A loot box refers to certain things that one can purchase (with real money) in a video game, such as points for greater health or for better weaponry -- and these items can be exchanged for a "mystery prize" or "mystery box" containing unknown items.
This randomization is very addictive.
In video games, a loot box (sometimes loot crate or prize crate, among other names) is a consumable virtual item which can be redeemed to receive a randomised selection of further virtual items, ranging from simple customization options for a player's avatar or character, to game-changing equipment such as weapons and armor. A loot box is typically a form of monetisation, with players either buying the boxes directly or receiving the boxes during play and later buying "keys" with which to redeem them.
This is a big issue in Europe, where gambling itself is not illegal. In Europe, the regulations on gambling revolve around games of pure chance, which are addictive. For example, poker is controversial in Europe because it is somewhere between a game of pure skill and a game of pure chance, and so European governments are uncertain how to regulate it. In any case, the "loot box" is essentially a montetarized game of pure chance -- for children.
The rise of the loot box seems to derive from the inevitable increase in computing power. It now costs more to develop elaborate video games, even though the price of video games has remained flat because of competition (many video games are free, but involve "in app" purchases such as for new weapons or better health, etc.). So video game developers are looking for new ways to bring in money. Subjecting children to gambling addiction might be the result.
This is reminiscent of the "Opium Wars" in China. Foreigners have always dreamed of making a fortune in trade with China, but this has always proved to be a fantasy because it was the Chinese who would make money off of them. The only way the British could balance their trade deficits with China was to sell opium to the Chinese. In the future, perhaps the only way to make money in dealing with China might be ... online gambling for Chinese children.
Another thing that this reminded me of was your post on gambling in the suburbs, in particular, the gambling den on Waialae Avenue.
One thing to realize is that there is plenty of gambling in the suburbs today -- online. That might be a bigger problem than gambling dens.
Even for games of skill, online gambling is particularly addictive because the gambler can persist at it for long, uninterrupted periods.
Here is a story on a woman who became a successful professional gambler -- until she left the casinos behind and got addicted to online gambling.
She would go to a casino at midnight and gamble until 8 a.m. Having to sit in a casino is exhausting, and that helps to avoid the temptation of gambling too much. When a gambler is on a losing streak, they will keep playing in a panicked effort to recoup their losses; if they are on a winning streak, they will keep gambling until their luck changes and they lose everything. Whether she was winning or losing, by 8 a.m. she was tired and hungry and would have to leave the casino. The problem was when she started gambling online at home. She would gamble for 24 hours straight. At that point, she lost her life savings and became addicted to gambling.
This brings us to the issue of zoning. and its problematic nature in the Age of the Internet.
The first zoning laws in the US were passed in San Francisco, banning tanneries from residential neighborhoods; the second place to enforce zoning was New Orleans, when brothels were banned from neighborhoods. So there are environmental and cultural issues at the heart of zoning.
But so much of zoning laws may not be rational at this point in history. Emotionally, people want their neighborhoods to be pristine, and they don't want businesses in residential areas, even small bodegas or corner stores that might be convenient for them. Urban planners talk about "mixed use development", but at an emotional level almost no one wants that in their own area because it feels like a form of contamination. People dream of domestic bliss, and they are willing to pay a fortune for it.
The idea of brothels and gambling dens in the suburbs is understandably a nightmare for the average parent who pays a premium to live in the hermetically safe environment of the suburbs.
But what they don't seems to understand is that some of their children are up in their bedrooms in the suburbs essentially engaging in gambling and all sorts of stuff on the internet (sometimes as customers, sometimes as workers).
The point is that much of current zoning law might be based on emotion -- in particular, on a utopian dream of the suburbs as pristine (which is itself a kind of addiction).
What would different set of regulations entail?
One concept is to relax height restrictions on buildings. Instead, regulations would impose restrictions on resource consumption of buildings, so that buildings would be "autonomous" in terms of energy and water.
Here's an example of where that concept went wrong. It's the Public Utilities Commission building in San Francisco, which was designed to be autonomous.
Nevertheless, autonomous buildings could be the way of the future. As such, this particular building is emblematic of the role of California in contemporary American history. California is dysfunctional yet creative, and what California attempts to do may fail today but it is a glimpse into California's long-term success and the world's future.
