Two things can be true at the same time (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Friday, October 18, 2019, 08:47 (1644 days ago) @ Kermit

Yes, it is up to each and every player to be responsible for their own choices. Nobody is being forced to buy anything from the Eververse. However, that does not mean that Bungie’s current handling of the Eververse store is not built around predatory features. By making it impossible for players to know which items will be available for “free” and which items will only be available with Silver, Bungie has created a system where players may feel the urge to buy something rather than wait and get it with Bright Dust later, “just in case” it never becomes available for bright dust. Similarly, the fact that datamines have revealed that certain items that were available for silver will become available for bright dust, but only after the refund window has passed, is tough to dismiss as coincidental.

I can easily refrain from engaging with such an economy. I don’t feel “ripped off”. But I can still recognize the sneaky tactics being used in the store, and it leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

Remember the Halo 2 days where a new map pack would come out, and the only way to play the new maps was to buy them? And then 3-4 months later, those maps would become free for everyone? And that deal was communicated clearly before hand, so everyone knew the whole situation, nobody felt ripped off, and Bungie made money? What if D2 has a similar system with Eververse? New items were made available to purchase with each season, with the understanding that they would become available for bright dust at some set point in the future?

I think maps are different in that maps are content that do affect gameplay, and there's a benefit to players buying them early and to all players when the maps get added to the general map pool.

I guess I see Eververse as yet another Destiny system I don't completely understand or care enough to, and maybe I'm alone in my assumption all along that the availability of anything there is unpredictable. I assume that anything I see there may or may not be available in the future, and I make my decisions accordingly. I didn't know or expect Bungie to tell me what items would be available or free later. I thought rotating stock with random availability was a given. I assumed nothing would be totally free later, except through RNG, and to me that knowledge was obvious so all this talk of Bungie being transparent seems a bit silly.

I honestly don't think about it much, but I have had a few moments of confusion because of the store that have caused me to engage with it less. I really liked some of the weapon ornaments that were made available for Silver last season, so I bought one for my Austringer. I assumed that buying it with silver was the only way I would be able to get it. Then over the course of the season, I got several of the other ornaments from the same set (which were also available for silver) out of engrams.I certainly wasn't upset, but it did leave me thinking "well, why the heck did I bother buying that ornament?".
When clarification doesn't exist, it invites assumptions. And when people buy things based on assumptions that turn out to be untrue, feathers get ruffled. Yes, the buyer is responsible for making their assumptions, but to me its simply good customer service to be clear about what you're selling.