Overwatch has recently been updated with over 90 new cosmetic items, sprays and vocalizations, and while that would usually be cause for celebration, the way they were implemented mostly left disappointment in their wake. Unlike the previous batch of items, the new ones cannot be bought with in-game currency, will only be available for the next three weeks, and to top it all off, you can only receive them by buying (or slowly collecting) Summer Games Loot Boxes that contain a random mixture of old and new items.

As you might expect, this drastic shift towards the worst aspects of F2P gaming left many people puzzled and eager for an official comment from Blizzard, and in a pleasant turn of events, we've actually got one! Jeff Kaplan, Overwatch's Game Director, recently released a video discussing the new loot boxes and the team's future plans for other Seasonal Events. Have a look:

Before we move on allow me to just say that I only have the utmost respect for Jeff Kaplan as his work on both World of Warcraft and Overwatch has been leagues above the majority of his peers. However, his claims that this new system was added purely to keep the new items "extra special and very rare" is a whole bunch of marketing nonsense given that you can get around the "very rare" part by dumping in a whole bunch of money and praying to the gods of randomness to get the one item you're looking for.

While this might sound innocent enough, its just a few skins after all, the whole idea of making the in-game currency obsolete spits in the face of those foolish enough to spend money on the previous loot boxes. Ironically, this effect is even worse for the new buyers as all those duplicates they will receive from Summer Games Loot Boxes will be transformed into in-game currency, currency that can't be used to grab that one item out of 90 you're interested in.

So what we have in the end is an extremely unfair system that punishes customer loyalty, gives out items in a purely random fashion and in a heavily diluted item pool, and naturally, requires an absolute ton of money in order to get anywhere. Thankfully, the team seems open to feedback, so while this batch of items is basically "ruined", here's to hoping the next batch will correct the various issues and introduce something that benefits both Blizzard and the players equally.

An actually good Zarya skin! You only have to beat 1/1000 odds to get it!