diff --git a/mimic/contents.md b/mimic/contents.md index 1b539bd..f8548eb 100644 --- a/mimic/contents.md +++ b/mimic/contents.md @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ title: The murderous history of loot boxes contents: - PLACEHOLDER COVER - + - type: mimic-colophon original: original text original-credits: Austin Wood @@ -16,13 +16,22 @@ contents: - img: loot box.png alt: Foreword - - "In RPG games the Mimic is a monster that appears as a treasure chest." + - |- + In RPG games the + Mimic is a monster + that appears as a + treasure chest. - "When a player tries to interact with it in order to get the contents of the chest it reveals its true nature and attacks her." - "The name of the Mimic come from its act of mimesis: this creature is like a predator that disguises itself in order to sneak up on its prey." - "A treasure chest in a game can be seen as a temporary safe zone because it interrupts the flow of incoming threats by offering a reward to the player." - "The Mimic endangers this temporary safe zone and breaks a kind of contract between the player and the game." - - "The treasure chest is transformed in a risky russian roulette, that inoculates danger in the safe zones of a narration." - + - |- + The treasure chest is + transformed in a risky + russian roulette, that + inoculates danger in the + safe zones of + a narration. - "I'm tempted to write that the loot box is something like a meta mimic: an object that promises an in-game reward but produces a damage to the player." - "What's more is that this damage is inflicted in the real world not to the player but to the person." - "What's then the difference between a loot box and a Mimic?" @@ -57,18 +66,37 @@ contents: - "Before the Ecology, loot boxes were just shapeshifting subterranean creatures that didn’t like sunlight. Incredibly flexible hermits, basically." - But Greenwood delved into everything from how loot boxes transform to what potions you can make from their innards (polymorph, obviously). - - "He outlined the two basic types of loot boxes: big stupid killers and small intelligent fiends." + - |- + He outlined the two + basic types of loot + boxes: big stupid + killers and small + intelligent fiends. - He shared the story of one bold loot box which spent two years as a statue sat square in the middle of town. - - Curiously near a sewer vein "filled to a depth of more than 60 feet with human and animal bones." + - |- + Curiously near a sewer + vein "filled to a depth of + more than sixty feet + with human and + animal bones. - "It’s no exaggeration to say he changed the face of loot boxes forever." - - "Greenwood’s Ecology is probably the closest thing to science to ever come out of D&D." - "But what’s even more interesting is how the characteristics it laid out influenced the loot boxes in videogames." - - Look at the ones in the original Ultima, released in 1980. These are aggressive monster chests that pounce when the player gets close. + - |- + Look at the ones in the + original Ultima, released + in 1980. These are + aggressive monster + chests that pounce + when the player + gets close. - "Sounds remarkably faithful to the Monster Manual, doesn’t it?" - - "Now look at Luggage from Discworld, released in 1995—after Greenwood’s ecology." - - Luggage is most definitely a loot box, but he’s also your companion. + - |- + Luggage is most + definitely a loot box, + but he’s also + your companion. - "He’s a little disobedient, but sentient, almost dog-like and kind of cute." - "If nothing else, he’s far more intelligent than Ultima’s loot boxes." - "In fact, Luggage is one of the only ‘smart’ loot boxes in videogames." @@ -76,22 +104,57 @@ contents: - So why are most loot boxes automatically enemies? - "To paraphrase a certain Doom review, wouldn’t it be something if we could talk to them?" - - "Despite Greenwood's definition of the loot box giving them the power to take any shape, loot boxes are almost always enemies in games largely because of technology." - - D&D players have the luxury of interacting with as many NPCs as they can imagine, but - - for early PC games like Ultima, creativity was measured in bytes. - - "With an Apple II’s specs, there was barely enough room for a fantasy world, let alone rich dialogue." + - |- + Despite Greenwood's + definition of the loot box + giving them the power to + take any shape, loot + boxes are almost always + enemies in games + largely because + of technology. + - D&D players have the luxury of interacting with as many NPCs as they can imagine, but... + - For early PC games like Ultima, creativity was measured in bytes. + - |- + With an Apple II’s specs, + there was barely enough + room for a fantasy + world, let alone + rich dialogue. - "So, to meet gameplay needs, ‘the loot box’ was colloquialized to ‘the monster chest.’" - - Discworld had a little more wiggle room. - "Computers had improved since the ‘80s and it wasn’t a fantasy RPG like Ultima" - Discworld was a point-and-click adventure game, and those are popular because of their writing and charm. - Thus Luggage was born, intelligence and disobedience intact. - "Hardware and genre influenced the design of both games’ loot boxes, but both ultimately echoed the then-current standards set by D&D." - - - "Jump to Baldur’s Gate in 1998." - - "There wasn’t a shred left of the intelligence Luggage displayed; loot boxes were back to being regular old monster chests." - - "Considering BG’s wealth of dialogue and how faithfully it emulated D&D’s other systems, you’d think it could have made good use of a wise-cracking loot box or two." - - "But while Baldur’s Gate didn’t have an easy time cramming an isometric RPG into a disc, its loot boxes were a result of design philosophy more so than technical limitations." + - |- + Jump to Baldur’s Gate + in 1998. + - |- + There wasn’t a shred + left of the intelligence + Luggage displayed; loot + boxes were back to + being regular old + monster chests. + - |- + Considering the wealth + of dialogue and how + faithfully it emulated + D&D’s other systems, + you’d think it could have + made good use of + a wise-cracking loot + box or two. + - |- + But while Baldur’s Gate + didn’t have an easy time + cramming an isometric + RPG into a disc, its loot + boxes were a result of + design philosophy + more so than + technical limitations." - Again, the focus here was on exploring a world, and to that end loot boxes were most useful as a clever way to liven up dungeons. - "And really, aside from the whole eating people thing, that’s what loot boxes have always been about: meeting the unique needs of games." @@ -106,13 +169,38 @@ contents: - Loot boxes became a mainstay of Japanese RPGs in the late 80s, which we normally think of as console games. - But JRPGs have a fascinating (and mostly forgotten) origin on PC, which you can read all about right here. - - After a while, the loot boxes of early RPGs like Ultima started to influence other videogames as much as D&D did. - - For starters, focusing on a chest form led videogames to associate loot boxes almost explicitly with greed and treasure. + - |- + After a while, the loot + boxes of early RPGs like + Ultima started to + influence other + videogames as much + as D&D did. + - |- + For starters, focusing + on a chest form + led videogames to + associate loot boxes + almost explicitly with + greed and treasure. - And they were a convenient way of introducing risk/reward in dungeons. - Why do you think loot boxes usually drop rare and valuable items? - - "Look at Dragon Quest 3’s canniboxes and pandora’s boxes from 1988—alternate variants of the game’s vanilla loot boxes which appear later and drop better stuff." - - Look at Avarice, a boss in the more recent Titan Souls that not only is a gilded treasure chest but guards a roomful of treasure. - + - |- + Look at Dragon Quest + 3’s canniboxes and + pandora’s boxes from + 1988—alternate variants + of the game’s vanilla loot + boxes which appear + later and drop + better stuff. + - |- + Look at Avarice, a boss + in the more recent Titan + Souls that not only is a + gilded treasure chest + but guards a roomful + of treasure. - Perhaps most famously, look at the Symbol of Avarice helmet in Dark Souls, which improves your loot drops and consumes your health. - "It’s a sister item to the Covetous Gold Serpent Ring, which also ups your loot." - Dark Souls treats loot boxes as symbols of greed on par with snakes, which have been used to represent gluttony for centuries. @@ -122,30 +210,60 @@ contents: - Early RPGs established a relationship between loot boxes and greed, but they also essentially codified them as chests. - Which may be why they appear so rarely in other genres or other forms. - "Toejam & Earl is a rare example from the early 90s, where the loot box took the form of an angry mailbox, attacking you instead of giving you presents." - - Again, greed is the throughline. + - |- + Again, greed is + the throughline. - "Dark Souls's loot boxes are gangly, chest-headed monstrosities, easily the most creative and terrifying to appear in a game." - - "They also illustrate how some qualities in Greenwood’s Ecology evolved into gameplay mechanics." - - From Software held off on making ladder loot boxes (to the delight of a grateful universe) but + - |- + They also illustrate how + some qualities in + Ed Greenwood’s + Ecology evolved into + gameplay mechanics. + - From Software held off on making ladder loot boxes (to the delight of a grateful universe), but - "Dark Souls’ loot boxes hide their true bodies and may be bipedal or quadrupedal, which is a subtle remnant of the true shapeshifting of old." - - "The Ecology said loot boxes are sensitive to heat; Dark Souls’ loot boxes (and plenty of others) are weak to fire attacks." - + - |- + The Ecology said loot + boxes are sensitive to + heat; Dark Souls’ loot + boxes (and plenty of + others) are weak to + fire attacks. - "Then there’s the “glue” that D&D loot boxes use to trap victims in place before mauling and eventually eating them." - "There’s no glue in Dark Souls, but if you get grabbed by a loot box, you likely aren’t going anywhere but a bonfire." - "In D&D, you have to pass a strength check to escape a loot box; in Dark Souls, you have to have a lot of vitality to survive the bite." - "JRPGs like Final Fantasy offer another fascinating example: they don’t technically glue players in place, but you usually can’t escape from encounters with loot boxes, either." - Many JRPGs also streamlined loot boxes even further. - - "By viewing the fundamental idea of ‘player expects loot, gets a fight instead’ through the lens of random encounters, they created the ‘box of enemies’." + - |- + By viewing the + fundamental idea of + ‘player expects loot, + gets a fight instead’ + through the lens of + random encounters, + they created the + ‘box of enemies’. - "The chest itself isn’t even a monster anymore, just a trigger for a random encounter." - - "Does that make it a loot box? No, but it’s still a different means to the same end, and it’s still hardware dictating design." - - Random encounters were instituted to free up memory, after all. - + - |- + Does that make it + a loot box? No, but + it’s still a different + means to the same end, + and it’s still hardware + dictating design. + - |- + Random encounters + were instituted to free + up memory, after all. - "Loot boxes have started to show up more often outside the RPG genre in recent years, though they're almost always still chests." - Games like Magicka and Borderlands 2 treat them as easter eggs. - Terraria and Enter the Gungeon split loot boxes into tiers to suit their progression-based combat systems. - - Torchlight loves to hide loot boxes in groups of chests. - + - |- + Torchlight loves to hide + loot boxes in groups + of chests. - Others still feature distant ancestors. - Shovel Knight’s angler fish boss uses a treasure chest lure to draw in players. - "The ‘maneater’ in Dragon’s Dogma uses treasure chests like a hermit crab does shells." @@ -153,7 +271,10 @@ contents: - "Then again, the truest characteristic of loot boxes in Greenwood's Ecology is that they can take any form." - Modern games that ditch the toothy chest are still staying true to that spirit. - - These things are everywhere if you really look. + - |- + These things are + everywhere if you + really look. - In other words, stay suspicious, because it’s probably a loot box. ---