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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 - /səbˈːt/ - 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 tribunals power and replace the body with a democratic government.
- My stepmother is slowly changing things in our house in an attempt to subvert my mothers traditions.
- Since the prince was in a hurry to become king, he planned to subvert his fathers 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 captains 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
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