SoE - Robbing Bastards (LoN)

[Flight]

Originally Posted by Kodylan

It has nothing to do with being a "2nd rate customer," and everything to do with the fact that there are gambling rules that disallow participation if you live in certain territories.

There you go.

Lots of folks are saying that, but Sony never have. Various players have put this theory forward and its now propagated as fact. You won't even find Sony discussing the issue, nevermind making it clear to people buying the game and the cards.


Regardless, the point isn't even just that we can't enter and get all the hot cards, freebies and prizes. The main point is you can spend a fucking fortune on cards and they don't make it clear to you that you won't be able to enter the tournies and promotional event.

[The Hiram Key]

Originally Posted by Bongk

There is no convincing you so this is going nowhere. In my experience in EQ1 and EQ2 as listed above, I haave had no issues with drop rates being bad or not having loot cards in boosters.

One simple look at the auction house shows all that needs to be said and you cannot argue that. If they do not drop in EQ2 why are they so cheap? I have to pay more for player made shit that can be harvested in an hour.

You can say you wish they dropped more or that you have had bad luck and those would be true. But you cannot simply claim Sony is liars and label people who says they drop for them as liars.

While I am hard headed, you are wrong, and are misreading what I am saying. They advertise a specific "loot card" drop rate, per booster pack. That is the only number they have advertised, and that is what I am up in arms about. I am tacking on, that I never saw a single LoN drop as further proof of the scam in play, but you spotting booster packs for sale on your AH does not prove, or disprove the advertised number they put out.

That number, is false. I also (as I posted) do not believe it is truly random, as you contend. If it was, then I wouldn't hear so much about the lowbie 1-20 people and how they got a booster off a green mob, or a starter deck or whatever. It's not a flat random chance, I fucking guarantee there are conditionals built into the random arguement, flags and so on, that impact what you see in terms of drop rates.

Really that segue's into a whole nother theory, in that some characters are bad luck, and there may even be, in existence, a "luck flag" that is set at character creation. You can slap on the tin foil hat and get really crazy and think that flag can be adjusted on the fly, by CS personel.

Piss off the CS ? They punch down your luck flag a notch, or disable it. Not enough to be obvious to anyone, but enough to impact your play. Lowered chance for item drops, lowered roll average on /randoms, lowered "behind the scene mechanics stats" across the board.

Sound crazy ? I am insane ? You never had a character that just seemed to have shit luck ? Never got drops ? Never wins rolls ? Thats all random right ?

Riiiggght.

[Bongk]

So you are the guy who believes all those conspiracy theories on the internet?

You also believe Bush flew those planes into the twin towers?

I cannot argue about booster pack loot cards as on that I dont have much experience beyond what I said about one of my buyers showing me that he got some water elemental illusion clicky thing. But the 1 in 6 odds you stated would be pretty damn close to my personal experience.

[Vithe]

I went from level 1 - 22 on EQ2 on my troubador and saw 2 booster packs, and 3 starter decks.

[Flight]

Originally Posted by Bongk

There is no convincing you so this is going nowhere. In my experience in EQ1 and EQ2 as listed above, I haave had no issues with drop rates being bad or not having loot cards in boosters.

One simple look at the auction house shows all that needs to be said and you cannot argue that. If they do not drop in EQ2 why are they so cheap? I have to pay more for player made shit that can be harvested in an hour.

You can say you wish they dropped more or that you have had bad luck and those would be true. But you cannot simply claim Sony is liars and label people who says they drop for them as liars.

With respect, you are talking shit based on some incredibly good luck on your part.

I have nearly a dozen high level characters, These day I solo or box almost exclusively. I have seen exactly one booster drop in all my time in EQ2.


The official LoN forums are linked in the first post. Theres a 7 page thread from this week, where hardly anyone has seen any drops but one guy in 20 has seen more than one.


The fact is the first promo weekend far more drops happened than now or on recent promo weekends.

When did your drops happen ? I strongly suspect it was on the first promo, as you can't even remember the name of the event.



It really grips my shit when people talk with limited or past knowledge and think their limited experience means they know what the fuck they are on about. You've found a couple of items in game; THK has spent a few hundred bucks and most everyone on the official forums disagrees with you, yet you're giving him grief for not accepting peoples opinions.

Originally Posted by Bongk

You also claim if i poke around I will find the drop rates are not in reality ... am I imaginary? Sounds like you choose to ignore or label anyone who claims they drop as a liar. Have you checked the auction house lately? I couldnt even get 10 plat for my pack there were dozens for sale.

A booster costs $2.99. You can buy 3 plat for that. They disappear fast from the AH at 2 dollars or under; they stick like dog shit at anything over 3 bucks. We could argue about buying in game cash, but then SoE are just legitimizing that with loot cards.

[cyanbane]

2.1(a) Eligibility (United States). In addition to the above requirements, to participate in a tournament offered through the Game Service, you must be physically located in a U.S. state in which participation in such tournaments is unrestricted by law. Rules governing sweepstakes, contests, and tournaments with entry fees and/or prizes are established by individual states. Based on these fifty (50) sets of laws, we cannot offer fee-based tournaments with prizes to residents of the States of Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, Tennessee and Vermont. 2.1(b) Eligibility (Non-U.S.). Non-U.S. citizens are not eligible to participate in any tournament offered through the Game Service. We may require any tournament participant to provide proof that he or she is eligible to participate according to Sections 2.1(a) and 2.1(b). 2.1(c) In compliance with the United States Internal Revenue Service regulations, we send a Form 1099 to any person who wins in excess of Six Hundred Dollars (US$600.00) in any given calendar year. You remain solely responsible for paying all federal and other taxes in accordance with the laws that apply in your state, province, and/or country of residence. 2.1(d) A new law went into effect April 21, 2000 (The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) which imposed new rules regarding the collection of personal information from children under the age of thirteen (13). Because the Game Service is not directed to children under the age of thirteen (13), we cannot provide or extend the memberships of individuals under the age of thirteen (13). If you are under the age of thirteen (13), you may not create an account on the Game Service, shall not be eligible to enter any sweepstakes and/or promotions, and are asked not to provide any personal information to SOE.


It may just be that they don't want to deal with the legal implications of people winning from the multitude of other countries that could be playing the game. They may not have come out and said "No Germans" explicitly but it is probably just understood that it would be an expensive hassle to figure out the gambling laws of other countries. (which makes total sense)

The funny thing about the above TOS is that I didn't know it restricted certain US states.

EULA for LON: Knowledge Base

[Bongk]

so my opinion is shit because I don't agree with you and my experienes do not match yours?

Whatever...

I guess Vithe above is a liar also?

The drop rate is fucking low, you are never going to see a constent drop, but that does not mean it doesnt happen. It is about the same as getting a purple while soloing in WoW, just because you leveld 4 chars to 70 and never got one doesnt mean they dont drop.

Random does not mean or match odds unless you are talking to everyone whoeever played.

you say the offical boards have 7 pages of people bitching, what are there 20 posts per page? Assuming noone ver posted twice which obviously is not true that would be be about 150 people...

I am not trying to stir shit but you cannot say this in absolutes because you "know a guy who bought a case" or there is a 7 page thread, those don;t mean shit. Just like my experience you claim is just "talking shit".

Its wonderful how the people it works for are just talking shit and everyone who posted they havent dropped are preaching the gospel.

[Clowns]

I've had a similar experience as THK. the LON loot card and booster pack drop %s is complete bullshit. I have NEVER had one booster pack drop and I had to purchase 4 cases before i saw a potion loot card. I WILL say that when I was opening multiple packs at a time I got nothing, but when I opened them one at a time I finally got a crappy potion-go figure.

[Penalty]

you're better off buying a specific loot card off ebay or some other means than trying to get a loot card out of a booster. Personally Ive opened about 12 or so booster packs and never received one. Ive had a booster pack drop for me one time, was level 5 killing bears in commonlands

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

I've looted 8 booster's in about a month.

Thanks for donating yours, THK. 'Preciate it.

[Itzena]

The sheer number of people who don't understand how chance works is amazing.

1% drop rate does not necessarily equal Kill 100 foozles, get one drop. Sure, that's the average but for every lucky bugger that killed three foozles and had three drops there's some poor sod working on kill number one thousand and still no drops.

That's the way random numbers work.

[Clowns]

Originally Posted by Itzena

The sheer number of people who don't understand how chance works is amazing.

1% drop rate does not necessarily equal Kill 100 foozles, get one drop. Sure, that's the average but for every lucky bugger that killed three foozles and had three drops there's some poor sod working on kill number one thousand and still no drops.

That's the way random numbers work.

I know how chance works. Figure this one out though, someone has leveled 4characters to lvl70 and not seen one drop at all. Now calculate how many chances to get any loot drop, on average, a character might get. Then speculate on how many loot drops a character actually gets, including the regular crap. I'd say from 1-70 every mob kill is a chance to drop loot, but you might actually get ~1000 or so loot drops. So, a box of playing cards is more rare than a fucking epic drop? I doubt that, if it is then they need to fix it because cards won't break the game. I think the LoN drop rate is bugged for some players which may be linked to something we don't know yet. Especially if you go through 4 characters and not get a single one? Hell, even in WoW you'll get a purple drop a few times by leveling up 4 characters to 60. Oh, and I know chance is based on each single event, and is not cumulative in nature. Chance my ass, it's broken.

[Bongk]

Originally Posted by Clowns

Hell, even in WoW you'll get a purple drop a few times by leveling up 4 characters to 60.

Once again got to disagree, never got a purple drop in WoW solo leveling been playing on and off since release with numerous chars in the 60 range, almost all played solo only except runs thourhg instances by higher level players. Seems you and THK have the exact opposite gaming experiences as me, but it is understandable to me seeing as it is random.

But by your logic WoW's random system is broke and you are "talking shit" as flight said to me.

[Flight]

Originally Posted by Clowns

Oh, and I know chance is based on each single event, and is not cumulative in nature. Chance my ass, it's broken.

It certainly been proven to be broken at various times. The last time there was a promotional weekend they admitted afterwards the drop rate was broken.

Just last weekend, they had a promotional event. Supposed to be double the drop rate and two single promo cards were supposed to drop, rarely. Some folk saw a number of drops of boosters, the vast majority didn't see any drops at all.


I could leave it there and get more 'its not broken', 'you don't understand how chance works' replies. Except after cross server player action they backed down, admitted it was broken (significantly, only for some players and only on some servers) and every single player who logged in over the weekend was given both promo cards automatically, a couple of days later.


So, they've gone much further than admitting, on more than one occasion, that drops have been broken. And this is just the times where players have made big protests. We don't know how many other times and for how many people its broken at other times or even, possibly, on a permanent basis. All we can do is have discussions like this one and similar ones on the official forums.



This is getting away from the fact the robbing bastards are still selling massive amounts of cards to people who cant use them for tournies or promotional events, without telling people or even acknowledging or discussing the issue.

[Braen]

It says in the EULA that you have to be in the US to participate.