Ok, Iāll have a go but only cuz I lolād so hard at the surprise adoption meme 
A few years ago I watched a documentary about pachinko, a pinball/slot machine type of game. Highly addictive. In that āgameā people buy many iron balls they insert in a machine that makes lots of flashing lights and noises. After the noises are over, the player āwinsā, and some iron balls drop in a box.
Pachinko is like a slot machine but doesnāt count as gambling (gambling is illegal in Japan) cuz the player always gets something in return, a lot of iron balls that can be exchanged for worthless prizes at the same pachinko store: Chocolate bars, candy, teddy bears, cheap electronic devices and stuff.
Documentary shows how an addicted pachinko player buys these iron balls with real money, how he keeps playing cuz heās under the illusion that heās winning. Except heās not. The ammount of iron balls he gets back is always less than what he puts in the machine. Iron balls can be exchanged for prizes at the store, and those prizes can be resold for money at a different store near the pachinko parlor (yeah, thatās not illegalā¦). One would think heās not losing any money, but truth is he only gets back a third of the money he spends in the machine. Itās a legal scam. A scam that makes trillions of yens every year.
Iām not surprised Japan came up with these type of scams called pachinko and gacha. That country has a long history of gambling problems. And Iām not surprised politicians elsewhere twist the laws to make lootboxes look somehow legal. Itās a scam that makes millions too. And Itās marketing 101. Branding something dangerous as inoffensive is what every shady business do. āSurprise and delightā, lmao thatās a ā ā ā ā ā ā argument if Iāve ever seen one
Iāve seen people using the kinder argument here in the forums. āYou got 30 vanilla 3*, why are you even complaining, at least you got something back!ā. Yup, people spends money in the game and gets back useless heroes, like in a pachinko game. They lose money but itās somehow ok because they support the gambling parlorā¦ err mobile game, right? No, I find the kinder argument very hypocritical. Itās not even an argument, itās just a gambling fallacy.
Even if I didnāt like the game I donāt see why itās hypocritical to criticize it. Truth is, I like E&P a lot, itās the first mobile game I played for months.
I donāt come to the forums to troll people or criticize their spending habits. People can do whatever they want with their hard earned money. Theyāre adults and they earned it. I canāt and wont stop criticizing lootboxes though. I just wanna point out that criticizing a game someone loves =/= criticizing the person who loves the game. People should see that distinction.
Also, there are many games that donāt resort to these shady gacha practices and earn money from their fanbase in a honest way, so I honestly hope lootboxes becomes illegal everywhere. Itās gambling. Period.
