meh. The mini-games/stories were never fun to me. The basic story is go to this room, shoot some baddies, go to the next room shoot some baddies - rinse and repeat. Boring... However, I would've...
meh. The mini-games/stories were never fun to me. The basic story is go to this room, shoot some baddies, go to the next room shoot some baddies - rinse and repeat. Boring... However, I would've paid for the RPG with hero development that they canned.
Official Blogpost: https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/23964186/ First Hands-On Review: https://www.gameinformer.com/preview/2023/06/12/exclusive-first-hands-on-with-the-pve-story-missions...
This is pretty interesting. I initially thought the PvE would be sold separately but after the cancellation of Hero Missions, I assumed it would just be like the Archives events. The fact that they're charging for it must mean that they think it's good enough to stand on its own; otherwise, they probably would have just recouped the costs with skin sales. I guess we'll see soon enough.
Overwatch is one of those games people like but I despise. It's literally the game that created the lootbox trend, and it never got the backlash it deserved for it. Now we see the consequences....
Overwatch is one of those games people like but I despise. It's literally the game that created the lootbox trend, and it never got the backlash it deserved for it.
Now we see the consequences. Let a company get away with shady business practice and they'll slowly get worse, like releasing a patch as a brand new game and turning features promised for that conversation into dlc.
Overwatch was definitely not the originator of the lootbox trend; it wasn't even the first AAA game to heavily feature them. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive introduced them in 2013, as did...
Overwatch was definitely not the originator of the lootbox trend; it wasn't even the first AAA game to heavily feature them. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive introduced them in 2013, as did Battlefield 4, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in 2014. That's years before the release of Overwatch, and they have their roots before that in Zynga games, and I think before that in Japanese ticket games.
Don't get me wrong, Activision / Blizzard is doing some bad things, but they certainly didn't invent or popularize loot boxes.
But those also weren't tend setters. The trend only picked up after overwatch, and ended after battlefront 2 and a lot of talk from governments regulating them as gambling. Google trends confirms...
That's years before the release of Overwatch
But those also weren't tend setters. The trend only picked up after overwatch, and ended after battlefront 2 and a lot of talk from governments regulating them as gambling.
Google trends confirms this, the lootbox phrase took off in April 2016, right when overwatch was released, and finally died off in 2020
I think you are conflating what people were searching for on google with the concept of loot boxes being in games. The concept of "loot boxes" also goes by other names, for example loot crate...
I think you are conflating what people were searching for on google with the concept of loot boxes being in games. The concept of "loot boxes" also goes by other names, for example loot crate which started gaining popularity in 2012.
I think you're also making a really incorrect assumption about the relative popularity of CS:GO vs Overwatch. CS:GO is more popular than Overwatch and Overwatch 2 except for a few brief times at the launches of Overwatch.
It's hard to gauge this, but while I'm inclined to join the hate train and hate monetization in OW2 so much compared to what was basically a godsend with loot boxes in OW1 (how you could attain...
It's hard to gauge this, but while I'm inclined to join the hate train and hate monetization in OW2 so much compared to what was basically a godsend with loot boxes in OW1 (how you could attain everything by just leveling up enough), I'm going to have to say something out of the ordinary: I think this is balanced.
You're getting a slate of story missions, ~5. And while a game like Destiny that works on a seasonal model delivers mostly repeated missions 4 times a year for $10, this is $15. But there's one very important thing that sets this apart: these are each unique missions. And on top of that, we are getting 1000 OW coins to go with it. That's essentially a free extra season if you're a typical battle pass buyer, or perhaps money towards a skin. To me, that alone makes it worth it. I'm happy to give money to real content that's not just skins (I have not purchaed a Battle Pass yet because I don't support them gating heroes or skins, which is something that made OW1 cosmetics so unique compared to other games in that 99% of them could be acquired by just leveling).
meh. The mini-games/stories were never fun to me. The basic story is go to this room, shoot some baddies, go to the next room shoot some baddies - rinse and repeat. Boring... However, I would've paid for the RPG with hero development that they canned.
Official Blogpost: https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/23964186/
First Hands-On Review: https://www.gameinformer.com/preview/2023/06/12/exclusive-first-hands-on-with-the-pve-story-missions
This is pretty interesting. I initially thought the PvE would be sold separately but after the cancellation of Hero Missions, I assumed it would just be like the Archives events. The fact that they're charging for it must mean that they think it's good enough to stand on its own; otherwise, they probably would have just recouped the costs with skin sales. I guess we'll see soon enough.
Overwatch is one of those games people like but I despise. It's literally the game that created the lootbox trend, and it never got the backlash it deserved for it.
Now we see the consequences. Let a company get away with shady business practice and they'll slowly get worse, like releasing a patch as a brand new game and turning features promised for that conversation into dlc.
Overwatch was definitely not the originator of the lootbox trend; it wasn't even the first AAA game to heavily feature them. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive introduced them in 2013, as did Battlefield 4, and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in 2014. That's years before the release of Overwatch, and they have their roots before that in Zynga games, and I think before that in Japanese ticket games.
Don't get me wrong, Activision / Blizzard is doing some bad things, but they certainly didn't invent or popularize loot boxes.
But those also weren't tend setters. The trend only picked up after overwatch, and ended after battlefront 2 and a lot of talk from governments regulating them as gambling.
Google trends confirms this, the lootbox phrase took off in April 2016, right when overwatch was released, and finally died off in 2020
I think you are conflating what people were searching for on google with the concept of loot boxes being in games. The concept of "loot boxes" also goes by other names, for example loot crate which started gaining popularity in 2012.
I think you're also making a really incorrect assumption about the relative popularity of CS:GO vs Overwatch. CS:GO is more popular than Overwatch and Overwatch 2 except for a few brief times at the launches of Overwatch.
It's hard to gauge this, but while I'm inclined to join the hate train and hate monetization in OW2 so much compared to what was basically a godsend with loot boxes in OW1 (how you could attain everything by just leveling up enough), I'm going to have to say something out of the ordinary: I think this is balanced.
You're getting a slate of story missions, ~5. And while a game like Destiny that works on a seasonal model delivers mostly repeated missions 4 times a year for $10, this is $15. But there's one very important thing that sets this apart: these are each unique missions. And on top of that, we are getting 1000 OW coins to go with it. That's essentially a free extra season if you're a typical battle pass buyer, or perhaps money towards a skin. To me, that alone makes it worth it. I'm happy to give money to real content that's not just skins (I have not purchaed a Battle Pass yet because I don't support them gating heroes or skins, which is something that made OW1 cosmetics so unique compared to other games in that 99% of them could be acquired by just leveling).