Shadow of War Microtransactions Revealed and Detailed
Aug. 7, 2017Shadow of War Microtransactions Revealed and Detailed
Warner Bros. and Monolith have revealed some new info regarding Middle-earth:Shadow of War’seconomy, specifically microtransactions. The game’s microtransactions will be available in an online store called the Market.
Players will be able to acquire the following items from the Market:
You’ll need to be connected to the internet to access the Market. To purchase these items, players can spend Mirian or Gold throughout the game as one progresses.Mirianis a type of in-game currency that can be acquired by:
Goldis another form of in-game currency that can be used to get higher level Loot Chests, War Chests, Boosts and Bundles of the aforementioned content. Gold can be acquired by:
No content in the game is gated by Gold and everything in the Market can be acquired naturally through normal gameplay. Monolith took pains to note that purchasing gold only saves time and any players progressing through the game can acquire the gear that they need on their own. No pricing for the gold or microtransactions has been revealed yet.
Shadow of War is set to release on October 10th for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Thoughts on the microtransactions? Sound off in the comments.
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Emergence
Editor at Fextralife. I look for the substantial in gaming and I try to connect video games to the emotions and stories they elicit. I love all things culture and history and have an odd fondness for the planet Jupiter. I think my dogs are pretty awesome too.
I’ve been playing ESO since launch and I have bought only one thing from the store that entire time (a convenience item during a farming rush). I have something stupid like 15000 crowns just sitting there.
They did a good job in adding tons of optional stuff I really do not care about, so the store does not feel necessary at all. For comparison, when I left lotro, they had added items to the store to guarantee a critical on a special recipe. You had to farm for weeks to get the recipe, and it would be absolutely stupid not to use the item as otherwise you had a 50% chance to fail the recipe and end up with no item. The crit guarantee was 15 usd.
That is a bad system. I felt forced and coherced, and that the item and chance had only be added for the store. ESO has instead crowded the store with cosmetics, mounts, and some convenience items such as a portable vendor. None of those are necessary or will save you from weeks or months of grinding.
Funny story: Warner was running lotro when I left xD
ESO Crown Crates are much the same as Overwatch loot crates, but ESO gives you the Crowns plus more for a sub, whereas (from what I’ve heard) you can’t do that in Overwatch.
Still disgusting, but I think ESO handles microtransactions slightly better than anyone else that I’ve seen.
In a single player, free to play game, fine. But a 60$ AAA game with a season pass? Nope. No way.
I don’t have a problem with microtransactions as an idea, but devs/publishers never do it in a way that benefits both themselves AND the player’s gameplay experience.
[BBvideo 550,450]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OyhTKX7i4I&list=PLlRceUcRZcK0E1Id3NHchFaxikvCvAVQe&index=63[/BBvideo]
AAAAAAAAAAnd no buy.
MMOs (the ones that don’t require you to subscribe to play at least) get a pass becasue they have bandwidth and server maintainence costs, and even then they only get a pass on a case by case basis. Regular games get no such pass. It has microtransaction, I don’t buy it under any circumstance.
Also, “you can earn it all in game” isn’t a defense. The systems (overwatch) are deliberately set up (overwatch) to be as grindy and frustrating as possible (overwatch) to convince people to buy their boxes (overwatch.) They balance around that system instead of balanceing around regular play because they want you buying the boxes.
“It’s only cosmetic” isn’t a defense either. A game is more than just the mechanics, it’s the entire experience. Even incredibly mechanics heavy fighting games are about more than just mechanics, with professional fighting game players recommending you play characters who you like the best instead of who are mechanically the best because your feelings on them will affect your preformance. If “cosmetic” stuff didn’t impact the play experience, they wouldn’t recommend that, and nobody would be willing to buy the boxes.
She’s technically still a spider, she just shapeshifts into human for what’s-his-name-MC’s benefit when talking to and blatantly tempting him. According to the voice actor, she’s also supposed to play a mother figure role to him.
coughOedipuscough
Wait. They turned Shelob, a giant freaking spider, spawn of Ungoliant, into a human?
Nope. I’m done. Playing with lore and making new stories in gaps in the legendarium is one thing, but outright changing details that are 100% canon? No thanks.
I have a problem with paying for “content” that costs nothing to produce. That includes paying to “cheat”, paying to skip content, or paying to “earn” things faster. It also goes for items that costs some money to produce, but just a tiny fraction of what’s being charged on a per-buyer basis (i.e. most “cosmetics”).
The way they bastardized the “Lord of the Rings” license was already a major strike against this game. At least when the MMO played games with the lore of the books there was apparent love of the underlying content on the part of the developers. Turning Shelob into a hot chick (as much as I like hot chicks in my games in general) shows the developers have no respect for Tolkien’s legacy, and the microtransactions just confirm it. At this point there’s not a “Steam sale” price low enough for me to buy this game.
Microtransactions are a plague. Even if you can ignore them, the giant store button in the menus in a constant eye sore.
I see the difference, interesting that they’re going this route then. Feels similar to what Dead Space started introducing.
This is why I’m OK with ESO. You can sub and get some bonuses, and an allowance of Crowns, and get a few hundred or thousand hours. I’ve spent a good chunk on ESO+, and not regretted it because of what you get.
A 60$ game, with a season pass for DLC of questionable content, AND microtransactions, in a single player game? No thanks.
… sigh.
I truly wish people would stop buying into this crap. Loot crates AND in-game currency bought with real currency? Have they no shame? I don’t see this game offering remotely enough gameplay to justify charging more on top of the already bloated $60 up front price every game ever produced asks for these days.
Honestly, the only type of game I think could justify the microtransaction model are the ones based on trading card games, and even that’s only because Magic: the Gathering was doing it before Mario was even a twinkle in Miyamoto’s eye. The only reason I don’t mind ESO and their store is because it has nigh-infinite content and you’ll get cool stuff anyways just as a matter of course (take note of that: it’s not “get the same stuff with farming and grinding”, but “get the same or equal stuff by playing the game normally with no special effort”). Of course, I also don’t play ESO much anymore because the writing is MMO-tier, but you know.
ESO is an mmo. You get hundreds of hours of content before you touch one Dlc or the store, which was added a year after the game launched.
A regular sixty dollar twenty to forty hour game with a store sounds like a travesty
It does seem though that you can get everything from playing to game, I’m not seeing any pay walls for any of the content. In fact it sounds like how you describe ESO, doesn’t it?
Oh boy, they took a page out of Konami’s playbook. I don’t like the way some companies are putting microtransactions in their games, because they price everything just so you HAVE to spend more on the game if you want the cool stuff. MGSV gets to the point where you HAVE to grind resources to be able to play, unless you want to spend RL money, or wait ages for research.
Nintendo has Amiibos, which are at least cool figurines, Elder Scrolls Online has some xp boosts and crafting boosts and cosmetics, but nothing that can’t be gained with in game currency.
This game went from “looks cool, maybe buy the GotY edition” to “don’t touch” in my book.
