Virtual card envelopes. Magical chests with digital products. Slot machines that do not camouflage in the least that they are slot machines. Video games have had many business models since their origins, but none have been as controversial as loot boxes. What are they? What are they for? Can my child become a gambler because of the loot-boxes? What legislation is there in this regard? Stay and we will answer all those questions and much more about this dark business model that affects the current video game industry and that many experts consider a danger to the health of the most vulnerable .
Microtransactions. So we have reached the loot boxes
Until not long ago, when we bought a video game, all the unlockable content was obtained through the game itself. Having all the characters, all the improvements or some aesthetic item was a matter of having a lot of skill and spending many hours on the title. We made a single payment in our trusted store, period.
However, online gaming added new ways to consume content in video games. With World of Warcraft monthly subscription games began, which we currently see in other franchises such as iRacing for example. DLCs also emerged, where we made a new payment to access a few extra hours of play, without having to go back to the store for a sequel. Most of the DLCs were already sold in digital format, delivering the update in download format.
And finally, we come to the universe of micropayments , which were born at a time when several currents that now predominate in the video game industry converged. First of all, we have the imposition of platforms like Steam, which were later imitated by other companies. And, on the other hand, smartphone games emerged. Video game companies realized that it was more lucrative to create free games with micro transactions than to make full titles that only generate a single payment.
Consumers took the bait, and soon, micropayments came to all video games. It doesn’t matter if you buy a free-to-play title in your smartphone’s app store or if you spend 70 euros in a video game store for a new game for your PlayStation. Many longtime franchises have looked for a way to shoehorn micropayments. And this becomes even more problematic when an entire video game is designed to go through the worst of all micro transactions ever created: loot boxes .
Types of microtransactions in video games
There are multiple types of micro transactions in video games. They can generally be divided into functional and non-functional purchases, depending on whether they have a real impact on the game. However, we can summarize them very above in the following points:
- Cosmetic Items – The player directly purchases an item that does not provide an advantage to the game, but allows them to add customization to their game. It can be a skin (of a character or a weapon), a sticker or even a dance.
- Pay-to-win items : Power ups , boosters or any item that makes the game easier in exchange for a small payment.
- Battle Passes : after paying, the player can unlock a series of items.
- Maps, DLCs and Season Pass : these are new game modes that are unlocked after a payment gateway.
- Characters – Unlike skins, they do have their own characteristics and abilities. They can be an advantage over other players who do not have them.
- Virtual Currency – The player exchanges real money for an in-game currency to then purchase any of the items on this list.
- Loot Boxes or loot boxes , which is what we will explain in the next point.
What are loot boxes?
To explain how loot boxes (better known as loot boxes) work, it’s best to go back a bit and explain how a traditional game worked. To explain the parallel, we are going to use a best-selling video game from 2005, Need for Speed: Most Wanted . In said racing game, by defeating a final boss, you could choose two random rewards . Your enemy’s car was hidden in one of them, so if by chance you chose the correct card, you kept it.
Well, the loot boxes are something similar, but paying real money. Instead of defeating a final boss, the game allows us to directly make a payment in exchange for opening a “chest” and being able to play with that enemy’s car (for example, of course). Sometimes it is shown as a roulette wheel or a slot machine. In exchange for the payment, we will have a remote possibility of getting some unusual item (which can be functional or completely aesthetic and useless).
Unlockable item system in NFS: Most Wanted (2005)
Although it already looks bad, the real problem with these products is that you never know what you are going to get. You make the payment, you exchange for your roll and what you get is totally random . Imagine going to a pharmacy and putting 5 euros on the counter. And, that, randomly, you are given a medicine. It’s absurd if what you’re looking for is Ibuprofen to get rid of your headache, right? Well, in some games, the only way to get certain items is inside loot boxes, that is, by randomly handing out money and crossing your fingers so that fate gives us that object that we love so much.
Of course, this topic has generated a lot of controversy, it is in the sights of many experts in gambling and addictions and regulation is being requested by multiple associations, although for the moment, very few countries have dared to legislate on it. theme. However, we will develop this point a little later.
Why are loot boxes dangerous?
These are the main reasons:
They force the user to go through them
Even the simplest game with loot boxes forces you to go through them. They just give it to you. Every once in a while, the game will give you a spin. Without going through the box, they will have managed to get you into their circles.
If you thought that you can play a free-to-play video game without going through the loot boxes —and therefore, escaping from the clutches of gambling addiction—, let us tell you that it is not as simple as avoiding the problem. Virtually every video game that has loot boxes forces you to use them to advance . First of all, the development teams of many video games design them precisely so that the loot boxes are the center of the entire game.
Behind the seemingly harmless Pokémon Unite is Tencent, a mega-company expert in designing porridge with loot boxes.
Free-to-play games today are designed to be highly engaging within the first two hours of play . The player progresses quickly, learns the mechanics , and everything is given to him for free. But, as you progress, the game quickly cuts off the delivery of upgrades. Now, the player has two ways: advance by repeating the same missions hundreds and thousands of times or go through the checkout to continue advancing. The idea is to make the player aware that repeating the same monotonous levels over and over again is a waste of time.
If the player doesn’t take the hint, the game will remind them that for only 3.99 euros, they can buy a chest that could give them the necessary items to facilitate progress. And if not, from time to time, the title itself will give you a free one to reinforce that idea. With this on the table, the player has a high probability of cashing out. Not everyone will make the purchase, but the job will be done. And a few will end up trapped in this cycle.
Everything we talked about in an image. A roulette that gives you a free spin for a vehicle that will disappear on a deadline.
The big difference between falling into this addiction and a normal gambling addiction is that in this new system, there is hardly any barrier to entry . If you have ever entered a casino, you will surely remember the tingling sensation you felt that first time. Here, the restriction does not exist. Being exposed for the first time is as easy as clicking and making the purchase.
They are not restricted to minors
It is curious that a minor under 18 years of age cannot enter a recreational room to play pool because there are slot machines. And that, on the other hand, really young children are playing porridge, even their parents being the ones buying these loot boxes, which, in practice, work just like roulette or slot machines.
Even more flagrant is to see the statements of some of those responsible for the companies behind these unethical practices. For example, according to the vice president of Electronic Arts, FIFA Ultimate Team envelopes are not loot boxes , but “something similar to eating a Kinder Surprise”.
The comparison is curious to say the least, since it does not hide when stating that the loot boxes are products intended for minors . And it is in the case of FUT cards where there is a huge controversy, as many parents reinforce their children’s intention by buying new envelopes thinking that it is a game similar to collecting stickers of lifelong footballers, when the collectibles from Panini and FIFA cards have absolutely nothing in common, no matter how similar they may be on the surface.
Today, the only way to limit minors from accessing this type of product is through parental controls.
Operant conditioning and intermittent reinforcement
Operant conditioning is a teaching technique discovered by psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner. Currently it is also known as “instrumental conditioning”, and, among many things, it is the explanation of why human beings can fall into addictions .
The technique is based on learning by association . If the individual does something that we want him to repeat, he is rewarded. If, on the contrary, he does something bad, he is punished. Soon, the individual makes a mental association between his behavior and its consequences, unlike what happens in classical conditioning (Pavlov’s dogs).
We humans do this constantly to educate our young children and it is even the easiest way to train a dog or a cat. The success of the technique is established by intermittent reinforcement. For positive behaviors, there comes a time when we can withdraw the reward , and the individual will continue to apply their good behavior, as long as there is a small chance that their actions will be rewarded again.
This type of teaching is scientifically proven to be the most powerful ever discovered by humans, and is also the basis of casinos. It will not matter if you get the roulette. Or that you hit the ‘777’ on the slot machine. They know that you will continue betting, because no matter how much you lose, the memory remains in your brain that behavior, very occasionally, is rewarded .
misconception of chance
You bought a Christmas lottery ticket with the number 12,345 and it hit 12,346, which means you won absolutely nothing. And surely you thought “He has not touched me for a number”. Well, you’re wrong. Your number was probably at the other end of the hype.
Slots take advantage of this cognitive bias. They visually show you how easy it is to miss by a number. Because of this, many loot boxes are shaped like slot machines . However, just because you are one symbol away from acquiring that fantastic character does not mean that in a future spin you will get it. After all, each game is independent.
On the other hand, many games with loot boxes are designed so that the chance of getting better items increases as we make more and more rolls. Buying a new print run will minimize chance (by a low percentage, really), but it will generate more anxiety and a greater need to consume. Stopping spending when a large amount of money has already been disbursed generates the famous “FOMO” phenomenon, that is, the fear of missing out that the prize will come right on the next spin.
Is anything being done to regulate or ban loot boxes?
It is nothing new that laws are always late for important things. Worldwide, few have been the countries that have dared to confront these products. Already in February 2018 , many countries in the European Union were ready to ban loot boxes in online games. Today, 4 years later, Belgium is alone in its fight against loot boxes, followed by the Netherlands. They are also illegal in Australia and Japan.
The Spanish Ministry of Consumer Affairs, led by Minister Alberto Garzón, already ruled in early 2020 indicating that it would deal with loot boxes, banning them. However, two years later, the Ministry’s efforts have focused almost exclusively on sports betting advertising, completely avoiding the problem of video games. Knowing that loot boxes attack minors and vulnerable people, their regulation or prohibition should be of equal priority.
With Garzón’s Game Law, the minister could only regulate one of the four types of loot boxes that we find in video games : those loot boxes that are worth money and that allow their items to be resold. That is, those loot boxes that work exactly like a casino.
If something has become clear during these years, it is that the regulation of video games cannot come from the companies themselves that program them, since it is absurd for an organization to regulate itself.
What do the expert agencies on addictions say?
The most illuminating study we know of on gambling and loot boxes was published by The Gambling Health Alliance in December 2020. The agency surveyed young UK video gamers between the ages of 13 and 24. 15% admitted having stolen money from their relatives to buy loot boxes. 11% of those surveyed said they had used their parents’ credit cards without permission. Three of those surveyed had bankrupted their families, who had had to remortgage their homes to defray the costs of loot box addiction.
Thirty-three percent of those who admitted to being addicted to loot boxes told interviewers that they started being addicted to the game at age 13. Many of them were unable to give a ballpark figure of how much money they had spent on these types of micro transactions.
Video game companies have not stopped repeating that loot boxes are like Pokémon cards or soccer cards. Studies like this absolutely contradict those claims. The regulation of loot boxes should begin by mainly protecting minors , and on a second level, shielding vulnerable people —whether or not they are of legal age— so that they do not fall into the clutches of companies that use all kinds of strategies dirty to wipe out the bank accounts of their victims and bankrupting entire families.
