**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
We have not set an end-date for the new period, but we will update this banner when we have more information.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
We have not set an end-date for the new period, but we will update this banner when we have more information.
Comments
You ask why you would list 12 hours of grinding and opportunity cost if you were talking about bots. Why would you list only clearly non-exploitive activity and then state that the results were not exploitive? To say there's no opportunity for exploit by only looking at non-exploitive behavior would be a moot exercise.
Asking if it is "fair" is missing the point. We don't ask if grinding the arena is fair. It is allowed. Gifting from alts to main accounts is allowed. But that doesn't mean that all gifting from alts to mains is not exploitive. Actions are not judged in isolation, but in circumstance and situation. The arguments made last year were that if gifting from alts to mains is allowed, it should be allowed under all circumstances. All or nothing. But that's not how the game works, or for that matter how anything else works anywhere else. That argument is a feeble attempt at rules lawyering.
The general rule, which any reasonable game developer would almost certainly agree with, is that if resource transfers are allowable at all, they are generally only allowable when the relative circumstances surrounding such resource earning are sufficiently comparable between accounts that the effects of that economic transfer are within reason. There's a lot of judgment in such a rule, deliberately so. But no reasonable designer would ever say that something is always allowable under al circumstances, and asking the question if gifting from alts is fair without context is in effect asking for the same thing: a decision on allowability without the associated circumstances. The only answer is: it depends.
Snark aside, you’re grasping at straws here. Yes it’s been allowed, but it’s never been an all or nothing situation. Never stated by Kabam or players.
What’s been inferred last year and that I would assume most players think, is that it’s allowed in the spirit of fairness.
Meaning, farm bots, breaking of TOS are not something I would condone. But it can and should be dealt with on its own, while letting the event run for legitimate players, wether they put in the work to grind alts or not.
It would be enlightening to know how much of the player base is actually playing/gifting unconventionally as you put it. I would think it’s a minority not strong enough to break the economic balance of the game.
Economic balance is also not the only priority. It’s unclear if it is even the most important. Two others are probably significantly more important, as they would be to most other game operators. First, there’s the general corrosive nature of the acquiescence, real or otherwise, to exploiters and cheaters. As a general principle, it is true that enforcement should be focused on the cheaters and not blanket the playerbase but that’s not always possible or practical. The need to proscribe narrowly has to be weighed against the harm caused by those who escape detection or punishment.
Secondly, there’s the meta effect of sending the wrong message that pushing the envelope in these areas is acceptable by default. At some point this becomes problematic, and the time to act is not when it crosses the line, but before the general attitude gets ingrained that pushing the envelope in this direction is normalized.
As to the notion that I’m “grasping at straws” I’m not sure what straws you believe I’m grasping at. That implies you think I’m either guessing or wildly speculating about what I wish to be true, when I’m simply stating the facts as I understand them, as someone that has discussed many of these issues with the devs directly, both on the economic balance side of the equation as well as the technical enforcement side.
That's the spirit of giving. It isn't labelled the "trading event" or the "try to cheat the system" event.
I know that’s a long time, but if the requirements are going to change substantially for eligibility (and that’s how it sounds tbh) then it would be great to announce early. Even if you set the account creation date at the time of announcement, having as much time as possible to reach progression milestones is big for QOL.
I feel like we are due a lot of information about upcoming things: when is 8.1 coming? EOP: it was originally announced as a series for I believe 4 or 5 total cycles (we are finishing number 2)... will it continue into 2023 (I really hope so), update on battlegrounds / relics / other game modes. Not all of them... but the last couple months have been very boring, and even when something was released like Gauntlet... its effectively a 1-day binge, not really something to keep you going for the month like a variant of 8.1 getting released.
Some "hint" about why the economy has shifted so much (e.g. an announcement that you may want to save your 6 star max sig crystals because "soon" 7 star shards will start rolling out and you may want to wait until those are available).
Some hint at either the "day of the deadpool" coming back (sale to buy stuff with gold) or a trade in store that actually includes 6 star AG / maybe 5 star -> 6 star sig crystal trade in.
And don't get me started on AQ/AW fixed/improvements, we are now 1 week into the "season" (maybe more accurate to say 3 weeks left)... so shouldn't be too much longer (maybe early Sep) before we get that update too.