Shadow of War Microtransactions

[Auptyk 4]

Basic Points to start off: 

 

1. I dont have a problem with microtransactions in games, if done correctly. 

2. Shadow of War does them correctly

3. Be skeptical or at least weary when listening to reviewers when it comes to Microtransactions. 

 

Alright...

 

I am playing Shadow of War and it is some of the most fun I have had in a long time. Absolutely amazing game. However, one thing that has burned some people is the micro transactions present in the game. Leading Gameranx to "not recommend the game despite it being the best game of 2017". Downward Thrust... same thing. Zero Punctuation points out that the end is near impossible without Microstransactions. 

 

There is one thing though that is common between ALL THREE reviewers... NONE of them played the side quests or optional missions. Which...after putting in 68 hours so far totally invalidates that aspect of their critique. 

 

Monolith states that "all items can be earned in game through normal play", while these three YouTubers debate this point. They talk about the insane grind in the last act to get enough in game credits to buy what is necessary. While not even playing a HUGE portion of the game. I am typically not a completionist... but in both Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War I have been sucked in by the lore, and the story and the world of Tolkien. Plus, the way the side quests, items, etc are worked into the game proper is very well done, and fluid. Also... and most importantly, you are rewarded heavily for doing them. In both in game currency as well as character and weapon stat buffs. 

 

I am drowning in "in game currency" and haven't spent a dime after initial purchase of the game. 

 

The currency used to buy double XP and boosts for your troops... also earned in game through "daily" (they say daily... but they last till you complete them) quests. I have 850 Gold not having spent a dime which is enough to buy about 8 double xp boosts which is what the YouTubers are all saying they had to buy to complete the game. 

 

So, TLDR: 

 

If you have the time, this game provides enough quality content to earn everything in game without buying, and without a serious grind. However, if you have more money than time, Shadow of War will let you purchase boosts, troops, etc... to minimize the time needed to experience all the game. 

Also you witness executions like this... http://xboxclips.com/Auptyk+Prime/11c5ae00-159c-410b-a926-a0a1f6fcd9bd

 

(that site is the worst... but its easy)

[phil bottle 9,743]

I hear the side missions are fucking tedious, which kind if negates much of your love of microtransactions.

Did you check any Jim fucking Sterling son videos? Makes some very good points. I'll share if you like. It's a good game but the naked greed is a little unpalatable for me.

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[J4MES OX4D 10,025]

I started SOW a few days ago and got fed up with it after a few hours. Although the microtransactions aren't as essential as a lot of people are trying to make out; it's clear the way the game is designed that it's just an uninspired grind which would entice some users to pay to progress quicker. Microtransactions in a single player game is inexcusible when it's progression-oriented in a game that stifles progression in the first place. 

4 hours ago, phil bottle said:

I hear the side missions are fucking tedious, which kind if negates much of your love of microtransactions.

The whole game structure is basically just side mission. Scout an Ork captain, find his weaknesses, kill his buddies and him and move on to the next one rinse and repeat. There is a 'campaign' but it's pretty poor but the core of the game is just Batman-esque combat against thousands of enemies. In three hours I did 4% of the first location and there are 5 in total.  Shadow of Mordor did it so much better as the game wasn't strung out and everything was well-balanced right to the finale. 

[phil bottle 9,743]

Although the microtransactions aren't as essential as a lot of people are trying to make out; it's clear the way the game is designed that it's just an uninspired grind which would entice some users to pay to progress quicker. Microtransactions in a single player game is inexcusible when it's progression-oriented in a game that stifles progression in the first place. 

My reply to the OP was lazy but this pretty much sums up everything neatly. Thank you sir [emoji16]

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[TigerBurge 2,375]

The oldest boy played it,absolutely loved it. He completed it in about a two weeks and didn’t spend a dime on it other than the price of the game. 

[Auptyk 4]

8 hours ago, phil bottle said:

I hear the side missions are fucking tedious, which kind if negates much of your love of microtransactions.
 

 

I wouldn't say I have a love of Microtransactions. I haven't spent any money on them. 

 

The side missions aren't tedious... if you like the game. If you don't...then they probably are. But that would be true of any game right?

 

4 hours ago, J4MES OX4D said:

The whole game structure is basically just side mission. Scout an Ork captain, find his weaknesses, kill his buddies and him and move on to the next one rinse and repeat. There is a 'campaign' but it's pretty poor but the core of the game is just Batman-esque combat against thousands of enemies. In three hours I did 4% of the first location and there are 5 in total.  Shadow of Mordor did it so much better as the game wasn't strung out and everything was well-balanced right to the finale. 

 

I think this is really subjective though. I really enjoyed the side missions. In fact all the stuff you said you hated, I really enjoyed. We all have our likes and dislikes in games. To me Destiny is a heartless bland and pointless grind once the story line finishes, but many of my friends, and people on this forum dump hours into it even after. One mans grind is another's perfect formula. 

 

But I guess.... the point is that whether we like the game or not is kind of irrelevant to the issue of microtransactions in this game. Because, there IS in fact plenty of content to do that negates the NEED to buy. 

I dont know how to do spoiler tags to hide the text... so if you care about the story dont read past this... 
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When I went into the last ACT (just today) The enemies were approximately 15 levels lower than me. About level 26--29 level captains. So... You can beat acts 1-3 EASY putting in half the time and effort I did. And Act-4 seems to be just something to do if you want to keep playing. Microtransaction's unless you are going to put in 100+ hours are TOTALLY pointless. And thus the rage against them as well. 

[phil bottle 9,743]

Yeah I was being cheeky with the 'love of microtransaction' comment.
To each their own [emoji4]

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[J4MES OX4D 10,025]

22 minutes ago, Auptyk said:

 

I wouldn't say I have a love of Microtransactions. I haven't spent any money on them. 

 

The side missions aren't tedious... if you like the game. If you don't...then they probably are. But that would be true of any game right?

 

 

I think this is really subjective though. I really enjoyed the side missions. In fact all the stuff you said you hated, I really enjoyed. We all have our likes and dislikes in games. To me Destiny is a heartless bland and pointless grind, but many of my friends, and people on this forum dump hours into it. One mans grind is another's perfect formula. 

 

But I guess.... the point is that whether we like the game or not is kind of irrelevant to the issue of microtransactions in this game. Because, there IS in fact plenty of content to do that negates the NEED to buy. 

I dont know how to do spoiler tags to hide the text... so if you care about the story dont read past this... 
...

...

...

...

...
When I went into the last ACT (just today) The enemies were approximately 15 levels lower than me. About level 26--29 level captains. So... You can beat acts 1-3 EASY putting in half the time and effort I did. And Act-4 seems to be just something to do if you want to keep playing. Microtransaction's unless you are going to put in 100+ hours are TOTALLY pointless. And thus the rage against them as well. 

I simply don't think they should be in any single player game regardless. I do think SOW has a painfully repetitive structure in place and the fact they offer microtransactions to reduce the 'grind' rather than play the game in its entireity fuels this. WB have never needed to do this in their other games such as SOM and the Batman series and those were executed perfectly in terms of a design structure and overall length. 

From an ethical standpoint; microtransactions in SP games to buy progression is not something I want to see in future titles whether they are bought or not and it casts suspicion over the publishers and the games design if such things are in place. 

[Auptyk 4]

17 hours ago, J4MES OX4D said:

I simply don't think they should be in any single player game regardless. I do think SOW has a painfully repetitive structure in place and the fact they offer microtransactions to reduce the 'grind' rather than play the game in its entireity fuels this. WB have never needed to do this in their other games such as SOM and the Batman series and those were executed perfectly in terms of a design structure and overall length. 

From an ethical standpoint; microtransactions in SP games to buy progression is not something I want to see in future titles whether they are bought or not and it casts suspicion over the publishers and the games design if such things are in place. 

 

That's a fair stand to take for sure. However, (unfortunately?) I don think that it is realistic for the companies. AAA development is super expensive, but we (the entire gaming world not any WE here) wont tolerate a straight up price over 60 dollars. But... we also wont tolerate lower quality.

 

I think this microtransaction set up is fine, however... it probably isn't the best. But I think you will see microtransactions in single player going forward, or you just wont see big AAA Single Player... at least from the third parties.  

---

 

Slightly off topic... but I played Splinter Cell Chaos Theory back in the day...like 10 years ago lol... and it was linear single player. But you could play it so many different ways it was crazy. I seriously put in probably 100+ hours in that game. Had they released story DLC for that game I would have bought it. I think if you make a versatile full length single player game... you could probably sell story add ons and people wouldn't be upset. ... probably. For me single player games need AT MINIMUM 20-30 hours of game play or I wont buy it. So at 60-70 hours I am down to 1 dollar an hour for SoW game... solid investment. If they were to release a 15 hour game... i'm upset. They sell story DLC on that I am ticked. haha. So... yeah. 

[J4MES OX4D 10,025]

5 hours ago, Auptyk said:

 

That's a fair stand to take for sure. However, (unfortunately?) I don think that it is realistic for the companies. AAA development is super expensive, but we (the entire gaming world not any WE here) wont tolerate a straight up price over 60 dollars. But... we also wont tolerate lower quality.

 

I think this microtransaction set up is fine, however... it probably isn't the best. But I think you will see microtransactions in single player going forward, or you just wont see big AAA Single Player... at least from the third parties.  

AAA development costs have certainly risen but I don't think that's a satisfactory excuse for companies to use especially considering some of the profits they still make. I just don't want it weeding its way into a variety of franchises the same way season passes have become the norm and I don't want to see gameplay being built around trying to entice users to spend extra money.  It's only become a real issue this year and it could very easily alienate people and ruin perfectly stable series like how Square Enix ruined Deus Ex after succssfully rebooting it a few years previous.  

 

Decisions like this are made from the top though and its not the developers fault. If they have to accomodate microtransactions at the expense of the gameplay structure then it has to be done the right way. I think some publishers may be in for some rude awakenings though as decisions like this could drastically impact sales of a game and purchases of microtransactions may not come close to mitigating that lost revenue. 

 

There's so many quality AAA titles that didn't need this business model to succeed and even with scaling costs; I don't think microtransactions are the best way to offset any reduced income against cosumer satisfaction and trust. Hopefully this is just a phase from corporate clowns and if it does succeed and becomes a fixture in all future games; I hold the players responsible for their stupidity in feeding it! 

[Auptyk 4]

On 11/3/2017 at 3:48 PM, J4MES OX4D said:

 I don't want to see gameplay being built around trying to entice users to spend extra money. 

 

Same. And I guess my argument for this thread is that, despite what the YouTubers say, this is NOT the case for Shadow of War. You have these YouTubers that are saying that "Shadow of War is built around trying to entice user to spend extra money" when they didn't play a HUGE portion of the game. 

[phil bottle 9,743]

 

Same. And I guess my argument for this thread is that, despite what the YouTubers say, this is NOT the case for Shadow of War. You have these YouTubers that are saying that "Shadow of War is built around trying to entice user to spend extra money" when they didn't play a HUGE portion of the game. 

Like much of life, generalisations are not helpful. There's many kinds of YouTubers and some of them have us consumers at heart.

 

Jim Sterling has done a lot of very well explained vids on this.

 

 

 

 

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[Docwagon 856]

Necro-bump, but if anyone wants to play this game today they ditched the microtransactions.  Not exactly news, since it booted them in 2018.  It was all new to me, though, as I picked the game up on Winter Sale at Steam.  

 

I got my $12 out of the game, but found some aspects rather annoying.  The controls are absolute shit on PC being a big one.

[phil bottle 9,743]

50 minutes ago, Docwagon said:

Necro-bump, but if anyone wants to play this game today they ditched the microtransactions.  Not exactly news, since it booted them in 2018.  It was all new to me, though, as I picked the game up on Winter Sale at Steam.  

 

I got my $12 out of the game, but found some aspects rather annoying.  The controls are absolute shit on PC being a big one.

The PS4 controller now works on Steam, in case that's any better. 

[Docwagon 856]

4 hours ago, phil bottle said:

The PS4 controller now works on Steam, in case that's any better. 

 

It probably would be easier then using my pinkie to reach under for L CTRL and trying not to hit L Shift.  Part of it is just the mechanics.  One button does too many things.  I want to drain someone and I throw ice.  I want to run but I roll or climb.  That sort of thing.