BY KEV’VION MORGAN-MARTIN

What are loot boxes? Loot boxes are what video game companies use to for their live service games. These games sole purpose is to keep people playing for as long as possible in hopes of earning the company more money through the payment of micro transactions. They do this by making the player feel like they are missing out on something by not playing the game regularly. For example daily logins result in minor exp boosts or they sometimes have events that boost your experience and money you earn at the end of a match. Live service games are often designed so that it takes a very long time to make any meaningful progress in the game while also offering micro transactions that allow players to speed up progress. They manipulate players into spending money. Essentially gamers are now prey with company serving as predator…it’s all a trap. 

Their ultimate goal? To keep players playing even if they don’t enjoy it while also tempting them to spend money. Now, this is where some game companies take it over the top. Starting with EA also known as Electronic Arts. These guys use to be good but after their recent events and many others they have become the villains of the gaming industry. One of their newer titles, Apex, is a free to play battle royal game. This game recently hosted and event called  Iron Crown Now, and when it first released there were a bunch of rewards players were able to collect. These rewards were things like skins, intro music and weapon skins. But how are we supposed to get these items? There should be challenges to get these items. But there isn’t. Everything was locked behind a paywall. Some people might think  it’s just a few bucks, and it’s not a big deal but it is. To get the full set of skins it costs $170 that’s a real big deal.

And after you unlock the rest of the set they give you the option to buy an heirloom weapon which are super rare items you can get through loot boxes. This should not be a thing. But to get this you need pay and additional $30. And it doesn’t stop there. In other games they have loot boxes which basically promote gambling. Each loot box has a chance of giving a rare or common item. And they give some people a rush at the opportunity to collect something valuable.

There’s a game called CS Go. You can buy crates and each crate has sets of weapon skins that are either common, uncommon, rare and legendary. And people buy these crates over and over just to get knife skins which are legendary skins. Now some people have taken notice and tried to speak out about it. But the best way to get it out is to speak with your wallet once their stocks go down they’ll start listening.