I had to write in to take issue with what Mark wrote to in response to The Guardian’s article about Fortnite loot boxes (and yes, they ARE loot boxes). Saying that they’re ‘purely cosmetic’ and have ‘zero impact on gameplay’ is entirely missing the point and is nothing but excusing what may be the games industry’s dirtiest, most scummy business practice by far.
More often than not, stories about how kids spend thousands of pounds on games like Fortnite is a result of social pressure. Kids are actually getting bullied in playgrounds now because they can’t afford the premium skins (unbelievably ‘Default’ has become an actual insult). I’m not even a think of the children type, as loot boxes of any kind prey on anyone who’s psychologically vulnerable and/or has an addictive personality.
I know from experience that I’d probably be one of those who spends all their money on loot boxes in a futile attempt to get a rare skin/card/whatever, which is why attitude’s like Mark’s (and GameCentral’s cheering him on, I might add) are so downright offensive to me as it came across more to me like he just wanted to defend his favourite game, even if that isn’t actually the case.
It sickens me that gamers can be so dismissive of how much of a scourge loot boxes really are whenever they’re just cosmetic. When you consider there are people paid to state that getting people to spend money on microtransactions and loot boxes must become the socially-acceptable way to play, it’s clear that loot boxes are pure poison regardless of their form and the industry is utterly spineless and unwilling to do anything about the problem.
More and more games these days behave both ethically and psychologically like gambling, actively destroying games they appear in by making them less fun to deliberately encourage microtransaction spending, and no reasonable person should stand for it. It’s important that more stories like that in The Guardian turn up, keeping the pressure up to get rid of them or else the industry with sleaze their way out of what is currently a PR disaster for them.
Andrew Middlemas
GC: While that’s all true we think the point he was making is that Fortnite, despite its position of influence, is one of the least manipulative of the major games, whereas equally popular titles such as FIFA are much worse. All of which implied the Guardian writer didn’t really know what they were talking about.
