A DECADE ago the idea of paying real money for virtual items was strange and exotic. These days many video-game publishers build their business models around it. Some of the world’s biggest games, such as “League of Legends”, cost nothing to buy. Instead they rely for their revenue on players buying things for use in the game, such as new characters to play with or costumes to put them in.
十年前，花钱购买虚拟物品的想法很怪异，也很新奇。如今，许多电子游戏发行商围绕虚拟物品打造其商业模式。一些全球规模最大的游戏（如《英雄联盟》）无需花钱购买。相反，他们的收入依赖于玩家购买游戏中使用的东西，如游戏中的新角色或者装的服装。
A new twist on that model has been attracting the attention of regulators in recent weeks. “Loot boxes” are yet another type of “in-game” item that gamers buy with currency. Unlike the usual sort of purchase, however, players do not know in advance what they are buying, for the contents of a loot box are generated randomly. Sometimes they might be desirable, and therefore valuable; prized items include new gestures or “emotes” for a character, or a pearl handle for an automatic weapon. If less alluring, well, players can pay a bit more money to have another go.
最近几周，这种模式的一个新变化引起了监管机构的注意。“奖励箱”（loot boxes）是玩家用钱购买的一种“游戏内部”物品。然而，与通常的购买方式不同的是，玩家并不预先知道买的东西，因为一个奖励箱里的东西是随机生成的。有时它们可能玩家想要的，因此是有价值的;有价值的物品包括新的手势或一个字符的“表情符号”，或者是自动武器的珍珠柄。如果东西不那么吸引人，玩家可以多花点钱再买一次。
If you think that sounds a lot like gambling, you are not alone. In November Belgium’s gaming commission announced that it had opened an investigation into “Star Wars: Battlefront 2” and “Overwatch,” a pair of shooters published by Electronic Arts (EA) and Activision Blizzard, respectively, that both feature loot boxes. China, where the virtual-item business model is very popular, has already passed laws restricting their sale.
如果你认为这听起来很像赌博，你不是唯一一个这么想的人。去年11月，比利时博彩委员会宣布调查《星球大战:前线2》和《守望先锋》两款分别由电子艺界(EA)和动视暴雪(Activision Blizzard)发布的射击射击游戏。在中国，虚拟物品的商业模式非常流行，颁布了限制销售奖励箱的法律。
Lawmakers and regulators in South Korea, Singapore, Australia and Hawaii have also made disapproving sounds. In Britain the Gambling Commission has said that publishers of games must buy a gambling licence only if the contents of loot boxes can be converted back into money. Often they cannot, at least in theory. In practice the distinction is murkier. There are plenty of grey-market websites that allow gamers to buy and sell accounts for individual games. (On one such site, for instance, punters can buy the login details for an “Overwatch” account boasting of several rare “skins”, or costumes, for $295.)
韩国、新加坡、澳大利亚和夏威夷的议会和监管机构也提出反对声音。英国的博彩委员会表示，只要奖励箱内的东西能兑换成现金，游戏发行商就必须购买赌博执照。通常他们不能这么做，至少从理论上是这样。实际上，这种区别更加模糊。有很多灰色市场的网站允许玩家购买和销售个人游戏账户。(比如，在这样的一个网站上，玩家可以花295美元买一个吹嘘拥有几件少有的“皮肤”（即服装）的账户“Overwatch”的登录细节。)
Not everyone is worried. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), an American organisation that provides voluntary age ratings for games, says that loot boxes are not gambling, on the grounds that players always win something, even if it is of little value. But the controversy is unlikely to end, for loot boxes are a response to a long-standing problem within the video-games industry. The retail price of a blockbuster game has stayed at between $40 and $60 for over twenty years, thanks to the price-sensitivity of customers and widespread discounting of games online. Accounting for inflation, prices have fallen in real terms by a third or more at a time when production budgets have ballooned to tens or hundreds of millions of dollars for a high-quality game.
然而，并不是所有人都对此担心。一家为游戏提供自愿年龄评级的美国机构娱乐软件评级委员会(ESRB)表示，奖励箱不是赌博，理由是玩家总是得到一些东西，即使它没有什么价值。但这场论战不太可能结束，因为对电子游戏行业长期存在的问题而言，奖励箱只是其中一个。由于消费者对价格敏感以及网络游戏大都会降价销售，在20年里，一款风靡一时的游戏的零售价一直保持在40美元到60美元之间。考虑到通胀因素，在游戏制作预算膨胀到上千万或数亿美元的高质量游戏时，实际价格下降了三分之一或更多。
So publishers have been searching for new revenues. Many split video games into smaller chunks and charge separately for each, selling a base game for $60, then releasing extra downloadable content a few months later. Another option is to offer expensive “collector’s edition” boxes with soundtrack CDs and the like.
因此，游戏发行商一直在寻找新的收入来源。许多将电子游戏分成小块，分别收费，以60美元的价格售出基本款游戏，几个月后再发布额外的可下载内容。另一种选择是提供昂贵的“收藏版”，并带有原声CD等东西。
Loot boxes, though, cost nothing to make. Even though most players indulge only sparingly, that makes them extremely profitable. The industry also uses psychological tricks long known to makers of gaming machines. Some games announce when a player’s friends have won big, encouraging them to think they could be next. Others tweak the algorithms in various ways, such as making sure droughts do not last too long, which encourages players to keep buying.
不过，奖励箱成本为零。尽管大多数玩家只是偶尔放纵一下，这让奖励箱的利润丰厚。该行业还利用游戏机制造商所熟知的心理技巧。一些游戏宣布玩家的朋友赢得了很大的胜利，鼓励他们认为自已是下一个获胜者。其他人则以多种方式调整算法，比如确保干旱不会持续太久，这就鼓励玩家继续花钱买。
The backlash against loot boxes is not coming only from regulators. Many players are unhappy, too. Pressure from customers this year persuaded EA temporarily to remove the ability to spend real money on loot boxes in “Star Wars: Battlefront 2”. In the end, that sort of bad publicity may prove a bigger stick than gambling laws. Laws, after all, can be complied with. But the video-games industry has spent decades trying to shed its image as an unwholesome pastime for oddballs. It has been succeeding, slowly. A public association with gambling will do that cause no favours. Better, perhaps, to simply raise prices and take the consequences.
反对奖励箱的不仅仅来自监管机构。许多玩家也不乐意。今年，消费者的压力使得EA暂时取消了在《星球大战:前线2》中的奖励箱中花钱买功能。最后，这种糟糕的宣传可能比赌博法更能说明问题。毕竟，法律是可以遵守的。但是，电子游戏产业花了几十年的时间试图摆脱不健康的娱乐方式。它的成功是缓慢的。一个与赌博有关的公共关系将会不利。或许，最好是提高价格，并承担后果。
编译：YINGXIAO
审校：吴鑫宇
编辑：翻吧君
来源：经济学人
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