Why Loot Boxes Keep Getting Compared to Gambling
Why Loot Boxes Keep Getting Compared to Gambling
Why Loot Boxes Keep Getting Compared to Gambling
A game player opens a random in-game chest in hopes of getting a rare skin but instead gets three copies of the same item. The player then opens another chest. Game designers call this a "loot box," but regulators see it as a slot machine in disguise. The research backing up this comparison has become increasingly difficult to dismiss.
Design students and professionals should examine the mechanics on their own merits rather than regarding them only in terms of monetization. Loot box mechanics reside at the intersection of rewards psychology, monetization, and regulation, making them one of the more educational case studies of how an engaging mechanic can become risky.
How Loot Boxes Borrow Casino-Style Mechanics
The mechanistic similarities between loot boxes and slot machines are much greater than most people realize while playing their favorite online games. Both involve receiving an unpredictable reward after paying a set price. Both use the near-miss strategy to keep players hooked and employ the variable-ratio reward pattern discovered by behavioral psychologists decades ago to be the most addictive pattern possible.
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What the Research Actually Found About Loot Box Spending
In a survey of 7,422 adult players, it was noted that there was a correlation between the use of loot boxes and problem gambling, an effect which was much more pronounced than any correlation between problem gambling and regular in-game purchases without the element of randomness. Non-problem gamblers in the survey used, on average, from $1 to $5 monthly on loot boxes. Meanwhile, problem gamblers used, on average, $20 to $40 monthly, a difference attributed directly to the random nature of loot boxes and not the general expenses on the game itself.
Another longitudinal study carried out at the University of British Columbia studied over 400 young adult players who did not gamble to begin with. It was established that over six months, there was a clear migration effect in terms of those people using more loot boxes being more likely to gamble at the end of the follow-up period. The author noted that this phenomenon is specific to randomized microtransactions and not game purchasing as such, which is exactly the differentiation that regulators have begun making in their policies.
What makes the migration study so special for game developers is the direction of the impact. This was not about individuals predisposed to gambling who migrated into loot boxes. Rather, this migration was more in the opposite direction; the loot boxes were the ones that instilled the gambling habit in individuals. This is an important factor to consider for everyone who thinks that loot boxes are merely a monetization scheme.
Why Young Players Face the Most Risk
Age is even more of a factor in this debate than many others in game design. The brain's prefrontal cortex, which handles impulse control and consideration of future outcomes, isn't completely developed until age 25, which makes it difficult for teenagers and young adults to develop resistance to the very reward mechanism that loot boxes exploit. With loot boxes, gacha systems, and prize wheel-style reward mechanisms available to gamers while they are still legally too young to gamble at all.
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Where This Guidance Comes From in Canada
A non-profit organization working to prevent gambling harm has shifted towards treating loot boxes as part of its mandate, in addition to being an additional matter, stating that mechanisms of gacha games and prize wheels "normalize gambling behavior long before a young person is old enough to gamble legally." According to their findings, young males between the ages of 15 and 24 are at a higher risk, as they lack proper impulse control due to their developing brain structure. On the other hand, Casinos Analyzer is a resource occupying a similar niche but from a different perspective, guaranteeing that the legal age-based mechanism of randomization is transparent about its content.
Indeed, legislative changes are also happening. A law firm in British Columbia has filed multiple class action lawsuits against the biggest game developers, claiming that some loot box mechanics break Canada's Criminal Code in terms of gambling. At least one of those lawsuits has reached a settlement out of court. In Austria, a court has recognized loot boxes of a popular sports franchise as gambling.
Warning Signs a Loot Box Habit Has Gone Too Far
Some common patterns generally differentiate normal gaming spending from an issue that needs to be addressed.
Loot box spending is done precisely because it is a means to counter a loss, attempting to make up for the loss suffered from the bad pull.
The actual sum of the money spent monthly on rewards is not tracked at all.
Opening a loot box creates a high rush/letdown out of proportion to the actual significance of what's going on.
The spending level goes above the expected amount budgeted monthly for entertainment purposes.
A player tends to feel defensive about being asked how much loot box spending costs.
Steps for Parents and Players to Reduce the Risk
There are several practical steps that reduce the likelihood of a loot box addiction becoming a more serious issue.
Activate parental restrictions for payments and buy confirmation procedures on any gaming platform that your kid uses.
Make sure that you establish a definite limit to your child’s entertainment spending monthly in relation to loot boxes.
Verify the drop rate of a particular game before buying, on the platforms that require publishers to make them public.
Discuss the system with your kid and try to explain why it is so appealing, because it is much more effective than forbidding it entirely.
Take seriously the need to win back losses in the game because it is an important signal.
Final Talk
However, despite the fact that the creation of gambling-related products was not the intent of the game developers, the reward systems behind opening loot boxes were similar enough to a slot machine to be recognized as such by regulators, researchers, and the court of law. This does not mean, of course, that every loot box out there is secretly a predatory product and every player using it is at risk.
This means only that the underlying mechanism has to be scrutinized as well as any other reward system that relies on randomized elements and actual money, irrespective of what industry sells it. Responsible use of any game mechanic requires, of course, understanding precisely how it works on the psychological level.