Twitch is one of the world's biggest online streaming platforms, and the entertainers who make their living on it have access to an enormous global audience. This means that the top streamers are able to get their opinions out to a lot of people in a very short amount of time. Famous Twitch streamer Asmongold is taking advantage of this to share his opinion that loot boxes should be illegal.
Loot boxes are a video game feature that involves a sealed mystery box containing a random selection of in-game rewards. Some loot boxes are gained through in-game currency or events, but others have to be paid for with real money. Either way, the structure and mechanics of loot boxes have been linked to problem gambling.
Asmongold has criticized loot boxes before, but in a live stream on March 24, he went a step further and shared his thoughts on why loot boxes should be made illegal. He stated that he doesn't believe people can exhibit self-control around loot boxes or other forms of microtransactions. As evidence, he cited the fact that people still engage in gambling despite having thousands of years' worth of evidence that it's a bad idea. The topic begins at 7:03 in the video titled "ALL Pay-To-Win Games Need To Be Made ILLEGAL - Here's Why," uploaded to the official Asmongold TV YouTube channel.
The streamer believes that if a gamer buys something, they should just get the thing. He also stated that in-game currency is part of the problem. Specifically, Asmongold believes there shouldn't be any in-game currencies that can be converted to real money without having the dollar equivalent displayed. He believes that this confuses the amount of money gamers are actually spending on virtual items and services. Asmongold is well-known for criticizing controversial online trends such as NFTs, so it may not be a surprise to hear him taking on the faces of microtransactions.
Another aspect of Asmongold's criticisms is the systemic link to these problems. He states that issues like gambling affect everybody, including people who do not gamble, because gambling addicts need to be supported by society. In other words, it's in society's best interest to have gambling regulated by the government, and he clearly considers microtransactions and other forms of pay-to-win gameplay as gambling subtypes. Whether his opinions are shared by other Twitch streamers and the larger gaming population remains to be seen.