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World of Warcraft and UDE Point System Fiasco
Richard Manley writes "A report on the card game trinket fiasco. When the UDE (Upper Deck Entertainment) point system finally went live, I would imagine most of the people that logged in felt the same fury I did. Blizzard knows the lengths that its fans will go to get trinkets (look at the price of Murloc cards on eBay), but their arrangement with Upper Deck simply takes advantage of the good will many fans have shown." From the article: "This means that in order to get these trinkets, one would have to purchase 9 BOXES of cards for the fireworks and 21 BOXES of cards for the ogre. What does this mean? Want a fireworks trinket? Sure, it is only going to cost you $900.00. Want an Ogre trinket? No problem, it is only going to cost you $2,100.00. Bear in mind that these items are purely for show off purposes and give no in-game advantage to players." Having been through the Magic: The Gathering addiction twice, I've decided staying away from this Collectible Card Game is a good idea.
Aah yes, the UDE system... I'd much prefer CCQ myself as well. Although I never had an MtG problem, I still fear MiG's that were sold to some unfriendly countries.
....
What the heck does all THAT mean? I must be getting old
It seems to me that the more time passes, the less I understand around here. Funny how that happens.
So let me get this straight. I group of people bought large amounts of some card game they didn't actually want to play, because they would get some points, with no idea as to how many points they will need. Then it turns out the things they can buy with the points are really expensive.
Why not either a) Buy the cards for the cards, or b) Wait until you know how much things will cost before buying the cards?
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
Complaining about the cost of "trinkets" is a little silly. They're nothing
other than "vanity items".
So the writer of this article is upset that vanity items cost too much? Hello?
Any disappointment on the part of players is a result of over-expectation
in the 'freebie collectible' component of the offline game. I'm not sure that
having one's un-researched expectations shattered by reality is something that warrants
casting blame on the manufacturer.
IMHO as long as we're talking about something that has no other purpose but to
flaunt in front of other players and say "Na-ha, look what I have!", there's no
'appropriate' price. As in the real world, vanity has no upper price limit.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
Do people complain about those little coke codes that you can redeem?
Hell no, why? Because only an idiot goes out and buys the coke bottle just for the code. They code is a little reward for drinking the coke. Its not a consolation prize, it is a little reward for a bit of brand loyalty. Hell the rewards for the soda are less useful.
God, what an ass. I'm gonna buy a ccq so i can win a freaking e-penis enhancement. Oh boy, I pay 15 bucks a month already, why don't I just bend over some more then bitch about it. You have not been kidnapped, you don't have a knife at your throat, DON'T BUY THE FUCKING CARD GAME YOU MORON, GOD DAMMIT ITS THAT SIMPLE. ITS ONLY A FIASCO IF YOU ARE A FUCKING MORON.
cough. ahem. sorry.
You mad
Maybe they didn't want you to buy the cards just to get the in-game items? It's supposed to be a bonus, not the reason.
I suspect if you went to them and offered them 1/10th of that price for the item, and only the item, they'd quickly open up a shop and sell it to you.
Do I think it sounds amazingly stupid as the system stands? Absolutely. I just don't believe this is the end of the system, only the beginning.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
The context is a crossover for marketing. Blizzard (who publishes the WoW online game) contracted with Upper Deck (a card manufacturer) to publish a WoW collectible card game. As a draw for the online folks, they put 100 "points" in each pack of cards, with a promise that those points could be used to purchase items in the WoW online game. So, a lot of online-WoW players ponied up for the cards to get points, before the points and rewards were announced. When Blizzard announced how many points each trinket or doodad cost, the points were so high that people would need to buy thousands of dollars worth of cards before they could amass enough points to get anything but lowball stuff like screensavers/wallpaper. WoW players who bought cards just for the online points are now understandably bent out of shape about it.
Virg
I tried to click on the [Axe of ZOMGWTF Pwnage] but doesn't work. can anyone link it so I can see the stats please?
Ironclad Security only exists when you have Chuck Norris on the shift. Do we really have to discuss this? (Plutonite)
WoW isn't the most popular by a long shot. Take a look at the numbers for Lineage, and you'll see what I mean.
Latest numbers from http://www.mmogchart.com/ put Lineage and Lineage II combined at about 3 million subscribers. WoW is at about 6.5 million and on their website they recently claimed to be over 7 million. That sounds like a pretty big lead to me.
Ain't it a shame when facts get in the way of making a point? What was your point anyway?
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
You have $5 in your hand. Do you buy:
a) A deck of WoW UDE cards - throwing away the cards and hording points for a system not yet in place to spend the points online?
b) A video game rental?
c) 5 Crispy Chicken Sandwiches from Wendy's (pre-tax)?
d) A share in Ford (they're hovering right around that)?
e) Some cheap headphones?
f) A 1 gig flash drive from TigerDirect (after rebate)?
g) 5 lotto tickets?
h) 5 songs on iTunes?
i) 40 songs on AllOfMp3?
j) any other thing on this planet you can get for $5?
Utility theory says that all of these are not equal to everyone. The major downside to spending the $5 is, of course, that you no longer have the $5, and the thing you have acquired may not be worth $5 to anyone else, so you can't always just "turn it back in" and magically get $5 again. It is that moment of choice which defines self utility. And frankly, people scarfing up these decks of cards placed an irrational (and needlessly high) value on these decks.
It's like playing the lotto. Irrationality is predictable, too, because self-utility is not a rational thing, but it can be measured all the same. Good marketing people know this.
Yeah, as usual people whine about it being to hard to get a useless item that they don't need. If you don't want to spend the money, don't get it! It isn't like some powerful item that only uber-raiders can get, it's a piece of crap that will make you look cool for two seconds.
Besides, they're easy to get. I've almost got mine already.
Sure, if you just buy enough cards off the Auction House, you'll have to spend 900-2000g to get the trinket, and of course that isn't worth it. Instead, just grind it out!
The day after they patched the game to include the cards, I went to the Franklin Elementary Playground zone during lunch. The weak mobs there were dropping packs of cards pretty often, and other loot besides. Plus they have a really hilarious crying emote they do when you hit them. The "Save me mommy!" one was the best; keep at it until you hear it, trust me! After an hour the mobs stopped spawning, but I came back later and there were big crowds of them all lined up in front of where the big yellow tram comes. I must have taken out a hundred of them in like fifteen minutes. A few tougher mobs aggroed from the trams, though, so be warned.
All told in about an hour and a half of grinding, plus travel time, I got a total of 10k points towards my ogre trinket, a few g worth of cash, a Nintendo DS Lite and a Nintendo DS (strangely the Lite sold for more on the AH even though it is white and the DS is blue... go figure). Compared to most of the semi-worthless things you grind for in WoW this is easy, so those complaining about the price should just STFU.
One more note... I know this is probably just the Random Number Generator screwing with me, but I went back to Franklin the next day and it seemed like nobody was dropping WoW cards any more. So I left and went to Washington Middle School nearby. The mobs were a little harder, but still pretty easy and they droppped more cash and the WoW cards to boot.
Uh oh, gotta go, the My Boss elite is patrolling this way.
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