Control yourself. If you can't do that, it isn't societies responsibility to work around your lack of control.
Nor is it their right to exploit a person's lack of control.
People do have a responsibility to exercise smart practices when engaging in business, but that doesn't give businesses a right to exploit or subvert them when they don't.
It isn't a matter of what rights they have, its a matter of you controlling yourself no matter what they're doing.
Sorry to break it to you but capitalism doesn't work if businesses are to be forced to rely purely on the face value of their product in order to sell it. Unless you're suggesting we move away from capitalism (Which btw is a different topic altogether and goes beyond the concept of lockboxes) your assertions have no basis in reality.
It isn't a matter of what rights they have, its a matter of you controlling yourself no matter what they're doing.
Sorry to break it to you but capitalism doesn't work if businesses are to be forced to rely purely on the face value of their product in order to sell it. Unless you're suggesting we move away from capitalism (Which btw is a different topic altogether and goes beyond the concept of lockboxes) your assertions have no basis in reality.
The problem is that they know people can't control themselves. It's an exploit--and one Cryptic would patch if it were the other way around; they have countless times before.
You're right: it's another matter completely, so let's not bring it up.
And besides, if you don't like it, don't pay into it. Invest your time and grind the EC and you can just buy the ships/keys outright and do it all completely for free.
"Ignore it if you don't like it" and "you don't HAVE to pay money for them, so actually it's completely free!" aren't really valid arguments when discussing whether something is exploitative or good or bad for the game overall.
1) You can't just ignore something if it's the only way to acquire certain items. If there were other ways to get the loto-box ships and such then this would be valid, but they aren't. Even if you vow to never use a loto-box yourself, if an item is acquired solely from a loto-box then that means you can't even buy that item from other players without indirectly supporting the sale and purchase of the loto-boxes. Their existence directly influences the ingame experiences of even people who never purchase them.
2) Yes, it's technically possible to buy anything in the cash shop without spending a single real life dime. Does this mean that everything in the cash shop is "completely free"? Obviously not. Even if you don't spend real money to buy anything in the cash shop, you're still spending time earning currencies that you normally would not be spending. As a human that does not have an infinite lifespan playing a game that will certainly not even be around as long as I will (well, hopefully), time absolutely is a currency being spent.
The problem is that they know people can't control themselves. It's an exploit--and one Cryptic would patch if it were the other way around; they have countless times before.
You're right: it's another matter completely, so let's not bring it up.
Just because some people can't control themselves doesn't justify completely bringing down the system.
Just because some people can't control themselves doesn't justify completely bringing down the system.
You can't control everything, it's part of the human nature. So cryptic is using our psychological flaws to make money. As long as you know that you're safe, but you're not alone on earth. Many people don't. If you don't care about other people that makes you one of the best sociopath i've ever seen.
For a - supposedly - star trek fan your post and ideas could use more compassion.
"Ignore it if you don't like it" and "you don't HAVE to pay money for them, so actually it's completely free!" aren't really valid arguments when discussing whether something is exploitative or good or bad for the game overall.
1) You can't just ignore something if it's the only way to acquire certain items. If there were other ways to get the loto-box ships and such then this would be valid, but they aren't. Even if you vow to never use a loto-box yourself, if an item is acquired solely from a loto-box then that means you can't even buy that item from other players without indirectly supporting the sale and purchase of the loto-boxes. Their existence directly influences the ingame experiences of even people who never purchase them.
2) Yes, it's technically possible to buy anything in the cash shop without spending a single real life dime. Does this mean that everything in the cash shop is "completely free"? Obviously not. Even if you don't spend real money to buy anything in the cash shop, you're still spending time earning currencies that you normally would not be spending. As a human that does not have an infinite lifespan playing a game that will certainly not even be around as long as I will (well, hopefully), time absolutely is a currency being spent.
I see your problem: You're presuming you NEED these things that come out of lock boxes. You don't. No one needs anything that comes out of a lockbox. An equivalent item can be had completely for free investing nothing but your time (and as I said, if you aren't investing your time, then you aren't actually playing the game anyway) so there is literally no reason to complain about boxes unless you actually did open a lot of boxes and didn't win a ship.
The only item in the entire game that could be considered problematic is the Jemmy, and thats just because that ship is ridiculously unbalanced. No other lockbox ship is like that, and no other item you can get out of a box is like that, as everything else either has an equivalent you can find in the game or even something better.
You can't control everything, it's part of the human nature. So cryptic is using our psychological flaws to make money. As long as you know that you're safe, but you're not alone on earth. Many people don't. If you don't care about other people that makes you one of the best sociopath i've ever seen.
So it all goes back then to understanding how gambling works. If you don't or can't understand and accept it, then you have bigger problems and should probably remove yourself from the temptation.
And I don't feel sorry for people who can't control themselves, as that's something only the individual themselves can teach themselves to do. I pity them sure, but I'm not going to hold their hands and ignore the problem that's inherent to them.
I see your problem: You're presuming you NEED these things that come out of lock boxes. You don't. No one needs anything that comes out of a lockbox. An equivalent item can be had completely for free investing nothing but your time (and as I said, if you aren't investing your time, then you aren't actually playing the game anyway) so there is literally no reason to complain about boxes unless you actually did open a lot of boxes and didn't win a ship.
No one "needs" anything in the game, it doesn't change that they exist and they influence people's ingame experiences. No one "needs" to play the game either but I can guarantee there would be an uproar if the subscription cost was increased to $30 a month. Arguing that none of the items are "needed" is completely irrelevant, the only reason to bring it up is to weasel out of any criticism of the product or the way it's being sold. Your argument here reminds me of when EA was "offering" to charge players to automatically unlock all access to all of the content in one of their golf games, essentially giving them the "option" of paying twice for access to content they already bought rather than making it a cheat code like games use to do, or even just making it a base feature. But they hid what they were doing behind friendly wording like "option" and "choice" to deflect criticism of what they were actually expecting customers to do; pay for a product twice.
If it exists ingame then it matters to everyone playing the game, regardless of if they ever even pay real money to obtain it themselves. "Ignore it if you don't like it" is not a valid argument when you need to change your ingame habits to truly "ignore" the feature in question.
An equivalent item can be had completely for free investing nothing but your time
If you accept that you have to farm dilithium to exchange for zen every time you want something. As I said in a previous post, lets assume for a moment you want the chroniton dual beam bank.
200 Lobi = 50 boxes/keys = 6250 zen = 968,750 dilithium (at 155 per which is 1 or 2 points below current)
Thats an absurd amount of farming for 1 item. 1 of a 3 piece set. Is it fair to expect people to farm a million dilithium (which would take you 121 days / 4 months to refine) for a single item. Thats a YEAR of farming every day in order to complete your set.
I argue that making thing achievable but having it take a ridiculously long time is as good as not being achievable at all.
You could ofcourse go the energy credit route
200 Lobi = 50 boxes/keys = 75 million energy credits.
It would probably not take you as long to gather that many energy credits but there is hardly an abundance of ways to earn them at a decent rate in this game. Unless you happen to be lucking in an elite STF and win a few drops of Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII [Acc]x3.
In support of what ehra's saying I'd also add that in a game with such a paucity of end-game content (and such a rapid path to reach that end-game), people 'need' this stuff because well, what else is there to do?
Getting a new ship means you might grind out some STFs to get the MACO/Omega/KHG sets plus Mk XII weapons and XI consoles - you might respec and tinker with your Boffs to get an optimal build.
In this game, ships are you as much as your character is, and gaining a new one opens a (limited) avenue of gameplay possibilities.
The lockbox ships are desirable because they're unique, and something quite different to what's available in the C-Store. Sure, I could buy a Regent for the Torpedo launcher, the look of the ship and the slightly more tactical bias of the layout but I haven't - why? 'Cause it's essentially the same ship as my Sovereign and honestly, it doesn't excite me.
If I could buy a Wells I would - heck, I'd probably make an alt specifically for it and have a great time levelling up again and speccing it out. But I'm not gonna grind endlessly for Dilithium or EC for that and I'm not going to take my chances on the lockboxes either.
Which is probably why I'm still flying the Excelsior I bought two years ago and complaining on these forums instead of playing the game
I see your problem: You're presuming you NEED these things that come out of lock boxes. You don't. No one needs anything that comes out of a lockbox.
You don't NEED to stay alive, so why don't you just kill yourself? This idea is the most ludicrous one can ever see. The human behavious is far from being dependant on needs. If you don't know that yet I hope for you that you'll get old enough to see and understand it.
You don't NEED to stay alive, so why don't you just kill yourself? This idea is the most ludicrous one can ever see. The human behavious is far from being dependant on needs. If you don't know that yet I hope for you that you'll get old enough to see and understand it.
Technically, that's a philosophical can of worms that I'm not sure is appropriate for this discussion or the forum at large...
agreed so ill make this post MORE KLINGON CONTENT!!!!
See now this is where the fragmentation comes in. While I agree it would be nice if there's more to do on the Klingon side of things, what I really want is Romulans.
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
I'm in two minds about this - since this game launched, the content on the Klingon side has been (and continues to be) truly pathetic.
All of those that want playable Romulans (and that includes me) are going to complain when they're finally introduced into the game in some half-baked fashion.
The Feds will moan because Fed-side will have been neglected to introduce the Romulans, the Klingons will moan because, quite honestly they have every right to and whatever Romulan content they introduce we'll all burn through in a couple of days (if that).
I just don't see the justification to it. And let's say it's a big hit - and that loads of Feds roll Romulans - so much so that there's more Roms than Klinks - what's that going to do to the Klingon side of the game? It'll get relegated to 3rd place and they deserve better than that.
Cryptic can't release one STF in two years - having three factions to maintain is a disaster waiting to happen...
The Feds will moan because Fed-side will have been neglected to introduce the Romulans, the Klingons will moan because, quite honestly they have every right to and whatever Romulan content they introduce we'll all burn through in a couple of days (if that)....
as a fed my self but wants a romulans feds do not have a right really on any lvl to moan wine about any thing now for the KDF have every right to do so as you said
as a fed my self but wants a romulans feds do not have a right really on any lvl to moan wine about any thing now for the KDF have every right to do so as you said
Whilst they may not have as much right to moan, there's still as much of a lack of things for Feds to do at end-game as there is for the Klingons.
OK, well I put to you this - if I gave your Fleet unlimited resources and I gave another Fleet unlimited resources you'd both end up with identical starbases.
So, y'know - why not just hang out in ESD?
This is something I said before these things even launched.
At the very least, I think projects should have recolors or reskins that a Fleet can choose between. (If you don't like it, do the alternate project during the window or during project reruns).
Y'Know... Gold table versus glass versus illuminated. That kind of thing.
Security Officers wearing one of five uniform styles OR mercenaries for Maximum Security.
Choice between "History of the Enterprise" and others
I've nothing against them; especially not since I won my Wells class!
Yeah but the question was when will the community...
I will have to go with probably never. I think people who put down cash for the game should be told exactly what they are buying.
On the other hand people are burning cash like there is no tomorrow and if those people are happy with it who am I to complain.
I only pve anyway so you are welcome to show up with the best dps you got and carry me to the optional.
I only wish they do pay2win on the ground too could save us normal players from a lot of trouble on infected ground optional
It isn't an impossible thing to exert self-control, and if you can't do it in regards to this game then you have a problem that extends far beyond the concept of a lockbox.
I think you kinda need to decouple, in your mind, the definition of what constitutes gambling (= playing a game of chance for winnings, basically) from 'gambling', the personal addiction. The latter falls entirely outside the scope of this thread, really.
In fact, I would go so far as to say the exact opposite of what you assert is true: the annoyance with the lockboxes lies not with the absence of having self-control (people's alleged addiction), but precisely with people's *aversion* to gambling. People who play these type of F2P games, on a whole, are quite willing to shell out good bucks for better gear, ships, etc., as long as you tell em: "It costs X to obtain Y." What they do NOT like, however, is getting drawn into a lottery.
Now, here is where I see you go awry in your thinking: you assume that people who open lockboxes anyway do so from a lack of self-restraint (and thus have some sort of alleged gambling problem). Not so; they do so, because the game doesn't offer another way. Now, people can always choose to stop playing altogether, of course; but, short of that, like in my case, if you want to have that temporal set for your ships, you HAVE to open 600 lobi worth of lockboxes, or simply quit playing. The game doesn't offer any other way. Believe me, if I could have bought that set in the C-store, I would have, and would have never had anything to do with the lockboxes.
And THAT is what ticks people off: having a lottery element forced on them, without which they cannot get access to the good stuff in the game.
Also, the system messages flashing across the screen, about who received a temporal vessel, are simply banking on people's poor understanding of statistics. People see a message like that every few minutes, and they think: "Wow, I guess the odds are pretty good." Meanwhile not getting that the odds are still only ca. 0.02% -- only with a lot of people playing the frequency seems much higher.
In gambling, you are not guaranteed any payoff. If lockboxes are gambling, so is a box of Crackerjacks.
There's at least 4 Lobi in there. There is *SOMETHING* else in there. This is guaranteed. As to what it is? Dunno; kinda like a gumball machine, you're gonna get SOMETHING.
It's a grab bag. They had those in your grade school Halloween fair, remember?
Former moderator of these forums. Lifetime sub since before launch. Been here since before public betas. Foundry author of "Franklin Drake Must Die".
Well you put down the cash they wanted you to and there is no flaw in the lockbox system, so what is the complaint again.
Personally I tend to agree with the other guy, you meimeitoo openly admit "I HAD to have that ship" whereas a person with selfcontrol might simply say it's just a skin that won't change my game experience in the slightest.
If you can honestly say you don't have any regrets and you are happy then what is your complaint, however if just did something you felt you HAD to do but couldn't stop yourself and now suffer remorse I'd say you just gave head on the nail in defining what addiction is.
In gambling, you are not guaranteed any payoff. If lockboxes are gambling, so is a box of Crackerjacks.
There's at least 4 Lobi in there. There is *SOMETHING* else in there. This is guaranteed. As to what it is? Dunno; kinda like a gumball machine, you're gonna get SOMETHING.
It's a grab bag. They had those in your grade school Halloween fair, remember?
That's a horrible example. When you pay for a box of Crackerjacks, you're purchasing the food stuffs--not the chance at a prize. When you buy a lockbox, you're not buying it for the box, but for the chance at something that could be inside the box.
Alternatively, we know that the prizes in food stuff boxes are there to entice kids to whine and beg their parents to get it for them. It's precisely what Cryptic and PWE are doing when they flash names across your screen. That is to say, they're manipulating your self control.
It reminds me of an episode of Family Guy where Peter is given the choice between a brand new boat or a mystery box.
"A boat's a boat, but the mystery box could be anything! It could even be a boat! I'll take it!"
Well you put down the cash they wanted you to and there is no flaw in the lockbox system, so what is the complaint again.
Personally I tend to agree with the other guy, you meimeitoo openly admit "I HAD to have that ship" whereas a person with selfcontrol might simply say it's just a skin that won't change my game experience in the slightest.
If you can honestly say you don't have any regrets and you are happy then what is your complaint, however if just did something you felt you HAD to do but couldn't stop yourself and now suffer remorse I'd say you just gave head on the nail in defining what addiction is.
Nope. You misconstrue my desire to continue playing this game for a gambling addiction. The problem is that this game is rapidly closing off regular avenues of obtaining ships/gear, and replacing it with a lottery system.
Also, LOL @ my alleged regret. I'm quite happy with my temporal set, thank you! It rocks! I'm not happy with the way I had to obtain it, though; and thus not happy with the direction this game is going in, however. And if the lottery element starts to take over everything, I will assuredly leave.
Comments
Don't skirt around the issue, and don't presume I'm referring to you specifically.
Nor is it their right to exploit a person's lack of control.
People do have a responsibility to exercise smart practices when engaging in business, but that doesn't give businesses a right to exploit or subvert them when they don't.
Sorry to break it to you but capitalism doesn't work if businesses are to be forced to rely purely on the face value of their product in order to sell it. Unless you're suggesting we move away from capitalism (Which btw is a different topic altogether and goes beyond the concept of lockboxes) your assertions have no basis in reality.
The problem is that they know people can't control themselves. It's an exploit--and one Cryptic would patch if it were the other way around; they have countless times before.
You're right: it's another matter completely, so let's not bring it up.
"Ignore it if you don't like it" and "you don't HAVE to pay money for them, so actually it's completely free!" aren't really valid arguments when discussing whether something is exploitative or good or bad for the game overall.
1) You can't just ignore something if it's the only way to acquire certain items. If there were other ways to get the loto-box ships and such then this would be valid, but they aren't. Even if you vow to never use a loto-box yourself, if an item is acquired solely from a loto-box then that means you can't even buy that item from other players without indirectly supporting the sale and purchase of the loto-boxes. Their existence directly influences the ingame experiences of even people who never purchase them.
2) Yes, it's technically possible to buy anything in the cash shop without spending a single real life dime. Does this mean that everything in the cash shop is "completely free"? Obviously not. Even if you don't spend real money to buy anything in the cash shop, you're still spending time earning currencies that you normally would not be spending. As a human that does not have an infinite lifespan playing a game that will certainly not even be around as long as I will (well, hopefully), time absolutely is a currency being spent.
Just because some people can't control themselves doesn't justify completely bringing down the system.
Nor does it justify their (business') part in the system. Glad we agree.
You can't control everything, it's part of the human nature. So cryptic is using our psychological flaws to make money. As long as you know that you're safe, but you're not alone on earth. Many people don't. If you don't care about other people that makes you one of the best sociopath i've ever seen.
For a - supposedly - star trek fan your post and ideas could use more compassion.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
I see your problem: You're presuming you NEED these things that come out of lock boxes. You don't. No one needs anything that comes out of a lockbox. An equivalent item can be had completely for free investing nothing but your time (and as I said, if you aren't investing your time, then you aren't actually playing the game anyway) so there is literally no reason to complain about boxes unless you actually did open a lot of boxes and didn't win a ship.
The only item in the entire game that could be considered problematic is the Jemmy, and thats just because that ship is ridiculously unbalanced. No other lockbox ship is like that, and no other item you can get out of a box is like that, as everything else either has an equivalent you can find in the game or even something better.
So it all goes back then to understanding how gambling works. If you don't or can't understand and accept it, then you have bigger problems and should probably remove yourself from the temptation.
And I don't feel sorry for people who can't control themselves, as that's something only the individual themselves can teach themselves to do. I pity them sure, but I'm not going to hold their hands and ignore the problem that's inherent to them.
No one "needs" anything in the game, it doesn't change that they exist and they influence people's ingame experiences. No one "needs" to play the game either but I can guarantee there would be an uproar if the subscription cost was increased to $30 a month. Arguing that none of the items are "needed" is completely irrelevant, the only reason to bring it up is to weasel out of any criticism of the product or the way it's being sold. Your argument here reminds me of when EA was "offering" to charge players to automatically unlock all access to all of the content in one of their golf games, essentially giving them the "option" of paying twice for access to content they already bought rather than making it a cheat code like games use to do, or even just making it a base feature. But they hid what they were doing behind friendly wording like "option" and "choice" to deflect criticism of what they were actually expecting customers to do; pay for a product twice.
If it exists ingame then it matters to everyone playing the game, regardless of if they ever even pay real money to obtain it themselves. "Ignore it if you don't like it" is not a valid argument when you need to change your ingame habits to truly "ignore" the feature in question.
If you accept that you have to farm dilithium to exchange for zen every time you want something. As I said in a previous post, lets assume for a moment you want the chroniton dual beam bank.
200 Lobi = 50 boxes/keys = 6250 zen = 968,750 dilithium (at 155 per which is 1 or 2 points below current)
Thats an absurd amount of farming for 1 item. 1 of a 3 piece set. Is it fair to expect people to farm a million dilithium (which would take you 121 days / 4 months to refine) for a single item. Thats a YEAR of farming every day in order to complete your set.
I argue that making thing achievable but having it take a ridiculously long time is as good as not being achievable at all.
You could ofcourse go the energy credit route
200 Lobi = 50 boxes/keys = 75 million energy credits.
It would probably not take you as long to gather that many energy credits but there is hardly an abundance of ways to earn them at a decent rate in this game. Unless you happen to be lucking in an elite STF and win a few drops of Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII [Acc]x3.
Getting a new ship means you might grind out some STFs to get the MACO/Omega/KHG sets plus Mk XII weapons and XI consoles - you might respec and tinker with your Boffs to get an optimal build.
In this game, ships are you as much as your character is, and gaining a new one opens a (limited) avenue of gameplay possibilities.
The lockbox ships are desirable because they're unique, and something quite different to what's available in the C-Store. Sure, I could buy a Regent for the Torpedo launcher, the look of the ship and the slightly more tactical bias of the layout but I haven't - why? 'Cause it's essentially the same ship as my Sovereign and honestly, it doesn't excite me.
If I could buy a Wells I would - heck, I'd probably make an alt specifically for it and have a great time levelling up again and speccing it out. But I'm not gonna grind endlessly for Dilithium or EC for that and I'm not going to take my chances on the lockboxes either.
Which is probably why I'm still flying the Excelsior I bought two years ago and complaining on these forums instead of playing the game
You don't NEED to stay alive, so why don't you just kill yourself? This idea is the most ludicrous one can ever see. The human behavious is far from being dependant on needs. If you don't know that yet I hope for you that you'll get old enough to see and understand it.
God, lvl 60 CW. 17k.
Technically, that's a philosophical can of worms that I'm not sure is appropriate for this discussion or the forum at large...
See now this is where the fragmentation comes in. While I agree it would be nice if there's more to do on the Klingon side of things, what I really want is Romulans.
Let us upgrade the Seleya Ceremonial Lirpa and Kri'stak Blade
All of those that want playable Romulans (and that includes me) are going to complain when they're finally introduced into the game in some half-baked fashion.
The Feds will moan because Fed-side will have been neglected to introduce the Romulans, the Klingons will moan because, quite honestly they have every right to and whatever Romulan content they introduce we'll all burn through in a couple of days (if that).
I just don't see the justification to it. And let's say it's a big hit - and that loads of Feds roll Romulans - so much so that there's more Roms than Klinks - what's that going to do to the Klingon side of the game? It'll get relegated to 3rd place and they deserve better than that.
Cryptic can't release one STF in two years - having three factions to maintain is a disaster waiting to happen...
as a fed my self but wants a romulans feds do not have a right really on any lvl to moan wine about any thing now for the KDF have every right to do so as you said
system Lord Baal is dead
Whilst they may not have as much right to moan, there's still as much of a lack of things for Feds to do at end-game as there is for the Klingons.
And they do cry the loudest
i will agree both side really need new mission storys but KDF are really on life support whlie Feds are in the recovery room
system Lord Baal is dead
This is something I said before these things even launched.
At the very least, I think projects should have recolors or reskins that a Fleet can choose between. (If you don't like it, do the alternate project during the window or during project reruns).
Y'Know... Gold table versus glass versus illuminated. That kind of thing.
Security Officers wearing one of five uniform styles OR mercenaries for Maximum Security.
Choice between "History of the Enterprise" and others
Yeah but the question was when will the community...
I will have to go with probably never. I think people who put down cash for the game should be told exactly what they are buying.
On the other hand people are burning cash like there is no tomorrow and if those people are happy with it who am I to complain.
I only pve anyway so you are welcome to show up with the best dps you got and carry me to the optional.
I only wish they do pay2win on the ground too could save us normal players from a lot of trouble on infected ground optional
I think you kinda need to decouple, in your mind, the definition of what constitutes gambling (= playing a game of chance for winnings, basically) from 'gambling', the personal addiction. The latter falls entirely outside the scope of this thread, really.
In fact, I would go so far as to say the exact opposite of what you assert is true: the annoyance with the lockboxes lies not with the absence of having self-control (people's alleged addiction), but precisely with people's *aversion* to gambling. People who play these type of F2P games, on a whole, are quite willing to shell out good bucks for better gear, ships, etc., as long as you tell em: "It costs X to obtain Y." What they do NOT like, however, is getting drawn into a lottery.
Now, here is where I see you go awry in your thinking: you assume that people who open lockboxes anyway do so from a lack of self-restraint (and thus have some sort of alleged gambling problem). Not so; they do so, because the game doesn't offer another way. Now, people can always choose to stop playing altogether, of course; but, short of that, like in my case, if you want to have that temporal set for your ships, you HAVE to open 600 lobi worth of lockboxes, or simply quit playing. The game doesn't offer any other way. Believe me, if I could have bought that set in the C-store, I would have, and would have never had anything to do with the lockboxes.
And THAT is what ticks people off: having a lottery element forced on them, without which they cannot get access to the good stuff in the game.
Also, the system messages flashing across the screen, about who received a temporal vessel, are simply banking on people's poor understanding of statistics. People see a message like that every few minutes, and they think: "Wow, I guess the odds are pretty good." Meanwhile not getting that the odds are still only ca. 0.02% -- only with a lot of people playing the frequency seems much higher.
There's at least 4 Lobi in there. There is *SOMETHING* else in there. This is guaranteed. As to what it is? Dunno; kinda like a gumball machine, you're gonna get SOMETHING.
It's a grab bag. They had those in your grade school Halloween fair, remember?
the hole cbs that they dont want rare ships to be common is really a joke and maybe even a lie.
but if cryptic really needs the money why not do this.
if you open 100 lockboxes you are 100% garanteed by the system to get a ship.
wich means 100 lock boxes of money is stull funding.
other than that its pure gamble and a joke and harmful to the game.
Well you put down the cash they wanted you to and there is no flaw in the lockbox system, so what is the complaint again.
Personally I tend to agree with the other guy, you meimeitoo openly admit "I HAD to have that ship" whereas a person with selfcontrol might simply say it's just a skin that won't change my game experience in the slightest.
If you can honestly say you don't have any regrets and you are happy then what is your complaint, however if just did something you felt you HAD to do but couldn't stop yourself and now suffer remorse I'd say you just gave head on the nail in defining what addiction is.
That's a horrible example. When you pay for a box of Crackerjacks, you're purchasing the food stuffs--not the chance at a prize. When you buy a lockbox, you're not buying it for the box, but for the chance at something that could be inside the box.
Alternatively, we know that the prizes in food stuff boxes are there to entice kids to whine and beg their parents to get it for them. It's precisely what Cryptic and PWE are doing when they flash names across your screen. That is to say, they're manipulating your self control.
It reminds me of an episode of Family Guy where Peter is given the choice between a brand new boat or a mystery box.
"A boat's a boat, but the mystery box could be anything! It could even be a boat! I'll take it!"
At the guaranteed 4 lobi per box, you need to open 200 lockboxes to get the Mobius.
Nope. You misconstrue my desire to continue playing this game for a gambling addiction. The problem is that this game is rapidly closing off regular avenues of obtaining ships/gear, and replacing it with a lottery system.
Also, LOL @ my alleged regret. I'm quite happy with my temporal set, thank you! It rocks! I'm not happy with the way I had to obtain it, though; and thus not happy with the direction this game is going in, however. And if the lottery element starts to take over everything, I will assuredly leave.