Beardimus wrote: »

ZOS give out free stuff, people complain.

People want events, ZOS put on events, people complain of 'burn out' as they decided to max out on free stuff / grind it all.

What can ZOS do?

Everything would be perfect and very pro-community, if the berries were unlocked in different way. Say, 1st event of Q1 you could get Bloom Berry for any type of Indrik. You decide to have snowy one first - go for it, bro. You will go for Dawnwood one in Q2.

For what reason we are limited to go with Dawnwood Indrik (or none) in Q1 I do not know. Do you?

DocFrost72 wrote: »

mjharper wrote: »

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Sorry OP, candid response.

Good grief, could we have a discussion without the memes and ad hominem attacks, please.

This is the internet (and not the EU). No. No we cannot.

But since you asked;

You argue it is somehow an undo burden upon you that you should have to wait for a year for your free in game mount. I disagree, and propose that waiting for the specific upgrade for your preferred free mount is neither hardship nor something I personally prioritize (my mount is likely to be 3/4).

I'm open to a discussion of course.

Fine. But as two people have already proposed (heaven13 & znrk), we could also have a structure were you can buy berries for any mount in the first quarter, but can only evolve one mount per quarter. That would take exactly the same amount of time to collect all four, would mean that all of us could look forward to evolving their preferred mount this quarter. And the question is, why is it not that way (which would presumably please everybody) and instead only one possible evolution a quarter (which will frustrate some players)?

DocFrost72 wrote: »

mjharper wrote: »

DocFrost72 wrote: »

mjharper wrote: »

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Sorry OP, candid response.

Good grief, could we have a discussion without the memes and ad hominem attacks, please.

This is the internet (and not the EU). No. No we cannot.

But since you asked;

You argue it is somehow an undo burden upon you that you should have to wait for a year for your free in game mount. I disagree, and propose that waiting for the specific upgrade for your preferred free mount is neither hardship nor something I personally prioritize (my mount is likely to be 3/4).

I'm open to a discussion of course.

Fine. But as two people have already proposed (heaven13 & znrk), we could also have a structure were you can buy berries for any mount in the first quarter, but can only evolve one mount per quarter. That would take exactly the same amount of time to collect all four, would me that all of us could look forward to evolving their preferred mount this quarter. And the question is, why is it not that way (which would presumably please everybody) and instead only one possible evolution a quarter (which will frustrate some players)?

I don't have a reason not to do it that way, and don't oppose it being done as such. I also do not have a burning desire to have my mount this quarter. I'm simply suggesting this is quite low on the priority list. A cosmetic item in a videogame just doesn't light a fire under me. You may feel differently but that, I assert, is just where we disagree

It only lights a fire under me because I see no logical reason for doing it the way they're doing it: why risk frustrating players when a simple and obvious alternative would not do so? And this is combined with dread concerning the Event bloat which it seems to imply. Four mounts, 4 berries, 4 quarters: there should be 16 events this year, it seems. That will be fun.

DocFrost72 wrote: »

mjharper wrote: »

DocFrost72 wrote: »

mjharper wrote: »

DocFrost72 wrote: »

mjharper wrote: »

DocFrost72 wrote: »

Sorry OP, candid response.

Good grief, could we have a discussion without the memes and ad hominem attacks, please.

This is the internet (and not the EU). No. No we cannot.

But since you asked;

You argue it is somehow an undo burden upon you that you should have to wait for a year for your free in game mount. I disagree, and propose that waiting for the specific upgrade for your preferred free mount is neither hardship nor something I personally prioritize (my mount is likely to be 3/4).

I'm open to a discussion of course.

Fine. But as two people have already proposed (heaven13 & znrk), we could also have a structure were you can buy berries for any mount in the first quarter, but can only evolve one mount per quarter. That would take exactly the same amount of time to collect all four, would me that all of us could look forward to evolving their preferred mount this quarter. And the question is, why is it not that way (which would presumably please everybody) and instead only one possible evolution a quarter (which will frustrate some players)?

I don't have a reason not to do it that way, and don't oppose it being done as such. I also do not have a burning desire to have my mount this quarter. I'm simply suggesting this is quite low on the priority list. A cosmetic item in a videogame just doesn't light a fire under me. You may feel differently but that, I assert, is just where we disagree

It only lights a fire under me because I see no logical reason for doing it the way they're doing it: why risk frustrating players when a simple and obvious alternative would not do so? And this is combined with dread concerning the Event bloat which it seems to imply. Four mounts, 4 berries, 4 quarters: there should be 16 events this year, it seems. That will be fun.

Don't see anything I disagree with. If I may offer advice? I handle bloat pretty simply: Log on and get a ticket, then do whatever I'd normally do. No need to act like a hamster on a wheel: rise above that.

Same. In the last event I did only one quest a day for the last two weeks, once I'd got the skin. But still, we do seem to be headed towards Event overload this year, and honestly, we shouldn't really need to be discussing strategies to deal with it.

It could be worse, I suppose. They could have decided to give out one berry per evolution every quarter, meaning that no one could fully evolve an Indrik until Q4. I'm sure everyone would have been absolutely thrilled with that

EDIT: Shouldn't, not should. Doh.

Thankfully I only want the dawnwood indrik, and I get the seasonal thing that the indrik evolutions are trying to parallel, but yeah I also think it would be the kindest and fairest choice to let the players decide in which order they get their indriks.

To be quite honest with you, although I assumed that all of the berries would come out at the same time, I'm rather glad they are releasing them this way. From my perspective, it makes it more interesting, since it seems that the intention is to give each color seasonal significance (Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter) I see it as an achievement rather than a burden to obtain each one during the season it corresponds to. For me, the anticipation of getting my most wanted Indrik- the very last one, is only fueling my drive to "Catch em' all". I don't even mind the "grind" to get them.

I'm also pretty sure ZOS probably intends the event to be a way to encourage existing players to continue playing steadily throughout the year, rather than giving them everything at the outset. If they didn't some players could probably obtain more than one transformation during the first quarter alone. depending on what the availability of the tickets is like (I only need one more feather myself to obtain a second mount, for example- the cash shop tickets will only make this easier for players inclined to buy tickets.)Then people would complain that their event tickets and the rest of the events are "pointless" because they already have all of their mounts, opening another can of worms entirely. (And yes, some are already complaining that their tickets are pointless because they don't want the current color available)

I think they've done it in the best way they can, at the moment, even if that means some of us have to wait for our most wanted color. Either way you look at it, they're stuck in a situation where someone is potentially complaining.

I DO however think that as the months pass, the second quarter should include the first quarter's berries, so on and so fourth, so people can continue to earn berries for older colors if they so choose without potentially being forced into the cash shop should they be unable, or unwilling, to participate in an event.

I was surprised when they didn't have the option to get what ever type of berries you wanted. I would have thought they would release them all, that way people can choose. The new was kind of confusing at first to me. I didn't realize it was just dawnwood. Honestly I don't see why they wouldn't give a choice, you would still have to participate in the events to get the berries. It may be free but you still have to work for it.

It would also make it easier if say that quarter has several events you don't like. PVP events for example. I see many don't like that and may not want to participate. I didn't have the DLC for one of the feather events so I didn't get to do that one. If you can only get the specific berries during that quarter then you could very well be out of luck if the version you like has several events you can't participate in due to whatever reasons.

Personally, liked the gold and snowy one. So I guess I'll just get more feathers this time.

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

I'm also pretty sure ZOS probably intends the event to be a way to encourage existing players to continue playing steadily throughout the year, rather than giving them everything at the outset. If they didn't some players could probably obtain more than one transformation during the first quarter alone.

This is the logic you asked for, @mjharper. The lifespan of an MMO is dependent upon the ability of the game to remain relevant and interesting to it's playerbase (and attract new players) over the course of years. They do this in several ways, including releasing new content, modifying existing content and offering incentives to play.

These Indriks are a mixture of all of these things. The Indriks are new. The evolution system is new. The event ticket system is new. ZoS is using existing content as a way to deliver the new content. Most (if not all) of the events have been or will be events which have already been done before. Thus a minimal investment by ZoS in order to increase participation by offering new rewards.

ZoS is offering a way to get new, free, in-game items from revisiting existing content. They want you to play the game regularly - thus the frequent event occurrences and the "grind" to get tickets and berries. They want you to continue playing the game regularly, thus the extension of "limited time only" seasonal berries through the entire year. This is why grinding for gear and items and rng systems are so prevalent in MMOs. They need to keep their content relevant and players active.

I agree that the repeated events one after another gets tiresome. But free cosmetic stuff is simply that - a free cosmetic enticement for you to play the game more. You can choose to participate or not.

Perhaps you can look at it this way. Since you only want the snowy Indrik, you don't have to participate in the event grind until the latter part of the year in order to get the only free mount that you want.