Best Of

More to the point, it's a business. There's no such thing as too much. We can still play for free if we choose.

There absolutely is such thing as too much. The aggressive push for 600 dollars every 2-3 months is too much when you compare it to doing that only 2 times a year.

Too much for who?
For people who think they must buy everything, perhaps.
For a company who is trying to keep the lights on, not at all.
No one is forcing anyone to buy these. If it's too much for us personally, we're free to pass. The fact that people are still offended with EVERY Offer this game releases almost 11 years later is crazy to me. They're a business. They're going to try and make money.

When even the mega whales who buy everything says its becoming too aggressive and predatory, then something is obviously wrong. Just cause you either refuse or fail to see that doesn't make it any less true.

Predatory is a ridiculous word for a mobile game that offers optional sales.

I don’t have a particular opinion on the sales, hence my lack of comment, but this is just blatantly wrong. “Predatory” has been standard language used to describe all sort of gacha mobile game tactics designed to trick people into spending money, we’ve had literal legislation written because of it. We have drop rates on crystals because of this. Again, I make no comment on whether such language deserves to be applied here to MCOC but this feels like a ridiculous claim to make given the very real specter that hangs around similar games.

You can call it what you want. I don't agree. No one is being tricked into anything.

Gonna be real, this is the comment that makes me finally agree with everyone that you’re loony.

Predatory has never been a term that requires force or even strict coercion in anything but the literal predator/prey sense. Predatory lenders don’t force anyone to accept their loans. Predatory behavior doesn’t need to involve literal coercion, many victims engage willingly. It just means you’re preying on people in some way, often in a deceitful manner. Literally every industry engages in this sort of thing, intensive research into human psychology to figure out how to make people do what you want without them realizing there’s anything suspicious going on. The video game industry is no different, microtransactions and lootboxes especially. The idea that either these sort of things don’t exist or that it’s just a skill issue on consumer’s part is so offensive and divorced from reality that it’s kinda staggering.

And because you seem to really want to defend MCOC, I will restate from my original comment that I’m speaking generally and make no claims as to whether MCOC is predatory. I just find your apparent take that predatory tactics don’t exist or don’t matter to be fundamentally appalling. The human brain is a weird thing, and expecting that people just know how to avoid any and all ways that it can be taken advantage of is just myopic. People don’t work like that.

You can write as many paragraphs as you want, but I do not agree that the game is predatory. That kind of strong ideology for a game that is designed to entice people to enjoy it and play has never sat well with me, and I will never agree to that. You'd have a great time with the gambling debate with me. I disagree. Feel free to form whatever opinions you want. No one would play the game at all if it wasn't designed to appeal to people. That's much less nefarious than some people assert.

Then your either naive or blind. All mobile games are predatory in nature. It's a fact.

More to the point, it's a business. There's no such thing as too much. We can still play for free if we choose.

There absolutely is such thing as too much. The aggressive push for 600 dollars every 2-3 months is too much when you compare it to doing that only 2 times a year.

Too much for who?
For people who think they must buy everything, perhaps.
For a company who is trying to keep the lights on, not at all.
No one is forcing anyone to buy these. If it's too much for us personally, we're free to pass. The fact that people are still offended with EVERY Offer this game releases almost 11 years later is crazy to me. They're a business. They're going to try and make money.

When even the mega whales who buy everything says its becoming too aggressive and predatory, then something is obviously wrong. Just cause you either refuse or fail to see that doesn't make it any less true.

Predatory is a ridiculous word for a mobile game that offers optional sales.

I don’t have a particular opinion on the sales, hence my lack of comment, but this is just blatantly wrong. “Predatory” has been standard language used to describe all sort of gacha mobile game tactics designed to trick people into spending money, we’ve had literal legislation written because of it. We have drop rates on crystals because of this. Again, I make no comment on whether such language deserves to be applied here to MCOC but this feels like a ridiculous claim to make given the very real specter that hangs around similar games.

You can call it what you want. I don't agree. No one is being tricked into anything. Also, I was around when the Drop Rates were posted. I don't need a lesson on that.
*also worth noting that there exists no such law. The Drop Rates were posted because they were required by the platforms MCOC has partnered with, and they honored that.

you're not really listening.

the game is losing some of it's magic, whether you spend $6k a year or $2k the experience is the same, nothing really matters and it feels like we're sleep-walking into the next rarity wondering what's the point. this time next year they could announce 8*s for release in summer 2027 and it feels empty. how will 8*s be any different than what they're currently doing?

I listened. I also said I respect that you feel that way, and I'm sure others do as well.
The topic is about how much monetization is too much, and that's what I'm addressing. There is no such thing as too much in a game that makes it optional. For literal years, they've been saying that not all offers are for everyone. That's not just a blanket statement, that's literal. Also, monetizing less isn't going to help the game be less stale.
Now, if someone had an issue with the newest shiniest things always being too expensive, that I could see. I don't have any control over that, but I get it. What I take issue with is the idea that they're monetizing too much in general because that's just asinine. They're a business. They need to do business things. Businesses are a lot like Hollywood movies. If something has a modicum of success, they'll keep doing it until it stops working.

Doesn’t sustainability matter? At some point, if you burn out your user base, you lose your consumers, and the game is dead anyways.

This is just a conversation to point out maybe this path forward of maximizing short term gains may not be good for long term success, as this event used to be exciting… this year it just felt stale and overly aggressive. Based on the reaction from this segment it’s not fun anymore, and I’d wager a bet that this sentiment is probably true throughout the highly engaged segment of the community.

I doubt creator videos about Crystal openings do as well as they used too. Because if there’s always a Crystal event it’s really not interesting.