Support NeoGAF

[Roshin]

There are different ways to do this, including dominating Orcs by exploring the vast open-world and encountering them as part of Orc society, or players can acquire Orcs and other items through the Market (in-game store).

All that fancy build up about the Nemesis system and then "Oh yeah, and there's a store, guys".

A shame, but Steam sale it is, then.

I remember this from the books.

"I'll deal with the Balrog in a moment, Frodo! I'm just going to open this lootbox first. There could be some phat loots in here, you know."

 

[ScaryShark]

Seems just like the lame shortcuts that Assassin's Creed and Battlefield have had for years now. Those never affected me and I'd be surprised if this did either.

 

[Aaron]

I'm curious to know why it's a big no-no in single player?

I mean, we have come to accepted it for multiplayer games, and it no doubt also had an effect on games with item drops and loot boxes.

Don't get me wrong, this news is enough to get me to not buy the game at all, but I'm just curious. For me, I just don't feel it, I don't like it in my single player games, there's no rational reason, just that I don't want it.

It's going to have a dramatic effect on the gameplay loop. In the first game, you got random runes for important kills, with the better ones coming from the more important baddies. It wasn't the only reason you were killing them, but it was nice cherry on top. Now that cherry is chopped into a million peices spread across your whole experience. You might farm lower tier enemies to earn up that loot box instead, or just get lazy and pay for it, but either case the feeling of that reward won't be as good. The rise and fall of the gameplay loop is more bumpy and less interesting.

This has turned a day one for me into a wait and see.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

It's going to have a dramatic effect on the gameplay loop. In the first game, you got random runes for important kills, with the better ones coming from the more important baddies. It wasn't the only reason you were killing them, but it was nice cherry on top. Now that cherry is chopped into a million peices spread across your whole experience. You might farm lower tier enemies to earn up that loot box instead, or just get lazy and pay for it, but either case the feeling of that reward won't be as good. The rise and fall of the gameplay loop is more bumpy and less interesting.

This has turned a day one for me into a wait and see.

not to mention tying the war chests to a separate currency that is apparently limited(Gold), it's going to just be bad especially if those are the best chests.

Like, i can understand giving out currency for doing super hard bosses and what not, but tying it to milestones and community events, it's going to be extremely limited and will run out sooner or later.

 

[ViviOggi]

Fuck outta here WB

 

[Sjefen]

Yeah no thanks, didnt like it in AC and wont bother buying this game unless I get it for "free" on PS+. Loot boxes have no place in single player games, optional or not.

 

[Gala]

So Shadow of War is a gacha game now?

 

[ambar_hitman]

The game always looked awful to me from the trailers, but still I would have bought it if it got great reviews and user impressions, but this scummy shop made this game wait for PS plus game now.

 

[Zushin]

Yeah, nah. For me, these Morder games are ones that you could almost impulse buy but not really have much passion or enthusiasm to get day 1. Adding bullshit MT takes it out of even impulse buy territory for me.

 

[Askherserenity]

hard to keep making those single-player games without cash, bud.

Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not but...I didn't know they decided not to charge $60 for this game.

 

[Mifec]

Good luck on PC. People will just cheat engine unlimited quantities of the ingame currency.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

Let's see, Shadow of War is out in October. What else is out in October.

The Evil Within 2
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
Super Mario Odyssey
Assassin's Creed Origins
Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen Remaster

Well, I guess Shadow of War is pretty easy to ignore. Probably Assassin's Creed too.

Just this for me. Maybe AC and Wolfenstein for cheap during holiday sales if they are good.

 

[GHG]

I did a double take when I saw the thread title. Wtf is this doing in a single player game?

Lunacy.

 

[sirap]

Gross. Was going to pick this up and the XBX but now I'll just wait for a Steam sale and use cheats when I can't be bothered to shell out for these loot boxes.

 

[Ivellios]

This is just sad, like many here im going to wait for a price drop and see if this harms the game as a whole.

 

[UserDoesNotExist]

Can anyone tell me why loot boxes are OK for multiplayer games but are suddenly verboten for single player games? They're still gambling. They're still manipulative. They still specifically target the mentally ill and children. Because other people can't see you playing digital Barbie?

 

[Stop It]

Unless the execs are idiots this likely won't affect the progression of the game and is mainly targeted at impatient people with lots of disposable income.

In single player games, they used to make cheat codes for these people. Now they charge money.

Imagine if charging for iddqd etc in the first Doom. because in single player games, that's basically what they're doing.

 

[NullPointer]

On one hand its good that we're getting the details on this before the game ships, and that nothing is exclusive to real money purchases.

On the other hand ... as always the length of the grinds is what will matter here. I didn't feel it in games like Unity and Syndicate, but I felt it big time in Black Flag, and I quit playing that rather than grind the resources needed to upgrade my ship to progress in the story. And the RNG component and rarities is just fucked.

Definitely gives me pause. This definitely makes it easier to wait and see for longer term impressions.

 

[CecilRousso]

Games aren't getting cheaper to make. How do you expect publishers/devs to offset the cost of production and turn a decent profit? Games are more expensive than ever to develop and those costs will continue to rise, while the actual price of the games themselves have remained the same. Should game prices increase? Should we be paying $70-$80 for new games instead of $60?

Unfortunately, this is the state of the industry now. You can't expect to continue to have big budget, AAA games without the publishers implementing additional ways to earn more income.

Shadows of Mordor was a massive success for WB, so this is not about these poor publishers needing to survive. They just want more.

 

[Nev]

WB is total trash.

I don't get why EA, Activision and the usual keep being hated but not WB, which has been consistently worse than those for years.

I don't care about this shitty braindead derivative game, but if I did I would automatically boycott it because of this bullshit.

 

[NullPointer]

So they're putting in a system that enables them to earn some persistent revenue after purchase, and whats that going to be put towards? Has anybody offered any truly meaningful "community challenges" that could justify this kind of hawking of RNG packs?

Are any expansions on the way, and are they going to be free?

 

[geordiemp]

For a single player game, this sort of stuff never really bothered me. But at the same time, I won't be touching any of it.

I'm excited for the game, but it'll be a solid summer sale game. October is the craziest month in a long while.

I did not buy the assassins creed game with loot boxes, gold key things, I just assumed it would be more of a grind fest and did not look at it again as I have enough games to play.

I am sure shadow will make some money doing this, but it will be a negative on reviews and it will loose day 1 customers like me on principle.

Maybe pick it up in the sales, well done WB.

 

[SRTtoZ]

Isn't this a singleplayer game? So you're telling me I would have to pay for cheats that I can use for free in any other SP game? Like when I went back to play Shadow of Mordor I used a trainer to give me tons of skill points so I can just rocket through the story and have fun.

 

[Psychoward]

hard to keep making those single-player games without cash, bud.

What are they charging 60 dollars plus the season pass/collector's editions for then?

 

[Mifec]

Isn't this a singleplayer game? So you're telling me I would have to pay for cheats that I can use for free in any other SP game? Like when I went back to play Shadow of Lord of I used to trainer to give me tons of skill points so I can just rocket through the story and have fun.

You can still do that and circumvent their stupid lootboxes that way on PC thankfully.

 

[SRTtoZ]

You can still do that and circumvent their stupid lootboxes that way on PC thankfully.

Yea but they'll make me feel like a pirating prick when doing so.

 

[stan423321]

Can anyone tell me why loot boxes are OK for multiplayer games but are suddenly verboten for single player games? They're still gambling. They're still manipulative. They still specifically target the mentally ill and children. Because other people can't see you playing digital Barbie?

First, that. Second, WB already admitted these aren't cosmetic (probably due to the first), which has great potential to influence everything else in the gameplay. Third, this forces developers to construct a solid anti-cheat engine as a part of a single player PC game, which is extremely counterproductive from consumer's perspective. Normally you would just have server telling other players what you have.

 

[Drillary Clinton]

If it's designed to where you'll need to buy these or suffer horrible grinds, I'll be passing on this game.

 

[Branduil]

If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world.

-J. R. R. TOLKIEN, The Hobbit

 

[benzopil]

Cool, I like lootboxes

 

[Mifec]

Yea but they'll make me feel like a pirating prick when doing so.

Even if you use it on the non gold currency? It would just cut down time you'd need to grind for it.

 

[Eria]

Well not buying this. I'm not gonna support this shit.

 

[dreamfall]

Man this sucks. Why would they think this would enhance the game in any way? I hope it's something like a timesaver pack rather than offering shiny weapons and armor that are difficult to obtain without grinding. It would really be shit if it impedes progress to take over a fortress in the campaign.

 

[UrbanRats]

That was my confusion back when the game was unveiled and it was implied this existed.

I don't believe this stuff does especially well in Assassin's Creed.

Like, it happens certainly, but it's orders of magnitude behind multiplayer crates in terms of revenue.

But what's the downside of implementing it? I mean for them, i know what the downsides are, from a design standpoint.
This is the new normal, and i don't think "anyone" is going to pass on a game they care about, because it features this stuff... at worst they'll be subjected to some light mockery from fringes of hardcore gamer communities (like GAF).

Unless the execs are idiots this likely won't affect the progression of the game and is mainly targeted at impatient people with lots of disposable income.

There is little way to prove this one way or the other, but as soon as the progression will start to feel a bit too tedious, whether it's true or not, the bug that it's like that to push Loot Chests, will already be implanted in your head.

 

[KainXVIII]

Spoiler

Not buying this game in the first place, but still

 

[13ruce]

Good another game i can skip micro's in a singleplayer game is lolworthy.

 

[Staf]

I don't mind this as long as the game does not feel like a grind/waste of time playing it without buying boxes.

 

[DrunkShogun]

Won't be buying the game for a while then.m until it's dirt cheap. Don't enjoy this practice and there is a good amount of games coming out so will simply move on to them.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

Cool, I like lootboxes

You enjoy wasting money on a digital trinket lottery?

 

[Saty]

- Paid Cheat Codes.
- Undermining what's supposed to be a crafted game progression balance.
- Pay to play less of the game you paid $60 to play.

And the usual 'you can get everything w\o paying' comment that fails to understand that the game can still be manipulated and game design decisions made to urge and push players to spend real money.

 

[HelloNewman]

It's gonna end up like Injustice 2 where they nerf the drop rates of everything you can get for free into the dirt so you have to buy everything or grind forever.

 

[Confused Cheeseburger]

I wasn't really hot on this game at all, despite enjoying the original. Intrest completely killed after this.

 

[Alpha Phoenix]

Wait a couple years until the GOTY edition is $5 and buy that. That's the only way to do it. As someone who 1000'd Mordor, there's nothing about this game that makes me want to jump in from the beginning.

 

[IaN_GAF]

I'm out!

 

[fabricated backlash]

But of course it will.
This fucking industry

 

[karnage10]

But what's the downside of implementing it? I mean for them, i know what the downsides are, from a design standpoint.
This is the new normal, and i don't think "anyone" is going to pass on a game they care about, because it features this stuff... at worst they'll be subjected to some light mockery from fringes of hardcore gamer communities (like GAF)

For me loot boxes are, normally, a deal breaker. I don't mind cosmetics only boxes like overwatch but when it "affects" the progression then i just skip the game. I just don't have the patience to do the same thing over and over again to unlock a buff necessary to progress on the game.

 

[Guymelef]

This is shit.

 

[Memorabilia]

ugh...

Guess I'm buying it used.

Yup. +1. This is the kind of bullshit that absolutely makes me wait to get the game for $20 or less...or pick it up used in the bargain bin a year or two down the road.

 

[AgentLampshade]

Ok, there goes any and all interest I had in the game.

Actually, while I'm here. Why does MORDOR even have currency? What vendor is setting up shop in the land of the Dark Lord?

 

[Chinbo37]

I know I sound like a fucking old man but remember cheat codes?