Loot boxes and other microtransaction features that have random gifts are becoming a very controversial new feature in modern video games. Despite some publishers saying it’s not a form of ‘gambling’ a braver user on Reddit shares his sad side of the story on how one simple game feature ruined his entire life.
In this first part of his story he said: “I’m a 25m from the UK. I’ve been addicted to spending my money on FIFA Ultimate Team ever since I had a job when I was 18, I would get my salary and as an Admin Apprentice (About £400 a month Full Time) and after my board and bus fare, spend the rest of FIFA, about £150 a month. Then as soon as my apprenticeship finished and I was put onto a more standard wage of about £800, I was spending roughly £500 monthly on the game. This is where I got myself a credit card (worst decision of my life), and got into Payday loans and asking for advances every month. This carried on for a while.”
To cut a long story short, his addiction to the game started on Xbox 360 but he continued on once he bought himself an Xbox One. By the end of 2016, he found himself in £8000 in debt. He had to tell his girlfriend and his father about his current financial situation and things aren’t looking good for him right now.
He has to pay back money he borrowed from his father and he’s scared he might lose his girlfriend too because he never told her about his addiction until just recently. It’s this type of situation that people are fearing might influence the newer generation of gaming that thinks “loot box economies” are the norm in the video game industry.
Addiction is real and people that suffer from it cannot easily “tell their brain” to stop. Hopefully this person is able to find a counselor of some sort so he can overcome this additive behavior. As for video game publishers, they should ease up on the loot box systems because things like this might happen to it own customers.
