Credit Farmers Love Platinum Rarity - Here's Why

[Xina_LA]

After my jaw hit the floor at some of the GTN prices of late, I started reading through the forum threads to see what might be driving it. I found a large number of threads about people buying credits from those annoying, unscrupulous credit farmers. Dozens of people posted, blaming credit farmers for all of our current economic woes.

 

They have a point, but I don't think farmers are the biggest problem right now.

 

From what I can tell, SWTOR is driving people into the arms of credit farmers by increasing item rarity in packs.

 

Let's look at the facts.

1) The more rare the desired items become, the more hours it takes to grind the credits to buy them.

2) These hours have to be put into the game quickly, because item rarity only increases over time. You need to get the item before the pack is retired.

3) There are only so many hours in the week that anyone can play the game. Everyone has a limit.

4) People with more free time are usually those with the least money to spend, and vice versa. People with full time jobs and families often have more money than time to spend.

 

The number of hours required to get an item increases over time. More people competing for fewer items means more people putting in extra hours, which means more high price sales, which means more hours of grind to keep up, until finally most people just don't have enough free time and are shut out.

 

Eventually, the requirement in hours becomes unreachable for everyone except the most hard core players that don't have serious job and/or family commitments. What these working adults do have is plenty of money.

 

If you don't have the choice to put in hours to earn your prize, but you can buy it by spending about the same money as a fast food meal, you're going to buy it.

Dozens of hours of game play... or one hour at your full-time job, where you have to be anyway.

 

Before the rarity and thus the prices went so high, you could "buy" the items legally and fairly. You could purchase Cartel Coins, get something from the market and place it in the GTN. This would convert your real money into credits through an acceptable channel.

 

Now the credit prices are low, the Cartel Coins are expensive, and the items in the market don't change often enough to keep their sales high in the GTN. There is no incentive to use the Cartel Market.

 

So... TLDR: Increasing rarity of items is empowering the credit black market. It's a move in the wrong direction.

 

Leave the super rare items as bragging rights for those who fought many PVP battles, mastered Operations, and so forth. This is where an items rarity actually means something and there is no other way to acquire it. Make items more common when they are tied into real money (via packs) and likely to unbalance the economy. Let the Cartel Coins be the most economically feasible way of acquiring items with cash.

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited May 17, 2016 by Xina_LA

[HeatRacer]

^ This. Well said.

[Xina_LA]

The OP sounds more like "WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I want those shinies but I don't really want to put forth any effort to get them. Make them easier to get, BW." to me.

I'm sorry but you seem to have missed my point entirely. I realize that economics and game balance math aren't the most exciting topics in the world and don't appeal to everyone. It sounds like your eyes glazed over at some point while reading my post.

 

If you give it a second look, I'm sure you'll see how I'm not talking about that at all. I'm discussing game economics and the comparative value of dollars, Cartel Coins, credits, and hours of labor. I am saying that the increased rarity of Pack items and recent deflation of farmed credit value has pushed the equation to favor credit farmers and illegal purchases so heavily that players are moving away from grinding and Cartel Coins as a solution. As a side effect, this is causing problems for players who don't want to cheat.

 

A more stable and favorable relationship of real world money to Cartel Coins through less random Packs and more variety in the Market would shift things back in favor of players spending money on the Cartel Market.

 

A post about "Waaa... I don't want to work for stuffs!" wouldn't be asking for FP/Ops/mission drops to stay rare.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Xina_LA

[Ratajack]

I'm sorry but you seem to have missed my point entirely. I realize that economics and game balance math aren't the most exciting topics in the world and don't appeal to everyone. It sounds like your eyes glazed over at some point while reading my post.

 

If you give it a second look, I'm sure you'll see how I'm not talking about that at all. I'm discussing game economics and the comparative value of dollars, Cartel Coins, credits, and hours of labor. I am saying that the increased rarity of Pack items and recent deflation of farmed credit value has pushed the equation to favor credit farmers and illegal purchases so heavily that players are moving away from grinding and Cartel Coins as a solution. As a side effect, this is causing problems for players who don't want to cheat.

 

A more stable and favorable relationship of real world money to Cartel Coins through less random Packs and more variety in the Market would shift things back in favor of players spending money on the Cartel Market.

 

A post about "Waaa... I don't want to work for stuffs!" wouldn't be asking for FP/Ops/mission drops to stay rare.

 

As I said, players CAN still "legally" purchase credits through the CM using CC's. The fact that some players are incapable of selling unopened packs/hypercrates does NOT negate the fact that using CC's to "purchase credits" IS still a viable option. The ONLY drawback is the bind timers.

 

IMO, it is more the "instant gratification" and "have to have it NOW" attitudes that drive players to cheat and violate the TOS, risking being banned. I say this because those cheaters get those credits much faster by violating the TOS and purchasing credits from gold farming sites.

 

In all likelihood, the CM is still the better deal with regards to credits to dollar ratios, provided players are SMART about it.

[HeatRacer]

Players CAN still use their money to "legally" purchase credits using the CM.

 

All players have to do is sell the packs/hypercrates they purchase unopened. The unopened packs/hypercrates will sell for a good amount of credits as people will buy them to open them in the hopes of hitting the jackpot.

 

 

In all likelihood, players will make more credits selling unopened packs then they will opening packs trying to hit the jackpot and having to sell lots of "junk".

 

 

The OP sounds more like "WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I want those shinies but I don't really want to put forth any effort to get them. Make them easier to get, BW." to me.

 

I am as tired of people whining on here for free/moar stuff as anybody, and am usually one to comment on those threads, but I don't feel like this is one of them. The OP starts a fair discussion of the current state of the market encouraging, rather than discouraging, the existence of credit sellers. If more credits per dollar can be gained from credit sellers than pack-reselling (also factoring in credit loss from GTN fees), then it's a valid point of discussion.

[Crossward]

Just doing some napkin math here we can get an idea about how this theory breaks down.

 

On the GTN on JC* right now, Plunder packs sell at about 950k each. Anarchist/Disavowed packs sell for about 750k. So lets do an average and say each pack converts to 820k. You'll eat 5% per the AH cut, but let's not care about that.

 

A pack costs 200cc. If I go to Walmart, I can buy 2400cc for 20 dollars. Therefore, 20 dollars converts to 12 packs which at 820k equals 9.84 mil per 20 dollars spend. Note that if we buy 5500cc packs, sell only the most recent packs and only at the right time and get lucky, we could conceivably do better than this. I'll do an additional calculation assuming 1 mil per pack to factor this in

 

To compare, I went to one of the many gold spamming site to see how much 10 mil would cost me if I used one of their sites. Here are the results!

 

Selling unopened packs @820k per (ignore AH cut): 20 USD for 10 mil (9.84 but we'll round up.)

Selling unopened packs @1 mil per: 20 USD for 12 mil.

Buying from a credit spammer: 8 dollars per 10 mil.

 

Now its important to note that buying credits is against the ToS, can get you suspended, and your credits may be coming from bots or stolen accounts! DO NOT RISK YOUR ACCOUNT!

 

With that said, the cost/million credit ratio is skewed against the cartel packs right now and as the rarity goes up and items become more expensive, this is only likely to increase. I know Ratajack hates entitlement with a passion and honestly this *is* an entitlement issue (I want that item NOW and I'll pay a spammer to get it!) but right now doing things legitimately is twice as expensive as the more risky way. I think that should change, but I don't know how. I'd be open to good ideas on the matter.

 

*Prices on JC on a Tuesday afternoon are not indicative of SWTOR's GTN state as a whole. Please consult your local GTN to learn your fair market value for packs.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Crossward

[Ratajack]

I am as tired of people whining on here for free/moar stuff as anybody, and am usually one to comment on those threads, but I don't feel like this is one of them. The OP starts a fair discussion of the current state of the market encouraging, rather than discouraging, the existence of credit sellers. If more credits per dollar can be gained from credit sellers than pack-reselling (also factoring in credit loss from GTN fees), then it's a valid point of discussion.

 

This is just my opinion, but the OP just seems like a very thinly veiled whine about the new highly desired shinies (namely the arbiter's lighsaber/dualsaber and the lightning tuning) not being more common and therefore more expensive on the GTN than the entitled players think it should be.

 

I may be wrong, but I believe that selling UNOPENED packs/hypercrates still nets more credits per dollar than buying credits from a gold seller. Remember, too, that subscribers get a monthly stipend and so have access to CC's that they do not need to spend extra money to obtain.

 

Even if I am correct, and the credit to dollar ratio is larger from the gold farmers, is it REALLY worth risking losing your account to get that new shiny a little earlier or with a little less effort? I don't think it is.

[Xina_LA]

There are several long and detailed threads talking about how badly people dislike the randomness of the new packs. They're increasingly discouraged from buying them, both from the Cartel Market and the GTN. A player who doesn't like the odds of getting something they like from a pack isn't going to spend hard-earned money/credits on it.

 

Here's what I'm guessing. The credit value for new, chance cube style packs is decreasing over time. There are two factors at play here. First, you have less willingness to buy a pack from the GTN because it is less desirable. Second, there are fewer packs on the GTN because people are less likely to buy a super- or hyper-crate and sell some of them. (In fact, super-crates aren't even offered anymore.) If it wasn't for increasing scarcity, the lack of enthusiasm for packs would have driven the GTN prices down faster. The older packs still sell for several million each, while the newer packs sometimes sink as low at 500k.

 

I don't think we've seen the full fallout of Platinum rarity, Chance Cubes, and monthly pack rollouts.

 

On a side note, I don't think that all the people complaining about packs are a bunch of greedy whiners. I think they just want to know what they're getting for their money. Short of lottery tickets, we usually know what we're getting when we spend real money. There's nothing wrong with wishing the packs were a bit less like lotto scratchers.

[Ratajack]

There are several long and detailed threads talking about how badly people dislike the randomness of the new packs. They're increasingly discouraged from buying them, both from the Cartel Market and the GTN. A player who doesn't like the odds of getting something they like from a pack isn't going to spend hard-earned money/credits on it.

 

Here's what I'm guessing. The credit value for new, chance cube style packs is decreasing over time. There are two factors at play here. First, you have less willingness to buy a pack from the GTN because it is less desirable. Second, there are fewer packs on the GTN because people are less likely to buy a super- or hyper-crate and sell some of them. (In fact, super-crates aren't even offered anymore.) If it wasn't for increasing scarcity, the lack of enthusiasm for packs would have driven the GTN prices down faster. The older packs still sell for several million each, while the newer packs sometimes sink as low at 500k.

 

I don't think we've seen the full fallout of Platinum rarity, Chance Cubes, and monthly pack rollouts.

 

On a side note, I don't think that all the people complaining about packs are a bunch of greedy whiners. I think they just want to know what they're getting for their money. Short of lottery tickets, we usually know what we're getting when we spend real money. There's nothing wrong with wishing the packs were a bit less like lotto scratchers.

 

That is the point. There is no secret that the packs are a GAMBLE. That means they are, in essence, a lottery ticket.

 

Players SHOULD ALREADY know what they are purchasing what amounts to a virtual lottery ticket when they purchase a pack. Anyone buying packs expecting to get that new super deluxe shiny is not facing reality.

 

That is why some feel that all the people complaining about packs are a bunch of entitled whiners.

 

What would you call a person who buys $20 or more of lottery tickets and then complains when they don't hit the jackpot that they were "cheated" and the jackpot "needs" to have a much higher chance?

 

That is what the entitled whiners are doing with the packs. They are purchasing virtual lottery tickets and complaining when they don't "hit the jackpot" and get that new super deluxe shiny, that BW is "cheating them" and stealing their money.

[Nightblazer]

Here is the other thing. Everything in the Cartel Market is a "Want" not a "need". Nothing there gives you any competitive edge in the game. It's all vanity items.

 

You need a car to get to work. You want a Ferrari for fun. You don't "need" a Ferrari, you "want" one. And wants are always pricier then needs. Go to Ferrari and say hey, I can't afford your car, it's not fair, lower the price for me. They'll laugh. Same concept. You want it, you pay more for wants.

 

Credits can be earned in game easily. Heroics, working the GTN by selling stuff from crew skills, unopened packs, hypercrates, doing dailies, etc. More effort in, faster you earn. But like someone said people want it now, not a month or however longer later. Well if you want it, work for it.

Edited May 18, 2016 by Nightblazer

[Crossward]

All of the entitlement stuff is bypassing the issue though. I don't disagree with any of the above 2 posts, but none of that matters to the point the OP is making.

 

Whether people "should" buy, "need to" buy, or "want to" buy is irrelevant. They will buy the packs for reasons we can speculate upon all day in another topic. The important question is how will they buy the packs, and what (if anything) should be done to encourage them to buy packs in a way that benefits the game?

 

If the rarity of the packs goes too high, people will go to gold sellers who offer a far better deal than selling unopened packs on the GTN in exchange for breaking the ToS and potentially risking the buyer's account. We know this happens because gold sellers are still in business. That's what the OP is concerned the "platinum" rarity will introduce to the game.

 

Conversely, if the rarity of the packs dips too low and everything worthwhile becomes common, it ceases to lose its value. Rarity in the game directly relates to value in this kind of market. Make them common enough and fewer people will be willing to buy the packs at all, thus costing Bioware cartel sales. Sure you'll beat the gold sellers, but you lost the cash cow in the process.

 

I don't pretend to know what the balance is, but I hope Bioware finds one.

[Ratajack]

All of the entitlement stuff is bypassing the issue though. I don't disagree with any of the above 2 posts, but none of that matters to the point the OP is making.

 

Whether people "should" buy, "need to" buy, or "want to" buy is irrelevant. They will buy the packs for reasons we can speculate upon all day in another topic. The important question is how will they buy the packs, and what (if anything) should be done to encourage them to buy packs in a way that benefits the game?

 

If the rarity of the packs goes too high, people will go to gold sellers who offer a far better deal than selling unopened packs on the GTN in exchange for breaking the ToS and potentially risking the buyer's account. We know this happens because gold sellers are still in business. That's what the OP is concerned the "platinum" rarity will introduce to the game.

 

Conversely, if the rarity of the packs dips too low and everything worthwhile becomes common, it ceases to lose its value. Rarity in the game directly relates to value in this kind of market. Make them common enough and fewer people will be willing to buy the packs at all, thus costing Bioware cartel sales. Sure you'll beat the gold sellers, but you lost the cash cow in the process.

 

I don't pretend to know what the balance is, but I hope Bioware finds one.

 

"Currency sellers" exist for most, if not every one, of the MMO's on the market. It's not the rarity of the packs on the CM or the items contained within those packs that leads people to violate the TOS in this or other games by purchasing in game currency from those "currency sellers". It's people's aversion to the effort to obtain what they want "legally" and the "instant gratification, entitled" attitudes that drive them to cheat and violate the TOS by purchasing in game currency.

 

Making those super duper shinies more common will NOT stop the credit sellers in this game, nor will it stop the "lazy, entitled, instant gratification" players from cheating and purchasing credits.

[Daex]

The OP sounds more like "WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I want those shinies but I don't really want to put forth any effort to get them. Make them easier to get, BW." to me.

 

To conclude that after OP wrote:

 

Leave the super rare items as bragging rights for those who fought many PVP battles, mastered Operations, and so forth. This is where an items rarity actually means something and there is no other way to acquire it. Make items more common when they are tied into real money (via packs) and likely to unbalance the economy. Let the Cartel Coins be the most economically feasible way of acquiring items with cash.

 

might make someone wonder how do you percieve other, more complicated, things in your life. If you skip everything OP has stated and read only last paragraph I quoted, it should be easy enough to conclude OP does not sound the way you described which questions did you even read OP's post.

[Ratajack]

To conclude that after OP wrote:

 

 

 

might make someone wonder how do you percieve other, more complicated, things in your life. If you skip everything OP has stated and read only last paragraph I quoted, it should be easy enough to conclude OP does not sound the way you described which questions did you even read OP's post.

 

Try reading the WHOLE post and not just cherry picking the TLDR.

 

After my jaw hit the floor at some of the GTN prices of late, I started reading through the forum threads to see what might be driving it. I found a large number of threads about people buying credits from those annoying, unscrupulous credit farmers. Dozens of people posted, blaming credit farmers for all of our current economic woes.

 

They have a point, but I don't think farmers are the biggest problem right now.

 

From what I can tell, SWTOR is driving people into the arms of credit farmers by increasing item rarity in packs.

 

Let's look at the facts.

1) The more rare the desired items become, the more hours it takes to grind the credits to buy them.

2) These hours have to be put into the game quickly, because item rarity only increases over time. You need to get the item before the pack is retired.

3) There are only so many hours in the week that anyone can play the game. Everyone has a limit.

4) People with more free time are usually those with the least money to spend, and vice versa. People with full time jobs and families often have more money than time to spend.

 

The number of hours required to get an item increases over time. More people competing for fewer items means more people putting in extra hours, which means more high price sales, which means more hours of grind to keep up, until finally most people just don't have enough free time and are shut out.

 

Eventually, the requirement in hours becomes unreachable for everyone except the most hard core players that don't have serious job and/or family commitments. What these working adults do have is plenty of money.

 

If you don't have the choice to put in hours to earn your prize, but you can buy it by spending about the same money as a fast food meal, you're going to buy it.

Dozens of hours of game play... or one hour at your full-time job, where you have to be anyway.

 

Before the rarity and thus the prices went so high, you could "buy" the items legally and fairly. You could purchase Cartel Coins, get something from the market and place it in the GTN. This would convert your real money into credits through an acceptable channel.

 

Now the credit prices are low, the Cartel Coins are expensive, and the items in the market don't change often enough to keep their sales high in the GTN. There is no incentive to use the Cartel Market.

 

So... TLDR: Increasing rarity of items is empowering the credit black market. It's a move in the wrong direction.

 

Leave the super rare items as bragging rights for those who fought many PVP battles, mastered Operations, and so forth. This is where an items rarity actually means something and there is no other way to acquire it. Make items more common when they are tied into real money (via packs) and likely to unbalance the economy. Let the Cartel Coins be the most economically feasible way of acquiring items with cash.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Doing OPS, WZ's, etc. do NOT give the CM items as rewards. Those CM items is what the OP doesn't want to put forth the effort to obtain and wants BW to make easier and cheaper to obtain. Those CM items are the items to which I was referring with my generalization of the OP's initial post. The OP even says it in the paragraph you quoted. He wants the CM items to be cheaper and more common.

 

The OP apparently doesn't want to spend money to buy the packs and he also apparently doesn't want to have to earn the credits necessary to purchase what he wants via the GTN. That is why the OP sounds like

"WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I want those shinies but I don't really want to put forth any effort to get them. Make them easier to get, BW." to me.

[Daex]

Try reading the WHOLE post and not just cherry picking the TLDR.

 

 

 

Doing OPS, WZ's, etc. do NOT give the CM items as rewards. Those CM items is what the OP doesn't want to put forth the effort to obtain and wants BW to make easier and cheaper to obtain. Those CM items are the items to which I was referring with my generalization of the OP's initial post. The OP even says it in the paragraph you quoted. He wants the CM items to be cheaper and more common.

 

The OP apparently doesn't want to spend money to buy the packs and he also apparently doesn't want to have to earn the credits necessary to purchase what he wants via the GTN. That is why the OP sounds like

"WAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! I want those shinies but I don't really want to put forth any effort to get them. Make them easier to get, BW." to me.

 

But you got it wrong all over again.

[HeatRacer]

But you got it wrong all over again.

 

Agreed. The OP isn't asking for Platinum items be made into Bronze/Silvers. Keep them at what they were supposedly marked as: Golds. There are mad assumptions and conflations going on with this thread, attacking the OP himself without addressing the point he brings up.

 

I too, used to buy packs regularly, but have since ceased because of the current state of things. Extremely low odds of a desirable item are bad enough, but when it's combined with very high odds of getting something not even from the new pack, it's just not really worth it

[Ratajack]

Agreed. The OP isn't asking for Platinum items be made into Bronze/Silvers. Keep them at what they were supposedly marked as: Golds. There are mad assumptions and conflations going on with this thread, attacking the OP himself without addressing the point he brings up.

 

I too, used to buy packs regularly, but have since ceased because of the current state of things. Extremely low odds of a desirable item are bad enough, but when it's combined with very high odds of getting something not even from the new pack, it's just not really worth it

 

I don't recall ever saying that the OP was asking for them to be handed out like candy as if they were "bronze".

 

Even asking that they be reduced from "platinum" to "gold" is still asking that they be made more common and easier to obtain, though.

 

It seems to me that the OP does not want to spend the money to purchase packs or to put forth the effort to earn the credits needed to purchase those shinies via the GTN, and so wants BW to step in and make them more common and easier to obtain. That is just my opinion, but it is an opinion that fits the "facts" of the OP's post.

[Xina_LA]

It seems to me that the OP does not want to spend the money to purchase packs or to put forth the effort to earn the credits needed to purchase those shinies via the GTN, and so wants BW to step in and make them more common and easier to obtain. That is just my opinion, but it is an opinion that fits the "facts" of the OP's post.

Simply not true. I've already tried to explain to you that this is not my position.

 

Let's say for a moment that I increased the cost of a pack to 2,000 Cartel Coins and they were selling in the GTN for 20 million each. Would you still say that people were whining like children if they complained the price was too high? You'd be foolish if you did. There is a line that can be crossed, when the necessary money and/or effort is such that it unbalances the game economy. Too high of a cost can even drive players away.

 

We can debate where that line may be. We can also talk about what factors drive us toward or away from that line, and how much they do so. Those would be fair points. People make whole careers out of studying complex economies and trying to figure them out, usually with large paychecks. I'm not that skilled so my conclusions can be wrong. Tell me why they're wrong, don't just change the topic and claim that I'm a whiner in an attempt to discredit my entire argument.

[Ratajack]

Simply not true. I've already tried to explain to you that this is not my position.

 

Let's say for a moment that I increased the cost of a pack to 2,000 Cartel Coins and they were selling in the GTN for 20 million each. Would you still say that people were whining like children if they complained the price was too high? You'd be foolish if you did. There is a line that can be crossed, when the necessary money and/or effort is such that it unbalances the game economy. Too high of a cost can even drive players away.

 

We can debate where that line may be. We can also talk about what factors drive us toward or away from that line, and how much they do so. Those would be fair points. People make whole careers out of studying complex economies and trying to figure them out, usually with large paychecks. I'm not that skilled so my conclusions can be wrong. Tell me why they're wrong, don't just change the topic and claim that I'm a whiner in an attempt to discredit my entire argument.

 

When you talk about luxuries (and the CM items ARE luxuries) the "line" is set at what the market will bear.

 

Hypothetically, IF BW set the cost per pack at 2000 CC and people were willing to pay that, then that would not be overpriced. If packs were selling for 20 miilion credits on the GTN because people were buying them at those prices, they would not be overpriced. Those prices might be overpriced to some, but obviously not in the minds of those willing to pay that prices.

 

Now, I expect that there are very few people who would pay 2000 CC or 20 million credits for a pack, but the point stands. The fact that some people THINK a luxury is overpriced does NOT mean that it IS overpriced.

 

 

Just as a Ferrari might be overpriced for me, there are people paying the price that Ferrari sets. That means that they are not overpriced because people ARE buying them. I can complain and make an argument that they are overpriced because the "common man" can't afford them without working massive amounts of overtime and saving every extra penny for years or resorting to "cheating" or other illegal activities. Ferrari is under no obligation to reduce the price or make their cars more common and easier to obtain simply because I want one but I don't want to put forth the effort to earn the money to buy one and I won't "cheat" to obtain one, either.

[BlackSilverRoar]

^I totally agree with Ratajack on this; his argument is well put and solid. He understands economics. Edited May 20, 2016 by Willjb

[DreadtechSavant]

Really just could not be bothered to read this after the first post, Why? because every other poster felt the need to quote every f*****g thing. What a waste of space. Quote relevant parts of a post if necessary but EVERYTHING really. post after post after post! this is getting old really fast.

 

 

Ultimately this is yet another credit farm thread that's been done to death anyway. As such I've posted in enough of these threads already without repeating it.

[Blakinik]

Well since someone used JC as an example and if my spam mail is to be believed, I think the lowest "price" to have an ID theft moment... err.... buy gold farmer gold is like $.79 / Million. So using the $20 logic that would net me 25.3 Million gold and I'd get to see if LifeLock is worth the price.

 

Blak

[Xina_LA]

Here is the other thing. Everything in the Cartel Market is a "Want" not a "need". Nothing there gives you any competitive edge in the game. It's all vanity items.

I'm always confused when people talk like this. Basically, those people are telling me that I play wrong. Stronghold decorating is my favorite part of the game. For me, these items aren't a "want", they're a "need". Just like you "need" good gear to do missions and participate in PVP. You don't really need the best gear, but you want it and it improves your enjoyment. The same is true for me when I have a variety of interesting decorations to work with. It allow me to decorate different rooms and strongholds in different ways, which is key to enjoyment.

 

 

I appreciate the previous poster's LifeLock comment. I've always wondered how people can be brave (read: stupid) enough to give some unknown, overseas farmer their credit card information. It boggles the mind.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Xina_LA

[Lenlo]

Is the drop rate unreasonably low?

 

Yes. Most players purchase cartel packs with the knowledge that they are essentially buying a chance at receiving a specific item. Now that EA-ware is significantly lowering the odds of receiving that "gold" item, any player will now have to spend significantly more real world money to have a chance at receiving the gold item.

 

Forget what other methods they may use to get what they want... When the risk far outways the reward by astronomical amounts, what incentive will people have to buy cartel packs?

 

It's NOT an unreasonable expectation for that item to drop and then some for the cost of a single hypercrate. When a customer spends money they have a right to be entitled.

Edited May 24, 2016 by Lenlo

[Ratajack]

Is the drop rate unreasonably low?

 

Yes. Most players purchase cartel packs with the knowledge that they are essentially buying a chance at receiving a specific item. Now that EA-ware is significantly lowering the odds of receiving that "gold" item, any player will now have to spend significantly more real world money to have a chance at receiving the gold item.

 

Forget what other methods they may use to get what they want... When the risk far outways the reward by astronomical amounts, what incentive will people have to buy cartel packs?

 

It's NOT an unreasonable expectation for that item to drop and then some for the cost of a single hypercrate. When a customer spends money they have a right to be entitled.

 

Try going to a casino and telling their management that you expect to hit the jackpot simply because you spend $40. Let me know how that works out for you.