Computer Networks and Communications; Human-Computer Interaction; Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
Abstract :
[en] In 2018, Belgium made the world news for being the first country to ban loot boxes in games for all its inhabitants. As players’ freedom to purchase loot boxes was restricted, however, methods of circumventing the ban came into practice. Departing from counterplay theory, we drew from an online survey among Belgian adolescents aged 11 18 with two questions in mind: what counterplay practices are used to circumvent the Belgian ban on loot boxes, and how do counterplayers (N = 124) compare to non counterplayers (N = 329) in terms of their engagement with loot boxes and games more broadly? Our findings suggest that counterplayers resist current regulatory arrangements in a myriad of ways, delineating the boundaries of a national ban in a global game ecology. Counterplayers appeared to differentiate themselves from non counterplayers both in terms of depth characteristics (sense of belonging to an online community, perceived gaming ability, gaming disorder, and risky loot box use) and breadth characteristics (frequency of skin betting, selling loot box rewards, and (re)watching loot box opening livestreams). Ultimately, our study may tease out debate on how to regulate games successfully in the face of players’ technical abilities and motivation to gain access.
Research center :
Traverses - ULiège [BE]
Disciplines :
Social & behavioral sciences, psychology: Multidisciplinary, general & others Communication & mass media Arts & humanities: Multidisciplinary, general & others
Author, co-author :
Denoo, Maarten ; KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Dupont, Bruno ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de langues modernes : linguistique, littérature et traduction > Langue et littérature allemandes modernes ; KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Grosemans, Eva ; KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Zaman, Bieke ; KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
De Cock, Rozane ; KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Language :
English
Title :
Counterplay: Circumventing the Belgian Ban on Loot Boxes by Adolescents
Publication date :
29 September 2023
Event name :
CHI Play
Event organizer :
Association for Computer Machinery
Event place :
Toronto, Canada
Event date :
2023
Audience :
International
Journal title :
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
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