---
title: What is a loot box?
credits: XPUB
contents:
what are the characteristics of the lootbox?
- **closed box with objects inside**
- A loot box is a digital or physical box.
- A loot box is a virtual box inside video games containing randomized items.
- A loot box is a virtual box of hidden motives designed to persuade and/or trick players.
- 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 collectible.
- A lottery box.
- **a gift to yourself**
- They look like real gifts, but you purchase them for yourself.
- I choose.
- I get something nice.
- **the box is embedded in a context**
- It works within the context of a game.
- It works outside the context of a game.
- When the game gets tough, the loot box offers you a shortcut.
- **payment**
- The loot box is a virtual feature players can purchase with real money in free-to-play games or full-price-games.
- You don´
- I payed real money to buy a virtual treasure box HOPING it contains something valuable within the world of the game.
- **fast-thinking**
- It is what motivates immediate irrational purchases.
- It can be rational in the context of the game.
- A quest, narrative, social pressure or else can justify any loot boxes.
- It appears and disappears quickly in order to seem exclusive and to make the player buy it without thinking too much.
- Time pressure creates artificial urgency.
- Excitement-anticipation.
- A feeling of excitement and anticipation could be related to the excitement of gambling.
- You know that there is a chance of getting some items that you desire.
- It is desirable because it creates the chances that you get a really rare or powerful item out of it.
- It is like gambling because you don't know what is inside of it.
- **surprise mechanism**
- The element of surprise is a highly appreciated aspect of the loot box.
- 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 is 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 it's disappointing. But there is a moment before opening it when ANYTHING is possible. I like that state of being.
- It's like the cat in the box, is she dead is she alive, she is both until you open the box.
- Surprise.
- An entertaining element.
- It keeps the players hooked to the game by using an element of surprise.
- The player never knows what is inside of it.
- Surprise that comes with consequences.
- **immediate reward**
- Reward.
- The immediate reward makes it fun, the risk comes with pleasure.
- Loot box derives from the loot, a bunch of goodies that you can get as a reward after you conquer a super boss or level up.
- A reward after accomplishing a really heroic task.
- An immediately rewarding response preceded by a generally customized trigger.
- A rewarding experience.
- A guaranteed reward in exchange for money.
- Progress in the game.
- You have more power in the game.
- Some players might even feel cornered into purchasing loot boxes as the game cannot reach its full potential without it.
- You will get better if you buy one.
- **emotional response**
- Strong emotional reactions are tied to finances.
- Pleasure.
- Thrill.
- Excitement.
- Desire.
- Disappointment.
- **repetition**
- A rewarding mechanism.
- Even if you don't get exactly what you wish for, you will get something, and you feel somehow rewarded.
- It's collectible.
- Incremental rewards.
- It is disguised as safe and innocent.
- You can keep opening loot boxes forever.
- **it interfaces the game and the real world**
- It is an alternate reality experience of collecting things you can't own in real life.
- It is a pulse in the circulation of resources between a virtual game and the reality outside of it.
- **loot box as currency exchange**
- Game coin.
- Collectible item.
- Real money.
- Power-Up.
- **designed to be addictive**
- Very real addictive mechanisms.
- A repeated scheme that ensures constant spending into virtual game currencies.
- Designed to be desirable and to be purchased again and again.
- Some rewards are rare and that makes the loot box desirable.
- It puts you in a condition for purchasing without thinking too much.
- Its timespan is similar to the discount periods or Black Friday.
- Looking under the hood.
- "Time constraint or the lack thereof: how does this contribute to the risk/pleasure/adrenaline rush that comes with every loot box unlocking experience?"
- A trigger for addictive behaviour.
- A loot box is a gambling mechanism, exploitative by design, that promises immediate in-game rewards to the player.
- The rewards of the loot box can affect both the gameplay and the social environment around the game.
- It sets the beat for repeated microtransactions.
- it's a repetitive rhythm for the player's temporality.
- It builds a habit by triggering the attention and the emotional response of the player.
- It's fun.
- It ensures that you keep playing potentially forever.
- From habit to addiction.
- You would pay weird amounts of money to obtain something new.
- Risk
- Ritual
- Destiny
- **it hacks the temporality of a game**
- It allows you to customize your game character.
- It shifts the dynamics in the game.
- It provides you with collectibles or power-ups that make you progress inside the game.
- A temporalized tool for the distribution and management of resources.
- **exploitative**
- The potentially endless collection creates artificial needs.
- Exploitative fun.
- The benefits for you are emotional. The benefits for the game platforms are financial.
- A money-making mechanism that uses real world money in video games' worlds.
- **It targets vulnerable players**
- A trigger for addictive behavior.
- A trigger for toxic behavior.
- It has no limitations.
- An escape from the real life.
- **FOMO**
- The surprise mechanism and exclusivity of the loot box creates a constant FOMO.
- Peer pressure
- Social pressure
- How does exposing the inner workings and real motives of the loot box affect the players' behavior and decision making?
- **an individual engagement**
- A personalized 1 to 1 interaction.
- 1 to machine interaction.
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