LogFAQs > #930307526

AllstarSniper32 posted...

Eh, you're talking more specifically about loot boxes rather than just microtransactions

I'm referring to anything that leads developers to increase the grind of a game to encourage spending. Loot boxes are particularly efficient at it, but any microtransaction that has gameplay advantages encourages developers to do so (GTA Online is almost entirely built on it, and doesn't have a single loot box).

About the only microtransactions that don't skirt that line are purely 100% cosmetic ones, and even those have issues.

But there's more to it than just microtransactions. Diablo III arguably didn't have microtransactions at all (depending on your point of view), but the existence of the Real Money Auction House (and the fact that Blizzard took a cut from sales) meant they had a vested interest in "encouraging" players to use it... which is why item drop rates were deliberately skewed to drop items for classes you weren't playing as, and make really useful drops less common, solely to direct traffic to the Auction House.

And the effect of such was made blatantly obvious when the moment they rejigged the game to remove the Auction House, they also completely altered the drop mechanics for items to make them more appealing to players. They basically removed the artificial handicap because they no longer profited from it.

Every game you play with some form of microtransactions, whether you realize it or not, has been deliberately engineered to be a worse game solely to make those microtransactions more appealing, even if you personally never choose to use them, and the game can still be beaten/enjoyed without ever spending a penny.



AllstarSniper32 posted...

Loot boxes is where the addiction part comes into play.

Addiction is a lot more complicated than that. Normal games without microtransactions of any kind exploit addiction loops. Even cosmetic-only microtransactions exploit human psychology to guilt you via social pressure and FOMO to buy skins so you don't look like a basic bitch.

Loot boxes trigger the gambling addiction parts of the human brain, but it's not as if they're the only way to do so. There are plenty of mechanics in games without microtransactions at all that exploit RNG mechanics or gambling mechanics. Every RPG you've ever played with random loot drops is tapping into the same thing. Microtransactions and loot boxes just find ways to monetize that dynamic even more.
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