New 'Loot Box' Regulations in China
China has just passed new regulations concerning to online games that includes some interesting clauses relating to 'loot boxes' and other similar systems. The new law requires developers to be transparent about the exact 'draw probabilities' of these items.
What this means for Hearthstone is that Blizzard will be required to reveal what the exact chances are of opening specific card rarities in your card packs, as well as confirm the existence of other systems and algorithms related to this. For example the 'pity timer' that was discovered by players but has as of yet never been officially confirmed / talked about.
While we already know fairly accurately what the average chances are for Hearthstone it will still be nice to have it officially confirmed.
Blizzard will be required to display this information either on a dedicated page on their (Chinese) website or on a prominent spot inside the game.
You can read the relevant sections of the new law below that was translated by /u/czhihong over on reddit:
- Online game publishers (who provide virtual goods or services with any form of random mechanisms) shall not directly request gamers to to indulge in such activities through a direct injection of cash or virtual credits.
They shall promptly and publicly announce information about the name, property, content, quantity, and draw/forge probability of all virtual items and services that can be drawn/forged on the official website or a dedicated draw-probability web page of the game. The information on draw probability shall be true and effective.
- Online game publishers shall publicly announce the random draw results by customers on the official website or in a prominent spot in-game, and keep records for government inquiry. The records must be kept for at least 90 days. When publishing the random draw results, appropriate measures should be taken to protect user privacy.
- When online publishers are providing virtual goods and services with any form of random draw properties, they shall provide players with an avenue to trade for other virtual goods, either using virtual cash or any other ways to obtain similar virtual goods and services.
It is not certain how China will act on developers who do not comply to these new rules, and so far Blizzard has not yet commented if they are planning to.
These regulations only apply to the Chinese market but because Hearthstone is identical across regions everyone benefits from it! So far people around the internet have reacted very positively about the new law. Tell us how you feel about it!
4 from 136 in closing noggenfogger, 2 shaku and krul
Pity timer is on you Blizzard!
I believe that this law will scare some people with their odds that they will stop spending money on this game... I see this as a slap in the face for blizzard... on the other hand, most people will not care and continue this game as they used to do.
Hooray for informed decision making!
I think this is something the players should have been demanding after the Mean Streets fiasco. If there was a bug that caused Tri-Class cards to become more common, that means that it is a feature that certain cards of a rarity class (common, rare, epic, legendary) are more common than others. So if a set has 20 legendaries, and you've unpacked The Boogeymonster twice, it might not be the 1/400 chance you expected. He might be a more common drop than, say, N'Zoth, the Corruptor. It really makes it hard for me to want to spend money on this game when I know that Blizzard has taken my already small chances of getting a legendary card, and increased my chances of getting a shitty one.
From my own experience, there seems to be a greater chance for packs to give you copies of cards that will exceed the maximum number you can include in your decks. Throughout all of Old Gods, I can't count how many copies of Tentacles for Arms I dusted without ever opening a single Call of the Wild. This applies to all rarities. I've been playing off and on for two years, and I never opened a single Acolyte of Pain until I decided to craft both copies when ONiK was released. Now, I understand that I could be looking through the goggles of confirmation bias, but I wouldn't be even slightly surprised to learn that you have a lower chance to open cards which actually expand your collection.
So apparently, math and facts that disprove conspiracy theories get voted down.
Post-truth society, people. *rolls eyes*
I'm with you Nova, it doesn't make any sense. This discussion isn't targeting or trolling anybody, and I thought what you said was on point.
Snowballs again? :P
"When online publishers are providing virtual goods and services with any form of random draw properties, they shall provide players with an avenue to trade for other virtual goods"
I guess this is already covered by the ability to convert cards to dust huh? No hope for trading market of sorts where people can trade legendaries with each other?