A new study from CQUniversity Australia has found that gamers who purchase loot boxes are more likely to have gambling problems, although the results are a bit murkier than you may expect.

The study looked at 2,000 gamers between the ages of 12 and 24, and over 93% had played a video game that contained loot boxes in the past year. The majority of respondents agreed that loot boxes have some sort of addictive quality, and one third said they regularly purchased them. In fact, adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 spent a median of $50 on loot boxes. Parents are often unsure about what loot boxes are and, because of this, the study calls for increased monitoring and enhanced public awareness campaigns by the gaming industry.

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Worse yet, researchers Dr. Alex Russell and Professor Matthew Rockloff found that 62% of the best-selling games now include loot boxes — including Angry Birds and Counter-Strike. They point out that many of the most valuable rewards are often resold online for real cash, further blurring the line between loot boxes and gambling. In the case of Counter-Strike, you don't even need to use a separate website — Valve has a marketplace built right into Steam that allows players to quickly sell their virtual items for real cash.

via Rock Paper Shotgun

However, there seems to one striking conclusion that differs from how we typically view loot boxes:

It is important to note that research question 3 implicitly proposed that there might be a relationship between early loot box use and subsequent gambling problems. These results do not support that contention, and in fact the direction of the results is opposite to this claim. Instead, there is a concurrent relationship in time whereby people with current gambling problems are also more likely to have first opened and bought loot boxes recently. This may reflect that when people are interested in gambling they seek out new gambling-like experiences, including loot boxes, when they otherwise might not have.

In other words, it seems that loot box purchasers are not seeking out opportunities to go and gamble, but individuals who already gamble are instead dabbling in the world of loot boxes. It's a bizarre finding, and one that many people may not have stopped to consider.

We need to do more research into the effects loot boxes are having on gamers, especially those of younger demographics — but for the time being, it seems that we may not have to worry about these individuals forming a nasty gambling habit. There's a lot we still don't know about the psychology of loot boxes, but from what little we already understand it's clear that the gaming industry must do a better job of informing gamers, parents, and the public about these nebulous transactions.

We've reached out to the researchers for more information and will be sure to update you with any further developments.

Source: CQUniversity Australia

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