Casino games are great. Video games are great. But they should never cross paths unless you think loot boxes are a good idea (you monster). Well luckily, Germany may take the first step in uncoupling these two, as they look to pose restrictions.
A study by the University of Hamburg found that elements of gambling are becoming increasingly common in video games, and becoming super important to the bottom line for publishers everywhere.
Following this, Germany’s Media Authorities have begun heavily critizising the use of loot boxes, which has led to an investigation into the regulations of advertising them, as well as purchasing as a whole.
Source: Overwatch
The analysis by KJM (the governmental institution responsible for youth protection regarding to online content/services) is taking a look into general in-shop advertising in video games, rather than specifically loot boxes. But said boxes are covered in the research.
Loot boxes in reference to the german debate means a broader spectrum of content - from the crates you pay for in Star Wars Battlefront II, to even just game-related purchase systems. That means while they are not specifically tackling the loot boxes that annoy us gamers, they are looking at the whole system that includes them.
Enticement like this in online casino games has been around for years. In fact, it can even add to the gaming experience - picking up a couple free tries on freespinsfever.co.uk, to test out some different titles and see what you enjoy the most.
Many home console gamers, however, would draw the line at their favourite shooters, platformers or general big console titles. People remember a time when their home video games just came with everything readily available as part of the game you just dropped money on.
DLC was a tough pill to swallow, but people eventually got on board with developers wanting to expand on their original creations in new and interesting ways. And now they want us to pay more to gamble in these games? As you can expect, this has drawn criticism - not just from Germany, but across the globe.
So where does the debate go from here? Well, if you want to see in-game loot crates get banned, a couple of key developments need to happen.
Source: Pixabay
Support from the ratings board
North America’s ESRB and Europe’s PEGI have openly condemned loot boxes. Germany now needs their own USK rating board to do the same, even though they haven’t weighed in yet. Currently, they say they “cannot define what constitutes gambling,” and therefore cannot regulate loot boxes. Hopefully that changes for them…
Increased public outcry
You saw what happened to Star Wars Battlefront 2 - even if just for a little bit… Due to the massive response to EA’s clear ploys to extract unnecessary amounts of cash from the players, they pulled the features altogether.
That’s not to say it was a permanent fix, but with enough volume in the social space, companies may be drawn to listen and support the move to stop loot boxes.
Only time will tell…
