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[Aklyon]

It's also been confirmed that the game requires constant internet connection despite being a single player.

I thought we were over this. Always online SP just means you will crash your fucking servers on launch and generally anger everyone involved.

[BuriBuriZaemon]

I thought we were over this. Always online SP just means you will crash your fucking servers on launch and generally anger everyone involved.

Also one day that server will be shut down and we won't be able play the game anymore.

[nenjin]

I thought we were over this. Always online SP just means you will crash your fucking servers on launch and generally anger everyone involved.

Also one day that server will be shut down and we won't be able play the game anymore.

It's not like it's an MMO server, it's just an authentication and heart beat server. My guess would be that requirement would go away after the game's been out several years.

Still sucks ass though. I haven't yet preordered and all the recent news is starting to make me think I won't. How like a major publisher to only announce this shit a month before release when they've been doing pre-release media for the last 5 months.

[Dunamisdeos]

I thought we were over this. Always online SP just means you will crash your fucking servers on launch and generally anger everyone involved.

Also one day that server will be shut down and we won't be able play the game anymore.

It's not like it's an MMO server, it's just an authentication and heart beat server. My guess would be that requirement would go away after the game's been out several years.

Still sucks ass though. I haven't yet preordered and all the recent news is starting to make me think I won't. How like a major publisher to only announce this shit a month before release when they've been doing pre-release media for the last 5 months.

I was going to buy this game but now I will not, because I am not going to support this online-SP practice. Tired of people saying things like "I hate [feature] and feel taken advantage of because of it" and then they buy it day one anyway. I'm at least going to do my part.

Also I expect they'll also use that connection to connect friends together and share game data, like how you could meet your friends' nemesis in your games in the last one. So their response will be that they can't turn off the always on service without losing game features, and they just care too much about us to do that to us. 

[nenjin]

SoM managed to do that just fine without an always online connection. Or it only happened when you were online, which is the way it should fucking work.

[Ludorum Rex]

Microtransactions don't belong in single-player games. Expansions, episodic content, content DLC, etc. are fine. But loot crates in a single player game? XP boosts? I remember when these things were all the rage in the industry and "monetization designers" were a thing. I thought that dark age had passed, and we'd parked those shady business practices with free-to-play multiplayer and "freemium" mobile games. Ugh.

However, studios and publishers do react to backlash and they worry a lot about initial reception of AAA games (noone wants the next ME: Andromeda on their hands). So, hopefully a glorious shitstorm will form and force them to go back on this. I don't care for the "everything can be earned via normal game-play". That may be true, but there's now an incentive to make new content a grind to acquire, or gated behind gambling mechanics. No thanks. Not going to buy this on launch, as I would've otherwise. Loot boxes and xp boosts in a 60 € single player game? This is what suspect DoW3 was toying with internally, but abandoned (the skulls look like a remnant of such a design). Games with this kind of secondary revenue invariably channel a lot of development resources into shallow cosmetics, and try to avoid proper content (which can't be monetized).

[Dunamisdeos]

Microtransactions don't belong in single-player games. Expansions, episodic content, content DLC, etc. are fine. But loot crates in a single player game? XP boosts? I remember when these things were all the rage in the industry and "monetization designers" were a thing. I thought that dark age had passed, and we'd parked those shady business practices with free-to-play multiplayer and "freemium" mobile games. Ugh.

However, studios and publishers do react to backlash and they worry a lot about initial reception of AAA games (noone wants the next ME: Andromeda on their hands). So, hopefully a glorious shitstorm will form and force them to go back on this. I don't care for the "everything can be earned via normal game-play". That may be true, but there's now an incentive to make new content a grind to acquire, or gated behind gambling mechanics. No thanks. Not going to buy this on launch, as I would've otherwise. Loot boxes and xp boosts in a 60 € single player game? This is what suspect DoW3 was toying with internally, but abandoned (the skulls look like a remnant of such a design). Games with this kind of secondary revenue invariably channel a lot of development resources into shallow cosmetics, and try to avoid proper content (which can't be monetized).

Wow, they have microtransactions too? Nope. Not buying it period while that's in play.

[nenjin]

I doubt you're going to see a backlash on this. If WB's limiting Arkham City installs to 3 per machine wasn't enough to sink them or make them change their ways, I don't see how this will.

The idea is tasteless and greedy but ultimately for a SP game it's not going to affect anyone's enjoyment. There is no balance to worry about, no online competitive space to worry about upsetting. Battlefield has already been doing this for years in their MP shooters and it hasn't dented their perception of it.

So while it's distasteful to some I don't think it's going to cause a shit storm. There's just not enough riding on it. WB sees the potential for extra income from fucking losers who would rather pay than play their way through a game, the rest will just play the game.

TBH it's the online only requirement that will cause them far more trouble than another greedy publisher's monetization scheme. As long as they keep cash store notifications out of my face I'll deal with it, even if I'm not exactly happy about it.

[Retropunch]

The idea is tasteless and greedy but ultimately for a SP game it's not going to affect anyone's enjoyment. There is no balance to worry about, no online competitive space to worry about upsetting. Battlefield has already been doing this for years in their MP shooters and it hasn't dented their perception of it.

So while it's distasteful to some I don't think it's going to cause a shit storm. There's just not enough riding on it. WB sees the potential for extra income from fucking losers who would rather pay than play their way through a game, the rest will just play the game.

TBH it's the online only requirement that will cause them far more trouble than another greedy publisher's monetization scheme. As long as they keep cash store notifications out of my face I'll deal with it, even if I'm not exactly happy about it.

I don't know, as soon as there's a cash stream available it's easy for them to make stuff a complete pain to get if you don't pay. I'm not saying they'd make it F2P MMORPG levels, but I can imagine them tailoring parts of the game towards making people go 'yknow what, it'd be easier if I just paid a bit for this'. It's also wishful thinking that they'll keep those notifications away - as soon as it doesn't hit their targets they'll start pushing them.

That combined with an always online connection means that they can absolutely stick Shadow of the moneygrabbingrubbish

[EDIT] Apparently it doesn't require always online - you just need it to access the market. Better, and I'm hopeful that they'll keep getting panned for the microstransactions to the point they basically phase it out to being cosmetics and a few boosts.

[nenjin]

That's always the fear right? That a cash store in a SP game and the rng go hand in hand. Never really seen it happen (you can usually spot a shit deal a mile away.) And in SoW's case, what you see is what you get. (Fight a legendary Orc, dominate him, get a legendary Orc.) So while I'm normally about these slippery slope arguments in game design, I don't worry about it here. WB believes they have a mega hit on their hands and are pulling the usual stunts to get as much money out of it as possible. But I really doubt that included, say, nerfing drop rates on legendary gear to get you to pay cash.

All these last minute things stink of last minute publisher meddling. Not much more though, I hope.

[Dunamisdeos]

I am glad to hear that it isn't an always-online situation, but I'm still not dealing with SP micro-transactions in a full-priced title. It will absolutely affect DLC/SP gameplay in the future if we give publishers slack here. They are publishers, their entire job is to abuse precedent to squeeze more money out of a project.

Publishers have been trying for years to normalize pay-to-win across the board. Bethesda has been trying to monetize the modding community for crying out loud.

[Aklyon]

If its not an actual always-online thing, I'll go back to ignoring the p2w boxes.

[nenjin]

Yeah ditto. In an ideal world I'd have a replacement good for dominating cute, procedurally generated orcs to invade some place and not buy SoW. But since I don't, I guess I'll have to continue to settle for making WB think I approve of this shit by buying SoW.

[lordcooper]

Problem is, the smart way to avoid massive backlash from making a game with added tedium to incentivise microtransactions is to implement it by inches.  Stick the microtransactions in a game that doesn't need them, then gradually up the grind in the expansions or sequels.

I'm not so sure you can invoke the slippery slope fallacy when there's obvious motivation for a party to want to head down the slope, and you can see them standing next to the slope with a bucket of grease.

[umiman]

There is also plenty of precedent for this behavior in gaming. I'll list of a few from the top of my head. Hell, I bet everyone here already knows them:

1. Pre orders
2. DLC
3. Fucking loot boxes
4. Console game online subscriptions