A few years back, it felt like every game was under a DLC epidemic. Fans raged across the internet about unfinished games, and publishers called it the future of gaming. Codemasters CEO was even quoted as saying, “My answer is for us as publishers to actually sell unfinished games.” That was seven years ago. In the time since then, microtransactions replaced DLC as the prime money-maker for companies, and though DLC is still a huge part of the industry, it was far easier to sell one skin for $5 than to make all new content for $15. But things move quickly in the gaming world, and just as DLCs were replaced by microtransactions, Loot Boxes have replaced microtransactions.

While loot boxes have been around for a few years – namely in the mobile market – Overwatch is the game that made them mainstream. However, this was merely a borrowed idea from Team Fortress 2 and CS:GO, which had loot boxes as early as 2013 in the Arms Deal Update. They started innocently enough with players being given free crates, cases, or boxes and then being able to earn keys to unlock them. However, as time went on, community demand allowed publishers to add purchasable keys, and this was when everything started to go sideways.

It was a simple step to make sure players were given more crates than keys, which was something highly noticeable in TF2, and while this wasn’t exactly immoral, it was a nasty trick. While this doesn’t force players to buy keys, it does dangle the carrot in front of their face tauntingly close. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Now, instead of letting players buy items through transactions, they had to buy a loot box which might have the item they wanted. Instead of players spending $5 on an item they wanted, they would – percentage wise – spend far more than $5 because of all the other unnecessary items they might get instead.

Developers have turned spending money into a gamble, a gamble where the players spend money for the possibility of content but not the guarantee. This is worse on every level for the player, but companies have gotten away with it because they make it seem fun. Risk and reward create excitement, and players get a thrill from opening boxes while not even realizing they are being ripped off.

Like all the past money-making schemes – DLCs or microtransactions – loot boxs started off as something the community actually wanted. Whether its cosmetics or new content, fans are the ones that cry out for developers to create more. The only problem is that they take every desire from the community and turn it into the most profitable form possible, which usually screws the player. The idea of loot boxs is still enjoyable – earning unlockables and loot – it’s just the reality that sucks. Fans can always take solace in the fact that in a few years, something else will have replaced loot boxes as the new money-making scheme, and we will probably buy into that one too.