the old e-bay listings of a pencil starting at $0.99, but the description says the purchase includes a playstation and 5 games that were done to avoid paying the listing fees.

A well written complaint to the relevant authorities for which one has the requisite standings would likely be a better expenditure of time, though each individual could simply choose to not purchase the offending product.

It is not, and this person who doth protest so much smells more like a troll than a shill.

Quote

Loot boxes give random rewards and can be acquired either through gameplay or by spending real cash.

The loot box comes with a monetary purchase, no via gameplay, thusly it appears to be within the remit of this law.

Star Stable springs to mind. It disingenuous to point to legacy titles, the problem is that the industry is yet to catch up to the legislation and it remains to be seen what will be done in terms of enforcement. The second the authorities take punitive action it does not matter what anyone thinks, only what corrective action, if any, is given.

Which indicates these would be within scope.

If it was given out to everyone like an event item, however its acquisition is solely through a related currency transaction.

Summer of Rage. Need another big monocle event, but we are too apathetic these days.

Well said.

Its bound to the character, which can be transferred, no ?

Lol. Thank you for confirming.

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Hilmar should resign.

He is not fit enough anymore to hold a grip on this game.

Everyone hired in the last 7 years should go with him.

Bring back old CCP

Crap like this will be the downfall of eve.

And a eve were your reputation and action had consequences are long gone.

Everyday eve is moving towards a casual game to be played by people that will swich to the new hot thing there is. And over time the player base will shrink.

EvE forever is a lie.

In fact @CCP_Guard should come back and hand out some free Slap’s.

Well at least i have a reason to visit Iceland.

To scratch of my names from the monument.

I don’t want to be associated with this company anymore

Then why are you crying in the forums?

Yeah….I’m gonna transfer my entire character just so I can sell an Astero skin :slight_smile:

You’re not likely to do so for a skin, but it is possible.

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