Large Addition of 4* rarity characters

[Vaximillian]

20 hours ago, Yexin said:

they can't, due to different states (japan included, if i recall correctly) considering gacha games the same as gambling

if they demoted 5* units, they could be legally sued

Stop spreading this false myth.

What’s publicly referred to as “gacha law” forbids two things: so-called “complete gacha” whereunder you are required to pull certain things in order to be allowed to pull for other things; and non-disclosure of draw rates (and by extension not following these rates).

This is absolutely it.

No such law not allowing rebalancing exists, and no such law has ever existed.

[bottlegnomes]

3 hours ago, Vaximillian said:

so-called “complete gacha” whereunder you are required to pull certain things in order to be allowed to pull for other things

For my own clarification, a hypothetical heroes example would be to even have a chance at pulling Karla I'd need to have gotten all of Bartre, Fir, and Karel first?

[Vaximillian]

8 hours ago, bottlegnomes said:

For my own clarification, a hypothetical heroes example would be to even have a chance at pulling Karla I'd need to have gotten all of Bartre, Fir, and Karel first?

Correct. This is strictly forbidden.

[Rezzy]

Getting a free Karla with every level 25 Bartre that survives a round of combat with her would be great.

[Ice Dragon]

On 4/13/2019 at 12:13 PM, Yexin said:

they can't, due to different states (japan included, if i recall correctly) considering gacha games the same as gambling

Unless something has changed within the past year, no states currently consider lootboxes (and anything else operating under the same mechanics, including gacha) to be a type of gambling in the legal sense (it very much is gambling in the common definition of the word, so for brevity "gambling" from here on out will refer to gambling from a legal perspective).

Considering lootboxes to be a type of gambling has its own legal issues, including but most certainly not limited to

• Gambling is illegal for people under a certain age in many places.
• Lootboxes are an exact virtual analogue of analog products like trading card booster packs and blind boxes, which would beg the question of why the analog analogues are not also considered gambling.
• "Lootbox" itself is a poorly defined term. People have a general feeling of what does and doesn't constitute a lootbox, but that is largely because there hasn't been a need to blur the line. Making them illegal can and will result in developers exploiting loopholes in verbiage, and making the definition of the term wider to cover those loopholes will result in collateral damage against mechanics that players generally do not consider to be lootboxes (random drops are a staple of video games, especially MMOs, and they can easily be caught in the crossfire if the game requires a purchase of any sort to access content, e.g. subscription fees, purchasing expansions).
• Considering lootboxes to be gambling implicitly means that what comes out of the lootbox is property of the person who purchased the lootbox, which means companies operating games with lootbox mechanics cannot legally shut down their servers without compensating their players for the loss of property.

 

Which is probably why gacha isn't considered gambling anywhere that I know of.

[Yexin]

53 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Unless something has changed within the past year, no states currently consider lootboxes (and anything else operating under the same mechanics, including gacha) to be a type of gambling in the legal sense

last year, in belgium and the netherlands, lootboxes and the likes became illegal

that's why ff brave exvius, mobius ff, dissidia ff oo and khux became inaccessible in belgium

ok, one could say belgium and the netherlands are not as important as the USA, but apparently their law is important enough to make developers stop their games' services in those countries

Edited April 15, 2019 by Yexin

[Ice Dragon]

2 minutes ago, Yexin said:

ok, one could say belgium and the netherlands are not as important as the USA, but apparently their law is important enough to make developers stop their games' services in those countries

It makes more sense to simply cut off service than to either modify the game to accommodate the laws of two countries that constitute a small portion of your game's revenue or continue service and risk fines or other legal action.

[Humanoid]

Yeah, the hope is that the EU would get together and extend the definition across the entire region. That would then make it a large enough market that Nintendo might be forced into action. EA after months of threatening to fight Belgium eventually backed down, but if the very business model of FIFA was threatened across the entire EU, possibly its biggest market, well...

[Cute Chao]

What I don't understand is that other gachas do do this. I mean, Dragalia Lost introduces characters at 3* and 4* in each new banner, which is one thing I really like about it, although I get it introduces less new characters than FEH does. Uta no Prince Sama does the same - periodically updating its summoning pool. I don't understand why FE can't do the same. It doesn't even have to be a huge injection of characters - just one 3* and one 4* of a less popular character in each banner. Summoning is so stale right now - so few new skills, etc, in the common pool. I used to be happier pulling for characters that I didn't want so much when I knew there was a chance I could get a new character.

People keep saying just lower expectations of getting all characters into the game - I don't have those expectations... I reckon they'll barely scrape half any more what with all the new seasonal banners. It is a nice thought, though. Kaze showed they can do it - and he is (or was) a popular character. 

 

Edited April 15, 2019 by Cute Chao

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, Humanoid said:

Yeah, the hope is that the EU would get together and extend the definition across the entire region. That would then make it a large enough market that Nintendo might be forced into action. EA after months of threatening to fight Belgium eventually backed down, but if the very business model of FIFA was threatened across the entire EU, possibly its biggest market, well...

Honestly, I feel like most developers will simply just stop releasing games for Europe if that happens. Mainland China is one of the biggest potential markets for video games, but most developers simply pretend they don't exist because the laws are such a hassle to deal with.

I don't think there will be enough pressure on gaming companies to stop using the lootbox model unless either the U.S. or Japan ban it.

FIFA is probably one of the few exceptions simply due to the fact that soccer doesn't have the same popularity in the U.S. and Japan as it does pretty much everywhere else in the world, but I don't see the gaming industry as a whole backing down without action from the U.S. or Japan.

[Yexin]

3 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

It makes more sense to simply cut off service than to either modify the game to accommodate the laws of two countries that constitute a small portion of your game's revenue or continue service and risk fines or other legal action.

looks like IntSys has no intention of cutting off FEH's service in those countries though, and i think that's why outdated 5*-only units are never gonna drop to 4*

i'll be happy if i'll be proved wrong, of course

[Humanoid]

I wonder if in a scenario where orb purchases are banned in certain regions, whether the marketing value of FEH for future standalone titles like Three Houses would be sufficient to continue servicing the game there or whether the cost of implementing the block plus maintenance of the backend would make it not worthwhile.

I mean, FIFA is still sold in Belgium, and you can still play the mode that involves the virtual currency, you just can't buy it. It's just like being F2P in a P2W world. However in that case, EA still gets the one-time upfront purchase price, whereas the benefit for FEH would simply be exposure. I guess Final Fantasy decided it wasn't worth it, but it's at least a theoretical benefit FEH has over original IP gachas like Dragalia.

 

EDIT: Looks like the Dragonball gacha already implemented the purchase block in Belgium but continue to allow access, so I guess there's precedent either way.

Edited April 15, 2019 by Humanoid