[BrS96bVxXBLzf5B]

This definitely isn't a universal experience and there are definitely a lot of trading card horror stories, but for me + friends growing up the purchase of trading cards had a different place in life. They were like one of life's small rewards you had a chance of rolling whenever going into a shop with a parent/guardian. Being at the checkout, putting on the little kid puppy-dog 'pleaseeeeeee' and the adult deciding if you've been 'good enough' and possibly giving you something for that. Acquisition was separate from their consumption and social role.

With lootboxes, you're actively pursuing the purchase to immediately try to meet a goal. You want the purchase, make it, have the question answered of whether your roll was good or not and that's mostly it. Trading cards were taken home (or at least to the car), physically admired, stored, socially shared even if they weren't 'worth' sharing, and had a larger variance in subjective value for trading or gifting later.

[mFixman]

Did we have different childhoods, or do you not really forget yours?

Children used to steal trading cards and have violent fights over them. Only a few dedicated nerds played the game; the rest just collected the cards and showed them as a proxy of self-worth.

This is perfectly normal child behaviour, and I'm sure it was much worse than whatever's happening right now with lootboxes. The main difference between them isn't the lack car rides to the store; it's the moral panic mostly distributed by social media about how $fun_thing is killing children.

[BrS96bVxXBLzf5B]

We had different childhoods, I never saw violent fights. Totally didn't mean to present my memory as a universal truth which is why I led with the first sentence. Definitely whole weavings of intertwined complexities to unravel!

[InvertedRhodium]

Where on earth did you grow up?

[krageon]

> Children used to steal trading cards and have violent fights over them.

This is messed up - is this real or overstated?

> This is perfectly normal child behaviour

Stealing and fighting? Where would this be the case?

[mFixman]

Maybe "violent fights" wasn't the right phrase here. I was talking about the usual boy light violent play.

[Xorakios]

That is not even remotely normal child behavior.

[lapetitejort]

One small caveat: digital collections of lootbox items can be admired, organized, displayed, and in some games traded to other players. Of course, all these actions are dictated by the software for the most part, and can be arbitrarily restricted. I won't be able to seal a fancy digital hat and donate it to a local museum.

[BrS96bVxXBLzf5B]

It's true, which is why I tried to caveat it with 'even if they aren't worth sharing'. If I got a Tangela and had it in my pocket I'm still going to show the neighbour friend, she might even like Tangela especially well as a preference (tried to get at this with 'subjective value'). But with the number of football players and how it's much more stat/goal-based and the collector aspects are skewed towards the higher level, kids probably aren't making Discord calls to show their friend John Smith from the English division 2 league because he has a cute nose :)

[k__]

Doesn't gambling mostly come down to diposition?

I did many addicting things in life an never became addicted.