Microtransactions: the Future of Games? (LootBoxes and Gambling)

Silent_Buddha said:
I'm always amused by statements like this. Do they have some kind of research study to back a claim that Loot boxes result in people being more likely to experience gambling related issues? Or is it that people that like to gamble purchase loot boxes?
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I remember this UK study reported on last year. There have been a number of studies done by different European countries over the past few years and I think most, if not all, concluded that there was an irrefutable correlation.

This has resulted in a number of countries clamping down on loot boxes in various ways, some countries outlawed them entirely, and bunch more insisted the odds of winning were made transparent. This article from 2020 sets out what countries had taken what actions.
 
DSoup said:
I remember this UK study reported on last year. There have been a number of studies done by different European countries over the past few years and I think most, if not all, concluded that there was an irrefutable correlation.

This has resulted in a number of countries clamping down on loot boxes in various ways, some countries outlawed them entirely, and bunch more insisted the odds of winning were made transparent. This article from 2020 sets out what countries had taken what actions.
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Sure, anything that has chance based rewards is going to trigger gambling addictions in people. Perhaps it was just the way I read it, but the previous statement I linked gave off the impression that they thought loot boxes were the cause rather than just being a symptom of the problem that is gambling.

This really does have me curious as to whether gatcha machines targetting children exist in the UK. They've existed here in the US since at least the 60's and likely earlier.

They are basically little coin operated machines, usually outside of grocery stores or restaurants or other places that families with children would frequent, which you plop a coin into ... turn the handle ... and out pops your random reward (usually some cheap toy). On the front will be something that shows some of the potential "rewards" with the best ones often either not being in the actual machine or just one of them will exist in there. Childrens amusement parks and carnivals would have tons of these as well.

I remember back when The Lord of the Rings movies were still big. One of the machine operators came up with the fantastic idea of putting LOTR character busts in their machines as rewards. I know a lot of people that plunked down over 50 USD trying to get the whole collection. Some of the characters were really rare and hard to get.

I have no idea what the industry used to call these machines so I'm appropriating the more recent Japanese term that is associated with this type of machine in Japan.

Hell, Nintendo's Amiibo is basically a gatcha gambling thing as well with their random reward boxes that you can buy in stores.


Real life loot box you can buy anywhere. :) Comes with 3 random cards and 1 "special" card. I know some children who have purchased 10's of boxes of Amiibo's trying to the one they want.

Regards,
SB
 
Silent_Buddha said:
This really does have me curious as to whether gatcha machines targetting children exist in the UK. They've existed here in the US since at least the 60's and likely earlier.
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Yes, along with all the other 'gotta collect them all' tat toys.
Silent_Buddha said:
Real life loot box you can buy anywhere. :) Comes with 3 random cards and 1 "special" card. I know some children who have purchased 10's of boxes of Amiibo's trying to the one they want.
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Yep, and really these should be regulated too to avoid a double standard. There should be a difference between selling something known versus unknown. The latter is chance, gambling, only not covered by 'gambling' laws as these only pertain to money. Back when those laws were invented, there wasn't the possibility of mass-produced random items. The world's changed and regulation needs to change with it.
 
Johnny Awesome said:
Why should any of this be regulated? If you don't like loot boxes, don't buy games that have them for your kids.
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As time goes on, that severely limits more and more big titles that all the kids want to play. It's also about not getting them hooked onto gambling-type mechanics that are designed to force the player to spend a lot more on the game in order to feel as though they can actually progress and compete.

There's just so much more to this than "if you don't like them then don't buy them"
 
Malo said:
As time goes on, that severely limits more and more big titles that all the kids want to play. It's also about not getting them hooked onto gambling-type mechanics that are designed to force the player to spend a lot more on the game in order to feel as though they can actually progress and compete.

There's just so much more to this than "if you don't like them then don't buy them"
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While I'd agree with the sentiment, getting hooked on gambling is more a question of when than it is of whether a person will or won't become a gambler. A person is generally either predisposed to becoming addicted to gambling or they aren't. If they are, then it's just a question of when that addiction will kick in and to what extent. If they aren't then they'll never become addicted.

You can easily see this in children with all sorts of children's gambling activities. Marbles (perhaps not relevant in modern day but was big when I was growing up), for example is all about betting and gambling marbles. Children that are predisposed to gambling will spend a significant amount of their time playing the game and trying to get other children to play the game. Children that aren't predisposed to gambling will quickly lose interest if wagering of marbles is involved. There will be some subset of children that are interested in the skill aspects of playing marbles who will avoid children who are interested in the gambling aspects of marbles.

You can see this play out with collectable card games as well.

IMO, regulations that seek to protect people from themselves at best can only delay addiction to gambling if the person is already predisposed to gambling type activities, or alternatively it'll steer them to alternative expressions of that urge. IE - gambling their life on risky physical activities where one wrong move results in death or physical disablement.

At worst, it just means more underground outlets for it and associated organizations focused on peddling those types of things.

I guess in the end, the most practical potential result of any legislation would be to maybe protect the parent's bank account. :p

It's interesting to see that the only times governments get involved in something like this is when large amounts of cash is involved. You don't see governments getting involved in children playing marbles or card games or board games or pachinko (as long as cash isn't involved) or any other game of chance which has the potential to get children addicted to gambling, for instance. :p So, the intention obviously isn't to protect children from gambling, but more about preventing children from spending a lot of cash on gambling. :p

Regards,
SB
 
My anecdote: gambling is banned by my religion and country and I didn't understand the allure of gambling.

I've been fine with not gambling my time on Destiny 1 and 2. But came destiny 2 with its "everything explodes if you got weapons with this perk".

I suddenly gambled my time, doing repetitive task, again and again. Luckily after I realized what the heck am I doing, I managed to stop.
 
The more countries these publishers can no longer conduct business in the better.
 
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