I have been avoiding multiplayer Valve games like Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2, due to their in-game economies that have created an underage gambling gray market, which Valve has done little about. However, I am on Linux, and the choices for multiplayer shooters are few. Besides, my small boycott is not stopping Counter-Strike 2 from being the most played steam game. Are boycotts really the best solution to stop this epidemic in gaming? How can we best prevent these gambling grey markets and the gaming to gambling addiction pipeline?
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I’ve never bought or played one & have no plans to.
Do I have to start playing games with loot boxes before I can start boycotting them?
The only one I’ve ever played was overwatch, but overwatch 2 is garbage, so…
Sad what happened to that game. OG Overwatch was freaking awesome, OW2 is complete garbage.
Almost everything about OW1 is now back in OW2! 6v6 is back, loot boxes are back. You can even play the OW1 metas if you want, though they pretty much only show just how much better the game has gotten over the years.
I’ve been playing OW1 since launch and have really liked OW2, my only complaint was that they were making playable heroes unlockable, but that was fixed a long time ago.
Yes, have been from the start.
The only good lootbox game was Borderlands 2
I already do, but I’m also not as avid a gamer as I once was. Every FPS became borderline unplayable when loot crates became a thing. Call me old fashioned, but I liked when games had the same weapons for everyone, and there weren’t random cards or whatever that made people’s guns more powerful / reload /shoot faster, etc. It really brings an imbalance to the game, and enables these stupid gambling sites. The companies making the games are making money hand over fist, so they aren’t going to stop any time soon barring regulation, and looking at this administration, good fucking luck with that. Boycott away.
Already do.
I started my protest a decade ago.
While you can argue that nothing happened and we still have loot boxes, I’d argue that my life is greatly enriched for not feeling any motivation to play in those looty skinner box games.
Just not buying something isn’t a boycott. Don’t buy bad games, and it’s a good idea to include dark patterns in the criteria for what makes a game bad.
Just don’t play them. You’re not going to convince millions of players that lootboxes = bad so they shouldn’t play the games they love. But you can just play games from companies that respect their customers.
No, we should see that they are made illegal.
If one wants to play F2P games I would like to recommend the no gatcha challenge. Meaning no gatcha or any in-game purchases. Rewards from forced tutorial pulls can often be sold / deleted or if the first pull isnt random then that doesnt count.
For battle pass games with only cosmetics I encourage to only use default skins, emotes, avatars, frames or etc. It probably annoys a lot of people to get owned by someone wearing “noob” skins.
If the games are still good / enjoyable after these restrictions then they just might be actually good f2p games.
Do you have nay suggestions?
Pretty much any game with gatcha like the Hoyoverse games. These often have some sort of endgame paywall but it could take hours to reach it. If the game is bad or simply unplayable without gatcha its a bad game. Free premium currency can often be used for non-rng non-gatcha stuff.
Competitive games usually only have cosmetics so you can just use default skin, ignore battle pass and focus on getting good and having fun. Some people could even get salty for getting their ass handed to them by someome using default costume.
I think your voice could actually be better than your wallet on this.
For one, these games are free. So, are you harming the world by playing them and just not buying loot boxes? Minimally, at best. I also advise people enacting boycotts to represent vocal action around them. For instance, I called Target directly about my boycott when they ended DEI hiring.
You can also help lobby politicians to make clear how you feel on the issue. That can put a lot more panic on publishers. Politicians don’t have a strong reason to defend them - often it only gets ignored because they don’t think voters find it a significant issue. Even if you don’t get a federal ban, sometimes you can get state laws like limiting physical advertising; which can also sometimes spread to other states.
Basically, boycotting as a form of inaction, especially when it makes your days boring, isn’t necessarily an effective approach.
Do what you think is right, but spend some time to consider whether you want to reward someone or some organization with your hard earned money if you consider what they are doing immoral or bad.
You should not put your time or money into anything doing something that you don’t like in the marketplace, because that’s the only way it changes.
This is a very smart and thoughtful perspective. One should consider their time and money as valuable, and not put it in games they disagree with. Do you have any good alternatives to recommend for the most popular Valve FPSs?
I haven’t been into FPS for several years, but if I was going to play anything current, I’d give The Forever Winter a look. It’s still being worked on, but the early access gameplay is really cool looking, and it’s bringing a lot of ideas to the table creatively.
I like a FPS but I have the most fun with the PVE sub genre of FPS. Left 4 Dead 2 and Deep Rock Galactic being my two favorites. Playing against other humans can be annoying if the skill balance isn’t right and if they’re cheating then it makes it no fun, imo.
You might not like my answer, but I haven’t really played new FPS games in years, because basically none of them are doing what I want. I’m well served in basically every other genre right now, but these things are cyclical. We’re just getting through the era of indie FPS games inspired by Doom/Quake and other more maze-like shooters, and we may soon be entering the era where FPS games are inspired by my favorites. My multiplayer these days is usually fighting games, and the only ones that will give you trouble on Linux are Dragon Ball FighterZ and the upcoming 2XKO, both due to anti cheat.
As an aside, I’ll also say that where you put your time shouldn’t matter, if the product is free, for instance, but it does matter in online video games. Your presence in matchmaking is adding value for someone else who might spend money in the game, so you’d still be helping the causes of CS2 and TF2 just by playing on the official servers. For TF2, I think the code just went open source and there’s a revitalization project to bring it back to what it was like at launch? If so, that might be pre-loot-box, and playing that version of the game would help send the message you want to send. The same might apply to old versions of Counter-Strike.
That’s a fine answer, thanks!
I myself am against fomo. So we are sort of similar a little bit at least. We both dislike dark patterns.
I second that fighting games are mostly a mecca for us. I recommend Guilty Gear Strive, basically the only complaints people have about it nowadays is that it and it’s lobbies can load kind of slow, and some subjectively don’t like the gameplay, but that is up to you to decide (personally I love it’s gameplay). The new Virtua Fighter also looks incredible, maybe when it releases it will suit you well.
I also agree that tf2 classic looks great. It’s like the tf2 we grew to love but without the bullshit. When it releases on steam hopefully it gains traction.
Other games that are extremely pro consumer that I enjoy are Due Process and Straftat.
Even when deep discounted to a dollar, I have a hard time calling Due Process pro consumer when it doesn’t let you host the server yourself.
I’m still waiting for a reliable way to pirate games with micro transactions and lootboxes.
Like, I know Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has daily quests and a rotating cash shop, and that must be talking to some sort of server that isn’t guaranteed to be there. Surely there’s a way to mock that server?
Imo, yes.
I’ve bought singleplayer games with loot boxes and no anticheat and just used cheat engine to get the ingame currency for them. I think I’m doing my part.
WTF there are singleplayer games with lootboxes?!?!?
Borderlands, iirc
Does that really count? As far as I know, the golden keys mechanic was just a way to get some good gear. It wasn’t exclusive gear, and you could get it just by playing the game.
Right, but the fifa series afaik makes most of its money by selling packs of cards with players in them. Packs and players that you can get by just playing. But they still sell those packs for $$, so why wouldn’t it count? Afaik, that’s one of the main culprits besides counter strike that are named when talking about loot boxes
Borderlands the same, you can buy random gear with cash. I guess it’s less fomo and less abusive, but they’re still literal loot boxes that they sell for money
Some assassin’s creeds.
I’ve never played Assasins Creed but why on earth would a game like that need loot boxes? That just sounds crazy to me.
They decided to give the game a wardrobe system with loot rarity so you could get EPIC MOUNTS and RARE SWORDS.
But there’s no point to it because the game just gives you the Chocobo mount for free and that’s the only one worth using.
Now I realize why i never play those games
Yeah. I liked Origins as a game but since playing that one, which I got for free anyway I think, I haven’t looked at the series since.
The Gatcha system is why I never finished Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The first game was phenomenal… But the second game required a gatcha system to unlock new party members. There were even quests that were locked behind certain ultra-rare party members. It’s an entirely single player game.
You’re not though, you are still buying those games. Go the extra mile and pirate them if you really feel the need to play games containing loot box mechanics while trying to “stick it to them”
empress is dead
