Loot box
In short A paid item in a game whose contents are random and revealed only after the player pays.
Definition
A loot box is a purchase in a game whose contents are chosen at random and revealed only after the player pays, with real money or with a currency bought with it. Packs, crates, cases and gacha draws work the same way under other names. The mechanism is B. F. Skinner's variable-ratio schedule, in which unpredictable rewards keep a behaviour going; the loot box attaches a payment to it. A large 2018 survey linked loot-box spending to problem gambling, though the link is correlational. Regulators disagree about what loot boxes are: Belgium's gaming regulator treated paid ones as illegal gambling in 2018, while the Netherlands' highest administrative court in 2022 treated them as part of a game of skill.
Not to be confused with
- Feedback loop
A feedback loop is any cycle in which outcomes change what comes next; a loot box is one purchase whose reward is random.
- Mechanic
A mechanic is an action the rules allow in play; a loot box is a sale, even when it is presented as part of play.
- Gamification
Gamification borrows game elements for settings outside games; loot boxes sit inside games, between play and payment.
Where the game lives
- rules: not essential
- goals: dropped
- feedback: used
- uncertainty: used
- choice: dropped
- play: not essential
A loot box keeps uncertainty and the small feedback of the reveal. It drops goals and any choice that affects the outcome once the purchase is made.
used dropped
Examples
FIFA Ultimate TeamElectronic Arts
Its packs are the case regulators split over. EA stopped selling FIFA Points in Belgium after the 2018 ruling, and an EA executive called the packs "surprise mechanics" in 2019.
Genshin ImpactmiHoYo, 2020
A free-to-play role-playing game funded by randomised character and weapon draws, the gacha form common in mobile games.
Where the field disagrees
Regulators do not agree on what a loot box is. In 2018 Belgium’s Gaming Commission ruled paid loot boxes illegal gambling, and EA later stopped selling FIFA Points there. In 2019 an EA executive told a UK parliamentary committee that Ultimate Team packs were “surprise mechanics”. In 2022 the Netherlands’ highest administrative court overturned a €10 million fine against EA, treating the packs as part of a game of skill. Identical mechanics, opposite conclusions.
Second Playthrough uses “loot box” for any paid reward whose contents are random, whatever a particular law calls it. The essay Industry, Art, Media looks at the business these mechanics sit inside.
In the essays
Industry, Art, Media: What Video Games Actually Are
A video game is three things at once: an industrial product, an artistic work and a medium that argues. The most revealing parts of a game sit where the three meet.
Sources
- PaperVideo game loot boxes are linked to problem gambling: Results of a large-scale survey. PLoS ONE, 2018. Correlational survey of 7,422 gamers; it does not show causation.