TL;DR Loot boxes is becoming a part of concern for certain famous games that how do they feed the revenue. They are at a critical situation for the future of games. Clash royale doesn't have a Ridiculous Nature of Loot box system but it's been almost worthless in current game economy hence supercell needs to fix it including other aspects of the game too.
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Clash royale is nowhere near to become a perfect game. while we have seen many issues revolving around it. If we talk about one of the core aspect of this game's Progression that's becoming pretty much of an issue to Question up, That is Loot boxes.
Before I start to put my thoughts, I have readed some Internet articles about loot boxes and it's future, and a video. Hence I suggest to have a look at them, but still i may quote some of their wordings here, so here's the source.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/19/16783136/loot-boxes-video-games-gambling-legal
Loot boxes clearly are the all type of Chests in Clash royale. In video games, a loot box is an in-game purchase consisting of a virtual container that awards players with items and modifications based on chance. Loot boxes are considered to be a type of microtransaction. But what makes this type of Progression framework unique and why Many Massive Online Multiplayer battles are successful and relies on this type of earning tactics is because of it's Complete RNG factor.
I have no Idea why it's now becoming a peak of Importancy for all the Current games and how it will shape the future of games. With just of my little knowledge, I could see it a clever bussiness tactic every current Gaming industry would Start to adapt and rely.
These loot boxes Contains all the Important Elements of a Game that shapes the Progression logic of that game and decides to award a player in a very Randomised way to keep it's Interest going thoroughly. From a Small power up, to a upgrade currency, to gear-ups that can dramatically alter your chances of winning the game. Rarer items, of course, show up in loot boxes far less often. The rush of buying them and rolling the dice on their contents has been likened to the psychological sensation one person feels when gambling. That gets even more unsettling when you consider how many underage people play these games, and how much they spend.
"The debate over loot boxes has been one of the most divisive and furious that gaming has seen in years, and certainly one of the most important stories for the industry in 2017. Billions of dollars are on the line here — especially as legislators and regulators in more countries have started to speak up." - the verge.
^^^^^^^now why people over the years have been debating the Loot boxes is because of it's Ridiculous nature of Randomisation and it keep the gaming progression unstable. It's good from the perspective of earning revenue but it does slowly harms the players mindset. Well, Loot boxes can sometimes be very much in favour to you, but sometimes it can be less rewarding and challenge the normal habit of players the way they progress, so eventually this Strongly attracts them to Directly have the advantage by In-game purchases.
Some games begin with free trials to Help you understand a little bit about progression elements. Free trials meant to relax your Loss Aversion instinct and eventually trap you into spending more because of Sunk Costs. But this has also subtle Differences. First, you technically don't have to spend gems in their Free Trials--while they encourage you to do so, you can just let the timer expire and nothing will change. While they still actively encourage it, anyone who is hesitant doesn't have to spend anything. Second, by applying a Situation from clash royale, being granted free entries to special Challenges and all Tournaments is not a complaint--it's the reentry fee that people are concerned with. But many people would rather take their one free entry as opposed to having special Challenges always cost some amount of gems. In addition, these challenges can't just be free forever--the card economy would suffer otherwise, and activity would be rewarded over skill. As long as you spend a weekend on the big special challenges, you could just play them as often as you wanted. That has to cost something. But the Sunk Cost Fallacy applies to all forms of "Loot Boxes" and all humans, and is not particularly unethical unless it's combined with some of the other tactics.
Are there any flexible in-game transactions that work based on how players play the game?
No. Supercell has consistent prices for everything they offer. They do offer special deals sometimes, but they are offered without consideration to your play habits, many of the special deals can only be purchased once, and every special deal has the exact same price for every player. It's still a thing to Question that does they provide the whole value to us?
Supercell's matchmaking system is not strictly based on your trophy count--they have said that your win/loss streak is taken into account. Many players have complained that they seem to be matched against counter-decks whenever they start to win a lot, but at the current situation where the MM system is, frustrates the players even more this creating a Feeling that Direct progression by Obtaining them with real money will put you into the advantage on the player base against an uncertain group of players.
I think there's no Illusions of control and any Dynamic odds tuned to your play habits in *this* game so. Some may think that their odds are not improving anywhere and not getting a Legendary from past. months. But it cannot be proven unless a statistical analysis is done.
I don't think there's been much issue about Chests reward system and RNG factor in clash royale. But overall the rewards system needs uniformity and Improvements to address slow and lack of Progression for players and to Remove the Illusitic arguments of players forcing them to spend money.
But before we get it clear, Let's leave clash royale here and see the situation about other Games (specifically not competitor's games) that have a Loot box system and why they are a part of cause too that made people debate about the fairness of loot boxes. I'm not going to name these games too.
The Severe amounts of Complaint and Questions from players and fans about loot boxes in some of the very famous computer games signaled that we were at a breaking point. A flagship title of perhaps the world’s most profitable and famous games was monetizing through microtransactions and loot boxes so pervasively that it felt openly exploitative. Every aspect of those game was now bent toward facilitating microtransactions. Characters or power-ups can take days worth of play to earn, which makes purchasing them in an in-game store more tempting. Got the point?
We are now at a critical point, A process that had begun over a decade ago has reached a crisis point. Loot boxes have brought the video game industry to a crossroads, and the path taken now will shape the future of the industry in profound ways.
But as this issue comes to rise more and Raised the Successive level of today's games in a way we didn't expect, we happemed to see this from a point of fairness.
A state representative of a country recently held a press conference where he characterized loot boxes as “predatory gaming,” and is working on legislation to ban minors from buying them. He later added in a Reddit post that “these kinds of loot boxes and microtransactions are explicitly designed to prey upon and exploit human psychology in the same way casino games are so designed.” from another country, a regulator of a state agreed that “what occurs with ‘loot boxes’ does constitute gambling” and that the regulatory body for gaming was "engaging with interstate and international counterparts" on policy changes.
Later so On Some other Countries Officials started taking this issue as a part of serious concern and had Some Discussions about it. A country and their gaming laws stated that they'll consider loot boxes to be a part of gamble and any game that has been running loot boxes has around 2 months to answer and adjust their games. Soon few other countries will take necessary action and ban these system if required. On a side note The games they've been talking about doesn't include clash royale (so don't worry). But these are some of the famous games whose Companies, If others say, has been Following the Predatory practises to Earn Revenue from game.
But why this made several countries to take Necessary action towards the gaming Culture is because some of these Game-Progression elements can be bought for real money and thus consider it Gambling. This could be the cause the game industry to charge so recklessly toward this precipice.
"Loot boxes are only one kind of microtransaction, but they’re often discussed as a unit because all microtransactions rely on similarly seductive sales techniques. They also permit theoretically unlimited revenue to be drawn from a game. Cajoling and enticing players onto that limitless funicular track of spending raises serious ethical issues, especially where our youngest players are involved"-the verge.