Don't waffle on lootboxes

Age of the Geek Column: Lootboxes are still a hot topic in the gaming industry and last week Belgium weighed in after the country's Gaming Commission investigated whether or not video games that employ lootbox systems should be legally considered as gambling.
As expected, the inciting incident leading to this ruling was the high profile train wreck that was the launch of Electronic Art's "Star Wars: Battlefront II".
The highly anticipated Star Wars game introduced a microtransaction system that was so egregious it spawned a widespread consumer revolt and, rumor has it, had Disney considering pulling the license away from the game publisher.
The problems with the microtransaction system were easy to pin down. For starters, EA broke what should be the first commandment of microtransactions. Thou shall not sell power.
Many games that employ a microtransaction system limit their digital goods to purely cosmetic items. Skins, sprays, voice lines, and the like. Nothing that would actually make a difference during the game. Particularly if that game is a competitive one. Blizzard's "Overwatch," which was also investigated by the Belgian Gaming Commission, is a prime example of this. Blizzard has made millions of dollars on "Overwatch" microtransactions, but every player stands on equal footing whether they've spent hundreds of dollars on cosmetics or nothing at all.
"Star Wars: Battlefront 2," in contrast, included game changing upgrades to their lootbox system. The only "cheat code" you need to instantly bring your character up to maximum power is your credit card number.
This ties in to the breaking of what should be the second commandment of microtransactions. Thou shall not inflate the grind for money.
Pretty much every video game that uses microtransactions offers a way for the same content to be unlocked in-game. Usually this means that the game routinely gives out in-game currency as a reward for regular play, allowing the player to consider real money purchases as optional.
In reality though, these systems are regularly hobbled. Game developers artificially inflate the "time payment" in order to make the "money payment" look more appealing. Again, EA's decision to require an estimated 40-hour time investment to unlock a single character served as a particularly egregious manipulation.
And wrapping up the trifecta of scummy business practices is the lootbox.
The concept is pretty simple. Once upon a time microtransactions were relatively straight forward. You pick out the piece of content you want and you paid for it.
Then somebody came up with the brilliant idea of instead getting players to buy four pieces of randomly generated content instead. So now, instead of simply buying the skin you want, you've got to spin the wheel until you get lucky.
And this is where the gambling discussion comes in.
For years the world has seemed content to let lootboxes live in that nebulous space between "gaming" and "gambling" that trading card games and happy meal toys have resided for so long. But, EA's outlandishly exploitative system on such a high profile game has put the spotlight on the practice.
Thus, the Belgian Gaming Commission looked into it and decided that paid lootboxes, as employed by "Overwatch," along with "FIFA 18" and "Counter Strike: Global Offense," do count as games of chance and are subject to Belgian gaming law.
Ironically, "Star Wars: Battlefront II" avoided this distinction because they shutdown their paid lootbox system shortly after release and have yet to reactivate it.
How the gaming industry at large reacts to the ruling will be interesting. They could keep paid loot boxes in play everywhere else in the world and release non-paid Belgian exclusive versions. They might just abandon the practice entirely. Or, probably most likely, they'll figure out a way to have their cake at eat it too, putting the lootbox system behind another layer of technicalities to avoid the gambling distinction.
I can already see "buy 100 in-game currency coins, get four random items for free!" in the shop page.
Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and hasn't spent a single dollar on the recent "Overwatch" event. But that Mei in pajamas skin has him considering it.