Squeal with delight.

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Comments

  • broll
    broll Posts: 4,732 Chairperson of the Boards
    tiomono said:
    Painmonger said:
    A normal 4* offer is 1 cover, 10K iso, 3CP & 8 elite tokens for 3600 HP (roughly $25).

    This is 1 7/8 cover, 1 CP, 7K iso & 1000 HP (worth about $8) for $10.

    It's almost worth it for the HP alone & still less than 1/2 the cost of a normal 4* deal with almost double the covers. You've got to be trying pretty hard to call that price gouging or predatory...

    Still not buying it.
    Maybe not price gouging but it's definitely predatory. We get 450 shards through playing the two 12 day events to completion. That got us 1 spiderham cover plus 50 leftover shards. Then a $10 dollar deal to let you use those 50 leftover shards to get 2 more covers. Why not let the deal be 800 shards? Because they are "preying" on the customer that doesnt want 50 "wasted" shards sitting on a limited character.
    Predatory?  You're being ridiculous.  It's a smart exploit of human psychology that every company that sells things does.  It's as predatory as everything ending with 99 to seem less expensive...
  • broll
    broll Posts: 4,732 Chairperson of the Boards
    Omegased said:
    HoundofShadow said:

    If it's not OCD, then it has to be the need for instant gratification. In this case, it's the need for a full cover now, instead of in the future. Extra 50 shards are useless now, but over time, they add up. 
    Except it's not. we can't earn shards for him.
    Do you honestly not see this as somewhat shady? "here's your login gift! Merry Christmas!! oh, you want to use that gift? well... pay me $10."

    for the third time, I feel like they should have made this 800 shards, and never given a login gift that is useless.
    So you'd rather have 2 covers for $10 than 1 cover for free and 1 cover for extra money?  What sense does that make?  They didn't only give 50 shards for the gift, they gave 450.  If you don't want to pay for the extra cover, don't pay for it and be happy with the free one.  
  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,654 Chairperson of the Boards
    broll said:
    tiomono said:
    Painmonger said:
    A normal 4* offer is 1 cover, 10K iso, 3CP & 8 elite tokens for 3600 HP (roughly $25).

    This is 1 7/8 cover, 1 CP, 7K iso & 1000 HP (worth about $8) for $10.

    It's almost worth it for the HP alone & still less than 1/2 the cost of a normal 4* deal with almost double the covers. You've got to be trying pretty hard to call that price gouging or predatory...

    Still not buying it.
    Maybe not price gouging but it's definitely predatory. We get 450 shards through playing the two 12 day events to completion. That got us 1 spiderham cover plus 50 leftover shards. Then a $10 dollar deal to let you use those 50 leftover shards to get 2 more covers. Why not let the deal be 800 shards? Because they are "preying" on the customer that doesnt want 50 "wasted" shards sitting on a limited character.
    Predatory?  You're being ridiculous.  It's a smart exploit of human psychology that every company that sells things does.  It's as predatory as everything ending with 99 to seem less expensive...
    Exploit is a fitting word too. To take advantage of someone or something else for your own advantage.

    I'm not threatening to quit or raging about this. It's their decision and right to do business like this. It's also my right as a consumer to point it out if I disagree and or not purchase the offer.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,821 Chairperson of the Boards
    I mean the real problem is that they haven't communicated ANYTHING in weeks.

    So everyone gets their ire up because they made an offer that feels a bit.....unseemly?  

    It might help to take try to take a different perspective on the game sometimes.  Every business tries to find a way to add sales when you walk in to buy something.  Extended warranty?  Extra battery? Cables sold at an upcharge? Candy bar at the checkout?  etc.

    The difference is the game is built around you the player attaching a huge amount of importance to your roster and then convincing you to spend money to advance it.  So you may feel that pressure or that you're being taken advantage of depending on how much you care.  But that's the trick, they made you care far more about your roster than you care about that blu-ray player or hedge trimmer or whatever.

    IMO that's a signal you should start to re-evaluate how important the game and the roster is to you.  Someday you will quit or the game will shut down (Hi, Marvel Battle Lines fans!) and it'll be completely worthless to you anyway.
  • MegaBee
    MegaBee Posts: 1,044 Chairperson of the Boards
    This thread prompted me to look at my Spider-Ham, and I saw that he was at 11 covers with one saved.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,455 Chairperson of the Boards
    I just laughed and didn't buy it, I wasn't offended by it. 
  • Godzillafan67
    Godzillafan67 Posts: 598 Critical Contributor
    HoundofShadow said:
    It's time to stop saying there's no way to earn Spider-Ham shards because there will be a way in the future, just that the future is not right now.
    Daredevil217 said:
    You all are thinking too small. In 2027 you will have earned that bonus Spider-Ham cover assuming you played for 8 years and didn’t miss a node. How sweet it will be!!



  • Tony_Foot
    Tony_Foot Posts: 1,814 Chairperson of the Boards
    I don't play for placement, I don't finish high in pvp. 25 to 100 typically in CL8. Mines 4/4/4 and I don't spend money other than the occasional 1.99 purchase. Lets not pretend it will take years to cover him.

    A little bit of patience for a dud character.
  • Godzillafan67
    Godzillafan67 Posts: 598 Critical Contributor
    @Tony_Foot, was D3 more generous with his covers before? I've been in and out of the MPQ life, and this is the first chance I've had at getting Spider-Ham. Mine's now 1/1/0, and I truly am tempted to fork over $10 to add two covers.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,455 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2020
    He is “howard limited” if you have an alliance that can complete Round 8 on Battle at the Basilica; otherwise you can sometimes catch him in vaults around Anniversary and April fools.

    i think Taskmaster May be the most limited, but somehow I have him champable.
  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,238 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2020
    Godzillafan67 said:
    @Tony_Foot, was D3 more generous with his covers before? I've been in and out of the MPQ life, and this is the first chance I've had at getting Spider-Ham. Mine's now 1/1/0, and I truly am tempted to fork over $10 to add two covers.

    1) At least once prior to this they ran an offer where you could purchase 3 SpiderHam covers for something like 5-6K hero points. For those of us flush with hero points it was a nobrainer way to speed up cover acquisition.
    2) He has also had his 4* Clash event run a few times which meant you could get a single cover for 3600 hero points.
    3) The Battle at the Basilica boss event rewards a SpiderHam cover for beating the round 8 boss.
    4) They run his PvP event occasionally where you can get a 4* cover for 900 points/40 wins/T5 placement.
    5) During Anniversary his covers appear in the Anniversary Vault.
    6) On special occasions (like the 12 days of Xmas event that just ran) his cover has been one of the rewards.

    I've fully covered him (plus a couple of saved covers) using methods 1,3-6 just like Tony_Foot has.

    KGB
  • Tony_Foot
    Tony_Foot Posts: 1,814 Chairperson of the Boards
    Yeah I never used method 1 though, I've not purchased any covers for him with money/HP or CP. 3 to 6 only for me, as I say there's no point worrying about him.
  • RickOShay
    RickOShay Posts: 452 Mover and Shaker
    This offer is not Predatory, let's be careful about calling things by that name. 
    If Spider-Ham would have been produced with 12 maximum covers EVER earnable, then they offered a purchase deal for a 1-time-ever 13th cover... That would be predatory. 

    As others have stated, planning for the 'extra shards' to sit on a character is a business tactic. Maybe some players will be annoyed by these shards, maybe some will be incentivized to spend, while others couldn't care less. 

    It's hardly different than getting a coupon on a store receipt "50 Shards off your next purchase", or gas costing $2.65.9

  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,455 Chairperson of the Boards
    Or "spend $N and get free shipping!"  "oh dang, i've only spent $M, let me bump that up to $X so that I can save $B on shipping!" 
  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,654 Chairperson of the Boards
    RickOShay said:
    This offer is not Predatory, let's be careful about calling things by that name. 
    If Spider-Ham would have been produced with 12 maximum covers EVER earnable, then they offered a purchase deal for a 1-time-ever 13th cover... That would be predatory. 

    As others have stated, planning for the 'extra shards' to sit on a character is a business tactic. Maybe some players will be annoyed by these shards, maybe some will be incentivized to spend, while others couldn't care less. 

    It's hardly different than getting a coupon on a store receipt "50 Shards off your next purchase", or gas costing $2.65.9

    Predatory: inclined or intended to injure or exploit others for personal gain or profit.

    This deal is exploiting the players for the companies profit. The desire to not have useless shards sitting on a character with no clear way to earn more is what is being exploited. $9.99 will get rid of those leftover shards getting you another full cover for a limited character. Which is exactly the same as things costing 2.99 instead of 3.00 to exploit your mind into feeling you are getting a better deal. 

    Again this is not me raging or leaving the game. Just calling attention to a "by definition" predatory practice.
  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,455 Chairperson of the Boards
    That seems a stretch; this is more like giving you a free sample of spider-ham shards, and then letting you know how much a pound of it is going to cost. If you think it tastes good, grab a pack and take it home. If you don't need it, don't buy it. 
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,821 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited January 2020
    Look, I'm sorry, but we are in a capitalist system where to be predatory you need to do things like charge $40.00 for a pack of batteries when a hurricane is imminent.

    Trying to sell someone the ability to change the "50" to "0" next to a picture of a pig dressed like Spider-Man is, like, just.....the way FTP works.
  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,654 Chairperson of the Boards
    Bryan Lambert said:
    Man, folks have some Stockholm Syndrome for late-stage capitalism.

    This offer isn’t a coupon or a “shave a penny off to make it seem a dollar cheaper”. Shards to money analogies don’t work because you can only get shards from the devs and you can only use them for one thing  It’s actually a really weird offer because it’s only appealing to people in a certain set of circumstances the devs specifically put people in.

    It’s an offer for which the value effectively doubles if you did one of two things - get the free gift, or get the free gift and get all 40 shards from the two events. To anyone outside those two groups, the offer makes zero sense. It’s not even really in the dev’s benefit because by withholding almost nothing from the offer (750 shards vs. 800) they exclude potential customers AND erode customer goodwill by making it clear that their gift wasn’t genuine. 

    It’s not really predatory per se, but it’s unseemly, off-putting, weird, and if it’s the model for shard distribution and purchase options going forward, is just going to create more of a sense that they’re messing with us instead of offering a fair exchange of money for goods and/or services.


    Well said.

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