A2: Ethical Analysis
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the latest game in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series. Early listings on the UK Xbox store gave it an ESRB rating of Adults Only (ESRB, n.d.; If the rating stands – which seems unlikely – it would have a devastating effect on the game’s sales. The rating was initially thought to be due to the game including loot boxes – something that has since been firmly denied by Ubisoft. Loot boxes are often used by game developers to monetize in-game assets and can usually be purchased for some relatively small amount of money (hence the related term microtransactions).
Loot Boxes
The way games use loot boxes differs from game to game, but the basic idea is the same. Loot boxes can be obtained in one of two ways. The first is direct purchase with actual money. The second is by paying with in-game currency earned by playing the game. This latter method has no actual monetary cost to the user other than the original game purchase.
The contents of loot boxes can be quite different between games. In Blizzard’s Overwatch, loot boxes only contain cosmetic item (such as emotes, skins and so on). Loot boxes from other games contain assets that increase player’s abilities, thereby affecting game balance. However, one characteristic common to all loot boxes is that they have a small chance of containing rare, desirable, items. Acquiring these rare treasures can be expensive, either in time or money.
Players reacted negatively to the use of loot boxes in Star Wars Battlefront II (released in 2017). Some of the most sought after content such as popular Star Wars characters and powerful upgrades were primarily obtainable through loot boxes. To have a reasonable chance of gaining such content solely though game play would take many hours – it was estimated that unlocking Darth Vader alone would take 40 hours of game play.
There are many controversial issues around the use of loot boxes, including their effect on game design and concerns around fairness in competitive games. The controversy that has received the most concern is the similarity of loot boxes to gambling and the negative effect this has on gamers with addictive personalities.
Discuss whether you believe that the use of loot boxes purchasable by microtransactions is ethical. Express a reasoned opinion on whether their use should be controlled by law (for example by making it illegal to market loot boxes to minors). Your answer to the question “Is it ethical for game designers to use loot boxes?” should be in the form of a 1,500 to 2,000 word essay. You should analyze the issue using at least two of these ethical theories: Kantianism, Utilitarianism and Social Contract Theory.
Full disclosure. John hasn’t played Battlefront or Overwatch, his gaming tends to be solitary and anti-social. Most of his loot box experience comes from Mass Effect cooperative multiplayer (which, at least on the PC, involved almost no meaningful human interaction). Tara also hasn’t played Battlefront or Overwatch; however, her family members tell her that they use her money to purchase countless loot boxes in games including: Overwatch, Fortnight, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, CS:GO, Rocket League, League of Legends, Pokemon GO, one of the CODs, Star Wars Battlefront, any EA game, the full genre of Gacha games (e.g. Honkai: Star Rail, Raid: Shadow Legends), and too many more to list.
Format
Your submissions should be formatted following the most recent APA Style Guidelines for a Student Paper.
Use only scholarly articles for reference. You should use at least 15 references to include in the paper and all of these references should be scholarly.
Please send an early draft before the deadline so I can review it and ask for any modifications before the deadline
The format for the reference should be like below
References
Entertainment Software Rating Board. (n.d.). Ratings guide. https://www.esrb.org/ratings-guideLinks to an external site.
Kane, E. (2022, September 12). ‘Assassin’s Creed Mirage’ Adults Only rating explained. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2022/09/12/assassins-creed-mirage-adults-only-rating-explained/?sh=4fdb8382571e
