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“Pink” Vanity Shield/Pack
mutantcamel
Member Posts: 149 Arc User
So, question for everyone: A few years back, there was a “Pink” Vanity Shield that you could get as a part of a larger bundle for donating to a breast cancer charity. According to the STO Wiki, it was only available from October 15 - 31 of 2019. I’m working on completing my collection of vanity shields and that one looks like it’s going to be a hard one to get, if it’s even possible. Does anyone know if it will ever be made available again? The OCD collection completionist in me is getting… well… obsessive about it. Thoughts?
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Vanity shields are a pretty expensive hobby, anyway and on some ships even some of the better shields look bad anyway. Just my opinion of course. Please do what you like.
Yeah, the Vanity Shields are definitely a mixed bag. Just recently got the Ba’ul shield (at 199m) and I definitely like the jet black look. Other than the Pink shield, I still have the 32nd Century, Section 31 and Tzenkethi shields to go and I’ll have the full set. There are, of course, also the standard shield modules with visual components and I only have 5 of those to go as well. Just trying to keep it fresh and challenging for myself - been playing it for a while now.
With that obligatory bit out of the way, I've not heard anything about this lately. I would say that if this item does come back, it will most likely be tied to a charity event. Beyond that anything else I can say is speculation
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Good idea. Add it to the c-store for x weeks (or forever), track sales (which they do anyway), donate sales to the charity.
Cryptic even gets the tax deduction.
> Good idea. Add it to the c-store for x weeks (or forever), track sales (which they do anyway), donate sales to the charity.
>
> Cryptic even gets the tax deduction.
> @davefenestrator said:
> Good idea. Add it to the c-store for x weeks (or forever), track sales (which they do anyway), donate sales to the charity.
>
> Cryptic even gets the tax deduction.
> @davefenestrator said:
> Good idea. Add it to the c-store for x weeks (or forever), track sales (which they do anyway), donate sales to the charity.
>
> Cryptic even gets the tax deduction.
Well the way I understand how these charity thing works is yes, Cryptic could do that but for them to start it the first place the Breast Cancer people have to pay Cryptic first to do it. It the same with the NFL, whenever they do breast cancer awareness nfl get paid by them to promote it. Thats why it is widely known that charties in general spent 90% of all donation on advertisement and only 10 percent goes to the actual cause.
So whenever you see those company promoting a cause, they were paid first. aso cryptic can’t make money from the Breast Cancer thing so why bother spendinf resource tracking it?
This is not a attack on the dev or anything, it just business 101. I quite love this game.
This is the first I've heard even a whisper about Cryptic charging a charity to promote it.
I'm going to need some Cryptic-specific evidence to take that claim seriously.
My understanding is the opposite: Cryptic spends its money running their promotion, and gets at most a tax write-off for the expenses. Which is still a loss -- if you get a 20% write-off on spending $100 you have lost $80. I believe they do it anyway as a combination of marketing and staff wanting to make a difference.
> This is the first I've heard even a whisper about Cryptic charging a charity to promote it.
>
> I'm going to need some Cryptic-specific evidence to take that claim seriously.
>
> My understanding is the opposite: Cryptic spends its money running their promotion, and gets at most a tax write-off for the expenses. Which is still a loss -- if you get a 20% write-off on spending $100 you have lost $80. I believe they do it anyway as a combination of marketing and staff wanting to make a difference.
Its not. All charity are run by giving money to a company they want to promote it. Its not a well known thing because it is not reported on. There is breast cancer every year of every month. Cryptic could have run it indefinitely if they wanted to for perpetual tax write offs. But its a waste of time and limited resource unless the Breast Cancer throw in incentives aka money. Not the dev way but whoever own crytpic at the time.
it happens whenever you see those causes those causes are paying for the spot.
Charities hope is to have more money via spending money. Sometime it fails sometimes not.
Cryptic gets paid in these things by free marketing. Somebody spends money on the vanity shield, they might spend it on something else. It's the same as when companies offer raffle prizes to promote NPR and PBS pledge drives: they're hoping you'll remember them positively and come back.
Also they get to write the cost of the promotion off on their taxes as a charitable contribution as somebody said up-thread.
What you're talking about is literally a crime: paying kickbacks of this sort is illegal.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Not sure if you know but one month out of the year back then there was a media blitz of breast cancer awareness from NFL,NBA, MLB and all sports, where you think the money that blitz came from?
Again charties spend 90% of their money on advertising and only 10% on said actual charties. There is no reason for Cryptic to do it cause they are not getting paid. A tax write off is one benefit but its not worth it in the long run.
Pretty much if Breast Cancer people paid them to run it again they will. Otherwise there is really nothijg stopping them from running it and giving the procedes year long to the chartity. But the Breast Cancer charities probably did not get a lot of money from the Cryptic event or perhapw jusr broke even (aka not enough bout the shield) and so its not worth them pursing Cryptic when they need to advertise for their cause.
You're basically implying that a Charity event is nothing more than a scam.
A Charity is not a business out to make money for themselves. Its meant to help a cause, like in this case Breast Cancer research. If it worked as you said, they'd get basically NOTHING in return for the charity drive because almost all of it goes back to advertising said charity and not the REASON for the charity.
That makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER!
Also why do major sports support these things? BECAUSE A LOT OF PEOPLE WATCH SPORTS! That means the likelyhood of someone willing to donate is higher than if you put it on during a TV broadcast of a movie or during the news.
The Mirror Guardian was one tied to a charity drive. Cryptic is not being paid to sell it in the C-Store. They CHOSE to sell that ship years after the initial drive.
Will the Breast Cancer Awareness stuff be available again? Maybe, maybe not. More likely around Breast Cancer Awareness Month frankly. But the point of a charity is not a paid advertising scam!
I am still asking, though.
And while we're at it, I'd finally like an engine with a red trail, too. See, no foul in asking for a color.
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^^ This. If Cryptic were to get any money for it, it would only be a nominal amount. Rather, I think they do it, because it's an easy way to do The Right Thing(tm). And, believe it or not, most people like to make a difference. Were I be working for Cryptic, I'd be honored when asked to work on a Pink Shield or something -- even if I had to do so in my own time.
https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Medical_Vanity_Shield
I would just like to point out that it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
According to the Groupees Breast Cancer Bundle page, they made just shy of $75k in total sales. What NBCF received after operational costs + fees is anyone's guess.
I do believe NBCF is not a direct recipient per se. Rather, it's about exactly creating Awareness for the cause, that hopefully generates revenue, indirectly.
According to the announcement on the Groupees page:
100% of proceeds will be donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation (after operational costs + fees, and up to $75,000). That suggests to me they were a direct recipient.
Good.