With the speed at which news comes out in the gaming industry we sometimes miss important or news worthy things. Some of these things we want to talk about in a way that is both easy for you guys and allows us to get all the facts together as some of these stories develop quickly. Sometimes we also just cover topics that we find interesting and want to discuss.

Players are cheating in Shadow of War to get unlimited loot boxes

An article posted over on PC Gamer brings to light that players are using Cheat Engine scripts to allow themselves to have unlimited Mirian, an in game currency used to buy silver level loot boxes. Now it’s important to note that this currency cannot be used to buy the premium loot boxes. The silver tier of chests do not reward legendary gear. You can still acquire quite a lot of good loot with the non premium crates, so there is a benefit of having unlimited currency.

Wiggin’s thoughts on the subject :  While we weren’t able to cover Shadow of War it’s interesting some of the news coming out regarding the loot boxes and general opinion on loot boxes in single player games.  The majority of the vocal minority  seems to be against them. In stark contrast to that the game topped the Steam top sellers tab all week. It’s quite interesting then to learn that people are cheating to gain more currency so they then don’t have to grind to unlock loot boxes in an attempt to get random items they might need in order to progress through the game. With the game topping the top sellers category it’s clear that the majority of the people buying the game don’t seem to care about a game that has the economy  of a mobile game and  plus being $60. This game has been bathing in PR nightmares for quite a while now due to the inclusion of microtrasactions inside a single player game and I think rightfully so.  All we are doing as a gaming community is allowing companies to normalize the idea of every single game having microtransactions so when they start releasing literal mobile games on to PC people won’t bat an eye. If this type of trend continues to stand unopposed we as gamers will all suffer in the long run. We should not be supporting this type of development design regarding gameplay being negativity affected by the idea that loot boxes may  or may not affect how you’re rewarded as a player. I don’t even play games these days that hinge on my in game reward being tied to RNG, it’s insulting to the player and their time. If you want to let players customize their characters please give them a straight path to do so. Don’t obfuscate the process with loot boxes. I’m for cheating to get loot boxes in a single player game, hell I’m all for cheating of any description in single player games.  Want to wall hack ? Cool with me, as long as you’re only affecting your own experience. I really hope developers take the thought of players cheating for single player loot boxes as a wakeup call, not make it harder, but perhaps to abandon the idea all together. This is not the direction that gaming should be going and it is deeply concerning and alarming that so many consumers just don’t seem to care. They for some reason put gaming in some weird box where extortion of content and items is somehow okay because it’s a leisure activity. If airplane companies started charging you once to get on and would not let you leave the plane to go on your vacation unless you paid again at the terminal while you were still on the flight to get off, you can bet that would not stand long. Why we allow it to happen in gaming is beyond me. Please developers and publishers stop trying to nickel and dime us at every opportunity and please stop designing the games with that being the number one on the list of features.

Star Wars Battlefront II Pay to Win ?

With the open beta of Star Wars Battlefront II wrapping up this week many players including myself got my hands on the game for the first time. With that firsthand experience we got to experience how the loot boxes affect the game for better or for worse.

Wiggin’s thoughts on the subject :  I’m going to put this up front because it’s important to know when read my thoughts. I’ve been a lifelong Star Wars fan dating back to my childhood. You may be wondering what that information has to do with this new Star Wars game and the answer to that is that I really, really, really want to like this game.  Many times with me the setting or time period of a game does more for me then many other aspects. So when I say that I want to enjoy this game and I want to be able to play a modern Star Wars game and fight in all the epic locations and characters in a huge battlefield you will understand how much it hurts when I get to the topic at hand.

So the question is Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) a pay to win game? I’m going to say yes. The system as it stands in the beta is based on a loot box system as the only way to get any type of items or improvements for your character. You acquire loot boxes by two ways, the first is your daily login bonus where you get one crate each day and you can purchase them with ingame currency you acquire from playing the game.  I’ll be the first to tell you that it takes a good number of games in order to acquire enough to even purchase a loot box. So after you have played enough to get a loot box and buy one there obviously is no guarantee you will acquire weapons or hero cards. Now these hero cards are cards you can equip to your each class that gives your bonuses and replaces abilities with more powerful ones.  These cards are very important to being able to play at a competitive level because if you don’t have a specific high ranking card you can rest assured the enemy will. This puts you automatically at a disadvantage to those that either have played more then you, got luckier then you or spent real money. So fundamentally the new Star Wars Battlefront II game is pay to win, you’re either going to pay with your time, grinding out money for loot boxes or by paying with your wallet so you can have an even playing field with your opponent. It’s quite disappointing to see this trend in games because it is a huge turn off for many people, games are supposed to be about having fun, not about grinding enough or get lucky enough to get items or weapons you want to use in the game you purchased.