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Those familiar with videogames know the loot boxes and the much coveted item drops well, whether for that that sensational skin or for that special bonus. While we keep on being jumpy, the European Parliament is at work to protect young people from "boxes" designed to be more like gambling than a healthy gnawing of nails for the collection of resources with a click.
Just call me... "loot box"
Loot boxes are virtual intangible assets characterized by the initial total or relative unawareness of their content by the player who, upon opening them, randomly obtains one or more items of variable value based on rarityusually maesured on a scale from "common to "legendary".
The player can obtain the loot box through the game structure, by dropping it during the game (match or session), or by purchasing it in the internal resale system, ie through the shop.
In the gaming ecosystem there is usually an endogenous virtual currency, obtained internally or purchased with real-world currency, be it traditional (€, $, etc.) or virtual (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.).
The loot boxes can, therefore, be bought with real-world currency, either directly or indirectly with game currency.
We protect minors, the Aegis of the European Union.
During 2020, thanks to the bottleneck towards virtual life since the beginning of March, the European Parliament has decided to start raising the awareness of Member States [1]Loot boxes in online games and their effect on consumers, in particular young consumers to mitigate the enormous impact that the "boxes" have on the youngest considering that they can trigger addictive effects adhering to ludopathy and gambling.
The economic significance of the videogame market is of the first order, taking into account that the sector in the year 2018 in the European Union exceeded the value of € 21 billion [2]ISFE with a Year on Year (YoY) growth of 15%.
Let it be...t?
A preliminary clarification, the discipline of the loot box or mystery box is something distinct from the world of Esports, the latter inherent the videogame competitive sports competitions. At any level of esports, civil obligations arise in relation to the predefined ones up for grabs, while for the boxes the regimen is as follows.
The legal coordinate to frame the phenomena of the boxes is essentially the bet, inherent in the game, and the natural obligation deriving from it.
Recall that the traditional definition of a bet is the promise to pay money or another good to those who foresee a future and uncertain event. That is, the bet responds to the principle of randomness, similarly to insurance obligations (civil, however!), whereby the player who buys the box accepts a range of probabilities of obtaining one or more objects of different rarity.
The boxes are therefore simple bilateral bets between the player and the owner of the game, the latter having to be identified in the producer, also through the developer or third party in charge of management, distribution and collection.
The pillars of Hercules of gambling
The bet comes to be characterized by gambling when the player's success does not depend on his skill but exclusively on fate (pure chance). Gambling also exists when skill takes on a completely marginal significance with respect to fate (absolute substantial risk).
Although skill and risk are placed at the antipodes, the fact remains that they can coexist in mixed bets characterized by the balance of both.
To avoid a snowball effect, where in order to obtain the "fire sword of King Arthur +5" we squander the credit card, an upstream solution could be identified in the adoption of a qualified access on two levels, that is the possibility to buy the loot box only after passing a skill test or after reaching a certain level in the game. Solution that could strongly mitigate the addictive effect, especially on minors.
A taste of economic appreciation.
Having resolved the question of "what and how", it is necessary to conclude the "how much" head-on.
In order for a bet not to be characterized by gambling, it is advisable that the single purchase remains within the very modest value and that the overall amount won by the player remains included in a modest amount.
For a rough indication, it is useful to remember that the italian discipline [3]art. 110 R.D. n.733/1931 T.U.L.P.S. of the metal coin game provides that the single game has a maximum value of € 1.00 and the total of purely random winnings remains within € 100.00.
This soft capgiven, I know we jump off the chair thinking about that box. Moreover, in addition to the value of the single box, the expectation of a legendary item is contrasted, perhaps dropping at <2.5% and whose value in real-world currency exceeds the ceiling of one hundred euros.
Yet, looking again at the national legislation, we are at a hard cap in the provision of a minimum duration of 4 seconds of the game, a duration currently disregarded by the instantaneousness of the unboxing but which can be solved with the qualified access mentioned above.
In addition tounboxing, the last criterion is the probability of winning equal to 75%. Attention ahead, this does not mean that the player must get "something" three games out of four but that, combined the criteria, obligatorily to the cent euro spent and forfeited, the "machine" must return a win of € 75.00.
Transposed to the loot boxes world, it is necessary to plan a stratification of the prizes on a percentage basis, taking into account the value in real-world currency of the objects according to rarity. Note that in the percentage basis it is prudent to attribute the value 0 to common items.
Finally, the resulting system must be the subject of specific information to the player, which can be found on the developer's website, in particular on the shop, also with a clearly visible redirect recall.
Pending the choices of the institutions, especially for the protection of minors with preferential lanes, it is always necessary to take care of the player'sdigital literacy, equipped with a bit of hype prudence and an indispensable air of curiosity.
GL HF![4]Good Luck, Have Fun
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