Discussion: Featured Items at the Paragon Market - 2/14/12

Wow, what a mess this thread has become.

In all my years playing the game, the one key factor that seemed to preceed every aspect of this game was:

Risk vs Reward.

So, for all of you who hate this, you are proving thier point.
The reward is SO GOOD (costume pieces seem to be the big point) that your desire to obtain those clearly and easily is clouding the very simple equation. The RISK part, take 5 cards, flip them and see what you get... To you, the mere chance of uncertainty seems overwhelming.

Sounds like the Risk vs Reward equation is working as intended.

I DO NOT think the costumes should be offered anywhere else but in packs. This allows the packs to have a special reward that you can get nowhere else. You take the risk of puchasing the packs, you have a chance of reaping the desirable rewards. It seems some of you are one sided here, you only want rewards.

I think the rewards justify the packs. Here is an outstanding costume set that is obtainable by only doing *this act*... One could have said that for the Roman pieces before they let them loose. How about the Rularru pieces? Why arent people up in arms that they cant buy those? Its costume stuff only obtainable by doing *this act*...

Some say Time is Money.
So, is the hours sludging through the shards compriable to paying out a couple bucks to obtain the costume sets? For some, yes it is. Some people cant spend hours upon hours doing those TF's or Trias, but they can buy some cards, flip them, and feel connected to the game in ways they couldnt before.

Badges are attached to doing *this act*

So much of the game is, and now, people want thier cake and to eat it too.

No way Jose'

thats the brilliance of the Super Packs. Heres the coolest thing ever. Buy the packs, you may get them, as well as some other cool stuff. If you dont buy them, no costumes. If you dont do the TF, no badge. If you dont sludge through the shards, no pieces...

Its all the same agrument.
Same formula, different application.

So why are we complaining again?

I would love to see more ultra rare vanity pets added to future packs. Next time don't just recolor an existing pet, give us something totally different to make it worth the $$$.

I'm "for" the Superpacks, if they keep the game up and running. I haven't bought any yet, but I did just plunk down 15$ for more points so I can do so sometime soon, and I can tell you I wasn't about to spend that money on what was there in the store already. I would have been content to let my 400 points per month roll in and slowly acquire stuff like costumes and power sets, but the superpacks got me to spend money. I admit it.

As a player of CCGs, including online CCGs, I can tell you that in the time since starting my paid subscription to CoH when it was released to the present, I've probably spent twice as much money on the "no monthly fee" online CCG that I've played (off and on) during that same time span. There are things I like and don't like about the "non physical cards" aspect of the system, but to me what it boils down to is supporting my hobbies.

I like playing these games and am willing to pay the people at the software/game companies to keep producing them so that I can keep playing them. Maybe some people will tell you it's a ripoff to pay money for randomized product and then "strike out" and get "lousy cards". Nobody every promised me that I'd make a profit on this (or any) game, and nobody's forcing me to buy anything I don't want to buy, so I'm ok with that. The fact is, there are a lot of highly necessary, not terribly flashy things that have to be done by people in order to keep games like these running on a day-to-day basis and basically nobody wants to pay for them. MMOs are going free to play because the "pay a subscription up front to gain the right to play this game" model is one a lot of people don't like. It sounds and feels like you have to commit to something, and a lot of people dislike that. In the new world order of "free to play, pay to play WELL" I'm ok with superpacks. Other games are going this route, from what I hear.

I personally don't care about a lot of things that I might get in a superpack, and maybe only really want a few of them, but opening one up has a sort of "Christmas morning" feel to it that I like anyway, and if that money pays the salaries of the programmers, developers, etc that keep the game up and running, I'll do it. People who don't have the money or don't want to spend it are free to do as they please with free-to-play accounts, and they get to enjoy (to a limited degree) the game that people like me who spend for VIP accounts and superpacks are paying for. I don't have a problem with that either. I'd rather see the company that runs this game make a bunch of money (including some of mine) off of it and therefore keep the game going as long as possible than see it go free to play, then wither and die due to lack of profits. I believe in supporting my hobbies.

Some people who play CCGs (both online and otherwise) feel as if they're only winning if they can make more money off of it than the owners of the stores that they play those games at, and feel like they're getting "ripped off" of the store proprietor buys cards for one price and sells them for another. Well, that's how those stores make money, and if the stores lose money, they close, and if they close, I don't have any place to play my CCG games at anymore, so I don't want that to happen. So I don't steal from them. I don't complain that they're "ripping me off" in card trades. I don't cheat to win tournaments so that I can justify my entry fee by the amount of prizes I win, etc. That's just me.

I will also say that the VIP account I have gets me 400 points and a Vet Token per month that I don't always know what to do with anyway, and this gives me something else to spend those points on that I didn't have as an option before. I know other players that have basically run out of things to spend points on and would not have spent any money on points if not for the superpacks. If that supports the game, then its a good thing. Maybe some bad mixed with some more good, but on balance a good thing, in my opinion.

I may not buy eeeeverything that hits the market but I am one of those people who want every possible costume pack thats available as to get better variety from my characters. Packaging one of the coolest sets to come out recently in a trading card scam just pisses me off honestly.

This is the first time in a long time I've felt super tempted by a simple costume set. I'm fighting it off though and I hope a great deal more of the player base does the same. You can take a stand and that's by not buying into it.

If you don't buy then the super packs backfire and the costume goes on sale in the market as a set.

Power to the people! lol

I'm still incredibly happy with my own purchase, and thank Paragon for this fun idea. The Elemental Order set was my major draw, but I've been meaning to toy with Dual Inspirations for a while, but never individually wanted to purchase them as I felt THOSE were a rip off in themselves.

Again, I'd like to thank you. The sheer number of people I've seen with Elemental Order and the Wolf Pet on Virtue suggests far more people believe in the legitimate appeal and fun of these items, and people who are crying about Paragon being thieves or gambling supports or demons or what not are just trying to strong-arm you into releasing the Elemental Order set outside of the packs.

And trust me, going by the sheer number of people with the set right now? You will likely have a legitimately LARGE number of REALLY pissed off individuals if you do that anytime soon. Maybe a year down the line or so, but within the next few months would be a kick in the teeth for us who wanted the packs primarily for the Elemental Order set, secondary for everything else.

Don't release the set outside of it anytime soon, thank you.