No need to "see." I can already tell what that means. It means that "to acquire naturally through normal gameplay" will either take absurd amounts of time, and/or absurd amounts of grinding, and most likely both. Just like the system that almost all so-called "free-to-play" games use: they are purposely designed to frustrate the player into paying for microtransactions by making sure that "to acquire naturally through normal gameplay" is an enormous, extremely boring & repetitive, waste of time grind.

Pulling this crap in a single player game is more vile than ever. No one should pay for this game, lest publishers get the idea that doing this is okay. As others have mentioned, games with "loot crates" prey upon people who prone to gambling addictions. They use the same psychological tricks as slot machines or any other casino games. Such games are designed to entice people who are psychologically vulnerable to such habits into wasting all of their money on them in the hopes that by continuing to dump more money into the gambling games, eventually they will finally win the prize that they really want.

Yeah, but at least in a casino you can win money. Something of value. I don't care for gambling at all, but my only experience with a casino was one time when I won just enough money to buy a nice hardcover illustrated edition of Dune. So, you know - I actually got something out of it. But loot crates? Virtual, worthless crap? That's like paying your DM real money for weapons in tabletop D&D.

Best solution ever :-) and I mean it. Such a pity because many people won't give a damn about it and buy it anyway. A game with multiple DLC's I can deal with that, micro transactions that require you to be online in a single player nope never.

Honestly I'm really speechless about this things, i don't see why someone should buy this (and obviously a lot of people do or we would have not reached this point in gaming), i rarely support dlc (because withheld content on purpose is always wrong) and buy them only on heavy discounts and for games that i love but now we have even gambling dlc, that's really crazy and i fail to see why someone should support that. I mean just take a look at the "cousin" site, Killing Floor 2, CS, Rocket League etc, with skins gambling It really is a disgusting practice. And from when it was implemented until now there's plenty of people defending it, i can't really understand it.

Yeah, I don't doubt for a second that it'll be a grind fest. Even in the link it states:

• Awarded in small amounts at specific milestones.
• Awarded for participating in community challenges.

Gold is a form of in-game currency awarded in small amounts at specific milestones and for participating in community challenges.

The weirder part (apart from anyone being dumb enough to pay for these, or to even purchase such a scummy game) is the community challenges.

Community challenges, in a single player game?
What gives!?

Funny thing is, apparently some people out there are willing to spend hundreds(!) of bucks for these virtual items, if they're "rare" enough. I think some games like CS:GO even have official market places on Steam. So in a way they do have a real value. No idea how that's supposed to work out for a single player game, though, since you probably couldn't even trade these items.

Personally I wouldn't touch a single-player game with in-game real money transactions... Or pretty much any type of game with such "features", come to think of it, since I don't have much interest in online games anyway.

1st Deus Ex: MD and now this...

You can probably argue that something like this existed in other games in form of DLC in which you either get starting items ( South Park: Stick of Truth , Kingdoms of Amalur) or additional weapons/armors( Mass Effect 2/3) but those were always one-time payment.

But lootboxes in a single player game? I've seen this in some android games (f2p or $1 price) but I just fail to understand whats the point of them in a AAA game apart from trying to squeeze more money from the fans. Also wont be surprised if the game features randomized items like from a looter game with level and variety ...

Alas highly doubt there will be any sizable backlash to make WB change their mind.

Edit: As long as the game is good you can get away with anything.

Wait.. this is in Shadow of Mordor or the new sequel Shadow of war?

Now that you've mentioned that...

I remember there being a certain microtransaction in Bravely Default for one mechanic (Bravely Second, where you could stop time and have one character take a turn before everyone else in battle, and break the initial damage cap), and even on the hardest difficulty there was no reason to use it since there were a hundred ways to deal massive damage anyway. It was also easy to get more uses out of it too (letting the system idle for a few hours while the game was on) so it was pretty pointless to pay money for it.

The sequel, Shadow of War.

It's essentially paying for cheats.

I was going to ask the same thing, since I grabbed SoM a while back on sale and had no idea about any loot boxes/microtransactions in the game. Good to see it's in the sequel, at least, and not something added into the original after the fact.

*edit* Not sure how this would even remotely qualify as gambling though, as a previous poster suggested.

Not sure why people are complaining, this can be played offline and single player as well. I will just play normally without buying any in-app purchases.

Let them milk all they want - it's not like this is an Excalibur purchase that can wipe enemies in whole map.

Can the game be beaten normally? Yes.
Can the game be played alone and offline? Yes.

That's all I need.

Offline? Denuvo will surely be bundled into the game, so there isn't a "truly" offline mode.

And although the game can be beated normally, it's an issue when you want to collect stuff and/or upgrades.

You pay real money, for a small chance to win a prize. Depending on the game, those prizes ( items ) can then be sold for up to several hundred bucks. It's pretty much the very definition of gambling. Worse yet, this gambling doesn't happen in a casino, but it's being offered to minors, in their own home.

( Not sure whether it will be possible to sell the acquired items won in this particular game. If not, somehow I don't see many people making use of this feature. )
The question is not "Can the game be beaten without this feature", but rather "Will it be fun without making use of this feature?"

You have to keep in mind that they're adding this sort of crap with the intent to milk as much money out of the customers as possible. So it's not unlikely that the game will be balanced in a way, that it will feel tedious and unrewarding if you refuse to spend real money. It's pretty much the way all F2P/Microtransaction games work.

Quoted from another forum:

[i]Imagine you are a man that keeps his sanity in the trenches of a world war. Fighting for the freedom of your people and constructing a world and narrative as a love letter to the home that means so much to you. To your surprise people like it, they love it in fact and you see it become THE staple of an entire literary genre for up to this point the rest of time thus far. It is remembered as your magnum opus and the storytelling/worldbuilding multiple generations aspire to even come close to.

and after your death its bastardised into a war glorifying actionfest designed to shill 'micropay freebuys' to children. In a single player game.

Thats a profound level of greasy corporate greed i can't quite quantify but the phrase "spinning in his grave" really rings true with this one. [/i]