The Rise of the Video-Game Gambler (newyorker.com)

Among the more insidious gifts that video games have bestowed on modern culture is the loot box. The New Yorker: A loot box is like an in-game lottery ticket: for a small fee, involving real money, a player can purchase an assortment of items that promise to enhance the game experience. Loot boxes are an appealing source of income for game developers, and they've been integral to the rise of smartphone "freemium" games, which are free to download but can't be fully enjoyed unless the player pays for in-app boosts. For pretty much everyone else, loot boxes are a scourge. Players hate that they have to pay extra just to be competitive. Parents hate discovering, too late, that several hundred dollars in Clash Royale arena packs have been charged to their credit card. And, increasingly, government regulators are thinking that loot boxes look too much like gambling -- gambling aimed at kids, no less.

Belgium and the Netherlands have banned in-game loot boxes as a form of gambling, and Minnesota recently introduced a bill that would ban the sale of games containing loot boxes to people under the age of eighteen. The concern isn't merely prudish. In a finding that will surprise virtually no one, psychologists in New Zealand have discovered that loot boxes do indeed bear troubling similarities to gambling. The researchers, led by Aaron Drummond, of Massey University, looked at twenty-two console games released between 2016 and 2017, from Overwatch and FIFA 18 to Madden N.F.L. 18 and Star Wars Battlefront II. They noted how closely the loot-box system of each game aligned with five standard psychological criteria for gambling, including whether the loot box must be bought with real money, whether it has tangible value in the game or can be cashed out, and whether its contents are randomly determined.

Comments

This is how the Japanese have done gambling

[rsilvergun]

for years. Go into a pachinko parlor and play until you get a prize. Prize is worthless, but there's a store across the street (usually run by the local Yakuza) who'll trade the prize for way more cash than it's worth. I always wondered why Pachinko was so popular in Japan until I found this out.

Lootboxes are being used for much the same way. At the moment they don't even need the Yakuza for a lot of games because there's people paying big money for in game skins.

Much too late...

[blahplusplus]

... this began way back when game companies took regular RPG's and relabelled them mmo's. Those of us who remember the big scam during the 90's to "convert" normal RPG games to server based rpg game with subscription. AKA instead of buying the game once you 'get the benefit' of paying over and over. It was the first big scam the game industry perpetrated on the public. The reality is market ideology is false, the human brain did not evolve to make rational decisions in a market society.

Broken games, mass spying in windows 10, loot boxes, etc. Is because a large part of the public is just downright irrational and intellectually incompetent, from every class and walk of life. I'm sure there are tonnes of educated professionals that bought world of warcraft... but the problem is our species is fucking shortsighted and ignorant as fuck.

For those us who are rational and won't give our money to criminals, they can grow a new generation of idiot kids, teens who then become adults and think buying software you don't own is somehow normal and the human species eat's it right up.

George carlin said it best about humanity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Possible solution...

[wertigon]

Games with Loot Boxes should get the rating "Adult Only".