Shadow of War - Released

Players found a way to cheat and get unlimited amount of lootboxes:
http://www.pcgamer.com/shadow-of-war-loot-box-cheat/

This article raises an important question:

But is changing the value of a free in-game currency using cheats to earn unlimited digital items wrong if it shares the same market and item pool with the premium currency and loot? Is it theft, or is it up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A?

Well, is it theft?

That is part of making the winning part in a vid product enjoyable.
Players desire to be resisted. It makes their stuff funnier, just as rapists who tell they prefer the raped person to resist as it makes their rape funnier.
Now the resistance must not go to thwarting the rape attempt or they do not have their fun.

It is different from launching a game and knowing that losing is definitively part of the possible outcome.

For devs, theor work is at least cut in half, they must ensure that the winning is enjoyable without caring about making losing enjoyable.
Only winning is fun, losing is not. Half of the work gone.

Originally Posted by six
Seeing how people like the game the future does indeed look grim.
Apparently you get +3% xp gains if you sign up for their newsletter.
Maybe in the next game you'll get 5% xp and a loot box a week if you watch 3 minutes of TV commercials every 30 minutes. Before long the bonuses will be gone and at best you instead pay extra to avoid the commercials.

It does not change the products. Streamers have been playing the product and they might have opened loot boxes if they feel their viewership desire it as a show feature.
Streamers have played without any loot box opening. A lot of them.

Those firms have listened to their customers. Playing vid products is a social token and players come to them to show they are part of the group.
Players also stack vid products well over their capacity to play them. They grow a huge back log.

The XP bonus is one service to these customers: it helps them to go through the product faster, which is welcome as they are behind in their mandatory consumption habit. Playing vid products is burdensome, it is part of group membership.

Once more, it is different from what the crowdfunded scene does. Players who have fun with this product will not sign to the newsletter since it shortens their fun time.
Players who feel they must complete a vid product as it was a chore gladly welcome the move.

Chien, how about answering my question too?
Will Warner CEO now say that cheaters are - thieves?

Cheaters is a big word. They harm the company in the doing but do not cheat anyone.

The company might try to secure the transaction as it is a service given to customers. Or not. People finding ways to get infinite loot boxes are not uncommon. Companies did not always react.

Wait… I didn't meen to ask if someone harms the company. Not even sure what company exactly would that be…

I'm asking if a cheater by cheating methods gets digital goods for free instead of paying real $ through whatever microtransactions, does it make those goods - stolen? And should such person pay fine, end in jail or get electrocuted for doing it?

Forget companies and possible morality issues, concentrate on laws. By laws for example, stealing from a criminal is still considered theft.
I usually think of myself as lawful evil person, but in this case where RAM management allows one to receive stuff for free I'm not sure what's correct, what's legal, what's acceptable and what isn't.
Just don't answer please that cheating in online videogames is prohibited in South Korea, I don't live there.

People do not cheat.

They do not get products they could only get by paying, there is nothing like that.

It is dilution of content. People pay from the start for a diluted content. They know the content is going to be locked through various means. They can pay to speed up the process.
People find a way to get the content they have paid for from the start faster and without paying an extra. No cheating, no theft.

As it could be seen as loss of income for the company it could be argued in court, it looks like a clear loss of income compared to say piracy that in many cases even seem to create income.

Where it is most likely to be illegal is the way of cheating itself. Apart from the rare abusing of a bug/exploit the free loot/stats and all such comes from trainers which often clearly break the law. The chance of actually ending up in court for a physical or software mod is pretty low but there have been cases across the world.

Personally I'd see it as ethically wrong but I would still pirate this game and cheat a billion dollars worth of lootboxes with a smile on my face.
If you can actually do that and don't have to open the damn things I will do it!

If you are Obama; no and if you are Trump yes.

Originally Posted by joxer
Players found a way to cheat and get unlimited amount of lootboxes:
http://www.pcgamer.com/shadow-of-war-loot-box-cheat/

This article raises an important question:

Well, is it theft?

@six
Its been possible since the second day if your search engines are up to date.
Loot to your heart content, unlock crap dlc etc.
No access to leaderboards. I'm sure you'll survive without it

Altering your save file as theft? Nope. It's certainly cheating, though, which might be a deal with the online part if it carries over there. I don't know enough about that to say.