After launch, EA added shortcut kits to skip the unlock process-pay $7, for example, to unlock all the upgrades for the support class 'to catch you up with Battlefield 4 veterans.' Games have been offering shortcuts and XP boosts since long before loot boxes became controversial, but I'll always be skeptical of how well-balanced an unlock system is when the game will also sell you a way to bypass it completely. Battlefield 4 Battlepacks contained things like skins (not so bad) and weapon attachments (not so good). In the years after Mass Effect 3, EA started putting different versions of those card packs into more of its big games. And in the future, they wouldn't just be co-op. Mass Effect 3's perfectly acceptable multiplayer, meanwhile, must have appeared as proof to EA that the loot boxes pioneered in the FIFA games could be lucrative in other games, too. Looking back at the r/MassEffect subreddit circa spring 2012 via the Internet Archive, I didn't even see a mention of the card packs-everyone was too focused on the ending.

None of this was part of the conversation back in 2012. They collected data to estimate that you'd have to open, on average, 738 card packs to get every ultra-rare, which would cost 73,062,000 credits or $2,214. Obsessive players figured out you essentially needed to fill your inventory with those disposable supply cards (255 of each item!) and unlock all the commons and uncommons to have better odds at the rarer loot. Significant unlocks like characters and weapons were on the line, not just cosmetics. The randomness could be fun! For players who got hooked, though, you can see how these loot boxes could've pushed them to spend. For players like me, who stuck around the multiplayer a month or two after launch, nothing about the card packs felt insidious. You could get them out of cheaper loot packs but always needed them on-hand for missions, meaning you often needed to buy those loot packs instead of saving up for pricier ones with rarer drops.Ī perfect score on the Bronze or Silver difficulty levels would net you 17,300 or 34,375 credits, so you could at least earn the points to unlock card packs pretty quickly. Equipment and supply items were single-use consumables like medi-gel and incendiary rounds.The Reserves pack, the best way to unlock characters including two guaranteed rares, cost 99,000 credits or 240 BioWare points ($2.99).The cheapest pack to guarantee at least one rare was the Spectre pack: 60,000 credits or 160 BioWare points ($1.99).Almost all character unlocks were rares, and many stronger weapons were rares or ultra-rares, which had low drop rates (7.5% for ultra-rares, and only in the more expensive packs).ME3's card packs took all the weapons and character customization from the campaign and doled them out at random, making it genuinely exciting to unlock an Asari adept or a Krogan soldier. I played Magic the Gathering in the early 2000s, but Mass Effect 3 was the first videogame I played that took the concept of card packs and stuffed it into something that was otherwise familiar. We didn't even call them loot boxes at the time. People weren't mad about loot boxes in 2012. It was probably the best tacked-on multiplayer mode of the era, and it's surreal to look back on it now as ground zero for the most-hated game monetization gimmick of the decade.

But Mass Effect 3's shooting was a big step forward, and it wisely stuck to co-op over PvP, recreating the fun team combinations you'd have with your AI squad in singleplayer in a mode you could play with friends. No one I know was looking forward to the multiplayer mode before release. It was also, against all odds, really good. Mass Effect 3's multiplayer was, in concept, a transparent attempt to stretch out the game's campaign and to milk players for more money after they slapped down their $60.

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