Addiction is no laughing matter. It can affect anyone and everyone, young and old, experienced or not. It can affect those already mentally weakened, and those lucky few with a strong and stable mind. it doesn’t differentiate between rich and poor. Addiction is a horrible disease, and a widespread one.
Of course we’re all aware of the major addictions like drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling etc, but no-one really discusses the more modern scourges on society, like gaming addictions. Now, for the record I am a gamer, obviously. I spend a lot of my free time playing, discussing, writing about or otherwise somehow involved with gaming. However, as with anything I know my limits and the importance of a balanced life.
Unfortunately, as is the case with this study, there are some practices and gameplay mechanics in games today that prey upon those people who may not want or have the option for a balanced life/other outlets.
Gaming Addiction in Modern Day Gaming
Gaming addiction is not a new thing. Many of us remember in our younger days spending countless hours in front of a TV with our friends, playing the same game again and again whilst our parents implored us to ‘go outside and play’. However, what is new is the recent implementation over the last ten years of so of various gameplay mechanics, intentionally designed to prey on those of us with addictive personalities and tendencies.
Of course, I’m talking about microtransactions. More specifically, lootboxes. For those who don’t know, a lootbox is exactly what it says on the tin. It is a box filled with loot. Differing from game-to-game, it’ll generally be a randomized selection of items that the player has no control over, but costing currency in-game that can be bought with real world money. The constant promise of an overly-rare item/card and the dopamine rush of seeing the packs/boxes open gives addicts everything they need to fritter away their paychecks/parent’s money/savings.
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One of the biggest culprits is EA Sports’ FIFA franchise, soon to be renamed EA Sports FC. Back in 2009 when the developer introduced the Ultimate Team mode, it also introduced the capability to buy packs that included all manner of items, the biggest and best being the ultra-rare player cards. This facilitated the mode becoming the central part of every FIFA release since, with it earning astronomical numbers of dollars, far outweighing the actual sales figures of the launch. In the meantime they’ve all but abandoned the other modes in the game, resulting in the franchise being considered a ‘cookie-cutter’ release every year.
Roblox and Fortnite, both hugely popular with children, have copious options with cosmetics, guns, skins and more, all available in their respective lootboxes and microtransactions. This is, as we’re seeing now, slowly breeding a generation of gambling addicts that simply don’t know or can’t stop. This is part of the reason there is so much litigation and legal proceedings surrounding the use and implementation of lootboxes in countries around the world.
Gaming Addiction Causes Clinic Surge
Back in 2020, The National Centre for Gaming Disorders (NCGD) was given enough funding to effectively treat 50 patients a year. Three years later, that funding hasn’t changed, but the patient list is currently up to thirty a month since March of this year. It is an epidemic that won’t stop. The current total of patients being seen/having been seen this year has already hit 855, with over a third of those admitting to having used/bought a lootbox during their gameplay time.
Between 2021 and 2022, 12% of those who played video games compulsively mentioned Fortnite, 10% Minecraft, 8% Call of Duty and 4.7% Roblox. If that last one is surprising to you, it’s because over half of the gaming related cases are under the age of 18.
The founder of the NCGD, Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones had this to say on the matter.
“The monetisation of gaming via loot box purchases and the advertising of such gambling like features in games is normalising gambling behaviours in young people.”
“We need reassurance that protective regulation of these products will be implemented. We must take online harms seriously.”
Countries such as Belgium, Holland, Australia and Spain have already taken legislative action to classify lootboxes and some other microtransactions as gambling, enforcing the restrictions usually attributed to adult-gambling onto the games containing these lootboxes. However, many other countries including the US and the UK lag behind.
Upon a decision not to follow Belgium’s lead on lootboxes, denying the classification of them as a form of gambling, a UK-government spokesperson had this to say on the situation.
“It is important to ensure players, particularly children, can enjoy video games safely. We are working with industry to strengthen protections for players and will publish an update on this shortly.
“The government response to the call for evidence on loot boxes set out that the games industry can and should go further to protect children and adults from the risk of harm.”
The UK government have created a team to look into the problem with lootboxes and gambling/gaming addiction, with reports from that group due some time over the next few months. It is unknown whether the same has been done in other countries right now. It can be imagined with the multitude of different levels of law in the US that it’d be considerably more difficult to have any sort of action considered or implemented there.
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What do you make of the rise of gambling and gaming addiction cases? Do you play any games with lootboxes? Are you one of those suffering from gaming/gambling addiction? Let us know in the comments!
Source: The Guardian
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