When it comes to video games and my kids, I’ve always known to be cautious about how much screen time my boys were getting and to be aware of mature content, such a violence and sex. I knew video games could be problematic, but I also knew they could be wonderful.
I grew up playing Super Mario Brothers with my brothers, and I loved it. I still like video games from time to time, and I know they can be both fun and educational when played in moderation.
But something’s happening in the video game industry that I wasn’t aware of, and chances are, most parents aren’t aware of it either. I used to think that video games were expensive, but at least we didn’t have to keep paying once we bought the game. All that has changed for many of the big names in video games, and it’s changing in a way that may be encouraging our kids to “gamble.”
Maybe you’ve noticed your kids talking about “loot boxes” or “loot crates.”
A loot box just what you might think based on the name. It’s a virtual box or crate in the game that contains other virtual items that help in game play. You can earn loot boxes in most games by “grinding” or completing repetitive tasks in a game over and over to earn items or earn some kind of advantage in the game. Grinding in some games can takes hours, days, or weeks. The alternative to grinding is spending money.
Grinding didn’t used to be such a big thing. But games now offer it as an alternative to in-game purchases. Think of it like this. If you have the money, you can just buy what you need and don’t have to grind.
For those of you who are from my generation, the in-game purchases for things like loot boxes used to come to us for free in the form of cheat codes. We didn’t have to grind. Cheat codes could give you an advantage to help you finish the game. Older games purposely kept cheat codes out of multiplayer games to keep the game fair. Now, gaming companies are adding loot boxes you have to pay for in multiplayer games, which can make for some incredibly unfair game play if you can’t spend the cash.
As a parent, I already don’t like this system. I pay $60 for a game and then have to pay more for my kids to play the game?
But it gets worse.
The new trend is for in-game purchased items, such as loot boxes, to contain random items, so you have no idea what you’re going to get when you spend your money on these loot boxes. So, if your son or daughter is after a particular character or weapon in the game, they can pay for loot boxes and still never have any guaranty that they will get the item. They have to pay more and try again. Pay more and try again. Rinse and repeat.
It’s easy to see how this is a slippery slope and can lead to a kind of in-game gambling addiction.
It may sound like an exaggeration, but video games are already designed to tap into addiction centers in our brains. We like tasks and rewards, and game designers know how to use that. It’s just that now, in addition to worrying about how much screen time our kids are getting, we also have to worry about whether or not they’re spending money and being taken advantage of in games we’ve already paid for.
The issue of loot boxes and pay to play for games you’ve already paid for reached a boiling point in recent weeks. EA Games, one of the biggest gaming companies in the world released Star Wars: Battlefront 2. Fans were outraged about the lack of content and the fact that additional in-game purchases were required to enjoy the game that they took to social media.
One gamer posted took to Reddit to complain that he had paid $80 for the deluxe edition of the game and still couldn’t play the character Darth Vader. The response from the company, EA, was to claim that the goal was to essentially make players work to earn characters in order to give them “a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.”
The gaming community didn’t respond well to this comment and didn’t buy it. The statement does seem contradictory given the fact that players could pay for the heroes. Where is the pride and accomplishment in that? The EA response post has been down voted over 674,000 times, a record for Reddit. You can read the post here.
The whole thing turned into such a PR nightmare that Disney, the company who owns the rights to Star Wars, stepped in to demand changes, though some are quick to point that that EA may have been driven to charge so much for so many little things in the game because of the high costs of the Star Wars franchise.
But this Star Wars fiasco is just one of many. Other games from big gaming companies are engaging in similar tactics. Loot boxes with random prizes are the norm, and if your kids play Call of Duty, well, they can earn a small reward by watching other gamers open their loot boxes. That’s right—“watch me open my cool stuff you can’t afford.”
Here’s the most sinister aspect of all this to me. Older gamers, such as gamers the age of my oldest son, who just turned 20, understand what’s happening and are outraged. Many of these older gamers, gamers who remember games before the in-game purchasing, are standing up against this. They’re writing about it and refusing to buy these games. But that’s not enough for the video game industry to change its ways.
Why? Because younger players don’t know any better. The gaming industry may also be counting on busy parents not being aware and paying more money without fully understanding what’s going on. It’s like they’re seeing how much we’ll pay.
Let’s show them we’re aware. This holiday season, when you buy video games for your kids, be aware there may be more to the game than meets the eye. We’re a long way from Mario Brothers, parents.
*written with Joseph McCage, gamer and writer