I said it to my guildie, and I'll just repeat it here. Sorry if the post sounds like a long rant cause I'm kind of tired... RNG items are not illegal (yet), but it is frowned upon, especially when the system is nontransparent. And I'm pretty sure most people don't see a problem in Anet making money, but it's mostly about how blatant they are in their attempt of manipulating the players. I'm no marketing expert and my experience was only limited to consulting them for proper response, but as someone who dealt with clients on the front line, I would be really angry if this is what they give us to work with. It's all about setting your clients' expectation without being overtly controlling. The 2k-gem skin is a ruse to make people believe the alternative is better.It's the simplest trick out there. The problem is you DON'T release it at the same time as the lottery ticket (and it only made worse due to the Halloween skin package). The ideal scenario would be to let other parties release it so they can be your scapegoats. Doing it all by yourself simultaneously just seems too desperate. It makes your consumers thinking you are using them for marketing experiments, and quite frankly they are right. When you lose that trust, most people would prefer to buy neither.Lack of assistance in providing set loss point.The clients usually come to you with an imaginary set loss point, i.e. the amount of money they're willing to spend before they give up. Anet didn't offer any incentive to reassure the players that they will at least achieve a somewhat rewarding milestone before obtaining the skin they want. And this scares people. There is a lower chance in obtaining better and more desirable skins. While this is completely fair, it's silly to try to cover it up with the whole "1/30" promotional gimmicks and that will only backfire. The result often is that people exaggerate the numbers in their head. It will exceeds their expected set loss point and thus they will choose not to participate at all. A good example would be the guaranteed rare card from the Yu-Gi-Oh 7-random cards-package... it's not much, but it's enough to leave people feel a little bit accomplished and just rewarding enough for some to return for another purchase. Anet could have make something like a 1.2k gem package with 1 guaranteed exotic with 2 rare and above... see, it's still 400 gem for a random skin skin but it's already more attractive than before.It's silly really, because people are more than happy to spend money and you want them to spend money. It's supposed to be a mutually beneficial relationship but Anet push it too far by presenting two equally undesirable options. In this situation the consumers would just have to choose to not participate and perhaps feel angry because they are missing out contents. They are angry because they are loyal customers. The worst thing you can do now is to put the blame on them. They will not stop feeling that way until you as a provider do something from your end. As for me, I personally don't care for mounts. I certainly don't want Anet to crash and burn for this, but I won't shed any tears for their mistake either. The lootbox fiasco has only just begun and anyone with some idea of PR would know to lay low for now. If you decided to jump out for a quick cash grab, you would only catch a bullet instead.
I said it to my guildie, and I'll just repeat it here. Sorry if the post sounds like a long rant cause I'm kind of tired... RNG items are not illegal (yet), but it is frowned upon, especially when the system is nontransparent. And I'm pretty sure most people don't see a problem in Anet making money, but it's mostly about how blatant they are in their attempt of manipulating the players. I'm no marketing expert and my experience was only limited to consulting them for proper response, but as someone who dealt with clients on the front line, I would be really angry if this is what they give us to work with. It's all about setting your clients' expectation without being overtly controlling. The 2k-gem skin is a ruse to make people believe the alternative is better.It's the simplest trick out there. The problem is you DON'T release it at the same time as the lottery ticket (and it only made worse due to the Halloween skin package). The ideal scenario would be to let other parties release it so they can be your scapegoats. Doing it all by yourself simultaneously just seems too desperate. It makes your consumers thinking you are using them for marketing experiments, and quite frankly they are right. When you lose that trust, most people would prefer to buy neither.Lack of assistance in providing set loss point.The clients usually come to you with an imaginary set loss point, i.e. the amount of money they're willing to spend before they give up. Anet didn't offer any incentive to reassure the players that they will at least achieve a somewhat rewarding milestone before obtaining the skin they want. And this scares people. There is a lower chance in obtaining better and more desirable skins. While this is completely fair, it's silly to try to cover it up with the whole "1/30" promotional gimmicks and that will only backfire. The result often is that people exaggerate the numbers in their head. It will exceeds their expected set loss point and thus they will choose not to participate at all. A good example would be the guaranteed rare card from the Yu-Gi-Oh 7-random cards-package... it's not much, but it's enough to leave people feel a little bit accomplished and just rewarding enough for some to return for another purchase. Anet could have make something like a 1.2k gem package with 1 guaranteed exotic with 2 rare and above... see, it's still 400 gem for a random skin skin but it's already more attractive than before.It's silly really, because people are more than happy to spend money and you want them to spend money. It's supposed to be a mutually beneficial relationship but Anet push it too far by presenting two equally undesirable options. In this situation the consumers would just have to choose to not participate and perhaps feel angry because they are missing out contents. They are angry because they are loyal customers. The worst thing you can do now is to put the blame on them. They will not stop feeling that way until you as a provider do something from your end. As for me, I personally don't care for mounts. I certainly don't want Anet to crash and burn for this, but I won't shed any tears for their mistake either. The lootbox fiasco has only just begun and anyone with some idea of PR would know to lay low for now. If you decided to jump out for a quick cash grab, you would only catch a bullet instead.