--- title: What is a loot box? credits: XPUB contents: - 1. what are the characteristics of the lootbox? - unknown items - closed boxes - surprise mechanism - a gift to yourself - emotional response - fast-thinking - gambling - payment - cost - progress in the game - immediate reward - hacks the temporality of a game - exploitative - designed to be addictive - target vulnerable player - FOMO - interfaces the game and the real world - loot box as currency exchange - from game-coins or collectible items to real money - works within a context - Gersande - The loot box is a virtual feature players can purchase with real money in free-to-play games or full-price-games. - It can be assumed to be a certain item or feature but is random to the player. - The element of surprise is a highly appreciated aspect of the loot box. - Because of the way this feature has been embedded in games, it has very real addictive mechanisms to it. - Some players might even feel cornered into purchasing loot boxes as the game cannot reach its “full potential” without it. - This repeated scheme ensures the constant spending of the players into virtual game currencies. - The context of the loot box is very demanding to the player. - It is what motivates immediate irrational (can be rational in the context of the game) purchases. - The urgency of a narrative, quest, social pressure or else can justify any loot boxes. - The immediate reward makes it fun, the risk comes with pleasure. - This thus combines cost, addictiveness, gambling, reward, fun. - Strong emotional reactions are tied to finances. - The surprise mechanism and exclusivity of the loot box creates a constant FOMO. - The endless collecting potential of loot box creates fantasy needs for people to be exploited by the fun. - The benefits for the game platforms are financial, for the player emotional. - Carmen - The loot box is like a secret treasure that is usually not worth the money you pay for it, or the expectations you have for it - but that its somehow exciting - I think the addictiveness is very connected to the surprise mechanism, I think that anticipation moment is what is addictive. - How that makes you feel. - Anything is possible. - Of course then you open it and its disappointing. - But there is a moment before opening it when ANYTHING is possible. - I like that state of being. - Is like the cat in the box, is he dead is he alive, he is both until you open the box. - In that sense, this feeling of excitement and anticipation could be related to the excitement of gambling. - I think the reward is also connected to the collectionable feature. - You feel that even if you don't get exactly what you wish you will get something. - So you feel somehow rewarded, and the fact that there are more tries available make this reward feeling safe, thus repeteable or collectionable. - Jian - The lootbox is a digital or physical box that contains random (or unknown) items. - The box is embedded in a context (for example in the fictional world of a game). - "There are 2 main characteristics:" - Payment - Surprise - The main characteristics or mechanisms of the lootbox are the payment and the surprise. - You don´t get it for free, and you dont know what you get. - "The combination of payment and surprise can have the following effects:" - gambling, addiction, pleisure, - thrill, excitement, reward, - disappointment, risk, ritual, - exclusivity, time pressure, - social pressure, desire, - destiny, exploitation, FOMO - etc. - Chae - In video game the loot box is - a virtual object containing randomized items - from making your game character more unique to shifting the dynamic of game. - 1. an entertaining element, keeping the players hooked to the game by using the element of surprise and; - 2. a money-making mechanism in video game by using real world money to get it. - Mitsa - A loot box is a virtual box inside video games that provide a player with collectibles or essential items - that make them progress inside the game. - It derives from the loot - a bunch of goodies that a player can get as a reward after they conquer-win a super boss or level up. - But the loot box in its more recent and exploitative version is getting purchased with real money from a player. - The player never knows what is inside of it. - But they know that there is a chance of getting some items that they desire. - Many times a loot box appear in the gameplay and it disappears quickly - in order to be exclusive and make the player buy them without thinking too much. - The loot box are designed for making profit and its latest form are getting purchased directly by the consumer. - In order to be really essential for the player/consumer for keeping them more on the game - and making them purchasing it again and again they are designed in order to be desirable. - They are desirable because they create the chances that a player gets a really rare or powerful item out of them. - But they are like gambling because the player doesn't know what is inside of it. - They look like real gifts -they are closed boxes- but you purchase them for yourself. - And at some point you get them as a reward after accomplishing a really heroic task. - Also the fact that the loot boxes are rare makes them again desirable - and put the player in a condition for purchasing them without thinking too much. - This last characteristic is similar to the discount periods or black friday. - Supi - a loot box is a virtual box of hidden motives designed to persuade and/or trick players. - an alternate reality experience of collecting things you can't own in real life - surprise that comes with consequences - risk, reward - trigger for addictive/toxic behavior - surprise mechanism - how does exposing the inner workings and real motives of the loot box affect the players' behavior/decision making? - looking under the hood - time constraint or the lack thereof - how this contributes to the risk / pleasure / adrenaline rush that comes with every loot box unlocking experience - Flem - a virtual box where the user can pay and access products/items that can be useful to go on with the game, or can be collectable. - This lottery box is based on a surprise and gambling mechanism - in which the user excited for the "new-things-idea" would pay weird amounts of money to obtain something. - a player pays real money to buy a virtual treasure box - HOPING it contains something valuable within the world of the game - no limitations (not good both for who is addicted or for children) - the idea that you will get better if you buy one - rewarding experience - you choose, you get something nice (idea of the gift to yourself) - you have more power in the game (and in your life?) - guaranteed reward in exchange of money - "the characteristic that worries me the most is:" - game as escapism from the real life - Kamo - A loot box is a gambling mechanism, exploitative by design, that promises immediate in-game rewards to the player. - Those rewards can affect both the gameplay and the social environment around the game. - Grgr - The lootbox is a temporalized tool for the distribution and management of resources - between the inside of the gameplay and the outside of the gameplay. - Lootbox is like a pulse in the circulation of resources between virtual game and the reality ouside of it. - Lootbox is temporalized because it sets the beat, it's a repetitive rhythm for the player's temporality. - It builds an habit by triggering the attention and the emotional response of the player - (surprise element + gambling + reward + it's fun) - and ensuring that the player keeps playing potentially forever - (from habit to addiction) - The lootbox is also a mechanism that focuses on individual engagement, a personalized 1 to 1 interaction, or 1 to machine interaction. - an immediately rewarding response preceeded by a generally customized trigger. - but these are also the things I would like to change or make them fairer in our lootbox. - 2. what characteristic do we want to subvert? - "subvert - /səbˈvəːt/ - verb - gerund or present participle: subverting" - undermine the power and authority of (an established system or institution). - "to overturn or overthrow from the foundation : RUIN" - to pervert or corrupt by an undermining of morals, allegiance, or faith - When you subvert something, your words or actions criticize or undermine the usual way of doing something or common values. - The girl who wears a tuxedo to the prom might subvert traditional ideas about beauty. - To subvert an institution like a school or a government is to overthrow it or stop its normal way of functioning. - Subvert comes from the Latin word subvertere, which combines the prefix sub, under, and the suffix vertere, to turn. - So you can imagine something that subverts as overturning or flipping the usual way of doing things. - Like a student who subverts a teacher's authority, causing chaos in the classroom. - Examples of Subvert in a sentence - In the movie, the rebels sought to subvert the tribunal’s power and replace the body with a democratic government. - My stepmother is slowly changing things in our house in an attempt to subvert my mother’s traditions. - Since the prince was in a hurry to become king, he planned to subvert his father’s influence by convincing everyone the leader was - insane. - The dictator ordered the execution of every insurgent who sought to subvert his authority. - When the first mate tried to subvert the captain’s position, he was thrown overboard. - Our approach to subvertion - taking something and making you own but also a bit of not conflictive way - if we want to subvert the lootbox, how it is used in a manipulated way - make fun of it, change it, turning it around - intention to reveal / question the mechanisms of the lootbox - part of the loot box is that it keeps a secret - chenging the context but not the functionality, it doesn't transform everything - There are multiple ways/strategies to subvert something - change direction or orientation of something ---