What do you think of Crown Store Random boxes/Lottery box?

Waseem

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Zenimax failed on maintaning this game so much by not listening to players.. First it was AOE caps and now, after the population 'recovered' they are dumping this mystery box ***

Morimizo

No I dislike the random crown store boxes, to much of a gamble

Holycannoli wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

I take it youve never played a game with this sort of gambling mechanic in it have you? These things take up the majority of the developers resources while other things like content (Wrothgar, IC, TG, DB) take a back seat.

Funny how this last update and the next one wont be content heavy. But we've been seeing months and months of datamined items meant for the Crown Store. Or so we thought. Wheres Murkmire or Clockwork City?

Exactly. Introducing these gambling boxes means development will be steered in that direction. All content, all DLCs, will be developed with utilizing the gambling box in mind. The truly desirable items like mounts will no longer be for sale in the cash shop but will have a pitifully low chance of coming from a box.

And that's only the beginning. Anyone that thinks these boxes will only have prior limited time items and future mounts is naive.

And that brings up another point: There are previous items they removed from the cash shop (for no other reason than to artificially make them "limited) that I would love to buy if they added them back to the cash shop. But to add them to a gambling box? Oh hell no. It's so insulting that not only will I NOT be buying a single gambling box, I may not even keep the game on my harddrive. There was never a reason to remove items from the cash shop in the first place, and now they're locking items in an RNGenie box so now they potentially cost many times more than they used to. That calls for a big middle finger raised in the air.

If the coffee I buy in the morning suddenly became some roulette wheel of beverages where I had to spend $2 per spin where maybe I'd get coffee but probably got tea or soda or bottled water instead I'd be super pissed and stop going to that shop. Just sell me what I want and don't make me gamble for it, got it ZOS?

Perhaps what ZOS should do is make EVERY ASPECT of the game RNG; you know, whether you get XP/AP or not from quests or mobs, if there's Gold or not from quest or mobs, whether you get Writs to do or not (then randomize the rewards to be given or not), when you complete an achievement, sometimes it will count, often times it will just reset and you'll have to try again;

There's so much potential here, especially when you consider that in the Crown Store, there will be a shiny new item, for 5000 or more Crowns, that will be:

"RNG remover for game mechanics affected in the recent patch, but not inclusive of normal loot drops or rewards before this latest patch."

Could always be worse.

Rohamad_Ali

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Morimizo wrote: »

Holycannoli wrote: »

Korah_Eaglecry wrote: »

I take it youve never played a game with this sort of gambling mechanic in it have you? These things take up the majority of the developers resources while other things like content (Wrothgar, IC, TG, DB) take a back seat.

Funny how this last update and the next one wont be content heavy. But we've been seeing months and months of datamined items meant for the Crown Store. Or so we thought. Wheres Murkmire or Clockwork City?

Exactly. Introducing these gambling boxes means development will be steered in that direction. All content, all DLCs, will be developed with utilizing the gambling box in mind. The truly desirable items like mounts will no longer be for sale in the cash shop but will have a pitifully low chance of coming from a box.

And that's only the beginning. Anyone that thinks these boxes will only have prior limited time items and future mounts is naive.

And that brings up another point: There are previous items they removed from the cash shop (for no other reason than to artificially make them "limited) that I would love to buy if they added them back to the cash shop. But to add them to a gambling box? Oh hell no. It's so insulting that not only will I NOT be buying a single gambling box, I may not even keep the game on my harddrive. There was never a reason to remove items from the cash shop in the first place, and now they're locking items in an RNGenie box so now they potentially cost many times more than they used to. That calls for a big middle finger raised in the air.

If the coffee I buy in the morning suddenly became some roulette wheel of beverages where I had to spend $2 per spin where maybe I'd get coffee but probably got tea or soda or bottled water instead I'd be super pissed and stop going to that shop. Just sell me what I want and don't make me gamble for it, got it ZOS?

Perhaps what ZOS should do is make EVERY ASPECT of the game RNG; you know, whether you get XP/AP or not from quests or mobs, if there's Gold or not from quest or mobs, whether you get Writs to do or not (then randomize the rewards to be given or not), when you complete an achievement, sometimes it will count, often times it will just reset and you'll have to try again;

There's so much potential here, especially when you consider that in the Crown Store, there will be a shiny new item, for 5000 or more Crowns, that will be:

"RNG remover for game mechanics affected in the recent patch, but not inclusive of normal loot drops or rewards before this latest patch."

Could always be worse.

Lol ikr @Morimizo

To everyone else not quoted in support .

All evil and corruption needs is good people to stand by and do nothing , someone once wrote to that effect . Blind devotion is toxic .

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm71Khu5-Lk

Indifference is a hollow gift shown by the uncaring .




It makes pigeons fly out of Guru Nanak's turbine in complete confusion .

If people are passionate enough to post over and over for something they are in support of they should be able to give reasonable reasons why they supporters yes . Those that can't are just indifferent looking for reasons others should be indifferent as well . Again , blind devotion is showing .

Adernath

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Lumenn wrote: »

It's the next steps that get me. Less and less drops in game "but available in loot bags". New motifs not in game "but available in loot bags" super armor/weapons released "only in loot bags". But, but they said only cosmetic items! Yep. They sure did. Gee golly but they must've had their fingers crossed right? "Parrots not dead, it's just resting " Meanwhile bugs, New content, everything IN game slowly(or seeing how clumsy this has been not so slowly) all take a back seat to...yep, the "loot bags" .

(...)

So to ME, introducing this practice even in the face of the negativity(and hiding it while planning it) means they've given up on the game totally. It's a cash cow to be milked until it bleeds and nothing more. When/if it dies they can move to the next project and prove how well they did with profits from a dying game.

I couldn't agree more. This reminds me on Cryptics Neverwinter ... awesome setting (DnD), graphics and gameplay, but it went more and more into P2W unless you are going to farm your *** out and spend your life in the AH 24/7. Well, not even that would be sufficient.

In the end the game turned into a Zoo where everyone is playing the game with their credit card.

Holycannoli wrote: »

And that's only the beginning. Anyone that thinks these boxes will only have prior limited time items and future mounts is naive.

And that brings up another point: There are previous items they removed from the cash shop (for no other reason than to artificially make them "limited) that I would love to buy if they added them back to the cash shop. But to add them to a gambling box? Oh hell no. It's so insulting that not only will I NOT be buying a single gambling box, I may not even keep the game on my harddrive. There was never a reason to remove items from the cash shop in the first place, and now they're locking items in an RNGenie box so now they potentially cost many times more than they used to. That calls for a big middle finger raised in the air.

I too have great obligations against introducing that. The margin in adding items like previously flagged 'exclusive and time-limited' items are very very narrow and as I said before: there is no really need to make any items in the shop time-limited at all. Sadly I doubt that they even bother reading through the posts

Waseem

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Why are you waiting devs replies anyway..
They cant do magic and its not a nice position to suggest your superiors to minimize possible profits, but they can take A good vacation ^.^

They made big update, with probably thousands of bugs and seconds of latency/lag ahead in big cities.. So they decide to make something so ppl - probably- dump their crowns on before leaving ESO for good.. When the AoE patch arrived for example, thousands decided that its their last day in ESO.. This one tamriel could have PvP lag moving PvE.. Like laggy dungeons/trials.. But this time zenimax had bright idea, last cashout from players as they quit! Right at a mystery box near you.
My talk could be conspiracy BS. But we are going to see

Enodoc

Yes I like the random boxes idea so Long as they only have cosmetics

Abeille wrote: »

Okay, let me just point at the "no lockboxes quote" I know of (there could be more), since some people are not believing it happened.

Here. In retrospect, yes, they did refrain from using a definitive term like "no, never".

Thanks for that! So an exact quote from ZOS said, at least once, that there were "no plans" for lockboxes. How many other things have there been "no plans" for?

• Vvardenfell
• Mages Guild / Fighters Guild dailies
• Duelling
• Battlegrounds
• Imperial City District Capture
• Adjusting Craglorn
• Redoing any old zones
• Console text chat

"No plans" is one of the loosest (and safest) comments they can make, and certainly doesn't constitute a promise. "Plans can change", as they have been quick to point out before.
Disclaimer - This isn't a defense of ZOS adding lockboxes. This is a defense of the currently unfounded claim that ZOS said they never would.

JD2013 wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

JD2013 wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

dsalter wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

This has to be the most active thread in the history of these forums. 2 days and already over 1,000 comments and over 17,000 views!

cause it's something that'll shake the foundations of the game

What foundations? It's just a mystery box full of other Crown Store items and RNGeebus' plot to take all your money. You don't HAVE to buy them you know...

Don't use that argument. It's just going round in circles now sadly. I tried that one.

It's true though, you really don't and I for one will not buy them. If you choose to buy it all consequences and/or benefits are on you, not Zenimax. In short, purchase with caution.

Oh I completely agree with you. But apparently ZOS are preying on people with gambling addictions and trying to financially ruin people. I'm trying to understand every side of the argument but I just can't see it.

I agree with you guys too, but if you're interested in the deeper effects of this that people are concerned about, beyond the gameplay aspects, look back at Page 17 where I specifically asked that and got some good answers.

Roechacca

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Well, besides a few people needing to scrape out their Skooma hookahs, it's been an interesting thread. No more word from Zennimax? I'd say some comments from a competent PR person would be in order about now. There's several unanswered questions at the bottom of this toilet bowl. I hope come Monday they drop that pre written statement and address some honest concerns.

#1 Being no one wants exclusive items in those crown boxes. Didn't read one serious post saying that was wanted anywhere.

#2 Are we gonna dodge the free to play bullet with one Tamriel, and if not I'd start bracing people early.

#3 I think I'd like to know exactly what's going in the grab bags.

Xsorus

Yes I like the random boxes idea so Long as they only have cosmetics

So is it really gambling if I can just sell the things I get back to the crown store and actually buy the piece I want?

Cause that seems to be an option.

JD2013

No I dislike the random crown store boxes, to much of a gamble

Xsorus wrote: »

So is it really gambling if I can just sell the things I get back to the crown store and actually buy the piece I want?

Cause that seems to be an option.

If you get an item you already have, you can get crown gems back on that to buy something you want.

JD2013

No I dislike the random crown store boxes, to much of a gamble

Roechacca wrote: »

Well, besides a few people needing to scrape out their Skooma hookahs, it's been an interesting thread. No more word from Zennimax? I'd say some comments from a competent PR person would be in order about now. There's several unanswered questions at the bottom of this toilet bowl. I hope come Monday they drop that pre written statement and address some honest concerns.

#1 Being no one wants exclusive items in those crown boxes. Didn't read one serious post saying that was wanted anywhere.

#2 Are we gonna dodge the free to play bullet with one Tamriel, and if not I'd start bracing people early.

#3 I think I'd like to know exactly what's going in the grab bags.

I'd say it's not going free to play as they are coming out with the Gold edition next month, requiring people to still buy to play. I can't see the future, but for now I would say no free to play.

Jazbay_Grape

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Joe , people have been burned in other MMOs by this .The concept of just don't buy them in a argument is dead . It's the past problems in other titles and the change in focus of development that is the concern . More then the dirty lock boxes themselves .

No ones holding a gun to our head to buy them yes . No one is holding a gun to anyone's head if the game goes to s*** either to keep us playing . We know this . It doesn't add any positive feedback as to why the game needs this feature . There is no need , just greed . They could add those old crown store items back for direct purchase again so the NEED for this does not exist except in people's imagination . Why would we ever support dev time wasted on things we don't have a need for ? We wouldn't.

With Matt's announced of this and adding there's 7million players now, we know the games survivability is not dependent on this . There adding something not needed end of story . Total waste of dev time .

This sums up my opinion better than I would have

Roechacca

No, don't ever add these into the game.

JD2013 wrote: »

Roechacca wrote: »

Well, besides a few people needing to scrape out their Skooma hookahs, it's been an interesting thread. No more word from Zennimax? I'd say some comments from a competent PR person would be in order about now. There's several unanswered questions at the bottom of this toilet bowl. I hope come Monday they drop that pre written statement and address some honest concerns.

#1 Being no one wants exclusive items in those crown boxes. Didn't read one serious post saying that was wanted anywhere.

#2 Are we gonna dodge the free to play bullet with one Tamriel, and if not I'd start bracing people early.

#3 I think I'd like to know exactly what's going in the grab bags.

I'd say it's not going free to play as they are coming out with the Gold edition next month, requiring people to still buy to play. I can't see the future, but for now I would say no free to play.

Good. I hate having to unlock utility bars or rewards from quests if my sub stays down but I own all the DLC's. They do that to you in Star Wars. Did they say they're keeping exclusive items out of the grab bags for sure?

KingYogi415

No, don't ever add these into the game.

I think a people are missing the cause of this anger.

It's not about gambling or pay2win.

The fact is a lot people are collectors, and we have been the most loyal customers, spending hundreds of dollars a year. On fluff items. We had no problem shelling out 20-40 bucks every couple months for a new mount.

The thought of a new mount, being locked behind hundreds of dollars of RNG shakes my belief in this company to me core.

It's a slap in the face the most loyal supporters!

Thevampirenight

No, don't ever add these into the game.

KingYogi415 wrote: »

I think a people are missing the cause of this anger.

It's not about gambling or pay2win.

The fact is a lot people are collectors, and we have been the most loyal customers, spending hundreds of dollars a year. On fluff items. We had no problem shelling out 20-40 bucks every couple months for a new mount.

The thought of a new mount, being locked behind hundreds of dollars of RNG shakes my belief in this company to me core.

It's a slap in the face the most loyal supporters!

Yeah its best, they don't do that. I hope to god they don't because of the fact its not a good practice, if they are going to do it they better release those items in crownstore first so everyone has chance of getting then add them into the mystery boxes.

Recremen

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Xsorus wrote: »

So is it really gambling if I can just sell the things I get back to the crown store and actually buy the piece I want?

Cause that seems to be an option.

@Xsorus Yes, that is definitely still gambling because it is still a risk-based purchase. You have no guarantee that you will get an item that can be converted into Crown Gems (Crown Jewels?), and anything not in your collection first gets added to your collection. No selling the Doeskin and Chamois outfit back for Crown Gems until it's already in your collection.

More to the point, the whole Crown Gem conversion is just a classic mechanic for increasing player bid confidence in a gambling system. There are lots of ways to increase bid confidence and they are all hollow by necessity. When you're running a gambling den, you don't actually want to increase your players' chances of winning, you want to increase their bid confidence. I'll be posting a more in-depth mathematical analysis later in the week detailing how awful your odds are for getting even a single Crown Gem.

logosloki

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Welp, it's been fun playing people but with that news I will have to leave the game. I am a compulsive gambler. If they add these boxes into the game I will most likely have to leave for the good of my health. I'll stick around to get a better idea of what is being added (I have been able to ignore the store for the most part so far, which is really great for me because usually I would have just bought half of it without even noticing).

UPDATE: I just read the ZOS posts in this thread. If you want people to have a chance at old items then release them for limited time periods on some sort of rotation or add them into the world somehow. if you want to make premium items then make premium items. Don't put in a gambling box.

Final thoughts on the Game. Combat was chill. Skill system was fun, with a lot of shared skill sets to play around with, including the werewolf. Dungeons were cool, Atmosphere was excellent. I loved the AD storyline and zones. PvP was awesome, even though sometimes it took a while to get from point to point. Your crafting will remain in my top three crafting systems and sets a benchmark for what I expect in a modern game. I'm going to miss this game. Have fun out there people but I can't carry on because I know I will just end up spending too much.

cavakthestampede

Yes I like the random boxes idea so Long as they only have cosmetics

Mojmir wrote: »

I live in Vegas,the odds always favor the house. Do you not see how bad the RNG already in this game?

This is true in the format of Vegas, and because they actively discourage winning strategies that are legitimate such as card counting. Even this can be gotten around by keeping your winnings small ($2000 per casino per night), and not falling into the "Gambler's Trap" of continuing to play once you have begun to eat into your starting cash pool.

Smart play is to count cards, make small consistent bets, steadily accrue your winnings over a few hours, never drink, and always set aside 15% of your winnings as your seed for the next night in case things turn. It requires only moderate self-control, but most people go to vegas with money they are ok with "losing" and so they often do.

However, this is a terrible analogy because the ESO system isn't a card game.

Thevampirenight

No, don't ever add these into the game.

logosloki wrote: »

Welp, it's been fun playing people but with that news I will have to leave the game. I am a compulsive gambler. If they add these boxes into the game I will most likely have to leave for the good of my health. I'll stick around to get a better idea of what is being added (I have been able to ignore the store for the most part so far, which is really great for me because usually I would have just bought half of it without even noticing).

Well, its possible they are not making enough money, so they are going to try to resort to this but its a mistake and only drives off players. Zenimax has been a great company so far its made mistakes but they should never resort to this there is always a better way. They should add a limited time item weekly, like the pvp monster sets. An npc where you pay crowns, for the item and the item would not be in the crown store itself this would be a better system. I made a posting which was closed just to make sure they saw the idea. But yes I do feel the gamble system will be relied on to much. Most of the loyal player base sees the gamble boxes as a betrayal from what I have seen in this thread and its the main reason I feel they should never add the boxes. I know it might make them money but at what cost of losing players.

If they do add the gamble box, they should never ever add exclusive mounts to it. That would be worse then the gamble box itself and they have confirmed they are going do this and its something they can't do not without angering a lot of folks that have played past mmos with this system. Its driving off players. A person told me his friends in other factions are leaving because of the mystery boxes if they add them in. Yeah hopefully Zenimax sees reason and changes their minds. But I am not going to count on that. I will stay in the game I won't leave it for good but yeah I imagine bunch of players leaving just because of this.

@ZOS_GinaBruno I hope you understand whats going to happen if zenimax abuses the gamble box, this game can't end up like sto or other games that lost players do to the gamble system and the reliance on it. But I do love the other stuff you and others have done for the game. I thank zenimax and your personally for that. But I can't support the gamble boxes. Well, hopefully the gamble boxes won't be too bad if they are added. But thats my hope, hoping that they don't make the mistakes that other games have taken when they added boxes like these.

JimT722

No, don't ever add these into the game.

I can't believe anyone would support this.

What if they had an exclusive stilt strider mount with a 1% drop rate. How much would people pay into this with hopes to get one. They could put it on the store instead for 20$ and people would likely spend much less. This isn't a system to benefit the player, see it for what it is. It's to tempt people to spend ridiculous amounts on things worth very little.

Doctordarkspawn

No, don't ever add these into the game.

JimT722 wrote: »

I can't believe anyone would support this.

What if they had an exclusive strider with a 1% drop rate. How much would people pay into this with hopes to get one. They could put it on the store instead for 20$ and people would likely spend much less. This isn't a system to benefit the player, see it for what it is. It's to tempt people to spend ridiculous amounts on things worth very little.

And yet you'll get told that by not supporting this you'll be hurting the game, and when this finally hits it'll be a wasteland.

My advice? Start packing bags and looking for another MMO. I dont know if I wanna get into the MMO market again after this, I might just go back to console entirely.

Recremen

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Since other threads are getting closed down on the topic (and that's fair, I mean, they ARE essentially duplicate threads) I'm going to copy this over to the main thread since it adequately describes why even players who don't buy gambling boxes are hurt by gambling boxes.

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »
» show previous quotes

Much of what you said makes no sense. I get people are opposed to the boxes but it really doesn't harm YOU if YOU don't buy them. Points being:

1. Overall, chances are people fishing for limited items sold and now gone forever will pay MORE for them this way than those that got them when they were available paid.
2. This is a chance to give people an opportunity to get something they missed because they could not be there or could not at that time afford it without directly contradicting the policy of "limited time".
3. Sure gambling is bad but these things also usually do not cost much at all. I expect these will cost about 300 crowns tops because any higher would indeed be a bigger gambit than it's worth.

To those who refuse to buy these boxes more power to ya because I know I won't, but still those that actually WANT to take the gambit why should we stop them? They know what they're getting into...

If I'm not explaining it clearly that's my bad, I've said quite a lot in the other thread and it's hard to keep track of where I said what so I might not be making my argument 100% coherent in this thread. I'll try to explain more plainly here why simply offering gambling boxes does indeed harm me.

So far I have been able to make well-educated purchases and investments into this game. First, there was the subscription, and that was a wonderful system that I was sad to see go, but then there was ESO+ and the Crown Store and while not ideal I at least knew exactly what my purchases would get me. After over a year of Crown Store offerings, I also can make reasonable predictions about the price of an item I desire. When combined with the data mining efforts of certain players, I can, with a reasonable degree of certainty, decide what I want to buy, figure out an approximation of its cost, and then either go through with or decline to make the purchase as a well-informed and reasonable consumer.

With the advent of gambling boxes, however, that all goes out the window. We are not going to be given the odds of a gambling box containing a certain item, and nothing we determine from testing on the PTS is going to be reliable. ZOS is under no legal obligation that I know of to keep the drop rate constant, or even have a reasonable drop rate to begin with. We have no way of predicting at any given time what our odds are. Similarly, anything uncovered in the recent data mining, and all data mining in the future, is complete useless for me when it comes to planning purchases because I have no reasonable expectation of something being in the Crown Store versus a gambling box. The relationship I have with the service provider is completely turned on its head because I can no longer make well-informed investments through Crown purchases.

Regarding your first point in your numbered list, I would argue that's an even worse situation, and kind of the point of the problem. People should not have to spend more money, with no guarantee of success, on a digital item that can't run out of stock and does nothing to strain the server.

Regarding the second point, there are a number of ways to offer discontinued mounts and costumes without resorting to gambling boxes. For example, they can just offer them for sale again, even for another limited time, with no special strings attached. It is still very much a limited time item in that case (not that I especially care, but apparently some people do), and it still satisfies player desire to see the mounts and costumes return.

To the last point, the boxes are going for 400 Crowns as of the last Community Manager posting. More to the point, though, it doesn't matter how much they cost because we have no way to know the drop rate or make any kind of well-informed purchase/bid.

Hopefully that makes more sense, my apologies for any confusion.

Slurg

No I dislike the random crown store boxes, to much of a gamble

The more that I learn about this plan the less I like it, because now it is clear that the data mined mounts and other items I bought extra crowns for will never make it to the crown store; they will go straight into these gamble boxes instead. Because they have to have some incentive to get people to buy lots of these things, I won't get to directly buy the things I want from the crown store anymore and that's really disappointing.

And that's just my own selfish perspective. It's too sad to think what this is going to do to people with poor impulse control and/or gambling problems.

UltimaJoe777

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Joe , just stop and tell us why we need this feature added to the crown store . Some of us are tired of repeating ourselves , so take a stab and list me the positive for adding loot boxes . Sell it to me . I want to know why we need a RNG system to get crown store items that could be sold direct .

That can be said about both sides lol but you're also making assumptions here.

I don't care if it gets added or not and am neutral on the matter. This neutrality is how I can see both sides of the spectrum equally rather than go back and forth. My stance in this thread though is, simply put, "chillax it isn't gonna hurt you if you don't bother with it" to those hating it and to those not hating it "if you want it then get it at your own risk". There is a risk to buying it yes and that is that it is a gamble with RNG but Zenimax is adding it as a chance to gain limited item collectors, sort of like buying packs of trading cards and hoping for a rare collectible.

So in short let Zenimax do it and see how it goes and if they see it is a bad thing they will remove it, but if it isn't a bad thing after all they will keep it, gambling or not. And to be fair, we DID ask for a means of gambling at one point, even though this is not what we had in mind.

Mojmir

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Will there be a claw game involved with the loot boxes too? Lol

JimT722

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Slurg wrote: »

The more that I learn about this plan the less I like it, because now it is clear that the data mined mounts and other items I bought extra crowns for will never make it to the crown store; they will go straight into these gamble boxes instead. Because they have to have some incentive to get people to buy lots of these things, I won't get to directly buy the things I want from the crown store anymore and that's really disappointing.

And that's just my own selfish perspective. It's too sad to think what this is going to do to people with poor impulse control and/or gambling problems.

You are right on with this assumption.

Is this going to go live even with the rage? Yes

Is the items you always dreamed of having going to be here? Yes

Are they going to make tons of money? Yes.

This is appearing in more and more games because it works. It's designed to make people pour money into it for a handful of items and it will hit people with impulse control issues hard. They are counting on it.

It is a horrible tactic, but it is effective. I love this game, but I don't like their recent direction as a company.

elvenmad

No, don't ever add these into the game.

JD2013 wrote: »

Roechacca wrote: »

Well, besides a few people needing to scrape out their Skooma hookahs, it's been an interesting thread. No more word from Zennimax? I'd say some comments from a competent PR person would be in order about now. There's several unanswered questions at the bottom of this toilet bowl. I hope come Monday they drop that pre written statement and address some honest concerns.

#1 Being no one wants exclusive items in those crown boxes. Didn't read one serious post saying that was wanted anywhere.

#2 Are we gonna dodge the free to play bullet with one Tamriel, and if not I'd start bracing people early.

#3 I think I'd like to know exactly what's going in the grab bags.

I'd say it's not going free to play as they are coming out with the Gold edition next month, requiring people to still buy to play. I can't see the future, but for now I would say no free to play.

Looks to me like they are going one step further in the greedy department and using advantages of both common existing B2P and F2P systems, like with these RNG cash shop gamble boxes are a well known F2P revenue system

Adernath

No, don't ever add these into the game.

... I guess not even the devs are behind that, probably they got instructions from above.

Lysette

No, don't ever add these into the game.

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

dsalter wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

dsalter wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

JD2013 wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

dsalter wrote: »

UltimaJoe777 wrote: »

This has to be the most active thread in the history of these forums. 2 days and already over 1,000 comments and over 17,000 views!

cause it's something that'll shake the foundations of the game

What foundations? It's just a mystery box full of other Crown Store items and RNGeebus' plot to take all your money. You don't HAVE to buy them you know...

Don't use that argument. It's just going round in circles now sadly. I tried that one.

It's true though, you really don't and I for one will not buy them. If you choose to buy it all consequences and/or benefits are on you, not Zenimax. In short, purchase with caution.

it's not the box. it's the direction greed is taking ESO, this will only be the start of them milking the game if they can get just a few gamble addicts they'll push things more into the boxes and over time when the addicts finally stop contributing due to lack of interest they'll put more tantalising things into it. i'll leave this part up to you to think about.

but i'v seen many a game die because of this path, several were my favourite, ESO is my fave atm and this time i wont let them kill it.

Just because Zenimax is adding mystery boxes doesn't mean they'll make the game P2W (more than they already have anyway, which so far is mild enough to overlook).

doesnt mean that they wont either, but so far the pattern is following many of the games of mine that died, and it's not a pleasant pattern, it'll start slow, it always does, the fact theres box exclusives already in them means this was planned for a long time.

trust me if this is allowed to fester it'll grow, like a plague, cull it before it starts doing damage.

Zenimax knows they will lose players fast if they go P2W. WW and Vamp Skill Lines is as far as it goes, otherwise they WILL doom their game, and they know that.

It is like cooking a frog - if you just do it gradually enough, the frog will not leave the pot until he will die - this is pretty similar here, slowly and gradually the unwanted elements creep into this game - and these RNG boxes are the platform for it - gradually we will see more and more consumables with special effects - I do not trust for a minute into that ZOS will not be trying this - they lied before, why would they tell the truth now - ZOS is just interested into what is good for their wallet (even I doubt it will be good long term at all) and they sacrifice all for it, trust, community, fan base, respect, credibility - it is just sad.

Edgemoor

No, don't ever add these into the game.

Xsorus wrote: »

Swtor has them; honestly never had a issue with them in that game. They didn't add anything that had an actual effect on the game, it's all cosmetic... People who whine about are just pathetic silly children who demand everything be given to them for free.

But all the good stuff goes into the cartel packs, hardly anything elsewhere. And after a while the chance to get anything good is now so low the only use for them is as a means to convert real money into game cash.

Abeille

No I dislike the random crown store boxes, to much of a gamble

Enodoc wrote: »

Abeille wrote: »

Okay, let me just point at the "no lockboxes quote" I know of (there could be more), since some people are not believing it happened.

Here. In retrospect, yes, they did refrain from using a definitive term like "no, never".

Thanks for that! So an exact quote from ZOS said, at least once, that there were "no plans" for lockboxes. How many other things have there been "no plans" for?

• Vvardenfell
• Mages Guild / Fighters Guild dailies
• Duelling
• Battlegrounds
• Imperial City District Capture
• Adjusting Craglorn
• Redoing any old zones
• Console text chat

"No plans" is one of the loosest (and safest) comments they can make, and certainly doesn't constitute a promise. "Plans can change", as they have been quick to point out before.
Disclaimer - This isn't a defense of ZOS adding lockboxes. This is a defense of the currently unfounded claim that ZOS said they never would.

Here's the difference:
- For RNG boxes, that was said to ease the worries of the player base when the Crown Store was announced, so that people could breath in relief and stay in the game.
- For all the examples you presented, it was said with a "we are not working on it right now", meaning they could work on it someday, but "not now, don't bother".

I do agree that it is a safe thing to say. But they said that about the RNG Boxes so that they could backtrack and add an unpopular mechanic eventually. Because if they flat-out stated they could do it someday, a lot of players would have reacted, well, exactly like we are reacting now.

With the examples they gave, they used the expression to avoid promising a desired feature and then have people asking about said feature, because they "said they would do it". Like happened with the barbershop.

It is PR stuff. It is very important to take the context in consideration, and to evaluate what was said taking into consideration what was the answer the people who asked about these features wanted.

It's a shame I can't find Matt's quote, where he says "we don't like them either", about the RNG boxes.