As ardent gamers, we dedicate hours of our lives to gaming. Just lately, all across the world, the Monster Hunter World farming binges have been real. The game’s consuming lives at an alarming rate. We’re a passionate bunch, that’s for darn certain, but we’re equally committed to calling crapola on the industry where necessary.
The much-hated concept of loot boxes is one of the most egregious examples of this crapola. So great is the stigma surrounding them, Sweden is considering introducing a change in the law that would see them classified as a form of gambling.
That’s right. The people of Sweden have already conquered the world of cheap, pain-in-the-butt-to-assemble furnishings and meatballs, but they’re not about to stop there. Clearly, they’re way ahead of the curve law-wise too. As PC Gamer reports, the country’s Minister for Public Administration, Ardalan Shekarabi, recently spoke out about the importance of carefully monitoring loot boxes.
In an interview on Swedish radio, Shekarabi stated that, at present, there was no way of regulating loot boxes and how they’re used, because they don’t fall under any such banner. What he did make clear, though, was that he’s looking into ways to regulate them. "I don't want to rule out the possibility [of classifying loot boxes as gambling]," he said (translation via PC Gamer). "It is obvious that there are many people suffering from gambling addiction, who also get stuck in this type of gambling and lose money because of it."
Nothing definitive yet, then, but there’s certainly potential for Swedish law to reflect this line of thinking in the near future. It’s certainly an issue that needs addressing, as so many of us have been stung by loot boxes and general microtransactions.
Have you ever been suckered in by a gacha game like Fire Emblem Heroes? There’s a real insidious evil about them, the way they get you hooked by drip-feeding you a couple of freebies and then go all pay to play on you. From mobile games to huge AAA blockbusters (the furore surrounding Star Wars: Battlefront II’s microtransactions was quite a thing to behold), this is an all-pervasive issue for video games. If money-grubbing publishers and developers won’t acknowledge that, then it’s good to see that there are those higher up who will.
Sweden are just the latest country to express these sorts of concerns. Last November, Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Greens called for an outright ban of loot crates, both in the country and Europe generally. EA hit back, claiming that their loot boxes cannot be classified as gambling because the buyer was always guaranteed some kind of payout. The argument continues.
The same month, a member of the Australian Gambling Regulation Division tried to hammer the point home again. In this instance, too, nothing conclusive was decided, but the outcry against the whole pay-to-win idea is getting louder and louder.