Fallout 76 Has Randomized Perk Card Packs, And They Have Gum

man, they really don't want me to play another fallout game do they.....

Lootboxes announced.... Pre-order canc... wait... i never pre-ordered this crap.

I was on the fence about this "Fallout", but now it's a hard pass. Fallout 4 had the bare minimum of character choice, the key element of an RPG, and this one throws it out the window for randomized Loot Box nonsense. Want to tailor the game to your particular style? Want to use a build to tackle a particular challenge? Well, do you feel lucky, punk?

The excuse for making perks cards being so players can switch them out on-the-fly is complete bunk. Plenty of games have offered a swap perk system without resorting to randomized Battlefront 2-esque garbage. Right off the top of my head, both Witcher 3 and The Division do it with a straightforward get-what-you-want system. These randomized perk packs are all about loading the player up with useless junk to mask what's likely a pretty barebones perk system.

Also, I don't believe for a second that they won't eventually open up perk packs for purchase. It's just too well-engineered towards that nefarious purpose for them to not turn that key.

I've checked a few gaming news sites looking for even so much as a mention of the possibility of pay2win in Fallout 76 via the purchase of those perk card packs. It was painfully obvious to me from the presentation at QuakeCon that they were trying to avoid that 1000 ton elephant in the room while showing off the cards in all their lootboxy glory, including an "unboxing" moment that could not have been more similar to the usual in-game microtransactions presentation.

Let me congratulate you on being the first outlet that I've seen that has at least gone so far as to hint at the possibility of these card packs being made available for purchase when the game launches. Now would you kindly go the obvious step further that nobody else appears to be taking and just ask Bethesda directly to confirm whether or not players will be able to buy them?

I am kind of shocked by the silence on this matter from the gaming journalism community, given that Todd Howard has previously stated there'd be no pay2win in Fallout 76, and that not to ask uncomfortable questions of publishers is to be complicit in their marketing (aka disinformation) campaigns. This is the most obvious follow-up I've seen in a while.

"Yes, but will we be able to buy those card packs?" Ask that. Please. Renew my confidence in your integrity! ;-)

Yeah, never got round to playing a Fallout game for some reason. Was going to pick up Fallout 4 and try and get into it before 76 comes out.

Not so much now, obviously these FUT card packs will be available to purchase with real money.

Sounds like Battlefront 2, and I don't like the sound of that.

If these can’t be purchased and don’t have rare overpowered cards, great. If they can and do, bad. Bad bad bad.

i said this from the start and here we are now, surprise surprise.

Do you know what the official term for "randomized card packs" is?

Loot boxes.

This game has loot boxes tied to the progression system. How wonderful that Bethesda has now joined the ranks of the worst publishers.

It begins.

Anything set up with randomization in mind is there nowadays purely for making money. I'm sure the "perks" are going to be things like "equip metal armour." You will be limited to certain weapons or armour until you have the "random" perk which gives you permission to equip such item.

"But wait, spend $59.99 for 10 card packs for a chance to get the perk you want. Didn't get what you want, try spending another $59.99 to try again. Don't want to spend money, no problem. There is always a way to grind to get the same card packs. Just a short easy 250 hours should get you the perk you want."

Any game now with either "randomization" or "cards" are burned from my list of games I would otherwise try.

I want to play the game I purchased, not play a sh***y random mini-game before I get the privilege of playing the actual game.

Whether these can be purchased is a pretty big deal and should have been addressed during the stream.