So I was thinking on the whole eververse thing (and loot boxes across the gaming landscape as a whole), when I opened a present of trading cards and realised something: packs of trading cards work the same way as loot boxes in video games, you pay money for the chance to get the item or card that you want. They both work off that excitement (for lack of a better word) of ‘will it hold that one thing I’ve been wanting so bad?’ So, this makes me wonder, what is the difference, why do we accept one and overwhelmingly reject the other? The conclusion I came to was that trading cards are like, or analogous to, free to play games, where there is no upfront investment with an expectation of a certain level of content that proceeds the ability to buy things for the game (I.e. cards, loot boxes or card packs, etc). To put it simply, people do not mind having an option to by something auxiliary, something that does not devalue the experience of those that do not buy it; in other words, people buy a video game - like Destiny - they expect the content to be available to them, however cosmetic or not it is. Having emits for sale is one thing - they are fun and there is sensation of loosing out if you don’t have them - but in a game built around gear, fashion/cosmetic and grind (talking both on the side of developers and the games community), having such (seemingly) vast resources and game rewards tied to a rng box will inevitably cause the kind of discomfort and pushback we have seen in the gaming world. But that’s just what I thought of over a cup of tea and a biscuit.