. He observed that they’d practise little rituals in the hope that they’d cause food to appear, including turning around in their cages or nodding their heads, and yet the food was given to them at entirely regular intervals. The absence of any explanation of why the food appeared had conditioned them to believe their actions caused it. On a deep level, our own minds work the same way.
Overwatch and Hearthstone contrast with the common way loot boxes are presented. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive model, in which the gun skins in the crate scroll by, slot machine-style, is a direct evolution of the old ZT Online design.
In most countries, including the US and UK, loot boxes are not legally considered gambling because the winnings have no intrinsic value outside the game . But in being expensive to buy and based on the same psychological principles, we have to treat them with the same care.Loot boxes also plug into another facet of psychology: collection.
Both Overwatch and Hearthstone's designers are careful not to dictate value."We learned that the value of our cosmetic content varies widely from player to player, and that no distribution of rarities was likely to really jive with everyone," Heiberg continues.