"Our primary objective in making the games we do is keep making game with WoTLK Classic Gold, and not make money for ourselves or drive Ferraris," Stormdal said. "People might think we're putting money in the bank but I'd rather that than to spend too many."
While Path of Exile features blind-boxes which players pay real cash to purchase, Wilson noted that the cosmetic items inside aren't categorized by any specific degree of rarity. This is described as a deliberate choice to keep the microtransactions in the game separated from the main game's gameplay. "There's an inherent risk with the mechanics since if you pay for the random outcome and then then sell your results on Steam or something else, it's quite similar to a betting method," Wilson said. "We believe that microtransactions are an opportunity to help the studio, which is basically crowdfunding. We prefer to draw a distinct line: Part of our business creates microtransactions, and the other part of us creates this game. They have to communicate with one another, we simply need to make the game look amazing."
In the case of Ryan Morrison, founding partner at Morrison Rothman LLP, a firm that offers legal counsel to a variety of prominent video game companies the loss of the barrier between the addictive loops of the top multiplayer games as well as the possibly predatory business practices that fuel these games is a cause for anxiety. While he says he is not in any way against or for the idea of lootboxes he believes that their current use is illegal in a lot of cases. He specifically deplores the idea that they are "dynamic probabilities," a practice where the game algorithmically reduces the chance that a player will get desired items in the event that the player has previously purchased huge quantities of virtual items in the past.
In Blizzard's World of Warcraft uses lootboxes to distribute cosmetic items that are color-coded according to their rareness. The more sexier the skin of the character is, the less chance of obtaining it from an lootbox.
"When I get the rare purple skin that is available in a game such as cheap WOW WoTLK Classic Gold, I'll purchase more lootboxes" Morrison said. "When you see that red light or golden glow when opening the box it makes me feel happy. I'm 33 years old I'm not sure how this affects a 13-year-old's brain. I believe that what people don't realize -- and I don't have any firsthand knowledge that many game studios keep an account of you as a consumer and know how many lootboxes that you buy they also know the frequency of refilling your account, the amount you fill it up with and how much you spend in relation to the balance that is in the account... If you don't spend money on lootboxes they could offer you a good likelihood of getting that gold or purple item because you're a billboard to advertise how cool that skin is. It's a marketplace and, like every other market they are able to make you successful."
