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

I am well aware of Arcanaville's point, and I both respect and support his/her decision. I also respect your decision to buy the Superpack for all the reasons you've listed.

You can buy the Superpacks because it excites you and you believe it is worth the cost. I will not purchase the Superpack because all I want is the costume and I do not believe it is worth the undetermined price it will cost me to get it.

Hence the stalemate...

You can tell me that you bought 5 packs and got everything you wanted. I can buy 500 packs and still not get a single costume piece. There are no guarantees. Telling me that is is cheap means nothing compared to the fact that you still can't tell me how much it will cost to get a complete set. Should they continue to go this route with the costume pieces that I want, I will simply leave for a more 'sure thing'. And if things change months or years down the road, I 'might' come back.

I came back for the free weekends and Freedom, and became a VIP subscriber again simply because I wanted to get a good idea of what to expect as a VIP member. The vast amount of locked costume parts were disturbing, but at least I had an allowance to free up specific parts as I wanted/needed them. If "my" interests of playing dressup with digital dolls while beating the crap out of things comes down to random chance, then I'm going to go someplace else where it is not so random.

I have the Elemental Order set already. How much do you care that I do? Outside the context of this specific discussion where that fact is a little more relevant, I'm guessing your answer falls somewhere between "not at all" and "very little." Which is exactly how much I care that you don't have it. I don't care that you don't have Elemental Order any more than you care that my VIP subscription lapsed for a few days a while back and I don't get the "Salute to Statesman" loyalty package now, even though I really wanted it. Because that's not your problem.

I don't honestly care whether costume pieces are exclusive to the super boosters or not. Sell them separately, don't sell them separately, whatever. I have them, and that's what matters to me. But I'll be buying more super packs, and if the devs wanted to toss a few more things in there for me to find, I'd be thrilled that they were there, not frothing with rage that they weren't somewhere else instead.

Flying is statistically the safest form of travel, by a wide margin. Sure, I can't guarantee that if you get on a plane, you'll arrive safely at your destination, but, just like your "500 packs" example, the chance you won't is statistically insignificant.

Are you one of those people who once heard a story about how your friend's ex-wife's cousin's neighbor's son's car skidded into a river and he wasn't able to get out in time and he drowned, so now you refuse to wear a seatbelt because "they cost more lives than they save?"

Go Go Gadget Gambling!

Completely agree. These days, I value my time waaaay more than my money. I'll be buying 24-packs for some time.

If they rotate what is in the packs it theoretically can be sustainable revenue generation, but like GPbunny said not for the long term if things stay as is.

I suppose that's just the difference between us. I'm quite happy that you got your costume pieces, in a way you liked getting them, and are looking forward to getting more things in the same way in the future.
I'm of the strange opinion that the larger number of happy players there are, the better a game tends to be. It's not a perfect formula, but is has been working pretty well so far for CoH.
I think that enough people being unhappy enough with having (or not having) things in a game I like is terribly important. If enough people are unhappy enough, then poof no more game. Of course, the Super Packs aren't going to cause that - they might even be a move away from it - just not for me. And a few others, it seems.

And, again, for the record, I'm not raging, frothing or any combination thereof. I'm disappointed, that's all, and find it unfortunate that Paragon has chosen this method to deliver exclusive material. I find it more disappointing that, as they appear to be decent sellers, they'll be offering more exclusive content this way in the future. Especially if the people buying the Packs don't care that the pieces are exclusive or not.
I don't expect you to care about that, of course - you've made it clear that you don't. Just be aware that not everyone is so blase' about the desires of the other people supporting (or deciding not to support) a game that makes you happy.

Are you one of those people that purposely miscontrue a valid statement for an extreme, unrelated situation?

We aren't talking about lives or seatbelts, we're talking about digital goods. To which my stance is that 'no one' (including you) cannot tell me (with any degree of certainty) how much it will cost me to specifically purchase the EO costume pieces (which are the only things of value 'to me' in the packs), therefore... I will not be investing any money into it.

Feel free to bring up airplanes again. If I want to get to the Bahamas, and each flight I pay for, although only $50, has a 13% chance of landing in the Bahamas (but 100% chance to land somewhere in the Caribbean), I can gauran-dang-tee you that I won't be buying any tickets. Now if I had a month of vacation and wanted to travel to the Caribbean, with no particular destination, then this airline is the one for me.

That's not a stalemate, that's how stores work. You buy what you want, and you don't buy what you don't want. There's nothing wrong with not wanting something, or alternatively not believing the price is worth it. There are things I haven't bought from the store, and its not necessarily because there's something wrong with me or something wrong with Paragon Studios.


Theoretically yes, but its probably more likely your computer will explode during the opening of those 500 packs.