New Cyber Monday Sales Scheme
Mon, 12/02/2024 - 11:26
#52
That last paragraph
I mean it does change from a select few who generally buy in bulk at a set price to a select one who overinflated the single item to ensure no others can get it, so...
Mon, 12/02/2024 - 11:33
#53
Thanksgiving /= Cyber Monday
"Thanksgiving /= Cyber Monday. We generally have items in the Auction House for each holiday which is what you saw. Cyber Monday didn't start until today."
Yes, while I may have made my post a few hours before the actual Cyber Monday Auctions went up, the original announcement post had mentioned that there would be auctions throughout November 29th until December 2nd in the name of Cyber Monday. When asked about the auctions posted on 29th, those were claimed to be for Thanksgiving. And the only other auctions after that were posted on December 2nd. Meaning there were only Thanksgiving auctions, and Cyber Monday auctions on the day of (December 2nd), and no Cyber Monday auctions between November 29th to December 2nd. It's not the end of the world here, but it is misleading information and has kept the players on edge for a while now.
Though nitpicking about the above aside, I do want to second Drowsi's concerns about the Featured Auctions system. Is there any guidelines or standard on what type of items will be put on featured auctions only from now on, or what can be put on supply depot? Are items like iron shackles, prismatic halo, prismatic flower, dangerous raider horns, etc. featured auction exclusive now? Can these ever be put on depot in some rotation?
Some slight information on what we can expect without spoiling too much would be greatly helpful.
Let me tell you, it is the most disappointing feeling to come up with a costume plan that you really care for and want to see through, but have to cut corners or find alternatives, because some Cosmetic items are locked away behind featured auctions which only one individual per year can have. What happens here if two people want to complete costumes using the same featured auction item? Does the other player just have to wait an entire year and try again, and repeat this cycle? Or do they just have to accept the loss and that they'll never see the item in their inventory unless they spend their life's savings on it?
I want to point out that the featured auction system as a whole is heavily flawed and only hurts the player base more. To give emphasis on it is essentially catering to the rich only, but leaves the rest of the player base with nothing.
What's my point here? Should featured auctions just be scrapped? No, not at all. They are an important part of the game, and again, create rarity for items. But there needs to be a point to draw the line at what's should be rare, what shouldn't be rare, what's too rare, and when should you create artificial rarity.
A possible solution would be to have items on featured auction at certain points in time, but have the possibility of returning to supply depot at a later time, and creating a rotation of items that can be on depot/auction like this. This way, people won't be spending half a decade waiting or grinding for one item.
I don't expect an immediate solution or response, but some clarification on what we can expect with what I addressed would be greatly appreciated. And I do humbly request that you consider our feedback and where we're coming from with this.
To close, I will be conducting a survey via google forms this weekend to gauge community satisfaction and statistics regarding flash sales, featured auctions, depot sales, etc. This will both serve just for research purposes, and also could be taken as info for how Grey Havens can improve if they so choose. Whoever reads this, please be looking out for it in this same thread.
Mon, 12/02/2024 - 17:25
#54
:(
Next time can the AH items end when all primary timezones are awake or is it only the depot that's favouring "everyone" from now on?
If I stayed up the full 24hrs, I wouldn't have missed a Cool Splendid Topper, but because I went to sleep... I missed it.
Thanks, I guess, Cronus. I probs shoulda asked for clarification with the FA items availability (not just the depot) but I honestly would've expected that sorta clarification made in the original announcement post.
I guess there's always next year ggwp
@Cronus Would you honestly share your/GH's genuine reasoning for .."shifting the bulk of the items to the Auction House to maintain their rarity.."? Like, if you/GH genuinely wants to drive prices up to incentivize more people to buy energy packs (aka more $$$ for GH), then I think that'd give people a better understanding as to why this is the way Cyber Monday is being handled (instead of wasting time beating around the bush with PR talk).
I can respect that sorta transparency over citing some unverified feedback that a portion of this community vehemently disagrees with (both on the forums and socials) but my hopes aren't high
EDIT: An epiphany
Tue, 12/03/2024 - 01:58
#55
My Experience This FS
I made a full thread sharing my experience with the Featured Auction House this year. Please check it out! You can find it here:
https://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/124782
In short, an item I've wanted for over half a year got listed (arguably just for me), but it was outbid to 10-35x the market value and I didn't win it.
"The reality is that it's not healthy for the game to have a ton of items appear in the depot in one day. It only benefits a select few who happen to be available that day, and it encourages scamming along with a host of other issues."
This is something that I actually agree with. With how Cyber Monday used to function, this year I would've been unable to login for more than 75% of the day, since I'm stuck on campus for 11 hours straight. I am actually happy that the supply depot will be getting more items put in it throughout the year and would gladly trade our usual Cyber Monday in exchange for that, but I wasn't exactly happy at first; the reason for which I'll explain shortly.
"Thus players go from having 75 items in the depot per year to over 4 times that."
This is where one of the biggest failures in communication happened. The original post on the 26th only said that we'll get "more items in the depot throughout the year". That was a super vague way to put it and no one really knew what you meant. Having an actually quantifiable amount of "4 times" is so much bigger than I think anyone here thought. I understand if you're hesitant to provide an arbitrary number to give an idea of how things will go, but I think something as simple as "several items changing weekly" would've done wonders to ease concerns from the start.
"Auctions aren't intended to adjust pricing throughout the economy. I never claimed it would nor did I claim that every item in the game should be inexpensive or easily obtained. There still needs to be goals for those who are around longer."
Look, I get it. A Free-2-Play game needs to make money somehow, and given how few players are left in this game, these players need to spend more on this game than most others would charge in order to make ends meet, but a line needs to be drawn at some point. I'm not trying to pretend anyone was ever promised what they perceive as a "reasonable" price. I'm asking, as my own (maybe unrelated) feedback that supply depot sales don't charge as much in the future. I understand the concern that veteran players won't stick around if they can get every item in the game in just an afternoon or can't make bank on sought-after items, but I seriously don't think that charging nearly $100 in energy for some items is necessary to prevent this issue. I'd be fine if we kept things down to the $30 range, heck maybe even $40 for particularly valuable items.
We saw what happened the instant the Dangerous Prize Box 2016 was added to the depot again. From what I gathered, most items in that box went on the auction house for relatively affordable prices, and particularly pricey items like the hound coat or the Bitter End stayed expensive, but within a range that someone could potentially get the money to buy just by playing the game enough. This is despite the fact that the Prize Box itself cost DOUBLE in energy what a normal prize box promotion charges, not even including the bonus boxes you get for buying in bulk in those promos. Even things as simple as that are enough to massively heal this economic decay that's been happening.
I don't know what data has been gathered by GH, but I sincerely think that trying to offer valuable things for a bit cheaper would be an experiment worth trying. I think more people who tend to spend less would feel more comfortable buying things if they became more affordable, and the game would get an increase in sales despite the lowered prices. I'm obviously not a prophet, and my ideas are probably flawed in many ways, but I really hope that at least some of this feedback is seriously considered and acted upon.
[Edit:]
This is more in response to Drowsi's reply, but I'd like to add that I think the hierarchy of what items are and aren't reasonable as featured auctions is reversed. I think all gear which effects gameplay should be as accessible as possible. Things like the Totems and Mixers being as expensive as they are is one of the biggest shortcomings of this game's ecosystem. I, and a vast majority of other players, will never be able to have fun with maxed out movement speed. We'll never be able to have fun with mixers. We'll never be able to use the funny owlite wands. It's an absolute tragedy.