Please reconsider the Black Friday Promotion | RNG has no place in real-money purchases
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Posted 2021-11-28 12:40:04
I appreciate the notes! I don't think the value of a Total Shuffle compared to event base applicators is "subjective" when you can obtain it any time of the year, most often for cheaper than you can obtain an event applicator. The value of the event applicators comes with the fact that they are limited-time. The Total Shuffle is not equal to event base applicators -- it is not a base applicator, it is not limited-time, it is based on random draw unlike the base applicators, and it could very well give a breeder of natural colors a very, very unnatural wolf. Equating an event base applicator to a Total Shuffle is like equating an event markings applicator to a grove eye changer, they're not the same and should not be valued the same. You say that more event applicators in the future could mean more applicators are added to the pool, however I do not see any indication that future event applicators will be added to this pool. For all we know, the pool could stay the same forever. If they are added to the pool, the chance of getting a Total Shuffle will be lessened, but so will the chance of getting any other applicator in the pool. In your second point, I would like to emphasize the fact that you say you get 230 GC in value of items on average. An "average" should not be calculated in purchases where real money is involved. Paying for something should give everyone the same value for the same price, always. It doesn't matter to me if the average value of items for the 230 GC purchase is also 230 GC when people can still buy the 230 GC package and get items valuing 50 GC. People should not be worried about getting less value for their purchase because they are unlucky. To put it in a different example, imagine if the price that you pay for groceries every week was randomized. Some people may pay $5 for a bag of chips while others may pay 50 cents for the same bag of chips. Regardless of what this does for the value of the bag of chips, the fact that some people may have to pay 10x more for the same product as others is ridiculous. Why can't this same logic be applied to digital purchases for intangible items? So, when you ask whether it's okay that the decors could have a lesser value if everyone gets the same value for their purchase, the answer is yes, absolutely. There's nothing to say that their values won't increase during other times of the year. Measures could be put into place to guarantee value in the long run, as well, such as retiring certain Black Friday items after a few years. The fact of the matter is that the amount of money that people pay to obtain this item, whatever value it might have, is not equal. Your third argument is reasonable, it's definitely a possibility for some people. However, not everyone can just "buy the decor from another player". There are a lot more factors than this. Taking a look at the TC right now, I see that there are 14 trades for the new 2021 Black Friday items. Of these trades, only 3 of them have actual buyouts. This means that, in order for someone to "buy the decor from another player", they will have to figure out how much a good offer for the item would be, make the offer, wait for the other player to see and consider the offer, deal with other offers from other players, perhaps cancel their offer and make a new one, and repeat this process until, by chance, someone accepts their offer on the decor that they want. This may sound easy to you, but for a lot of people, some with social challenges, learning difficulties, or just impatience, this isn't an option. The gacha/gambling aspect of this promotion should also be considered when you say that someone could just "buy the decor", because systems like this are designed so that people will want to obtain the reward by themselves. It's the issue of partial reinforcement that I mentioned above. The more someone loses, the more they believe they have a chance to win the next time, which makes purchasing difficult to stop. They will seek the pleasure of obtaining the item themselves, because it makes them feel like their purchases were worth it, especially if the purchase is a gift to themself. By just going to purchase the decor after dropping a significant amount of money without getting the decor yourself, it can feel like you're admitting defeat. Plus, if someone has now acquired $100 worth of GC, they will probably want to use this GC on something that they feel is more worth their time and money in the long run, rather than spending it on a decor with 10 uses that people can get from spending just $25. |
Mel 🏜️ #201 |
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Posted 2021-11-28 16:30:33 (edited)
Shapes, regarding Total Shuffle attracting players who dislike unnatural wolves, I mostly meant that this item is the only one in the pool that could make a natural wolf. The intention to put this into the pool is to encourage some of natural lovers to purchase greater package who might think "oh, there's a Total Shuffle, maybe I'll get a pretty wolf" instead of "meh, the expensive packages contain only blue and green wolves, not for me". If not Total Shuffle, then I think it's good to think about other items that could be put into the app pool. Maddie, I think the groceries example is exaggerated. You compare it to bag of chips where one could be 10 times more expensive than another while GC packages are really unlikely to reach twice of difference, maybe once in hundred purchases such difference could be seen between the luckiest and unluckiest. Average might not be calculated for single purchases, but with more packages purchased the player goes towards the average. Purchasing 230 GC packages you have a chance to get a package with only Grove items once per 45 purchases. It happens once per 2088 cases where you could buy 2 such packages in a row (or 500 GC package) containing only Grove items. Then you get once per 95428 cases of receiving 3 such packages in a row containing only Grove items and so on. But I get that you want to remove occurrences where somewolf happens to hit 2% chance to be so unlucky to get Grove only items regardless of how the lucky side looks. You bring up the point of potential losing or winning during Black Friday in cross-comparison perspective - you lose when you get less, you win when you get more. You claim that purchasing 230 GC package is losing when you get 300 GC value because it was possible to get 500 GC value, even though for 361 days in the year you'd get only 230 GC from this package. There we go to the point of gambling, where you're right - the player can feel to be lucky in the next attempt when getting unlucky from previous attempts, so called problem gambling. But doesn't this issue of gambling exist in Wolvden for the whole time? RMAs, for example - you purchase GC packages to buy RMAs because you want a desired rare marking in certain slot. You don't get this so you purchase more GC packages because you feel you're closer to achieve your goal. You spend your real money for RNG because you want this desired rare mark. Same with guarana - how many would you spend to boost your wolf by 200 stats? Some would spend 200, some 1000 maybe. What if using guarana to maximize SQ income? Using the same amount of guarana from certain GC package, you can get much different amount of SQ from another player. |
 Dżanek #24018 |
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Posted 2021-12-02 16:19:13
With the Black Friday Sale, however, as Maddie pointed out, the items are really the goal rather than the GC for a number of people. For many people, the primary goal of purchasing a Black Friday package is specifically to get the newer decor, or the event apps. In a similar thread, if you were to buy GC with the intent of buying Guarana with it, but instead of being able to select Guarana from the Grove had to pay 5GC to get EITHER Instant Birthing Feather or Guarana or Sex Change or Marking Remover, you would likely be far warier about making that purchase, and probably be rubbed the wrong way by that system. |
 Chirp #2670 |
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Posted 2022-09-11 11:22:15
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Mel 🏜️ #201 |
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Posted 2022-09-15 13:58:59 (edited)
(In my case it is more to keep put of the habit of impulse purchases. Even if I have the savings I set limits on what they can go to when I treat myself. That way if the admins chose not to implement your suggestion I still haven't picked up the habit in the first place and feel less bad about sticking to my rules.) |
 🍂 Leonca 🐆 #54339 |
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Posted 2022-09-17 09:53:01 (edited)
Devs, if youve ever seen "National Lampoons Christmas Vacation" I give you this clip. Jelly of the month club. I bought 1 Black Friday package on Lioden and got burned. It left me such a sour taste I never bought another. Ive been playing since 2016. Thats 6 years. Thats how badly I felt about these Black Friday RNG prizes. I might buy GC for the purpose of buying things I want, things I have the power to choose to receive. I might make a small GC purchase for this purpose once or twice a year. The only time I might have been willing to buy more is during this promo, but after the sad rewards I got on my first BF promo, never again. Common grove items do not pique my interest, I can get them any time of year. Why roll the dice if I can just buy that same item later on? Or pick up a common decor out of the TC any time of year? I will NOT buy the BF package and then be given a Jelly of the Month consolation prize (Common item). Paying customers are investors. Every one of them. As investors who financially support Wolvden, should they not also receive some kind of return on their investment rather than a "So sorry, try again!" I am so sick of RNG offering boring common rewards. Im tired of getting low quality common rewards and being told its "fun". I will not fall for that money trap. Want my money? Give me something worth buying. I love buying things I like. I do not like RNG with a pool filled with common items. Im willing to spend my money if I get something worth buying. These suggestions should be seriously considered as it would make buying packages from a pool of more interesting and desirable items more fun, exciting and satisfying. RNG is not worth my hard-earned money when the return is worth less than what is offered. |
 Mustang 🐎 #3314 |
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Posted 2022-09-21 07:12:27
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 ytre365 #41230 |
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Posted 2022-10-21 16:25:58
I think last year I bought the 110 option? I dont think I got a single one of the new decors, It certainly annoyed me If its the same this year I will not be putting money into the game, Wolvden should not be a Gatcha I understand these are "Bonus" items but I should still have a degree of choice, especially when the bonus items can be a difference between 5GC and 100GC. Hell I dont even care about the "Extra GC" Just if I'm getting an applicator I can actually choose what one I get. |
 SolarScottish #26758 |
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Posted 2022-10-21 16:58:05
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 Katie #28191 |
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Posted 2022-11-05 13:20:42
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 Nev #17186 |