Please stop the FOMO.
I'd like to start by saying that so far I love the event. It's new and fresh and it's the closest thing we've ever gotten to an alternative game mode. Earning cosmetics through play has always been appreciated as well.
However, the FOMO tactics with these "limited time" / holiday locked sets has gotten even worse than last year.
I seem to remember the devs promising that most non-licensed cosmetics for original characters would be made available for Shards going forward past a certain point in time (might've been last year?). What I'm seeing, though, is more and more new cosmetics that are NOT available for Shards, only Auric Cell purchases. And to boot, they're not only going for the rate of $10 a pop, but due to them being "limited time", they're never in the Store long enough to be put on sale price. And on top of THAT, more and more cosmetics are coming out locked, which is leaving players with less ability to make our characters look more unique than others in the trial. It cannot possibly be a concern with minor pixel clipping, since even locked sets have issues with this built-in. I'm sure a lot of us care less about clipping than customizability. (This complaint doesn't apply to extremely complex $15 cosmetics like Krampus, obviously.)
While I understand the company needs to make money, DBD was doing just fine with Halloween/Xmas/Easter etc. cosmetics being in the store year round, whether they were on sale or not. It's not like y'all have to free up storage space in the Store for them; why would you take away our ability to purchase cosmetics at any point during the year? More options available all the time certainly means more opportunities for steady cash flow, right?
What happened to just putting holiday themed cosmetics on 30%+ off sale for their holiday to encourage a surge in purchases? That seems like a much better business model than scummy "GET IT NOW BEFORE IT'S GONE" tactics that other predatory game developers have already been resorting to for years. If we want to buy Toilet Paper Dwight in April, why shouldn't we be able to?
Please, if we cannot earn most themed cosmetics during holiday event gameplay, at least let us grind it out for shards. When it comes to skins that have no outside license to pay for, there really isn't much of an excuse. And please, just leave themed cosmetics in the store year round so we can spend money on them at any time we feel like it. FOMO is bad and DBD used to be one of the few places that didn't weaponize it.
Thank you. <3
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I think its fair to have events with special cosmetics that come back next year. it gives me something to look forward to.
It would be sad and boring again if there was no difference in the store. I enjoy buying things I cant get every second of every day-
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Last year's time limited outfits are now available for shards.
But yeah, I also don't like the fomo tactic.
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It's BS and it's going to turn off players or at the very least bite BHVR in the ass because they fail to realize that the economic situation in the world is not good with all the inflation and recessions going on where people can't afford to buy much needed things let alone cosmetics in a video game.
So rather than leave the skins on year round so players who might be squeezed for cash now but might not be a few months from now can buy them then, BHVR is just saying either buy now or F off. How is that smart business-wise or how does that treat the very customers keeping them afloat in any reasonable or respectful way? It's not. If they were smart, they would release these various collections in permanent DLC sets much like Head Case, The 80's Suitcase, and even the Attack on Titan skins were released in those 2 DLCs just before they were removed. That would be smart business-wise and would also be more respectful to the players.
Just imagine how much more skins they would've sold if they made & kept those Attack on Titan skin DLCs from the start of the release of those skins and how many players who were unable to buy them during those few weeks in July would've been able to buy them earlier or later. And the same goes for any other limited time skins. It's a scummy thing to do and stupid too on the business end and pretty much scummy decision a business can make is also stupid.
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If someone is struggling financially to make ends meet the last thing they should be thinking about is cosmetics in a video game.
I think the simple answer to this that would benefit everyone would be to have a shop rotation that updates every 24 hours with cosmetics from any annual event. It would encourage people to login more often and give more opportunities for players to pick up cosmetics they may have missed out on before without having to wait for the next event.
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I would agree if games like Fortnite didn't already have this practice and it's really disappointing to have short-term FOMO. I will still maintain that nobody loses anything by having these cosmetics available all year round. We should be looking forward to the events themselves, not the return of cosmetics that aren't even guaranteed to come back year after year. What if they forget one? What if they decide to go back to exclusive and have cosmetics that are never ever available again despite not being tied to a third party license?
Just as an example, since you brought up a rotating shop, I've been waiting for well over a year for Mando to come back to Fortnite so I could buy it but it never has, and that's extremely frustrating.
This is literally a "shut up and take my money" moment, lol.
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I mean I understand that they might not have been able to keep AoT due to it being licensed. But for original characters and original cosmetics, I think having them in a holiday themed DLC pack would be a fantastic option if they don't want to keep them in the stores. I'm torn however, because sometimes people just want one piece of a cosmetic and don't want to spend money on the entire thing.
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I mean I earned all of last year's cosmetics so I cannot see that. It's still beside the point that they promised that new upcoming cosmetics for original characters would be available for shards upon release.
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I'm glad you find it something worth looking forward to, but none of us lose anything by having the items available year round. It was a much better business model to put holiday cosmetics on sale for their holiday rather than remove them entirely and bring them back once a year at full price.
Our anticipation should be focused on the events anyway and not necessarily the cosmetics.
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I meant Jane's dress for example. That was cells only last year but is now available also for shards.
I also have all event cosmetics from past years (those you cot by doing the event and the tome).
The devs said last year that new time-limited cosmetics are the exception. Back then it was unclear if they would be available for shards at all. Also all new cosmetics are cells only for 1 month. After that you can buy them with shards.
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You might be mixing things up. They never promised that. Here is the original tweet featuring the announcement:
4 weeks after release is what they promised and they have been keeping their word so far. As of right now the most recent collection made available for Iridescent Shards is the Nordic Fashion collection. Fire Moon collection is next in line.
The only failed aspect to this promise are related to time limited cosmetics that seem to take 730 days to become available for Iridescent Shards. Scarecrow Kate debuted last year. This year (365 days later) its available for Auric Cells only and next year it should be available for Iridescent Shards just like Mummy Dwight.
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If you remove the Store Event then I wont have anything to look forward to. ☹️ Some of us WILL lose something.
It was a much better business model to put holiday cosmetics on sale for their holiday rather than remove them entirely and bring them back once a year at full price.
You got a source for that claim?
It was general knowledge in my sales education that themed and once a year products are a boon to business.
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I do agree it is annoying to wait endlessly for a cosmetic to come back with no confirmation that it will or won't. There are some skins in Fortnite I am waiting for to come back as well with no indication either way. I don't agree with that kind of shop rotation, so when I say I think DBD would benefit from a shop rotation I would also want it to be done reasonably. Previous years holiday event skins could show up randomly throughout the year several times so people wouldn't have to wait a year to get them. As far as more rare skins go, they could also appear randomly, but perhaps not as often as other skins but still with a certainty that they will show up again.
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Thank you for this clarification:). Super good info.
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I appreciate you being able to do the research and find what I was referring to. Thank you!
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sOuRcE
Not everything needs a source. What I can say is that compared to 2 years ago, I'm seeing less and less of the new cosmetics with casual players, and am seeing the new auric cell only skins on players with high blood web levels in the vast majority of my games. Last year, when the FOMO tactics changes were introduced, there was indeed a mad dash to purchase, because of how many people missed the fine print that the cosmetics could come back in the future.
The trends I'm seeing are that casuals are sticking with classic/older/free skins, or skins that are currently able to be earned in the Haunted and regular Rifts. Just in passing observation after the release of the new skins, 80% of the players I see wearing them are streamers who can write off the purchase, or veterans invested with P70-100 in their webs. I've yet to see a Tinkerbell Claudette who isn't at or near P100.
People are more likely to buy things on sale than they are for full price. Why else do places like Michaels and JoAnn's sell their very popular Halloween/Xmas merch for a constant "40% off"? It's not actually 40% off, that's the regular retail value of the item; but they put it on "sale" so customers find more value in the price.
I'm guessing BHVR sold more Stranger Things cosmetics at the closing 50-70% off than they had for the entirety of their run with the license at full price. And unfortunately, I think that's when they discovered that making things time limited and increasing the anxiety of cosmetic completionists and collectors was a good idea.
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sOuRcE
Not everything needs a source.
Without a source for that claim you are arguing that one of the most tried and tested sales strategies don't work because you say so.
I'm sorry Im a bit skeptical of people who say they can overturn conventional knowledge.
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I'd be for that so long as they leave the DLCs up forever.
As for me, if BHVR wants to do stuff like they're doing with events where they're using them to pimp out new auric cell only cosmetics, count me out. I'll just stick to the older stuff because I could care less if I miss out on stuff.
Guess what---I already missed out on stuff I wanted that seemingly will never be brought back so who cares if I miss out on more. I'll never have 100% of the cosmetics for my favorite characters, so if I can't do that why care if I miss more? I don't. It's too bad more players don't have that mentality to end this BS practice they've been doing since the 7th anniversary. Technically they did it since last year with Mummy Dwight, but at least at that time they only had that Dwight & Jane outfits and they weren't on the event item collection screen (they were only in the store) as they were this year with the 7th anniversary Feng & Ghostface cosmetics and now the Halloween ones (which there are ridiculously too many). Just the Feng & Claudette ones would've been sufficient, no need for those zombie Yun Jin, David, or Haddie skins or the Jake one.
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