rarely given a free pass by gamers
either when it comes to loot boxes.
Many gamers might pour hours
upon hours into a game, yet never
spend a cent on it (beyond the initial
price for paid titles). Then there
are “every now and then” gamers,
with a little disposable income,
who are drawn in by a discount
deal or an in-game event promising
exclusive items. Next are regular
purchasers, who effectively pay a
subscription to keep receiving loot
boxes on a continual basis. Lastly,
there are whales, those with a
vast disposable income (or Mom’s
credit card) who spend inordinate
amounts of money for a never-
ending stream of digital prizes.
To take advantage of these
different tiers of gamers, games
adapted to cater for different
budgets. While a single loot box
might cost a dollar or so, there’s
always an option to purchase
20, or 50, or more. With massive
price tags justified by supposed
discounts (buying more loot boxesat once incrementally reduces the
individual price per box), people
quickly began to become frustrated.
This problem was compounded in
games where loot box rewards had
an actual impact on gameplay.
When the possible contents of
loot boxes are purely cosmetic—
such as skins, emotes, and other
aesthetic items—any player can
choose not to purchase them, and
not be any worse off when it comes
to playing the game than players
who did. But some games—most
notably trading card games that use
booster packs, and sports games
such as the ever-present FIFA—
feature purchasable loot boxes that
have a tangible effect on gameplay,
potentially putting paying players at
an advantage over those who don’t
buy loot boxes, and often leading to
ire from the non-paying crowd.
So, ill will from gamers about
loot boxes has been a cauldron
close to boiling over for quite some
time, but publishers still have thepower to disregard the whims of
their consumers. When you’re
flipping profits in the millions, what
are the voices of a disheartened
minority who aren’t contributing
to the aforementioned profits
anyway? Never fear, though,
gamers: Someone’s coming to your
rescue, and it’s... politicians?ADDICTION FRICTION
Yes, the latest to take aim at the
loot box fiasco is a wide array
of politicians, law-makers, and
researchers. Oh, and don’t forget
the concerned parents, too. Their
rationale for wanting loot boxes
gone might not be the same as the
humble gamer, though; while a
gamer might merely be frustrated
by the inability to get that weapon
skin they so desperately want, the
new bastion in the battle against
the loot box is pushing a platform
that claims loot boxes are a form
of gambling—at worst, a predatory
gambling practice aimed at
children—and thus require tighter
regulation. In fact, we’re surprised
no politician has used the phrase
“the War on Loot Boxes” yet.
The thing is, they’re not wrong.
Even a cursory glance at the
mechanics behind loot boxes
reveals quite indisputably that the
random nature of the attainable
rewards holds a degree of gambling
within it. When considering the
fact that the rewards are a digital
commodity that is infinitely
reproducible by the company selling
the loot boxes, things start to look
even dicier for game developers.
And while “real” gambling (such as
the ability to play games of chance
with in-game cash, as seen in the
Red Dead series) often affects a
game’s recommended age rating,
loot boxes do not, furthering the
argument that they are targeted
toward vulnerable younger users.
Examining the psychological
effect of loot boxes only furthers
this argument. The very act of
opening a loot box in many games
has a number of subtle (and not-so-
subtle) design choices that feed into
their addictive nature. Boxes often
require you to hold down a button,
rather than simply press once,
driving the idea that this is more of
an achievement. The boxes glow,
shake, make odd noises, and even
spin around in some cases, prior
to blasting out their loot. BeforeBooster pack
bundles in
card games,
such as Magic:
The Gathering
Arena, can
get incredibly
expensive if you
want to buy lots
of cards.Certain weapon
skins in Counter-
Strike sell for
outrageous prices.
A limited-edition
sniper rifle skin
sold for over
$60,000 last year.Opening a
loot box in
Overwatch feels
almost like a
quasi-religious
experience.
The potential
for addiction
is almost
immediately
clear.the death of the loot box
38 MAXIMUMPC OCT 2019 maximumpc.com
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