I absolutely HATE loot boxes. Wholeheartedly fucking HATE them and the person who thought up that shit. Congrats, fucking idiot - you just killed rewarding gameplay and made it as so EVERY fucking modern game now requires you to grind for 200+ hours to unlock everything or the things you want. It’s absolutely DISGUSTING and all it does is just encourages players to keep “grinding away wasting hours of their life to get more chances at loot boxes”. It’s horrid and vile.
Loot boxes are the WORST fucking part of modern gaming. First off, you have to fucking earn in-game currency to even get a SHOT to try to earn something from the loot box. This is NOT fun and rewarding, it’s fucking TEDIOUS and it gets ridiculous after you open your first, I’d say, 100 loot boxes. There are so many fucking problems with loot boxes that I have that make me truly DESPISE the concept as a whole. I truly hate the goddamn motherfucker who thought this bullshit was a good idea. This is a fucking system that is NOT based off of progression, but is instead a system based on PURE fucking luck and chance.
Take Hot Wheels Unleashed, for example. The game is PLASTERED with a predatory system called Blind Boxes, which is just ANOTHER fucking name for a loot box. Every time I have gone into the game to try to get a car that I wanted, it NEVER fucking worked in my favor, all I kept getting were fucking DUPLICATES that don’t even give you free upgrades. You just have the heartbreak of pulling a dupe, and that’s it. “You get NOTHING! You LOSE! GOOD DAY, SIR!”
FUCK those Blind Boxes. I hate them. They are WAY too overpriced for a fucking kids game and there is no enjoyability in wasting currency on 50+ to keep getting duplicates and not earn a SINGLE Super Treasure Hunt. This is not fucking ‘replicating’ real life, but some want to believe that because you rarely ever see STHs on the shelves. No! It’s the game CONSTANTLY demanding more time from the player doing races and earning coins to get, you guessed it, EVEN MORE FUCKING DUPES.
This is NOT rewarding, this is fucking TEDIOUS. Rewarding gameplay DIED when loot boxes were invented. In fact, lemme remind you. Hot Wheels: Velocity X. You earned EVERY goddamn car either through the Story Mode or from challenges and rewards. You got EVERY car as you progressed and leveled up through the game, and EVERY FUCKING car could be unlocked just through fucking PLAYING the goddamn game. THAT is Rewarding Gameplay. Earning things through PROGRESSION. Loot boxes are NOT rewarding. No! Loot boxes are just the game wanting you to ENDLESSLY grind to get the fucking thing you want and hopefully not pull another duplicate. I only VERY recently FINALLY started getting Super Treasure Hunts in Hot Wheels Unleashed, and that was AFTER quitting the game for an extended period of time. I guess the goddamn game FINALLY felt fucking sympathy for me, for once.
Loot boxes aren’t fucking fun. They make goddamn games a CHORE and NOT a hobby. This is exactly the fucking reason why people started going AFK, the fucking payout of HW Unleashed coins was ridiculous and you constantly kept getting fucking duplicates anyway, so that means “Welp, back to grinding for you”! NONE of this makes the game feel rewarding. It just makes it feel like a tedious chore and it makes the entire game a fucking unfun experience.
Currently trying to get the 24 Ours car in HW Unleashed and ALL I have been fucking getting are duplicate cars apart from the Super Treasure Hunts. I kept getting the goddamn Camaro, Roller Toaster, taxi, garbage truck, and the Tricera-tops Truck. Even AFTER selling ALL of the versions of the car(s) in question I have gotten, I KEPT GETTING THE SAME FUCKING CARS BACK IN MY COLLECTION. I eventually wasted all of my goddamn coins on these fucking Blind Boxes, so now it will be back to grinding once again for me. I fucking hate this. I fucking hate that I will ONCE A-FUCKING-GAIN have to go back to completing a FUCK-TON of races to get more Blind Boxes only to get MORE DUPLICATE CARS.
The plus side is that the goddamn Blind Boxes are at least free and can’t be bought. I cannot say the same for goddamn games with full-on microtransactions. Guess what? They include fucking loot boxes. So, not only are you wasting your time getting fucking duplicates constantly, you are now ALSO PAYING for the privilege of wasting your time getting fucking duplicates constantly. This is a horrible fucking system that encourages people to keep at it, and keep spending money.
Guess what? This is LITERALLY just digital fucking gambling at this point. It’s basically the equivalent of a fucking slot machine at the casino at this point. You pay money, you play the slots. And just like IRL gambling, you usually NEVER fucking win anything and there’s a 0.001% chance you will get the fucking thing you want. If not, then well, it’s back to spending for you, my friend! 🤑
There are SO MANY fucking free-to-play games that have this shitty monetization. Fortnite. Rocket League. League of Legends. So goddamn many that I have lost count. They just expect you to keep coughing up that FUCKING DOUGH and keep ENDLESSLY trying to get what you want, only to 90% of the time get even more fucking duplicates. Have I ever told you the definition of Insanity? It’s trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
But then, you also have fucking PAID games that you have to actually BUY with REAL money that have microtransactions as well. A prime example is Star Wars Battlefront II by EA. Filled to the fucking BRIM with paid loot boxes. You already paid for the fucking base game and are now expected to pay more. This is NOT fucking legal, it is fucking highway robbery.
And guess what the fuck happens? People run out. EVERYONE on the fucking PLANET tells you that 99% of gamblers quit before they hit it big. And you know WHY that is the case? BECAUSE THEY HAVE RUN OUT OF FUCKING MONEY TO SPEND. There is a point in fucking time where the gambler in question cannot afford to pay to play the goddamn slots again, and quits because, well, THEIR WALLET IS FUCKING DRIED UP. THAT is the reason why gamblers quit before they hit it big, they don’t have money to keep CONSTANTLY throwing at the fucking slot machines in the casino.
I hate the fact that loot boxes are LITERALLY just fucking virtual slot machines and are for some reason NORMALIZED. THERE ARE LITERAL FUCKING CHILDREN BEING TAUGHT ABOUT GAMBLING DUE TO THIS SHIT. I hate the fact KIDS are being introduced to this fucking Pay-to-Win bullshit. It’s everywhere. In every game. Every fucking game has it these days, and it shows no signs of EVER stopping, ESPECIALLY due to the fact that KIDS are getting exposed to this shit.
Oh, that fucking reminds me! There is a game out there that I truly fucking despise for this EXACT reason I just mentioned. Roblox’s horrible fucking pet gambling game, Pet Simulator X. The ENTIRE game has different rarities of pets ranging from Common to Legendary. The Legendary pets have less than a fucking ONE PERCENT CHANCE of getting randomly chosen. You go and open what I think were pet eggs, pray you get a Rare or even Epic pet, and then do it again. But, I WOULD be saying that if it weren’t for the fact you constantly keep getting fucking COMMON AND UNCOMMON PETS.
Pet Simulator X is literally just a fucking pet gambling game. It’s even WORSE because it is ACTIVELY ADVERTISING GAMBLING TO LITERAL FUCKING CHILDREN and should be illegal. “Here’s a $200 virtual pet! 5% chance for a RAINBOW one btw!! KEEP SPENDING KIDS!!!” It crosses the fucking line and shouldn’t be allowed. OH YEAH, I SURE FUCKING LOVE TEACHING KIDS HOW TO GAMBLE AND NOT CARE ABOUT THE FUCKING PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS IT WILL HAVE ON THEM WHEN THEY GROW UP!
I hate fucking loot boxes and I HATE THAT THEY’RE NORMALIZED. Thank fucking God that some countries have made them outright illegal. I am tired of constantly fucking grinding for something just to keep getting duplicate items of THINGS I ALREADY FUCKING OWN! Jesus FUCK, it’s such a stupid-ass concept and the person who even THOUGHT of this idea should be ashamed of themselves, because they have just killed rewarding gameplay and have now enticed people of ALL ages to get into gambling. THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE IS WHY I WILL NEVER GO TO A FUCKING CASINO. EVER.
Fuck loot boxes, and FUCK the person who came up with them.
THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE IS WHY I WILL NEVER GO TO A FUCKING CASINO. EVER
If you did you’d see names like Konami plastered over half the slot machines. Video Games feel like slot machines because they’re made by the same people.
Yes, I AM in fact aware Konami have made slot machines, like the Silent Hill one.
Konami are on a whole new level of shitty. “Fuck Kojima, we’re gonna make slot machines of all of his franchises! And fire him! :D”
A book “The Molecule of More” has a chapter that outlines how the science of slot machines was created, experiments with mice that measured how long one can go without reward. Constantly being rewarded or never were both not optimal.
The optimal input over reward ratio was found and that research was directly translated to slot machines and video games. The book is worth a read if this stuff infuriates and intrigues you.
Nothing inside a video game should cost money.
Any form of that business model is an abuse.
Only legislation will fix this.
Vidya used to be good dopamine. Now it’s not. I mean from the start arcades were big because they had the best gfx and games and it was always from the start pay to play. Nothing has changed, the system of greed just figured out how to include this in every kind of game on any system - at our convenience mind you, because now in a click your bank account can be drained and it doesn’t even cost a postage stamp.
There’s some indie games worth playing that don’t have this but you gotta reset some expectations and realise that, with all that might be missing, micro transactions is also in that list.
We missed the boat when we failed to litigate shit like baseball cards (or at least sleazy loot-boxy way in which they were/are sold) out of existence. By the time video games even started to exist, we were already fucked.
tl;dr
Also didn’t Valve come up with loot boxes first for TF2 and CS?
Someone never played Diablo 2 while grinding for a specific item for a dozen hours for it to be sniped by someone else.
It’s all just different mechanics under the same umbrella.
