General Discussions

I guess this line of thought popped back into my mind after seeing that despite being a single player game, Shadow of War will include a microtransaction system. While it is stated not to include anything “extra” that you couldn’t obtain by playing normally, the system essentially allows you to pay for that stuff without grinding for it. So maybe not “pay to win” but definitely “pay to skip”.

Now I’ve no idea if the future trainer from CH will allow us to obtain the gold used to buy this stuff (since it can be obtained purely by playing) it brings up what is starting to become quite an ever greying area as the monetisation of games continues to extend further. I’m totally against any sort of microtransaction system that you pay a retail price for, I see perfectly the merit for them in a free to play game, its a good method IMO to support developers of that kind if you wish to.

Now with this proposed system for Shadow of War, we’re now seeing “features” needing to be paid for that would in the past be easily obtainable by cheats or easter eggs. I remember you could even get some extra/secret levels in games by doing bizarre things, now for extra missions you generally pay for them. After how Blizzard behaved to gamers using trainers even for SP only (and CH being tech savvy enough to ensure it didn’t work on MP) I’m concerned other big publishers will go the Blizzard route and hammer folk that use trainers, even if it’s not to obtain game currency. Since you could argue, technically, a god mod or functions for extra skills or XP still assists the gamer in doing things more quickly, and therefore negating the need to pay that extra money. So I fear when they see trainers would hinder this, they’ll go nuclear on them.

Am I wrong and just being overly worried? Or could this become more of a problem going forward, and if so, what could the solutions be for CH to be able to continue? I’m certainly very thankful to them in saving me so many hundreds of hours of needless time being burned away to enjoy so many great gaming titles, when I have a family and full-time job also keeping me busy. So I’d hate to see CH suffer in anyway as the greed of these publishes escalates.

We rather suffer from the great benefit of "patches can be rolled out every day" than of AAA games that offers DLCs and passes before launch. The problem you mentioned exists but it will not destroy us, nor become our biggest problem. Its just something else we have to deal with.

The mix of singleplayer and multiplayer (or 'games at a service' at its called nowadays) grows because gamers are willing to pay. Their extend their business model and try to integrate it into singleplayer as well. So gamers should expect more stuff they have to pay for. But that isn't really our problem nor destroy us in the form you might think it would. Its rather something that each gamer has to think about if he wants that to happen or not. Because publishers dont care about reviews or steam threads, but only do about sales. If you see something happen you dont like, do not support it.

[Edited by 0x90, 8/8/2017 1:56:00 PM]

So in the online stream they spoke of the multiplayer, and how the game will always be online because you carry over everything in singleplayer in base defense just like in metal gear. Now correct me if I am wrong but Metal gear could be played offline, not connected to the stupid multiplayer base mode. But Shadows of war will always need to be online?

If this is indeed correct they just lost my sale.

Loki

If shadows of war is always online, even for single player, and there appears to be client server saving of resources or money, then it's highly likely we will have to skip that title.

however, clearly a title of that significance we will be looking at it pretty hard before making such a decision.

best,
Cal

more links

www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-08-07-shadow-of-war-has-a-ranked-online-mode

steamcommunity.com/app/356190/discussions/0/135511913384994384/

www.gamefaqs.com/boards/206388-middle-earth-shadow-of-war/75120141

www.vg247.com/2017/08/07/middle-earth-shadow-of-wars-microtransactions-sparks-concerns-that-the-game-will-be-always-online/

community.wbgames.com/t5/General/Is-there-an-offline-mode/td-p/1616608

THIS ONE
www.gamepur.com/news/27346-shadow-war-offline-play.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9xbj3xpj08