For the past several years, the concept of a “mystery box” has become increasingly popular in many facets of the online shopping and entertainment industry. It started off with online retailers in places such as eBay listing boxes where the customer wouldn’t know what’s in it before purchasing it. Only after the customer bought the item would they find out what’s inside — it could be amazing or it could be rubbish.
There are some very obvious problems that spring to mind: for one, it would be trivial for retailers to “rig” the boxes by continually sending out cheap, low-priced items to customers who pay far more for the box itself. Unethical retailers would be able to make a fortune selling mystery boxes to unsuspecting victims. The biggest problem with the early mystery box system was that there was no good way to prevent rigging and cheating. There was no popular cryptographic verification system, nor did consumers care about that kind of thing.
Shifting interests in the industry
The next big shift in interest was from individual mystery boxes to subscription boxes. Services across the world begin to advertise a “subscription box” service. This service would entail giving consumers a box filled with various items every month, in exchange for a subscription fee. There is a novelty to this: people are always excited to receive new things, especially when it’s a total surprise. The advantage of having multiple items in every box is that there’s a good chance each subscriber will receive something that fits their niche interest — this is a psychological tactic to make people happy even after receiving a suboptimal product. The fact of the matter is that such subscription services also fill their boxes with low-quality and cheap goods (that in summation cost far less than the actual cost of the monthly subscription). Soon, consumers caught on, and interest in physical box subscriptions began to subside a little bit.
Thankfully, the most recent shift has proven to be far more monumental than anyone could have imagined. It was the shift of the mystery box experience into the realm of technology. Online websites dedicated to mystery boxes and loot crates started popping up. Some of them even designed their own provably fair verification mechanisms — this was a true paradigm shift. Never before had consumers been given the opportunity to engage in the exciting mystery box purchase process while also knowing for a fact that the items they get will be based on chance, not on the whims of a malicious retailer looking to profit as much as possible. Thus, interest in online mystery boxes began to skyrocket, and the loot box industry was born.
Since then, the mystery box space has been subject to several interesting turns. Game companies began implementing their own mystery boxes as a way for players to have more fun and get potentially better items, but were accused by consumers of trying to blindly maximize profits. There have also been many promising mystery box projects that ended up exit scamming, or were exposed for engaging in blatantly false advertising. It’s been a wild and bumpy ride, but now, the industry is starting to take shape properly, with trusted, established players setting up shop.
Why are mystery boxes popular?
Everyone likes a good mystery. There are so many amazing aspects to receiving a box with a surprise — there’s the thrill of the possibility of getting something great, the fear of getting something terrible, and generally, the fun of not knowing what lies within. Online services have brought this to a new level, with engaging game graphics, sounds, and other forms of development. What’s seriously unique about online mystery boxes is that you know what you’re getting instantly — no waiting around for packing and shipping. The product’s image is displayed on the screen right away. What’s more, on Lootie, you can even upgrade or sell your product if it’s something you don’t want to redeem — this is something that old-school mystery box services have never, ever been able to provide.
Other than the information outlined above, there’s a lot more to it. Psychological studies have confirmed that unboxings similar to those on Lootie are not only thrilling, but potentially healthy. The risk-reward center of the brain involved with gambling is an area that is seldom stimulated — in most real-life scenarios, the brain doesn’t exercise this portion whatsoever. However, when unboxing or upgrading on Lootie, this section of your brain lights up and is used intensively. This releases dopamine (which leads to extreme happiness) and can reduce stress levels by a lot. Additionally, this ensures that another portion of your brain is healthy, and functioning normally. Some studies have hinted that regular stimulation of various portions of the brain could potentially lead to the reversal of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Who knew that mystery boxes could be not only fun, but possibly healthy too? Now that you know what mystery boxes are and where they came from, you may be interested in opening a few. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind whilst doing so:
- If you want to have more fun, look for a service that is able to tell you what prize you want instantly! Waiting around is boring and makes the whole process a lot more cumbersome.
- Whilst choosing an online mystery box provider, make sure they have a provably fair verifier. If they don’t, it means they could deliberately affect the outcome of your game and give you a terrible prize — that’s no fun at all.
- Make sure that the box you’re opening has possible products that have a higher value than that of the box itself. If you’re unboxing a box worth $100 but all the potential prizes are worth under $100, then you’re just throwing money away!
- To make the most of your unboxing experience, pick a site that has a great user interface. Look for a clean, minimalistic and colorful look. The functions on the website should not only be easy to understand and intuitive, but they should also be well-documented.
- This is important — make sure the site has a good reputation, and that there are no associated scam accusations. Google the site’s name, and if any credible scam accusations or articles pop up, run away! Sites that are known to scam users are obviously not going to pay out any prize at all.
Lootie is a new mystery box platform that meets all of the criteria above, and more! We feature mystery boxes with high-value streetwear, and we have a state of the art cryptographically fair verification system to ensure transparency on all fronts. If you have any questions about mystery boxes, don’t hesitate to contact us
