World of Warcraft and UDE Point System Fiasco 251
Richard Manley writes "A report on the card game trinket fiasco. When the UDE (Upper Deck Entertainment) point system finally went live, I would imagine most of the people that logged in felt the same fury I did. Blizzard knows the lengths that its fans will go to get trinkets (look at the price of Murloc cards on eBay), but their arrangement with Upper Deck simply takes advantage of the good will many fans have shown." From the article: "This means that in order to get these trinkets, one would have to purchase 9 BOXES of cards for the fireworks and 21 BOXES of cards for the ogre. What does this mean? Want a fireworks trinket? Sure, it is only going to cost you $900.00. Want an Ogre trinket? No problem, it is only going to cost you $2,100.00. Bear in mind that these items are purely for show off purposes and give no in-game advantage to players." Having been through the Magic: The Gathering addiction twice, I've decided staying away from this Collectible Card Game is a good idea.
What will happen (Score:2, Insightful)
rtards (Score:1, Insightful)
Aah yes ... (Score:5, Insightful)
What the heck does all THAT mean? I must be getting old
It seems to me that the more time passes, the less I understand around here. Funny how that happens.
HELP! (Score:2, Insightful)
It's an all-volunteer army (Score:3, Insightful)
Assumptions! (Score:4, Insightful)
Or maybe they just placed an extra 0 on all the stuff online by accident.
Or maybe they really are just greedy bastards and know how to exploit the playerbase of the most popular game in the world.
Or maybe, just maybe... They meant it to be REALLY FSCKING TOUGH to get those. They aren't special if everyone has one.
A fool and their money are soon parted (Score:5, Insightful)
Why not either a) Buy the cards for the cards, or b) Wait until you know how much things will cost before buying the cards?
Vanity is Expensive (Score:5, Insightful)
other than "vanity items".
So the writer of this article is upset that vanity items cost too much? Hello?
Any disappointment on the part of players is a result of over-expectation
in the 'freebie collectible' component of the offline game. I'm not sure that
having one's un-researched expectations shattered by reality is something that warrants
casting blame on the manufacturer.
IMHO as long as we're talking about something that has no other purpose but to
flaunt in front of other players and say "Na-ha, look what I have!", there's no
'appropriate' price. As in the real world, vanity has no upper price limit.
What were people expecting? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hell no, why? Because only an idiot goes out and buys the coke bottle just for the code. They code is a little reward for drinking the coke. Its not a consolation prize, it is a little reward for a bit of brand loyalty. Hell the rewards for the soda are less useful.
God, what an ass. I'm gonna buy a ccq so i can win a freaking e-penis enhancement. Oh boy, I pay 15 bucks a month already, why don't I just bend over some more then bitch about it. You have not been kidnapped, you don't have a knife at your throat, DON'T BUY THE FUCKING CARD GAME YOU MORON, GOD DAMMIT ITS THAT SIMPLE. ITS ONLY A FIASCO IF YOU ARE A FUCKING MORON.
cough. ahem. sorry.
Re:Assumptions! (Score:5, Insightful)
I suspect if you went to them and offered them 1/10th of that price for the item, and only the item, they'd quickly open up a shop and sell it to you.
Do I think it sounds amazingly stupid as the system stands? Absolutely. I just don't believe this is the end of the system, only the beginning.
Re:Aah yes ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless you spend half of your weeks to roam forums about this game, there's no way to understand this article.
I was hoping that just reading games.slashdot.org twice a month would be enough to make me appear a shining gammer amongst my friends but... I just cannot read it anymore!
Gosh... then, what were those acronyms again? UDE, CCQ, MtG, MiG, THAT, RTFA, IANAL...
Re:HELP! (Score:2, Insightful)
You know, if they were trinkets that were easy to get then everyone would have them, and all the dimwits who are getting so upset about this wouldn't want them.
And it seems pretty clear to me that having introduced a reward system, Blizzard are unlikely to just leave it at these daft card games. You could pick up points in all manner of other ways. Some points, its to be hoped, could be earned in ways that don't involve you having more money that sense.
Re:What will happen (Score:4, Insightful)
I think no community can bark louder than than the WoW one, but seeing as the majority are a bunch of kids it just doesn't fucking matter.
Irrational Beings Are Predictable, Too (Score:5, Insightful)
a) A deck of WoW UDE cards - throwing away the cards and hording points for a system not yet in place to spend the points online?
b) A video game rental?
c) 5 Crispy Chicken Sandwiches from Wendy's (pre-tax)?
d) A share in Ford (they're hovering right around that)?
e) Some cheap headphones?
f) A 1 gig flash drive from TigerDirect (after rebate)?
g) 5 lotto tickets?
h) 5 songs on iTunes?
i) 40 songs on AllOfMp3?
j) any other thing on this planet you can get for $5?
Utility theory says that all of these are not equal to everyone. The major downside to spending the $5 is, of course, that you no longer have the $5, and the thing you have acquired may not be worth $5 to anyone else, so you can't always just "turn it back in" and magically get $5 again. It is that moment of choice which defines self utility. And frankly, people scarfing up these decks of cards placed an irrational (and needlessly high) value on these decks.
It's like playing the lotto. Irrationality is predictable, too, because self-utility is not a rational thing, but it can be measured all the same. Good marketing people know this.
Re:Vanity is Expensive (Score:3, Insightful)
There is outrage at how much these trinkets cost to get, and then they reveal that there's no competitive advantage to having one, which invalidates the pricing of them because they are vanity only.
Let me qualify that. If they were 'forcing', by game mechanic or otherwise, subscribers to get these cards to get a nominal in-game advantage then I would agree wholeheartedly that allowing people to buy an advantage is creating an inherent divide between the wealthy players and the less wealthy. However, seeing as the items themselves are totally pointless and confer no advantage to the player, then why aren't they just treated as a bonus to people who want to collect the card game?
Just because some Joe Nerd wants to spend this amount of money on cards to get a trinket that does nothing (like, say, spending an extra million bucks to get a diamond studded mobile phone instead of a plain plastic one) then why should anyone stop them? Just because it's a waste of their money, we have no obligation to complain at the manufacturer for selling something at a price which people will pay to get them.
The other thing is, why are people pretending that this huge amount of money doesn't include a lot of trading cards with which you can play a different game entirely? It's like complaining to McDonalds that their Happy Meal toy costs the price of a Happy Meal.
Re:Aah yes ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Have you noticed that too? Do you ever feel like "the powers that be" only choose to "inform" a particular age bracket about what "cool" is and after a while, you realize you aren't getting those messages anymore? =)
Re:Aah yes ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Free? (Score:4, Insightful)