I was reading this article on the death of Looking Glass. There’s this excerpt:
Looking Glass died because a series of problems compounded each other into a financially lethal situation. No single factor is to blame. No single person or entity killed Looking Glass. No one problem was enough, on its own, to kill the company. Nonetheless, the problems were deadly when combined.
It’s never just one factor for anything, pretty much ever.
And so when I see what’s going on around loot boxes, this is what we need to keep in mind: it’s not just companies that are to blame. Young players are to blame too because they indulge in skins. Parents are to blame to allow their kids to buy them. Older brothers and sisters close their eyes or make fun of their siblings, making them even more compelled to buy virtual items. Companies close their eyes too because loot boxes are absurdly lucrative.
Where do we go from here though?