Should loot-boxes be banned?
Loot-boxes lure video game players with flashy animations and promises that they’re getting a better deal than they really are. Truth is, they usually give players something they don’t want or is worth less than what they’d initially paid for.
In most games they are used to provide access to additional content which is usually cosmetic. This content sometimes being alternates for their characters called skins or camo for their weapons or items. These skins and camos usually don’t affect the key gameplay of the game but provide something to brag about.
For example, in “Overwatch,”a multiplayer shooter based around team play. loot-boxes are used to get skins for characters and their weapons which only change the look of their characters. But there’s cases in which they’re used to give players an upperhand. A lot of players say that these loot-boxes make the game “pay to win.”
An example of a pay to win game is the Ultimate Team game mode in the FIFA series. Ultimate Team is a game mode where video game players build their own team using real soccer players that they earn through virtual card packs. This sounds like a cool idea, but every player has different stats and most importantly, the card packs cost money. With there being varying levels of card packs, some promise higher rewards for a higher price. Similar to the way that gambling works in which you pay a higher bet in order to get a higher reward.
EA along with Epic Games were recently summoned to a hearing with the UK parliament’s digital culture media and sports committee which was discussing loot boxes and whether they were gambling or not. When asked about whether loot-boxes are ethical for children, EA’s representative, the VP of Legal and Government Affairs, Kerry Hopkins said that they aren’t loot-boxes they’re “surprise mechanics”. Hopkins then went on to compare them to surprise toys like LOL Surprise and Kinder Surprise Eggs and says that systems like the one implemented in FIFA Ultimate Team are just like those toys in the way that they are made for people that like the element of surprise.
“We think it’s like many other products that people enjoy in a very healthy way, and like the element of surprise” what Hopkins fails to explain is the fact that loot-boxes and “surprise toys” aren’t really that similar. Sure they may be similar on a surface level understanding but when examined, there are some glaring differences. A major one being the fact that with Kinder Surprise Eggs and similar surprise toys you know what to expect, opposed to loot-boxes, where the prize can vary drastically.
Loot-boxes however, aren’t as transparent as Kinder Surprise Eggs. They advertise a rare item or weapon but never explain for what class or character it can be equipped with.
Another example is in Black Ops 3, a title released in 2015, the games loot-boxes, called “Supply Drops”, had two different classes. One common and the other being rare Supply Drops. In common Supply Drops most items you would get would be common, easy to obtain items. Common Supply Drops are cheaper in digital currency, costing ten “crypto keys” which are earned through game progression. The rare loot-boxes guaranteed a rare item but the item’s true value varied. These boxes would cost you 30 keys, a dramatic increase from the common box. Since currency is difficult to gain through game play, there is also the option of buying game currency with real-world money.
One of the objectively worst loot box mechanics is the key mechanic in which players get their inventories flooded by loot crates or card packs but access is denied unless you buy keys. This makes game play more difficult, as players’ inventories become flooded with loot crates, they are forced to carry less than what they need.
Loot boxes are extremely lucrative, with reports estimating that they’ve made up to $30 Billion in revenue. Loot boxes seem to target people with flashy animations and noises that give you positive feedback anytime you buy them, mimicking the roots of a traditional gambling problem. It’s clear that these tactics are working too. In a study conducted in 2018 by Zendle, it was shown that problem gamblers spent up to 70 to 100 dollars on loot boxes. Some researchers started calling loot boxes a form of psychological entrapment because of the multitude of users who spend so much money that they feel like they invested too much to stop.
So what can be done to get rid of loot boxes? Some governments are already making moves to get rid of them. US senator Josh Hawley has proposed the “Protecting Children from Abusive Games” bill which would ban loot boxes in games that are marketed to children. In April, Belgium declared that loot boxes are illegal under their gambling laws. It’s shown that governments are becoming suspicious to these practices and are seeing them for what they are, virtual slot machines.
