User blog comment:Hawki/Thoughts on War Chests/@comment-250398-20170717121903

To be honest I actually like the concept of it. One of the problems I have had with a lot of the cosmetic content is I buy it, try them out for a few missions then just quit out. Giving some incentives to continue playing is cool for me who likes having a carrot in front of me to continue playing a game. You could argue that it's grind and a good game will stand on its own, but there's a reason I continue to log into Heroes and play a few games every day and really only do it a few times a week for StarCraft as someone who doesn't really care about ladder ranking anymore.

I don't have a major problem with the price considering the cost of skins in general and this is three entire races worth of skins ($2.50 for one). Also I feel this was largely to answer the esport scene's pleas for something similar to the DotA Compendium where they could crowdfund the big prize pool. Having said that only 25% going to it with a cap at $200,000 feels ehhh, but I don't know if it'll even make it that high considering SC's numbers.

But I have some major problems with it. The idea of an entire race's skins behind timed gates feels silly to me. Even the CE skins got rereleased for the Battle Chest. I know they said there wouldn't be a grind to get them really, and I really appreciate that Co-op will contribute to it (makes me play other commanders) but that does make me wonder what will happen to Shadow Wars when it all gets canceled. Maybe they'll rely on us to host it?

Also I feel as someone who switched primarily to Co-op that we're getting the short end of the stick. I understand that skins can't be used, especially with this set basically being the special units Nova and Alarak have, but that does mean the vast majority of these packs will be useless to the Co-op crowd. Even portraits are worthless to them, as they never show up before Co-op games. I was hoping for the UI and announcers they were teasing upon launch since those are fairly universal and they do actually feel like they're worth it for Co-op, but alas my Stukov announcer will have to wait.

Finally Shadow Wars, being a lore guy too this one bugs me. I've been excited for all post-LotV content so far, since I'm more someone who views a universe as a sandbox to tell stories than a place to tell a central story (which is why I really am excited to see where the series goes from here). Having said that Shadow Wars, at least from the description, feels like a story that got made because they wanted to find some way to have the three races fight rather than a story made first because they had something they wanted to tell with the races and characters. Evolution, the Keep, and NCO, side stories though they were, at least didn't feel like that. The title made me think it would be a more political game with leaders backstabbing one another, but this just seems like a no-stakes way to continue the fighting without contradicting the peace established. I don't know I could be wrong, and of course I'm going to take it all in and write the articles for it, but what we have for it so far feels like it's that one StarCraft story they always tell that serves no purpose other than to have the three races fight because look guys it's StarCraft and that's all this universe is right?

But yeah I'm a bit more optimistic on the War Chest side, and with some changes I feel the concept is good (I've always said I'd rather cosmetics serve as rewards for gameplay, and this feels like a good compromise) but also I understand your and Totalbiscuit's points on the matter.