Stop Buying Games Until Loot Boxes Die

Thanks to the recent envelope-pushing efforts of Star Wars: Battlefront II and Middle Earth: Shadow of War, loot boxes are finally getting the level of heat they deserve. Most of the conversation so far has been centered upon their parallels to gambling and how the games employing them keep toeing that pay-to-win line. They’re important conversations to have, but they’re not the only ones. These manipulative RNG events we call loot boxes are only the latest, most effective, evolution of random loot; something that’s been steadily worming its way into the heart of multiplayer gaming for years now. I’ve touched on its influence on the games it comes in contact with before, but it’s also important to recognize how random loot is slowly twisting us too. It’s warped our expectations and contorted our motivations into almost unrecognizable states. The scariest part is that, like a goomba taken-over by Cappy, we didn’t even notice it was happening.