Spent $260 on Apocalypse Boxes - will never buy Boxes again

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Turtledove wrote:

The OP makes the point that seems to be made quite often that people can become frustrated and feel cheated by the current system. Everyone seems to be ignoring the proposed potential solutions in the OP like some kind of system for trading away the unwanted mtx's or reducing the potential items in the box.

Thinking about it a bit more, I think a good solution for GGG to consider is to charge double/triple (or something along those lines) for the rare items being sold in the mystery box that aren't available for direct purchase. Once the league is over and new mystery boxes are introduced then charge the regular price for those items.

Note: for full disclosure purposes, I've never bought a mystery box. I'm not really interested in cosmetic effects. I generally like the normal look better. Although I wore some Kaom's Roots once as a Ranger and they looked so stupid clunky on her that I did replace them with some supporter pack boots that I had.

edit: Charan's suggestion about making PoE Pay to Win. Assuming that GGG has all the numbers and estimates for this kind of thing. Changing horses mid-stream might be a bit tricky but, if it helped make the PoE game better then I personally wouldn't have a problem with this approach. I would expect far more complaints about that though than I see complaints similar to the OP.

If GGG were so inclined, they could easily reduce the RNG variance of mass-quantity purchases of mystery boxes. That would give customers an incentive to buy more than one box at a time, while maintaining the spirit and statistical probabilities of the current gambling proposition. Here's how it could work:

Buy N quantity of mystery boxes and the online fulfillment routine rolls a sequence of N random contents. It then compares the distribution of results to the statistical probabilities and calculates the overall variance. If the results fall outside of V% variance, it keeps rolling results until it gets a sequence of N mystery boxes within its V% variance spec. The larger number of N mystery boxes you buy at once, the tighter V% variance you get.

Working as intended OP. I learned my lesson with the sin and innocence boxes albeit I bailed out well before your spent amount. They know their player demographic quite well and they are cashing in on it. Live and learn.

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鬼殺し wrote:

The gambler's idea of cause and effect is never not fascinating, and incredibly selfish most of the time. It was a good day because I won. It was a bad day because I lost.

applying that on the topic, if you can "win" with mtx boxes, somebody else has to "not win" aka lose.

so, who loses when you win with mtx boxes, given that you planned to spend a certain sum only?

and if those losers are your most honest supporters what do you lose in the long run?

...

on your comment, ggg catering to those who judge a league on their luck and how fast/rich they got in a certain time has led to temp leagues being empty after a month. hardly a desirable outcome, yes.

I looked at the mystery box today. GGG has already kind of supported one suggestion in this thread. That is, certain of the rare items can be combined. For example, two helmets can be combined to get something that looks like a combination of the two different helmets. This seems like a good idea. It gives the buyer an option to combine items while also perhaps encouraging other buyers to buy even more mystery boxes.

The other point I'll make in this post is that there are 14 rare items with a 20% chance of getting a rare item. This means that

20%/14 = 1.43% chance of getting a single wanted rare item in a single box
1 - 1.43% = 98.57% chance of not getting that one wanted rare item
$260/3 = 87 is the number of mystery boxes opened by the opening poster (OP)
98.57% to the 87 power = 82.28% is the chance of NOT getting the one rare item wanted from a mystery box after opening 87 boxes

What this means to me is that unless one would be happy with getting far more than one rare item in the box or willing to spend far more than $260, do not buy mystery boxes. Note, the OP did not indicate how many of the items he would be happy with and so I don't know.

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MBata wrote:

OP will also drop 5000 fusings on a 6-socket with a level 8 Vorici in his hideout...

"Bah, I'll manage to link it in far less than 1500 fusings..."

*a few moments later*

"Ah, well, already passed 1500 fusings, too late to turn back now, let's keep trying, I mean how bad can it be, should link in another 100-200"..."

*5000 fusings and a mental breakdown later*

"FML..."

Me irl. Every. F-ing. Time.

imagine a store would sell their expensive items for small money first and after a period switch to sell them for a fortune.

still amazed that this principle obviously works, cause gggtencent switched from the usual principle of "selling it cheaper after a certain time after the initial release to give the high payers some exclusivity".

If you want to buy boxes, buy 5-6 tops. You are very unlikely to get doubles.

Never buy that many.

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鬼殺し wrote:

it's hardly revolutionary, dude. People have been buying blind boxes, ichiban kuji and gachas for decades and then selling the rare pulls for much more. TencentGGG are just cutting out the middle-man.

looks like i'm not up to date at all.
and, if anything, the principle has the opposite effect on me. it's likely because i don't really want additional effects. and i know plenty of players who can play without "looking whealthy".

the principle (offering expensive stuff in mtx boxes first) doesn't work in general. it exploits on people want to look whealthy on the costs of higher supporters. otherwise they would have included special tabs.

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鬼殺し wrote:

Well, okay. Let's use the most obvious example. Magic The Gathering. You buy a booster for a small, set amount. It might contain a rare worth fuck all, or it might have that set's most valuable rare. People will buy a lot of boosters to hunt the latter.

They can then sell those at a premium later, although I hear WOTC have cracked down a fair bit on how and when this is done.

It's a bit like that, these mystery boxes. Crack a bunch of boxes in the hopes of getting those top rares, but aware that you'll probably get a bunch of shit rares and hideout decorations you don't really need.

There are, however, two differences: you yourself can't sell them, but instead can buy them directly from TencentGGG at a later date; and the cost of a mystery box will always be lower than or equal to the cost of what's inside. Absolutely. That seems morally much less...compromised.

But not by much, because it's still a gambling mechanic and it's still preying on the weakness to RNG-fuckery inherent to oh so many PoE players. You wouldn't be here if you didn't have at least a spark of the gambler's spirit in you...

good example (although it's pay to play and nobody has an interest of buying these cards to keep some infrastructure running and devs paid). thanks for sharing.

and of course i'm here cause i love gambling and rng. i've got linear rewards in my profession already, don't need that in my free time too.

it's just that i don't like them randomising with our support. but anyway, some more months in that will sound like grandpa talking of the war anyway. i should really stop, most other supporters that thought like me left a long time ago. for a good reason.