Earlier this year, popular streaming platform Twitch – with whom we are a partner – introduced what probably ought to have been a controversial feature called Drops. Essentially, a game’s devs can set up the game to grant in-game items and bonuses (i.e., drops) to those who watch and stream the game through the platform, presumably hoping that’ll drive community engagement or some other buzzword.
One of the MMOs we cover that got in on the ground floor of the Drops system was MMOTCGÂ Elder Scrolls Legends, and apparently, Bethsoft has decided to make some changes to its integration – and not all players are pleased.
For starters, the studio is tweaking the rate of Drops to better consider “their effect on the overall in-game economy” and whether the experience is “meaningful and rewarding,” which apparently includes reducing the number of Drops streamers themselves receive.
Secondarily, it appears that players were basically exploiting drops from video-on-demand streams — basically, a streamer would set his past streams to show in a long loop, and then other folks would turn those streams on and immediately go AFK while racking up drops. Consequently, Twitch has temporarily disabled those types of replay streams from the Drop system while it works that out, a decision Bethsoft apparently supports.
As you might imagine, some folks are annoyed because those who have time to sit around watching Twitch all day have a chance at more drops, while others are annoyed because of cheaters. Drama ensued.
