Dear Gamers and Concerned Customers,

As you very well know, many of us have been aware for a long time of the fact that loot boxes, key crate RNG and similar microtransactions are essentially paid games of chance aka. gambling. These virtual slot machines are introduced into games as a money sink: One that makes the title esentially have no price ceiling, one that preys especially on minors and on at risk and vulnerable individuals but ultimately on the population at large under the pretense of an "optional" addition to a title. However, these systems are invariably designed in such a way as to goad the player into partaking in the system (either via drops, market, ingame store, key crate gambling, paid mods via community made cosmetics, etc.) and use the game itself as a neverending loop of marketing by exposing the customer to such items and monetization. The customer makes him/herself suggestible to such conditioning and manipulation by surrendering to the virtual world that is supposed to be an inocuous, fun and enjoyable experience rather than a carefully designed and thinly veiled virtual casino / online marketplace inside a game.

WELL....

FINALLY, the gaming population at large has made their voices heard about these anticonsumer, predatory practices! After the fallout from EA's poorly conceived implementation of paid to win loot boxes tied to game progression on Star Wars Battlefront 2, a number of countries and governmental bodies / gambling authorities all over the world have begun to pay notice to said practice...and some are acting!
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/star-wars-battlefront-2s-loot-box-controversy-expl/1100-6455155/

Hawaii introduced several loot box related bills:
https://www.vg247.com/2018/02/13/hawaii-loot-boxes-bills/

Netherlands was the first country to classify certain loot boxes as gambling, and illegal. They gave video game publishers a timeline to REMOVE loot boxes deemed to be illegal by mid June 2018:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-04-19-the-netherlands-declares-some-loot-boxes-are-gambling

Belgium soon followed and declared that the penalty would be a fine AND potentially prison for those that violate the law:
https://screenrant.com/loot-boxes-illegal-belgium-netherlands/
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43906306

UK Gambling Authority and the US overall have lagged behind in their consideration of loot boxes as gambling. Only the Washington Gambling Commission gave Valve a notice about them, and Valve responded by disabling external websites that used Steam API to gamble with Steam Marketables but stopped at that.
https://www.polygon.com/2016/10/5/13176244/washington-gambling-commission-demands-end-to-valve-cs-go-skin
https://www.polygon.com/2016/10/18/13318326/valve-fires-back-at-washington-state-gambling-commission-over-cs-go-betting

A case raised in US courts where Valve was named in the suit related to "illegal gambling" in CSGO was thrown out of court / did not proceed.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/darrenheitner/2017/04/04/illegal-gambling-case-concerning-csgo-is-kicked-out-of-court/#619833221495

Additional european countries are scrutinizing loot boxes and predatory monetization of the gambling type in games.

Its a good day where, finally, legislations around the world are seeing loot boxes for what they really are. What took so long!? If one thing is clear from all of this, is that developers, publishers and storefronts cannot be trusted to have a fair, conscientous and morally minded limit with regards to predatory monetization in their games...even if they are PAID and not F2P.

Videos discussing the matter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNiVSj9uzTw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JygNQ_n22U

Relevant Opinion Article (2/2018):
https://venturebeat.com/2018/02/20/loot-boxes-should-face-gambling-regulation/

Happy gaming!

And as always,

Speak with wour wallets.

Regards,

BlackSpawn


Official Statement Dutch Gaming Authority on 4/19/2018:
https://www.kansspelautoriteit.nl/publish/library/6/press_release_loot_boxes_19_april_2018_-_en.pdf

Official Statement Belgian Gaming Commission on 4/25/2018:
https://www.koengeens.be/fr/news/2018/04/25/loot-boxen-in-drie-videogames-in-strijd-met-kansspelwetgeving
Google english translation: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=https://www.koengeens.be/news/2018/04/25/loot-boxen-in-drie-videogames-in-strijd-met-kansspelwetgeving&prev=search

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/killing-floor


Grab a copy, bet friends to grab a copy, and play the best game ever !!

https://www.humblebundle.com/store/killing-floor


Grab a copy, bet friends to grab a copy, and play the best game ever !!

Dear gamers and concerned customers,

I wanted to give you all a heads up. KF2 has finally transitioned to Full Release this past Friday 11/18/2016, after approximately 1 year and 7 months in Early Access and approximately one year after the initial preliminary date of release as described on the Steam store at time of Early Access launch (Q4 2015).

Steam is allowing for nearly unconditional refunds for a limited time: As I understand you still need less than 2 hour playtime since Full Release.....not sure for how long the offer will last...I have read that only about 24 hours or so remain, but that is unofficial. However, I suggest you make your requests as soon as possible if you are truly interested in a refund. If you purchased the title on Steam and wish for a refund, this is the time to do so. I can confirm that several individuals have gone through the process succesfully already.

http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds/

We thank you all for your your time, your efforts, your feedback, your engagement and your support. So far, we believe we have been instrumental in enacting some positive changes in Zedconomy/Trading Floor for all, including an increased drop rate (from Q4 days to Q1 day) and on the availability of Zedconomy items on the in-game store (currently only a limited selection for a limited time).

We believe this community deserves better and that more changes are in order, until a satisfactory option devoid of FREEMIUM and Free To Play is provided for paying customers that would be interested in it while allowing interested parties to opt out of the underlying Free To Play psychology and monetization. Besides that, we believe that other features in need of iteration are: availability of Zedconomy items through ingame store (In a permanent capacity, including bundles), option for Vanilla KF2 (opting out of the cosmetics and/or enabling contents of USB/Crate's individually or in batches as need be), possibility of opting out of drops/keys and crates, KF2 Complete Pack (Including 100% of the content, either through a DLC or ingame store bundle), etc. Feel free to include additional recommendations below or in the fora.

Tripwire Interactive said that Zedconomy will continue to evolve past Full Release. Moreover, they also described that game support/updates are ONLY guaranteed till Q4 2017, and that even though they would "like" to support the title past that date, subsequent support will be contingent on whether updates "pay for themselves."

Guaranteed support till Q4 2017 (31:00 Time stamp)......Zedconomy fuled afterwards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qal-EVWcDn8

In this manner, I suggest you continue providing appropriate and congruent feedback, be it via game reviews, forum posts, your playtime, speaking with your wallet, supporting developers/publishers with satisfactory transparency and business practices or any way in which you deem fit to transmit our clear message: Fee To Pay, especially on paid Early Access titles, is not okay. Its particularly important to provide feedback and to spread the word during this crucial launch period, more individuals and potential customers will be listening and accessible to the message than probably at any other time in the future of this title. The evolution of this launch, response of the community and the underlying metrics may very well determine the ultimate future for Zedconomy/Trading Floor and this title.

Thank you all for your support,
Happy gaming and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

BlackSpawn

PS. We are still working on a few articles about early access, monetization of user generated content on Steam and on the TWI timeline in our pinned thread. As always, if there are worthy related news we will make a congruent announcement.

PPS. "How to request a Steam refund for a gift" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsM7RFpgaNc

Dear gamers and concerned customers,

As the launch date for Killing Floor 2 looms closer, I urge you to continue your resolve in avoiding deplorable business practices and speaking with your wallets and your playtime. And to remember the deplorable community interactions and lack of respect that have transpired in the public relations revolving this title with the underlying monetization bait and switch when "Free To Play styled monetization" with a F2P psychology ridden FREEMIUM environment were introduced into the title 7.5 months after Early Access launch.

Recently, "Rocket League" instituted a "key crate RNG" loot system that, IMHO, Tripwire may take some cues from. While, personally, I prefer the complete and total absense of "Key Crate RNG" components and I do not condone or support the introduction of paid games of chance (ie. gambling components, including key crate RNG/slot machine mechanics) in titles with a base game price (paid games), Rocket League's implementation has the following important differences:

• "Crates will contain cosmetic content only. We have a strict "Don't Sell Advantage" policy for Rocket League, and we're sticking with that.
  
  
• There will be no Steam Marketplace integration with crates. We are definitely aware of the problems related to third-party gambling in other games and we are not interested in taking that approach.
  
  
• Players who don't want to interact with this system can hide it entirely with a single checkbox. Also of note, this won't affect or impact our current item-drop system in any way.
  
  
• We also want to reassure you guys that we are sticking with our approach to keep introducing free new Arenas, Modes, and Items, along with the occasional paid DLC just like we always have."
  
  Source: https://www.vg247.com/2016/07/12/rocket-leagues-new-loot-system-skips-steam-marketplace-because-dev-is-not-interested-in-gambling/ ;
  https://www.reddit.com/r/RocketLeague/comments/4ruvt7/csgo_crate_system_planned/d54zav5

More importantly, for KF2 I believe that the option of a PREMIUM environment that has zero contact with the F2P psychology and Free To Play components of the monetization is imperative, especially because NONE of these plans were revealed at game launch when many of us decided to take the "Early Access" plunge.

Hopefully, in the recent future TWI will reveal the results of their in-game survey, will react and act honestly, scrupulously and appropriately and will uncover plans for a resolution in these matters.

What do you guys think?

In the coming weeks we will be posting some information on the evolution of Steam's "Early Access Program" and Steam's emphasis on "Fee To Pay", the monetization of User Generated Content, and Steam market/microeconomies.

As always,
Thank you for your support and happy gaming.

BlackSpawn