Recent public test servers forFallout 76are experimenting with adding a new donation box in the near future for players who complete the introduction to the game. While the donation box doesn’t create any new problems for the online wasteland ofFallout 76, it doesn’t do much to prevent existing problems from reaching new extremes.
Fallout 76’s PTS is a taste of what’s to come while offering players the chance to participate in official feedback forums on Discord for the game’s upcoming content. Not all the new content forFallout 76gets revealed through the PTS, and even then, what is shown is still subject to change before going live in the full game. In some of the recentPTS forFallout 76, a new container designated for players donating gear and resources to new players has shown up and meanwhile sparked debate in the community for its ambitious nature.
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The donation box is inspired by the surge of playerdead drops inFallout 76in recent years. Players have taken to leaving spare resources and loot for other players to find in containers in areas with high foot traffic. Community platforms forFallout 76like Reddit have helped to turn this habit into a mainstream tradition for players who feel the need to share gifts anonymously.
Aside from dead drops, the community also has a habit of directly gifting items tonew players inFallout 76. High-level and veteran players alike inFallout 76will regularly hunt down low-level players on public servers and leave them goodie bags with ammo, resources, healing items, and more in a relatively secluded area, away from prying eyes. Compared to dead drops, this method ensures that the resources will go to a place where they will be most appreciated, instead of potentially being snagged by high-level players with greedy intentions.
The timing of the donation box coming toFallout 76is seemingly where part of the controversy comes from, in that it is a considerably late addition to the life-cycle of the game. In early 2023,Fallout 76received a massive influx of new players thanks to deals and promotions for the game, including availability through subscription services. However, the donation box is at the very beginning of the game, so it seems geared toward players who are starting the experience for the first time, potentially excluding the recent crowd of players that are otherwise still relatively new.
A Donation Box Highlights the Problem with Fallout 76 Players Being Either Too Generous or Greedy
The other half of the controversy comes from the fact thatmax-level players inFallout 76can abuse the community’s generosity with no repercussions. The same goes for the donation box; high-level players can empty out this container before the players who would need it most would ever get a chance to encounter it, with no preventative measures in place for these bad apples in the community.
Getting to the point of having apowerful build inFallout 76is a considerably challenging curve to get over, and help from other players can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on what all items are being gifted. Some players who have been the recipient of overly generous gifts inFallout 76can feel robbed of the experience for certain parts of the game when given too many significant items.
There’s no explicit threshold in the community for what items qualify for crossing the thin line of “over gifting,” which ultimately makes it a tricky situation for unaware players to navigate on both the giving and receiving ends. Mixing in the possibility that high-level players can steal gift items, it may be time for the community or the developers to finally establish the etiquette and guidelines for gifting items inFallout 76. None of these topics are new to the game, although the new donation box may be what finally draws things to extremes.
Fallout 76is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
