It’s that everlasting debate summed up in a single term: loot boxes. For the longest time, there has been a heated debate as to whether or not loot boxes are a plague on the gaming industry – and it’s often tied in with the likes of microtransactions, season passes, and cosmetics bundles. In the United Kingdom, one organisation has taken matters into its own hands, drawing up guidelines that are intended to restrict the presence of loot boxes across the industry.

Ukie, which is a UK-based ‘trade body’ focused on ‘interactive entertainment’, has published a proposal that contains eleven all-new guidelines geared at targeting loot boxes and their less-than-desirable existence. For the last three years, the UK’s government has been actively debating the concept of loot boxes, going so far as to consider banning them in the country. These efforts are primarily targeted at protecting children and young people, but the argument admittedly runs much deeper than that.

Guidance Through Principles

Image Credit: Valve

Given that the United Kingdom has very real ‘clinics’ aimed at treating gaming disorders such as addiction, there’s certainly a legitimate need to put in place principles that reduce the impact of loot boxes. That’s why Ukie has targeted eleven things that developers and publishers can do to protect young people in gaming:

Make available technological controls
Drive awareness of and uptake of technological controls
Form an expert panel on age assurance in the games industry
Disclose the presence of Loot Boxes prior to purchase
Give clear probability disclosures
Design and present Loot Boxes in a manner that is easily understandable
Support the implementation of the Video Games Research Framework
Continue to tackle the unauthorised external sale of items acquired from Loot Boxes
Commit to lenient refund policies
Advance protections for all players
Work with UK Government and other relevant stakeholders to measure the effectiveness of these principles

In a statement, the UK’s Minister for Creative Industries, John Whittingdale, said:

‘We’ve been clear the video games industry needs to do more to protect children and adults from the harms associated with loot boxes. These new principles are a big step forward to make sure players can enjoy video games responsibly and safely. I look forward to seeing games companies put the plans into action and will be watching their progress closely.’

Read More: Are Loot Boxes Gambling?

Why Are Loot Boxes So Bad?

For some, loot boxes aren’t bad. They’re a fun way to unlock new content for games that – if managed correctly – will never have any malicious or adverse impact on their lives. For others, loot boxes can quickly become a pitfall – a financial trap that sees them pouring money into a black hole, desperate to open one more loot box and potentially secure that one skin or that rare player. It’s effectively gambling, but because there are no regulations or limitations on the concept, it’s something that’s accessible to children.

That’s the crux of the issue, and a lot of the discourse surrounding lootboxes is geared towards protecting young and impressionable people. That’s why Ukie (and other associated organisations) are looking to put in place these stringent guidelines that empower developers, publishers, and other operators in the space to be as flexible, transparent, and supportive as possible where loot boxes are concerned.

Do you think loot boxes are still an issue?