The craze for Loot Boxes started with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare although it wasn't the first game to introduce that. And That was the last Call of Duty I played too. After realizing that they are putting more focus on supply drops than fixing the fundamental problems in the game, I refused to buy or play any other call of duty after that.

Supply Drops in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Now here were are in 2017, that Loot box system is in almost every game. From Single-player games like Middle-earth: Shadow of War to popular racing franchise Need for speed 's new game NFS payback, its everywhere.

For those who don't know what loot boxes or microtransactions are, its a system ,mostly followed in free-to-play mobile games or free-to-play games in general, where players can buy virtual items in game which would be a good revenue source for the developers to make it better on regular basis. But it works well for that particular genre of games since the developers giving their game for free. But why does AAA games like Call of Duty or Star Wars: Battlefront need this system when they already charge 60$ for base game and 100$ for deluxe editions? 

It all started in the beta version of Star Wars: Battlefront II where players, including myself, found that they added supply crates in the game. Whats more concerning is that it is directly tied to progression system. So you need to get items through the supply crates in order to progress. Since the items in crates are random you are not guaranteed to get the item you want. But if money is spent on this crates then the process would be faster, but still there is no guaranteed stuff. Its just a glorified slot machine. It may take you hours or even weeks to get a single item that you wish for.

This makes the game less fun and engaging despite its AMAZING gameplay, graphics and sound design. Loot boxes can be fun if it is not tied to progression or affect the gameplay in any means. But when a person spending money on those crates and gets an item which gives him an advantage in the game over other players who don't spend money and earn those crates through playing, that's where the problem lies in. Its a very unfair system.

It rips off the sense of pride and accomplishment that you get from playing the game. You are instead punished for it. One player actually calculated the amount of time and money that you have to spend to get the contents in the game. You either spend 4000 hours or 2100$ to get all of the items in the game. I'm not joking here. That's how the system is in the game. So those who have money can get it in an instant and those who don't have to spend thousands of hours waiting for the items to drop from the slot machine.

After major backlash from the players in the community, EA finally pulled out all the loot boxes and microtransactions [for now]. I don't think they are gonna stop since this is a really good business and they earn billions of dollars from microtransactions. So lets not get the hopes too high. 

Speed cards in NFS Payback

This year saw other games too with similar system. For example, to customize a car in NFS Payback in terms of performance you need to open or purchase speed cards which  will give you a card with a specific variety with specific stat that you can apply to your car(Seriously?!! Who thought it was a good idea?!).

Middle-earth Shadow of War also has a similar system where you have to purchase stuff to improve your chance of winning. But at least it's a single player game and you don't have a disadvantage or anything like that and does not ruin your experience (well, at some level).

Overwatch has loot boxes too but the items you get are cosmetic only and do not affect your gameplay. So it is completely optional and you are not forced to buy anything. You could earn those boxes at a descent rate just by playing the game. This system is actually good and exciting and does not require to swipe your card every time you want to progress.

Another game that I forgot to mention is Destiny 2. The reason why I didn't mention this game before is that though it has loot boxes kinda system in it, it has other major fundamental issues that needs fixing and when you compare that to loot boxes issue, it's not that big of a deal in that game.

I'm pretty sure the developers and publisher will try to sneak this system into their games one way or the other in the future. Its a very good business model and they are earning billions of dollars every year just from these loot boxes.They are manipulating the players, especially kids under 14 years, to spend tons of money by lowering the chance of getting the item that they want and they are easily tricked into these kind of exploits.

The fate of this system lies on gamers and how they respond to those practices. I consider games like this are dangerous because if those games succeeds then developers and publishers continue to exploit their users in the name of loot boxes and they will forever ruin the well know franchises due to corporate greed.

I can't believe we live in a time where games like destiny 2 (glorified DLC simulator) and Star Wars Battlefront II (glorified slot machine) exist. Games with practices like this should not be encouraged and we the gamers should fight against it so that it would be a lesson and a warning to other developers who dare to introduce such system in their games.

It is totally unacceptable. Gamers are tired of this and they will fight back if such unfair system is seen in any other game.