Weapon and Shields on Sale! The Sin and Innocence Mystery Box Returns!

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Kundarin wrote:

Ok, fine. Here´s the deal.

I want to buy a bunch of Mystery Boxes.

But ONLY if it contains Sin & Innocence Hideout Decoration.

If not, well... Then I don´t want it.

and what keeps you from buying them directly in store?
The HO mtx prices are cheap anyways and often on Sale.

You evidently miss the point of the Mystery boxes.

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DreadLordAvatar wrote:

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NecromancerX wrote:

This isn't right. It was supposed to be limited to that time only.

Agree.

These items are in store for full price and purchasers now got screwed, way to go GGG.

[Removed by Support].

It was nowhere LIMITED to that time only.

[Removed by Support].


*edited by me, author

HAHAAHAAA yeah, keep CENSORING, viva la Democracy a la 21st.century.

aside that, I have no idea what was so incredibly censorshipworth in the post, since idioting down in my previous post was kept there.
but meeh, feel free to censorshiping furthermore. LOOOSERS.

Need that Celestial Weapon Effect. :)

quite a few salty sailors aren't there? should just be happy the darn box is back for a limited time ya scallywags! yarrrr!

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鬼殺し wrote:

Spoiler

I've been dwelling on this. Thank you for the civil, provocative response. :)

I think the big difference is the presence of RNG as a determiner. To equate a sale as the same sort of targeting mechanism as a loot box/lucky dip is to ignore that the former presents a clear choice and a clear outcome while the latter does not. And it's fairly well known that if you buy something that then goes on sale, leaving you feeling less than awesome, Support are able to negotiate with that. This surprises me, given most retailers won't. You can't exactly go buy a TV and then, should it go on sale the next day, go back demanding a partial refund based on the price difference.

But the point is that reduced-priced sales aren't typically considered the 'actual' price, and usually occur to drive extra sales at the cost of lost revenue. I just don't see that operating on the same predatory level as random box loot/lucky dips, UNLESS you believe the sales price is the actual, proper price and the standard price as some arbitrarily jacked-up figure.

I see your point about the uncertainty of outcome being a contributing factor, but, upon mulling over a few other similarly chance-based sales devices, I've reached the conclusion that, more directly, buyer expectation/attitude appears to be more important.
In illustration, consider Christmas presents, bingo games, raffles, and subscription-based theme boxes.

For presents, imagine two contrasting scenarios: the first in which the recipient of the present is entirely clueless about the contents, whereas in the second, he or she perhaps recalls mentioning a certain item of desire to the sender in the recent past. If the present is in fact the desired item then results will likely be similar, but in the event that a different, still-but-not-quite-so-desirable item emerges from the wrapping, would not the latter example's recipient have their appreciation colored significantly by the disappointment of not receiving the item they expected? In both cases the recipients are unsure of the contents until revealing them, yet their opinions hinge on their expectations.

Next, let's look at the average game of bingo on a stereotypical "bingo night". Although only one or two (dependent upon rules) people in an entire room ever win anything in any given game of bingo, the vast majority of participants enjoy the game regardless. Here, the default expectation seems to be that one will probably not win, but will perhaps join the winner in congratulations; rather than focusing on one's personal perceived loss or gain, the game is instead treated as a social event.

Raffles, often used as a fundraising method, necessarily require a very poor return on investment from the perspective of a ticket holder, yet are received relatively well. Here again, attention is often deflected from the result of the raffle itself, and directed primarily towards the cause for which funds are being raised. In other words, the expectation is that the "reward" of contributing to the cause is tendered immediately upon ticket purchase, while the raffle itself amounts to a minor side attraction.

Finally, consider subscription-based theme boxes, which typically deliver an assortment of themed goods to one's doorstep on a regular basis for a monthly fee. While the contents of each delivery usually remain a mystery until its arrival, and, unlike previous examples, focus heavily on the items themselves, satisfaction tends to remain relatively high, as long as they fit their theme well, and constitute a sufficient total value; this is often facilitated with accompanying literature in the package that describes its contents under the chosen theme, and offers some valuation thereof (e.g. retail prices).

This last example here I find very telling, as it draws some very close parallels to PoE's loot boxes―items all fall under the theme of the box, and, the individual items are valued relative to (and at a rate well above) the boxes themselves. Why, then, do these Mystery Boxes elicit such negative response?
I believe the answer lies in some key differences in methodology, compounded by the mindset of the uninitiated buyer, with the primary factor being that the box contents, prices, and rarities are published prior to purchase.
The common approach of dissatisfied-customers-to-be appears to be to scan down the item list (or watch the showcase video), fixate upon one or a small subset of the items therein, and begin ripping open box after box with the expectation that their item(s) of choice will appear, tossing aside anything else in disgust, only to become dejected or angry when a certain threshold of expenditure is reached and said expectation is not met. This is patently evident in the posts that sing to the tune of "I opened X boxes and didn't get Y" or "I got W Zs" (where Z is not one of the desired items), usually with explicatives interspersed.

Were one instead to align expectations with the examples above, either by not having any (e.g. not watching the video beforehand), making a social event of the unboxing (see: streamers), writing the purchase off as a check to GGG (allow me to preemptively facepalm here in honor of responses containing the word "Tencent"), or preparing a fixed batch of boxes (to minimize duplicates) to roll for value (GGG guarantees at least 100% value excluding duplicates), a lot of grief could be avoided. You yourself pointed out that you treat the boxes as "bonus", so that anything that pops out is a net positive.

Whether or not this shaping of expectations and attitude is entirely the responsibility of individual buyers (I personally think it is) is an issue I'm setting aside for now, but I believe GGG has done their due diligence in their presentation of the boxes. Their showcase videos and item lists are comprehensive, rather than featuring a subset of higher-priced items, the item list includes explicit probabilities, and a footnote about the possibility of duplicates is present as well. Anything more, and we'd be venturing into that fantastical realm of absurdity where freshly brewed coffee is required to come with its own warning label about heat!

Edit: In aside, I have encountered considerable anecdotal evidence (in general, not about GGG) that suggests that the periodic sales model tends to run on arbitrarily jacked up prices, so you may count me in that cynical camp.

So, my previous posts got edited by the moderators, due to:

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Your post has been edited as it contained content that was needlessly negative

:D :D :D

@MODERATOPRS
Do you ever realise that HALF, or more exactly 100% of all the posts in this topic that keep QQ about how this box revival is out of place, is as you named it NEEDLESSLY NEGATIVE?
WHY DON'T YOU REMOVE ALL OF THEM???
They QQ about mystery boxes while combining it together with Supporter Packs, which is TOTALY DIFFERENT thing.
Aside that, mystery boxes are GAMBLING, risk or lose, that's their purpose. INTENT. And yet the posts here keep being NEEDLESSLY NEGATIVE about that fact as well.


HOW HILARIOUS!
/yerr FAIL censorship policy

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鬼殺し wrote:

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Moribundus wrote:

So, my previous posts got edited by the moderators, due to:

"

Your post has been edited as it contained content that was needlessly negative

:D :D :D

@MODERATOPRS
Do you ever realise that HALF, or more exactly 100% of all the posts in this topic that keep QQ about how this box revival is out of place, is as you named it NEEDLESSLY NEGATIVE?
WHY DON'T YOU REMOVE ALL OF THEM???
They QQ about mystery boxes while combining it together with Supporter Packs, which is TOTALY DIFFERENT thing.
Aside that, mystery boxes are GAMBLING, risk or lose, that's their purpose. INTENT. And yet the posts here keep being NEEDLESSLY NEGATIVE about that fact as well.


HOW HILARIOUS!
/yerr FAIL censorship policy

I wouldn't say fail. They deleted my entire response to you. In this case, the censorship policy was very much working in your favour.

I'll repeat part of what I said in the removed comment, in the hopes it wasn't the reason it was removed: you should consider calming down a little if you want to discuss this matter civilly and fruitfully. Everyone has the right to an opinion here, and everyone has the right to disagree. Positive or negative. But both and all parties should do so without needless antagonism or personal attacks, which the moderators sometimes call 'needlessly negative'.

You seem to be confusing legitimately negative responses with needlessly negative ones. If it helps, name-calling, excessive usage of caps, incredulous punctuation and basically seeming unhinged would be closer to 'needlessly negative' than people directly addressing the issue at hand.

Now, to clarify why they're discussing old supporter packs -- a lot of people are perceiving this move to bring back a mystery box when the items are already in the shop as a similar thing to bringing back old supporter packs in that it's seemingly unprecedented and 'against the devs' word'. Someone else did point out that mystery boxes have been brought back before, but not on this scale. So while it's a large step in logic to go from one unprecedented thing to another, the connective tissue is that both are to do with real cash transactions. Mystery boxes are not exclusive but they are typically advertised as limited time, just as supporter packs are. That, I figure, is how supporter packs were brought up.

I agree they're not the same thing at all, but I can understand why people went there.

I hope this helps you grasp what's going on in this thread. :) Happy to clarify further if not.

I dare to doubt what you claimed in your forlast sentence:
"understanding why ppl went there"...

Not everyone here QQing is as smart as you are and do not think about their actiosn ;)

And for the rest of your post, I discontinue this debate, I have no issues with flamewar, but jeez I got old for this already.

They wanna live in rainbowhappyponnyland, do so... I am from a different sort, not wearing mask and while I don't like someone or something. Call it being Polite... I am polite... as long I don't have to deal with idiotism and fake politeness.

pointless to post anything further here, regardless if it gets censorshiped or not. Haters gonna hate, and QQ moaners gonna QQ moar rivers.
I see this shit in every single topic, every single news GGG puts out, everytime there is a band of Haters and QQ moaners, bitching and complaining about that or that, everything but being happy to be able to play a free game as this one.