The problem Bioware is having is determining what to do with the items from older sets. There are a number of items which are highly sought, and which the regular market price is quite high. For example, a long time ago, I picked up the Xoxaan's set for my Sith Inquisitor. I got the entire 6-piece set for about 800,000 credits. Today, a single piece of Xoxaan's costs north of 1 million credits.
The solution Bioware came up with was the Grand Chance Cube, the "lockbox inside a lockbox". The GCC is an item which comes in the current set. It contains a random item from the older sets.
There are two problems with the GCC:
- They have a very high chance to drop. For example, I think a current pack contains 2 items. There is a chance that both items will be GCCs. This obviously annoys the person who wants to get one of the new items from the current set.
- They are somewhat indiscriminate in which old items are gained. Apparently there's a high chance of getting low-value items like emotes and pets.
In any case the backlash has been fairly strong against the Grand Chance Cubes. No to mention the amount of "Yo dawg, I heard you like lockboxes in your lockboxes" memes that get brought up whenever this topic comes up.
I think that TOR should have gone with straight reprints, like Magic does, or re-releases of old items. Make a commitment that the number of reprints won't exceed 50%, and that it will be at least a year before an item is reprinted. Then be more careful what what items are reprinted at what rarity.
This way, rather than relying on complete chance, Bioware could hype the return of valuable sets, at the proper rarity. People would be happy to know that Xoxaan's armor is coming back in the next Cartel Market set. There would be an increase in supply, and prices would drop to reasonable levels. Plus Bioware would know that people would be happy if they get that specific armor. It allows them to reprint the popular stuff, and not worry about reprinting the unpopular items.
Archeage "solved" this problem with a special offer (it was the black friday week, I think): they simply added to the cash shop for a limited time ALL the previous lockboxes/items. It's probably simpler and less rage-prone than the choice made by SWToR
ReplyDeleteSWTOR actually did something like this at the end of the last expansion. They put out a set which had a chance to contain an item from any previous set.
DeleteThe main issue is that there are a *lot* of older sets, and Bioware is trying to keep the number of sets for sale at any one time down to a reasonable number.
The same problem (although you hear of it less) applies to stronghold decorations. Many old rare or even slightly rare decos aren't even on the GTN anymore, much to my frustration.
ReplyDeleteThat's true, it applies to any item from the Cartel Packs. Armor is just the most vocal complaint.
DeleteI do think that re-issuing the old stuff occasionally is an absolute must, and not just the most sought-after items. I found it funny for example that you listed emotes as low-value. I'm so pleased that the chance cubes finally allowed me to complete my emote collection, and even so it cost me several million to buy the last couple I missed. But before that, these things just weren't on the GTN at all.
ReplyDeleteI agree though that making it so that buying a pack from the newest shipment and having a chance to get nothing but old stuff was definitely not the smartest way to go (even if it benefited me personally).
I don't mean the emotes were low-value so much as they used to be the "common, non-rare" item. That meant that supply was pretty high. But if the supply of the common items is drying up, they too should be reprinted.
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