The Lantern Hall
Painting: an ancient lexicon open on a carved lectern in a dark chapel of books, glowing runes and symbols lifting off its pages like fireflies.
TermDigital term

Loot box

A purchasable virtual container that yields random items. Loot boxes drew regulators' attention in several countries because of their resemblance to gambling.

A purchasable virtual container that yields random items. Loot boxes drew regulators' attention in several countries because of their resemblance to gambling.

Quick answers

What does "Loot box" mean?
A purchasable virtual container that yields random items. Loot boxes drew regulators' attention in several countries because of their resemblance to gambling.

Nearby in the archive

Gacha

Digital term

A monetization mechanic, named after Japanese capsule-toy vending machines, in which players spend currency on random draws for characters or items. It became central to Japanese mobile RPGs in the early 2010s; Japan banned the complete gacha variant in 2012.

Loot & loot tables

General term

The treasure taken from defeated foes and explored rooms. A loot table is the list of possible rewards and their odds, a mechanism born in the random treasure tables of early D&D and perfected by Diablo's color-coded item drops.

Gacha & Live-Service RPGs

Digital genre2012

The role-playing game as a capsule-toy machine that never closes: free to start, endlessly updated, and paid for one randomized summon at a time.

Virtual Economies, Gold Farming & the GDP of Norrath

Phenomenon2001

When an economist calculated in 2001 that EverQuest's Norrath had a per-capita GNP between Russia's and Bulgaria's, he revealed that fantasy worlds had grown real economies, with labor, inflation and sweatshops.