The Year of the Loot Boxes marches on...what you should think about...

So tomorrow is the day, Battlefront 2 finally comes out. Well...Battlefront 2 part 2? EA's version okay, you know what I mean! A game that once it was announced, I was SO excited for, and than we got that beta. You know, the one that showed a slight "Pay to win" model ingrained into it's system? Free maps, free characters, free story content...but lot's of fucking loot boxes. So if anyone has been keeping count, that is now like...the 7th game this year to implement a new "loot box" system of some kind. Shadow of War pissed myself off due to putting a key feature of it's FIRST game as a selling point for loot boxes. Ew. We had games like Destiny 2 and Forza 7 shaving off small things, and sticking them in their loot boxes for...no reason. Well except for money of course. Ew. I hear Need For Speed also added loot boxes. Why? Well money of course, but that franchise needs ALL the help it can get, and loot boxes isn't that. So ew some more. So most have been asking, what is the deal with all of this? Loot boxes are in no way new, but why the sudden influx? Well brace yourselves, we are about to dive right in. So let's take it back to May of last year. I'm sure everyone here has heard of this little game, Overwatch. Now don't get me wrong, I love Overwatch and I'm not trying to shit on the game as a whole, but it is a game that included loot boxes. Now it isn't the first, that title belongs to a little unknown title called ZT Online back in 2007, but later implemented in better and in a more successful fashion with games like CS:GO and Team Fortress 2. Yeah, Valve everyone. But nobody talks about either of these two games, why? Well, I think it's the same reason why Overwatch might have been overlooked by consumers as well. Because of it simply being "Just cosmetics" most could turn a blind eye to what really has been going on. We get free modes, maps, and characters right? I do truly believe it is an ongoing problem, but there is far more to it than just that.

Let's start with why big "AAA" studios/publishers decided to have Overwatch be their starting point for the bullshit shall we? Many, including someone I'm a huge fan of Jim Sterling, believes it's because Blizzard fans can just shut out the bullshit and blindly follow the lead of the company. No, that isn't his exact words, but a slight summary of how he sees it all go down, but I have to slightly counter that point. I feel there is more to it than just "blind love" seeing as I'm a huge fan of Overwatch and Diablo, but none of the other titles Blizzard makes.

So I'll admit, that a lot of this is "speculation" more than just straight up "hard facts" but a lot of this will match up, so bare with me. I think the reason that Overwatch gained so much traction rather that Team Fortress 2 or CS:GO, Hell, even more so than Mass Effect 3 that had it's own loot boxes no one seems to talk much about either, is simply put, popularity. Now while TF2 and CS:GO do have fairly sizable audiences STILL to this day, even though they are many years old, they are just simply PC games. Now, yes, PC gaming can be very much superior in every way, this discussion isn't about that, PC gaming doesn't get the same air time of TV as Xbox One or PS4. I mean, if you turned on the TV right now, I hardly doubt you'll see anyone talking about gaming on PC besides the occasional Intel or Alienware product, but it for sure gets drowned out by the other two, superior or not. Mass Effect 3, though a damn fine game besides the last 5 fucking minutes, is why it didn't gain traction either. Mass Effect had such a controversy on it's hands with it's final 5 minutes, that I feel most companies didn't even notice how much Bioware and EA were raking it in as one former developer shared a couple of weeks ago talking about loot boxes. Even citing that he saw someone spend over $15,000 dollars on them. Yeah...15 fucking K. That's nuts. Yet it didn't spark anything in any other publisher. Why?

Well I think It has something to do with the 30 million copies sold for Overwatch. Now I don't know what the number is up to now, just what they were spouting on about near the 1 year anniversary. 30 million people that don't seem bothered by loot boxes, the ONLY figure that major publishers seem to notice. Same argument can be made about the shark cards that GTA V sells as well, making up according to Take-Two nearly 50% of it's sales. Nobody looks to see why those games can do those things, like...I don't know, maybe because they are actually good games. No, they look at the figures, which is why so many will argue that we should have a zero tolerance for loot boxes. The popularity of this multi-system game is proof that no matter what, games publishers will take that inch you give them, and take the whole fucking country for it, as Jim Sterling would say.

Which leads me into my next little bit, why gamers are okay with loot boxes in games like Overwatch, CS:GO, or TF2. Simply put, longevity. I can't speak for most gamers, but I do know that with myself and a hand full of others, it's all about the value. So with Overwatch, a game that Blizzard itself is creating an entire league for, it feels justified paying for loot boxes, filled with goodies that are cool, however not game breaking. Overwatch is in for the long run, and so for many, I feel like they can justify their purchases knowing that the game will be populated, updated, and given all kinds of content for years to come, like most Blizzard games. Obviously the other two, CS:GO and TF2 are still going years later with no sign of stopping, Hell CS:GO even has lottery systems where people buy, trade, and sell their weapon skins for ridiculous money. Why? Longevity. The fact that most of these loot boxes are just skins/collectables, is the point of contention for most, it's not the major underlying reason, and I'm not even sure if most realize it. I'm certainly guilty of it in the past, and it's why I want the practices to stop.

The whole point of this little article is to try and bring a little history, a little insight, and mostly, a lot of fucking rage at any and all loot boxes from here on out. Even at darlings we love like Overwatch. Saying games are "too expensive" doesn't go too well for something like Overwatch, that has made so much fucking money from it's 30 million + copies that it's starting it's own E-sports league. It also rings hollow when you have something like Battlefront, that sold 13+ million copies back in 2015. That's a lot. Now it's hard to get an exact number, but factoring in sales, Deluxe and Ultimate editions of the game, and of course, just the base price, EA had to have made nearly a billion dollars from one game. They really can't erase the season pass so as to not divide the community, and NOT add in horrible predatory loot boxes for just ONE game? No, because fuck all of us, give them money. EA makes a billion dollars every year from JUST FIFA people, they can too afford it, games are not too expensive, shareholders are.

We as a community have a very powerful voice, and if we want these things to stop, if we want the loot boxes out of our games like Shadow of War, Destiny 2, Forza 7, Battlefront 2, AC: Origins, Need For Speed (Whatever one it's suppose to be...) than we need to put our foot down on more than just these games, but ALL games including our beloved Overwatch. Just look at the push back EA is getting from Reddit, MSM, and even people on Twitter. Stock prices are falling, and EA is back peddling as quick as it can. We need to band together and do more of this, period.

So on that note, I'll end this little topic and finish typing up Wolfenstein: The New Order/Old Blood review in a little piece that I'll deem "Legacy Review" before typing up my feelings for Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus and of course Battlefront 2. See you guys soon. P.S. Because of the push back, DICE just made a statement that they are turning off Microtransactions until a later date when they can change how progression is made. This is pretty big for the gaming community, and it's all possible because people stood up against the bullshit. Let's keep fighting for the games we want!