Response to Spark Blog - 387: Are loot boxes part of the video game or illegal gambling?
By: Rob Piercy
Video gaming has become such a huge industry and is competing with the film industry on a level they never have been able to before. Our culture is progressing towards a more hybrid approach towards the two. With the popularity of gaming growing we are seeing an incline in the quality and cost of gaming. Developers work hard to create a world and story space for their customers to escape and it's not an easy task. thousands of hours and hundreds of people work tirelessly to make these games. So it's not unwarranted that the price of games have increased drastically.
In today's episode (387) of CBC SparkRadio's podcast they talk about this idea of loot boxes and weather or not they are an essential part of the game or if they are just a gamble. Loot boxes are in-game items that you can buy that open and give you items that may either help you or may be special. These loot boxes are not to be confused with the company LootCrate - which has a similar prerogative. You can get really awesome items and other times you get complete garbage so really it is a gamble. I think when it comes to in-game loot boxes they fall into the same category. I don't necessarily think that gambling in a game is bad, but I do think if game developers are using these loot boxes as an essential plot point or story beat that's really unfair to their costumers. We pay a lot of money to play their games and why should we be paying more for something we've already poured a lot of money into.
Microtransactions in games have become a hot topic in the blogosphere lately. Recently EA games came out with a new Star Wars game called Battlefront which had a ton of microtransactions and players were not happy. Reddit exploded with memes chastising EA games for being money hungry and overcharging for things that players have already paid for.
EA's Andrew Wilson Battlefront stated that Battlefront 2 was "definitely a learning opportunity". "We never intended to build an experience that could be seen as unfair or lacking clear progression," he said. EA then reverted the microtransactions as a result of the players complaining.
I think microtransactions are fine as long as they are not essential to the story - things like customizable skins or items. If you pay for a game, you shouldn't have to pay more to actually play it.
When it comes to randomized items and not knowing what you're paying for that is definitely gambling and is only a problem for me because of how many children play these games. In the article SparkRadio they wrote about loot boxes and talked about regulating these games. These regulations would be very complicated because of the digital implications of implimenting said regulations. Regulating these companies are a must -- but must be done with care.