Imagine buying a new chess set because you love chess.

Also you love "Star Wars." It's a "Star Wars" chess set!

Now imagine playing your friend who spent $200 for the random chance that his pawns obtain the board-clearing powers of a queen.Plus his king looks like Darth Vader and yours still looks like a scruffy-looking nerf herder.

EA / SUPPLIED Star Wars Battlefront 2 developers are caught in a loot crate issue that's currently swirling around the industry.

You might get mad. Or you might up the ante and spend a few hundred bucks to even the odds.



Now imagine that you're both children.

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These are some of the questions that have been gripping the video game industry in a controversy which led up to last Friday's release of Star Wars: Battlefront II.

EA /SUPPLIED Players of the Star Wars Battlefront 2 BETA were stunned to discover progression could rely on microtransactions.

The game is this year's marquee Star Wars title timed to release near to Disney's highly anticipated The Last Jedi film next month.



HOW EA GAMES GOT IT SO WRONG

It all started a month ago, when EA showcased that Battlefront II would have a "loot box" system in place for players. On top of the $100 retail price, the game was going to allow players at home to spend more money on digital "boxes," which can give you random extra benefits.

Each loot box contains a random reward.

EA / SUPPLIED Disney execs have stepped in to ask EA to halt transactions within the game - but it's only a temporary measure.

You could get abilities to do more damage or move faster, or you might get a dud, like a "dance" emote for your character.

And if you get that dud, you might spend even more money and up the chances of permanently becoming more powerful, like the ability to make Boba Fett fly around with 100 percent invincibility.

It's why critics have called it "glorified gambling": You don't know what you're spending money on, but the more you spend, the higher the chances of winning.



As the website Rock Paper Shotgun explained, you could get those same benefits without spending real-life money, but you'd have to do it by playing matches against other players to earn fake game money, which could take dozens if not hundreds of hours.

EA / SUPPLIED Star Wars Battlefront 2 puts you into your own Star Wars adventure.

WHY LOOT BOXES ARE NOW PREVALENT IN AAA GAMES

Loot boxes have become increasingly normal in recent years, included in games like the popular shooter Overwatch as well as the recent Call of Duty game.



Publishers claim that because development costs of top games rival Hollywood summer blockbusters, selling post-release digital content is needed to make up costs.

But with Star Wars, creating a random loot economy raised flags because some consider the practice akin to gambling, and the brand is marketed heavily toward children. Beyond that, most other competitive games do not offer "pay to win" advantages, which imbalances the game to favour paying players.

EA/ SUPPLIED Publishers claim that because development costs of top games rival Hollywood summer blockbusters, selling post-release digital content is needed to make up costs.

Weeks of public outcry culminated in the game's publisher, EA, taking to Reddit to defend itself on the controversy.

That comment became the most downvoted (or disliked) post in the site's 12-year history.

"The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different heroes.

"As for cost, we selected initial values based upon data from the Open Beta and other adjustments made to milestone rewards before launch. Among other things, we're looking at average per-player credit earn rates on a daily basis, and we'll be making constant adjustments to ensure that players have challenges that are compelling, rewarding, and of course attainable via gameplay.

"We appreciate the candid feedback, and the passion the community has put forth around the current topics here on Reddit, our forums and across numerous social media outlets.

"Our team will continue to make changes and monitor community feedback and update everyone as soon and as often as we can." EA's post on Reddit said.

WHAT EA DID NEXT - AND WHY IT COULD SIGNAL THE BEGINNING OF GREATER REGULATION FOR THE TREND



On Thursday night, the eve of the game's launch, EA said it had temporarily removed the in-game purchases.

EA / SUPPLIED For years, critics and gaming psychologists have criticised loot boxes, fearing the inconsistencies of the rewards make it akin to gambling.

"The ability to purchase crystals in-game will become available at a later date, only after we've made changes to the game," said Oskar Gabrielson, general manager of DICE, the game's developer. Crystals are the fake currency in the game you can buy for real money, which you then trade for loot boxes.

The Washington Post asked EA if players can be guaranteed that "pay to win" mechanics have been removed from the game.

"With regard to yesterday's announcement on pulling the in-game purchases for launch, we do not have anything further to share at the moment beyond Oskar's post," an EA spokeswoman said in response.

Belgium's gaming commission is investigating whether the game constitutes gambling. But EA asserts that the loot box mechanic (called "crates" in the Star Wars game)is not gambling.

"A player's ability to succeed in the game is not dependent on purchasing crates. Players can also earn crates through playing the game and not spending any money at all," said the EA spokeswoman. "Once obtained, players are always guaranteed to receive content that can be used in game."

HOW DISNEY FELT THE GAME REFLECTED BADLY ON THEM - AND THEIR BRAND

On Thursday, Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of Disney's consumer products and interactive media division, made a call to EA hours before the decision was made to pull in-game purchases.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the call was to express Disney executives' unhappiness at how the outrage "reflected on their marquee property."

And a Disney/Lucasfilm spokesman said the company supports EA's temporary decision to end the crate-purchasing.

"Star Wars has always been about the fans - and whether it's Battlefront or any other Star Wars experience, they come first," the Lucasfilm spokesman told The Post on Friday. "That's why we support EA's decision to temporarily remove in-game payments to address fan concerns."

IS IT ACTUALLY GAMBLING?

For years, critics and gaming psychologists have criticised loot boxes.

While it may not legally be gambling, they say, the same intermittent nature of rewards and spending is in place.

"If you put it in fundamental terms, it's really the same thing," said Kimberly Young, a licensed psychologist and founder of the Center for Internet Addiction. "It's called gambling."

Loot boxes were popularized in China and Korea, where the practice is now regulated.

Just this year, developers in China became required to disclose the probabilities of loot boxes in popular games like Overwatch and Hearthstone.



In 2012, South Korea introduced a law that would require major gaming companies to add features that let parents limit how long their children can play the video games.

"Americans are falling so far behind what other countries are doing, and it's all about profit," Young said. "You have gaming lobbyists who don't want us to talk about this. We just haven't had it come to a head yet."

WHY MICROTRANSACTIONS MAY WELL BE HERE TO STAY

EA's temporary pullback may seem like a milestone, but many gamers remain cynical, including Jim Sterling, a prominent games journalist.

For years he's been warning the practice will only become more mainstream, which it now has with publishers like EA and Warner Bros getting in on the act.

He dubbed 2017 "the Year of the Loot Box," blaming Activision-Blizzard's Overwatch for popularizing the concept.

"In the long run I believe companies will continue to see how far they can push the envelope," Sterling said to The Post. "This is far from the first time a publisher has reached for too much too quickly, had to walk it back and take baby steps toward its end goal of acquiring as much as cash for as little additional effort as possible."

He believes EA suspended the in-game purchase only to "curry favour with the audience and perhaps make those nervous investors a bit happier."

(On Friday, EA filed a note with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that Thursday's decision "is not expected to have a material impact on EA's fiscal year 2018 financial guidance.")

Chief among Sterling's concerns is the fact that Activision-Blizzard patented a method to encourage these microtransactions.

And EA and Activision-Blizzard are far from the only gaming behemoths testing the waters. Sterling said it's almost as if the entire industry "en masse is feeling out the limitations" of the trend.

"From my perspective, the incoming firestorm of retaliation (on the Star Wars game) was a given, but this is an industry run predominantly by alienated rich old guys who know little and care less about video games, so it would not surprise me in the least if they were completely taken by surprise when they faced their very own galactic rebellion," Sterling said.

"Emperor Palpatine always thinks his Death Star is invincible until they blow it up. Electronic Arts and its insidious ilk aren't much different."