Apple now requires games with loot boxes to disclose odds.

Corn_Noodles
Corn_Noodles Posts: 477 Mover and Shaker
in MtGPQ General Discussion
It will be interesting to see what the real odds are when it comes to rares and mythics in our purchases.

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Comments

  • Phillmoore
    Phillmoore Posts: 207 Tile Toppler
    When is this effective and how will it be disclosed? 
  • HomeRn
    HomeRn Posts: 330 Mover and Shaker
    I think it's safe to blame EA for this.

    That and it would be nice to see the actual rates for once!  Then again, paper MTG had a relatively obvious distribution to their 15 card boosters: at least 1 rare, 4 or 5 uncommons, a number of commons, and 1 basic land card.  Maybe it's time for virtual TCGs to catch up (I'm looking at YOU Hearthstone!)?
  • Corn_Noodles
    Corn_Noodles Posts: 477 Mover and Shaker
    edited December 2017
    Phillmoore said:
    When is this effective and how will it be disclosed? 

     Reading through the legalese, it's unclear how it applies to apps currently in the store. My best guess is that any game with loot boxes will have to comply with the new rules the next time they upload an update into the app store.
  • Sarahschmara
    Sarahschmara Posts: 554 Critical Contributor
    Corn Noodles said:
    Phillmoore said:
    When is this effective and how will it be disclosed? 

     Reading through the legalese, it's unclear how it applies to apps currently in the store. My best guess is that any game with loot boxes will have to comply with the new rules the next time they upload an update into the app store.
    Interesting!
  • majincob
    majincob Posts: 732 Critical Contributor
    I didn't read the article, do booster packs purchased with in game currency qualify as a loot box?
  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    majincob said:
    I didn't read the article, do booster packs purchased with in game currency qualify as a loot box?
    From the article:

    “Apps offering ‘loot boxes’ or other mechanisms that provide randomized virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item to customers prior to purchase.”

    Marvel PuzzleQuest already does this and the community has mostly reverse compiled these numbers for MtGPQ too, so probably no harm in just disclosing the drop rates. Note that’s very different than dupe rates. ;)
  • ManiiNames
    ManiiNames Posts: 213 Tile Toppler
    Yes, it covers purchases that contain randomly generated virtual items.
  • majincob
    majincob Posts: 732 Critical Contributor
    ManiiNames said:
    Yes, it covers purchases that contain randomly generated virtual items.
    But do "purchases" apply only to things that cost real money, or does it also apply to things that cost virtual currency?
  • majincob
    majincob Posts: 732 Critical Contributor
    Marvel PuzzleQuest already does this and the community has mostly reverse compiled these numbers for MtGPQ too, so probably no harm in just disclosing the drop rates. Note that’s very different than dupe rates. ;)
    Except there is some evidence that they don't really give equal weight to cards within the same rarity, which is different than the current drop rate assumption. I guess they can change the drop rates to make it "nice" before they have to disclose actual drop rates.
  • ElfNeedsFood
    ElfNeedsFood Posts: 944 Critical Contributor
    @majincob odds are for each type of item, not each specific item. I would read that as rarity as it applies to this game. Again, not addressing the dupe rate but rather the drop rate. 
  • FindingHeart8
    FindingHeart8 Posts: 2,731 Chairperson of the Boards
    majincob said:
    ManiiNames said:
    Yes, it covers purchases that contain randomly generated virtual items.
    But do "purchases" apply only to things that cost real money, or does it also apply to things that cost virtual currency?
    I would presume, given the ability to directly purchase virtual currency with real money, that virtual currency would also be included.
  • FindingHeart8
    FindingHeart8 Posts: 2,731 Chairperson of the Boards
    Except there is some evidence that they don't really give equal weight to cards within the same rarity, which is different than the current drop rate assumption. I guess they can change the drop rates to make it "nice" before they have to disclose actual drop rates.
    ElfNeedsFood is probably right about this...though it would be interesting to see the 0.03% success chance revealed under specific masterpiece pulls ;)
  • Corn_Noodles
    Corn_Noodles Posts: 477 Mover and Shaker
    majincob said:
    ManiiNames said:
    Yes, it covers purchases that contain randomly generated virtual items.
    But do "purchases" apply only to things that cost real money, or does it also apply to things that cost virtual currency?

    Unclear. However, they routinely sell bundles for money purchases, so the drop rates of those would have to be disclosed. Do we assume the bundles they sell have the same drop rates as the bundles you purchase with crystals?
  • blacklotus
    blacklotus Posts: 589 Critical Contributor
    Volrak said:
    majincob said:
    Except there is some evidence that they don't really give equal weight to cards within the same rarity, which is different than the current drop rate assumption.
    I'm yet to see any.  I'm interested if you have some.
    a few examples i have was drowner and from beyond was given lower weightage of appearing. their weightage is half that of their regular counterparts of the same rarity group. 
  • ManiiNames
    ManiiNames Posts: 213 Tile Toppler
    Thalia was an example. 
  • Volrak
    Volrak Posts: 732 Critical Contributor
    blacklotus said:
    a few examples i have was drowner and from beyond was given lower weightage of appearing. their weightage is half that of their regular counterparts of the same rarity group. 
    How do you know the chance of dropping is lower?  The statistics work out that you'd need to collect over 300 BFZ mythics to make the call with 95% confidence that a particular mythic which continued to drop at half the average rate was due to having a lower chance of dropping rather than short term randomness, and over 600 for BFZ rares.

    ManiiNames said:
    Thalia was an example. 
    Yep, that was an interesting case - Thalia was an event exclusive rare that never actually got allocated to an event as a prize.  That's why she's in few collections relative to other EMN rares.  I'm not aware of any evidence that she dropped from packs at a lower rate once she actually got added to them.
  • Phillmoore
    Phillmoore Posts: 207 Tile Toppler
    So have the actual drop rates now appeared any where in Apple or indeed anywhere else?
  • majincob
    majincob Posts: 732 Critical Contributor
    Phillmoore said:
    So have the actual drop rates now appeared any where in Apple or indeed anywhere else?
    see quote from earlier:
    Corn Noodles said:
    Phillmoore said:
    When is this effective and how will it be disclosed? 

     Reading through the legalese, it's unclear how it applies to apps currently in the store. My best guess is that any game with loot boxes will have to comply with the new rules the next time they upload an update into the app store.

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