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Microtransactions in Middle Earth: Shadow of War - A Defence

Middle Earth: Shadow of War was released last year in the midst of a brewing argument. Microtransactions in gaming. Star Wars Battlefront II was at the forefront of criticism from gamers regarding the way microtransactions were implemented. Locking the better content behind them, the gambling nature of the lootboxes meaning that you weren't assured to get what you wanted and had paid real money for, and so on. This criticism was completely justified. What isn't justified in my opinion however, is how Shadow of War got lumped in with other AAA games as microtransaction heavy, and I saw many people boycott the game because of this. Which is simply incorrect.

Now I am not a supporter of microtransactions, not at all. I would prefer if developers made games that were just games. You pay your £50 for a game and that's it. No content locked behind in game purchases designed to keep you putting your hand in your pocket over and over.
That is undoubtedly a bad thing, and Shadow of War does not do it.

I played through the whole game without spending any real money on microtransactions, and without feeling the need to at all!
I found that the so called "grind" of the end game, which was people's main "proof" that the game was microtransaction geared, really wasn't at all. By the time I got to the end game, I had already amassed more than enough high level orcs to do all the fortress assaults without needing any extras, and if you so desired to buy chests with orcs in instead of, oh I don't know, playing the game and acquiring them though engaging gameplay, you could. For in-game currency that you pick up literally EVERYWHERE.

The only reason I can see for people complaining is that they don't have the patience to actually play the game, or they're simply bandwagoning. I loved the game so much that to have an extra however-many-number of hours left of gameplay after the main story had finished was only a positive thing as far as I'm concerned. How can hours of actual content be a bad thing?

The existence of the chests in the game that cost real money is quite baffling honestly. One theory I have is that the publisher of the game Warner Bros., basically forced the developers Monolith to include them at the last minute, because the need for the real money chests is totally unwarranted.

So there we go. I guess the message here is before you start hating on a game, or anything for that matter, it's best to experience it for yourself before you judge.

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