The Contraband Slot Machine

[TheSeventhJedi]

What crusade? I'm giving my opinions on the topic and I refuse to hold my opinions back simply because nobody thinks Bioware cares. I guess you'll have to forgive me for not taking the pessimistic approach but I like this game enough that I'll put forth those opinions to try and make it better. I genuinely want Bioware to listen and take the feedback, that's kinda the point of the forum in the first place, so I'm making the effort on my side. I don't see why it has to be either deal with it or quit, if I enjoy the game (and I do quite a bit, it's the first MMO I've ever even considered subbing for) I'll give my feedback and criticisms to hopefully see it improve.

 

By all means, continue your optimism. I'm still holding out hope that I win the lottery. Bet I get those winning numbers before you get what you're after. Again, I'm not saying it's right. I'm simply saying that it is. By remaining subscribed, you are dealing with it, and BW can safely ignore you. And they will. Promise. They'll leave this little thread going, and you can scream until you're blue in the face, but it'll do about as much good as submitting a ticket about a bug report. If it makes you feel like you're getting something done, bully for you. I post because it's a convenient way to spam my referral link all over the place. We all have our hobbies.

[lokimogor]

By all means, continue your optimism. I'm still holding out hope that I win the lottery. Bet I get those winning numbers before you get what you're after. Again, I'm not saying it's right. I'm simply saying that it is. By remaining subscribed, you are dealing with it, and BW can safely ignore you. And they will. Promise. They'll leave this little thread going, and you can scream until you're blue in the face, but it'll do about as much good as submitting a ticket about a bug report. If it makes you feel like you're getting something done, bully for you. I post because it's a convenient way to spam my referral link all over the place. We all have our hobbies.

 

Well you got my refereee status or whatever with this well written post

[EnkiduNineEight]

By all means, continue your optimism. I'm still holding out hope that I win the lottery. Bet I get those winning numbers before you get what you're after. Again, I'm not saying it's right. I'm simply saying that it is. By remaining subscribed, you are dealing with it, and BW can safely ignore you. And they will. Promise. They'll leave this little thread going, and you can scream until you're blue in the face, but it'll do about as much good as submitting a ticket about a bug report. If it makes you feel like you're getting something done, bully for you. I post because it's a convenient way to spam my referral link all over the place. We all have our hobbies.

 

This is really demonstrative though of when you are dealing with a company that will succeed in the end and one that will fail in the end. Companies that succeed generally pay attention to their customers _before_ they lose them. There's the old business aphorism about the cost of retaining a customer vs winning them back after you lost them.

 

Lost customers also become net influencers who will more often go out of their way to explain to other people WHY they should not be your customer either. Making obtaining new customers more difficult as well.

 

So putting up the cone of silence like this is very bad for business. Its not just this subject either. This is one that just really activated a lot of customers and has been a demonstrative event that has much in common with other general frustrations players have.

[ivanhedgehog]

This is really demonstrative though of when you are dealing with a company that will succeed in the end and one that will fail in the end. Companies that succeed generally pay attention to their customers _before_ they lose them. There's the old business aphorism about the cost of retaining a customer vs winning them back after you lost them.

 

Lost customers also become net influencers who will more often go out of their way to explain to other people WHY they should not be your customer either. Making obtaining new customers more difficult as well.

 

So putting up the cone of silence like this is very bad for business. Its not just this subject either. This is one that just really activated a lot of customers and has been a demonstrative event that has much in common with other general frustrations players have.

 

I have warned at least 4 people off by telling them about BW's behavior. word of mouth can be painful.

[TheSeventhJedi]

This is really demonstrative though of when you are dealing with a company that will succeed in the end and one that will fail in the end. Companies that succeed generally pay attention to their customers _before_ they lose them. There's the old business aphorism about the cost of retaining a customer vs winning them back after you lost them.

 

Lost customers also become net influencers who will more often go out of their way to explain to other people WHY they should not be your customer either. Making obtaining new customers more difficult as well.

 

So putting up the cone of silence like this is very bad for business. Its not just this subject either. This is one that just really activated a lot of customers and has been a demonstrative event that has much in common with other general frustrations players have.

 

Sure, it's bad, but EA still hasn't learned their lesson. What makes you think they'll start now, especially when they have exclusive rights to Star Wars title? When it comes to lightsabers, they're the only game in town, and they know it. Again, it sucks, but if they haven't changed yet, ... where's that bridge again?

[Kianabamin]

I know Bioware is just waiting for this thread to die, but it's not happening.

 

Schrödinger's Thread.

It's both Dead and Alive until they tell us otherwise.

[Banthabreeder]

Its to the point Bioware isn't replying to anything now. Not this subject, not to all the other subjects we post about. Were all just wasting our times talking in these forums.

 

Yes, Bioware has won. I've been beaten. My suggestions and requests have being ignored long enough that I just won't anymore. Congratulations. If it was your intent to beat down your fellow followers by ignoring them, well you have succeeded.

[TheSeventhJedi]

That was exactly their intent, I'm sure of it. If all the people affected by a "problem" stop talking about it, then you don't have to do anything about it. If you can simply ignore those that are talking about it, all the better.

[azudelphi]

Its to the point Bioware isn't replying to anything now. Not this subject, not to all the other subjects we post about. Were all just wasting our times talking in these forums.

 

Yes, Bioware has won. I've been beaten. My suggestions and requests have being ignored long enough that I just won't anymore. Congratulations. If it was your intent to beat down your fellow followers by ignoring them, well you have succeeded.

 

Have you considered a career in the arts? Drama perhaps?

[pooks]

I'll drop a few tokens from time to time. I have yet to get a cartel certificate since the nerf. The machine is just deco at this point.

[TravelersWay]

I'll drop a few tokens from time to time. I have yet to get a cartel certificate since the nerf. The machine is just deco at this point.

 

Well that's all it ever really was - of course it did something more than take up a hook in the stronghold. To be honest, had more thought been put into this thing, it could have been made into a long-term effective credit sink, and one that would have made more more interested in using strongholds more than a travel cheat and one-stop storage point. As it stands now, it's just another useless element in the game.

[halcyon_havoc]

I'll drop a few tokens from time to time. I have yet to get a cartel certificate since the nerf. The machine is just deco at this point.

 

Same here. It's sad.

[Stoofa]

I love the way people think that by keeping this dead thred alive it will prompt any kind of change.

The slot machine as it was released will neve return. Changes to the current payout will not change.

You can post into a thread as often as you like, you can tell BW "This is not going away" as many times as you like - the fact they are ignoring you and changing nothing means.....it has gone away.

[JattaGin]

I love the way people think that by keeping this dead thred alive it will prompt any kind of change.

 

I don't think people keep this thread alive because of that.

 

I personally push it from times to times so that I can think that I annoy Eric a little bit, because it shows up on the front page again when he checks the board (I assume that he does that, because it is part of the job for that he gets paid for). Just so that he does not forget how many people felt screwed up.

[dscount]

They screwed up. PERIOD. As a customer I'll gladly state that online in many forums. This issue (IMHO) has not been resolved fully as it has loose ends to address still.

 

I agree that BIOWARE should make an update to the DROP RATE of the Cartel Certs!

 

The original version for mats was just silly and everyone knew that.

 

I'm still pissed they didn't communicate the Cert's where getting nerfed in the BW posts nor patch notes. Pretty shabby customer service if they can't even own up to that detail. I have to go pull it off a 3rd Party Website instead.

 

It's a DECO now for me as well and not even out for display. GG Bioware. I agree it could be a good credit sink, but the ratios now are complete crap. (Keep the Mats As-Is, but bump Certs back to original numbers)

Edited March 10, 2015 by dscount

[MSchuyler]

Its to the point Bioware isn't replying to anything now. Not this subject, not to all the other subjects we post about. Were all just wasting our times talking in these forums.

 

Yes, Bioware has won. I've been beaten. My suggestions and requests have being ignored long enough that I just won't anymore. Congratulations. If it was your intent to beat down your fellow followers by ignoring them, well you have succeeded.

 

Poor baby! I have never thought of these forums as having the intent to funnel suggestions to Bioware. It's not "wasting our times" talking in these forums unless you are under the delusion that Bioware hangs on your every word with a pencil poised to implement every nonsensical suggestion you can come up with. Bioware has not "won" because they aren't playing the game you think they are--and neither are you.

 

You are not a game designer. You are not a developer. You know nothing about game engines, what it takes to program features into the game, the economics of decision-making for the game, or the business issues involved. You are a player, and that is all, a player like many others who thinks whatever stuff they come up with is golden and ought to be implemented just because they thought of it.

 

Believe it or not, but this slot machine saga is a non-issue for the vast majority of players who never took advantage of the exploit, never saw a slot machine, or never even knew they existed at all. They just play the game to level, do the stories, craft, or do whatever they do that they like in the game.

 

Slot machines? Meh? Except for a few butt-hurt people who can't seem to let this go.....

 

it doesn't matter at all--and never did.

[Thoronmir]

For the record, I remain subscribed to SWTOR and will remain so into the foreseeable future.

 

However, I was ready to take a break for a while. I do so with every MMO I play during the year. I usually bounce back-and-forth between SWTOR and LOTRO. Recently, though, I'm just not jonzin' for Middle-earth like I usually am this time of year. Plus, college basketball is just getting interesting, with conference titles and the NCAA tournament right around the corner.

 

So, this past weekend (which actually started last Thursday do to unSoutherly amounts of snow and ice in the South), I decided to take a break from all MMOs. I considered trotting out my Dragon Age II (haven't bothered to get Inquisition yet), but, meh. So, I delved deep into my basement closet and retrieved an old PS (note, not PS2) controller and fired up Final Fantasy VII on the big screen! I spent about eight hours on Thursday trying to remember to hold down the Circle button while using the D-pad (not the stick) to move while Cloud, Tifa, Barrett, and the rest looked utterly crappy on my HD TV while they battled Shinra and chased Chocobos. I hadn't played FFVII in several years. It was fun.

 

On Friday, when I learned that our office was still closed, I upgraded to an old (remote) PS2 controller and tossed Disk 1 of Final Fantasy VIII into the machine. The graphics were grainy and nigh unwatchable on a 60" LED HD TV. But I soldiered on. Whiny emo hero boy (I forget his name; I always change it) and all his should-be-institutionalized friends explored the World Map, stole a train, sucked magic out of enemies, etc. Again, I hadn't played this game in at least five years, but I really enjoyed it.

 

Finally, on Saturday, I broke out one my favorite console games. Legend of Dragoon. Man, I wish someone would make a reboot of that game. Again, the old school graphics looked a mess on my TV. But I had a blast all day and into the night.

 

I basically only played the first several hours of each game. I never intended to play any game to its end. On Sunday, I considered Final Fantasy X, but I wasn't in the mood for water soccer. Maybe next time.

 

I decided that I need to do this once each year. Drag out the old games I liked and give them each another roll in the hay. I never even got around to LOTR: Third Age, DS: Oblivion, or Baldur's Gate.

 

I'll take a break from all games until after March Madness. Then, I'm likely to be ready to dive once more into Professor Tolkien's world. But it was nice to close out my "winter" gaming season with an overdue walk down memory lane.

 

TLDR: I had fun last weekend.

Edited March 10, 2015 by Thoronmir

[Kianabamin]

I love the way people think that by keeping this dead thred alive it will prompt any kind of change.

The slot machine as it was released will neve return. Changes to the current payout will not change.

You can post into a thread as often as you like, you can tell BW "This is not going away" as many times as you like - the fact they are ignoring you and changing nothing means.....it has gone away.

 

I love the way people think that this issue is dead but even they can't resist posting in the thread, which then helps to keep it alive so.... Thanks!

[Banthabreeder]

Have you considered a career in the arts? Drama perhaps?

 

Scene I, Act I

Curtain opens

It is a dark dingy smoky casino. A few flashing light barely illuminates the Contraband slot machine hidden away in a back corner.

An man in worn and tattered clothes, unshaven and dirty, clings to the machine for he barely has the strength to stand.

He looks up to the heavens and proclaims with his last dieing breath, “And the world suddenly appeared to me as such an awfully large place, with I so totally alone in it that I could have cried from the bottom of my heart.” ― Joseph von Eichendorff

The man grasps his chest and collapses to ground in grief and despair.

Curtain shuts

The End

 

Did I get the part?

Edited March 10, 2015 by Banthabreeder

[LydMekk]

Nice that you liked the old games mate

Wondering about running Kotor 1 and 2 myself just for the kick of it. Damn, I loved those...

 

The most catastrophic wasn't the nerfing of the slots but the way they handled the aftermath: With no responses whatsoever...

 

Somebody should have been fired...

[Muljo_Stpho]

The problem with this thread is not that it exists. The slot machine was a valid concern in its original form and it's still a valid concern in its nuked form. The problem with this thread is that pretty much everything that anybody might want to say about the slot machine has been said dozens of times already and so the topic only gets bumped up to the top of the page again with repetition and fluff.

 

A number of us have brainstormed various ideas about changes / alternatives to improve this and future versions of the slot machine. So any ideas that they might take into consideration (if they even want to use anything we've said) are already out there. Of course, the devs have shown no sign that they're even giving the subject another thought after the ruckus that was raised over this one, but if they do still have some slot machine plans on a back burner somewhere they'll get around to it in their own time.

[branmakmuffin]

The problem with this thread is not that it exists. The slot machine was a valid concern in its original form and it's still a valid concern in its nuked form. The problem with this thread is that pretty much everything that anybody might want to say about the slot machine has been said dozens of times already and so the topic only gets bumped up to the top of the page again with repetition and fluff

Are you saying it should not be bumped with "repetition and fluff?" If so, why did you post?

[Kianabamin]

Are you saying it should not be bumped with "repetition and fluff?" If so, why did you post?

 

I think that is exactly what he was saying and yet ultimately doing as am I.

Except that would be against the rules so I'll mention that it would be nice if they dropped other things too like dyes or missions or schematics too.

[ivanhedgehog]

I think that is exactly what he was saying and yet ultimately doing as am I.

Except that would be against the rules so I'll mention that it would be nice if they dropped other things too like dyes or missions or schematics too.

 

if we keep this thread alive to remind them of their utter failure it might help..or maybe not

[EnkiduNineEight]

if we keep this thread alive to remind them of their utter failure it might help..or maybe not

 

As Wayne Gretzky has said, "You miss 100% of the shots you do not take."

 

That's the point. Just dropping a discussion may seem like a reasonable act but then you virtually guaranty nothing will ever happen.

 

Even if nothing happens, but you try anyway, you at least are giving it a shot. Its the very essence behind Pascal's gambit as well. Unlikely there is a god, but I'll probably go through the motions of 'belief' anyway just in case. Likely a wasted effort, but... just in case.

 

For enough people the minimal effort it takes to keep this topic and what it represents (not just the slot machine, but the feedback loop with devs/community managers etc) is worth the potential, even if unlikely, outcome.

 

And I am 100% certain they do look at the threads as they 100% took my comments requesting a nerf for the original slot machine to heart and used my numbers/figures exactly... well except they didn't understand decimal vs percentages and turned a decimal proposal of .001 for a vehicle and turned it into a percentage of .001% for a vehicle.

 

So even if we see no responses maybe something sinks through, especially when a thread goes on and shows continued concern from their community despite the lack of responses.

 

So again, even if the chances are remote, the effort necessary to ensure these chances may occur is deemed worthy of the results.