Arrr You A Pirate? Towards The Gamification Element "Lootbox"

Gamification, using game-like elements in a non-game context, stands a means to trigger an individual's innate disposition to game and play, leading to enhanced engagement, enjoyment, and motivation. Gamification elements can take many forms. Amongst the most prominent and often applied gamification elements are progress bars, badges, and leaderboards. Each of these elements can be found in games, for instance, computer games. One recent development in online computer games is the so-called "lootbox." Lootboxes can be described as a mechanism that rewards gamers with a random object when a specific objective is met. Lootboxes have yet to be adapted as a gamification element. It remains unclear how users react to lootboxes, both in terms of psychological and behavioral outcomes. Against this background, this study investigates the effect of lootboxes on extrinsic and intrinsic motivation, as well as the performance (quantity of completed tasks) via an online experiment with 203 participants. The results of our research indicate that lootboxes can be an effective way of gamifying non-gaming contexts, increasing extrinsic motivation, and the performance while preserving intrinsic motivation.