It worked just fine for me, but rather slow indeed. The site is probably getting hammered by people.
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Anthem Closed Alpha Registration / Alpha Dec 8th-9th (PC/XB1/PS4)
- Thread starter Deleted member 11093
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Everyone is talking about how important "end game" is in a title like this, but to be honest, I really don't think Bioware are going down the path of Destiny with the focus being on end game and loot repay-ability. Keep in mind how Destiny is designed, the game is primarily 90% focused on the end game content, very strong emphasis on post campaign loot grinding with the campaign essentially being used to unlock basic abilities and act as a tutorial to the mechanics of the game.
I have a strong feeling Bioware will deliver a cohesive story, as per previous Bioware titles (excluding MEA) alongside great gameplay/ loot system for the length of that campaign and then wrap it all up at conclusion of the story and focus very little on end game activities and the end game loot grind. The loot you obtain and load outs you get are good for the campaign itself and replayability through various difficulty levels available, but the emphasis on "NEW" end game content for new loot like Destiny will not be there, because its simply just not that type of game. Yes, obviously there will be additional content to explore/ to do after the completion of the story such as explore caves/ dungeons (potentially similar to Destiny's strikes), and even go back and play story missions at various difficulty levels with better gear helping, but that's it. I would actually be surprised if there is new dungeon/ caves DLC.
In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this strategy. Not every game that drops loot needs to have end game content like Destiny and have players playing for years with new content drops. Deliver a good campaign experience, make loot and weapon upgrades meaningful during that campaign experience and wrap it all up at the end of the story with that option to play a little more afterwards. With Anthem, I am expecting a very similar experience to Monster Hunter World ( game is made up of coop missions - excluding the end game loadouts/ costumes) mixed with a Division style progression/ story/ enemy system.
This is just my opinion on how I see Bioware taking this title on launch/ post launch and I am realistically managing my "end game looter" expectations as Destiny is defiantly a very different type of game to Anthem. As mentioned above, Anthem seems like it will be a good mix of MHW and Division as opposed to a looter/ grinder like Destiny or Diablo. But who knows, with the upcoming stream focusing on loot and progression, I could be completely wrong.
I have a strong feeling Bioware will deliver a cohesive story, as per previous Bioware titles (excluding MEA) alongside great gameplay/ loot system for the length of that campaign and then wrap it all up at conclusion of the story and focus very little on end game activities and the end game loot grind. The loot you obtain and load outs you get are good for the campaign itself and replayability through various difficulty levels available, but the emphasis on "NEW" end game content for new loot like Destiny will not be there, because its simply just not that type of game. Yes, obviously there will be additional content to explore/ to do after the completion of the story such as explore caves/ dungeons (potentially similar to Destiny's strikes), and even go back and play story missions at various difficulty levels with better gear helping, but that's it. I would actually be surprised if there is new dungeon/ caves DLC.
In my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this strategy. Not every game that drops loot needs to have end game content like Destiny and have players playing for years with new content drops. Deliver a good campaign experience, make loot and weapon upgrades meaningful during that campaign experience and wrap it all up at the end of the story with that option to play a little more afterwards. With Anthem, I am expecting a very similar experience to Monster Hunter World ( game is made up of coop missions - excluding the end game loadouts/ costumes) mixed with a Division style progression/ story/ enemy system.
This is just my opinion on how I see Bioware taking this title on launch/ post launch and I am realistically managing my "end game looter" expectations as Destiny is defiantly a very different type of game to Anthem. As mentioned above, Anthem seems like it will be a good mix of MHW and Division as opposed to a looter/ grinder like Destiny or Diablo. But who knows, with the upcoming stream focusing on loot and progression, I could be completely wrong.
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If this game does not have end game content it will be a waste to me like God of War. That game had all this crafting and weapon stuff and armor but what good is it if you can't keep playing new content after you beat the campaign?
I won't break my NDA but this game better have end game destiny type content or otherwise it would be a rental or borrowed from friends type of game. I don't think BioWare/EA is that dumb to mess that up.
I won't break my NDA but this game better have end game destiny type content or otherwise it would be a rental or borrowed from friends type of game. I don't think BioWare/EA is that dumb to mess that up.
Anthem has an end game, they just haven't talked about it in detail yet so we don't know what it will consist of. They've stated that it's called the "elder game" so the fact that they have a specific name for it leads me to believe it's pretty extensive and not just an afterthought. You're definitely understating how important end game content is to a GaaS title like this even if Anthem has a stronger focus on Story than Destiny/Divison/etc.. It's what keeps players invested, and keeps people buying the game. Bioware will be supporting this game for a while, and they need it to sustain itself beyond just the first month or two.
Couldn't have said it better myself. Destiny may have it's lion share of issues but Bungie is at least aware that endgame content is what keeps the hardcore happy. So naturally when that endgame is very thin the hardcore crowd gets angry because they've burned through all the content and nothing is left to do. The dream for anthem is that they have a great narrative/gameplay loop as a base and the "elder" content will be what sustains the game over the long term. Don't get me wrong I hope that story is always the most major part of the anthem universe but to say that BioWare won't have some sort of endgame as a critical part of their game is just silly.
I personally think these worries about the endgame are absolutely justified and are the reason why I would advice everyone who wants to play this game to not actually directly buy it but to instead get a month of EA Access when it comes out. This way you can experience the regular "campaign" content and can then make it to endgame and see if the replayability that is there is enough to be worth an actual purchase for you. It's certainly exactly how I will be going into this.
I'm already pissed that they're going to give EA access subscribers one week with the game before the rest of the players. If they introduce any sort of MTX that are not cosmetic I might end up not getting the game at all.
Bioware already said Anthem is a GaaS title, I would be extremely surprised if there won't be mtx beyond just cosmetics. What is even more scary to me is they said "no lootbox", so their revenue stream of not having lootboxes and the $60 admission HAS to come from somewhere.
Either the game is heavily gated by dlcs or they have to make that up with very aggressive mtx.
I think people need to remember this is STILL an EA game. Some guy from the dev team has to stand in front of the EA suits and said "our game don't have lootbox" and then he will be promptly questioned what revenue strategy will they implement to make up for the lost of potential revenue of the game if it were to have lootboxes.
Filled out my survey!
When do we get codes for the VIP demo for pre-ordering? Were we supposed to get them already or will they be sent closet to the actual demo?
I pre-ordered from Amazon Canada.
When do we get codes for the VIP demo for pre-ordering? Were we supposed to get them already or will they be sent closet to the actual demo?
I pre-ordered from Amazon Canada.
They said DLC would be free and financed only by cosmetic microtransactions, whatever that means 😂.
Can't tell you that, but it does have controller support, and we did know ahead of time M+K support was wonky in that build.
Found this tweet from Mark and thanks for the input.
Thank you, The survey they sent covered all the feedback points i wanted to share
Okies. No worries. If you still wanted to post something more indepth, just let me know.
Yeah no I didn't mean to ask anyone for posting the questions here, just stating my curiosity. I've never participated in an alpha or beta before so I have no idea how much they'd ask for input afterwards.
If what you mean by new javelis are the skins, then yes. Judging by the recent video, it'll come mostly from customization, including colors, badges, skins, and so on. You can already see it from the pre-order bonus.
But I doubt they'll actually add more javelins. They're basically classes, starting from the tank, dps, utility, and support. Everything about the game is designed surrounding those 4 classes.
The microtransaction marketplace will almost certainly center on skins, cosmetic customizations to the look of your armor, sprays to change the colors of things, and emotes. They have said very firmly there will be absolutely no pay-to-win and they would be really stupid to go back on that.
Yup, I hope that's probably part of it. They'll be talking about loot and progression.
Which one is support? Which is utility? Hell, which one is DPS? The only one that fits a hard role is the Colossus, and that's because they have a shield and an aggro ability. The other three all have strong DPS capabilities with different focuses, and all four javelins have support abilities. This nebulous class system is just begging for more options - of which will be paid.
What about "new classes" suggests pay-to-win? Have you ever played Overwatch, Destiny, R6 Siege, For Honor, etc.? There's nothing inherently better about newly introduced characters, they're just new and provide variety, being better than some older classes in some situations and worse in others. And they're enticing as hell, which is smart monetization.
Shooters are not the same as pseudo-MMOs. I'd be surprised if they microtransaction introduced new classes. Expansion? sure. MT? nah. We're not talking about a game where they're gonna add a new character every week to a huge roster. This is a game with 3 classes and a big skill tree to begin with, each javelin is a large undertaking.
Excellent. I honestly don't need more gameplay unless it's an endgame dungeon or something. How loot will work is exactly what I need.
They've already said they're not making content DLC paid because they don't want to split the player base. They've also said they're not adding loot boxes. How much income potential do they have with only cosmetic MTX that allows you to buy exactly what you want? They're either lying about something now, making the cosmetics prohibitively expensive, or they're making some sort of DLC MTX that'll be extremely compelling.
Anthem is a shared world shooter, which makes it a pseudo-MMO. People are already choosing mains and identifying with particular javelins. This game is rife with opportunity to create more archetypes for people to invest in, and also in need of a MTX model that is sustainable without lootboxes or splitting the community's playable content. All of that suggests eventually more Javelins, which are paid. And this obviously won't be weekly. Probably every few months. There's also likely to be expansions to the existing javelins, such as new ultimates or ability gear.
How much income potential? Seriously? Plenty.
Absolutely plenty.
Many of the most profitable games out there rely on purely selling skins.
Other than Fortnite?
I know Titanfall 2 had that model which was great for consumers and far less great for Respawn
Those are lootboxes, which they've said aren't happening. HOTS does the same.
We're talking about direct sales. Pay for what you want, no RNG. Dunno about DOTA, but League has some expensive-ass skins and it's a F2P game
Oh, right, thought it was about skins specifically.
Well, it might be a first in the industry, it might be risky and it could pay off. I don't think EA would be greenlighting this business model if it didn't look promising.
What they did say, though, is that story campaign won't be locked pehind a paywall. However, they haven't rulled out selling brand new Javelin classes as DLC. It doesn't split the community and at the same time provides a more substantial gameplay addition than cosmetic items.
That's my exact assertion lmao
I strongly asserted that I believed additional javelins would be sold as MTX cause it'd likely sell more than skins, and people have been disagreeing with me for various reasons.
Dota, basically every moba, even the ones that do sell characters, make MOST of their money on skins.
There's no precedent for an rpg to continually release new classes as MTX. Skins you can sell to anyone regardless of what they play. Sideways progression is rarely something people buy into.
Rainbow six is mostly supported by cosmetics as well, not character unlocks.
Sorry, guess I got lost in the quotes.
I don't think they will be selling gear for javelins that are available at launch, but I think they will definitely sell new classes.
There's no precedent for Anthem at all. $60, no lootboxes, cosmetics earnable through gameplay, cosmetics purchased as is. All of this adds to suggest a much less profitable model than other games. There's no repeatable MTX like lootboxes, so there's already a limited amount of profit each time a wave of cosmetics arrive. Very few people are gonna buy all the cosmetics available. And after spending $60, plenty of people are gonna limit their cosmetic purchases without any gambling mechanics to entice more buying.
Rainbow Six has lootboxes. DOTA is free to play. Again, the closest model we have is TF2 which was not a very successful. So given the caveats Bio have placed on their own DLC, do you really believe the only thing they're selling is one-time purchase skins?
Yeah, there are gear sets and randomized affixes on gear. There are legendary, masterwork, and crafted gear, and so on.
So many possibilities, min-maxing would be glorious.
OP
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Whether those will be free or not remains to be confirmed, but it definitely seems like future Javelins is something that they've considered. And given their support model for Anthem, like Buttchin-n-Bones suggested, I think that these will be paid-DLC only, or unlocking them for free might require a lot of grind enough to entice people to purchase them.
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Isn't this exactly what Warframe does though? I don't play it so could be wrong, but I thought its main revenue stream was new "javelins" (their equivalent of).
It wouldn't be pay to win in Anthem. It would be pay to play differently. Means the locational content can stay free for high player counts everywhere, and you're just selling new play styles to experiment with. Hopefully they can still build in methods to obtain them in game too though.
so I'm still confused as to what anthem is, and what the actual gameplay is like.
hows the weight? does it feel like gears of war?
or is it
Warframe?
is the loot, just Destiny?
Is the combat mechanics, just destiny meets warframe?
hows the weight? does it feel like gears of war?
or is it
Warframe?
is the loot, just Destiny?
Is the combat mechanics, just destiny meets warframe?
That is what Warframe does. But the notion that somehow that's the only way Anthem can do it is ridiculous. LOTS of games rely on largely cosmetic MTX for things. Warframe is a game that launched with 8 of them and had always made it clear that that was part of their business model, and you can unlock them all in game for free - the bulk of their money comes from the things that are not in game unlockables for free.
I fully expect more javelins to be sold in the form of like a major DLC update once in a while, like the Necromancer in D3 was, or like how a regular MMO has an expansion and it adds a class or whatever, but not just adding javelins to the store every few months.
Cant really comment on the weight stuff because of NDA but one thing for sure, you need to play this game instead of watching it to feel the controlls.
About the loot and gameplay. Just watch some official anthem livestream vods on twitch. The last one was about loot and progression