61 replies to this topic

[Alan Davion]

Elendil, on 11 May 2016 - 04:57 PM, said:

Yeah, what he said.
STO was the game that turned me off to lockboxes. There have been a bunch since, but that was the big one.

They dangle cool stuff in front of you, tempt you into giving them money, and then $50 later all you have to show for it is an inventory full of useless crap and shattered dreams.

I'll login to STO very rarely these days, just to look at ships and stuff, but I swear to god my screen still gets spammed with messages of...

"X Player has received Y Ship."

For the entire duration I'm logged in. Which admittedly is no more than about 5 minutes, but you get the idea.

I remember reading a thread on the STO/PWE/ARC forums just shortly after the whole lockbox thing started.

These two guys stockpiled their lockboxes for like a week or something, I think it was like several hundred boxes each... Could have been more, I don't recall... It was quite a few years ago.

One guy opens a grand total of about 5 boxes, and like his 5th box he got whatever the starship was for that lockbox, the other guy, I think he spent $1000 opening all his lockboxes and literally got nothing of any real value.

Granted this is only one example, but it's a shining beacon of the ludicrousness behind the lockbox mechanic.

[Chuck Jager]

I like to drink beer, and stupidly spend money on it. I have never seen any desire to gamble, when it is easier to read, research, work harder and play on people's ego/low self esteem to make money.

I do think PGI is smart in taxing folks who can not control their gambling (need to find a way to get the smokers too). Many governments have found this is a great way to raise taxes on those whose addictions impair them from understanding what is happening while framing the practice as socially acceptable. It is the illusion of free will. Well until you get a couple of these fools on your team running around the map looking for boxes they may not get while the rest of the team dies. (note: buying one or two crates does not put one in this category, but one would also not be the reason this is being implemented)

I do not know what the legal rules are for posting odds are in online games if the result is based on the use of real world money. The higher camo cost could actually make pgi appear that they are giving away a better value. Imagine assigning the mist lynx the $50 ala carte value.

Edited by Chuck Jager, 12 May 2016 - 12:30 AM.