Fallout 76 heads to Atlantic City this winter with a new Expedition
www.polygon.com
Vault Dwellers will get to take a jaunt to a casino and try out new missions

Bethesda released more information on the second Expedition [from Appalachia,] which will take place in Atlantic City. This will be a two-part content update, and the first part will arrive on Dec. 5.

The Atlantic City updates are called Boardwalk Paradise and America’s Playground, and the environment is fairly different from the rough and tumble hills of the base game. Things are a little classier in Atlantic City than previous destinations. There’s a casino where players can gamble their caps, as well as the usual gamut of new factions, creatures, missions, and rewards.

The first installment, Boardwalk Paradise, will be available via the Public Test Server on Oct. 3. Players will be able to sample the new content on Steam. The update will launch in full on Dec. 5. We currently don’t have a release date for America’s Playground, but it will conclude the story of Atlantic City. It sounds like we’ll be getting a story closer to New Vegas than previous stories told in Fallout 76; there’ll also likely be a heaping helping of inspiration from other crime dramas like Boardwalk Empire

  • DarkGamer@kbin.socialOP
    1·
    1 year ago

    When engagement and player counts are important, promoting addictive aspects of games is lucrative. Many games are addictive not because they are skinner boxes giving occasional rewards, (and many are,) but rather because they are fun to play. In that sense, every game aims to exploit addictive and compulsive behaviors.

    Some additional context:

    • In Fallout 76 there are already buildable slot machines in C.A.M.P.s, but players can only gamble insignificant amounts of in-game currency, (10 caps,) at a time presently. They’re more useful for the luck buff they provide than making the number go up.
    • Fallout 76 is already a skinner box in the sense that a lot of getting to endgame involves trying to craft weapons and armors that have specific randomly assigned bonuses, from a pool that includes many undesirable ones. With a few exceptions, the most desired weapons and armor are not tradeable so lots of farming is needed to get additional random chances to get the perfect item, with low odds of doing so. This is far more exploitative than what I suspect they have planned for casino gameplay.
    • There is a real-world market for Fallout 76, but this game doesn’t encourage real-world trading as much as one might assume. Players are limited to 40k caps, and caps are not as valuable as other in-game currencies. Currencies like the ones needed to roll random item bonuses, or to get special item plans from vendors, are far more valuable and are not tradable or purchasable with caps. Most long-time players are at the cap limit and have to find random stuff to spend it on even as they farm other needed currencies.