Tag: Lockbox

Guild Wars 2 Partially Disables Gem Store For Belgian Players


Arenanet has confirmed in a statement that a recent change blocking Belgian players from accessing the gem store is indeed a response to local legislation regarding loot boxes. Arenanet staffer Gaile Gray noted that Arenanet is seeking “flexible solutions,” and that for the time being purchases of certain

“We recently disabled Gem purchases for players located in Belgium. This action was in response to the Belgian Gaming Commission’s declaration that paid loot boxes violate Belgium’s gambling restrictions. We have now implemented a more refined system, which only restricts the purchase of loot boxes and related items, such as chest keys, dye kits, and certain packs by players located in Belgium. For players located in Belgium, you will see the following message when viewing these items ‘This item is not available for purchase in your region.’ All other items and purchases are now available.”

Any chests, dye kits, and other restricted items/packs that have already been acquired can still be used. Arenanet noted in their FAQ that Black Lion Keys and chests will still continue to drop in-game and can still be redeemed as long as they were not purchased with real money.

(Source: Guild Wars 2)

Marvel Heroes Omega: Better Loot, More Costumes, Less Choice


Big changes are coming to Marvel Heroes Omega with how the game treats drops. According to an announcement revealed this week, Gazillion plans on taking the loot box and making it more substantive. For starters, while previously the boxes could only be obtained via the cash shop, they will now be granted at specific character levels (5, 12, 15, 30, and 60). In addition, loot boxes will drop costumes at a higher rate.

Now for the bad news: As part of this update, Gazillion will also be removing all costumes from the cash shop, meaning that the only way to acquire them will be through the loot boxes.

We plan to rotate the costumes available in the loot boxes out every few months, but players looking for particular costumes after this update can use their Marvelous Essence (given in each loot box) to acquire them directly from the Marvelous Essence vendor Moondragon, located in all Hubs. She will carry all costumes in the loot boxes available at that time.

The community isn’t taking the news well. Gazillion has since come out and tried to explain that the model was “unsustainable” on PC.

Perfect World Entertainment Claims Lockboxes Preview As Bug


Neverwinter_PS4_03

Perfect World Entertainment has dug itself into a controversy this week as the company made the announcement that loot previews are being removed from lockboxes. According to a post on the main website, although this feature has been in the game for a long time, it is evidently a bug. As such, the “bug” is being removed.

Since this bug has been live for a long time and we believe that some players may have come to rely on this bug, we are providing advance notice of the change.

Unsurprisingly, players are responding angrily on the forums with players calling fowl on Perfect World’s attempt to explain away a confirmation screen as an unintended function.

(Source: Neverwinter)

Neverwinter Removing Dyes, Fashions From Store


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Perfect World Entertainment has announced with today’s update that multiple items have been removed from the Zen store in Neverwinter. We were first informed of this update back in October, with the publisher revealing that cosmetic fashions and dyes would be removed in an effort to make trade bars more useful. As part of a rolling set of updates, mounts from previous lockboxes will be added to the trade bar store, and epic versions will be added to the store.

Trade bars are obtained from lockboxes.

(Source: Neverwinter)

MMOments: Neverwinter Key Test


GameClient 2014-06-25 08-42-13-68

Neverwinter is a game that I’ve had quite a bit of fun in lately. Between the game’s constant events, my slow progress of leveling up my character, and distractions of daily life preventing me from playing too much, I finally managed to nearly hit the game’s level cap. As I write this, I’m sitting at around 75% of the way between level 59 and 60, and I figured why not put some money down and buy a bundle of keys just to see what I can get. For the record, I’ve spent $20 bucks on Neverwinter altogether so far. I used it to buy a bag of holding and some profession packs about six months ago.

With that in mind, I have never bought keys for lockboxes in an MMO (not counting Team Fortress 2), and I’m actually pretty intrigued as to what I’ll get. Aside from a whole box of disappointment, I’m not expecting much. The bundle of ten keys cost $11 bucks.

  • Box #1
    • 9 Tarmalune Trade Bars: Currency for the trade bar merchant. Most things cost between 500-1,000 bars.
    • 1 Corrupted Strongbox of Enchantments: I opened a lockbox and found another lockbox. This one contained a lesser plague fire enchantment.
  • Box #2
    • 6 Tarmalune Trade Bars: Oh goody.
    • Companion Fortification Kit: Another lockbox within a lockbox. This one contained runestones.
  • Box #3
    • Reghed Barbaric Relic: This is something that is used in the Icewind Dale campaign. I haven’t gotten that far in the quest line yet.
    • 6 Tarmalune Trade Bars: Oh joy.
  • Box #4
    • Iron Strongbox of Enchantments: It contained enchantments. None of them any good.
    • 5 Tarmalune Trade Bars: More of them.
  • Box #5
    • Planar Idol: Exchange this for an astral resonator which can be used to extract astral diamonds.
    • 4 Tarmalune Trade Bars
  • Box #6
    • Priceless Thayan Antiquity: Can exchange at a merchant.
    • 8 Tharmalune Trade Bars
  • Box #7
    • Priceless Thayan Antiquity
    • 4 Tharmalune Trade Bars
  • Box #8
    • Priceless Thayan Antiquity
    • 3 Tharmalune Trade Bars
  • Box #9
    • Artifact Provisions Pack: Contains stuff for refining runestones.
    • 4 Tharmalune trade bars.
  • Box #10
    • Corrupted Strongbox of Enchantments
    • 10 Tharmalune Bars

So there you have it. A whole lot of nothing. I coulda had a V8.

Lockboxes Illegal? Cryptic Would Rather Dump Your Country


It’s been almost two years since Bill Roper has had anything to do with Cryptic Studios, but with some of the recent money-related decisions made by the developer, you would never know he’d left. Not long ago, Cryptic introduced lockboxes, cash shop items that have the chance at offering valuable items to the players who buy them. Apparently the lockboxes constitute gambling in some countries, including the Netherlands, and according to several users on the Star Trek Online forums, are being investigated by various government bodies.

And if your laws do prohibit such gambling, Cryptic’s Borticus wants you to know that Cryptic is listening. Not so the company can react, just so they know which country to ban.

I hope you realize that the most likely course of action here, if any is taken, is that the STO becomes unplayable in the Netherlands. IP blocks, proxy blocks, etc.

And I know what you’re thinking, but you have absolutely nothing to worry about for Cryptic’s bottom line. Your money wasn’t really that significant anyway.

Honestly? Probably less revenue than would be lost by not doing any more Lock Boxes.

And sure, some people might point out that Cryptic’s past monetary decisions didn’t prevent the company from posting six to seven figure losses, leading to them being dumped on the streets by Atari, but those people are missing an important point: Cryptic asked for your money, not your opinion.

(Source: Jupiter Force forums)