For game specialist Marcelo Mattoso, the population must become aware that such systems are analogous to the classic "sticker albums".
Last week - after the Intelligence Center of the Federal District Justice Department (CIJDF) issued a Technical Note about the monetization of electronic games - the notorious lootboxes returned to the agenda in the country. For those who don't know: loot boxes are "surprise reward boxes" sold in games - a kind of digital kinder egg.
Although there is discussion about how these microtransactions are used by developers, the CIJDF Technical Note makes it clear that, legally speaking, lootboxes are not games of chance.
"Trying to equalize the practices for comparison purposes generates a false symmetry, because they are completely different activities," says lawyer and expert in Games and eSports Marcelo Mattoso, partner at Barcellos Tucunduva Advogados. "By legal definition (art. 50, §3, paragraph "a" of the Law of Criminal Contraventions), gambling is the 'game in which the gain or loss depends exclusively on luck'. That is, from what can be extracted from the text of the law, to characterize this concept, three elements are necessary: being a game; involving a gain and a loss; depending exclusively or mainly on luck."
Thus, the expert reiterates that lootboxes are (i) mechanisms used to unlock virtual content in electronic games (and not a "game" per se, but rather a mechanism within the electronic game); (ii) they do not involve "loss or gain", since the user, when using this mechanism, does not lose or gain things or goods, but only unlocks virtual contents with no monetary value; (iii) despite having the "luck" factor in the unlocking of such contents, this factor, alone, does not typify the conduct (characterize crime or misdemeanor), since the other elements are not present.
According to Mattoso, the Technical Note goes further by giving a very pertinent example: "If we understand that lootboxes are games of chance, we would be saying that packs of stickers to complete albums of soccer players, extremely common in years of the World Cup; collectible cards such as Pokémon TGC, Magic The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh! Such products have been inserted in our society for years and their use has never been questioned as games of chance, exactly because they do not have such characteristics."
Even so, the Technical Note makes it clear that the document "has the nature of a simple recommendation and informative nature".
"The Note does not have the force of law or binding force in judicial cases, but it was prepared to shed some light on the subject and can be used to support the issue. Although detailed, it is an instructional document and brings up many important concepts. The useful point for the debate is that it makes it clear that lootboxes and gambling are completely different things and should be treated separately. Based on this premise, I believe that discussions on both topics can move forward without mixing, generating security for both markets and for society in general."
Although the discussion is necessary, the topic seems to be much more a way to inform parents and guardians in the gaming scene than a way to demand actions from developers. The expert ponders, however, that "what we can extract here is the awareness of how lootboxes work and what their role is in electronic games; bring information about the issue and make the market, the community and society itself reflect on the subject in a healthy way; and understand how to use these mechanisms in a sustainable way to make 'free' games viable.
For Mattoso, "the eSports scene, for example, is mostly fostered by games that have the 'freemium' model based on lootboxes: an entire ecosystem exists and is made viable by them, so to speak.
*Marcelo Mattoso, lawyer specialized in Games and eSports. Partner at Barcellos Tucunduva Advogados.
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Source: Jurid Newspaper and Games Brazil Magazine.