A sign of things to come? | Forums

[frodonr]

This is me been a b.tch and a sign of how there trying to get as much money out of as they can.

The last few weeks they've been setting challenges for us in solo and task force challenges getting prestige credits. This week they have removed the reward off prestige credits from the task force challange.

Why? Is this another way to gently force your hand into buying battle crates?

With so many complaints about the store and how there pricing dlc content the latest one been the relentless glitch fighter pack at 2500 at nearly €20 and now M4 super 90 1500 just under €10.

Its like there trying to show us that for an extra 1000 credits u get 3 extra items, now it looks like better value. Its still €20 for 4 items.

[KingSpawn1979]

You're beating a dead Horse Mate.

[Ghost-Ami]

I do miss the days when we got spec ops crates as challenge rewards.

[frodonr]

Well if u beat a dead horse enough it will move

[Megalodon26]

I'm not really following your logic here. So just because the task force reward is something other than 200 prestige points, that it;s a way of getting people to buy spec ops crates?

As far as the packs are concerned, that is a common practice in retail. Just gp to a local grocery store. most likely you will see a sale on something, like a can of soup. Where one can is $1.50, but if you buy 2 or more, they only cost $1.25 each. So instead of just buying the one can of soup, which is all you really wanted, for $1.50, you end up spending $2.50, for 2 cans.

People are hard wired to look for the best deal, and it often leads us to spend more money than we wanted, for stuff we don't really need, just because it seemed like a good deal at the time

[KingSpawn1979]

Well if u beat a dead horse enough it will move

Not at all. All you will get is minced Meat.

[Ghost-Ami]

I'm not really following your logic here. So just because the task force reward is something other than 200 prestige points, that it;s a way of getting people to buy spec ops crates?

As far as the packs are concerned, that is a common practice in retail. Just gp to a local grocery store. most likely you will see a sale on something, like a can of soup. Where one can is $1.50, but if you buy 2 or more, they only cost $1.25 each. So instead of just buying the one can of soup, which is all you really wanted, for $1.50, you end up spending $2.50, for 2 cans.

People are hard wired to look for the best deal, and it often leads us to spend more money than we wanted, for stuff we don't really need, just because it seemed like a good deal at the time

Well, I don't think people are really "hardwired" to do anything, our behaviour tends to be the product of the social systems we belong to.

But really that sort of deal you mention with the soup is not really as...well, I hate to sound melodramatic...as predatory as some of the things Ubi seem to be doing.

In the long term you never really want "just one can of soup", you'll have that same soup again later surely. Might as well buy more now to spend less over time.

And it's often not really that businesses are trying to trick people into buying "something they don't need"---since you'll use/eat it later---it's more like doing smaller scale bulk buying logic.

There are two ways a business can profit. One is to sell extremely expensive items to a small clientele and significantly mark them up to create a high profit margin per unit. The other is to move less expensive items in larger numbers, items that will have a smaller profit margin per unit but will create great profit in aggregate.

Normally I hate capitalism as much as the next civilised human being, but this is one example where both parties benefit from an aspect of this kind of economics. The customer gets more total soup for cheaper per millilitre, the grocery store get to move more low per unit profit product to increase total profit.

What Ubisoft are doing is more like cutting cocaine with baking soda after offering it pure at first. They have created certain expectations as to how often premium rewards might be acquired without paying for a microtransaction.

As I mentioned we used to receive full three item spec ops crates for challenges on a regular basis, and that got people used to thinking they'd regularly receive---for the cost of just a bit of gameplay, no state backed fiat currency---trios of the latest microtransaction items.

Then after "SO2" Ubi started handing out prestige for challenges---typically 400 for solo, 200 for task force---and that's enough for only 1.5 old microtransaction items every week; then every 13-14 weeks of 600 prestige credits spent on prestige crates you fill your 20 counter and get a battelcrate for 3 of the newer items. Also every 28 weeks of duplicates---if you get duplicates---you earn 400 credits in the store and can buy a battlecrate that way.

Compare this with the days before "SO2" when every couple of weeks or so we had a shot at 1-3 spec ops crates.

So that's basically diluting the product previously on offer and may be compelling people to spend more in the store.

Is that what's happening though? I'm not sure. It should be noted that the current system is more punishing to people like me who already spent a lot on battlecrates in the store to complete our collections. People who never bought crates have a much lower chance of receiving duplicates from prestige crates. The pool is getting quite large since apparently all "SO2" items were moved there so that "O&M" items would be all you get in battlecrates. Me? I have everything from pre "SO2" and "SO2" itself, so every prestige crate I open is a duplicate, and all I get for that is 10 store credits. Might 133/134 credits be fairer, one third the cost of a 400 credit battelcrate?

I don't know what everyone's spending habits are obviously, but while the challenge rewards may indeed be part of a predatory pattern I do think the prestige crate system is actually extremely beneficial to anyone who has so far refused to buy store credits. The ability to get duplicates should probably be removed so that you can definitely 100% get everything with enough grinding over time, but otherwise it's a free shot at hundreds of items some of us had to pay terran fiat currency for.

So. Yeah. If anything I guess I'm just saying it's hard to know what's in people's hearts, both Ubisoft for instituting a system like this and players of different dispositions who may be benefiting more or less from the new system (or thinking they are).

Something to think about anyway.