Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and, especially, Monolith Productions have received negative feedback from major outlets, consumers, and even YouTubers about the inclusion of the dreadful microtransaciton into Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
Monolith Productions’ Design Director, Bob Roberts, at EGX 2017 explained to Eurogamer why they included microtransactions in a full $60 game like Shadow of War. He stated that it’s the player’s choice and it exists for people who does not have the ‘spare’ time to play the game fully. Roberts also added that microtransaction has the same design philosophy as adding difficulty modes.
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“Yeah, in the game you earn resources at a regular pace and the systems are tuned to that so you don’t need another option. At the same time, it’s there as a player choice. It’s there, from my perspective, for people who are protective of their spare time and scared when a massive game comes along that they’re not getting to see the full experience.
It’s the same design philosophy as us adding in difficulty modes. So we now have Easy mode, and we’ve added Hard mode at the other end of the spectrum. Frankly the Nemesis system comes to life when you are dying loads, so you could see Easy mode as a system which makes the game less enjoyable if you are the type of player who really should have put it on Hard. It’s putting more control in people’s hands – saying, you know how you play best, you make that choice.
The ideal for people who set it to Easy is if they are just finding things too punishing, not because they don’t want to die. We’d rather you die regularly to get the full experience of the Nemesis system.”[/alert]
Roberts also mentioned that they don’t have any motives why they added microstransactions.
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“No – absolutely not. 100 per cent not. It is important to clarify this as there were a couple of misconceptions. First, the concern about balancing – hopefully when it is out there and people are able to talk about their experiences then the balancing question will be answered, hopefully by people you trust to play through it and see that.”[/alert]
We all agree that this move of including microtransactions in triple-A budgeted games are just not ideal as we’re already paying for the full price already – unlike in free-to-play games.
What do you think about Roberts’ explanation? Let us know down in the comments below.
Source: Eurogamer