14th November 2017, 10:25 AM
(This post was last modified: 14th November 2017, 11:26 AM by Dark Jaguar.)
Loot boxes don't benefit anyone except the game companies. Every game they appear in is worse for having them. That's all I have to say.
Edit: No I have more to say. I hate how "badge arcade" is basically a glorified loot box itself, well more of a glorified claw machine. I find myself saying this a lot lately: "Can't I just, like, BUY the game?" I also have this to say of amiibo. It's expensive DLC. That's all it is. At first, Nintendo was nice enough to let different versions of the same character serve the same unlock function, but that's dead now. All the different Link amiibos are required to get all the outfit sets in BOTW.
BOTW is a fine game, and it lacks loot boxes, but that amiibo DLC doesn't feel like an accomplishment. I didn't find an ancient shrine to heroes past, then crawl through a dungeon finding a piece at a time until I had the whole set. I just scanned in a toy. I've said this before, but all the "toys to life" games are a wasted opportunity. Skylanders, Infinity, Amiibo, they all are just chunks of plastic. Yes, if someone is a toy collector they are generally well made enough, but even as toys they kinda fail because none of them (except the BOTW guardian amiibo) are even poseable.
Let's just add onto the pile the annoying "pre order exclusive" artificial scarcity DLC which already ruined any sense of getting a "complete" game and "on disc dlc", wherein content that is ALREADY in the game needs a purchase to unlock (the monopoly money used for resetting timers in mobile games is included on this list, as well as, once again, all the toys to life games). Season passes were originally a sort of "bargain", but what kind of bargain? I'm paying for something that doesn't even exist in the hopes that it'll be something I want? I'm taking a bet against myself. Doom 4's season pass is probably one of the worst offenders, being that in the end every last bit of it turned out to be nothing but skin packs for the worst part of that game (the "let's shove in level grinding in a mode that no one wants it in" multiplayer). But hey, they bait you into it with "freemium" bonus crap (so, on-disc dlc) you get immediately when you drop 20-40 dollars on their season pass. Since those season passes, so far, still exist long after the content they are passes for is released, that's my new strategy. I'll wait until the season is over then pick up the whole set only AFTER I decide if that content is worth it or not.
Breath of the Wild, I've said before, champions a rethink of how game hints are designed, going for in-universe methods of finding information or tracking things. Great! The DLC for BOTW, however, flies against this by resorting to that tired old "You heard a rumor that" hook the very instant you log into your save file. When did I hear that rumor? I didn't hear any rumor. You just TOLD me I heard a rumor in the vain hope that it somehow wouldn't break immersion (which it did).
Way too much DLC, for that matter, is of the game balance destroying variety. Let's look at Dead Space. How many "weapon packs" did all those games try and sell us? Do they unlock a quest to find said items, or a room somewhere I just need to survive long enough to stumble into? Do they just add a schematic but I still need to build the thing myself? No. You literally just start the game with ALL of the weapons out of the gate. This is a survival horror series, known for intentionally pacing resources so you have to manage it and really think through what risks you want to take, and it just GIVES you all this crap, every time, thus allowing you to just glide past the first half of the game without issue.
The day will come when a new Animal Crossing game is designed by stock holders, and every last item in Tom Nook's store will cost actual money dollars, except for Tom's mystery box, which costs bells, which are obtained by exchanging money dollars for them. This will be entirely in-character for Tom Nook, and it will also be the first Animal Crossing game I refuse to buy. You know, since they double dip by both charging for this nonsense AND making you pay full price for the game. You know, the games that are just getting too expensive so that charging $60 just isn't enough. They HAVE to, you see. Note that I paid $10 to see a movie with a Norse god running around with the mighty power to spend millions of dollars with a single toss of his great hammer. Blockbuster movies still cost more to make than blockbuster games. Hollywood has it's own idiotic problems, but at no point did someone in hollywood try to sell us DLC in the form of a "collector's edition" theatrical run with scenes not found in the cheaper alternative.
Speaking of collector's editions, I have in the past said that instead of exclusive game content, they should focus on exclusive physical goods. I like physical copies, but I think I made a mistake. They focused on physical goods alright. However, rather than fairly simple stuff like maybe a player's guide or a cloth map, we're getting ridiculous price gouging stuff in giant boxes I could fit 3 stacked XBoxes inside of. Those collector's editions are supposed to be the same price as the standard game, just with a little bonus. They aren't supposed to be giant toy boxes with the game in it.
Or... not.
That's right, the latest collector's editions, on top of not bothering to give you the season pass with the game you just paid $100 for, DON'T EVEN HAVE A GAME IN THEM! They are glorified physical loot crates at that point, and I don't have any room in my life for- what the hell is that? Is that a woman's bikini clad TORSO? A TORSO?! I'm trying NOT to look like a serial killer here game developers! This isn't helping! A "doll finger", outside the context of Resident Evil, honestly looks like the sort of calling card a Batman villain leaves behind.
And let's talk about "collector's coins" for a second. Oblivion had one, but in it's favor, it was made to look like the in-game currency. Nintendo has recently gotten into the habit of tossing in such coins in their games, but none of them are actually "from" anything. Mario Galaxy and Odyssey both included coins that were just silver coins with Mario himself emblazed upon them. Why can't I just have a nice in-game style Mario coin? The worst offender? Breath of the Wild. It included a collector's coin too. Let me repeat that. A Zelda game included a Zelda coin as a physical item. You know, the currency that Hyrule DOES NOT USE! The slightest thought and they would have known to make a cheap plastic rupee instead, but no thought went into it, so here we are, with a coin that would do little more than confuse the citizens of the game it's supposed to be "from" until some goron ate it.
Edit: No I have more to say. I hate how "badge arcade" is basically a glorified loot box itself, well more of a glorified claw machine. I find myself saying this a lot lately: "Can't I just, like, BUY the game?" I also have this to say of amiibo. It's expensive DLC. That's all it is. At first, Nintendo was nice enough to let different versions of the same character serve the same unlock function, but that's dead now. All the different Link amiibos are required to get all the outfit sets in BOTW.
BOTW is a fine game, and it lacks loot boxes, but that amiibo DLC doesn't feel like an accomplishment. I didn't find an ancient shrine to heroes past, then crawl through a dungeon finding a piece at a time until I had the whole set. I just scanned in a toy. I've said this before, but all the "toys to life" games are a wasted opportunity. Skylanders, Infinity, Amiibo, they all are just chunks of plastic. Yes, if someone is a toy collector they are generally well made enough, but even as toys they kinda fail because none of them (except the BOTW guardian amiibo) are even poseable.
Let's just add onto the pile the annoying "pre order exclusive" artificial scarcity DLC which already ruined any sense of getting a "complete" game and "on disc dlc", wherein content that is ALREADY in the game needs a purchase to unlock (the monopoly money used for resetting timers in mobile games is included on this list, as well as, once again, all the toys to life games). Season passes were originally a sort of "bargain", but what kind of bargain? I'm paying for something that doesn't even exist in the hopes that it'll be something I want? I'm taking a bet against myself. Doom 4's season pass is probably one of the worst offenders, being that in the end every last bit of it turned out to be nothing but skin packs for the worst part of that game (the "let's shove in level grinding in a mode that no one wants it in" multiplayer). But hey, they bait you into it with "freemium" bonus crap (so, on-disc dlc) you get immediately when you drop 20-40 dollars on their season pass. Since those season passes, so far, still exist long after the content they are passes for is released, that's my new strategy. I'll wait until the season is over then pick up the whole set only AFTER I decide if that content is worth it or not.
Breath of the Wild, I've said before, champions a rethink of how game hints are designed, going for in-universe methods of finding information or tracking things. Great! The DLC for BOTW, however, flies against this by resorting to that tired old "You heard a rumor that" hook the very instant you log into your save file. When did I hear that rumor? I didn't hear any rumor. You just TOLD me I heard a rumor in the vain hope that it somehow wouldn't break immersion (which it did).
Way too much DLC, for that matter, is of the game balance destroying variety. Let's look at Dead Space. How many "weapon packs" did all those games try and sell us? Do they unlock a quest to find said items, or a room somewhere I just need to survive long enough to stumble into? Do they just add a schematic but I still need to build the thing myself? No. You literally just start the game with ALL of the weapons out of the gate. This is a survival horror series, known for intentionally pacing resources so you have to manage it and really think through what risks you want to take, and it just GIVES you all this crap, every time, thus allowing you to just glide past the first half of the game without issue.
The day will come when a new Animal Crossing game is designed by stock holders, and every last item in Tom Nook's store will cost actual money dollars, except for Tom's mystery box, which costs bells, which are obtained by exchanging money dollars for them. This will be entirely in-character for Tom Nook, and it will also be the first Animal Crossing game I refuse to buy. You know, since they double dip by both charging for this nonsense AND making you pay full price for the game. You know, the games that are just getting too expensive so that charging $60 just isn't enough. They HAVE to, you see. Note that I paid $10 to see a movie with a Norse god running around with the mighty power to spend millions of dollars with a single toss of his great hammer. Blockbuster movies still cost more to make than blockbuster games. Hollywood has it's own idiotic problems, but at no point did someone in hollywood try to sell us DLC in the form of a "collector's edition" theatrical run with scenes not found in the cheaper alternative.
Speaking of collector's editions, I have in the past said that instead of exclusive game content, they should focus on exclusive physical goods. I like physical copies, but I think I made a mistake. They focused on physical goods alright. However, rather than fairly simple stuff like maybe a player's guide or a cloth map, we're getting ridiculous price gouging stuff in giant boxes I could fit 3 stacked XBoxes inside of. Those collector's editions are supposed to be the same price as the standard game, just with a little bonus. They aren't supposed to be giant toy boxes with the game in it.
Or... not.
That's right, the latest collector's editions, on top of not bothering to give you the season pass with the game you just paid $100 for, DON'T EVEN HAVE A GAME IN THEM! They are glorified physical loot crates at that point, and I don't have any room in my life for- what the hell is that? Is that a woman's bikini clad TORSO? A TORSO?! I'm trying NOT to look like a serial killer here game developers! This isn't helping! A "doll finger", outside the context of Resident Evil, honestly looks like the sort of calling card a Batman villain leaves behind.
And let's talk about "collector's coins" for a second. Oblivion had one, but in it's favor, it was made to look like the in-game currency. Nintendo has recently gotten into the habit of tossing in such coins in their games, but none of them are actually "from" anything. Mario Galaxy and Odyssey both included coins that were just silver coins with Mario himself emblazed upon them. Why can't I just have a nice in-game style Mario coin? The worst offender? Breath of the Wild. It included a collector's coin too. Let me repeat that. A Zelda game included a Zelda coin as a physical item. You know, the currency that Hyrule DOES NOT USE! The slightest thought and they would have known to make a cheap plastic rupee instead, but no thought went into it, so here we are, with a coin that would do little more than confuse the citizens of the game it's supposed to be "from" until some goron ate it.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)