I had a little idea floating araound in my head, that could potentially increase box sales and add a little uniqueness to the MMO players. I will try to use Starwars and naruto as a starting point.

Say in "star wars galaxies" 1 out of every 10 boxes sold the purchasees' acct is flagged for the "force" Meaning any character on this acct has "force" powers..

In Naruto 1 out of 10 boxes sold, the acct might have tailed beast sealed in side every character made.

I hope you kind of understand where I was trying to go with this, would you as a mmo gamer pay for a chance of uniqueness?

 It is basically a lottery system for uniqueness and unique abilites.

I don't like this idea, simply because it is a Pay to Win way of thinking, at least in my opinion.

What i mean by that is this: A lot of people would either...

1) Buy boxes until they eventually got the 1 out of 10 unlocks.

2) Sell the "Force" unlocked accounts, increasing traffic through sites like Gold Farmer sites in China.

3) If you didn't get a 'special' account, you'd feel cheated. This isn't a fun way to start playing the game.

I think that instead of making players feel special, it would actually do the opposite- it would make most people feel UNspecial. That's the exact opposite of the intention.

I'd like to add this: it might be a better idea if, once a character was created, there was a small chance that they get the 'special'. This way it is based on character creation, as opposed to not. In a system where there is permadeath, it would work. Without permadeath, there would need to be permadeath for 'special' characters, or loss of special powers, and obviously very SIMPLE fixes to possible flaws like creating tons of characters to try to unlock a special one. (Obviously the game would either need one character slot, or tell the player that they only have one chance per [real life time] or that they have to [accomplish goal] before given another chance to unlock the power.

Honestly, as a game designer, I just don't like the idea unless there is permadeath.

Don't think it would work for a mainstream themepark MMO. Look what happened to SWG when it tried to cater to the mainstream crowd. They made Jedi a selectable class.

Sort of a golden ticket from the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory but with more tickets. I do like the idea of players having something unique to them. I even played around with the idea in another thread. I like it better though when the person with control of the item can sell copies of it to other players.

If you are saying, would I buy 3+ boxes to try to get 1 item. Probably never. That's a lottery and I have never bought a collector's edition even when they come with something guaranteed. Back in my WOW days I did stand in line at midnight when BC came out. It was exciting to me because I was so into the game, even bought a game guide for the new areas, still didn't buy a collector's edition. The book other people were talking about it with me as I was flipping through pages, that was fun. It lived in my bathroom for about 6 mos lol. It was nice graphics but I think the difference was that I could touch it and feel it so that justified the extra cash spending.

Originally posted by LeegOfChldrn

1) Buy boxes until they eventually got the 1 out of 10 unlocks.

2) Sell the "Force" unlocked accounts, increasing traffic through sites like Gold Farmer sites in China.

3) If you didn't get a 'special' account, you'd feel cheated. This isn't a fun way to start playing the game.

Agreed, especially number 3. The gambling element can be applied to many things in game (loot tables, chance of items breaking, etc.), but it would be a mistake to tie it to the purchase of the game itself. When something incorporates random chance, the draw is supposed to be that after losing, the player feels driven to try again because "maybe next time I'll get lucky". That doesn't apply here.

If I understand it correctly, Blizzard's WoW-branded trading card game (packs of trading cards where some rare cards contain promo codes for in-game WoW mounts/pets)  is essentially this model.

No thanks.

id rather my uniqueness be things I CHOOSE, not things i arbitrarilly can or cant be.

Originally posted by ViperHoundz

I had a little idea floating araound in my head, that could potentially increase box sales and add a little uniqueness to the MMO players. I will try to use Starwars and naruto as a starting point.

Say in "star wars galaxies" 1 out of every 10 boxes sold the purchasees' acct is flagged for the "force" Meaning any character on this acct has "force" powers..

In Naruto 1 out of 10 boxes sold, the acct might have tailed beast sealed in side every character made.

I hope you kind of understand where I was trying to go with this, would you as a mmo gamer pay for a chance of uniqueness?

 It is basically a lottery system for uniqueness and unique abilites.

 

if you and i pay the same price for game X and you get unique items and i get nothing...... i ask for my refund right away.

Thats what many wrongly managed F2P games do with lucky boxes.... you buy 20 boxes for a chance that one of them drops a unique mount...... maybe the one who bought 2 boxes got the mount while the one who bought 20 boxes didnt get any.,.....

horrible cash grab.... i dont support those practices. Uniqueness comes from a development standpoint, not from shady cash grab practices.

Some may like it, personally I don't.  I don't mind paying for something and that something also gives a chance of something else.  E.g. pay for collectors edition for maps, cloths... and you get a chance of force.  But no way would that be my sole reason for buying anything.

Buy 10 accounts, when I only need one (or two depending on the game and my playstyle), ignore 9 others all for a chance of something.  No thanks.

Originally posted by rojo6934

Originally posted by ViperHoundz

I had a little idea floating araound in my head, that could potentially increase box sales and add a little uniqueness to the MMO players. I will try to use Starwars and naruto as a starting point.

Say in "star wars galaxies" 1 out of every 10 boxes sold the purchasees' acct is flagged for the "force" Meaning any character on this acct has "force" powers..

In Naruto 1 out of 10 boxes sold, the acct might have tailed beast sealed in side every character made.

I hope you kind of understand where I was trying to go with this, would you as a mmo gamer pay for a chance of uniqueness?

 It is basically a lottery system for uniqueness and unique abilites.

 

if you and i pay the same price for game X and you get unique items and i get nothing...... i ask for my refund right away.

Something for nothing. I smell corrupt staff.