So loot boxes are a thing in multiplayer games lately. Overwatch has them, Gears of War 4 has them, Call of Duty has them, another EA game: Battlefield has them. A lot of multiplayer shooters do have these boxes and they are a neat idea. Rewarding players for reaching a level in the game, rewarding players for playing the game, giving in game currency to get these boxes, but also giving people the option to buy them in microtransaction payments.
Now microtransactions are not a new thing in games and I could do a whole article just on those alone but there is one big difference between the loot box system in those other games I mentioned and the ones that will be in Star Wars Battlefront 2. "Oh an EA game with microtransactions you say, well that's no surprise" and no it's not that is how they make extra money it always will be. What ruins it for me is this and this is why I'm not getting Battlefront 2 at launch and why it is one of the few times I have gotten pissed off at EA Games. These loot boxes are going to create a Pay To Win game.
That's right, Pay To Win. I'll explain how.
It is all here in the difference of how these kinds of loot boxes work.
OVERWATCH LOOT BOX
Here's how they are going to work in
Star Wars Battlefront 2
It's what we refer to as a Pay To Win method of microtransactions and I despise that. I don't mind microtransactions in games, I've bought loot boxes in Overwatch and Gears of War, I've bought cosmetic add-ons for Rainbow Six Siege, I've paid that tiny bit of extra money to buy Ultimate Team packages in Madden but I don't drop hundreds of dollars on it and for the most part (excluding Madden) none of these effect my game. Battlefront 2 is going to have gameplay effecting cards and myself and others have a hard enough time sometimes in first person shooter games, adding to our problems by doing something like this doesn't help and doesn't make me want to give EA my money for this game. I was commending them for not having a Season Pass and releasing free map packs, for taking players complaints about Battlefront into consideration, but then this.
This has done my enthusiasm in for this game and as both a gamer and a Star Wars fan, it's unfortunate that I was only able to partially enjoy Battlefront 1 and won't be able to fully enjoy Battlefront 2 because of this. So I may support you sometimes EA but in this situation, it is a pretty dick move, Pay To Win is best left for dumb games on mobile devices.
I hope they come out with a remedy but it seems like this is set in stone with the game set to release in North America on November 17th, 2017.