Of course they're trying to make you feel like you need to buy keys... but the thing is we know that they're trying to make us feel that way and physiological tricks don't work when you can see them happening right in front of you.
These subliminal shenanigans are going on everywhere all the time, the whole advertising industry in built upon them...
its not necessarily even a bad thing, we can just ignore it.
"You had stated that there had been NO content added since Vibora Bay. Your contention was refuted. You should simply graciously acknowledge that your complaint was in error and in fact has no basis, rather than doubling down on misinformation."
Actually: "The game got a update 6 months after launch and since then it's been relatively stagnant. There was a year or two with updates that were pretty good (Resistance, Whiteout, Demonflame, etc) and in a long time it's been pretty much nothing."
No absolutes once in that statement. And I provided evidence for my statement in relation to various other projects Cryptic as been working on and listed a multitude of different features and content of all varieties added in the same time since those 2 content updates...over a year ago...heck look at my last post again, those other games have had more general updates in nearly any 6 month period than this game has had in 2 years.
The only thing I've ever asserted or stated has been that this game needs more love and attention. Unless people would rather get 4 missions every 1-2 years versus 4 missions every 4-6 months? Unless you'd rather have no new powersets and just a handful of additional powers purchasable from the Zen shop via random drop lockboxes.
What would your IDEAL (but realistic) development for CO be? If it's not the current state and rate or less then we're completely agreeing and just quibbling over semantics.
Please learn to understand Metaphor & Hyperbole. I'm not saying the two are identical, I used the hyperbolic metaphor of comparing taxes to keys to illustrate a point. Honestly, I have seen many many times on these forums where if anyone uses a metaphor they get bashed by comments like yours. I'm tired of it. And no, I will not just stop using metaphors either. I will continue to use them because it's the best way to convey a point.
It was a poor metaphor. People have to pay taxes because it's a necessity to keep a country's infrastructure running and stable. Public transportation, law enforcement, building of new roads, welfare services, etc etc all of which require money has to get their money from somewhere, and since civilians live in the country and make use of these services then obviously they have to make some monetary contribution in the form of taxes. Whether or not they feel like they're forced to is besides the point. If they are eligible for taxes and don't pay up but yet continue to reap the benefits from using these services while staying in the country, then it's unlawful and they face the consequences.
Players logged into CO's server aren't civilians living in some kind of virtual country that they're expected to have the sort of mandatory monetary commitment identical to taxes. Cryptic isn't some government body and CO's virtual space isn't some country that they're managing. Even though they need money to cover expenses in keeping the game running, it's from a business standpoint which is something very different, and there isn't even any forced obligation on the player's part to actually give Cryptic any money like how taxes are.
Regardless. Keys do feel forced. Am I saying someone is physically forcing me to? No, of course not. But the system's in place impose a form of psychological force on the player base. Some are more resistant to such tactics than others (I personally have only ever bought 3 keys, period). To head off your question of "what is forcing people to buy them", the answer is simple yet complex. The simple version "desire". Now you're bound to say "if you desire it how is it forced?" It's not the key that is desired, but rather the items in the chest or more specifically 1 or 2 of the items... It's a pretty classic case of a carrot on a stick. The contents of the lockbox are the carrot, dangled out in front of us constantly present and constantly taunting us. Lockboxes are a fairly common drop in the game so people build up large collections of them every time you get one your more and more likely to think "I need keys"... the more you think "I need keys" the less it feels as an optional thing. It's that idea of "need" that makes it a forced action, the system implements a psychological idea that we "need" keys and it reinforces that idea by handing us more and more lockboxes at a fairly high rate. Is anyone ever physically forced to buy keys? I would certainly hope not, but many are indeed psychologically forced to. And to claim that anyone who falls prey to such psychological force needs to seek help is a horrible thing to say. Even though I've only ever bought 3 keys, I still feel like the system is trying to force me to buy them. And I can assure you, I'm in no way the only one who feels this way.
Last I checked, nothing about the lockboxes and their content in any way cripples the player in a way that their character is made to be under-performing against the game's content if they opt not to get them. There's plenty of evidence and examples out there to objectively show that this is the case. Before Legion gear is brought up, no, it's not important to have to excel at the game. Since that's the case then I don't see this "psychological enforcement" being as severe and as widespread as you're claiming it to be. I'm going to go with that it's really just in your head space.
If you want a real example of being psychologically-forced into purchasing stuff that game companies make their players do, there are plenty out there in the mobile game market, where players can only perform a limited amount of game actions in a day and then are forced to wait hours before they can resume their gameplay, unless they pay money to overcome it; something called a "time gate", or any competitive PVP game that sells Pay2Win items to give the player a significant advantage over other players who don't buy such items.
Are you really going to try and tell me that being constantly given items that you cannot open without a key that you have to buy is not a psychological marketing strategy? And before anyone says anything about me using the word "have" again, FACT keys HAVE to be bought to be used period. So you personally have to buy the key? No, but someone does. I am not going to play a game of wordplay with ya'll, if you want to keep playing this wordplay game and not read what is being said, then do so on your own, I will not participate. Some of you have shown some comprehension of what I'm telling you, and others have dismissed it all outright without even giving it any thought.
Lets look at this in a differnt light.
If you recieve a box in the mail every day that cannot be opened unless you acquire a specific key. Now, you have 3 choices initially, A) Toss the box and ignore it, order a key and open it, or C) set it asside and decide later. Throughout each day you encounter people who have opened their box and keep hearing about or seeing what people found inside the boxes. These items may or may not interest you initially, but each month the boxes contain new items. With each passing month you're likely to find yourself more drawn towards opening the box. But you've also heard of people getting nothing of worth from the boxes, so you find yourself torn. You have this subconcious desire to open a box and a fear of wasting your money to open one. Of course you could just buy the contents of a box from someone else who got something you wanted.
I have in no way said that everyone will feel forced to buy keys, infact I have stated as much before. What I am saying is that lockboxes are a form of Psychological marketing that are not widely appriciated. If they removed lockboxes and replaced them with Grabbags I know I and many others would be more open to buying them. To some there is no difference, but as I already explained several timess before there is a major fundamental difference between the two. One is often viewed in a negative light (Lockboxes) while the other is viewed in a neutral light (grabbags), neither are actually viewed positivly from most people. Most gamers dislike the idea of both as a whole. I've disscussed before how to make lockboxes be viewed in a more positive light and was dismissed by the very same people who are arguing with me about this on this thread. If lockboxes are to ever be viewed more positively the acquisition of keys must be altered, a monthly misison rewarding a few keys (3~5) would be one way to accomplish this. Lowering key costs and selling in bulk as standard (5keys = 100Z) is another... But ofcouse none of ya'll will hear any of it.
With that, I am done with the lockbox discussion and will not respond to any more comments on it. Lets all just change the subject now.
No it's not really. Again the only person in control of how you feel about a lockbox is you. It's another item that I toss or or put in the guild vault to me that I don't need or use. If you feel compelled to open a lockbox then that's something you need to discuss with your own lack of willpower. Do you feel compelled to stop at every restaurant on the side of the street just because their sign is out there? Because that is the actual comparison. And if you say yes, then that is a personal issue you might want to seek counselling for.
None of the items in the lockbox even present game changing things. They offer useful things at best and cosmetics at the most. Last I checked we weren't being compelled to open these. In short you are kind of reaching for an accusation that doesn't really exist.
No it's not really. Again the only person in control of how you feel about a lockbox is you. It's another item that I toss or or put in the guild vault to me that I don't need or use. If you feel compelled to open a lockbox then that's something you need to discuss with your own lack of willpower. Do you feel compelled to stop at every restaurant on the side of the street just because their sign is out there? Because that is the actual comparison. And if you say yes, then that is a personal issue you might want to seek counselling for.
This kind of response is unnecessary and I don't think you're qualified to make such a comment.
Not everyone is like you, not everyone reacts to things the way you do. You don't react to lockboxes the way others do? Great. But don't be condescending about it. I'm sure you've got your own flaws.
The fact is that lockboxes do sell better than grab bags because they have that trigger for people. "It's in my inventory, now I'm wondering if something great is in it! Gotta get a key!" There's a reason why Cryptic changed from Grab Bags, which are as intrusive to your playstyle as anything else in the C Store, to Lockboxes, which are shoved in your face almost every game session if you spend at least an hour or so playing.
Practically, there is no difference between a grab bag and a lockbox, if grab bags were made tradeable. It's an object which gives you some loot. One of them is only there if you look for it, the other is constantly reminding you that it's there. It's good that the differences between the two don't affect you in any way, but try not to act superior to everyone else that gives in to this proven method of marketing.
A thousand lockboxes of one type take up one slot in your toon's bank. If you really want to keep lockboxes you don't use, it isn't much of an issue.
One of my heroes is the "lockbox" bank, and has hundreds of each lockbox that's been available since they started. It's only part of one page of bank slots.
In DCUO, lockboxes are rare, like 1 every 6 hours. However, keys are free for members. In CO, lockboxes are plentiful, but keys must be brought, via ah or zen.
I have a crap load of lockboxes laying around, they take up inventory space though. Will be damn if I run out and buy 100 plus keys, haha.
The keys it will take to nab a vehicle or costume set?...Might as-well buy the stuff off AH.[/quote]
in DCUO, unless they have changed since I stopped playing,lockbox contents are not usable gear, or vehicles or anything useful. It is mostly non tradeable crap like hideout furniture
out of the ones I opened, a max level potion was the only item I would class as useful.
Perhaps they should give out keys with the stripend Zen?
Just a thought. It may encourage more players to sub.
Not a bad idea really. I usually buy keys on sale in cstore in massive bulks but if they gave 1 acct bound key with every new lockbox to gold players, it would be a nice gesture. It could give people more desire to buy more...or not. But one key isnt such a big deal really, especially if it's account bound.
Perhaps they could give out the 10 packs per account; I agree, one key aint cutting it lol.
Naw, that is pushing it, we have stipends for that. The point is to give the player a free sample. And what I meant by 'not a big deal' is that you can't claim all the good items in the box with just one key, even if you are lucky enough to get one of the good items on the first try. So giving out one key wouldn't be such a economy killer if they did.
when we got the resource cap increase in january, people were arguing over whether key prices would go up or down.
Very few thought of the third option, scarcity, as less people keep them as a defacto currency.
The chances of the questionite exchange dropping around 150, are directly related to Questionite drops being stopped.
The exchange goes up with up sale, we have few people who buy zen directly or indirectly and EVERYONE can farm Q.
we have people who store all the crates for double Q weekend , so they can get more.
we had 2 years before the major Q farms were shut down.
lots of Q being farmed,stuff all in the Q store to use it on.
when there is a particularly good sale on, you can watch the zen in the exchange vanish.
I would hope they meant in addition too the stipend...
Yeah obviously, but what's the precedent for asking for more stuff. Do we suddenly get less stuff from our subscriptions that something like this is warranted?
Yeah obviously, but what's the precedent for asking for more stuff. Do we suddenly get less stuff from our subscriptions that something like this is warranted?
we've got our monthly Gold subscriber costume/emotes without losing anything... granted that seems to have been more of a "we don't know how to continue Vet rewards any further, have this instead" thing...
I would hope they meant in addition too the stipend...
Yeah obviously, but what's the precedent for asking for more stuff.
There are a lot of games that have daily log in rewards. Some for everyone, some just for subscribers. Some with extra for subscribers. And that is in addition to a normal stipend of game store currency. So, good idea, bad idea, there is a precedent for "more stuff".
A case could be put that the price hike in Z-Store costume sets along with the decision to make most new costume sets into lockbox drops (thus making them much more expensive to get either from the price of buying keys to open lockboxes or buying them from other players/AH) has devalued the monthly stipend greatly.
I think the monthly stipend should be increased, the only question is "By how much?". An increase to about 800 Zen sounds right in my opinion.
I would hope they meant in addition too the stipend...
Yeah obviously, but what's the precedent for asking for more stuff.
There are a lot of games that have daily log in rewards. Some for everyone, some just for subscribers. Some with extra for subscribers. And that is in addition to a normal stipend of game store currency. So, good idea, bad idea, there is a precedent for "more stuff".
I'm usually not impressed at daily login awards. Granted, I currently know of two games that are doing it, Wildstar and Marvel Heroes, but you only ever get worthwhile stuff in the milestone numbers. Every 10 days in wildstar you get a goofy knick back or a costume piece. Nice, but not something I'm at the edge of my seat for. Inbetween those days you get like the equivalent of "here's 3G 50N!" or "enjoy 75 questionite!" In marvel you get eternity splinters every 10 days, which is nice, but again inbetween you're getting trash currencies. Every hundred days you get something worthwhile.
It seems to me that if Champs went this way, we'd see like a pack of three keys every hundred days, with like a pack of random rank 3 mods and other junk inbetween. I used to be excited for daily login rewards in games, to the point that I think I suggested it for this game as a means of getting ore people to log in, but lately I just don't care about these. It's like a slow-paced and less meaningful Veteran Rewards system.
I'd love to be proven wrong on this, though. I'd love to see a daily login reward I could really look forward to.
A case could be put that the price hike in Z-Store costume sets along with the decision to make most new costume sets into lockbox drops (thus making them much more expensive to get either from the price of buying keys to open lockboxes or buying them from other players/AH) has devalued the monthly stipend greatly.
I think the monthly stipend should be increased, the only question is "By how much?". An increase to about 800 Zen sounds right in my opinion.
This is a good point. The thing is though that the price hike was probably a necessity for them, and giving people a larger stipend to compensate might mean that they made the price hike for no reason. Guess it depends on where most costume money comes from, gold or silver, and other analytics I won't pretend to know.
I would hope they meant in addition too the stipend...
Yeah obviously, but what's the precedent for asking for more stuff.
There are a lot of games that have daily log in rewards. Some for everyone, some just for subscribers. Some with extra for subscribers. And that is in addition to a normal stipend of game store currency. So, good idea, bad idea, there is a precedent for "more stuff".
I'm usually not impressed at daily login awards.
That's fine. No matter what free thing the devs give the players, there are always going to be some people who say it isn't good enough or doesn't impress them. But you asked for a precedent, so I gave it. And there are certainly plenty of people who *do* like the log in rewards, so just because you may not personally think they are good enough for you does not have any real relevance to whether they are a good idea for a game.
That's fine. Not everything will impress everyone. But you asked for a precedent, so I gave one. And some people certainly like the log in rewards, so just because you or I may not personally like them does not in any way mean they aren't a good idea for a game.
Well, the precedent I was wondering about is "what's the negative thing that has happened that requires us to get more free stuff." Certainly though I can see the benefits of getting stuff that other games get, and like I said, I suggested the same thing a while back, after playing Marvel Heroes for a bit.
Log in rewards I've seen in other ftp games feel more like a penalty for not logging on to me. I strongly dislike that and hope CO is never going to get it.
I've encountered many many bad login reward systems... and a few good ones... the bad ones are the standard 9 days of junk 10th day something good... etc... the worse ones are 9 days of junk 10th day great, 11th+ nothing, no reset...
the good ones however take a more random approach... each day you receive a random reward off the login rewards list, with each consecutive day your chances of getting the higher end items go up and some of the less desireable items start removing themselves from your list... resets everytime you miss a day...
One of the best ones I've seen however, also had a random reward chance but took a more active approach... upon login you were presented with a prize wheel and a free spin... throughout the day you had chances of looting extra spins or you could buy them off the cash shop... it was rather interesting... You always got a free spin every day... the game had an optional subscriber system (like CO) and gave subscribers 2 free spins per day.
Rift has login rewards for everyone. Subs get better stuff though. Non-subs mostly get artifacts but subs can get lockbox keys and other nicer things. Of course, even filthy freeloaders can rarely get keys and lockboxes in normal play. Lockboxes are very rare drops in Rift, not the all you can eat buffet.
I'd rather see cryptic do something nice for people who spend money, not for subs. Silver players also spend money, but are basically treated like their cash doesn't matter because they didn't spend it the "right" way. It'd be super if even silver players could earn vet rewards for spending. Having a sub just gets you there faster. Hell, let everyone get vet points to buy those one-off costume bits in the gold vendor. That is such a waste of dev time to make that stuff only for it to be gone forever for most players. I bet even gold players would like that.
Hell, let everyone get vet points to buy those one-off costume bits in the gold vendor. That is such a waste of dev time to make that stuff only for it to be gone forever for most players. I bet even gold players would like that.
Like... for every 1000 Zen bought you get a few vet points? You can spend them in the Gold Vendor for past rewards, & perhaps the current months reward is half-price? for every ($50-100 zen worth) of vet points you can buy a new tier of Vet Reward?
Hell, let everyone get vet points to buy those one-off costume bits in the gold vendor. That is such a waste of dev time to make that stuff only for it to be gone forever for most players. I bet even gold players would like that.
Like... for every 1000 Zen bought you get a few vet points? You can spend them in the Gold Vendor for past rewards, & perhaps the current months reward is half-price? for every ($50-100 zen worth) of vet points you can buy a new tier of Vet Reward?
I LIKE THIS IDEA A LOT!
If this was made official, I can see spending all my Income to get the Avian Warrior Pack
POWERFRAME REVAMPS, NEW POWERS and BUG FIXES > Recycled Content and Events and even costumes at this point Introvert guy who use CO to make his characters playable and get experimental with Viable FF Theme builds! Running out of Unique FF builds due to the lack of updates and synergiesPlaying since 1 February 2011 98+ Characters (7 ATs, 91 FFs) ALTitis for Life!
O.o $450-900 for Avian Warrior... Hear that Cryptic... you have great incentive... someone will spend a ton of money to get stuff if you do this...
Now Now, I may want the Avian Warrior Pack like crazy, but I wouldn't spend THAT much LOL
But its a nice Quality of Life and customer loyalty program for Silvers (something which CO never had), with a little work it would work fine!
and honestly It would help me FINALLY getting the costume set I desire the most while bypassing the fact that Im unable to buy Lifetime Sub
if only the system worked correctly 1 year ago... I would be Lifetimer today
POWERFRAME REVAMPS, NEW POWERS and BUG FIXES > Recycled Content and Events and even costumes at this point Introvert guy who use CO to make his characters playable and get experimental with Viable FF Theme builds! Running out of Unique FF builds due to the lack of updates and synergiesPlaying since 1 February 2011 98+ Characters (7 ATs, 91 FFs) ALTitis for Life!
Rift has login rewards for everyone. Subs get better stuff though. Non-subs mostly get artifacts but subs can get lockbox keys and other nicer things. Of course, even filthy freeloaders can rarely get keys and lockboxes in normal play. Lockboxes are very rare drops in Rift, not the all you can eat buffet.
I'd rather see cryptic do something nice for people who spend money, not for subs. Silver players also spend money, but are basically treated like their cash doesn't matter because they didn't spend it the "right" way. It'd be super if even silver players could earn vet rewards for spending. Having a sub just gets you there faster. Hell, let everyone get vet points to buy those one-off costume bits in the gold vendor. That is such a waste of dev time to make that stuff only for it to be gone forever for most players. I bet even gold players would like that.
^ This.
I've suggested, and supported others making the same suggestion, this idea for some time now. A silver's money spent on micro-transactions should count, in some way, toward veteran status (IMO).
subs is $15 per month, so if you spend that as a Silver, it should count as a months subs or if you're greedy $20 to cover buying something after subs.
you can get to 1000 days with ... brain gone dead, finding calculator
actually it works out to approx $493 . [1000/365] x [$15 x12]
subs is $15 per month, so if you spend that as a Silver, it should count as a months subs or if you're greedy $20 to cover buying something after subs.
you can get to 1000 days with ... brain gone dead, finding calculator
actually it works out to approx $493 . [1000/365] x [$15 x12]
Considering that subscription cost calculates a month as 30 days period... the calculation would actually be $15(1000/30)=$500 exact... there is no approximate to this one...
Rift has login rewards for everyone. Subs get better stuff though. Non-subs mostly get artifacts but subs can get lockbox keys and other nicer things. Of course, even filthy freeloaders can rarely get keys and lockboxes in normal play. Lockboxes are very rare drops in Rift, not the all you can eat buffet.
I'd rather see cryptic do something nice for people who spend money, not for subs. Silver players also spend money, but are basically treated like their cash doesn't matter because they didn't spend it the "right" way. It'd be super if even silver players could earn vet rewards for spending. Having a sub just gets you there faster. Hell, let everyone get vet points to buy those one-off costume bits in the gold vendor. That is such a waste of dev time to make that stuff only for it to be gone forever for most players. I bet even gold players would like that.
^ This.
I've suggested, and supported others making the same suggestion, this idea for some time now. A silver's money spent on micro-transactions should count, in some way, toward veteran status (IMO).
Wildstar has something like this. Every time you spend money in the store, you fill up this meter based on how much you spent. There's like five or six tiers of this meter, and each tier has like 5 or 6 milestones in it. Whenever you hit a milestone, you get a neat little doodad, like a pet or a mount or whatever. What's even cooler is that you can purchase from them something called CREDD, which costs like 15 bucks or something, but you can sell it in the game through a special vendor (works like the auction house, people can set a price they want to sell it at, and buyers can set a price they'll buy it at). This item can then be sold again or redeemed for a month of game time. So it's basically people buying game time for other people and in return they get a bunch of in-game cash. And whenever you redeem the CREDD, it counts as you spending money in the game as well, and fills up your reward meter, too.
I think it's a pretty slick system, and I think it would probably work in Champs.
What's even cooler is that you can purchase from them something called CREDD, which costs like 15 bucks or something, but you can sell it in the game through a special vendor (works like the auction house, people can set a price they want to sell it at, and buyers can set a price they'll buy it at). This item can then be sold again or redeemed for a month of game time. So it's basically people buying game time for other people and in return they get a bunch of in-game cash. And whenever you redeem the CREDD, it counts as you spending money in the game as well, and fills up your reward meter, too.
I think it's a pretty slick system, and I think it would probably work in Champs.
WoW recently added something similar... Game Time Tokens are starting to become common place in many other MMOs too...
Comments
These subliminal shenanigans are going on everywhere all the time, the whole advertising industry in built upon them...
its not necessarily even a bad thing, we can just ignore it.
"You had stated that there had been NO content added since Vibora Bay. Your contention was refuted. You should simply graciously acknowledge that your complaint was in error and in fact has no basis, rather than doubling down on misinformation."
Actually: "The game got a update 6 months after launch and since then it's been relatively stagnant. There was a year or two with updates that were pretty good (Resistance, Whiteout, Demonflame, etc) and in a long time it's been pretty much nothing."
No absolutes once in that statement. And I provided evidence for my statement in relation to various other projects Cryptic as been working on and listed a multitude of different features and content of all varieties added in the same time since those 2 content updates...over a year ago...heck look at my last post again, those other games have had more general updates in nearly any 6 month period than this game has had in 2 years.
The only thing I've ever asserted or stated has been that this game needs more love and attention. Unless people would rather get 4 missions every 1-2 years versus 4 missions every 4-6 months? Unless you'd rather have no new powersets and just a handful of additional powers purchasable from the Zen shop via random drop lockboxes.
What would your IDEAL (but realistic) development for CO be? If it's not the current state and rate or less then we're completely agreeing and just quibbling over semantics.
Players logged into CO's server aren't civilians living in some kind of virtual country that they're expected to have the sort of mandatory monetary commitment identical to taxes. Cryptic isn't some government body and CO's virtual space isn't some country that they're managing. Even though they need money to cover expenses in keeping the game running, it's from a business standpoint which is something very different, and there isn't even any forced obligation on the player's part to actually give Cryptic any money like how taxes are.
So, no, the comparison doesn't fly. Last I checked, nothing about the lockboxes and their content in any way cripples the player in a way that their character is made to be under-performing against the game's content if they opt not to get them. There's plenty of evidence and examples out there to objectively show that this is the case. Before Legion gear is brought up, no, it's not important to have to excel at the game. Since that's the case then I don't see this "psychological enforcement" being as severe and as widespread as you're claiming it to be. I'm going to go with that it's really just in your head space.
If you want a real example of being psychologically-forced into purchasing stuff that game companies make their players do, there are plenty out there in the mobile game market, where players can only perform a limited amount of game actions in a day and then are forced to wait hours before they can resume their gameplay, unless they pay money to overcome it; something called a "time gate", or any competitive PVP game that sells Pay2Win items to give the player a significant advantage over other players who don't buy such items.
Lets look at this in a differnt light.
If you recieve a box in the mail every day that cannot be opened unless you acquire a specific key. Now, you have 3 choices initially, A) Toss the box and ignore it,
I have in no way said that everyone will feel forced to buy keys, infact I have stated as much before. What I am saying is that lockboxes are a form of Psychological marketing that are not widely appriciated. If they removed lockboxes and replaced them with Grabbags I know I and many others would be more open to buying them. To some there is no difference, but as I already explained several timess before there is a major fundamental difference between the two. One is often viewed in a negative light (Lockboxes) while the other is viewed in a neutral light (grabbags), neither are actually viewed positivly from most people. Most gamers dislike the idea of both as a whole. I've disscussed before how to make lockboxes be viewed in a more positive light and was dismissed by the very same people who are arguing with me about this on this thread. If lockboxes are to ever be viewed more positively the acquisition of keys must be altered, a monthly misison rewarding a few keys (3~5) would be one way to accomplish this. Lowering key costs and selling in bulk as standard (5keys = 100Z) is another... But ofcouse none of ya'll will hear any of it.
With that, I am done with the lockbox discussion and will not respond to any more comments on it. Lets all just change the subject now.
None of the items in the lockbox even present game changing things. They offer useful things at best and cosmetics at the most. Last I checked we weren't being compelled to open these. In short you are kind of reaching for an accusation that doesn't really exist.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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Not everyone is like you, not everyone reacts to things the way you do. You don't react to lockboxes the way others do? Great. But don't be condescending about it. I'm sure you've got your own flaws.
The fact is that lockboxes do sell better than grab bags because they have that trigger for people. "It's in my inventory, now I'm wondering if something great is in it! Gotta get a key!" There's a reason why Cryptic changed from Grab Bags, which are as intrusive to your playstyle as anything else in the C Store, to Lockboxes, which are shoved in your face almost every game session if you spend at least an hour or so playing.
Practically, there is no difference between a grab bag and a lockbox, if grab bags were made tradeable. It's an object which gives you some loot. One of them is only there if you look for it, the other is constantly reminding you that it's there. It's good that the differences between the two don't affect you in any way, but try not to act superior to everyone else that gives in to this proven method of marketing.
So on a different note... I'm sure we're all loving the massive number of costume fixes Kaiserin's been working on.
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If you really want to keep lockboxes you don't use, it isn't much of an issue.
One of my heroes is the "lockbox" bank, and has hundreds of each lockbox that's been available since they started. It's only part of one page of bank slots.
Whoever you are, be that person one hundred percent. Don't compromise on your identity.
I agree with your sentiments.
In DCUO, lockboxes are rare, like 1 every 6 hours. However, keys are free for members. In CO, lockboxes are plentiful, but keys must be brought, via ah or zen.
I have a crap load of lockboxes laying around, they take up inventory space though. Will be damn if I run out and buy 100 plus keys, haha.
The keys it will take to nab a vehicle or costume set?...Might as-well buy the stuff off AH.[/quote]
in DCUO, unless they have changed since I stopped playing,lockbox contents are not usable gear, or vehicles or anything useful. It is mostly non tradeable crap like hideout furniture
out of the ones I opened, a max level potion was the only item I would class as useful.
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Very few thought of the third option, scarcity, as less people keep them as a defacto currency.
The chances of the questionite exchange dropping around 150, are directly related to Questionite drops being stopped.
The exchange goes up with up sale, we have few people who buy zen directly or indirectly and EVERYONE can farm Q.
we have people who store all the crates for double Q weekend , so they can get more.
we had 2 years before the major Q farms were shut down.
lots of Q being farmed,stuff all in the Q store to use it on.
when there is a particularly good sale on, you can watch the zen in the exchange vanish.
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we've got our monthly Gold subscriber costume/emotes without losing anything... granted that seems to have been more of a "we don't know how to continue Vet rewards any further, have this instead" thing...
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
I think the monthly stipend should be increased, the only question is "By how much?". An increase to about 800 Zen sounds right in my opinion.
Click here to check out my costumes/milleniumguardian (MG) in-game/We need more tights, stances and moods
It seems to me that if Champs went this way, we'd see like a pack of three keys every hundred days, with like a pack of random rank 3 mods and other junk inbetween. I used to be excited for daily login rewards in games, to the point that I think I suggested it for this game as a means of getting ore people to log in, but lately I just don't care about these. It's like a slow-paced and less meaningful Veteran Rewards system.
I'd love to be proven wrong on this, though. I'd love to see a daily login reward I could really look forward to. This is a good point. The thing is though that the price hike was probably a necessity for them, and giving people a larger stipend to compensate might mean that they made the price hike for no reason. Guess it depends on where most costume money comes from, gold or silver, and other analytics I won't pretend to know.
Epic Stronghold
Block timing explained
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
But you're right, some people would like it.
the good ones however take a more random approach... each day you receive a random reward off the login rewards list, with each consecutive day your chances of getting the higher end items go up and some of the less desireable items start removing themselves from your list... resets everytime you miss a day...
One of the best ones I've seen however, also had a random reward chance but took a more active approach... upon login you were presented with a prize wheel and a free spin... throughout the day you had chances of looting extra spins or you could buy them off the cash shop... it was rather interesting... You always got a free spin every day... the game had an optional subscriber system (like CO) and gave subscribers 2 free spins per day.
I'd rather see cryptic do something nice for people who spend money, not for subs. Silver players also spend money, but are basically treated like their cash doesn't matter because they didn't spend it the "right" way. It'd be super if even silver players could earn vet rewards for spending. Having a sub just gets you there faster. Hell, let everyone get vet points to buy those one-off costume bits in the gold vendor. That is such a waste of dev time to make that stuff only for it to be gone forever for most players. I bet even gold players would like that.
[at]riviania Member since Aug 2009
Like... for every 1000 Zen bought you get a few vet points? You can spend them in the Gold Vendor for past rewards, & perhaps the current months reward is half-price? for every ($50-100 zen worth) of vet points you can buy a new tier of Vet Reward?
I LIKE THIS IDEA A LOT!
If this was made official, I can see spending all my Income to get the Avian Warrior Pack
Now Now, I may want the Avian Warrior Pack like crazy, but I wouldn't spend THAT much LOL
But its a nice Quality of Life and customer loyalty program for Silvers (something which CO never had), with a little work it would work fine!
and honestly It would help me FINALLY getting the costume set I desire the most while bypassing the fact that Im unable to buy Lifetime Sub
if only the system worked correctly 1 year ago... I would be Lifetimer today
Consider posting this suggestion in the QoL section of the thread http://forum.arcgames.com/championsonline/discussion/1198119/compiled-list-of-bugs-issues-and-qol-concerns-version-2-0/p1
^ This.
I've suggested, and supported others making the same suggestion, this idea for some time now. A silver's money spent on micro-transactions should count, in some way, toward veteran status (IMO).
'Caine, miss you bud. Fly high.
you can get to 1000 days with ... brain gone dead, finding calculator
actually it works out to approx $493 . [1000/365] x [$15 x12]
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Considering that subscription cost calculates a month as 30 days period... the calculation would actually be $15(1000/30)=$500 exact... there is no approximate to this one...
I think it's a pretty slick system, and I think it would probably work in Champs.