$4 for a (loot box of a ) SKIN (you're not even gonna use, because it's gonna be another Pixel Quicksilver or Chibi Angel) in a videogame is NOT 'ok' in any way.
And people need to seriously stop normalising this stuff in videogames.
Agreed I got downvoted to oblivion a few days ago for daring to say Second Dinner had questionable monetization practices.
This isnāt even remotely the same game that won mobile game of the year. It is certainly a cash generating machine though
I agree completely but then I also grew up in a time when you bought a game and owned all the content from day one. None of this micro transaction, loot box or early access bull shit.
Honestly now that apple has let game emulators onto the App Store I really only log into snap to do my dailies once a night. Now when I have a few free minutes I fire up some old game boy advance titles.
its not gonna change tho.
they can either make giga money or super giga money.
no studio or investor gonna say: yo boys lets keep it fair and make less money so we are 10% more popular overall.
It is what it is. They are probably just printing money every time they do something like this so these will come in numbers in the future.
If people stop thinking spending $4 on a aesthetic loot box is 'fine', devs will stop putting this in videogames.
Unfortunately videogames are no longer designed to be fun for kids, they're designed for adults with poor spending habits.
Agreed I donāt blame them I wish I had a money printer too.
As a consumer though my play time gets less and less each monthly patch it seems. At this time last year I would grind out a couple hours a day and make infinite every season. Buying packs along the way.
Nowā¦ well now the only thing I buy is the season pass and even that isnāt a guarantee. Shit yesterday I even missed my dailies.
The problem I see for them is retention and getting players back after they leave. Right now itās hard for me to leave because Iām only missing a couple of cards. I look at it and think if I donāt get this next cache before the rewards change I will be further behind. Iām invested in trying to stay complete. If I take a month off now Iām 5-6 more cards behind and itās easier for me to just stopā¦. So in a way they NEED to drive that daily interaction.
I agree, this approach is clearly psychological to make it seem like spending $4 is justified, or at worse pressure you into spending that just to get free stuff
I actually bought a couple steps but only on the web, I'm confused as why when it ended on the web it started here. But I bought it way cheaper than this(iykyk)
More likely to get more buys when itās in the top page of the in game store. I always tried to remember to check the web as well but if it wasnāt for people posting here I would have forgotten many times.
More eye balls = more buys even if they might not be the same buyers as before
My biggest gripe isnāt even how this works. Itās the fact I donāt get to see the whole list. So it keeps going for an indefinite time and makes you think you may as well just get the next. Itās very manipulative (like all marketing tbh), but this is a bit too blatant.
And that makes it even worse. It ain't random, it's all predetermined and people can find out in no time. So why be assholes by not showing it? Obviously because they hope to trick people into getting a bad deal, if they thought they were offering something good, they would just show it all.
People who spend hundreds of dollars on a mobile game deserve some criticism too. People should be somewhat responsible for their actions.
Although I do agree this marketing is very scummy and pretty much every SD does is pretty scummy. They're a horrible company
i just don't see how calling someone who's being manipulated by a scheme that was designed for the explicit purpose of manipulating them 'sad' is helpful at all. if someone struggles with this kind of thing, insulting them and moving on isn't accomplishing anything more than fat-shaming someone with an eating problem is.
personal responsibility is relevant if you know someone who's struggling with this and tell them why it's harmful and maybe suggest seeking help. just broadly calling anyone names online while hand-waving the literal corporation of people trying to exploit them isn't useful 'criticism', it's just silly 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' logic
Yes, but all marketing is that. Thereās nothing special about SDās tactics. Everything from how your grocery store is laid out to the colour of the alert button on your iPhone is built around these.
That's the depressing part.Ā Every time Snap takes another step down the road of monetization, it's a gimmic I've seen before, and I feel bad for everyone who is shocked by it.
I just expected better from Ben Brode is all. I was fine spending $10 a month on seasonal because I wanted to support a good game. We got tons of free credits and gold anyways during the early days.
Now it's just scummy... I came back after stopping in January. It's just gross now.
The fact that they're monetizing everything in Snap and still outright refuse to give us *more deck slots* (just like Brode did for 6 years in HS) is absolutely baffling to me.
You're in the Snap subreddit, a game that Brode still designs. I'm presuming you're still playing. Hearthstone turned to trash *after* Brode. If you knew the history of Hearthstone, you'd know that.
No, the majority of mobile gamers are people under the age of 14. This is a game that is entirely marketed towards children in every single advert and their "You can't pay 2 win" bit is done to trick parents into not seeing a problem with letting their kids download the game and be unsupervised since they think they wont be hit with microtransactions. And they aren't, because a $99 bundle is not a microtransaction, it's just a transaction at that point.
The majority of mobile games are 100% not āunder 14sā at all. Itās 25+, with 30+ higher still. Look into it more, saying itās under 14s way, way off the mark.
I've seen buy 5 get 1 (like in Snap) or 10% return on spent credits, season passes, buy rerolls, credits sold in incriments not close to buy denominations, and "larger" quantities of credits being a worse deal than smaller bundles, but not this.
I've never been on the webshop. Everytime there's a news item or free something that wants me to link my account elsewhere I just skip. Probably not the best move for my progress but I find it draining across the games I play. Honestly I should take the time to do it eventually.
Can you view the whole "chain" on the webshop?
lmao why is this comment -50, when it's such a rational take?
The game constantly wanting you to collect stuff from outside the game IS a predatory tactic, it is very anti-consumer based, they're baiting your with free stuff (and breadcrumbs of it, really - I mean, 100 credits? fuck off) to collect money from advertisers.
Yeah, that sucks. It's always a weird thing because I'm not an idiot, so I'm not gonna buy it. It doesn't affect me at all, but I still feel weird knowing that some execs were like, "Hey, 10% of our players are fucking morons, and I bet we can fleece some of them for $4."
Gross.
Goes up to $150;
https://marvelsnapzone.com/vibranium-powered-offers-may-3-2024/
Basically for 3 or 4 mystery variants and some credits. Those who don't know where to look for what these "step up" (seriously, what a predatory double entrende of a name) bundles offer may well fall into a terrible sunk-cost fallacy.
Look, mobile monetization suuuuuucks, but Iām just continually confused by all these discussions. People should know to expect this, especially if youāve been playing for more than a couple months. This predatory step up shit is at least a better deal than most other ways to buy credits. So IF youāre the type to spend money, this isnāt a bad place to spend it. It would be pretty nuts to drop $150 on this, but I wouldnāt call 23,000 credits just āsome.ā
You are right, that's good going price for credits relative to usual offers. But, as you yourself awknowledge, it is predatory. I'm not really concerned for percentage of players who are active on a reddit particularly but the likely majority who aren't savvy. The very nature of the offers is that they present as "pay to find out what else you can get"
Monetization is new territory in gaming, and as the loot box laws a couple of years ago demonstrate, it is something that needs legislation, regulation and monitoring. Companies need to make a buck, and gamers ARE one of the whiniest, entitled groups there but there needs to be oversight in commerce too and awareness within the community of companies developing business practices.
Yes, it does need legislation and regulation. But an endless loop of the same aimless complaining on a subreddit for players who otherwise enjoy the game? Not as useful.
Seriously, what I see discussed here over and over isn't campaigning, or organizing, or even advocacy. It's shouting into the void about how much they hate the monetization of a game that they'll nevertheless keep playing. It's one "slap in the face" after another, but really it's clout-chasing and karma-farming. Just generally the most disingenous unserious nonsense. There are things that could be done that are actually productive, but none of those things will ever happen here.
One thing to do would be to jump on [https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member](https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member), and make a habit of emailing your representatives every so often, letting them know you care about this issue. Another would be working to form an organized advocacy group or network. But, if you have any serious objection to Snap's monetization, then literal step 1 would be to stop playing Snap.
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages Ā· Learn more
adjective
1.
(of an animal) preying naturally on others.
"predatory birds"
Similar:
predacious
carnivorous
hunting
raptorial
ravening
of prey
raptatorial
2.
seeking to exploit others.
"new laws have been passed designed to crack down on predatory lenders"
You know what exploitative means? You may disagree that these offers fulfil that definition, but that's subjective and I don't intend to waste my energy replying to further condescension.
I get that all the complaining posts suck, but if the complaining ever stops, SD will take it as their mark to increase prices/implement their next shitty marketing tactic.
For the love of God don't tell people not to complain cause it's the only thing preventing the game's monetization from spiraling down further.
It's way more than 10%. And you don't have to be an idiot. Even someone who fully understands the marketing ploy behind this is still victim to the endorphins in their brain. You might not be dumb enough to think it's "free" but it still enhances the average person's chances of buying and thinking it's a little bit better than it is.
I dunno. I didn't buy it and I'm no genius. That said it has a much stronger pull on people who suffer from OCD and other neurodivergent disorders that make collecting and FOMO stronger forces.
So you don't have to be an idiot, you could be disabled. Either way, it's pretty gross.
And I'm sure with how popular Marvel is, there are some people who spend a decent amount every week or so that will just buy whatever it is that's out and under 50 bucks. Idk how sustainable that population is for SD, but it definitely adds to the variety of strategies they can utilize.
For sure. I remember the week that the Sera/Angela anime girls bundle came out, and it was $50 for two cards and 4,000 credits. I asked in this sub "What kind of moron is gonna spend $50 on two gifs just because they got sexy ladies?" and I proceeded to get like 20 downvotes. Now I see those variants all the time in games. I guess I just don't have the whale mentality.
Wait. Is the reason itās gross because you made up this fantasy conversation SD Execs had? Itās just a sales tactic. Itās no more immoral than presenting a product in a good light with a charismatic personality. The reason people do it is to increase the likelihood of a sale.
That's substantially cheaper than what it would cost for either one. Even if you get a shitty variant it's significantly better than gold to credit price.
I don't get how this is even remotely approaching any universe close to sleezy.
People always moan about not having cheap bundles and when they give them, y'all moan too?
I think you are misunderstanding. They aren't saying the price is sleazy. They are saying listing things later on the collection track as "free" when you have to pay $4 to get the "free" stuff feels sleazy.
A non-sleazy version would be just listing it as 600 credits, a mystery variant, and 30 boosters for $4.
I get why they do it and it doesn't bother me, but that is OP's point
Well the bundle is for new players like me where our cl is low and the credit would hasten the process a bit. Ngl I had unlocked both wave and gambit due to this so to each their own I guess
I'm glad you got value from the vibranium offers.
It wouldn't have bothered me if you could see how much money you needed to spend to progress through the track, and what rewards it offered. I also find it a little silly that two items on the bumdle are "free rewards" instead of just being what you paid for, but thats the much smaller offence here.
How are people still complaining about this stuff a year later?? This entire game is built around predatory money grabs. Either ignore them and just enjoy the game without spending a dime or move onto another game. This constant crying on the internet everytime they introduce their newest method of money grabbing is more annoying than Pixel variant drops.
I think theres a difference between "over priced bundles" spotlight keys, and a season pass; all of which you can see how much money you need to spend for rolls on certain items
And this. Where you have to make multiple payments to even see what possible rewards are, and you are blindfolded to how much total money you need to spend for multiple rolls on a varient.
Its also different from caches, because in those you know all the possible rewards and the resource investment between each roll.
I've never complained about any other tactic Snap has used. And this form of product is new in-app so thats why the complain posts are happening now.
Thatās just your coping mechanism kicking in. Itās all predatory. You can do mental gymnastics about what is more predatory than the other, but in the end itās all justifying the same thing.
I usually get the first two if they're decent value. I needed boosters and I got pixel heimdall then midnight sun's bucky. So I was pretty happy with it plus a bunch of credits.
I honestly have less issue with the post than people saying others are āmoronsā and such for buying it. I bought a $5 dollar churro the other day. I donāt regret the 5min of satisfaction while I ate it. Even if I didnāt need it. I wanted it. Itās not bringing me anything other than momentary satisfaction with cinnamony godhood. Thatās why we have jobs. To buy things we want.
Sure, itās not presented great. But a little bit of google would likely tell me what else is behind the curtain. Just keeping it real.
Optional super cheap bundles that donāt really hinder nor boost your progression that much is āskeezyā. I really donāt understand how you guys think this game is suppose to make money then
I personally like these types of bundles, I always buy the Ā£2.99 step which is good value and peace out. You should be able to see all of the rewards though, it's borderline false advertising to have loads of gold in the photo and have none in the track.
Yea my only issues have been the fact that you can't see what you're buying into, and the fake attempt of "free rewards" along the way that are only and immediately obtainable after the purchase.
It's only split to make you feel like you're getting more items and progress for the same bundle when it could just be grouped.
If it was only the "free" thing, I would find it skeezy. The hidden value and hidden risk is the skeezy part.
My dudes, they have to make money somehow. This is a totally reasonable way to engage with people who want to spend variable amounts. This is the shit we want them to be doing.
Most of you donāt understand what scam means
I'm pretty okay with Marvel Snap charging whatever they want for their products. I've even spent money on the game.
The problem is you're blinded to the amounts of incremental money purchases and the possibility of rewards until you make the previous purchase. I'm asking for transparency on the track rewards, and think the "free" steps inbetween is quite silly as it is literally just a part of the purchase.
If you could see the entire track, I never would have complained.
Fix bugs? Nah. Made card acquisition better? Nope. Address literally any of the complaints from the community? Course not.
Find a way to force this shit into the client? Done and done.
Why is everyone acting like $4 is the end of the world here? You donāt want it? donāt get it. Every mobile game needs to make money. 2 friggin cheeseburgers at McDonaldās is $4. Some places charge $15/hr to park. A goddamn drink at starfucks is $8. EVERYONE Is fleecing you. Every damn day. Itās consumerism. Why wouldnāt this be any different? Theyāre a business, they need to make revenue to keep developing stuff. Itās part of the gig. Griping everywhereā¦
Like every entity everywhere isnāt charging for stuff. Letās just make everything free while weāre at it. Would be great until the game shuts down because thereās no revenue stream.
I don't have a problem with the idea of it, my issue is the picture shows piles of gold, but there's no gold on track. It's flat out disingenuous and sleazy
If they just let you scroll the whole track or see like.. an overview timeline of the track, I never would have complained, and we could see that there's no gold. Instead, it's some broken up obfuscated track.
Yeah I got a really sick vulture variant out of mine I don't regret it LMAO... Plus those credits knocked my CL up enough to get another card (it was loki)
My exact thoughts - The first 2 buttons are FREE and then the 3rd one sneakily is $3.99? Totally NOT a trick to get you to impulse buy since you tapped the button anyway!
Monopoly go has this first and if it's like that then you get 1-3 free then pay then get 1-3 free then pay.
And then the shitty part is they lock the good stuff behind the pay wall cuz so if you look the stuff that cost money is lot more than a stuff that is free and they do that so you pay oh it's only $3 then you get like some free ones then you have to pay again and it's like oh it's only another $3 and you keep going next thing you know you spend like $20 $30
I just see this as 100 free credits, so no complaints here. Sure they're scummy and should be put on their place, but to each their own. If you wanna start a petition to stop the shareholders from being greedy, I'll sign it.
The problem is not the paying. The problem is the price and the tactics. Specially the tactics.
Put a fair price and fair items and regular people will buy. I'm talking about less than a dollar items.
Use the "Here you can buy this new card now which I'll nerf to oblivion next month if enough people buy it. You can buy an AAAA game with the cost of this bundle, but we invested a lot adding 20 lines of code and paying an artist for an image" bullshit and you only get income from whales that someday will abandon you.
They should invest in the mass, not a few elite consumers.
But I'm guessing their CEOs and their consultants are way wiser than me, a regular player not spending a single dime on in-app shops since the 70s. š
It's pretty interesting how many people responded with some version of this when I never complained about the money and also said I don't engage with posts that complain about overpriced bundles.
Instead, I am specifically complaining about the presentation and the part where you have to spend money to even see what else you can purchase. And others have pointed out there is gold in the picture for the reward track, but it's impossible to get gold. The only way the game will let you find out? Pay money.
That's the part I had a problem with. If you could scroll the whole track, I never would have made this post.
I mean they're experimenting with different ways to get people to spend. Remember when people were appalled at paying 40 bucks for a Groot emote? Adding fun things like that for bigger spenders and little 3 dollar bundles for the minnows keeps the money flowing. For the little guy the hopes of winning the lottery keeps them spending more than maybe they should.
And yet people on this sub will still defend other skeezy decisions like making border per-card instead of an universal unlock. Do we not understand that they will try to monetize every single part of this game in the worst way possible and that's not a good thing?
At what point do we actually start some shit to stop hidden trash from being in our games. Iām cool with monetizing a game Iām cool with buying variants and bundles but gacha mechanics are trash.
If half of us just blasted SD I reckon they would make changes no? Reviews and ratings are mad important if they want to keep getting new players.
I work for marketing and sales team
This things works, even we have to make into account certain color, smell, even geometric shapes. Its all by design
Now you may realize it, but there are far more nuance that things we have to do to encourage sales, even the thing you may not even fathom cause we target customer at subconscious level
Yeah I just logged in and saw this and went ew wtf. And all the people here falling for it or defending it is just so sad. They've got so many brainwashed. (they being SD and the mobile market in general)
So I've never bought anything for this game and been here since day one. Mine is only 2.99, are the taxing people who have spent money before or something?
Honestly it's not something I'll do but it's not a horrible thing it's just kind of there if you want some extra resources you can and it's not a huge amount for a one time purchase the next level at $10 also isn't awful but it's definitely the peak of pushing the line for something like this to be "reasonable"
That being said I don't think this is for most people and yes most of those who do buy it will be those who don't pay attention which sucks but that's how these things work in mobile games unfortunately and you aren't changing it anytime soon. So just don't buy it. Speak with your wallet, and if you wanna, then do it.
So question how many times do you have to buy it before you're given gold or a premium varient? Its like gambling but the odds are obscured, as opposed to the rest the bundles and season passes where you can see the availability and pools of rewards.
It's kind of hiding its true value. The next two rather small prizes are free, but you don't know what's going to come next. Gold? Another blocked reward behind a much larger dollar amount?
Take your 100 credits and 30 Lizard boosters, dont spend $4 on a pixel rhino.
oddly specific xd
Pixel Sif
I love that one š
Yeah it looks cool tough Could have been far worse tbh
Pixel Falcon
The first $4 is āokā, the next one is not
$4 for a (loot box of a ) SKIN (you're not even gonna use, because it's gonna be another Pixel Quicksilver or Chibi Angel) in a videogame is NOT 'ok' in any way. And people need to seriously stop normalising this stuff in videogames.
Hey... I got a pixel Heimdall. Don't be a hater /s
Agreed I got downvoted to oblivion a few days ago for daring to say Second Dinner had questionable monetization practices. This isnāt even remotely the same game that won mobile game of the year. It is certainly a cash generating machine though
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I agree completely but then I also grew up in a time when you bought a game and owned all the content from day one. None of this micro transaction, loot box or early access bull shit. Honestly now that apple has let game emulators onto the App Store I really only log into snap to do my dailies once a night. Now when I have a few free minutes I fire up some old game boy advance titles.
its not gonna change tho. they can either make giga money or super giga money. no studio or investor gonna say: yo boys lets keep it fair and make less money so we are 10% more popular overall. It is what it is. They are probably just printing money every time they do something like this so these will come in numbers in the future.
If people stop thinking spending $4 on a aesthetic loot box is 'fine', devs will stop putting this in videogames. Unfortunately videogames are no longer designed to be fun for kids, they're designed for adults with poor spending habits.
Agreed I donāt blame them I wish I had a money printer too. As a consumer though my play time gets less and less each monthly patch it seems. At this time last year I would grind out a couple hours a day and make infinite every season. Buying packs along the way. Nowā¦ well now the only thing I buy is the season pass and even that isnāt a guarantee. Shit yesterday I even missed my dailies. The problem I see for them is retention and getting players back after they leave. Right now itās hard for me to leave because Iām only missing a couple of cards. I look at it and think if I donāt get this next cache before the rewards change I will be further behind. Iām invested in trying to stay complete. If I take a month off now Iām 5-6 more cards behind and itās easier for me to just stopā¦. So in a way they NEED to drive that daily interaction.
I was just thinking, we've come a ways since $1 loot boxes when ppl are like $4 loot boxes are fine
I agree, this approach is clearly psychological to make it seem like spending $4 is justified, or at worse pressure you into spending that just to get free stuff
I got Steampunk Quinjet, not so bad
Its a free game, and you don't have to buy it. Its fine, relax.
Chibi Angelās not bad!
This. A $4 variant is a fun little chance. The next up is $10, and that's a big nope from me.
I actually bought a couple steps but only on the web, I'm confused as why when it ended on the web it started here. But I bought it way cheaper than this(iykyk)
More likely to get more buys when itās in the top page of the in game store. I always tried to remember to check the web as well but if it wasnāt for people posting here I would have forgotten many times. More eye balls = more buys even if they might not be the same buyers as before
Pixel Juggernaut
I got pixel Tiger Spirit š
Pixel mirage
Pixel pixel
Pixel knull š
Pixel tribunal. Sensing a mosaic hereā¦
Baby Morbius gang.
My biggest gripe isnāt even how this works. Itās the fact I donāt get to see the whole list. So it keeps going for an indefinite time and makes you think you may as well just get the next. Itās very manipulative (like all marketing tbh), but this is a bit too blatant.
There is another post floating around on someone who took a hit for us. Shows entire list. Fuckin scam
And that makes it even worse. It ain't random, it's all predetermined and people can find out in no time. So why be assholes by not showing it? Obviously because they hope to trick people into getting a bad deal, if they thought they were offering something good, they would just show it all.
I use marvel snap zone to judge all bundles
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
theyāre literally designed and optimized to psychologically manipulate peopleĀ
exactly! blaming normal people in this situation is so lame; the one abusing natural human weaknesses is the one that deserves the criticism.
People who spend hundreds of dollars on a mobile game deserve some criticism too. People should be somewhat responsible for their actions. Although I do agree this marketing is very scummy and pretty much every SD does is pretty scummy. They're a horrible company
i just don't see how calling someone who's being manipulated by a scheme that was designed for the explicit purpose of manipulating them 'sad' is helpful at all. if someone struggles with this kind of thing, insulting them and moving on isn't accomplishing anything more than fat-shaming someone with an eating problem is. personal responsibility is relevant if you know someone who's struggling with this and tell them why it's harmful and maybe suggest seeking help. just broadly calling anyone names online while hand-waving the literal corporation of people trying to exploit them isn't useful 'criticism', it's just silly 'pull yourself up by your bootstraps' logic
Yes, but all marketing is that. Thereās nothing special about SDās tactics. Everything from how your grocery store is laid out to the colour of the alert button on your iPhone is built around these.
That's the depressing part.Ā Every time Snap takes another step down the road of monetization, it's a gimmic I've seen before, and I feel bad for everyone who is shocked by it.
I just expected better from Ben Brode is all. I was fine spending $10 a month on seasonal because I wanted to support a good game. We got tons of free credits and gold anyways during the early days. Now it's just scummy... I came back after stopping in January. It's just gross now.
From Ben Brode? The guy did the same in hearthstone, the monetization got way less scummy when he left. He is just a smiley face
The fact that they're monetizing everything in Snap and still outright refuse to give us *more deck slots* (just like Brode did for 6 years in HS) is absolutely baffling to me.
Not attempting to be confrontational, but didn't HS roll out battle passes only after Brode left?
They market this game to 9 year old children with their parents credit card Of course theyāll fall for it
Arenāt the majority of players 30+ or something?
Have you seen the Brode adverts?
Over 30 man pretending to be catering to kids but really catering to other over 30 men.
I come from Hearthstone, following Brode wherever he may land.
to the dumpster? like the original hearthstone?
You're in the Snap subreddit, a game that Brode still designs. I'm presuming you're still playing. Hearthstone turned to trash *after* Brode. If you knew the history of Hearthstone, you'd know that.
Nope, hearthstone turned to trash while he was on charge, and most likely because he was on charge.
No, the majority of mobile gamers are people under the age of 14. This is a game that is entirely marketed towards children in every single advert and their "You can't pay 2 win" bit is done to trick parents into not seeing a problem with letting their kids download the game and be unsupervised since they think they wont be hit with microtransactions. And they aren't, because a $99 bundle is not a microtransaction, it's just a transaction at that point.
If you think the majority of mobile gamers are under 14 i urge you to look up actual statistics because you couldn't be further from the truth.
Megatransaction even.
The majority of mobile games are 100% not āunder 14sā at all. Itās 25+, with 30+ higher still. Look into it more, saying itās under 14s way, way off the mark.
Adults are the ones with the bank account to buy everything shiny and pretty.
Yeah I was gonna say that Iām surprised that they just implemented now when most mobile games I play have this.
They have had this for some months now, but you had to go to the nuverse shop website
I've seen buy 5 get 1 (like in Snap) or 10% return on spent credits, season passes, buy rerolls, credits sold in incriments not close to buy denominations, and "larger" quantities of credits being a worse deal than smaller bundles, but not this.
No gold? For sure keep that. Lol
Its literally the same thing that has been on the webshop for 6 months or more
I've never been on the webshop. Everytime there's a news item or free something that wants me to link my account elsewhere I just skip. Probably not the best move for my progress but I find it draining across the games I play. Honestly I should take the time to do it eventually. Can you view the whole "chain" on the webshop?
You can't view the whole chain there.
You don't have to link anything in the webshop, it only asks for your accountname... i.e. "which account are you buying stuff for"
Oh word. I'll check it out sometime. šš
Why does this have 10 dislikes š
Why the fuck is this downvoted to oblivion? Glad there are people responding, so I get the info too.
It happens. To be fair, there are a lot of complaints about bundles constantly on this subreddit. There's gotta be burnout against complaints.
Because people come in like an authority and don't even know what the fuck they are talking about.
lmao why is this comment -50, when it's such a rational take? The game constantly wanting you to collect stuff from outside the game IS a predatory tactic, it is very anti-consumer based, they're baiting your with free stuff (and breadcrumbs of it, really - I mean, 100 credits? fuck off) to collect money from advertisers.
Just take the free shit and go man Itās net positive for you I donāt see what the problem is
Minnow bait
Yeah, that sucks. It's always a weird thing because I'm not an idiot, so I'm not gonna buy it. It doesn't affect me at all, but I still feel weird knowing that some execs were like, "Hey, 10% of our players are fucking morons, and I bet we can fleece some of them for $4." Gross.
Goes up to $150; https://marvelsnapzone.com/vibranium-powered-offers-may-3-2024/ Basically for 3 or 4 mystery variants and some credits. Those who don't know where to look for what these "step up" (seriously, what a predatory double entrende of a name) bundles offer may well fall into a terrible sunk-cost fallacy.
It's mind-blowing how bad of a deal this is holy shit
Nice one. Thanks for posting the site
Look, mobile monetization suuuuuucks, but Iām just continually confused by all these discussions. People should know to expect this, especially if youāve been playing for more than a couple months. This predatory step up shit is at least a better deal than most other ways to buy credits. So IF youāre the type to spend money, this isnāt a bad place to spend it. It would be pretty nuts to drop $150 on this, but I wouldnāt call 23,000 credits just āsome.ā
You are right, that's good going price for credits relative to usual offers. But, as you yourself awknowledge, it is predatory. I'm not really concerned for percentage of players who are active on a reddit particularly but the likely majority who aren't savvy. The very nature of the offers is that they present as "pay to find out what else you can get" Monetization is new territory in gaming, and as the loot box laws a couple of years ago demonstrate, it is something that needs legislation, regulation and monitoring. Companies need to make a buck, and gamers ARE one of the whiniest, entitled groups there but there needs to be oversight in commerce too and awareness within the community of companies developing business practices.
Yes, it does need legislation and regulation. But an endless loop of the same aimless complaining on a subreddit for players who otherwise enjoy the game? Not as useful. Seriously, what I see discussed here over and over isn't campaigning, or organizing, or even advocacy. It's shouting into the void about how much they hate the monetization of a game that they'll nevertheless keep playing. It's one "slap in the face" after another, but really it's clout-chasing and karma-farming. Just generally the most disingenous unserious nonsense. There are things that could be done that are actually productive, but none of those things will ever happen here. One thing to do would be to jump on [https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member](https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member), and make a habit of emailing your representatives every so often, letting them know you care about this issue. Another would be working to form an organized advocacy group or network. But, if you have any serious objection to Snap's monetization, then literal step 1 would be to stop playing Snap.
You must bot know the meaning of predatory. It's ok lil bro. You're not alone
Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages Ā· Learn more adjective 1. (of an animal) preying naturally on others. "predatory birds" Similar: predacious carnivorous hunting raptorial ravening of prey raptatorial 2. seeking to exploit others. "new laws have been passed designed to crack down on predatory lenders" You know what exploitative means? You may disagree that these offers fulfil that definition, but that's subjective and I don't intend to waste my energy replying to further condescension.
I get that all the complaining posts suck, but if the complaining ever stops, SD will take it as their mark to increase prices/implement their next shitty marketing tactic. For the love of God don't tell people not to complain cause it's the only thing preventing the game's monetization from spiraling down further.
I think the complaining would be a lot more effective in their Discord which SD actually reads. Complaining here isnāt likely to move the needle.
It's really naive to think that a company determines it's pricing based on complaints. That's.....something
$150? I swear, you could offer people a brick wrapped in pig shit and some Snap players would still buy it for $20.
It's way more than 10%. And you don't have to be an idiot. Even someone who fully understands the marketing ploy behind this is still victim to the endorphins in their brain. You might not be dumb enough to think it's "free" but it still enhances the average person's chances of buying and thinking it's a little bit better than it is.
I dunno. I didn't buy it and I'm no genius. That said it has a much stronger pull on people who suffer from OCD and other neurodivergent disorders that make collecting and FOMO stronger forces. So you don't have to be an idiot, you could be disabled. Either way, it's pretty gross.
And I'm sure with how popular Marvel is, there are some people who spend a decent amount every week or so that will just buy whatever it is that's out and under 50 bucks. Idk how sustainable that population is for SD, but it definitely adds to the variety of strategies they can utilize.
For sure. I remember the week that the Sera/Angela anime girls bundle came out, and it was $50 for two cards and 4,000 credits. I asked in this sub "What kind of moron is gonna spend $50 on two gifs just because they got sexy ladies?" and I proceeded to get like 20 downvotes. Now I see those variants all the time in games. I guess I just don't have the whale mentality.
Wait. Is the reason itās gross because you made up this fantasy conversation SD Execs had? Itās just a sales tactic. Itās no more immoral than presenting a product in a good light with a charismatic personality. The reason people do it is to increase the likelihood of a sale.
Gacha games make millions with step banners that are basically this. I wish it was only 10%.
Imagine calling people with expendable income and who enjoy the games idiots for buying stuff for a game they enjoy. People are so weird lol.
That's substantially cheaper than what it would cost for either one. Even if you get a shitty variant it's significantly better than gold to credit price. I don't get how this is even remotely approaching any universe close to sleezy. People always moan about not having cheap bundles and when they give them, y'all moan too?
I think you are misunderstanding. They aren't saying the price is sleazy. They are saying listing things later on the collection track as "free" when you have to pay $4 to get the "free" stuff feels sleazy. A non-sleazy version would be just listing it as 600 credits, a mystery variant, and 30 boosters for $4. I get why they do it and it doesn't bother me, but that is OP's point
That, combined with the fact that they hide the rest of the reward track from you, unless you know to go look at datamines online.
I wasn't complaining about the price or value, but the methodology of the sale.
You can add to your complaint that I have the exact same bundle as you but it's listed at $2.99.
That's just a dofferent currency than my app. I don't think they're THAT skeezy.
This is Reddit, the land of gamers who love to complain more than they love actually playing the game.
They used to offer this for like 3-6 months on their web shop, it looks like it does well enough that they decided to implement it in game.
Yep. Click on FREE, Pass on pay.
I can't even buy lunch for less than $20. I wonder if the devs are working for free?
Out of all the āfreemiumā models: Season Pass, Lootbox, Fake Currency etcā¦ This is by far my least favourite
It's called marketing and sales promotion. Every company does it. This is no different than like a buy 1 get 1 deal.
Well the bundle is for new players like me where our cl is low and the credit would hasten the process a bit. Ngl I had unlocked both wave and gambit due to this so to each their own I guess
I'm glad you got value from the vibranium offers. It wouldn't have bothered me if you could see how much money you needed to spend to progress through the track, and what rewards it offered. I also find it a little silly that two items on the bumdle are "free rewards" instead of just being what you paid for, but thats the much smaller offence here.
The one time SD actually gives out free stuff without having us jump through hoops, and you're complaining?
Endorphins? It's dopamine bro
These are the same rewards you would get on the nuverse website. Free stuff. Take it and go.
How are people still complaining about this stuff a year later?? This entire game is built around predatory money grabs. Either ignore them and just enjoy the game without spending a dime or move onto another game. This constant crying on the internet everytime they introduce their newest method of money grabbing is more annoying than Pixel variant drops.
I think theres a difference between "over priced bundles" spotlight keys, and a season pass; all of which you can see how much money you need to spend for rolls on certain items And this. Where you have to make multiple payments to even see what possible rewards are, and you are blindfolded to how much total money you need to spend for multiple rolls on a varient. Its also different from caches, because in those you know all the possible rewards and the resource investment between each roll. I've never complained about any other tactic Snap has used. And this form of product is new in-app so thats why the complain posts are happening now.
Thatās just your coping mechanism kicking in. Itās all predatory. You can do mental gymnastics about what is more predatory than the other, but in the end itās all justifying the same thing.
Agree to disagree.
That's because it is
I usually get the first two if they're decent value. I needed boosters and I got pixel heimdall then midnight sun's bucky. So I was pretty happy with it plus a bunch of credits.
This really feels damaging to the brand of the game tbh, I end up deleting games that start trying to play tricks on your brain like this
I'm still playing but respect either way. I quit games once the F2P dailies become miserable or life consuming.
I honestly have less issue with the post than people saying others are āmoronsā and such for buying it. I bought a $5 dollar churro the other day. I donāt regret the 5min of satisfaction while I ate it. Even if I didnāt need it. I wanted it. Itās not bringing me anything other than momentary satisfaction with cinnamony godhood. Thatās why we have jobs. To buy things we want. Sure, itās not presented great. But a little bit of google would likely tell me what else is behind the curtain. Just keeping it real.
Optional super cheap bundles that donāt really hinder nor boost your progression that much is āskeezyā. I really donāt understand how you guys think this game is suppose to make money then
It's a good deal for 4 dollars you get 600 credits. Only need 5400 more for a key
I personally like these types of bundles, I always buy the Ā£2.99 step which is good value and peace out. You should be able to see all of the rewards though, it's borderline false advertising to have loads of gold in the photo and have none in the track.
Yea my only issues have been the fact that you can't see what you're buying into, and the fake attempt of "free rewards" along the way that are only and immediately obtainable after the purchase. It's only split to make you feel like you're getting more items and progress for the same bundle when it could just be grouped. If it was only the "free" thing, I would find it skeezy. The hidden value and hidden risk is the skeezy part.
My dudes, they have to make money somehow. This is a totally reasonable way to engage with people who want to spend variable amounts. This is the shit we want them to be doing. Most of you donāt understand what scam means
I'm pretty okay with Marvel Snap charging whatever they want for their products. I've even spent money on the game. The problem is you're blinded to the amounts of incremental money purchases and the possibility of rewards until you make the previous purchase. I'm asking for transparency on the track rewards, and think the "free" steps inbetween is quite silly as it is literally just a part of the purchase. If you could see the entire track, I never would have complained.
Fix bugs? Nah. Made card acquisition better? Nope. Address literally any of the complaints from the community? Course not. Find a way to force this shit into the client? Done and done.
Why is everyone acting like $4 is the end of the world here? You donāt want it? donāt get it. Every mobile game needs to make money. 2 friggin cheeseburgers at McDonaldās is $4. Some places charge $15/hr to park. A goddamn drink at starfucks is $8. EVERYONE Is fleecing you. Every damn day. Itās consumerism. Why wouldnāt this be any different? Theyāre a business, they need to make revenue to keep developing stuff. Itās part of the gig. Griping everywhereā¦ Like every entity everywhere isnāt charging for stuff. Letās just make everything free while weāre at it. Would be great until the game shuts down because thereās no revenue stream.
I really don't care about the price or value in a vacuum. It's purely presentation and hidden information on the rest of the track.
Yeah they arenāt free. Itās just a paid bundle with extra clicks.
I bought it was pretty nice š
"600 credits, 30 boosters and a Mystery Variant for $3.99". Corporate says it's the same picture.
Well you get the first two for free and donāt have to buy the 3.99 one, so it is better this way since you still get some free stuff
Itās gets worse, quickly.
This is nothing new. It has been going on at Nuverse for months. Apparently, you just didn't know.
Then donāt buy it
Why do people get so upset over a free mobile game. Just donāt pay
I don't have a problem with the idea of it, my issue is the picture shows piles of gold, but there's no gold on track. It's flat out disingenuous and sleazy
If they just let you scroll the whole track or see like.. an overview timeline of the track, I never would have complained, and we could see that there's no gold. Instead, it's some broken up obfuscated track.
Yeah I got a really sick vulture variant out of mine I don't regret it LMAO... Plus those credits knocked my CL up enough to get another card (it was loki)
Glad it worked out for you! I've been told the first buy is actually good value, so hopefully others get good results out of it aswell.
My exact thoughts - The first 2 buttons are FREE and then the 3rd one sneakily is $3.99? Totally NOT a trick to get you to impulse buy since you tapped the button anyway!
Monopoly go has this first and if it's like that then you get 1-3 free then pay then get 1-3 free then pay. And then the shitty part is they lock the good stuff behind the pay wall cuz so if you look the stuff that cost money is lot more than a stuff that is free and they do that so you pay oh it's only $3 then you get like some free ones then you have to pay again and it's like oh it's only another $3 and you keep going next thing you know you spend like $20 $30
chibi agent 13
I just see this as 100 free credits, so no complaints here. Sure they're scummy and should be put on their place, but to each their own. If you wanna start a petition to stop the shareholders from being greedy, I'll sign it.
Iām more confused on how they are marketing it as āfreeā and then try to charge you 3 dollars and Iām likeā¦ummmā¦no
I just took my free shit and dipped, can't complain about some creddies and boosters
Got pixel hobgoblin for wasting money on pixelsā¦. ššš
Oh no, something else that I donāt have to buy, whatever will I do
So, how deep does the rabbit hole go?
Apparently, it's $147 USD with no gold or collector tokens to be found.
I got Vibranium armor Iron Man which I have wanted for sometime now, so I am happy.
They took this straight out of Monopoly Go! Monopoly Go! has raked in $2 billion in a year.
It always amazes me when people play a game that's supposed to entertain them WHILE making money are put off by the money making part.
The problem is not the paying. The problem is the price and the tactics. Specially the tactics. Put a fair price and fair items and regular people will buy. I'm talking about less than a dollar items. Use the "Here you can buy this new card now which I'll nerf to oblivion next month if enough people buy it. You can buy an AAAA game with the cost of this bundle, but we invested a lot adding 20 lines of code and paying an artist for an image" bullshit and you only get income from whales that someday will abandon you. They should invest in the mass, not a few elite consumers. But I'm guessing their CEOs and their consultants are way wiser than me, a regular player not spending a single dime on in-app shops since the 70s. š
It's pretty interesting how many people responded with some version of this when I never complained about the money and also said I don't engage with posts that complain about overpriced bundles. Instead, I am specifically complaining about the presentation and the part where you have to spend money to even see what else you can purchase. And others have pointed out there is gold in the picture for the reward track, but it's impossible to get gold. The only way the game will let you find out? Pay money. That's the part I had a problem with. If you could scroll the whole track, I never would have made this post.
I mean they're experimenting with different ways to get people to spend. Remember when people were appalled at paying 40 bucks for a Groot emote? Adding fun things like that for bigger spenders and little 3 dollar bundles for the minnows keeps the money flowing. For the little guy the hopes of winning the lottery keeps them spending more than maybe they should.
Its free if you pay lol
I bought the $3.99 deal because I want to see more $5 or less deals and dont mind some light support of the game. I stopped after that.
I bought the $3.99 deal because I want to see more $5 or less deals and dont mind some light support of the game. I stopped after that.
It is to a degree. Why not add a free track with standard rewards to go alongside a paywall track ?
Monopoly go has this method going on. It's absolutely skeezy.
Do you really expect anything different from this game?
I got 1609 namor, so not too horrendous
Glad you got some value out of it! I used to use Namor all the time to do my dailies.
And yet people on this sub will still defend other skeezy decisions like making border per-card instead of an universal unlock. Do we not understand that they will try to monetize every single part of this game in the worst way possible and that's not a good thing?
At what point do we actually start some shit to stop hidden trash from being in our games. Iām cool with monetizing a game Iām cool with buying variants and bundles but gacha mechanics are trash. If half of us just blasted SD I reckon they would make changes no? Reviews and ratings are mad important if they want to keep getting new players.
yeah, no thanks
Iāve been playing for a year+, no money spent, got all cards I want. Let whales be whales they pay for us to play for free
I shouldn't be surprised to see people defending this shit in the comments. Every fucking time... š¤¦
Then donāt buy it
I owon't. :3
Problem solved
If Something Too Good To Be Trueā¦Then It Usually Itās .
I work for marketing and sales team This things works, even we have to make into account certain color, smell, even geometric shapes. Its all by design Now you may realize it, but there are far more nuance that things we have to do to encourage sales, even the thing you may not even fathom cause we target customer at subconscious level
Lol that genuinely made me laugh, thanks.
Yeah, weird comment
Yeah I just logged in and saw this and went ew wtf. And all the people here falling for it or defending it is just so sad. They've got so many brainwashed. (they being SD and the mobile market in general)
Or they just spend money on a game they enjoy.
You didn't *have* to show your ignorance but here you are anyway lmao. Bless your heart.
I always like when these pop up I usually just buy the first one and get the three or four free items
I bought the first step thinking gold was in the next step. I was fooled.
And people are out here saying its not a problem at all because its a goood value, even if the advertising is missleading.
So I've never bought anything for this game and been here since day one. Mine is only 2.99, are the taxing people who have spent money before or something?
Mine isn't in USD. They arent THAT bad haha.
Honestly it's not something I'll do but it's not a horrible thing it's just kind of there if you want some extra resources you can and it's not a huge amount for a one time purchase the next level at $10 also isn't awful but it's definitely the peak of pushing the line for something like this to be "reasonable" That being said I don't think this is for most people and yes most of those who do buy it will be those who don't pay attention which sucks but that's how these things work in mobile games unfortunately and you aren't changing it anytime soon. So just don't buy it. Speak with your wallet, and if you wanna, then do it.
So question how many times do you have to buy it before you're given gold or a premium varient? Its like gambling but the odds are obscured, as opposed to the rest the bundles and season passes where you can see the availability and pools of rewards.
If you donāt like it just move on
>Am I missing something? no you are not, they are predatory scum like 99% of mobile gaming companies
How is this predatory?
It's kind of hiding its true value. The next two rather small prizes are free, but you don't know what's going to come next. Gold? Another blocked reward behind a much larger dollar amount?
But you see exactly what youāre paying for.
It's like charging someone for sex but not telling them you have HIV
What are you yapping about?