Loot Boxes

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Loot Boxes (aka "Loot Crates", "Prize Crates", and many other names) are consumable items that contains virtual prizes, like skins, in-game currency, weapons, and armor. Their contents are usually randomly selected from items sorted into tiers of frequency -- the usual scale is Common (most frequently seen), Uncommon (less so), Rare (hard to find) and Very Rare (almost impossible) -- with what is expected to be a value to the player corresponding to their rarities.

Thus opening a Loot Box can be a very pleasant surprise, or the hundredth repetition of the same low-level stuff you've been selling off to vendors for weeks.

Further, the contents of Loot Boxes may be color-coded or otherwise styled to distinguish them from similar items that may be acquired through normal play through drops or quest completions. The intent here is to mark the box loot as "special" and/or more "elite" than its pedestrian counterparts that any schlub can acquire just by going through game content. Some loot -- usually of the higher rarities and often granting near game-breaking advantages and bonuses (or just offering bragging rights) -- may even be exclusive to the Loot Box system, with the intent of driving more players to use it. Sometimes loot box contents are tradeable or can be sold for in-game currency, but in many cases they are "locked" to the player or character who acquired them.

Loot boxes can be acquired through several means, depending on the game. Among the most common are waiting for them to be drop during or after gameplay, for completing rounds without quitting during in a multiplayer match or other special competition, as an award for reaching a new level, or as part of in-game special occasions or events. They might also be acquired by purchasing them with an in-game currency or using in-game crafting components to make them. Most controversially, though, are those games that offer Loot Boxes for real money, either via on-the-fly purchase through microtransactions or buying keys from the game's virtual store to open otherwise sealed boxes that drop during normal play.

All of these versions of Loot Boxes can be found in the smallest mobile games and up to the huge video games that can be found in PC and consoles, especially ones that use the free to play models.

While many game companies will say that they use Loot Boxes to keep their players engaged and offer easy and incremental improvements to game contents, there is no denying that they also get an ongoing revenue stream while avoiding the need to create new DLC or the overhead of game subscriptions.

One of the earliest and most influential forms of Loot Boxes originated in Electronic Arts's early FIFA games, like FIFA Soccer. Andrew Wilson, one of EA's CEOs, evolved the FIFA system when he saw that they could merge microtransactions with the games' existing card pack system, which already bore a strong similarity to modern Loot Boxes. The result was a new element in online (and even offline) gaming with a corresponding new revenue stream for the company.

However, this game mechanic is not without controversy. No small number of gamers hate Loot Boxes because they feel the mechanic detracts from game play. They argue, with some justification, that making Loot Boxes (or the means to unlock them) a cash commodity turns a game from roleplaying into Pay to Win, especially when boxes contain exclusive rewards that outrank those acquired in normal play. Players with money to spend focus their effort on buying boxes to collect ever-more-powerful rare items to gain an advantage over other players, leaving those who cannot or do not want to invest money in Loot Boxes. Even when the boxes do not provide exclusive and overpowered items, the race to buy one's way to the best equipment can turn into the raison d'etre for playing the game, rather than the game content itself.

On top of this was the valid complaint that these games are already highly priced -- often US$30 to US$60 for the main game alone -- that it is exploitative or even fraudulent to require additional outlays of cash from players to receive content that they reasonably feel should have been included in the game already. Another concern is when Loot Drama occurs, where gamers do the most horrible things to each other when one of them gets an incredibly rare item from an item drop or other cases of obtainability, like being that unfortunate lucky one.

Then there are the legal issues raised during 2018 and 2019 -- loot boxes came under fire in multiple jurisdictions like Belgium, which have designated them as gambling, placing them alongside online casinos in terms of regulation, and Japan, where the kompu gacha loot boxes are banned outright by the Consumer Affairs Agency. Questions were raised not only about circumventing gambling regulations but also the effect of random reward systems on personalities already prone to addictive behaviors. Then there were concerns about a growing underground market for selling loot from boxes for real money at often exorbitant prices, driven by the legally-grey "gold miner" industry based out of the far east.

Compare Gacha Game, Revenue Enhancing Devices Not be confused with a type of mail order subscription program where the mystery boxes are physical and take up space in your closet.

Examples of Loot Boxes include:

Video Game Examples

Action Adventure

  • Rise of the Tomb Raider has cards that can only be unlocked by loot boxes in the Expeditions mode, either using in-game dough, Credits, or purchasing them from the virtual store of console or PC. This system only benefits the extra gameplay modes for the gamer's final score. - Which doesn't affect the story.

Action RPG

  • Assassin's Creed: Origins has Reda, a nomadic vendor, where he sells Heka Chests for 3,000 drachma. The latter are in-game currency.
  • The in-game store of Middle Earth: Shadow of War is called the Market, where gamers can purchase loot boxes; they can use the in-game currency, Mirian, with real money or actual microtransactions. But special chests requires gold, the rarest in-game currency - which can be bought with real money.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda‍'‍s loot boxes are rewarded for completing strike team missions; they can be claimed in the Strike Team Console or in the Militia Office.

First Person Shooter

  • Counter-Strike‍'‍s Weapon Cases drop right after a gamer completes a game round, buying a key from the tie-in game store, or buying from some guy selling it in the Steam Markets. Since keys are needed to unlock the cases.
  • Team Fortress 2‍'‍s loot box system is similar to CSGO, they randomly drop and needs keys to open them (Which can be bought from the Mann.Co store, using the Steam Market to buy it from a seller, or a fan trusted site, like Scrap.TF).
  • Some of the important goods for Star Wars: Battlefront 2, like better Star Cards, crafting materials, and extra Credits, can only be obtain by loot boxes, which can only be bought by paying real money. The early system was so abusive and predatory that Disney had to step in and tell EA to cool it, and it also got to the point that legislators in different countries held investigations over the merits of such practices and threatened to ban them as they were seen as a form of gambling especially in an entertainment medium played by minors. In response to intense backlash, the most notable being death threats being made against the developers and a reply on a Reddit thread becoming the single most down-voted comment in the site's history, EA acquiesced and temporarily removed microtransactions for a time until they replaced the loot box system with a new business model consisting of paid cosmetic items that don't affect gameplay.
  • Battlefield 1 and Battlefield Hardline‍'‍s Battlepacks are obtained by finishing specific objectives, just buying in-game currency to buy the loot boxes, or reward progression.
  • Some of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3‍'‍s loot boxes, that are called Mystery Boxes, can spawn in various locations.
    • Though to be fair, Activision began putting in loot boxes starting with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and continue to do so with COD games that came after it.

Fighting Games

  • Injustice 2: To receive Mother Boxes, the gamer needs to link to the game's mobile counterpart, win all of the endings, completing all of the tutorials, doing the story mode, engaging the daily challenges, or leveling up both your player card and individual characters.

Hybrids

  • Paragon‍'‍s loot crates are dropped randomly after completing matches and they need Keys to open. To get Keys it's to open chests, buy them from the in-game store with real money, and being rewarded from rank 13+.
  • With Overwatch, some of the ways to get a loot box are to buy them straight from the store via microtransactions, grind to the next level, wait for drops, and take part in special holidays/events.
  • Fortnite has three types:
    • The Loot Llama are dropped in an area.
    • Supply Drops are loot crates that randomly drop; they contain supplies and one legendary weapon.
    • In Fornite's "Save the World"'s story mode, Llama Pinatas can spawn in certain areas of maps and contain gear and supplies; they can be either bought straight from the Event Store or earned via gameplay.
  • In Phantasy Star Online 2, the scratch cards are like loot boxes with their randomness, their selections of three choices, and their dropping during certain events. Most of the cosmetics can also be bought with real money.

MMORPG

  • RuneScape‍'‍s daily mini-game, Treasure Hunter, offers five crates where the gamer has to choose one but they need a key to unlock, which can be obtain by drops or can be bought in groups with real money.
  • City of Heroes/City of Villains has never had anything along the order of in-universe Loot Boxes, but toward the end of their original run a "Booster Pack" mechanism was added to the game. Players could buy booster packs with real-world cash or merits, and each would give five random drops ranging from common salvage to ultra-rare enhancements and recipes. With the revival of COH in a non-profit form in 2019, boosters became available for in-game currencies only.
    • The Incarnate Salvage drops at the end of Incarnate Trials are effectively one-item Loot Boxes without the boxes. There are four tiers of salvage -- Common, Uncommon, Rare and Very Rare -- and the tier a player will be offered at the end of a trial is selected by a random draw weighted to favor the lower levels of rarity. (Interestingly, the player can choose which item they gain from the tier they receive). Incarnate salvage is locked to the character that earned it, though; it is untradeable and unsellable, although it can be broken down into or converted by the expenditure of the primary Incarnate currency, Incarnate Threads.
  • Neverwinter‍'‍s loot boxes can either be found after defeating foes or bought with Astral Diamonds. But they need Enchanted Keys to be unlocked, these keys can be bought with real money.
  • Champions Online has locked loot boxes which drop after killing enemies; the only way to unlock them is with keys that are either bought with cash in the game store, or purchased with one of the rarest in-game currencies (which can also be purchased with cash in the game store).

Multiplayer Online Battle Arena

  • League of Legends has the Hextech Chests that drop when one gets the High Champion Mastery scores or buying them straight from the store. Keys are earned during matchmade games where they drop, some more frequently (like when a gamer plays with a team of friends).
  • Paladins has the Treasure Chests can be earned by doing certain quests. To open them the gamer needs Crystals, the in-game currency, which can be obtained by microtransactions, buying the Battle or Season Passes, buying them straight from the store, redeeming codes, doing special quests, daily logins, and Refer-A-Friend.
  • Dota 2‍'‍s Treasures can be purchased through the DOTA 2 store, using charms, or waiting for item drops.

Racing Games

  • Need for Speed: Payback uses Shipments - containers that can be earned by gameplay or premium currency, which can be bought with Speed Points, some of which are special types that require costly microtransactions to get. What's worst is that basic essential stuff, like Boost, Speed, and general car parts, have been divided up in a card and loot box system which ties with the Shipments. Later on, EA toned the predatory system down and made it "fair".
  • Thankfully averted with Need for Speed Heat which instead offered paid time savers which reveals collectibles on the map, and paid downloadable content, likely due to the negative reception surrounding loot boxes in Need for Speed Payback as well as the much-publicised backlash towards EA with Star Wars Battlefront II.

Sports Games

  • Many of EA's recent sports titles fall under this, including the aforementioned FIFA.
  • Before it was replaced with a more ethical system, Rocket League has crates that can be unlocked by using keys, which can be obtained either by buying from the marketplace or by trade.
  • On top of the usual loot box concerns, NBA 2K20 received immense backlash and ridicule for its use of simulated gambling mechanics when a pre-release trailer of the game brazenly depicted casino minigames such as pachinko and slot machines as well as roulette wheels. The controversy also spilled over to video game ratings bodies such as the ESRB and PEGI, who were criticised for giving dubiously low age ratings to games marketed and sold towards children (as kids make up part of the NBA's demographic, no less) and their connections to certain corporate game publishers.

Strategy Games

Turn-Based Strategy

  • Girls Frontline has a form of this when it comes to purchases of furniture for game dorms and character costumes, involving spending ingame tokens (acquired for ingame tasks or with real money) for randomized rewards based on certain rotating drop pools depending on special events. Some events will provide a higher ratio of certain items, mixed with some generic items, and there is a generic catchall drop list - all prior special drop events get added to it eventually.

Non-Video Game Examples

Anime and Manga

  • Recovery of an MMO Junkie has a scene where a party goes to loot boxes where the main character buys web money until she gets what she wants rather than being lucky.

Tabletop Games

  • In the Pokémon Trading Card Game Online gamers can use microtransactions to buy virtual card packs, which function as loot boxes. Gamers use in-game coins to use to buy these same virtual card packets, and even scan a special code or QR code from the actual real life Pokémon trading cards and its gear to get them.
  • In Elder Scrolls: Legends, the Crown Crates can be bought from the Crown Store using Crown Gems, the in-game currency, which can be obtain from extracting unwanted items or automatically from already owned items.
  • Gwent‍'‍s Card Kegs can be drop randomly during multiplayer, crafted using Ore, or straight up buying them.
  • For gamers that play Hearthstone, the packs give out randomize cards, though the packs themselves can be obtain by various ways: competing, doing certain quests, Recruit A Friend, or buying them straight from the in-game shop for either real money or using in-game money.
    • Special cards, like the Wild card packs, can only be bought with real money, since in-game money can't be used to buy them and they aren't rewarded.
  • Shadowverse gives out cards in packs that can either be bought or gained through playing the game by story mode or playing multiplayer.
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