Let's Talk Silver Dust (Destiny)

by someotherguy, Hertfordshire, England, Wednesday, October 05, 2016, 12:37 (2810 days ago)

Yes, it's one of these posts I'm afraid. This expansion has been excellent in my opnion, but I think it's time we talk about Bungie's cosmetics problem, specifically the Silver Dust economy. I know we're all tired of the "Slippery Slope Conspiracy Theorists v Cosmetics Apologists" arguments, but that's not the route I'm going here, I promise.

To clarify - Yes, I know they're only cosmetic. They have literally zero impact on gameplay so the fact that you can pay for them is fine. That's not what I'm talking about.

This post got pretty long, so there's a Tl;Dr at the bottom if you want to skip ahead to telling me how wrong I am ;P

My issue is that the way in which you go about getting them is garbage. Remember Festival of the Lost last year? With that one mask you had to play the lottery for. That was gross, right? A lottery system designed to take advantage of those players inclined to pay for cosmetics, presumably in the hopes of catching whales with significant disposable income to spend? YUCK.

Well, it would appear that was testing the water for future endeavours, because this year all the cosmetic loot is based on this principle (with the exception of the Flawless and presumably Hard Raid ornaments).

Arguably the saving grace for weapon ornaments is that you can dismantle them and wait for xur to come along with something you'd like instead. But if you're inclined to go the microtransaction route you have to play the Ornament Lottery, with a horrific 1/22 chance of getting what you want. (Reddit will tell you there's an abnormally high likelihood of getting duplicates, but without stats to back that up I'm willing to chalk that up to RNG being RNG). I don't like those odds.

But what about armour? Well, if you want a full set or Born in Fire armour you'll need 7(!) ornaments, all based on RNG. One can be obtained from the RoI book, but the other six will have to come from Radiant Treasures. They're not one of the guaranteed drops (which strangely, works in your favour), so let's be generous and assume a 50% drop rate. Reddit says it's much lower (and I dont know anyone who's received one from their 3 weekly packages so far) but again I don't have any solid evidence. That means it would take 12+ radiant treasures to kit your guradian out in a fancy set of fiery armour, or 2400 Silver. Here in the UK, that's £20 for a set of armour - almost as much as the £25 expansion!

Now so far all of this only applies if you're impatient. You've got a whole year, and if you wait long enough you're (hopefully) bound to get everything you want out of Radiant Packages/Xur. Obviously that's not what Bungie want you to do, but if you're like me and choose not to/are unable to buy Silver, it's an option. Where this doesn't apply, and the reason for this post, is Dusty Iron Engrams.

For those who don't know, you can buy Dusty Iron Engrams from Lord Saladin at 5 Silver Dust apiece, and they decrypt into Y1 Iron Banner armour that can be infused up to current levels. You can't pick which slot you want the gear for, so you then have a 1/15 chance of getting the gear you want per character. That's a measly 7% chance for every Radiant treasure you've opened/purchased. You can't even pick which slot you want to fill, and there is no other way to get these engrams outside of spending Silver Dust.

This is a horrible way to take advantage of those players who are willing to spend extra money. Those people are usually your most hardcore and avid fans, who are happy to put some extra money towards your dev costs in exchange for some cool armour. Locking that armour behind both a paywall and an RNG wall (especially when it's gear they may already own but can't use, having saved it from Y1) is extremely consumer unfriendly.

Tl;Dr - These items are only cosmetic. They don't affect me and I won't be buying them. Providing options for players to purchase cosmetics is a great way to boost your income and provide visual variety, but this current system is the grossest way of doing microtransactions. Better, fairer options exist, and that we're stuck with this one shows a lack of respect for their biggest fans.