The Dangers of Video Game Loot Boxes

Note: This post was written by guest contributor Dylan Slavey.

People are constantly looking for new forms of entertainment, and the current front runner is the video gaming industry. In 2017, the gaming industry made an estimated $116 billion, followed by TV at $105 billion (D’Argenio, 2018). The movie and music industries combined didn’t make half of what gaming did. As exciting as it is to see this new face of entertainment succeed, there are ramifications that come with it.

In recent years, games have experienced an uptick in the number of loot boxes being implemented into their gameplay. A loot box is an in-game item that gives players a small number of rewards that vary in type and rarity. These rewards can then be used in the actual game to provide players a unique experience. Most items that come out of loot boxes are cosmetic, meaning they don’t provide a player an advantage. Popular games with loot boxes include Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Overwatch, Star Wars Battlefront II, and most recently, Apex Legends. For this essay, I will be focusing on the loot box systems in CS:GO and Star Wars Battlefront II.

A prime example of the pernicious nature of the loot box system is in the game CS:GO. In CS:GO, players have to buy “case keys” that allow them to unlock different types of cases containing cosmetic items…