Loot boxes history – they’ve been around since the 1800s

The history of lootboxing in today’s games, from cigarette boxes of the 1800s to 2006 Chinese MMOs or Team Fortress 2.

It’s hard to believe that, back in the early ’90s, baseball cards were so hot. Their popularity is astounding: the collectors’ movement has exploded, the baseball card industry generates billions of dollars in revenue a year as collectors buy them for rare or unusual cards. limited edition. Today, after more than a decade of decline, this number has dropped to “low”, when annual sales only reach $200 million a year.

Looks like we’re at the same stage of the early 90s, except that the market is now games again. Five years ago, lootboxes were crates containing random game-specific items, and were only available in major PC titles like FIFA and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. But this year, dozens of big names have lootboxes: Call of Duty, Battlefront or Shadow of War.

Lootboxes have been around since the 1800s, they’re simply decorative cards in cigarette packs. Even more recently, they started appearing in Chinese MMOs and Valve Software’s strong influence.

The previous origin

Lootbox is new to multiplayer games (multiplayer), but for those who have played Magic: The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh! They’re all too familiar with this random system.

Magic was the first game to mimic the collectible model of sports cards – cards randomly placed into a pack. Magic has been a huge success with a large user base and dozens of titles that have followed their success. Not only that, the revenue they have is extremely high, in 2013 alone, Magic’s revenue is estimated to reach $250 million. In the 90s, everyone wanted to be like Magic, there were also people who succeeded (like Pokemon), but the number of failures was immeasurable, such as Mortal Kombat Kard Game.

Recent games like Android: Netrunner have eliminated randomness in their ‘booster packs’, but the vast majority of card games incorporate an element of randomness upon opening. What is surprising is that players have no problem with this, there are now millions of people playing Magic: The Gathering. This number is actually much higher than it was in the 90s.

Whether the cards were meant to be used for gaming like Pokemon, or simply for collectibles like baseball cards, receiving rare cards attracted a lot of debate in the 90s. 1996, the manufacturers issued a baseball card was sued because the model resembled an illegal lottery. In 1999, Nintendo was also sued for the same reason. But in general, these lawsuits are not successful.

The jump to video games

Given the popularity of the TCG series (Trading Card Game – cards like Hearthstone), it’s surprising that it took more than a decade for developers to bring this model into the game. RPGs are no longer too strange with their random drop system, and thanks to early online games like Diablo, Everquest, and World of Warcraft, many of the conventions that are still used today: like colors. equivalent to the rarity of the item.

Game industry researchers have identified China’s free-to-play MMO ZT Online, released in 2006, as the first game to initiate the lootbox movement. In the book Red Wired: China’s Internet Revolution (China’s Internet revolution) quotes the creation in ZT Online: ‘virtual treasure chests in the game, containing a lot of items worth more than its price’ and ‘allowing players to rent’ alternate characters’ in-game to help them upgrade their character’s experience without having to train the game.”

The concept of ZT Online at that time was very cutting-edge – not only did it include the ability to buy keys to open the chest (famous for Counter-Strike) but the game also showed you the items that could be obtained in the chest in the form of a ‘hat’. magic’ (or wheel of fortune). As the Southern Weekly article describes ZT: “The crates usually give high-end items that gamers covet, but when the wheel spins, the drop rate will not be as high as expected.”

Not long after, many other popular games in Asia also adopted ‘lootbox’ or in-game transactions in the form of pay-to-win (paying for stronger items). They are considered the main source of income for firms.

Move yourself to mobile devices

As the lootbox benefits became more and more obvious, smart game makers began to mold this idea to push the profits to the fullest. Among them, the “gacha” system emerged in early 2010 in Japan and continues to maintain. The game maker is replacing lootboxes with a digital version of “gachapon” – a toy dispenser that spits out a random toy like the old candy dispenser every time you insert a coin.

The most famous early ‘gacha’ version is probably Puzzles & Dragons which has been around since early 2012. Players must spin the wheel of fortune on the ‘virtual’ machine to receive rare rewards, equivalent to how you accumulate chests. in Overwatch. Puzzle & Dragons, a simple ‘match-three’ game (like Candy Crush or Bejeweled) grossed over $1 million in revenue in a year.

Some games even challenge the player to collect a full set of regular items in exchange for a rarer item, a system known as “complete gacha”. At the beginning, it will be easy to fill in the blanks in the collection. But the closer it gets to perfection, the less likely it is to get what you need, forcing you to spend more money. This makes the brain believe that you are really close to achieving the goal you have set, but in fact, you may have to spend a lot of money, possibly more than the total amount of money previously spent to get there. The last piece in the collection.

Later, Japan decided to ban “complete gacha” because it violated anti-gambling laws, but publishers quickly modified it to be able to circumvent the law.

Locks and unlocking keys

By early 2010, Western game makers were paying attention to successful mobile games and social media free-to-play games – like Farmville – and they wanted a piece of the pie. (It may sound like a myth, but in 2011, Zynga said that revenue from Farmville was more than $250 million per quarter. That’s a huge number.) For the big guys, they don’t have to worry about creating new games to be able to apply these business tactics. Instead, they include them in their older titles, like FIFA or Counter-Strike.

The first major Western game that decided to bring the lootbox system to large scale was Team Fortress 2 – which Valve turned into a free-to-play shooter in late 2010. Players must collect crates through the process of gaining experience points, then they have to buy a ‘key’ to unlock it and get the random item it contains. (like so many other “ethical” free games, the items in the crate can be obtained through leveling or normal gameplay – purchasing a ‘key’ merely speeds up the process .)

As the system turned profitable, attracting players to switch to free-to-play games, Gabe Newell (Valve’s CEO) reported the move increased player numbers by a “five-fold” – Valve later also brought it up. idea to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Contrary to TF2, the items in the CS crate are purely decorative – weapon skins have no effect on how many more M4 bullets you have to spend to kill an opponent. And unlike many other free-to-play games, Valve allows players to exchange items for real money through a trading system, allowing a lucky few to use virtual items to buy real games.

Decorations and other things

Talking about adopting the loot box system, not all developers are as kind as Valve. The 2007 soccer game, the 2006-2007 UEFA Champions League on consoles, was the first game to apply cards to competitive sports. You create your team, including the coach and the stadium. You can plow more cards by playing games or speed up the process by spending real money to buy packs of cards. EA took advantage of this and included them in almost all of the sports games they make: the Ultimate Team card mode in FIFA came out in 2009. Madden got his own version in 2010.

The idea of ​​real-life player swaps sounds enticing – and the mode has really grown in fan base over the years – but some players complain it’s just a form of ‘player money’. to make them believe that this is a ‘skill game’. In fact, the top players have to ‘split’ a lot of money to keep their high rankings. EA also applies the card system to fighting sports games, the upcoming UFC 3 will also have a mode like Ultimate Team, including not only fighters but also great moves or beneficial stats right from the start. head. Imagine the game Street Fighter, where the opponent’s Hadoken move was naturally a bit faster than mine because they spent 5 bucks on the game, it’s easy to understand why so many players ignore Ultimate Team and only play modes other degree.

Before getting into the Battlefront 2 mess, EA had brought microtransactions into other game genres, with less striking results. Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer card packs are quite popular, in contrast, their Dead Space 3 isn’t that great.

When the drop of water overflows

In 2016 and 2017, Overwatch generated huge revenue thanks to its lootboxes – Blizzard says total game sales hit over $1 billion in early 2017. In the past two years, lootbox systems have appeared everywhere, game makers are researching new ways to get players to spend more. While Overwatch’s method is generally seen as ethical, the fact that you can only buy crates but not items with real money makes it similar to the gacha system in Japanese games. chief.

Many see Shadow of War (Monolith)’s “single-player lootboxes” as the culmination of “bloodsuckers” – the first time lootboxes have been introduced into single-player mode in the original $60 title. Single-player items that speed up gameplay have been around for years, but the inclusion of randomness seems a bit overwhelming.

Back in the present, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 is under attack from all over for the intention to include lootboxes in both stats and in-game skills. Recently, the gaming community has always complained because lootboxes are gradually appearing in our favorite games, but they are still not enough to make the big boys satisfied with the amount of money they earn. With Battlefront 2, that was the last straw, players protested and regulators began to worry about the potential for breaking the law of this approach. Then, EA was forced to give in, temporarily taking in-game trading out of Battlefront 2, possibly permanently. But lawmakers continue to discuss the possibility of bringing lootboxes into the gambling category.

Despite complaints about their presence in single-player games, the popularity and profitability of lootboxes will continue to exist in multiplayer and gacha games. It is possible that the game development teams will split the game into two branches like what Ultimate Team in FIFA, for people who like to play this mode, and normal mode for those who hate it.

As long as they can make a profit, the big boys will continue to figure out how to get more money from your wallet. Fortunately, regulators are still keeping a close eye on this lootbox issue. EA has not yet decided how to bring in-game trading back to Battlefront 2. If it does return, this will certainly be at the heart of the game-maker’s ethical controversy.