MTX Duplicates

Hi guys,

I know this "issue" has been raised multiple times already but it doesn't look like anything has been done to change the RNG system of the MTX mystery boxes. I love the game; I am not particularly good at it but I love it regardless, so much that I spend at least 300$ in supporter packs with every league coming out.

I usually spend most of the points from the supporter packs buying mystery loot boxes, and the system can be really frustrating. The first annoying bit is that even with 30-40 boxes every patch, I am getting x5 duplicates, like five pairs of gloves, horns or the same pets over and over again. Why not implement a feature that:

# reduces the chance of getting the same draw over and over again
# give players the chance to either "return" the duplicate MTX back to the shop for points or
# give players the chance to trade duplicates at the end of each league for another prize from the same box or for some hideout decorations?

The second frustrating aspect of this is that none of the mystery box items are available in the MTX shop after the league is over. Why not give players a chance to buy what they like? I know MTX are optional and nobody forces us to buy them but you are not giving people enough incentive to spend money given how expensive they are.

Path of Exile is pretty much the ONLY game I spend money in because I want to support you guys but sometimes, I get the "feels bad man" impression after spending 300$ for 5 pairs of gloves. That new MTX "fusing" system (Ice/Fire armor set) is not the right solution to get rid of duplicates in my opinion. The message i am getting from this is "you need to buy more boxes if you really want that new set", rather than "here is a way to get rid of your duplicates" and kind of goes against the "is and will always be free to play" spirit of the game.

Anyway, just some ideas yeah?

Hello,

First, a minor correction - MTX from mystery boxes do get added to the store after about a month.

As for your suggestion, the approximate average value of a box is four times the price of one. This is made feasible through duplicates, and preventing them or implementing systems to mitigate them would necessitate raising the price of them. They’re designed to be an option; not to be the indisputable best / cheapest way of buying MTX. The intention is to supplement, not cannibalize, regular sales. You can’t improve the value of them and not increase their cost.

"

The second frustrating aspect of this is that none of the mystery box items are available in the MTX shop after the league is over. Why not give players a chance to buy what they like?

if you see EA time chart before implementing lootboxes you will see just how much money they got out of it, since then to now its been almost A BILLION DOLLARS so its natural for business to copy that "strategy" at the expense regular "buy you preferred skin" option since you HAVE to buy many boxes to have it completed getting them quite a huge amount of money in return, if i put it bluntly they are scamming you

"

Path of Exile is pretty much the ONLY game I spend money in because I want to support you guys but sometimes, I get the "feels bad man" impression after spending 300$ for 5 pairs of gloves. That new MTX "fusing" system (Ice/Fire armor set) is not the right solution to get rid of duplicates in my opinion

also duplicates are MEANT for you to buy MORE boxes so they get MORE money, if you took any basic economics class you would see that, (they are a company so OFC their goal is to make as much money as possible no matter what, at least to some extent) honestly do you think they didn't know duplicates where going to be a thing way before they launched them?, you KNOW if they wanted to, they could just put those MTX in their shop instead of any kind of boxes

"

reduces the chance of getting the same draw over and over again
# give players the chance to either "return" the duplicate MTX back to the shop for points or
# give players the chance to trade duplicates at the end of each league for another prize from the same box or for some hideout decorations?

1) IF the lootboxes stay (most likely will) they should NOT have a lower chance of getting a duplicate, but actual 0 chance of that happening

2) in the current state of the boxes yes this should be a thing, but then again GGG would lose money, by giving you points back

3) i dont think many people actually like those MTX decorations since a lot of them are just plain bad or unnoticeable

all this being said, i LOVE poe and i kinda like the way they handle some stuff but in this aspect, they are pretty greedy, and its again kinda of ok (just kind of not completely since they charge you more than they should)

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Sarno a écrit :

Hello,

First, a minor correction - MTX from mystery boxes do get added to the store after about a month.

Hmm, okay then i must be missing something.
I don't remember what the last mystery box set was, was it the pure white / ultimate chaos?
Where can I buy any MTX related to that mystery box or any of the previous mystery boxes for that matter? Are they added a month later and then removed?

Appreciate any clarification!

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Emailbox911 a écrit :

I don't remember what the last mystery box set was, was it the pure white / ultimate chaos?

Yes, that mystery box was removed from the store earlier this month. :)

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Emailbox911 a écrit :

Where can I buy any MTX related to that mystery box or any of the previous mystery boxes for that matter?

From that box? Currently nowhere.

For other boxes, the same place as usual. Items previously available through boxes aren’t handled differently in any regard. Here’s the thread about the Classic Mystery Boxes, as an example.


Edit: This box had some exclusive stuff which weren’t later added - those were clearly marked as such at the time.

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Emailbox911 a écrit :

Are they added a month later and then removed?

Nope, not removed.

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Emailbox911 a écrit :

it doesn't look like anything has been done to change the RNG system of the MTX mystery boxes.

This is true but now GGG lets you combine MTX to make new ones. Check this out: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2050161

It's not the greatest solution but at least it's something. Some games I play give you various in-game currency if you get a dupe. It's not super great either because the other currency is limited in it's usefulness but it's far better than what GGG does, especially with their new system that totally and unequivocally makes dupes absolutely useless. It's quite literally like you threw your money down the toilet.

This is actually the main reason I stopped buying the boxes. Sadly this is going to come down to the community. It's been noted that these loot boxes net developers oodles of cash. They exploit humans inherent problems with odds. This is why lotteries make countries billions. Naturally the payout is far lower in our case and the odds far better but they are still all shit. The community is going to have to speak with their wallets. The moment everyone puts an embargo is the moment GGG says "ok, we heard you, we are going to do something about it."

Right now they are enjoying good profits for far less work and no business is going to give that up. I don't think they want to screw us, but money. It keeps the game alive is what I'm sure they are thinking.

Personally, I've always felt a good solution would be to sell back any MTX for half the price. Naturally GGG is probably thinking, "fuck that, that would basically cut our profits" but that's a bit like those retarded figures people came up with with regards to piracy. "Our movie was pirated 1m times, so if all those people bought it, we would have like $30m more!" But the real fact is most those people just wouldn't have watched it. To claim that if I bought 10 loot boxes, got 4 dupes and sold them back to get another 2 boxes, that GGG would be out 20% is the same kind of logic. When we all know that most people would just have those dupes sitting around and likely won't buy anymore anyway.

Another option would be to exchange them for cool hideout stuff. Add another in-game currency, like Elicion Shards, that would could be gathered by melting down current MTX. Then you could buy unique hideout MTX with those shards. And the only way to get those MTX would be those shards.

Don't buy them then. Quit when you get your first Dup and all will be gold.

GGG knows exectly what they are doing. They know lootzbox is exploiting gambling addiction physology, they purposely do not design to prevent dups so you keep spending $ until you get missing pieces you wanted.

Obviously GGG is in the business of making money, but theer are honest ehnical ways to do it, & unethnical. Lootbox is obviously thelatter which is why I am not supporting it.

Its edvicence GGG is getting more greedy with time, like the price for the map tab, but hardcore fans just won't admit.

They're not "getting more greedy". They're trying to maintain a level of income with fewer and fewer supporters. The model of "free, but give us what you feel like giving" works at first, but runs dry over time. They need to keep up an income stream or they have to put people out of work. So they change. It's not "unethical".

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KiadawP a écrit :

like the price for the map tab

The Map Tab is more expensive to purchase than the Essence, Currency, and Divination Tabs because it is entails more data storage server-side. The others only have to store the number of items in each slot, as each slot stores duplicate items with no random stats.

The Map Tab has to worry about things like Quality, prefixes, and suffixes. They could probably have offered a different design for less than half the price, but only allowed you to put 0% quality white maps in it. I don't think that would've been particularly useful - or popular.

It's worth remembering that people pay for tabs once, then keep using them in different leagues and have several Remove Only copies left to rot in their Standard stash. And then there's the fact that, yes, they are a company attempting to run a profit on this and have some of the profit offset other expenses they have which aren't themselves directly monetised.

I'm happy to bash the mystery boxes all day long, but if you want to accuse them of greed in other areas you need to substantiate that - and the price of the Map Tab doesn't do that for you.