Vault Sale This Weekend (4/29/17)

Laeuftbeidir

Got three of the mythic boosters.
first one - Rare! Dupe!
second one - Rare! Dupe!
third one..
Ulrich.

Totally worth it.

morgue427

would love to get him still no luck heck i would be happy to get haunted cloak and solemn reciter  or corrupted grafstone

EDHdad

I'd pay double the gems for "non-duplicate" insurance.  If you get a duplicate, you get keep opening until you get a non-duplicate.

Ohboy

EDHdad said:

I'd pay double the gems for "non-duplicate" insurance.  If you get a duplicate, you get keep opening until you get a non-duplicate.

That would have to scale. For example, double would be too cheap for someone who has all but 5 mythics. 

morgue427

i am willing to get dupes for 150 and not whine about it honestly

ZW2007-

Ohboy said:

EDHdad said:

I'd pay double the gems for "non-duplicate" insurance.  If you get a duplicate, you get keep opening until you get a non-duplicate.

That would have to scale. For example, double would be too cheap for someone who has all but 5 mythics. 

Why? To be fair to the people that only have 5 mythics? If someone has all but 5 mythics, they've likely invested a ton of time into the game and deserve the same non-dupe advantage as everyone else. All card packs already have massive diminishing returns once you get most of the rares. It's not like a non-dupe clause would hurt anyone at the benefit of the guy that has all but 5. It's a win win for everyone.

Ohboy

Sure, win for everyone except the people who have an interest in making sure there's always a carrot for players to chase. 

Coincidentally the same people who hold to keys to making these changes. 

So in proposing such ideas, we need to take that into account and not propose wildly optimistic ideas that will be ignored out of hand. 

ZW2007-

What you and the people who hold the keys seem to not understand, is that there will always be a carrot even if we can get all the cards. It's called new sets. This game is already future proofed thanks to its M:tG license. Just because they choose to do it the way they do doesn't make it right, intelligent, or necessary.

Gunmix25

morgue427 said:

i am willing to get dupes for 150 and not whine about it honestly

I can accept dupes for 150 yellows. But a back to back dupe in purple.  No

Ohboy

ZW2007- said:

What you and the people who hold the keys seem to not understand, is that there will always be a carrot even if we can get all the cards. It's called new sets. This game is already future proofed thanks to its M:tG license. Just because they choose to do it the way they do doesn't make it right, intelligent, or necessary.

And what you and people like you don't understand is that they don't want people to hold cash waiting for the new sets like so many of us are doing now. 

Because that's just kicking the problem down to the next expansion. Eventually this has to be solved. 

Really the most direct way to do so is reduce rewards(done) and increase card pool to make it harder to fill a set. 

ZW2007-

Ohboy said:

ZW2007- said:

What you and the people who hold the keys seem to not understand, is that there will always be a carrot even if we can get all the cards. It's called new sets. This game is already future proofed thanks to its M:tG license. Just because they choose to do it the way they do doesn't make it right, intelligent, or necessary.

And what you and people like you don't understand is that they don't want people to hold cash waiting for the new sets like so many of us are doing now. 

Because that's just kicking the problem down to the next expansion. Eventually this has to be solved. 

Really the most direct way to do so is reduce rewards(done) and increase card pool to make it harder to fill a set. 

I'm well aware they don't want people holding onto cash, that's why they made Trials of the Planes cost crystals to enter. The problem is, they need better ways for us to spend our hoarded crystals rather than keep on hoarding. Right now my return on investment is so terrible that it's not worth buying any set available in game and the only pw I don't have yet is Ajani 2. What would you have me spending my crystals on? They need fluff. Foil cards, alternate art pws and cards, one time unlockable content. Would I pay 1k crystals to unlock a SOI story mode? You bet I would. Even if story mode only gave me back 500 crystals? You bet. It's really not hard to come up with creative ways to get us to spend our crystals and also feel good about it. They are just too lazy or greedy to do so. Maybe they are even lazy AND greedy.

But again, you've diverted from the original discussion of why having a dupe proof vault special that is limited to three purchases and will possibly never be seen again is "wildly optimistic" and should ignored outright.

morgue427

because if they promised a new non dupe how long would it be before everyone stopped buying anything? they need to make money too and collecting by random is as fair as if you bought cards in pack of paper magic the more you have the better chance of getting dupes, the thrill of the chase is as much a part of the game as the play the chase of getting that one card you dont have

EDHdad

Like heck the only solution is to throttle the drop rate.  They limit this sort of offer to 3 chances per person.  Even the guy with 5 mythics, what is the problem with letting them have the other 5 mythics?  "Gee.  My decks were kind of sluggish when I only had 1,054 different cards to choose from."

There are 134 different Mythics at present in this game.  If someone has 129 of them, they'd have to open an average of 27 purple packs to get one that they don't have.  Then, they'd have to open an average of 34 purple packs to get another they don't have.  Then, they'd have to open an average of 45 to get another, then an average of 67 to get another and finally an average of 134 to get the last one.

That's 307 packs they'd have to open.  At 200 purple things per pack, that's an average of 61,400 purple things to get 5 cards.  At present, the only way to purchase purple things outright is with a bundle which contains 150 purple things for $39.99 and some other stuff (limit one per person).

At that rate, it would require an average of $16,369.24 for Monstro the Whale to get his 5 cards.  If he's willing to spend that much, I say let him have them.

There are other ways D3 could go if their aim is to shake some cash out of the tightly squeezed grips of the minnows and anchovies (other than the Not Another Dime crowd, who have principles at stake or something). 

For example, I would think that a new player would probably be willing to pay, say $10 or so for all of the commons and uncommons from a particular set.  Even veteran players might be willing to pay up to $30 or so for the commons and uncommons from an upcoming set like Amonkhet.  I don't think anyone would argue that this upsets the power balance of the game.

 I think people would be willing to pay actual cash for enough runes to fully level a particular planeswalker to level 60, and in fact, that they would be more willing to purchase a new planeswalker if they could instantly have them leveled. 

I think people would be willing to pay actual cash to rent Expert Level decks for a particular event or for a short period of time.

I think people would be willing to pay actual cash to bling out their user profile, maybe adding an Avatar or some sort of icon next to their name.

I think people would be willing to pay actual cash for an extra deck slot for each of their planeswalkers.

I think people would be willing to pay actual cash to upgrade their cards to foil versions or versions with alternate artwork.

I think people would be willing to pay actual cash to enter tournaments where the prizes are specific things they actually want, as opposed to spending 60 crystals to enter an event where the grand prize is 30 crystals.  $10 or $20 to enter an event where the grand prize is your choice of a card?  People might do that.

But most of all, I think people would pay actual cash to obtain a specific card of their choice.  If D3 wants to throttle this ability, then let them throttle it by putting a limit on the number of times a person can buy a card.  But don't tell me that if people were allowed, say, once a month, to buy a specific card for, say, $20 to $30, that it would be a disaster of Biblical proportions (fire and brimstone, rivers and seas boiling, forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, human sacrifice, mass hysteria, cats and dogs living together).

MrMoustache

Got the mythic Kaladesh angel (new), the rare black 4/7 deathtouch dude from Origins (new), and the 7-mana rare blue spirit from SOI block (dupe). Overall not bad, although I'm not sure I'll be using either new card in a deck any time soon.

morgue427

niblis of frost? in a spell heavy deck he is worth his weight in gold honestly disable first creature and get +3/+3  the first is the most important really take pressure off you for a round for a cheap spell i used him in pre nerf baral and he got to insane levels, post nerf not as high but still use him cheap to cast and dont feel bad replacing him

UweTellkampf

I never get the argument "they need to make money". There are so many other games which you purchase and play and never have to pay a single dime again, and then also so many more where the in-app purchases are just a pinch of the cost mtgpq is charging and many of them are still going strong after years and years of being on the market. This should not be about them wanting our money or us not wanting to give it to them, it should always be about the value we get for our time (and money), about the fun we have and are being given the chance to have, about the suspense the game creates for us. The moment we are paying to "support" a company but are getting a bugged and boring game in return (which unfortunately for me this is starting to become) - something really went wrong. 

Volrak

UweTellkampf said:

I never get the argument "they need to make money". There are so many other games which you purchase and play and never have to pay a single dime again

Just on this point, think about the business model.  A game which you develop, finish, and then sell to the market, you can get by with a one-off payment.  But for a game like mtgpq with major development of new content on an ongoing basis, that can only happen with cash inflow on an ongoing basis.

UweTellkampf

Volrak said:

UweTellkampf said:

I never get the argument "they need to make money". There are so many other games which you purchase and play and never have to pay a single dime again

Just on this point, think about the business model.  A game which you develop, finish, and then sell to the market, you can get by with a one-off payment.  But for a game like mtgpq with major development of new content on an ongoing basis, that can only happen with cash inflow on an ongoing basis.

I am aware of that - and that is why the quoted sentence does not stop there, but goes to: "and then also so many more where the in-app purchases are just a pinch of the cost mtgpq is charging".

My point is a simple one: I am ready to pay if the game offers an acceptable value in return. About what is acceptable everyone will have a different view. Going back to this very thread: If there was any visibility on the drop rates, I would take that into consideration and most probably rather be inclined to purchase more unobtanium the get the pack. Since there is no visibility on the drop rates and having 1/3 of the mythics I won't do it.

If I knew that there is not a chance at all to get a dupe, I would definitely spend money to obtain the unobtanium needed for the purchase. 

I have played this game almost completely free because I simply find the in-app purchases inadequately expensive and the behavior of the developers regarding our concerns and wishes most often too indifferent, even greedy and (as in above example) intransparent. If that changed I would step in and become a buyer. Never "for the sake of the company" and always only for the sake of a good game.