this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2023
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But your parents can't just buy the toy. The only way to get the toy is through the element of chance - sometimes with a near zero win chance - by spending real world money.
The only reason it's not de-facto gambling is that there are consolation prizes, but in most peoples' view that doesn't make it morally okay to push on children, nor does it make it completely not gambling either. It's just gambling with consolation prizes.
I disagree that most people view it as bad. Arcades and stuff have been around forever, and are still being used by a ton of people. Just because you don't want send your kids to chuck E cheese doesn't mean most people agree with you
You keep relying on the Chuck E. Cheese anology, but it simply doesn't work. At Chuck E. Cheese the prizes are a bunch of toys that your parents could otherwise buy, and the fun is in playing the games themselves which pay out tickets toward earning those prizes. That is in no way the equivalent of gamble boxes in video games.
Gamble boxes contain prizes that can't be bought outside the game, and in nearly every case contain prizes that can't be bought with the "consolation prize" (i.e. "tickets") that are dropped when you otherwise win nothing or very little compared to the actual prizes. And there is no inherent "fun" in clicking an "UNLOCK BOX" button compared to actually... playing a game in order to earn prizes. Not comparable at all, really.
If you're going to try to convince people they're not gambling (and you have quite the uphill battle to fight), you're better off likening them to blind bag grab-packs of card games / collector cards / toys, etc. - Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, sports cards, blind-bag toys etc. That is their closest real-world equivalent. Many would argue that those are also a form of gambling, as well.
I like a lot of your points, but I have to correct you in one area, I'm not trying to convince people this isint gambling. I don't think that casual gambling is a bad thing.
Well fair enough, that is a different conversation. I'm not ready to take a hard stance on how it impacts children, people with addictive personalities, etc. but all I know for certain is that it doesn't feel right to include it in virtually every online video game, and it sure as hell got very annoying and tiresome very quickly years ago when it started.
Oh to be sure, there are way to many examples of jerks taking the loot box concept too far. But I'm not sure I'm ready to demonize it like some people do