**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Regarding Brian Grant’s Most Recent Video
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Comments
If someone is asking how a large amount of rewards that one player gets can possibly impact the game play of another different player, I can take the time to construct a complex but numerically accurate situation and then analyze the ways that the game balancing techniques most game operators use will affect the situation in a specifically calculated way, or I can simply use the technique of emphasizing the difference with an extremal case, which is simpler and clearer. If you want a more computationally meaningful lesson on game balance theory, ask me again after the holidays when there's more time to devote to that,
A more comparable question would have been:
Player A completes the Abyss with only resources they collected in game.
Player B completes the Abyss buying tons of revives/potions with money.
Here both players get to the exact same outcome through 2 totally different means. In this new question of mine it also has the same result on the player base. Both players get the same rewards so the way it effects the player base is equal. Also one player used in game resources and one player purchased resources, so it has the same effect on Kabam's bottom line as my previous question about this gifting event.
So in this new scenario, is Player B in the wrong? Is Player A? Both are acceptable? I get that it is a different game mode so it isn't totally Apples to Apples, but it comes from the same type of concept. In Game Earned vs Purchased, either way same rewards (results) and effect on player base and Kabam.
Step 2) Get everyone arguing about it so no one actually farms
Step 3) ?
Step 4) Profit
This is not an exploit. If it was an exploit I would agree it was wrong. Kabam saying they might consider it one going forward doesn't make it one now. All that means is they didn't think their game design through thoroughly enough to see this outcome and have decided to change their mind on their own design. Kabam changing their mind on things is not new at all, but does not mean it currently is an exploit. No one is doing anything that by definition would actually be an exploit.
And then make it your responsibility to figure out what that means. Or I can give an analogy which out of necessity will not be exact, but serves to illustrate simply what I could otherwise state technically.
However, the time to act is not *when* the exploit becomes possible, but *before* it can be exploited when that's possible. We already have people complaining that if they alt-farm now and they cannot gift later, that's not fair. However, there's no fundamental right to alt-farm gift that players can claim. They can alt farm all they want because that's not an exploit, but they can't claim aggrieved status if those units cannot be gifted back to their mains in an unlimited manner either. So gaining clarity on the situation would prevent players from taking actions they won't be able to profit from later.
Your initial response is like if I had asked What is the sky blue? and you responded with "Fair question, but to answer that I have to ask "Why does the sky have clouds?".
Yes both questions are about the sky, but neither are related answers to each other.
You clearly are intelligent and not new to debate, that alone though doesn't win the arguments. All you have done so far is throw out a red herring and dodge my actual question.
For example, that's how I would state my position to the developers of the game. Actually, I should say: that *is* how I've stated my position to the developers directly in the past. I don't recall having a communication problem with them.
The problem arises when the possibility of amalgamating incentives for newer Accounts gains the ability to transfer that advantage to well-established Accounts. The issue isn't Gifting. It's the potential use for it. I'm sorry but spending versus Grinding is a fallacy.
Edit:
You also still never actually answered the question, just a jab and dodge.
Individual players are allowed to create multiple game accounts. This is not prohibited, nor is this an exploit. When they create new accounts, those accounts are allowed to benefit from the rewards normally given to new players, because each new account is considered a "new player" for the purposes of progresssional rewards. Gaining these rewards is also not an exploit.
Gifting is not an exploit. Lots of accounts gifting one account is not an exploit. Lots of accounts owned by a single player gifting to another account owned by the same player is not an exploit. None of these behaviors satisfies the requirements for the activity to be considered an exploit.
However, connecting all of them together does potentially satisfies those conditions: creating large numbers of alt accounts and gaining the early player reward bonuses and then gifting those resources to a single account can be considered exploitive, even though none of the individual steps is exploitive alone.
Exploits are processes, not actions. Some exploits are very short processes that look like single activities, but most aren't. You do have players that try to claim that since running a path isn't an exploit, running it a hundred times can't be an exploit since each individual run is itself not an exploit. I'm unaware of any game operators who would be impressed by that logic.
And don't say no one is buying revives or stones. As long as they are there people are going to buy them. For me it takes atleast a month if grinding to get 6k units. Now I can get the same in just 3 days and use it to fund my masteries and if needed abyss or LOL runs.
By your logic this is the same "exploit" situation because it was never intended for someone to be able to buy the crystals for themselves and not interact with anyone else.
So this returns the debate back to: is it the mass gifting or is it how the crystals are obtained?
Just to clarify, the stance I have is that average people cannot farm on 100 alt accounts with the sole purpose of gifting their main accounts. If people do that, either they are using bots(illegal and unacceptable) or they are doing it to earn money(again illegal and unacceptable). Most average people will create alts and farm on probably 1 account, maybe 2 or in the worst case scenario 3. That hardly imbalances the game economy. Kabam should absolutely crack down on bots and those accounts that are selling these farmed units for money.
Thinking, isn’t used for decisions that have already been made
I’d like somebody to ask Brian grant what he’s going to do with the units he has on alt accounts and how many times in the past he’s gifted himself things? Especially before they took our badges