How is this a special offer?

Unforgvn · February 2023

So I was doing something ingame today and this "special offer" popped up.

Now everything in that offer except for the gold can be bought ingame for a total of ONLY 270 units. So we are led to believe by that "special offer" wording that 50k gold is worth at least 1010 units. How is that "special"?

Can't that be consider predatory wording "special offer" when in reality it's way overpriced and the only time I feel "special" is after I accidentally clicked on it and bought it without the "are you sure" box that almost all other purchases have.

Pikolu · February 2023

These special offers have been in the game since the dawn of time and have never been worth it. You learn to just ignore them and not even bother with them at all.

DerpyEagle · February 2023

Kabam logic.....they really need to rework these offer and make them progression based and a way fairer price. 1200 Units should guarantee an r4 for paragons. If you’ve ever accidentally bought this I am truly sorry for you.

BigBlueOx · February 2023

Based on current store prices it does seem like this would be false advertising and could be considered a predatory action. They are getting to a point where not updating them might turn into a legal issue. Especially with this hyper in your face approach. Not sure what they are thinking

GroundedWisdom · February 2023

Jesus. Predatory?
The Offers are for a range of Players. Some Resources come easier to some Players than others. For someone who doesn't need the Resources, it seems too much. For someone who doesn't come by them as easily, that can be a help. Not all Offers are directed at us personally.
I'm not even going to entertain the legal garb.

BigBlueOx · February 2023

GroundedWisdom said:
Jesus. Predatory?
The Offers are for a range of Players. Some Resources come easier to some Players than others. For someone who doesn't need the Resources, it seems too much. For someone who doesn't come by them as easily, that can be a help. Not all Offers are directed at us personally.
I'm not even going to entertain the legal garb.

Considering kids play this game, it begs the question at what progression level are these no longer special offers?

Freakyd · February 2023

I bought something in-game by accident and kabam refunded it so worth putting a ticket in

_Pez_ · February 2023

Considering they are refunded when people buy by mistake anyway, would be nice just to have the ability to turn them off when you reach the point in the game when they are never any value.

If they aren't remotely tempting for your progression, and aren't going to be tuned to be so, they should be able to be turned off, they just make the game seem spammy if anything and are an annoyance. Noone benefits if someone accidentally buys and has to go through getting it refunded.

The ones that trigger on completing on event quest are the sort of level that are genuinely tempting so if the random ones are to stay that's the order of magnitude they should be pitched at.

K00shMaan · February 2023

BigBlueOx said:

GroundedWisdom said:
Jesus. Predatory?
The Offers are for a range of Players. Some Resources come easier to some Players than others. For someone who doesn't need the Resources, it seems too much. For someone who doesn't come by them as easily, that can be a help. Not all Offers are directed at us personally.
I'm not even going to entertain the legal garb.
Considering kids play this game, it begs the question at what progression level are these no longer special offers?

That the big question. If was one thing to have offers like these before the Catalyst Store existed because there was a limit to how many of these resources you could theoretically get through content and other offers. Because of the limit, the deal could in theory provide value to anyone as they may have exhausted all other means of obtaining those resources (other than waiting) so at least the immediacy of getting the resources could justify the cost.

But now we have the Catalyst Store and many of those items are limitless (including the 3 main ones from the offer) and can be obtained for much less than the offer. It seems like a very unethical thing to advertise a "Special Offer" that just costs more than what you can get normally for cheaper and without limit.

Now the most likely thing is that these offers are dated more than intentionally malicious but that isn't an excuse to not look at correcting the issue. I bet Kabam spends more resources refunding these offers than genuine revenue generated.

GroundedWisdom · February 2023

It's called advertising. They're not going to label it a "Mediocre Offer!".

shut_up_heather · February 2023

GroundedWisdom said:
It's called advertising. They're not going to label it a "Mediocre Offer!".

If they want us to buy it then give us an offer that we will actually think is good value. Currently it makes it seem like the game is plagued with ads

GroundedWisdom · February 2023

shut_up_heather said:

GroundedWisdom said:
It's called advertising. They're not going to label it a "Mediocre Offer!".
If they want us to buy it then give us an offer that we will actually think is good value. Currently it makes it seem like the game is plagued with ads

Who is us? Someone new to the game that needs those Rewards to Rank isn't going to have the same perspective as someone who has no need at all. Hence my comment about not all Offers being for all Players.

Unforgvn · February 2023

GroundedWisdom said:
It's called advertising. They're not going to label it a "Mediocre Offer!".

Have you ever heard the term "truth in advertising"? I know in this day and age truth in anything is subjective at best.

K00shMaan · February 2023

I think it's not completely wrong to call it a Deceptive Marketing Practice. All of those items can be purchased infinitely in game for a Guaranteed lower price. 270 Units for the Catalysts in the Catalyst Store and a minimum of 58,500 Gold can be purchased for 120 Units via the Uncollected Golden Crystal. Selling something for 1280 Units when it can be purchased for 390 Units is deception. They are probably "safe" legally because Units are not necessarily the same thing as Money.

https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/competition-bureau-canada/en/deceptive-marketing-practices/types-deceptive-marketing-practices/sale-above-advertised-price

QuikPik · February 2023

Once again, he who comments the most is wrong. These offers have been around since the dawn of time and have never been updated. When these offers were made, those items were rare and paying 1280 units for them was a good deal. I'm sure that 2500 unit offer for a 4* still pops up from time to time. Kabam is just really slow/bad at updating these type of things.

K00shMaan · February 2023

QuikPik said:
Once again, he who comments the most is wrong. These offers have been around since the dawn of time and have never been updated. When these offers were made, those items were rare and paying 1280 units for them was a good deal. I'm sure that 2500 unit offer for a 4* still pops up from time to time. Kabam is just really slow/bad at updating these type of things.

I made another comment which seems to have disappeared but the jist was that these offers are outdated rather than malicious. However with the Catalyst Store existing, it really adds precedent that they need to be changed or removed before it might become a big of a legal issue. I guess that fact that they generally refund the offers helps their stance but it's still probably a bit of a slippery slope to have these pop up to players of the later progression levels.

Ghost_Fan · February 2023

Instead of removing these offers they made them full screen? What a nice move...

Thecurler · February 2023

Fairly sure it’s called price anchoring.

That overpriced offer makes it more likely you’ll buy the items at a lower price as it makes them look like a bargain.

Unforgvn · February 2023

GroundedWisdom said:

Unforgvn said:

GroundedWisdom said:
I'd like to know how I'm wrong. They've been commenting the same thing for a long time. Not every Offer is targeted at us personally. The game has a range of Players, and some will appeal to others more. That's about it. Yet EVERY Offer that comes has someone personally offended by it. Never fails.
In what way was I personally offended? So I question something that when the math is done is questionable at best and that automatically means I'm offended? I did not click on that offer by the way but in the past I have on other "special" offers.

How does your level of progression matter anyways? Even at the lowest progression level you can still buy all those items for much cheaper than 1280 units. So again how is it a "special offer"?
I didn't say you. I said there's always someone offended. I've seen it with every Offer.
It's very simple. You either think the Items are worth the Units or you don't. Just because you don't doesn't mean others won't, and it doesn't mean they're "predatory" because they're offering Items with the usual colorful language. It's not that deep.

My bad I thought you where talking about me, I misunderstood what you ment by that sorry.

Things are always only worth what people are willing to spend, with that you are correct. But when you can spend less in the same game to get the exact same items, the only way anyone would think that offer is a good deal is if they don't know about the catalyst store. I don't see how anyone can think otherwise.

That's not my opinion but a fact based on math (1280 does not = 390)

How is this a special offer?

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