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2017 Lock Box Controversy and Debate
marvelfan007
Member Posts: 20 Arc User
Are the lock boxes worth it?
Well? Are they?
Well? Are they?
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on
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you could burn thru 1k keys and not get the item you want, or get it on your very 1st key. suckers gamble with no odds listed... house can tweak odds as they see fit.
Worth it for what though?
Are they worth it to get hold of Lobi crystals to use to buy top end gear - yes, as they are the only way to get these anywhere in game.
Are they worth opening to get a specific ship or item - NO. Because the chance of something like a ship dropping is around 0.01% so you'd need to open hundreds potentially to get one, and even that is no guarantee.
Selling the keys for EC and then using the profits to buy off the exchange the item you want is far better value. Leave the gambling to the whales willing to blow money, unless you are happy to just get Lobi and a tiny chance of a better prize. The Lobi is the main reward, anything else is a bonus.
If you want a specific item like a dual beam bank from a box then no, it is much cheaper to sell 1 key and buy several of them for credits.
If you want some other specific item like a costume unlock or trait then no, it is much cheaper to sell keys and buy it for credits.
If you need lobi crystals then yes.
If gambling is fun for you and you can afford to spend the money for the fun of gambling and the slight chance of a jackpot, then maybe.
Here some advice for all Lockbox players...
But it’s not a problem unless you have four or more of the symptoms below.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the American Psychiatric Association’s classification for psychiatric disorders, a person can be diagnosed as having a gambling addiction (the clinical term is “pathological gambling”) when at least 4 of the following are present:
—Preoccupation with gambling (such as reliving past gambling experiences, planning one’s next gambling session, or devising ways of getting the necessary money to gamble)
—A need to spend greater amounts of money in order to achieve the desired level of excitement
—Multiple unsuccessful attempts to reduce or stop gambling
—Irritability and restlessness when trying to reduce or quit gambling habits
—Gambling as a way of avoiding problems or temporarily improving one’s mood
—Returning to gambling after losses as a way of earning back lost money (referred to as “chasing losses”)
—Lying to family members, friends, employers and others in an attempt to cover up time spent or money lost while gambling
Significant relationship, job and/or academic difficulties
—Relying on others for money in order to get out of a desperate financial situation caused by gambling
And according to the infallible Internet:
This is especially true of online gambling, which is diagnosed according to the same criteria as “traditional” in-person gambling. Features such as 24/7 availability, however that make it potentially more addictive and harder to recover from than gambling at a casino or other physical location. The internet also has made gambling accessible to minors who typically would be identified as under age at a physical betting establishment. Consequently, it has spawned a new generation of problem gamblers: teens and young adults, particularly young men.
Cryptic have a nasty habit of stuffing the deck with stuff like dil mine vouchers, commendation boosters and the like so what you get from a box doesn't meet the value of a key. It might be close to the cash to zen value but not ingame value. Combined with awful drop chance they are simply not worth wasting your time and money on.
The current lockbox takes this a step further by them having advertised a cosmetic shield (carrot being dangled for the space barbie folks) BUT they buried it as a random chance from the weapon boxes so not only do you need to get one of those to drop you also have to get lucky that the shield will drop.
They also made the boxes drop more frequently than the previous one. Similar playtimes and I currently have double the amount for the tzenkethi that the son'a. Tactic to push folk into thinking well ok I'll give it a try. Slightly more subtle than the server spamming every time a ship is dropped that only serves to trigger a wave of pm's from people trying to buy it for pennies.
Much better to sell any keys you buy and use those to buy the specific items you want and if you really need to scratch a lockbox itch either go to a different game with a better reward structure or only do the infinity boxes when they get the things added that you want. Likewise with most infinity box rewards hold off on opening those if the item you want isnt in them yet as they do get upgraded, only exception being ship boxes as the t5 one is pretty empty due to ships being removed to push the new t6 versions.
Lobi ships are too expensive to warrant the time or money it takes to obtain them. The lobi price should have stayed at 800 for top tier and simply had the t5's (and shuttles noone ever uses due to lack of content) reduced. Maybe if they were account unlocks it'd be better justification for the cost but chances of that happening are slightly higher than klingons ever getting a ship that wasnt from the HB pencil and ruler school of design popularised by eastern european car makers (and volvo) during the communist era.
If you're opening lockboxes with your mind set on getting a grand prize ship, though, you may just as well stop doing it right now, just because the odds of getting one are ridiculously small. Given, you CAN still get the grand prize by sheer luck (it happened to me on more than one occasion), and the lockboxes can still hand interesting stuff beside Lobi crystals, but you should never take anything for granted with them like certain other players tend to, only to rage and publicly complain about it on the forum after not getting what they wanted <.<
Master Keys are 4.5M EC. You can buy 311 keys for 1.4B.
If you use all those keys opening lockboxes your chances are 71.2% you'll get one Connie.
Ignoring all the lobi and other stuff you'd get from 311 boxes, you're better off just buying the ship.
But, since it's gambling, you could get no ship or you could get 10.
Also realize that in real money 311 keys is at least $297.
T6 Connie does not come from lock boxes, it comes from promo packs, so eating 311 keys would give you a 0.0% chance of winning a T6 Connie.
What he said about Lobi.
That being said, there's quite a few things stuffed in those boxes, though I'll also say that some are more useful than others, and there's quite a few "meh" things stashed in there, as well. If you have the credits to buy things, then I'd recommend that for the most part.
So if you're planning on cracking open boxes with keys, just be advised that pulls will be random, with no guarantee of hitting the jackpot. Learn what you can get from specific lockboxes, and if it's other things interest you, then maybe it might be worth it.
And knowing is half the battle!
21 'til I die!
In return you get some virtual items.
I get very amused by the outrage posted here about "gambling" and such. Usually by people who will look down their noses at me and shake their head. I laugh at their smug self righteous prudishness and move on. And the louder they disapprove, the funnier it is. And to those who do disapprove, you're welcome. My US $1.25 helps pay a very small part of the bills so you can continue to sneer at my "gambling habit" while playing your ahem, "free game"
I also feel really bad for these people. How deperate is their life they cannot afford US $1.25? Based on the usual responses posted by the usual suspects to threads like this one it's true. Misery really does enjoy company.
OP, if you want to buy a Key and take a chance, then go for it and ignore the sheeple. if you don't, it isn't the end of the world. Western Civilization is not going to collapse because you did something apparently foolish with some of your money. Something the sheeple forgot to tell you about buying that LockBox Ship off the Exchange - If no one bought Keys, it wouldn't exist.
Arguably given there are more lock boxes released then actual content to use them in compared to other games. I'd say that'd be a win if that happened. Maybe then they could focus on game play and bug fixes.
Whales who open 2,000 lock boxes are not gambling the way someone opening 20 boxes is.
a) In mass quantities like that they will average 8 ships per set of 2,000 -- sometimes more, sometimes less but it will even out over time
b) They will also sell the 8 lobi ships
c) They will also sell the other box contents like space gear
Opening 2,000 to get one ship for yourself and sell everything else is not foolish if you can afford it and want to be space rich.
Opening 20 when you just want the ship is very foolish.
Eating 2000 keys (worth 9+ billion EC on their own), skimming a little off the top, and selling the rest is not a good strategy to become space rich.
Ever actually maths out the actual expected return on the actual yields from a 2000 key run, adjusting for the actual rate people pay for bulk lock box junk, and adjusting down to actual standard sale prices for items instead of wishful exchange prices? Don't forget to account for the difficulty to sell a lot of the items and account for a very likely "firesale" liquidation rate.
Ignoring the staggering amount of time it takes to actually list or advertise all of that stuff for sale at prices people are actually willing to pay, the amount of times you'll end up having to fish items out of your mailbox due to expiring exchange listings will take its toll. Lord help you if you attempt this kind of run anywhere near a key sale, contending with market saturation with that kind of quantity is quite the task.
While the challenges are different when dealing with the consequences of a 20-key run vs a 2000-key run, it seems dishonest to give these impressionable folks the false promise that the secret to success and profit is found in eating 2000 keys rather than 20, that 2000 will somehow lead to the actual space riches.
Whales also get the gambling rush, and the satisfaction of supporting the game.
I didn't claim it was the best strategy to get space rich, that's probably exchange PVP and contraband farming. I was just pointing out that the return on 2,000 is very different: you get your ship, you sell the other ships including lobi, you get any gear/traits you want, you sell the rest. With 20 you get lobi and have very little chance of getting anything specific that you want.
It's not something I'd ever do since it is a lot of work, does not sound like fun top me, and my job pays me much more