Do you have a gambling problem with this game?

KaGaOri

I'm the weirdo with methodical approach:

1) go over what's in crates and pick stuff that is must-have
2) count down how manny gems it is + cross out some stuff if it's unresonably high amount
4) count down how much gems is needed considering what I have (mostly from twitch drops - cca 4 gems /crate btw)
5) count how manny crates is needed -> first 15 crates batch yields about 150 gems, adding second one from same season should collectively yield 400+ gems cause the doubles
6) correct how much more gems is still needed when getting stuff I want while opening the crates - maybe second 15 isn't necessary, 4 or 1 could be enough
7) won't buy any more crates once have gotten things I've picked / enough gems to buy them
8) radiant apex mounts don't exist

Everyone has their own brand of crazy, I gues

bmnoble

Nope, I never buy the crown crates or loot boxes in games.

If a game has a cash shop I buy what I want only if I want it badly enough to waste real money, in ESO I only buy crowns when they are on sale.

Anything that is in the gem category of the crown store I ignore simple as that, would I buy some of the stuff it was up for crowns instead yes, will I waste a large amount of money on crown crates to get enough gems to get the stuff that interests me no.

josiahva

I have 400 gems or so...I never buy crown crates, but for some reason it worked out I had just enough crawns left over from my sub for one crate...so I bought it...and got a resplendent sweetroll...and now I have gems and nothing to spend them on. Honestly, nothing in the crown crates holds much interest for me, the skins and mounts I already have are already tacky enough...I don't need more that I will never use. Its all good right now....I have no interest in cosmetics, and so no interest in crown crates...would be a lot more of a problem if they offered something useful in them.

DMuehlhausen

Morwaenna wrote: »

No. I like to get what I pay for.

You don't go into a restaurant and pay £12.95 for a two course lunch that may or may not appear.

But that isn't how this works. If you don't like 75% of the menu at that restaurant don't go there for a random lunch choice. You know what you can get and you know what you most likely won't get. It's on you if you spend more than you should.

Araneae6537

No, but that’s just how my brain is wired. I derive no thrill or pleasure from it, and thus there is no drive to try again, get another, etc. I have on occasion bought loot boxes in other games when they came as part of a package deal, something was guaranteed, etc. I can find it fun when I feel I’ll get my money’s worth, with a small chance of something awesome. I have never bought ESO loot crates because that isn’t the case and I wouldn’t even be able to make good on fortune if I got some rare item that I don’t like. Is it weird that when I think of buying a crate, I immediately imagine getting some ultra rare apex mount that I find gaudy or hideous but cannot turn into gold or anything good for me and find that idea maddening?

I am happy to pay outright for things that I want, but find how crates are implemented insulting rather than enticing. But I try to just ignore the feature; it’s not for me but obviously there are enough people who do like to make it profitable so I can’t expect it to change.

JamieAubrey

Swordancer wrote: »

How many gems do you have? Admit it! xD

I have 648ish and that's buying 4 crates every season and saving them for something I actually want

guarstompemoji

Someone please check the math, here.

Say it's about 4.5 gems per loot box. If we take the better purchase price of 15 loot boxes for 5,000 crowns, and a better crown purchase of 5,500 crowns for $40, that ends up being around $1.37 per crown.

At a 4.5 gems average per box, we'd need around 89 loot boxes to reach 400 gems for a guaranteed mount.

This means to guarantee a specific mount ingame, you'd need to spend about $122.00 (rounding up to the nearest dollar).

This doesn't take into account the chance of duplicate items, the chance of getting the mount in the crate (Crowncrates dot com reports a 1.95% chance for a random Radiant Apex and an 10.83% for a random Apex) , and so forth. Adding in those sorts of squishy numbers would take someone more skilled at math than I am.

But, rough math, if we assume it's about a 1/10 chance at a random mount, then at the best price, that's still $40 per random mount (since we'd want to get the better purchase price via the 5500 option). If looked at that way...

It seems shady, to me, and makes me quite uncomfortable. My friends are losing their jobs, right now. In this day and age, I'd like to know what I'm getting, you know?

OOJIMMY

I try to keep 400 gems for when a gem exclusive item pops up. I mostly use the eso+ crowns when the time comes around.

Oreyn_Bearclaw

I certainly don't have a problem, but I acknowledge how this game could be bad if you did. For a long while, I would buy 1 (sometimes 2) of the largest crown crate packs each cycle. I have sat out the last 3-4, but only because I thought the mounts were super ugly. I think i have around 800 gems. I don't really spend them. I did want all the elemental bear mounts, bought at least one with gems, don't remember the specifics.

Malkiv

beagles wrote: »

Someone please check the math, here.

Say it's about 4.5 gems per loot box. If we take the better purchase price of 15 loot boxes for 5,000 crowns, and a better crown purchase of 5,500 crowns for $40, that ends up being around $1.37 per crown.

That’s 1.37 Crowns per USD, not the way you said it. So each Crown is about 73 cents.

huntgod_ESO

I typically buy 30 crates when they release, I buy the 21000 crown pack when they go on sale a couple of times a year and sub for a year at a time. Somehow I still always manage to be low on crowns :-)

I do like buying stuff with gold and am lucky to have a guildmate I trust who is always looking to sell crowns and usually at a discount over the discord traders.

The game definitely tweaks my gambling nerve and I would much prefer to just buy the things I specifically want without having to go through the process of opening crates for an intermediary currency so I can buy the few things that I didn't get when I opened them.

GrimTheReaper45

No

Occasionally Ill try and get a few low tier items that i expect to buy with gems. Even then buying like a 15 pack i still end up feeling like I got ripped off lol Then just have immediate regret.

Tinyfangs

No. I have never gambled, don't even play lottery and don't ever buy raffle tickets. Yet I do enjoy the crates, but for a different reason.

To me the crates revive memories of childhood Christmas. As an adult, unwrapping presents just doesn't happen as such anymore, not the way like it was during childhood, but I look at the crates and have a wish list. Then I open crates and like as a child, hope I get what was on my wish list. Some stuff pops up which I didn't want, but that's how it went with Christmas presents too, yet some presents bring me what was on my wish list, and some in a way bring me a bit of money (gems) so I might go out and buy what I had on my wish list.

I get transported back to those innocent days, giggly with excitement, hoping, dreaming.. and the fact I actually pay for this doesn't take away from it. I know I am an adult now and not 8 years old anymore, but opening a crate gives me back a little bit of those times. For that it is worth it for me, and how many crates I buy depends on how big my wish list is. I always set a limit, else I'd not get that excitement. As a child not all dreams came true, but those that did come true had me jump with joy, and also made me look forth to next Christmas.. to that giggly feeling again, the hoping and the dreaming...

Can see though how for some these crates might be dangerous, if they really want to have some radiant apex, for what reason I don't know, I find them all ugly and much rather get that cute little dog or whatever else that's actually considered the 'cheap' stuff lol ^_^

kichwas

Morwaenna wrote: »

No. I like to get what I pay for.

You don't go into a restaurant and pay £12.95 for a two course lunch that may or may not appear.

Yep.

The only gems I've had have been from when they've given out a bonus loot box in a promotion.

I got up to about a 100 of them at one point, but am down to maybe 40 or so now.

I don't get loot boxes...

And yeah... imagine going to a restaurant and paying for lunch, only 90% of you just get a single lemonade, 9% of you get lunch, 0.9% get dinner, and then 0.1% get a full day's meal...

The house ALWAYS wins in gambling... only fools play.

At least in a real world casino the house doesn't have an infinite supply of cash-in chips to give out.

But with digital gambling through loot boxes... the supply is infinite. The house's house was the cost to produce 1 of them originally. All copies after that are just profit. I'd rather things just be directly in the crown store and paid for upfront at a cost that I could be aware was properly funding the development and support of the game and it's employees.

(This is why I go ESO+ - a known payment for a known amount of goods.)

That said if you think it's bad here... just log into one of the F2P games imported from Asia, where the business model has gone almost 100% over to loot boxes, like PSO2.

VoidCommander

I don’t feel compelled to gamble with the crates personally. There was a forum post where a dude spent over $3000 USD on crates trying to get that special harrowstorm senche raht. He never got it due to its .25% drop chance. We determined that he had a 1/8 chance of not getting it after that many crates, so he was just unlucky. Gambling in this game is not a “mass” issue, it is a single elephant sized issue from individuals who are few and far between. Unfortunately their money is what is continuing to fuel the unethical business practice of loot boxes.

Iccotak

In all seriousness however I only spent a large amount of money (about $150) on the Xanmeer crown crates when they came back, this is because Argonians are my favorite and have 4 argonian characters.

I got alot of items and what I was looking for so I was ok.

I do not intend to spend that kind of money on the crate system until I think it's worth it.

So probably on the next set of Argonian themed items in an Argonian Chapter

Reverb

Yes I do. Every night, several times a night, I gamble on wether or not my skills will go off in time. I could retreat to the safety of the keep, but I choose to stand my ground and hope that 1) I good enough to beat my opponents, and 2) the game will function well enough to allow me to do so.

More often than not I lose my bet and am rewarded with a swift death. And I keep going back for more.

Linaleah

beagles wrote: »

Someone please check the math, here.

Say it's about 4.5 gems per loot box. If we take the better purchase price of 15 loot boxes for 5,000 crowns, and a better crown purchase of 5,500 crowns for $40, that ends up being around $1.37 per crown.

At a 4.5 gems average per box, we'd need around 89 loot boxes to reach 400 gems for a guaranteed mount.

This means to guarantee a specific mount ingame, you'd need to spend about $122.00 (rounding up to the nearest dollar).

This doesn't take into account the chance of duplicate items, the chance of getting the mount in the crate (Crowncrates dot com reports a 1.95% chance for a random Radiant Apex and an 10.83% for a random Apex) , and so forth. Adding in those sorts of squishy numbers would take someone more skilled at math than I am.

But, rough math, if we assume it's about a 1/10 chance at a random mount, then at the best price, that's still $40 per random mount (since we'd want to get the better purchase price via the 5500 option). If looked at that way...

It seems shady, to me, and makes me quite uncomfortable. My friends are losing their jobs, right now. In this day and age, I'd like to know what I'm getting, you know?

4.5 is an average for free oroborous crates. I've never gotten that few gems from the crown store crates simply because the only way to get so few is to only get cheap consumables which is impossible for a crown crate as its guaranteed to contain 1 or two items from higher bracket.

now this DOES assume that you want more then just a mount so those non consumable items that you get in every crate are something you actualy want when they are not duplicated. if you are ONLY buying crates for a mount and nothing else? then its a terrible deal and just.. don't.

crates contain a variety of items. from my personal calculations when buying crates, because I get them for multiple items, the worst case scenario for me was paying about 10% more then what I would have had the items I wanted and got were available for direct purchase.. going of direct purchase prices of comparable items (or direct purchase prices of returning items that originally were sold directly)

you know which selection of items you are getting. its not a complete mystery. so look at the WHOLE selection and if the only thing that interests you is one particular 400 gem mount? i think it might be a good idea to start learning to accept not getting it.

ccfeeling

I purchased crown crate once , never purchase again .

Believe me , just drop trashes .

MKintr

The whole game is about gambling. Not just with crown crates. Open hundred chests for the lead you want. Open hundred daily quest reward boxes for completing the motif you want. Buy hundred imperial reward boxes for a low chance of that rare skin to drop. Farm hundred mats in craglorn to get some nirncrux. ............
IF you are lucky.
If not, start again.

BleedMe_AnOcean

No. I don't have a problem with it. I have purchased a few crates with leftover crowns from my ESO+ sub, but that's it.

To add to the discussion, I personally don't have an issue with loot boxes in games in general, bit I strongly feel that anything ZoS puts in a crate should be available in game, even if it's a slog to grind out. The argument could be made that we all get free mounts when we level our first toons, I suppose, but still.

Something about putting specific mounts behind a massive paywall (and even then, there's still no guarantee you'll get it) doesn't sit right with me.

TwinLamps

I have problem with guilds disbanding or losing people.
my PvP guild stopped raiding back in 2019.
my PvE guild, Order of Ebon was disbanded on 1st of december 2019 and people left the game or went to other guilds.
And finaly, my trading guild, Traders of the Ebonheart is to be killed in few days.
I really have issues guilds I grew to love end in such manner.
Not to even mention my main guild that lost all its original members but me back when Morrowind was launched.

Danikat

I don't have a gambling problem in this game or in general because I don't gamble. I have never bought crowns crates and I never will.

A bit part of that is because I don't like the idea of buying something and not knowing what I'll get, or not knowing how much I'll have to spend to get the thing I want. It's not a business model I'd choose to use for any product and it's definitely not one I'm interested in dealing with here.

But it's also because I don't trust myself if I did do it. I could set limits on what I can afford or what I think is sensible, but I also know I could easily come up with all kinds of ways to justify 'circumventing' those limits and convince myself it's ok because I'm still keeping to my rules, just a new modified version...and a new version of that...and a slight extension...

Officially I can't have a gambling problem because I don't ever gamble. But otherwise I'm very aware my situation has a lot of parallels with the alcoholics saying "one is too many and a thousand is not enough" and I'd rather stay away from it entirely than find out if I'd be ok or not.

Swordancer

So it looks like the most of you do not like gambling with these crates too much which is reasonable and yet keeping this game alive is based on gambling. We do gamble when we "grind" and yet all of us including me are at some point addicted to gambling becouse no matter how you call it, we basically gamble our time doing things we do not want to do so many times.

I belive this is a problem of mmo games and I hope one day it will be regulated by law the right way so that no company could develop hard-gambling-based games and they had to do more to keep the players. I mean without some portion of gabling games would be boring. We all like to have rare items but I belive there are better mechanisms to get players to do repetitive activities.

I belive ESO can keep players without any gambling at all with the right PvP (which we all know is at some point is original and yet completely broken) and progress do not need to be based on gambling but there is no problem with progress based on time you spent doing what interests us. If somone like to do PvE content with guilds, friends this way he/she can progress, there is no need for gambling.

We shoud be able to exchange some dunegon/trial/zone points we get by doing specific activities for the item we want and the better we are at this the quicker we earn these points. That way, no one would vulture in the dungeons becouse the best will gain the most. Not only PvP need to be competitive.

Ultimately, gambling always comes down to the conclusion that we are wasting our time and money.

volkeswagon

I 5endvto buy more crates then I want due to the criminally poor drop rates of furnishings and mounts. But I don't go overboard but I can see how some might

richo262

beagles wrote: »

Someone please check the math, here.

Say it's about 4.5 gems per loot box. If we take the better purchase price of 15 loot boxes for 5,000 crowns, and a better crown purchase of 5,500 crowns for $40, that ends up being around $1.37 per crown.

At a 4.5 gems average per box, we'd need around 89 loot boxes to reach 400 gems for a guaranteed mount.

This means to guarantee a specific mount ingame, you'd need to spend about $122.00 (rounding up to the nearest dollar).

This doesn't take into account the chance of duplicate items, the chance of getting the mount in the crate (Crowncrates dot com reports a 1.95% chance for a random Radiant Apex and an 10.83% for a random Apex) , and so forth. Adding in those sorts of squishy numbers would take someone more skilled at math than I am.

But, rough math, if we assume it's about a 1/10 chance at a random mount, then at the best price, that's still $40 per random mount (since we'd want to get the better purchase price via the 5500 option). If looked at that way...

It seems shady, to me, and makes me quite uncomfortable. My friends are losing their jobs, right now. In this day and age, I'd like to know what I'm getting, you know?

Your math for gems doesn't factor in doubles. If you do multiple lots, the next round starts to get a lot of doubles and generates many gems. I can usually hit 400 gems or thereabout with 2 - 3 lots of 15 crates, 30 - 45.