Due to the recent proliferation of malfeasance and overreach by the hands of companies like EA and Activision with Star Wars Battlefront 2 and Destiny 2's manipulative in-game monetization schemes, Monster Hunter World fans are surely thankful that the game won't have any kind of microtransaction or loot box system in place at launch. With this being the case, the RPG series' producer Ryozo Tsujimoto recently decided to clear the air as to why the forthcoming title will eschew the controversial concept altogether.

In a recent interview with Trusted Reviews, Tsujimoto explained that the key to enjoying Monster Hunter World is experiencing its core gameplay loop and learning how to defeat its monsters, and including ways to avoid dealing with these challenges simply for the sake of profits would completely spoil the fun. The series producer stated that doing so solely for money "doesn't make any sense" and would undermine "harmony" between players.

“This is a co-op game and you’re going out in up to four-people parties. The idea is that there’s a harmony in the four players going out and you’re going to get on well together. If you feel someone hasn’t earned what they’ve got or they’ve got a better weapon just because they paid for it and you worked for yours, that creates friction.

“We want to make sure nobody is under the impression that, because it looks like the kind of game where you might have loot boxes, they definitely aren’t in there."

Tsujimoto also stated during the interview that Monster Hunter World and the series at large relies on players learning how to beat monsters through instinct and trial-and-error tactics instead of simply having the best gear. The game's producer makes the argument that having paid-for items would not only break the balance of the mechanics, but also ruin the "flow" of gameplay.

“Even when you get to a certain wall and you’re like ‘OK, I’m 10 hours in, I suddenly have a monster I can’t beat’, it’s not about ‘well I’ll just throw a bit of money in and I’ll get better gear to do it’. What we want you to do is go back to your house and be like ‘well, I’ve been using the great sword, maybe I need to use the dual blades for this monster.

“We want you to go in and, through gameplay, find out what’s causing you to hit this hurdle and figure it out. Whenever you get over that hurdle by yourself, it’s such a great feeling, why would we let you skip that just to make a bit of extra money? It doesn’t make any sense. There’s no way we would interrupt that flow.”

Taking all of this into account, it looks as if Monster Hunter World's development team has carefully considered the arguments for and against microtransaction systems, and wound up erring on the side of players who are simply tired of the practice. So, it will be interesting to see if the RPG goes on to deliver a gameplay experience that's engaging enough sway fans of titles like Destiny 2 away from the games' loot box-laden levels.

Monster Hunter World is set to launch on January 26, 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and releases in autumn 2018 for PC.

Source: Trusted Reviews