{"id":9964,"date":"2019-08-28T16:15:33","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T20:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/?p=9964"},"modified":"2019-08-28T16:15:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T20:15:39","slug":"the-convergence-of-gaming-and-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2019\/08\/28\/the-convergence-of-gaming-and-gambling\/","title":{"rendered":"The Convergence of Gaming and Gambling?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There has sometimes been a tendency to\nconfuse online gambling with online gaming, particularly on the part of people\nwho don\u2019t know very much about either. After all, they both involve bright\ncolours, flashing lights and sound effects, and can be accessed via your\ntablet, smartphone or laptop, so they must be fairly similar, right? This is\nwrong, of course, because online gaming involves various tests of skill\nundertaken for the sense of achievement and the entertainment value, whereas\nonline gambling is online gambling \u2013 there is undoubtedly a huge entertainment\nfactor but the ultimate aim is to pay a certain amount of money in the hope of\nwinning more money in return via various games of chance. There may be a degree\nof skill and strategy involved in card games like blackjack and poker, but this\ncomes with a dependence on how the cards fall, while  something like playing online slots is\nentirely dependent upon the amount of luck you have with the random number\ngenerator controlling the reels. The two factors \u2013 the monetary component and\nthe reward for skill-based gameplay \u2013 are what have traditionally separated\ngambling and gameplay, but there\u2019s no denying the fact that, in recent years,\nthe two have begun to converge somewhat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The convergence of gaming and gambling is a\nphenomenon which is generally viewed from one particular perspective \u2013 that of\nonline slots, and the ways in which elements of gamification are increasingly\nbeing used by developers to attract players, create exciting new slots and\nwiden the demographic base of potential markets. We\u2019ll examine this shift in\nmore depth later, but it\u2019s worth noting that there has been some movement in\nthe opposite direction, with more and more games introducing the concept of loot boxes<\/a> which, to many\nobservers, represent a form of gambling<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loot\nboxes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A loot box is a form of micro transaction placed within a video game. Players can look for virtual boxes which contain a range of items and in-game modifications. The factors which have led many people to claim that loot boxes represent a form of gambling are that they have to be paid for, and that the player makes the payment without knowing what the loot box in question contains. Loot boxes are presented as an optional extra for the game player, but many observers have pointed out that it is only possible to enjoy the maximum game play experience if you purchase sufficient loot boxes. At the very least, the temptation of loot boxes is that they greatly speed up the process of progressing through the game when contrasted with the standard practice of a player simply working through the levels.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

One of the first games to feature loot boxes was Overwatch, which was released in 2016. In this game, the items in the boxes were cosmetic in nature, including the likes of costumes and avatars, rather than being items capable of actually impacting on the game play. More recently, games such as Star Wars Battlefront II, Gears of War 4, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Halo 5: Guardians and FIFA 19 have all featured loot boxes containing items which had a definite impact on the game play experience of the player, and in all cases the player didn\u2019t know, until they\u2019d paid to open the loot box, what it actually contained. Unlike online casinos \u2013 which have to publish information on the Return to Player percentage and volatility of every online slot –\u00a0 the vast majority of video games don\u2019t offer players any information relating to how likely they are to get certain items when they pay for a loot box. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was this which led some legislators to\ncall for loot boxes to be classified as gambling although, in October 2017, the\nEntertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), which is responsible for giving\nvideo games the kind of ratings which films have been given for many years,\nbased on factors such as violence and sexual content, chose not to classify\nloot boxes in this way. Despite this, the gambling\nauthorities in Belgium<\/a> have decided that loot boxes in video games\ndo constitute gambling and called for a Europe wide ban. In response, the ESRB\nopted to change the rules so that physical games which feature loot boxes\nwould, in future, have to feature a sticker warning of \u2018in-game purchases\u2019.\nThis is just one example of how the convergence of gaming and gambling could be\ntreated differently in different geographical jurisdictions<\/a>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another example of a crossover between\ngaming and gambling came with of the virtual Diamond Casino\nand Resort in San Andreas in the virtual world of Grand Theft Auto Online. For\na cost of \u00a35.99 players can purchase $500,000 GTA dollars which they can then\nuse to play on virtual versions of slots, poker, roulette and blackjack.\nAlthough the GTA dollars can\u2019t be converted into real world cash, it is a\ndevelopment which further blurs the line between online gaming and actual\ngambling   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two\nway traffic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loot boxes and the GTA casino represent\nexamples of some of the principles of online gambling making their way into the\nworld of gaming, with the difference being that, as of yet, they have few of\nthe rules and restrictions in place that protect people when playing at online\ncasinos. It isn\u2019t a one way street, however, as many developers have shown a\nkeen interest in using the technological power now at their fingertips in order\nto integrate the social and competitive aspects of video games into the world\nof online slots. Slots such as Immortal Romance and Jungle Jim: El Dorado make\nuse of the kind of storylines, level-based structure and eye-popping graphics\nthat have been the province of video games for many years. Ever since the\nlaunch of the first video slot the graphics used have been improving, of\ncourse, but the difference with these newer games is that the advanced graphics\nare being put at the service of storylines and characters. This shift has been\napparent since as long ago as 2013, when the NetEnt slot Jack and the Beanstalk\nopened with the kind of \u2018cut scene\u2019 that game developers have used to push the\nplot forward for years. More recently, an online casino such as Duelz<\/a>\nhas taken the concept even further, featuring a home page packed with\ncharacters like The Wizard and The Enchantress and collectible \u2018spells\u2019 and\nloot box style treasure chests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As more and more slots come with features\nlike leader boards, level up progress bars, map completion and player versus\nplayer options, it seems certain that the line between gaming and gambling is\nset to become even more blurred in the future than it is at the present.          <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has sometimes been a tendency to confuse online gambling with online gaming, particularly on the part of people who don\u2019t know very much about either. After all, they both involve bright colours, flashing lights and sound effects, and can be accessed via your tablet, smartphone or laptop, so they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4295,"featured_media":9965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Convergence of Gaming and Gambling? #lootboxes #gtacasino #casino #gambling #gaming","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15],"tags":[386,389,143],"class_list":["post-9964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial","tag-casino","tag-gambling","tag-gaming"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Convergence of Gaming and Gambling? - Armchair Arcade<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/armchairarcade.com\/perspectives\/2019\/08\/28\/the-convergence-of-gaming-and-gambling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Convergence of Gaming and Gambling? - Armchair Arcade\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There has sometimes been a tendency to confuse online gambling with online gaming, particularly on the part of people who don\u2019t know very much about either. 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