More Obsidian Card events

(CCP115) #1

I’d like to point out that I have indeed been playing this game from the stress tests in closed beta. I already have an Obsidian card, but I personally think that SD needs to change their approach to Obsidian cards to make it a little more fair.

First off, I hope SD simply do more of these in the future, except make them HUGE events (see “Payday 2: Road to Crimefest”), and not merc locked. Having an announcement a week before the update? Granted, I could easily make 50k credits in a week, if I actually had the time. Thing is, I don’t, and neither do plenty of people. For me it takes around 4-5 weeks before I can afford a new merc, and usually that’s fine because there’s no “time limit”, but when an event like this is announced, it can take people by surprise, and will lock some people out because they are in a similar situation to me, where they don’t have the time.
True, this is the first obsidian event outside the stress test to occur. If SD chooses to continue doing these styles of events, then I guess I’ll have to keep a rainy day pillow of around 50k credits.

Now my real complaint is this, If you want to do a giveaway, not just Obsidian cards, but anything limited in nature, please:

-Give us plenty of time to prepare, in advance or make the event just last a while. Payday 2: Road to Crimefest, a full 25 days of prep, before 10 days of crimefest. Easy to translate into Dirty Bomb, 25 days of prep and ingame events and milestones, and 25 days to build up credits in anticipation for what may be coming up.

-Don’t merc lock it. It’s kind of a good idea to merc lock it, but I think overall it’s better if it’s random. This randomness will give a lot more incentive for people to get involved in community events, because right now, I can say that plenty of people don’t care for Phoenix at all. They don’t want to buy him, and they sure don’t mind if they get him for free, because they will never use him.

-Make it as fair as possible. I know this point is vague, but there are some factors. First is time, I have already said that it’s optimal to give lots of time to allow everyone, such as people on holidays or those in exam period (it’s exam period where I am right now, so no gametime for a lot of us.) More time obviously lets more people buy in or get prepped.
Another way to help keep it fair is LOTS of advertising. I know that the stress test obsidian cards weren’t that fair either, because you had to know about Dirty Bomb, then sign up and actually get a key, and then be free on that specific stress test weekend. Quite a few variables there to go wrong.
Another thing to help keep giveaways and events like this fair are absolutely no paywalls or timewalls or anything walls. All people should have a fair chance to get in on the fun and giveaways.
Example: This Phoenix giveaway. To get the obsidian, you either need 50k credits, before hand or through grinding, or real money, or by chance you happened to unlock him beforehand. Again, it’s very easy for people to miss out on this.
Say you just bought a merc before the event got announced, and hey guess what, you now have no credits left at all. So what do you do? You could either grind, or pay real money. You can’t grind because you have work/school tomorrow, so what do you do? If you are financially stable, or have nice parents or whatever, you could pay money. But again, not everyone can do this. Also the merc price can be a bit staggering for some. When I told my brother how much it cost, he was very surprised. And he plays Payday 2.

Ok, that’s enough finger typing for now. I apologise for the wall, I tried to make it structured, and of course apologies for any spelling or grammatical errors.

TL:DR I love free giveaways, and I’m sure everyone does, but don’t merc lock it, and give us plenty of downtime to grind and prepare in case of a purchase required. This is the first time it’s happened, so at least we can all be prepared for the next time this happens.

Also I hope this isn’t the only Phoenix giveaway that ever happens. The colours change so drastically on him, and Bronze cards look ugly af.

(Sir_Slam) #2

Well, keep one thing in mind. If you don’t have enough time to get him with in game money, and you really want that card, what will you do?

Its a nice little money making scheme for them. Which I completely support. Its only cosmetic, so screw it.

(SereneFlight) #3

Yeeaahh… Only getting a free merc is a big deal for people who don’t have enough money to go around or can’t get their hands to their parents’ credit cards and don’t have time to grind.

Also, shall we not talk about Payday 2? coughendless stream of DLCcoughmicrotransactions that will more likely require you to buy DLCcough20€ price tagcough

(Rjsto) #4

I’m with slam on this one, it is only cosmetic so not really an issue. There’s nothing wrong in giving people an incentive to put some money in the game if they want the cosmetic item too. It is really generous of them too though, I mean they do give you a free merc if you don’t have him already. For people who have way too much money in their hands and just buy the mercs with real money, it’s actually less money spent

(RabidDoG) #5

I played hard all week…all most got enough…

(Lumi) #6

I disagree. I already think that they shouldn’t have warned anyone. As giving people the opportunity to get the game and farm 50k to get a loadout supposed to reward loyal players isn’t really fulfilling it’s purpose.

In my opinion, and I expect many to disagree with me, obsidian give-aways should be unannounced and directed at rewarding true loyalty. Nothing else.

(DMaster2) #7

That’s exactly why they did it the way they did. That obsidian was rumoured for quite some time, so they have planned it in advance. With such a short notice people may be tempted to purchase Phoenix for real money if they know they can’t grind 50k in time. If they don’t they still get a free merc. That’s fair in my opinion.

(CCP115) #8

[quote=“Sir_Slam;99201”]Well, keep one thing in mind. If you don’t have enough time to get him with in game money, and you really want that card, what will you do?

Its a nice little money making scheme for them. Which I completely support. Its only cosmetic, so screw it.[/quote]

I can understand this much, persuading people to buy from the game, but think about it this way. I don’t want to call SD greedy or anything, but it does seem like they knew by doing this they were going to make money. So far, that’s alright. But realistically? This is an indirect way of buying a cosmetic, and a limited time cosmetic, and also a cosmetic that can change the way you play.

Compare this to just selling hats and costumes in a store, this is a lot more convoluted and also just not as fair. Someone have a limited time obsidian card because they spent money? Ok, that’s not that fair. Someone have a hat that anyone can buy at anytime from a store that doesn’t hide prices or anything? That’s fine.

Again, I’m ok with SD doing this exact event again. In fact, I kind of hope they do. It’s just that being the first time they have done anything like this, it was surprising and a little unfair/opaque. From now on I can only assume we would need a 50k credit cushion in case. Or if you have a credit card, then you could also just spend real money.

[quote=“Lumi;99259”]I disagree. I already think that they shouldn’t have warned anyone. As giving people the opportunity to get the game and farm 50k to get a loadout supposed to reward loyal players isn’t really fulfilling it’s purpose.

In my opinion, and I expect many to disagree with me, obsidian give-aways should be unannounced and directed at rewarding true loyalty. Nothing else.[/quote]

I’m not entirely sure what you mean when you say loyal. How is happening to have bought Phoenix loyal? Maybe you didn’t like the other medics, maybe he was the only merc left for you to buy, but either way that’s not loyal .You buy a merc because you want to, not because you’re loyal to SD. Unless of course, you do want to give SD your money, but that’s a special sort of case.

A rumour. That’s exactly that, a rumour. Hard to be trusted. There are still diamond loadout cards in the game files I think, and they are confirmed to not be used anymore. SO you can’t really trust datamining 100%. And yea, I appreciate the free merc, but there is a reason why I still don’t think it’s a good idea.

If you want Phoenix, you probably already have him. That means you get a free obsidian card and two free elite cases for doing absolutely nothing, but playing the merc you like.

If you don’t like Phoenix, and didn’t buy him because of such, then you don’t get any free elite cases, and you miss out on what could potentially be a limited time item, and guess what, you get the merc that you never really wanted anyway.

I am in the middle, and Phoenix is an alright medic, but I didn’t buy him because I simply didn’t want him. Then this comes along. I want to support the game, since I have been playing from relatively close to it’s public beta, and I hope to play till the end of it’s lifetime. As such, I don’t really want to miss out on limited things like this.

Again, if they just slightly changed the system, it would be better. Currently, it rewards players who happened to like a certain merc, and rewards those who didn’t like the merc with… that merc.

I am generalising a lot, but I hope you get my points across. I still appreciate everything else in the update, but this one thing is a bit gripey.

(Lumi) #9

@CCP115

I’m actually saying that the criteria that SD/Nexon chose for loyalty was wrong. They said that this “event” was aimed at rewarding loyalty, or at least, that’s how I interpreted this:

[quote=“MissMurder;19117”]The Containment War Update is almost here, and out of gratitude to all of our players that have been continuing to play dirty and provide their feedback, we’re giving everyone that logs into Dirty Bomb in the week after the release of the Containment War Update a special gift.
[/quote]

And I don’t think that if they want to reward continuous play and feedback, a.k.a. loyalty, that they should warn people one week before hand. Nor that the criteria is anyone who shows up, after the update is out.

We all know this is an event aimed at drawing in new blood and old players who quit the game because of its many shortcomings, hoping that some players get held back by the containment war update “net”.

So what I was trying to say was: If they’re going to do obsidian give-aways, there should be a proper measurement of who has and who hasn’t been playing continuously and or giving feedback. As opposed to give it to anyone. Because really, anyone can launch DB for the first time today, buy Pheonix with real money and get the obsidian. Heck anyone just joining next week will still get Pheonix, for the sake of them continuously playing and providing such great feedback.

It’s annoying, because this particular obsidian loadout will have nothing special. Anyone will have it. Obsidians should be a real reward, for people who actually deserve it. Not as a promotion to draw in people.

(CCP115) #10

And I don’t think that if they want to reward continuous play and feedback, a.k.a. loyalty, that they should warn people one week before hand. Nor that the criteria is anyone who shows up, after the update is out.

We all know this is an event aimed at drawing in new blood and old players who quit the game because of its many shortcomings, hoping that some players get held back by the containment war update “net”.

So what I was trying to say was: If they’re going to do obsidian give-aways, there should be a proper measurement of who has and who hasn’t been playing continuously and or giving feedback. As opposed to give it to anyone. Because really, anyone can launch DB for the first time today, buy Pheonix with real money and get the obsidian. Heck anyone just joining next week will still get Pheonix, for the sake of them continuously playing and providing such great feedback.

It’s annoying, because this particular obsidian loadout will have nothing special. Anyone will have it. Obsidians should be a real reward, for people who actually deserve it. Not as a promotion to draw in people.[/quote]

Wow, I’m really sorry, I totally misinterpreted what you said. I 100% agree with you on that.

The problem is ho do you reward actual loyal players? Based on playtime? I only have a piddly 150 hours, but I’ve been playing for a solid half year. If SD could get a functional reward system, that would be infinitely better than pay to get limited edition loadout card.

(Jostabeere) #11

Why was it completely obvious if they make ONE Obsidian event, people will automatically ask for more.

(Lumi) #12

@CCP115

Well, they have had their latest server wipe in February. It would have been easy to decide upon a latest date of joining and then when the update came out, give the obsidian to those who had gotten the game before that time and still played after the update.

Heck, if you ask me, this event would be following more the reasons it advertises, if it would have happened without telling anyone anything. Like people connecting after the update and getting stuff out of the blue. That’s how you would reward true loyalty up to that point.

Now instead of being fair parents gifting their kids who have told them the most I love you over the last year, they’re telling them that they’ll get a gift if they tell them that they love them enough. And here are all the kids yelling: “I love you, I love you!”

It’s just normal that if you wave the promise of treats for loyalty, people are going to show up. Now don’t try and make us believe that it is for loyalty’s reward’s sake.

(CCP115) #13

I don’t think you understand what I’m saying. I’m not asking for more events, I’m asking for a rework of the system

[quote=“Lumi;99525”]@CCP115

Well, they have had their latest server wipe in February. It would have been easy to decide upon a latest date of joining and then when the update came out, give the obsidian to those who had gotten the game before that time and still played after the update.

Heck, if you ask me, this event would be following more the reasons it advertises, if it would have happened without telling anyone anything. Like people connecting after the update and getting stuff out of the blue. That’s how you would reward true loyalty up to that point.

Now instead of being fair parents gifting their kids who have told them the most I love you over the last year, they’re telling them that they’ll get a gift if they tell them that they love them enough. And here are all the kids yelling: “I love you, I love you!”

It’s just normal that if you wave the promise of treats for loyalty, people are going to show up. Now don’t try and make us believe that it is for loyalty’s reward’s sake. [/quote]

Agreed, your points are exactly what I’m saying here.

(DMaster2) #14

[quote=“CCP115;99405”]

A rumour. That’s exactly that, a rumour. Hard to be trusted. There are still diamond loadout cards in the game files I think, and they are confirmed to not be used anymore. SO you can’t really trust datamining 100%. And yea, I appreciate the free merc, but there is a reason why I still don’t think it’s a good idea.

If you want Phoenix, you probably already have him. That means you get a free obsidian card and two free elite cases for doing absolutely nothing, but playing the merc you like.

If you don’t like Phoenix, and didn’t buy him because of such, then you don’t get any free elite cases, and you miss out on what could potentially be a limited time item, and guess what, you get the merc that you never really wanted anyway.

I am in the middle, and Phoenix is an alright medic, but I didn’t buy him because I simply didn’t want him. Then this comes along. I want to support the game, since I have been playing from relatively close to it’s public beta, and I hope to play till the end of it’s lifetime. As such, I don’t really want to miss out on limited things like this.

Again, if they just slightly changed the system, it would be better. Currently, it rewards players who happened to like a certain merc, and rewards those who didn’t like the merc with… that merc.

I am generalising a lot, but I hope you get my points across. I still appreciate everything else in the update, but this one thing is a bit gripey.[/quote]
I do get your point, but watch it from the devs point. They give every players a gift, and plan things so they can profit a bit themselves (aka people rushing to buy Phoenix with real money to get the card). I see why you may be annoyed but it’s only fair they gain something too. If you want to support this game and really want that card maybe you can spare that 10 dollars for Phoenix.

(CCP115) #15

[quote=“DMaster2;99923”]
I do get your point, but watch it from the devs point. They give every players a gift, and plan things so they can profit a bit themselves (aka people rushing to buy Phoenix with real money to get the card). I see why you may be annoyed but it’s only fair they gain something too. If you want to support this game and really want that card maybe you can spare that 10 dollars for Phoenix.[/quote]

I get they want money. That’s fine, SD is a business after all. But this isn’t the way to go around doing it. A cosmetic store with actual content people can buy at any time with their own sort of choice and feeling seems a lot fairer than a week long limited edition thing. Yea, this is an acceptable way of getting money from players, but I suspect that not many people did buy Phoenix that didn’t already have them. Also, it seems like SD did this to coax some money out of players, but it would’ve been a lot better to have straight out provided us things things to buy from the store, e.g. more crates, cosmetics, better value for money credit boosters, etc. rather than indirectly giving us an excuse to buy something.

(Lumi) #16

@DMaster2

I don’t think it’s as much as being against the practice as to actually expect the marketing people to be honest with us. I wouldn’t mind if they’d actually admit that this event has an additional financial incentive. I know it’s obvious, but then saying it’s for loyalty’s reward just feels fake. It most like is for both reasons, but imo one can never go bad with honesty.

(DMaster2) #17

[quote=“Lumi;99966”]@DMaster2

I don’t think it’s as much as being against the practice as to actually expect the marketing people to be honest with us. I wouldn’t mind if they’d actually admit that this event has an additional financial incentive. I know it’s obvious, but then saying it’s for loyalty’s reward just feels fake. It most like is for both reasons, but imo one can never go bad with honesty.[/quote]
Since they are giving 50k (10 dollars) worth of things to people anyway it’s fine imho. It’s not like you are left