Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Shadow of Mordor Sequel)
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Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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Ok on a serious note, that is outright retarded to have to go through an artificial grind at the end to see the final pay off, more or less forcing you to use the shop to get Legendary orcs - and this is WELL beyond any normal means of Microtransactions. DO NOT BUY THIS PILE OF SHIT.
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spronk
FPS noob
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don't tell me what to do, i am buying the game for the free ring!!!!!! WHAT IF ITS THE RING OF POWER AND ITS FINALLY MY TURN TO BECOME INVISIBLE
Alternatively if you buy the game from gamestop, you get an exclusive gamestop Shadows of War BOTTLE OPENER. Yes, when I think of Lord of the Rings, the first thing that comes to mind is a bottle opener!!!!!!!!
https://www.gamestop.com/ps4/games/middle-earth-shadow-of-war/140106
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Tuco
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I haven't read a lot of the reviews but it seems the game goes:
1. Faceroll the story mode.
2. Beat game, get to "end-game" which is just the fortress conquering/defending
3. End-game requires you to actually use the game mechanic of building up your uruk army before you can take on the post-game forts.
But instead of using the game mechanics, you can pay some Tolkien bux to get top-tier troops.
We'll see how fun the fort mode is vs the uruk-building, but I have to imagine that they are similar enough where it's pretty dumb to skip one part by buying P2W orcs to do the other part.
Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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To be fair, I am only reading what I am reading and haven't (Won't anyway) be playing it. (Unfortunately because I did like the first one - I'll probably just play that again) But it is amounting to a 50-60 hour artificial grind to be able to get to the level to see the, also what appears to be, a tacked on cheap ass cut scene not worth the effort (According to Gamespot)
So... All in all? This was obviously tacked on at the end last minute to get people to use the store because most are not going to run the same damn content for 50-60 hours to see a cut scene, and they think folks will just pay 20-50 or whatever to gear up and go finish it.
Tuco
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I'll judge when I play the game but as it stands now this sentiment seems like useful idiocy.
My guess is that Monolith made a game that merely utilizes the nemesis system, build a post-game mode that focuses on the nemesis system (which looks like grinding) and sprinkled some lore/story content in the form of a cutscene or whatever onto it, then some bean-counter at WB Games asked for some MTX to build dat der profit.
I say useful idiocy because I doubt the existence of MTX changed the design of the post-game grinding, so whining about it is dumb, but it's useful from a gamer's perspective to reduce profits of the game BECAUSE of the MTX, so the bean-counter at WB games is forced to re-evaluate his position on MTX.
So yeah, I hope the game is fun and the metacritic score gets dumpstered because of pointless MTX drama.
Sulrn
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Tuco, if this was the first game with post-campaign / secondary content involving MTX I could get behind that argument.
It's much more likely MTX were already approved while the game was still being designed and the additional content built around them as to have as little impact as possible while still being enticing.
Tuco
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Your logic is useless against my blind faith in a game that I need to fill a game-void in my life.
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spronk
FPS noob
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There are really two sides to this mtx thing and its only blowing up now because EVERY fucking AAA game has put it in this fall 2017 holiday season:
side 1: the loot crates are not "required", you can play the game just fine without them and don't miss out on anything, you aren't gimped or anything. Just people who play less than you can buy loot crates and RNG for stuff. Destiny 2, Forza 7, Mordor 2, SW BF 2 all have them but I've played FM7 and D2 and they aren't really that intrusive or annoying.
side 2: why the fuck are loot crates now in every goddamn game, video games have turned from "easy to play, hard to master" to "just buy your way to the end". Its fucking annoying as hell having loot crate popup windows as you play the game, its annoying seeing cool looking stuff locked behind RNG loot crates, its annoying as fuck having to go through an RNG system to get items you want. Before getting challenges done would award you costumes and weapons and crap, now the coolest stuff is behind MTX crates. FUCK LOOT CRATES, games that have them that charge $60 msrp should be boycotted until they are completely removed.
Ultimately I prefer side 2 just because side 1 will mean loot crates go into every goddamn game. I'm fine with people sort of overblowing how bad loot crates are in these games, they really aren't as horrendous as some people make it out to be, but they are a cancer on gaming and need to GTFO.
side 1: the loot crates are not "required", you can play the game just fine without them and don't miss out on anything, you aren't gimped or anything. Just people who play less than you can buy loot crates and RNG for stuff. Destiny 2, Forza 7, Mordor 2, SW BF 2 all have them but I've played FM7 and D2 and they aren't really that intrusive or annoying.
side 2: why the fuck are loot crates now in every goddamn game, video games have turned from "easy to play, hard to master" to "just buy your way to the end". Its fucking annoying as hell having loot crate popup windows as you play the game, its annoying seeing cool looking stuff locked behind RNG loot crates, its annoying as fuck having to go through an RNG system to get items you want. Before getting challenges done would award you costumes and weapons and crap, now the coolest stuff is behind MTX crates. FUCK LOOT CRATES, games that have them that charge $60 msrp should be boycotted until they are completely removed.
Ultimately I prefer side 2 just because side 1 will mean loot crates go into every goddamn game. I'm fine with people sort of overblowing how bad loot crates are in these games, they really aren't as horrendous as some people make it out to be, but they are a cancer on gaming and need to GTFO.
Tuco
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The other way to look at it is that whales are subsidizing initial-purchase only customers. This isn't all good because it means devs will cater to whales, but isn't all bad because A: you're paying less than you'd otherwise have to in order to maintain their profit margin, B: the game may sustain higher revenue long-term as whales buy tolkein bux.
It kind of reminds me of cruises. $300 or whatever to get on-board one of the largest moving objects man has ever created and be fully catered to with luxurious food buffet style as you get taken out-of-country to exotic places? Only way Carnival makes money is from the alcohol most people consume. But if you don't buy alcohol, you're getting an amazing deal thanks to everyone else.
It kind of reminds me of cruises. $300 or whatever to get on-board one of the largest moving objects man has ever created and be fully catered to with luxurious food buffet style as you get taken out-of-country to exotic places? Only way Carnival makes money is from the alcohol most people consume. But if you don't buy alcohol, you're getting an amazing deal thanks to everyone else.
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Sulrn
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Subsidizing games with MTX versus actual box sales/expansions means quality/polish mean less and less through successive generations of product design as your goal is to further incentivize the secondary transactions which means splitting resources / design time which means a worse initial product over time due to ever increasing focus on the secondary transaction. For example: ME3 -> DA:I -> ME:A, or the pioneering market (mobile games in general).
This is exponentially worse for products that were already not wholly polished to begin with Shadow of Mordor being a tech demo / tutorial game -> SoW (1 step foward, 2 steps backwards).
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Sulrn
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Maybe I'm misunderstanding it, but I thought the MTX controversy was that the legendary orcs are "essential" to winning the final content and that endlessly farming (ie resetting captains/chiefs) was how you go about getting higher tier domination's to in turn use in the final content. The complaint being the resetting process was needlessly grindy in favor of the MTX. The complaint was never that you couldn't get legendary orcs in the wild.
With that line of thinking, the above tweet smells like intentional misdirection / shilling.
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Tuco
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I think there's lootboxes you can get ingame that give you orcs (for whatever reason?) but can only go up to epic. Where as you can buy lootboxes that give you legendary orcs, AND you can build up or find or whatever legendary orcs ingame.
So people are conflating ingame lootboxes don't give legendary orcs with you can only find legendary orcs in P2W lootboxes.
So people are conflating ingame lootboxes don't give legendary orcs with you can only find legendary orcs in P2W lootboxes.
Amzin
Lord Nagafen Raider
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They're not in every AAA game though. Wolfenstein: TNC for example, no MTX at all as far as the eye can see and it's an eagerly awaited major AAA release. The ones they are in are generating noise because it's a shit deal for consumers and developers (I can almost guarantee you the developers of this game aren't going to see any extra pay from the extra income the boxes generate) and fucks up the gameplay because the game suddenly has to be rebalanced to make buying the boxes make any sense at all.
At this point, I'm just swearing off any game that has non-cosmetic random loot for money. I'm sure the gameplay of Shadow of War will be alright but I don't give a shit, there's not enough time to play every game I want to play so I'll support a not-overtly-evil company instead with my money. I would be sad if the next Tomb Raider game goes this route because I love those games but I will live regardless, can't think of any other series I'm so attached to where it's hard to pass up on it.
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Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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Except they didn't even balance around the MTX either. They balanced the game without it. That's smart
Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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It totally is and you are correct. And WB paid this clown just like they did the last time when they were nailed by the FTC. It isn't that you cannot find legendary's in the wild. It's that it's an artificially long ass grind for 55-60 hours after the main game unless you want to pony up 50 bucks and finish the segment in 35 minutes.