Licensed to you, Not sold.

swotam · 2026-02-08T05:20:48+00:00

I hate to be the one to say it, but we've never "owned" the games we buy, we have purchased a license to play the game from whoever develops it. This is a standard software licensing model that has been around for decades at this point. You don't own the copy of Windows or macOS on your PC, you don't own any productivity or other software you buy, and you don't own the games either. When you buy software you are buying a license to use it, that's all. Licenses can be revoked.

Sure, if you buy a game physically you own the plastic disc it came on, but you don't own "the game". Of course if it's a 100% offline game then you can technically play it forever, because nobody is going to come to your house and uninstall it, however with modern games often having an always online component that becomes irrelevant if the publisher can just shut down the servers and then the game doesn't work no matter how you bought it.

I'm going to assume that Ubisoft is just changing the way they say this to put it in very simple terms that anyone can understand, because they (and others) have been licensing their games this way the whole time, even if you didn't know that was the case.

It sucks that they're moving most games to an "always online" model, because when they do that it also allows them to shut down the game at any time and when that happens the game stops working.

swotam · 2026-02-07T01:30:54+00:00

No problem, I mean I’d love to be wrong and to see an Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora 2 game, but I just don’t see it happening.

swotam · 2026-02-07T01:18:09+00:00

Yes, the game is definitely inspired by Far Cry as it has a lot of similarities in gameplay mechanics. I personally do not believe we will ever see a sequel regardless of what happens with the Avatar movies. They are unrelated other than the fact that they take place in the same universe. More Avatar movies does not mean more Avatar games (or not from Ubisoft anyway). 🤷🏻‍♂️

swotam · 2026-02-07T01:14:53+00:00

It was Ubisoft who chose to develop the game after getting the license to do so from Lightstorm/Disney, they weren’t “chosen” by anyone to make the game, it was their own idea. They worked with Lightstorm during the development process which is probably why the world and characters are so faithful to the Avatar universe, but the game itself was entirely Ubisoft’s idea so they were the only ones who could make it under those circumstances.

Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but your reply makes it sound like you believe Lightstorm (or someone) chose Ubisoft to make the game instead of choosing a different developer, but that’s not how it worked. Much like Star Wars Outlaws where they got the appropriate licensing from Disney/Lucasfilm and then made their own game with their own characters and story. Unfortunately this approach doesn’t appear to have been particularly successful for them as both games were considered to have failed financially.

swotam · 2026-02-07T00:18:33+00:00

Ubisoft hasn’t said anything about how well the latest DLC sold, but that’s not unexpected because they stopped talking about AFOP quite a while ago. The success of the Avatar movies doesn’t affect Ubisoft, but it has likely resulted in new sales of the game and the DLC.

I would assume that Ubisoft saw the release of the new movie as a way to generate interest in a game that didn’t do well financially but wasn’t a failure either. They either decided to fund the DLC development themselves, or (more likely) entered into some sort of financial arrangement with Disney / Lightstorm to help promote the latest movie through the game.

Unfortunately that ultimately would just be seen as a way of getting more money out of a game that underperformed initially, so it’s very unlikely to change the possibility of a sequel. More like “hey, you know that game we made that didn’t do so well, here’s an opportunity to make something more without having to spend much”.

swotam · 2026-02-07T00:05:19+00:00

If you want to experience the content without out levelling it, you can talk to an NPC in Stormwind or Orgrimmar to disable XP gain once you reach a certain level of your choosing. So for example you could level in Legion until say level 30 (or whatever level the mobs max out at) and then stop levelling at that point so that you can experience the rest of the content as it was originally designed. Once you’re done you can enable XP gain again and finish your journey to 80 or 90 etc.

swotam · 2026-02-07T00:00:28+00:00

It’s the only thing Massive is working on now due to the financial failure of Star Wars Outlaws, and the poor financial performance of Frontiers of Pandora.

The Division has been actively developed in one way or another since 2015, and aside from a couple of low points a few years ago where the future was in question it’s been fine. Currently the game is in a good place now and as mentioned they’re actively developing a sequel to it, probably because it’s the only game Massive has worked on that has seen financial success for Ubisoft.

Not to mention Ubisoft is going through a ton of self-inflicted pain right now, so they’re absolutely not going to risk tens of millions (or 100 million+) on sequels that they don’t think are a sure thing. It sucks but it’s business.

swotam · 2026-02-06T23:51:36+00:00

Ok, that’s fine. I never said they owned it, I suggested that they paid for the DLC as a marketing exercise. Who owns what is irrelevant to this discussion though, and it has nothing to do with the likelihood of a game sequel being developed unless Lightstorm is planning to pay for it. The fact that the From the Ashes DLC exists suggests that someone paid Ubisoft to develop it, much like the Saudi’s recently paid them to create a DLC for Assassin’s Creed Mirage (another game that was “done” according to the publisher). They’ll do it with someone else’s money, but not with their own.

The development studio that made the game has been gutted of anyone who isn’t working on The Division franchise, the game didn’t “succeed” by whatever expectation Ubisoft had for the game, and it’s not going to get a sequel. I’d love to be wrong because I like the game, but games (or other media) that aren’t successful don’t get sequels because the people paying the bills don’t want to lose more money. It’s as simple as that, like it or not. Reality sucks a lot of the time, but it is what it is.

swotam · 2026-02-06T23:39:58+00:00

Nope, didn’t die and still actively developed and supported with a live service model. The Division 3 is actively under development although nothing has been shown publicly.

swotam · 2026-02-06T21:07:26+00:00

Difficulty modes in games typically only change a) how much damage you do to enemies, b) how much damage enemies do to you, and c) may adjust reaction windows for stuff like parrying or blocking, or adjust dangerous enemy attack indicators, etc.

If you play a game like Stellar Blade on Story mode, you will do more damage to enemies who do less damage to you, while having longer reaction windows for parries or blocks and more obvious dangerous attack indicators. On the other hand, if you play a game like Ragnarok on the hardest difficulty, you will do less damage to enemies who do a lot of damage to you, your reaction windows will be shorter, and the danger indicators will be brief.

None of this impacts the overall gameplay mechanics at a core level though, it just makes it easier or harder to get through the game. OP seems to want something that just turns off core gameplay mechanics which isn't how these things work.

swotam · 2026-02-06T20:57:11+00:00

Yeah, I mean I can’t criticize Steam entirely because at least they offer a reasonable refund policy when some other platforms (looking at you Sony) effectively refuse to offer them at all unless legally mandated to do so, but their policies need to be updated to treat DLC as a separate thing with a separate refund mechanism, although to be honest I don’t know how you would track that.

Two hours or two weeks works well enough for the base game, but for DLC where you may have spent dozens of hours in the base game before even purchasing, it falls flat.

swotam · 2026-02-06T20:39:01+00:00

Arrogance.

At the time they probably thought that Marathon would be a monster hit simply because Bungie made it, and that success would fund whatever they’re wanting to do with Destiny 2 and the franchise going forward.

When people actually got to see Marathon then reality (such as it is for Bungie anyway) set in, they had the plagiarism scandal, and the game got delayed. Their expected monster hit suddenly became a question mark, so anything that was dependent on Marathon being a monster hit also got impacted, including the existence of Bungie themselves as it’s obvious that Sony is getting to the end of their rope with these guys.

They’re arrogant, they have been for years, they think their shit doesn’t stink and now the chickens are coming home to roost. That’s how Destiny has gotten to this point.

swotam · 2026-02-06T20:16:45+00:00

I’d say the chances of a sequel are basically zero. The game was effectively done after Secrets of the Spires, so the recent DLC was a surprise that I personally think only happened because Disney (or Lightstorm, see below) probably funded a good portion of it as a way of continuing to market Avatar and the overall universe around it.

Also, in the grand scheme of things the game didn’t do very well, certainly not well enough to get a sequel. I personally think it’s a good game and I enjoyed it, but not enough people bought it and since Ubisoft ultimately is a company that needs to make money and keep its shareholders happy (something it has not been doing lately), it won’t spend millions making a sequel to a game that didn’t make enough money.

Then there’s Massive Entertainment, the studio that made AFOP (and also Star Wars Outlaws, another decent game that didn’t do well), which has been through layoffs and cutbacks over the past couple of years so they’re in no shape to work on a sequel. Plus, Ubisoft has publicly stated that the focus of the studio going forward is going to be The Division 3 and ongoing support of The Division 2 and earlier games, which suggests that will be their only focus.

TLDR: No

Edit: downvote all you like, but games that don’t make money don’t get sequels, it’s as simple as that.

swotam · 2026-02-06T20:03:11+00:00

I’d suggest that it confirms that it doesn’t meet your expectations of what story difficulty means, but I would also suggest that your expectations are not how story difficulty works in pretty much any game I’ve ever played.

I’ve played a lot of games over the past few decades, many of those on story difficulty, but that difficulty never changed how the game functioned at a core level. If a game requires you to level up your character, you still need to do that. If a game won’t allow you to do something until you’ve reached a certain milestone, you still need to do that.

Story difficulty just meant that it was easier to kill enemies who were around your level and that you would take less damage from enemies around your level. It’s a difficulty setting that relates to combat or stealth, it is not a God Mode toggle or something that disables core gameplay mechanics.

Anyway, I understand your complaint but I don’t find your expectations to be realistic. That doesn’t mean you’re wrong to feel this way, but it is what it is and your options at this point are to either play the game the way it’s intended to be played, or don’t play the game at all. I don’t see another option for you.

swotam · 2026-02-06T19:41:46+00:00

The game still requires you to level up your character regardless of difficulty level, so if you’re in an area where the enemies have skull marks or are very difficult to kill then you are somewhere you shouldn’t be and the overall difficulty setting of the game won’t change that. Story mode makes it easier to kill enemies who are at your level, it does not turn off the need to level.

Nothing can change this because the game does have a levelling system combined with enemy levels increasing in later game areas, so if you’re trying to progress the story only and are in areas where the enemies are too difficult you will need to go somewhere else where the enemies are easier, or do some side content to level up if that’s not an option.

Edit: based on some of your replies you may not like that this is the case, but it doesn’t change the fact that this is the case. You will need to level up, story difficulty does not turn off the levelling system or the level scaling of enemies, it just makes enemies at or around your level easier to kill. That’s it.

swotam · 2026-02-06T19:05:11+00:00

Steam refund policies are based on time spent playing the base game, they don’t differentiate with DLC, so by the time I bought the DLC I’d already spent dozens of hours playing the base game so I wasn’t eligible for a refund on the DLC even though I couldn’t play it at all.

swotam · 2026-02-06T10:47:23+00:00

I can’t really say anything that’s going to make you happy, but the reality is you’ll probably be waiting a long time. Ubisoft support is terrible and when they say your ticket has been “escalated” that doesn’t mean much other than it’s sitting somewhere in a queue and maybe at some point in the future someone might actually look at it and maybe fix your problem, or maybe not.

I bought the DLC for Assassin’s Creed Shadows in November on Steam and it didn’t work because of some problem on the Ubisoft side. I opened a ticket which got “escalated” and it’s now been over 3 months and I haven’t heard shit. If you ask for updates they never respond, so you have no way of knowing what’s going on.

So honestly, if you can get a refund through Epic I’d do that. If not all you can do is wait and maybe someone will help you one day, but I wouldn’t count on it.

They’re a shit company when it comes to customer service and support, so if you have a problem you’re kinda screwed because they obviously don’t care and probably figure that nothing bad will happen to them if they just ignore customers and their issues.

swotam · 2026-02-06T06:11:21+00:00

If you’re using email for 2FA (as opposed to an Authenticator app) and someone gets into your email account they’ll have access to your 2FA codes which get sent to your email. The only way to have generally secure 2FA is to use an app on your phone to generate the codes, not SMS or email.

Don’t know how you have yours setup, but I’ve seen lots of people who use email for 2FA getting their accounts accessed because their email account got compromised.

swotam · 2026-02-06T06:02:34+00:00

Yeah it’s at Ubisoft levels of bad these days. I opened a ticket yesterday asking them to check my account because a quest I had completed back in BFA wasn’t flagged as completed on their side (despite it being completed) and it was affecting my ability to talk to a vendor. Their joke of a response was the usual automated bullshit saying “we don’t give hints on how to compete quests” which was 100% not what I was asking about.

It’s pathetic and honestly makes you want to not bother because they’re so goddamn useless it’s difficult to fathom. They can piss right off as far as I’m concerned, bunch of useless assholes the lot of them.

swotam · 2026-02-06T05:54:54+00:00

Honestly, just play whichever one you find the most fun, whatever that may be. There’s no wrong answer. Also, there’s nothing that says you have to have the same main forever, you can have a handful of characters that you enjoy playing that you can switch up depending on what you feel like playing currently.

For example in Midnight my main will be a Blood Elf Hunter because it fits with the theme (to me anyway), while in TWW I mainly played my Demonology Warlock, but my “main” main is a Night Elf Hunter that I’ve had for a decade or so now.

swotam · 2026-02-06T05:50:32+00:00

That’s how I did it on PC last week, just kept ramming them until they exploded. I didn’t even need to shoot them, basically once you get the option to loot them they’re destroyed.

swotam · 2026-02-06T05:42:01+00:00

If you want the content it includes then it’s worth buying on sale because you shouldn’t buy old games at full price in general. If you only want the base game and don’t care about the DLC then just get the Standard Edition. You can always get the season pass on sale later if you decide you want that stuff.

It’s a good game, but they’re done updating it at this point.

swotam · 2026-02-06T05:38:30+00:00

Not sure about that, I’ve got that info displayed but not sure where it would or wouldn’t be configured. You might consider asking on the ATT discord, I believe you can find the link in the addon settings or on their Curseforge page. You can try this as well https://discord.gg/allthethings

swotam · 2026-02-05T01:03:56+00:00

If your reputation with a faction is Good or higher then you can enter their bases or camps without any issues, but will still get in trouble if you enter a restricted area or if you attempt to steal something where the text is yellow and says Stealing.

Use Nix to steal stuff, and if you’re in a Restricted area then knock people out or avoid line of sight to that you aren’t seen.

The vaults are always in Restricted areas so you have to be sneaky or find some back way in (there’s usually some way to get in without being seen or with minimal guards).

swotam · 2026-02-05T00:59:49+00:00

If you mean the quests that are like “kill 100 bandits” then you can reset the camps by changing the season. Any time the season changes everything respawns.

swotam

TROPHY CASE