CAGcast #523: Loot Boxed Heroes

CheapyD

Head Cheap Ass
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Glad Wombat enjoyed the game, made my day. I should of gifted Castles to Cheapy & Ship as well, but I figured Wombat would actually try a 1.00 game.

Full disclosure, I was getting my Xbox Insider Quest done.  I was originally going to send the D&D game to all 3 of you, Sword Coasts Legends, it was on sale for 5$, but that game is terrible. 

Castles was hard, I played it for hours to get past the second Helicopter boss. All in all, pretty fun for a cheap ass game.

 
Glad Wombat enjoyed the game, made my day. I should of gifted Castles to Cheapy & Ship as well, but I figured Wombat would actually try a 1.00 game.

Full disclosure, I was getting my Xbox Insider Quest done. I was originally going to send the D&D game to all 3 of you, Sword Coasts Legends, it was on sale for 5$, but that game is terrible.

Castles was hard, I played it for hours to get past the second Helicopter boss. All in all, pretty fun for a cheap ass game.
Thank you! And Sabrina thanks you too!

 
Enough talking about loot boxes if you're only going to use one point of reference. Wombat's only point of reference is Injustice 2 and Cheapy's only point of reference is Overwatch. Shipwreck desperately wanted out of that conversation because it was just awful. 

 
Seems like the market for LotR related media is still strong.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/16/october-2017-npd-middle-earth-shadow-of-war-emerges-with-the-one-ring-of-top-sales/

Middle Earth: Shadow of War was October's best-selling game overall, while also taking the top spot on both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 platforms. Sales grew over 20 percent when compared to the launch month of the previous release in the franchise, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, which debuted in September 2014.
 
Oof. My comment didn't make a lot of sense out of context. I wrote it more in response to Wombat's frustration about Thor's RottenTomatoes score. At this point, I don't even remember what his issue with Rottentomatoes was, though. xD

 
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Wombat, I love you man, but you gotta let the Overwatch thing go.  It's tiresome to rag on something you have zero experience with, week after week.  I haven't played it in a year so I'm not in the superfan camp, but every week you can hear Cheapy get annoyed when you start trolling it.  Things are allowed to be well-received and good quality without you being into them.  Find a new hill to die on.

I think Overwatch and Titanfall 2 both have different, but valid, microtransaction systems.  In Titanfall 2, you can pay real money for the aesthetics you want (I think Call of Duty has a similar system) and in Overwatch you can earn loot crates (also with aesthetic items) by playing, or pay real money to buy more random loot crates.  In both instances, the 'rewards' are not game-changing, but aesthetic changes only, and the full 'game' is included in the initial purchase price.  Both games have also been supported with free DLC from the developers over the long term; Overwatch to greater success, but both have been fan-minded, positive experiences.

 
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Enough talking about loot boxes if you're only going to use one point of reference. Wombat's only point of reference is Injustice 2 and Cheapy's only point of reference is Overwatch. Shipwreck desperately wanted out of that conversation because it was just awful.
Loot box and microtransaction talk in general is so tedious. Buy it or don't. It's a shame EA gave an air of legitimacy to the discussion with their attempts to maximize ROI on a massively expensive Star Wars license.

 
Remember when Star Wars Battlefront was just a fun little gem you stumbled upon on in 2005 as a nice break from Halo 2?

 
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I know you guys don’t play EAs sports games much but the reason EA thought they could get away with the whole loot box mess is their experience with the ultimate team modes. This has packs of cards but it’s basically a loot box and they are making close to a billion dollars a year selling them. 40 hours to unlock Darth Vader ... hah, that’s nothing. To get the the top players in FIFA ultimate team requires hundreds of hours and its EAs best selling and most profitable game. And it’s an annual game ... by the time you get the top level players there’s only a month or two and the games dead. Time to start over again. This has been going on for 7 or 8 years now and profits increase every year. There’s no question that there are people who are addicted and spending way too much cash in these games but so far no one has been able to convince a regulator that it’s gambling.

One other point; EAs argument about single player and limiting daily rewards may have been legit. In their other games there are definitely players that farm single player modes (usually with bots) to make coins that they then sell to regular players. Since EA is making so much money selling the loot boxes there’s plenty of incentive for a black market.
 
Marvel Heroes shut down because Gazillion was too big for their britches.  They had a good thing going with the PC version, I sunk over 1,000 hours into it since beta.  I enjoyed it way more than Diablo 3 and I was a huge Diablo 2 player (Gaz was founded by Diablo 2 creators).  A lot of the original members left the company because they wanted to keep it going the way it was, but other people wanted to change the entire game to cater to the console crowd.  They completely changed the game systems, for the worse in my and many original PC players opinions.  The team just wasn't big enough to run 3 versions of the game.  They always had microtransactions but they were workable.  They promised a lot of things for the past couple years and rarely delivered on them, yet they kept releasing bullshit stuff to make more money.  They didn't care about the game, they cared about money.  And they apparently weren't making enough of it so it got shut down.  Good riddance, they ruined a fantastic game for a console release and because of greed.

 
I'm surprised the PS4 Pro hasn't gotten any Black Friday deals this year.  It seems like a great way to undercut the Xbox One X launch, but I'm probably just projecting because I want it to go on sale.  Any chance we see it on holiday discount in December?

Great show and keep up the good work (but no more Injustice talk, please)

 
I oddly enough want to hear the Xbox One X test between the two TVs - Digital Foundry style. Side-by-side comparisons.
I agree LOL

Raise your hands if anyone thought Cheapy would be harsh on the Xbox one X. LOL He seemed jaded before he hit the

Xbox X power button. The funny thing is the new TV was a 2017 model most people would have already tested it on the newer tv. LOL

I remember a while back he spent a lot of time researching a TV to buy. It will be interesting to see the results. I know I had to upgrade to a 2017 model myself.

 
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