Limited Time skins
I'm sorry but this whole situation is a joke, people would be fine if only new skins were limited but taking away skins that were in the store for years is something not even EA would do, it's a scummy fd up way of doing things. Not to mention HALF OF THESE aren't even Winter themed, some of these characters have almost no skins and you're taking away even more. I never really was mad enough to write on forums even after NFTs and everything but this is just so dirty and awful to see, behavior just lost so much trust from so many people. Seriously do they want another uprising like the one where players stopped buying stuff for months a couple of years back? Because this whole thing is leading to another one of these and I'm sorry I'm done giving money to this game
Comments
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Why even give them money for a stupid cosmetic when you can grind for it and save yer money
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Time-limited cosmetics will never be available to buy with shards, it's official.
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That's really stupid
Could they at least lower the prices of cosmetics/auric cells? Nope! What a terrible business practice.
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Who buys cosmetics with shards anyway
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Official? Can you link the source pls?
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You guys call it scummy but its basic marketing and its been done by so many other companies as a way of creating fake scarcity. Stop getting so bent out of shape over BHVRs marketing department its not like they are forcing you to buy skins.
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You might want to reread that before spreading misinformation:
nor can I say whether they will be purchasable with shards at that time
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its a skin how is that a problem who cares man if you dont get it
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Maybe let other people have their opinion on this and let them voice it without talking them down?
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Guyfawx is right, there is nothing scummy about this. It is extremely common, nothing shady about it. What is the point of having 20+ skins for one character to be available at any given time? Who cares if they put them in some type of rotation so there is only 10 available. Plus this is all about skins which have zero impact anyways.
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The commonness of a tactic doesn't make it less scummy. It just proves that businesses can get away with it.
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How is it scummy? What changes if you don't buy a skin that BHVR is supposedly pressuring you to buy? Absolutely nothing.
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You guys really are spoiled, you must only play dbd if you think this is anything to complain about.
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I've been seeing a surprising number of posts defending this kind of practice, while not really grasping what is actually happening with it. FOMO causes an irrational shift in prioritization by directly manipulating the availability of a purchase. This shift is something that your average person is able to maintain a rational perspective regarding, such as "i don't need it that much" or "I can wait for another chance later." The people it is designed to affect, are those with any form of impaired impulse control, or poor budgeting skills. There have been notorious GDC lectures outlining very specifically how to take advantage of these people and try to get as much money as possible out of them, with FOMO being one of the key methods. It is a known business practice that very specifically targets a vulnerable demographic.
Lets say you are faced with this situation, and have other more important obligations and are unable to make the purchase. A typical mind will think "oh well" and go without, but an affected person will start trying to readjust their budget to make it work, they may borrow money or even forgo financial obligations altogether as the need to commit to the purchase or lose out on it entirely outweighs their otherwise rational budgeting and prioritization. Its actually part of gambling addictions as well, as "the next bet can be the win that offsets all my losses" even after going into debt. It is a very real and well documented psychological effect.
The worst part is that, again, it has very minimal impact on most people. For many its not about losing the ability to purchase something like an ingame cosmetic, and they may not even see that as financially reasonable as it is. The problem is that it so very specifically preys on those who are vulnerable to the tactic, who are treated as whales (individuals who spend more than the average consumer, to make up for a lack of sales elsewhere) in the process.
Its an absolute shame how much this kind of practice is not only accepted, but even defended in the industry. There can literally be people bypassing anything from holiday gifts for loved ones to financial responsibilities such as paying their bills just to sell a few more ugly sweater model meshes and textures.
There, read that before you join the "It's a skin, who cares if you can't get it whenever you want" choir
Yes, it's done in other games, NO, it DOESN'T make it acceptable.
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Do you really think BHVR is targeting this extremely small market you speak of?
Or is it more likely that they simply decided to have holiday skins be made available during those holidays?
Or maybe they just don't want every skin available at any time because it clutters up the store?
I see no problem with them rotating skins and only having a dozen or so available per character.
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Literally not defending it. I'm saying that this is not something to bastardize and lampoon a company over.
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It's people like you who make this pratice okay. A majority of players don't want this because it's twisting their arms because this game is fun and you like something but can't afford it with real money. So you create emotional anxiety and that is a SCUMMY thing to do. How is that good business?
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Cool, if you're not defending it why saying that people complaining about it are spoiled then?
Yes, FOMO tactics work especially good with that "extremely small" market
Were the skins REALLY cluttering up the store?
How many skins did they remove with this fantastic solution? 2 per character? Wow, so much clutter removed, thanks BHVR! Now I can see the whole 10 skins for Jonah instead of the 11 I was seeing before!
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Yes, I do think BHVR is targeting this small market, because they are a company interested in making money, and as a company interested in making money, they would not knowingly make a decision that makes them less money.
Ergo, if they're changing how skins are made available in the shop, then someone whose job it is to do sales and marketing has concluded that this change will bring them more money.
Assuming that said person or group is as aware of marketing tactics and trends as some of the people posting on this very forum, then it is an intentional choice to move to a model of seasonal exclusives and removing old content to make that a seasonal exclusive, in order to capitalise on the market who will overspend.
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I'm still trying to understand the logic of bhvr here:
'hey, we are making the most money with cosmetics, so instead of making sure rift cosmetics get put into the store asap and at a steady pace, and the new non-rift cosmetics are worth it, and generally make sure cosmetics are exciting, let's make sure to piss people off even more than usual by randomly taking away cosmetics from the store and declare them 'limited edition' because verily our players are stupid enough to buy them deeming them superspecial them'
like... what? c'mon, bhvr, it's one thing to make the game as frustrating as possible on purpose through bugs and badly planned out chapters, but this is a new low as so many people now pointed out.
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Most people will probably buy one or two skins. They're after the people who'll still do that sort of limited purchase, but also particularly the types who'll now buy... what, the 30+ they're going to remove? And who will consequently buy every set they put out in full going forward.
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I personally do not think they would target such a small market. You market to the masses, not the minority.
I just don't like seeing BHVR attacked when they have managed to keep the game relevant for six years and you never had to spend a dime if you didn't want to. Even crossing console generations with no extra fee.
They are not the scummy company that you are trying to make them out to be.
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No, you market to whoever's going to pay you the most for your product.
If you think you'll get more money out of fewer people, and are more concerned with the money than the ethical implications of why this is, you get this outcome.
There are entire games that are completely free to play across their entire lifespan, if you're patient and are willing to accept you won't get everything they release for it--most of them mobile games. Some have been running even longer than DbD. And this tactic is exactly how they remain profitable: make as much money as possible off the small number of people who can and will spend a ton.
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I never thought I'd use 'In this economy' without a pinch of salt, but here I am...
This is a horrible business model, and they ought to know that. Cause good heavens, those people are not going to please the investors, especially seeing how many content creators are PISSED. (I don't wanna imagine the fallout if bhvr does even more wrong and removes those that rightfully criticise them as Content Creators... what is this? twitter?)
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Just because I'm attacking people that complain doesn't mean I'm defending them. Although I don't see a problem with a company trying to encourage sales of their product. Also about being spoiled look at smite there's most likely 100 skins that are never obtainable again.
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I highly doubt they are making that much money of such a small number is people, but we have no way of knowing so we will have to agree to disagree.
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Then WHY are you attacking people complaining?
"Look over there, someone else is doing it!" doesn't make it okay.
It's not okay if Smite does it, it's not okay if DBD does it, but I don't play Smite and this is not Smite's forum.
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Oh, I'm certain someone did the maths before proposing it and looked at market conditions and usual spending. There's no way they authorised this on a whim of just thinking it might make more money.
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someone with no experience in the community, as usual, I'd say.
Cause like: Community makes it pretty clear they don't want limited time cosmetics. Someone decides that this community will absolutely fall for fomo #########
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If the fomo tactic goes well next step is gonna be take it now or its gonna leave forever.
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They won't make as much going after a small market though.
Say you get 100% of the 5% to buy a skin that fomo is affecting, it still wouldn't compare to just getting 10% of the other 95% of the people.
Plus remember, 60% of the time it works every time!!!
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You know, if you really wanted these limited time skins, you could just like, go ahead and buy them when they’re available
Similarly, if you don’t like the skin or you hate the practice of limited time skins, you could just like, not buy them
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I’ve been trying to figure out how this is a “scummy” business practice and so far I’ve had no success. Someone is going to have to explain to me how this is “scummy”.
Is every company that has ever discontinued a product also engaging in “scummy” business practices?
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Creating artificial scarcity by releasing limited-time exclusives is a way of extracting the maximum amount of money from a minority of players, and a disproportionate amount of that falls on those with various forms of mental illness.
And this is a very well known and studied topic, to the point there's lectures on how to pull it off, so it's not an accident when it happens.
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i thought about your response for quite a while and I can understand your point of view. If BHVR are using this tactic to intentionally prey of people with addiction issues, then it could certainly raise ethical questions.
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After that will be FOMO survivors/killers. Finally get Friday the 13th chapter but you only have a week to buy it before its removed from store forever....
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Are they really creating artificial scarcity, or are they just selling holiday skins during said holiday?
There are too many skins available now anyways, they should go into some type of rotation.
Not having Christmas skins available in July does not make BHVR an evil company like you are portraying them.
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let's see, they're making something scarce and unobtainable during the rest of the year when it would otherwise not be, so... yes. Artificial scarcity by definition.
Also, pyjamas are now a christmas thing?
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Me love my Christmas skins
Yes, they removed SO MANY skins with this move, I love my store with ONE LESS SKIN per character, it was so messy before..
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The thing is they're taking away skins from characters that bearly have any. I mean really, twins? WHY?! it's the only good skin they have. Also the problem isn't with limited skins over all but taking away old skins, no other game has ever done something like this and it's beyond scummy
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I KNOW RIGHT?! Half of the skins aren't even seasonal, they're taking these away only because they sell well and by making them limited they'll sell even more
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Well that's redicluces new characters I understand but why waste money on acr cells there useless no accual use other than cosmetics
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