Reflecting on Buying All of Those Overwatch Loot Boxes

The last few months of 2017 has one of the easiest PLEASE STOP! trends in videogames that I can remember. It is becoming clearer and clearer that loot boxes are a problem. Their permutations are excessive and have infiltrated games regardless of their genre, whether they impact single player or multiplayer, or the game's upfront cost. The worst part about the rise of loot boxes is arguably how this trend is likely to continue. After all, there is money to be made. Perhaps the uproar will prevent some developers from implementing them, but the sad truth is more games will likely have them in 2018 and beyond. While we can talk about this until everyone passes out, I actually want to talk about something else today. I have a confession to make. I'm part of the problem. I buy (a lot of) loot boxes. Specifically for one of my all-time favorite games, Overwatch.

I don't want to say how much exactly I've spent on Overwatch over the course of its lifetime. What I will say is Overwatch is easily the most money I have spent on any videogame in my entire life, including some games like Persona 5, which I own three copies of (as for why that is, well, that's for another time). For starters, I bought the standard edition for the PC and later got a copy of it for the PS4 shortly after the game launched in 2016. Since then, there have been a total of eight seasonal events, each containing their own loot boxes with unique costumes, voice lines, victory poses, and so on. Out of those eight events, I have bought loot boxes, on the PC, for all eight of them.

Before I go too deep on these loot boxes, it is worth saying that these are entirely optional. If you buy Overwatch, you get all of the heroes, maps, modes, and updates for free. If you were to pick up the game during a sale for $20, you can play Overwatch's online multiplayer for free, forever. There's no stamina, XP bonuses, coin doublers, or what have you. When you open up a loot box, the only things that will pop out are cosmetic items which have no affect on the game itself. With that in mind, it does raise the question, why would anybody spend money on something they don't need? Well, that's because some of those cosmetics are really great.

I mean, look at this!

In addition to Overwatch being an incredibly fun game to play, it is oozing with personality and style. Having a character's aesthetic change over time builds on that foundation. In some ways, customizing a hero's skin, voice lines, and emotes can feel like a game of dress up. Having Doomfist say, "Go and sit down", and watch the other players sit down is a goofy thing that I haven't really experienced in a game before. Having Mercy say "You're welcome" after Genji says "Thanks" for a resurrection is a fun throwaway bit of roleplaying. Whenever I encounter a waiting room that has an arcade cabinet, I go up to it, use D.Va's Game On emote, which makes her sit down and start playing a shoot em up, to make it seem like she is actually playing that arcade game. Having a game where you can mess around and show off in front of thousands of other players who are also doing the same thing back at you helps make Overwatch feel like a more lively experience.

But there's no denying there is a price for this sort of play. If you play Overwatch everyday, you will rack up gold to buy the things you want or you may get lucky and open a random crate that has that one skin you have to have. Or, you can spend real money, roll the dice, and hope you get the stuff you want through brute force. This year, I could have easily bought multiple games on my Steam wishlist if I didn't spend any money on Overwatch. With the seasonal event that just ended--Overwatch's second Halloween event--I bought a couple of last minute loot boxes, after I already bought plenty of loot boxes on the first day of the event, to see if I could get Symmetra's Dragon skin without using my gold. Of course the Dragon skin didn't drop from any of those paid loot boxes either, and I ended up using my gold anyways.

About half of the time, I get lucky. I opened up Mercy's Witch skin fairly early on last year and didn't have to sweat bullets about that. During Overwatch's first anniversary event, I ended up with all of the dance emotes I cared about. As for the other half, there's that one thing that got away. One of my early favorite characters in Overwatch was Lúcio. Despite how he was my most played character, I didn't really care for any of his skins. The hockey skins were pretty decent, but the deadmau5-esque DJ outfit didn't do anything for me. That's why I was itching to have his Summer Games skin, which dressed him up as a soccer player. Despite how Overwatch was more or less the only game I was playing at the time and how I went back multiple times to buy loot boxes to try and earn that skin, I was unable to get it. This moment particularly stung for me, because at the time there wasn't a lot of skins we had to work with to express ourselves.

At this point, I have probably done every dumb loot box purchase there is. Buying loot boxes specifically to try and find one item. Buying back-to-back loot boxes, when I didn't get anything good out of the first set. Buying just a couple of loot boxes (which isn't really worth it, because you can just spend an afternoon playing the game and get the same number of boxes). Buying way too many loot boxes (which isn't really worth it either, because they're just cosmetics and I could have easily put that money towards something more tangible). And still, I bought those loot boxes. Every single one of those poor purchasing decisions is based on a combination of wanting something, having the ability to try and get that item again and again, and not knowing when to say enough.

Reflecting on my past decisions to buy those loot boxes, the thing that sticks out to me the most is how easy it is to forget about some of those purchases. Somewhere out there, there is someone who has spent thousands of dollars opening Overwatch loot crates. Thankfully I have not gone that far. There are some seasonal events where I buy one set of loot boxes and I'm done. Sometimes I buy a few smaller sized quantities. However far down the rabbit hole I go or however I spread out those loot boxes, my purchases have been within my means and not outrageously high. I knew I spent money on Overwatch's loot boxes, but it's not that much, right? Well, a few weeks ago when I decided to total up how much money I have spent on Overwatch, I was still shocked by how much I spent.

I think the source of my surprise is based on how I primarily look back at the past two or three events, and nothing that came beforehand. I can recall how I bought a couple of loot boxes for the 2017 Summer Games event and was done fairly early. What's more difficult is remembering how much I spent last year during the 2016 Summer Games. These purchases are infrequent enough that they don't tally up in my head. Likewise, I know I throw a few dollars at certain mobile free-to-play games, but I can't tell you off the top of my head how much or how often I do so. On the other hand, I know exactly how much I spend for Hulu each month, since that is one of my bills that also remains more or less consistent. With expenses like loot boxes, the only way I and a bunch of other people will ever find out how much money they're wasting is if they open up a calculator and start going through their old invoices.

In terms of what playing over 300 hours of Overwatch and buying X number of loot boxes looks like, it looks something like this:

At this point, I have a majority of the items in the game. There's no doubt buying loot boxes helped round out my collection. Despite how I obtained plenty of skins and emotes from them, looking at my overall collection makes me think I have reached the height of my loot box buying days. I'm not going to lie, when the next Overwatch seasonal event launches, I will probably buy some more loot boxes. However, the volume and frequency that I do so will start to decrease simply because I have enough at this point.

While there is an appeal to get the new thing and dress up for a particular event (i.e. putting on your Halloween costume for the Halloween event), I am still primarily interested in having stuff to express myself. For over a year now, Mercy has only worn her Witch costume, because that is still my favorite Mercy skin. Despite obtaining the two latest Mei skins, she is still wearing her Chinese New Year outfit, Chang'e, because I like that one more. Likewise, everybody has their highlight intro, everybody has at least a couple of emotes, and they are all equipped with my favorite voice lines. In some regard, Blizzard has done their job too well. Out of the current roster of 25 characters, everybody accentuated just right for me. Sure, at some point there will be a new Mercy's Witch or Symmetra's Dragon skin equivalent for me, but having unlocked so many things for these characters already, it will only become harder and harder to win me over like that.

In this past--on this very website even--I have stated that the solution to the loot box problem was to stop buying them. If you don't support the idea of them, just don't buy them. If you feel like it will spoil a game's single player or turn its multiplayer into a pay-to-win game, don't waste your time and money on that. A part of this is how we live in an age where there is no shortage of great games coming out in 2017 and we have seemingly limitless access to different types of games, both old and new. Sure, more games are adopting loot boxes, but there are countless others that don't rely on them.

On paper, this is still my answer to loot boxes. However, lately I have been thinking about people who have to make these decisions. It is easy to say "Don't play games that have loot boxes" as a statement, but there's also that Star Wars fan who just wants to play the new Star Wars game. Yeah, there are countless games people can play instead, but sometimes people just want to play the new basketball game or the new great looking racing game. I've also been thinking more about what people like Heather Alexandra write with regards to how loot boxes exploit emotionally vulnerable people and there is a much larger human issue that goes beyond how a game's multiplayer may be unbalanced. While I had the money to buy those Overwatch loot boxes, there are plenty of people out there who spent money on those items who have less disposable income or are in debt or are having trouble making ends meet.

There's no doubt loot boxes are becoming more of a problem for videogames and I know I am a part of the problem. Looking back on the past 18 months, I don't want to say I regret purchasing those loot boxes. The main reason is because it is easy to say so. Yes, you shouldn't buy loot boxes. Yeah, if I could just spend $5 on each individual skin I wanted, that would be a better. And of course this is all for a bunch of cosmetic items I absolutely don't need. But the fact remains I enjoy Overwatch more than a lot of videogames. Despite how historic 2017 has been for videogames, I still spend a decent amount of my time playing Overwatch instead of the dozen other great games that came out this year. And I still like playing dress up with my action figures. I wish I spent less money on loot boxes for Overwatch, but I'm not going to lie; I still like having those skins.

I've over 500 hours in Overwatch, it's my second favorite video game ever. I've never bought a loot box. Any time an event comes along I just buy the skins I want with coins I've earnt.

Wow, I can't even imagine having most of the items in a game like Overwatch ?

I'm not going to sit here and blame you, because you've admitted that the practice is a problem and it's not my place to tell you how to spend your money or how to enjoy a game you bought.

I'm just going to say that stuff like this is exactly why the "It's just cosmetic" or "Well, I'VE never bought one" arguments don't hold water. This is exactly how games like this get you.

You spend a little here and a little there, with that "Oh, I haven't spent much, just one more and I'm done" mentality. And then before you know it, you've spent hundreds of dollars when if they let you know how much you'd be spending up front, you'd gasp and say "No way!"

Sure, you personally may have never bought one, but there are plenty of people out there who don't have that same willpower or haven't thought that far ahead. This is literally how gambling works. "Man, I didn't get what I wanted this time. One more spin!" quite literally translates to "Oh, I didn't get what I wanted this time. One more box!"

And all Blizzard has to do is dangle shiny objects in front of your face while making you think you just HAVE to have them (in Overwatch's case, in order to really belong to the community) to make you reach for that roulette wheel one more time.

So yeah, it doesn't affect gameplay here. It doesn't have to, because they already have so many people out there by the balls without them even realizing it.

This post sure is full of trying to rationalize a gambling addiction. Thanks for your contributions!

Yeah, you definitely don't have a problem. At all.

You do realize it is never going to end, right? Your collection will never be "complete".

I'm okay with Overwatch's loot box implementation, for many of the same reasons mentioned here.

• All loot box items are cosmetic. They don't affect gameplay in any way.
• All loot box items can be purchased with in-game currency.
  • This wasn't the case for the very first event, Summer Games 2016, but has been for all subsequent events.
• Event loot boxes are guaranteed to contain at least one event item. And the rate of duplicates has been adjusted somewhat since launch.
• There's no dual-currency system - a concept popularized in mobile free-to-play games that's made its way into more and more PC/console games.
• There are additional ways to get loot boxes beyond purchasing them or grinding XP.
  • One free loot box is given out at the start of events. (You probably have to log in during the event to get it. I haven't missed an event yet, so not sure.)
  • Each week, 3 arcade wins earn 1 loot box, up to 3 boxes per week.
  • Individual arcade mode wins can earn 1 loot box, the first time they're played.
• Blizzard continues to add new content to the game, both big (new heroes, maps, and modes) and small (new skins, voice lines, etc.). And new features like highlight capture and recording.

I've bought loot boxes a couple times, but I've put a lot of hours into the game, so buying boxes isn't as much of a draw now as it was early on. But I may still buy some in the future, if there's a great skin and I'm short on time and in-game currency.

I love the game, and would still play it even if there weren't new loot box items to earn. But I like these little touches. Overwatch is all about variety, as evidenced by the roster which will soon have 26 heroes. I like being able to choose skins and voice lines and highlight intros for the heroes I play.

@wraithtek: Yeah, I think the little touches and improvements they made over time have helped. Not being able to buy cosmetics with gold during the first Summer Games sucked. Reducing the number of duplicates really made an impact, whether you bought those loot boxes or got them naturally through playing the game.

I still felt like I hit my limit due to how much stuff I have at this point, but I think I would have tapped out earlier if they didn't make those improvements.

Thank you for explaining why this practice may never die and what goes through the mind of a whale. (their term not mine) Randomised anything that you pay for is bad. It hikes up the prices of things you can get seperately (if thats even an option) to make it seem like it has more value than it does, it slows down the rate at which you earn shit, again to make it seem as though fake currency has more value. And at worse it effects gameplay. You could call me entitled for saying that I want the rate at which I earn rewards to be higher than it is but the fact of the matter is this isnt a free game and part of the enjoyment is unlocking things. For example the first Titanfall had burn cards which were fun but admittedly broke the balance a bit, but they were free, easy to get, the game actually showered you with them to the point that I felt like I had to use all three each game or I would reach my limit. Contrast that to Battlefront 2 which barely gives you anything and (i've only played the beta this may have changed) front loads the game with "buy loot box to improve your experience" or some such. And this is because they want you to buy them, (obviously) if they were quick and easy to get you would be less inclined to do so. It really does make games less fun.

I dont mean this post to sound hostile I really do appreciate you taking the time to explain why you do what you do. I just wish games like Overwatch and DOTA 2 lived in a bubble so that other devs/publishers werent inspired to prey on people using similar albeit worse tactics.

I think there's some hyperbole in people complaining that anyone who buys a loot box is "part of the problem." If that's the case, I'm 100% sure that gamers are "part of the problem" for shit that's far more serious than loot boxes in a video game.

I think I've spent $20 on Overwatch loot boxes, all of it last year during some of the first seasonal events. I was playing frequently and having fun, so why not? Yes, there ARE things that make them frustrating. The frequency of duplicates being the main one. But I'm okay with cosmetic purchases in a game that I believe adds meaningful content on a regular basis.

(I don't want to know how much I've spent in the Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes game on my phone, though.)

I've spent FAR too much money in Overwatch too, man. I've uninstalled the game because I just have a problem when it comes to the lootboxes. It preys on people like me who don't play the game quite often enough to get loot boxes at a very consistent rate, and also have a problem with gambling. The presentation of the loot is like a slot machine, the way you can't just skip the animation builds up the anticipation, and when you don't get the item you want, you want to try again, and again, and again... Then once you get it, you get this wonderful hit of dopamine and it just feels so damn good. The random nature of the boxes encourages me to keep going, thinking that THIS TIME I'll get lucky, and I just want to keep going. I recognize it now as a very scummy practice, the whole presentation is meant to trap people like me into this loop of constantly giving them money.

Blizzard allowing you to buy the limited time skins with money was a nice gesture, but too bad they tripled the price of them, so unless if you play a lot, or spend a lot, you're not going to be able to afford the ones you want. Again, it's just another incentive to make people like me to just go ahead and buy the boxes.

To those of you who can avoid this addiction, good job, you can enjoy a good game without having this shit plague your mind. You get to be one of millions of people who enjoy the content that these whales paying Blizzard are able to provide for you.

I actually stopped playing OW after realizing during one of these events that was about to end that I had all but one of the skins I thought I needed and I had enough gold to buy the last one but since the event still had one weekend before the finish I decided to wait and hope to earn some loot boxes and maybe get lucky with the skin drop. Well it turns out I actually left town for that weekend and by the time I was back the event was over and I'd missed out on the skin. After reflection I realized I really didn't need to grind playing this game in hopes of getting a skin and much of the desire to play left me. I did once buy the 50 loot boxes thing and while I don't regret the money aspect of it I do feel that it lessened the joy of opening boxes I had earned during gameplay (that is just me, not trying to throw shade at anyone who does buy them often). The only other games I've payed money into would be Mass Effect 3 for better multiplayer weapons (ME3 MP was PvE so it wasn't like I was getting any sort of advantage against another player) and I payed $30 into Path of Exile because it is FTP and I thought it was well worth my time and money.

weird for me I never brought them and have like 2/3 of the costumes. I don't buy them with won coins much either. I think the need to up your rank is another exploit people should look into that friend's force pressure on you which the executives of companies love. I played that game for hours at one time nearly 200 hours going from 1300 from a losing streak to 2600. I wasn't really enjoying my time I just needed the pestering of my level is higher to stop going off in my head. I thought about how I could have seen about 75 movies in that time or finished 10 decently paced good games etc. It wasn't a waste cause It was still sorta cool once and a while and I did learn to stop caring about rank. I can now just have fun and ignore sweats. I see how loot boxes can get ya. I'm so against any loss in gambling, but unlike gambling your always given something so it pushes you to think ill still get something. It's like those YuGiOh cards kids brought. 5 dollars isn't so much and I'm guaranteed a good one...not the one I want but a good one...then that turns into 20 packs and you wasted your money. Luckily kids don't have bank accounts and credit. Id say set a max your willing to go for and tell a friend to hid some sorta key to getting the ok to get more. Weigh yourself off. It's still fun, so you don't need to throw away your enjoyment just do it responsibly.

@clagnaught: You know whats funny. My friend never uses his loot boxes. He doesnt care and has the most ive ever seen. XD.

While I can certainly admit that loot boxes and similar micro transactions can be a major cause for concern in terms of feeding addiction, the flip side of it funding a robust, years long multiplayer game where all additional maps and characters are free for everyone, is to me a worthy trade off. I’d rather not go back to the COD4 days of splitting the player base when a new map pack drops.

This is interesting.

I've played Overwatch often since it came out. I've never purchased any loot boxes and have almost all the skins and emotes, at least for the characters I play with any regularity. Plus I have 40k coins banked up in case a new skin comes out that I want.

I can understand that other people who are susceptible to gambling addiction may have a different perspective, but the only problem I have with the loot box system is that it eventually becomes boring when almost every box is full of duplicate items.