Let’s talk about loot boxes and premium microtransactions. Somewhere in the last couple of years, mobile games created a new way to make money.
From Xfire: "Enemy AI is a difficult subject to tackle in video games. Some may argue that current tech isn't advanced enough to implement ultra realistic AI. However, in a world where your phone's AI can book appointments for you, can't it spot a hooded figure hiding in a 'crowd' of four people? In fact, the AI in 2006's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was so smart that the developer had to 'dumb' it down for the final release."
From VGC: "A few days ago, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) finally agreed to grant Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment a patent on its “Nemesis” system – a procedural engine which Monolith Entertainment, a WB Games subsidiary, used to bring the world of Middle Earth to life in 2014’s Shadow of Mordor and 2017’s Shadow of War."
Is it gross that the patent "effectively makes exclusive to WB Games the concept of…a player-avatar’s interaction with an NPC affecting the parameters of a second NPC"? Gross WB has attained "exclusive rights to a system which on its face appears to describe most games on the market today"? And they did it to "profit off its licensure or exclusivity at a later time"?
Yeah man. Gross is putting it mildly.
Exactly, it's a pretty broad mechanic that a ton of games already have or are developing for right now. Now they have to go back to the drawing board to dumb their games down just to be legal or cough up a ton of dough just to release it.
I will not give this site the pleasure (and revenue) of my click, and I will not waste my time reading this opinion piece. However only the headline is enough to know the author is a dumb***. A corporation making a game mechanic exclusive it is gross, to put mildly.
The very best LOTR games available right now.
Dragon fist all thoses Mts to obivion.
When were they "in hand"
They have been out of hand since they were called DLC. People should have rejected DLC way back in the day (like I've been saying since horse armor). Now it's WAY past too late. These big budget AAA studios are just going to keep getting more and more sleezy. Me I saw this coming a long time ago. I just don't buy the big games anymore, that's one of the reason Japanese games appeal to me so much.
Personally the big game I am getting out of the holday shit fest is Elex which was panned by the reviews but is imho fantastic and has zero MT's. If Elex was the exact same game but had been made by Bethesda or EA ect. it would have gotten way higher reviews.
I'm not opposed to loot boxes. If I have a few bucks to burn I'll buy some in call of duty. I haven't bought any for other games. It's fun to open them but I can see them becoming addicting to people.
The gaming media can let me know which games have loot boxes and I can cross them off my list. Thanks.