Are Loot-boxes Dying Out: The Issue With Gambling in Games
If you are someone that has been a part of the gaming community for a long time then you are probably familiar with Lootboxes. Lootboxes used to be all the rage in the gaming community and almost every game had their own version of them, which you could purchase with either in-game money or additional charges. If you are not aware of what Lootboxes are then don’t fret, as they work in quite a simple way. They are basically comparable with a mystery box and depending on the game that you are playing, you have the opportunity to gain tools that will improve your gameplay.
If you are someone who has experience with Lootboxes or knows of them, you may have noticed that they have started to die out in the last few years. There used to be an active group of Lootbox users that would make videos about their experiences and promote the purchase of Lootboxes. However, this is no longer the case and it is rare that you’ll find someone even talking about Lootboxes, let alone making videos about them. You may be wondering why they have lost popularity, as they seemed to be harmless fun that everyone enjoyed- however this is simply not the case.
Gambling
One of the main reasons that Lootboxes started to lose their popularity is because of the issue of gambling that is associated with Lootboxes. When they were first introduced into the gaming community they were good fun and people would enjoy using whatever leftover change they had to treat themselves to a box every now and again as they added a bit of excitement to the game. However, as with any aspect of gaming, people started to get competitive with their Lootboxes. This was especially the case for Lootboxes that helped you get ahead in the game, people would spend hundreds of dollars so that they could get ahead of their peers and level up faster.
This would be fine if it was just adults who had access to the Lootboxes, but children could also purchase the boxes. Due to the number of Youtubers that were continuously making videos about all of the cool things that they got from the boxes, children were being influenced every day to buy more and more boxes. Children slowly became the largest audience for these boxes and so the advertisements for them became directed towards them. However, parents started to realize this and so restricted the amount of money that their children could spend on the boxes, which meant the Lootboxes lost a lot of their custom and popularity.
Without Use
Another reason that people stopped buying Lootboxes is that they no longer had use for them. The only advantage of buying the boxes was to improve gameplay, however, with all the new methods to improve gameplay on the market, Lootboxes appeared to be the least efficient of them all. Especially with all of the new innovative cheat websites like veterancheats that work to improve your gaming experience without having to spend any money. A lot of the Lootboxes didn’t even really improve the quality of your gaming and only really provided aesthetics, which made them redundant after a while as there are only so many skins you can get in a game.
Scandals
One of the main reasons that Lootboxes seemed to lose their popularity in the gaming community was due to the vast amount of scandals that surrounded them. There were dozens of cases of gamers or Youtubers scamming their audiences for financial gain due to their association with Lootbox companies.