Algorithms for Loot Box Design
成果类型：
Article
署名作者：
Han, Jiangze; Ryan, Christopher Thomas; Tong, Xin T.
署名单位：
Columbia University; University of British Columbia; National University of Singapore
刊物名称：
OPERATIONS RESEARCH
ISSN/ISSBN：
0030-364X
DOI：
10.1287/opre.2023.0026
发表日期：
2026
关键词：
摘要：
Loot boxes are a primary source of revenue in the video game industry. Loot boxes randomly drop items of differing value. To design a loot box, sellers must choose the loot box's purchase price and drop rate (or drop probability) of each item. We show that, in general, the loot box design problem is NP-hard. By restricting the form of player utilities, we can solve the problem exactly in polynomial time when the number of items is fixed. Under different restrictions, we solve the problem approximately in polynomial time with fixed precision. Both restrictions are satisfied by a class of exponential utility functions. We solve a more generalized version of the model in an extension, at the cost of only being able to provide an approximation that runs in polynomial time when the number of items is fixed. Some of our results follow by relating loot box design to selecting prices for each item, and selling them directly.