Introduction to Loot Boxes

A relatively new trend in video games is the "loot box", a virtual item that can be opened for a randomized selection of virtual items. Depending on the game, the items may be new weapons, skins, avatars, or other in-game items. Some games have loot boxes that cost money to open, some games have loot boxes that open after playing a certain amount or getting certain achievements, and some games have both. Many of the most popular games such as Overwatch, Hearthstone, CS:GO, League of Legends, and Star Wars: Battlefront II have some form of a loot box in the game.

Despite sounding rather harmless, loot boxes have caused quite a bit of strife among gamers. In fact, the uproar over the loot boxes in EA's game Star Wars Battlefront II was so severe that the company lost billions in value and got calls for a boycott that was likely a result of backlash over their particular loot box system. The loot boxes in Overwatch by Blizzard have received mixed reviews. Here are a few quotes about Overwatch's loot boxes:

• "A toxic system that is designed to take advantage of players" — source.
• "Loot boxes are inherently exploitative in a way that coaxes people into spending money and can ultimately create addicts, and also that they're largely unrewarding gambling-esque systems duct-taped onto games that'd be more fun without them." — source.
• "Overwatch stands as a safe if sorry reminder that loot boxes are not fun — they are engineered simply to generate money and artificially sustain player interest." — source.
• "Overwatch has a balanced and sensible approach to loot" — source.
• "I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with crates that give you randomized items... I don't think Overwatch belongs in that controversy" — Blizzard's president and co-founder Mike Morhaime, source.

There have been some attempts to make loot boxes illegal or classified as gambling. Hawaii State Representative Chris Lee says, "In the same way gambling and drugs can be addictive — that's the same kind of chemical response in the brain that these kinds of predatory loot boxes are designed to elicit." Loot boxes may be the video game issue of the year (2017), and there have been many heated discussions on the topic. Game developers rarely reveal what is happening "under the hood" when it comes to loot boxes and this leads to some confusion when discussing them.

A better understanding of how loot boxes work would lead to more productive discussions of the loot box system as a whole. This project is an analysis of just one of these systems, the loot boxes in Overwatch. There are lots of other discussions about the good/evil of loot boxes (e.g. 1, 2, 3). Hopefully, this project will lead to more informed discussions about loot boxes.

Loot Boxes in Overwatch

Opening a loot box in Overwatch will give you four item or credit drops that can be used in-game and seen by other players. A lengthy description of loot boxes can be found here, which is summarized below:

• The types of items you can get are skins, sprays, emotes, voice lines, victory poses, icons, and credits
• Credits can be used to purchase specific items
• The "quality" of items can be common, rare, epic, and legendary which cost 25, 75, 250, and 1000 credits respectively
• If a loot box gives the user a duplicate item, they get credits worth 1/5th of the value of that particular item
• You can buy items using in game credits except icons
• You can receive loot boxes by playing Overwatch or by buying loot boxes

The items dropped can be found on this page made by GitHub user js41637. A list of all items in JSON format can be found here.

Another fact about loot boxes is that the "contents are generated at the time they are earned or purchased, not when they are opened" (forum post since deleted). This makes it rather pointless to accumulate loot boxes (unless you're doing an unboxing video or something).

To clarify the language, a drop is one thing that you get out of a loot box which can either be an item or credits. A loot box has four drops.