Increased user engagement on YouTube for loot box content and its potential relevance for behavioural addictions [PDF]
Scientific ReportsVideo games frequently contain loot boxes, i.e. virtual in-game items sharing structural similarities with gambling. On YouTube©, there are multi-million subscriber channels prominently featuring loot box-related content.
Elke Smith +4 more
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Rare Loot Box Rewards Trigger Larger Arousal and Reward Responses, and Greater Urge to Open More Loot Boxes. [PDF]
J Gambl Stud, 2021 AbstractLoot boxes are a purchasable video-game feature consisting of randomly determined, in-game virtual items. Due to their chance-based nature, there is much debate as to whether they constitute a form of gambling. We sought to address this issue by examining whether players treat virtual loot box rewards in a way that parallels established reward ...
Larche CJ +4 more
europepmc +4 more sources
Exploring the relationships between psychological variables and loot box engagement, part 2: exploratory analyses of complex relationships [PDF]
Royal Society Open ScienceIn a pre-registered survey linked to this paper (Exploring the relationships between psychological variables and loot box engagement, part 1: pre-registered hypotheses), we confirmed bivariate associations between engagement with loot boxes (purchasable ...
Stuart Gordon Spicer +8 more
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Opening Pandora's Loot Box: Weak Links Between Gambling and Loot Box Expenditure in China, and Player Opinions on Probability Disclosures and Pity-Timers. [PDF]
J Gambl Stud, 2023 Loot boxes are quasi-gambling virtual products in video games that provide randomised rewards of varying value. Previous studies in Western contexts have identified a positive correlation between loot box purchasing and problem gambling severity.
Xiao LY, Fraser TC, Newall PWS.
europepmc +7 more sources
Loot box engagement: A scoping review of primary studies on prevalence and association with problematic gaming and gambling. [PDF]
PLoS ONE, 2022 BackgroundLoot boxes are an increasingly common type of random microtransaction in videogames. There is some concern about their expansion and entailed risks, especially among adolescents.
Irene Montiel +4 more
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Does the loot box open the door to addiction? A case report of gaming disorder with high charges for loot box purchases [PDF]
PCN ReportsBackground A loot box is a gaming term for an electronic lottery that randomly provides items that enhance the gaming experience. In recent years, loot boxes have been increasingly discussed as a risk factor of gaming disorder (GD).
Tokuya Inaguma +5 more
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Non-compliance with and non-enforcement of UK loot box industry self-regulation on the Apple App Store: a longitudinal study on poor implementation [PDF]
Royal Society Open ScienceLoot boxes in video games can be purchased with real-world money in exchange for random rewards. Stakeholders are concerned about loot boxes’ similarities to gambling and their potential harms (e.g.
Leon Y. Xiao, Mie Lange Lund
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Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of Risky Loot Box Index (RLI) and cross-sectional investigation among gamers of China [PDF]
PeerJNowadays, many of the top-selling video games include options to purchase loot boxes as paid virtual items. As research progressed, loot boxes have been found to have similar characteristics to gambling, and there has been an ongoing debate as to whether
Peidong Guo +5 more
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No effect of short term exposure to gambling like reward systems on post game risk taking [PDF]
Scientific Reports, 2022 Is engaging with gambling-like video game rewards a risk factor for future gambling? Despite speculation, there are no direct experimental tests of this “gateway hypothesis”.
Nicholas J. D’Amico +6 more
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Associations between alcohol consumption and spending on gambling like mechanisms in video games [PDF]
Scientific ReportsLoot boxes are purchasable digital containers in video games that hold randomised rewards. Many loot boxes meet both psychological and legal criteria for gambling.
Lucy C. East +5 more
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