While he said that some games might be closer than others--for example, players can sell the randomly awarded skins and other in-game items for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Dota 2 on the Steam marketplace--previous efforts to regulate this sort of activity were stymied by the fact that it's difficult to "cash out" of the store entirely, making the line between earning in-game items and converting them to cash less clear buy WoTLK Gold.

(You can sell your account to another site, such as Ebay however, this would be against rules set forth in the Steam Terms of Service.) "Let's be aware that, legally speaking the fact that you do not have any ownership rights to the games listed above, but you do own a license to play the games," Morrison said. "You cannot give the Steam library to your children. It's not yours, it's a non-transferable license...

As long as there's an economic model that is proven to be good I'm not seeing the companies spending any time trying to figure how to do that, unless government is able to create them. There are a myriad of fraudulent, shady ways to manage the gaming industry today that we're trying each the options."

However, while developers and observers alike can debate the moral tangles that these so-called "surprise mechanics" produce, others in the field aren't concerned. As per Michael Pachter, managing director at Wedbush Securities and a long-time analyst of the market for gaming and the use of color-grading for virtual goods is merely one more step in bringing the concept of microtransactions down to a perfect money-making algorithm. "It's basically slots machine mechanics, however slot machines can make a lot worth of dollars," Pachter said.

"Gambling works. If you buy sports cards like Crackerjacks, that's almost gambling, too. Color-coding is just an elaborate way of saying buy WoW WoTLK Classic Gold, 'You have the chance of having a 2.5% chance to get the jackpot.' For some of us I think that's a good deal."