Star Trek Online is perhaps the worst offender for me. Not long ago when Star Trek Discovery was hot, they had a loot box campaign featuring ships from the show. That's what sells the keys for those Loot Boxes in that game, the ships. People want the ships, and they don't drop often if at all...or at least for everyone but me, because I always wound up with nothing but crafting materials and Lobi Crystals (a residual currency given from opening the boxes you can spend at a specific merchant). Being a potato, I've probably spent more than 100$ on loot box keys for Star Trek Online because...well, they give away the loot boxes themselves like their candy in random enemy drops, you can wind up with 20 or 30 of them on a good afternoon depending on what you're doing, but you need keys to open them. How do you get keys? Right now I'm doing that rubbing my fingers together gesture to indicate the expenditure of currency.
And you gotta know what's in the box right? It's right there in your inventory...what are you going to do, Jimmy? Discard it? Oh you could, probably. You could use your common sense, but there's always that part of your brain that makes you go...you know what, I feel lucky today.
There is a game out there that is purely about opening loot boxes, to unlock more loot boxes, to try and get rarer loot boxes, all a testimony to the mentality these things entail, which is akin to the joy we feel ripping the wrapping off a Christmas present.
Loot Boxes also serve as a means of revenue for the company. Me and others I know often will make the excuse (if an excuse you would call it) that there's no sin in tossing a company I like a few extra bucks for providing me with enjoyment. I know keeping a game online in today's market isn't easy, if not impossible. It's never long before 80% of all MMO's start subscriber only and eventually are forced to go Free To Play purely for the survival of the product, and that means the game needs to earn revenue somehow to offset costs. Game developers and their employee's don't work for free, so in that I can understand the philosophy behind the necessity of cash shops and loot boxes...and the RNG is just the spicy little detail that keeps you coming back for more. Have you ever looked at an update to a games cash shop and saw something you just had to have? Sure, possibly purely cosmetic, but you needed it, for whatever reason you favored. I fell into it with Star Wars: The Old Republic years ago when the game rolled out loot boxes containing costume pieces from the Knights of the Old Republic series, and there was a piece I desperately wanted and probably spent way more than I'm willing to admit on trying to acquire it, instead acquiring pieces that are backlogging my storage space in the game and just won't sell on the in-game marketplace.
Eventually, though, I got what I wanted, and I didn't feel a shred of regret or remorse except a scoff at the fact I paid possibly 50$ (rounded) for a virtual jacket. And to think I used to give Blizzard lip for charging 25$ for a mount.
Am I going to tell you to avoid Loot Boxes and the services associated? No. If you're reading this, I take every confidence you are a well adjusted adult or teenager who can make their own financial decisions. If tossing a couple dollars at a game for something that brings you a bit of happiness is your call, then I'm not going to judge. But I will warn you of games that make it feel a jaunt into the cash shop and rolling the dice is the only way to make progress in a game. The biggest offenders are on the mobile game market, that allow you to progress a ways into the game before it starts making it very apparent they want your money, and will bog down your progress until you're just frustrated enough to give in.
Black Desert Online is a big offender. A game I overall have a love/hate relationship with. Perfectly playable free, but where it gets you is not the cosmetic items in their cash shop...No, it's the utilities. With such limited carry capacity in your inventory, and the inventory weight system, you'll find yourself spending more time trudging back to a Warehouse to store your goods...unless, of course, you pony up the cash for a sufficient increase in your inventory and weight capacity. To me, this is just greedy. I could also point a similar finger at Elder Scrolls Online, where your inventory will be constantly buggered, unless of course you're a subscriber and get access to an infinite capacity crafting materials bag, which alone sold me on the mere 15$ a month charge, since now I could play the game longer than 15 minutes without needing to visit my characters bank or a vendor.
Loot Boxes also serve as a means of revenue for the company. Me and others I know often will make the excuse (if an excuse you would call it) that there's no sin in tossing a company I like a few extra bucks for providing me with enjoyment. I know keeping a game online in today's market isn't easy, if not impossible. It's never long before 80% of all MMO's start subscriber only and eventually are forced to go Free To Play purely for the survival of the product, and that means the game needs to earn revenue somehow to offset costs. Game developers and their employee's don't work for free, so in that I can understand the philosophy behind the necessity of cash shops and loot boxes...and the RNG is just the spicy little detail that keeps you coming back for more. Have you ever looked at an update to a games cash shop and saw something you just had to have? Sure, possibly purely cosmetic, but you needed it, for whatever reason you favored. I fell into it with Star Wars: The Old Republic years ago when the game rolled out loot boxes containing costume pieces from the Knights of the Old Republic series, and there was a piece I desperately wanted and probably spent way more than I'm willing to admit on trying to acquire it, instead acquiring pieces that are backlogging my storage space in the game and just won't sell on the in-game marketplace.
Eventually, though, I got what I wanted, and I didn't feel a shred of regret or remorse except a scoff at the fact I paid possibly 50$ (rounded) for a virtual jacket. And to think I used to give Blizzard lip for charging 25$ for a mount.
Am I going to tell you to avoid Loot Boxes and the services associated? No. If you're reading this, I take every confidence you are a well adjusted adult or teenager who can make their own financial decisions. If tossing a couple dollars at a game for something that brings you a bit of happiness is your call, then I'm not going to judge. But I will warn you of games that make it feel a jaunt into the cash shop and rolling the dice is the only way to make progress in a game. The biggest offenders are on the mobile game market, that allow you to progress a ways into the game before it starts making it very apparent they want your money, and will bog down your progress until you're just frustrated enough to give in.
Black Desert Online is a big offender. A game I overall have a love/hate relationship with. Perfectly playable free, but where it gets you is not the cosmetic items in their cash shop...No, it's the utilities. With such limited carry capacity in your inventory, and the inventory weight system, you'll find yourself spending more time trudging back to a Warehouse to store your goods...unless, of course, you pony up the cash for a sufficient increase in your inventory and weight capacity. To me, this is just greedy. I could also point a similar finger at Elder Scrolls Online, where your inventory will be constantly buggered, unless of course you're a subscriber and get access to an infinite capacity crafting materials bag, which alone sold me on the mere 15$ a month charge, since now I could play the game longer than 15 minutes without needing to visit my characters bank or a vendor.
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