Harmful
The report also asks "If lootbox are not gambling, are they STILL harmful ( see below for F2P ).
Regulation
It reminds me of the progress from Gypsy cabs to Cab medallions to Uber. From flop house to motel to AirBnB. From slums to building codes to tiny houses.
Things cause problems with no regulation, then too much regulation then no regulation.
Where there is consumer spending, companies will keep finding ways to capture that spending.
Competition
Government regulation may also be necessary because a company that voluntarily institutes change will be at a huge disadvantage in the marketplace were being Top 10 is its own marketing draw.
F2P and lootbox
One interesting point in the report is by building a game around lootbox mechanisms, you may make the gaming experience more grindy for F2P to increase profits.
Players without the money to gamble on loot boxes, may instead harm their real world life by excessive grinding to compete with lootboxes.
Grinding in Empires
This can be seen with HotM ( Epic Hero Tokens ) and 4* ascension items when grinding for chests and grinding for battle items for titans.
Probabilities
The report also says saying 1.5% chance of a 5* hero is terrible because probability is difficult. In game currencies make this worse. So disclosure of odds has had zero effect on lootbox spending.
Instead each result should list the 99% chance in the players currency. So Delilah would list the $X in USD to get 99% chance.
This would also encourage the ability to outright purchase a hero.
Transparency and Control
It took me a whole day to find out my family had spend on Empires.
The report says real currency spent should be easier to discover and parental controls should allow hard limits on daily, weekly and monthly spending.
Kinder eggs
Interesting details on the Kinder egg discussion of the report.
Kinder eggs are
often bought for physical currency
counting out a stack of paper money helps convey the amount spent
bought for real currency
Easier to track spending
limited supply per store
This often happens with collectibles, harder to drop huge amounts of money
require physical exertion per transaction
going to the store and buying them ( report did not discuss online shopping).
Have a physical volume
Some friends who spent a lot on Magic The Gathering had to pick up the pallet at the warehouse
New frontier
Cars were loud, and polluting, but solved problems with horse disease and horse dropping in the city.
IAP are replacing fixed price games.
My grandparents drove a lot with no speed limits. But their cars had a top speed of 35 mph and were loud.
Electric cars and hybrids make no noise below 10 mph, so many include noisemakers to worn pedestrians.
Many school zones have temporary speed limits when students are arriving or departing.
Like faster, quieter cars, everyone agrees IAP is here to stay. But how we deal with the problems they create for F2P, and spenders, will have to be addressed by the industry and the government.