What Is The Factor Between Loot Box And Gambling?

Videogames have evolved from the early age of retro gaming where half of the time is spent blowing on a cartridge. Nowadays videogames are much more refined and look stunning. However, there is a drawback to this advancement, such games can not be created without massive funding and hundreds of developers. Many games also future online servers which need to be kept online for years. Game publishers have found ways to mitigate that issue by introducing other monetization methods in their games. Such tactics started appearing in many ‘AAA games’ such as DLC’s, season passes and ‘microtransactions’. These have received an understanding level of frustration by some players, but nothing as controversial as the new trend that has be popularized
The lack of regulations when it comes to loot boxes is concerning many individuals including parents who fear that abuse might go unchecked. While there is a regulatory authority that is supposed to protect consumers, it is funded by publishers that are releasing said games. This abuse can be expressed in various ways including teenager gambling. (-- removed HTML --) . Publishers also introduced loot boxes in games that are rated for teenagers such as ‘Overwatch’, a game that is geared towards a younger audience with its flashy abilities and diverse character set. Unlike casinos odds of loot boxes are not disclosed, which causes a predicament in that publishers can influence the odds depending on player habits in favor of more spending. Another concern is the abuse of gambling addicts nicknamed by the gaming industry ‘whales’, with no monitoring addicts can spend with no upper limit. Regulations prohibit casinos from doing this in the traditional forms of gambling, because they consider it as abuse of addicts. There is also no guarantee that a purchase will be valuable in the future, as games are not required to keep the servers up for a certain amount of time. In traditional gambling players win money that is supported by governments, compared to the virtual currencies of games that might disappear at any moment. Some
Moreover, there are other ways to monetize online games such as DLC’s and expansion passes that help support the game without the psychological side effects of loot boxes. To illustrate, the game ‘The Wicher 3’ generated $584 in sales and $251 million in revenue without using loot boxes<>. Additionally, recent indie successes such as ’Cup head’ selling over 2 million copies (-- removed HTML --) proves that it is possible to rely solely on sales to fund a game’s development. The need for loot boxes can also be eliminated by the limiting development costs and crew sizes. Not every game has to have a big open world with 100 hours worth of gameplay. Simply put, if a game can’t support itself by using traditional forms of monetization, then maybe it is too big for its own good. While loot boxes have their advantages, their disadvantages far outweigh their potential