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Sure, players could earn many of these chests through gameplay, but they were usually a grind to earn the more worthwhile ones. Why grind when you could just pay some money to get them faster, right?
Well it all matters not because Monolith and WBIE are finally removing those damned loot boxes from Middle-earth: Shadow of War. An update on the official WB Games forums say that the game will be given a free update to remove Gold, War Chests, and the Market. It may be quite a few months too late but at least it's happening.
The core promise of the Nemesis System is the ability to build relationships with your personal allies and enemies in a dynamic open world. While purchasing Orcs in the Market is more immediate and provides additional player options, we have come to realize that providing this choice risked undermining the heart of our game, the Nemesis System. It allows you to miss out on the awesome player stories you would have otherwise created, and it compromises those same stories even if you don’t buy anything. Simply being aware that they are available for purchase reduces the immersion in the world and takes away from the challenge of building your personal army and your fortresses. In order to fully restore the core promise of the Nemesis System, we’ll be permanently removing Gold, War Chests and the Market from Shadow of War. This means the option to purchase Gold with real-world money and the ability to gain Orc Followers from War Chests will be removed. There will be a specific amount of time given for players to utilize their unused Gold. If players have unused Gold by the end of the time allotted to spend it, any remaining Gold will be converted to in-game items.
That's quite nice to hear and may actually be a good step to pulling in some people that have held off on purchasing the game for the past seven months. There might not be too many of those people who still care to even play the game, but some long-term holdouts are probably out there.
Now, if only they would change the game's final chap...
Additionally, we’ll be updating the Shadow Wars section of the campaign, where players defend their fortresses against Sauron’s repeated counter-attacks. This portion of the game will be improved with new narrative elements and streamlined for a more cohesive experience. For players who choose to continue with these on-going fortress defense missions, the Endless Siege update released last November will still be available. We’ll also be incorporating many other gameplay improvements that will be detailed in future build notes, including Nemesis System updates, new player skins, skill tree additions, gear system upgrades and progression updates, just to name a few that we’re excited about.
...Oh. Honestly, this might even be the bigger news here. The last chapter of the game was an absolute slog, one that many players (including myself) simply refused to even deal with. The grind was real. The tedium was real. It just wasn't fun and sure as hell wasn't what anybody would call smart or "good" gameplay. Though with these changes, it may mean that more than a handful of players will actually stick with it long enough to get the game's "true" ending.
At any rate, these changes are scheduled to go into effect on July 17, 2018, a near ten month span of time after the game's initial release. Monolith and WB Games put up a nice FAQ page to help clear the air when it comes to what's going to happen.
(Image via Polygon)