Pirate Suit-I want you all to think about this

[LisaInNc]

VMK is so much like life with supply and demand. If they made the pirate costume easy to get people wouldn't appreciate it. We might for a day or two but it would end up in the backs of our VMK closets.

Disagree with me? Lets search back a few months and hear all of the ohhhs and Ahhhhs over the Dive suit. Everyone couldn't wait to have it. Remember the anticiapation of that suit? Most every one of us has it and on any given day how often do you wear it? How many of them do you see being worn in VMK?

I know that it's frustrating that you can't get something that you want. How many people wanted that exclusive X Box in real life? How many had to wait months. How many just didn't get it.

There is such a sense of entitlement in this game.

Lets all calm down and wait a few weeks, as people get the suit some will get bored and trade it and more people will win it.

My rant is, and always has been that VMK has terrible "customer service".

 

[Dashzap]

VMK is so much like life with supply and demand. If they made the pirate costume easy to get people wouldn't appreciate it. We might for a day or two but it would end up in the backs of our VMK closets.

Disagree with me? Lets search back a few months and hear all of the ohhhs and Ahhhhs over the Dive suit. Everyone couldn't wait to have it. Remember the anticiapation of that suit? Most every one of us has it and on any given day how often do you wear it? How many of them do you see being worn in VMK?

I know that it's frustrating that you can't get something that you want. How many people wanted that exclusive X Box in real life? How many had to wait months. How many just didn't get it.

There is such a sense of entitlement in this game.

Lets all calm down and wait a few weeks, as people get the suit some will get bored and trade it and more people will win it.

My rant is, and always has been that VMK has terrible "customer service".

While I agree that the new & shiny willl wear off for some people, the problem is that it is a COOL costume. I've never wanted any special outfit before (well maybe the seagull hat a bit), I did the pink baseball quest so I would have it to trade (fat lot of good that does, noone wants it), but I really love the Sparrow costume. I predict it will stay exclusive and highly coveted.

The dive pin isn't a direct analogy as anyone can earn one. Noone can earn the Jack Sparrow outfit, mores the pity.

Jean

 

[SeaSpray]

I definitely see your point, Lisa. Not everyone is a huge pirates fan. Some are, some aren't.

I don't mind waiting to get the costume. But I *really* would love to see CapeCAD with it (the best pirate on the virtual seas!!! ), he'd probably wear it every day!! LOL

 

[LisaInNc]

While I agree that the new & shiny willl wear off for some people, the problem is that it is a COOL costume. I've never wanted any special outfit before (well maybe the seagull hat a bit), I did the pink baseball quest so I would have it to trade (fat lot of good that does, noone wants it), but I really love the Sparrow costume. I predict it will stay exclusive and highly coveted.

The dive pin isn't a direct analogy as anyone can earn one. Noone can earn the Jack Sparrow outfit, mores the pity.

Jean

I am not talking about the pin I mean the Dive suit and I think it is a good analogy because we are all talking about how rare this costume is I am showing the other side, the other extreme which is everyone having it.

Of course the best place to be is right in the middle but in VMK that always doesn't happen.

 

[macntosh]

I agree with you on if everyone has it how much fun is that, but in the same sense I think an overpriced weekend item would have been a better option. Make people get lots of credits and put it out with the cracken outfit and other pirate things. Make people pick what overpriced items they want. Make it like October of last year, but with a higher cost.

 

[jasonpwns]

I agree

 

[AceFabGirlie]

I totally agree with you! When everyone had the space suits i traded alot to get one cause i couldn't win the game. But after i got it i wore it for a day and then it just sat in my inventory collecting virtual dust. ( by the way i think that pirate costume is kind of ugly so )

 

[VMK_KrazyLuke]

I agree with you on this, but i will most likely not be wearing the hat much because stitch is so better than a pirate hat!!! lol

 

[mewmewpwr]

i agree, but i have something else to say too

when ever we get furniture from codes people always put the furniture in there offer to trade for something rare am i not right?

 

[JeanJoe]

I agree.

Although there are some, or even many, people who would want a particular item for its own sake, there are many more who find items desirable simply because they are rare.

Anyone else remember in early beta, back when it first became possible to earn invisibility magic? Wow, we were SO proud to show off our "spooky" magic. Around that same time, fireworks magic wasn't earnable yet, but a few lucky players were given it. Oh, the envy and requests!... Same goes with teleportation magic -- back before you could get it on park quests, a few lucky people acquired it, and every time they used it, there would be a lot of good-natured shouting of "Show off!" in the room. What about the ultimate in what's "common" now? Cursed storm... Because of the code entry bug / error with the Kellogg's codes, there was a time when MANY players were unable to get Cursed Storm, because that code gave them a different pirate magic first. For a while, all the NEW players were showing off their Cursed Storms, while others looked on enviously.

If everybody in VMK suddenly had green flips and inferno placed in their inventories, I'm sure there would be SOME people who would keep wearing them, simply because they like the look. But I'd bet the vast majority of people would lose interest in those items.

Still, the method of distributing the Jack Sparrow costume seems a bit silly... Still, even that I can sort of justify. VMK needs some rare items, to keep people interested, to give something people to "strive" for, to feel the thrill of acquiring. And, perhaps, VMK wants to mix up HOW these rare items can potentially be obtained. And for that, they've done a decent job.

- Quest items, available at both WDW + DLR: obtainable only by going to a park, the whole reason of VMK's existence

- items only from WDW or DLR, but not both: encourage people to go to parks (see above), AND encourage people to go cross-country, and/or trade

If VMK only used these, then people would complain that only lucky / rich / etc. people got the "cool" items. So VMK brought about other ways to get rare items.

- Herbie costume -- buy a fairly reasonably-priced movie

- items for sale that remain around for only a weekend / month -- will eventually become "moderately" rare

- VMK in-game rewards (i.e. fireworks magic, invisibility magic, space suit, etc) -- reward people who are skilled at games

- staff room games -- reward persistence and ability to endure pain

- staff quests -- reward people who have fast internet connections, and the patience to play through many mules to get good times

- week-end limited quests -- reward people who are willing to go through a 30 minute quest, over and over, during the weekend

- best room / game / quest / event rides -- reward people who design and create impressive rooms (or, the sarcastic might say, have good color sense). these items are not generally tradable, and so, encourage people to participate in events or create nice rooms

As you can see, there are a LOT of different ways to get items of varying degrees of rareness. And NO MATTER what VMK does, there will be people who will find a way to complain that it's not fair. "I don't have parents who will bring me to the park" "I can't score 200k in fireworks" "I don't want to click and enter codes for 4 hours a day for the next month" "I don't want to play mules through the quest" "I don't want to buy a cruddy movie" "I wasn't around the weekend they sold that item" "I don't have the time to play all day to get the credits to buy XYZ"

On the other hand, almost everybody has SOME way to get SOME relatively rare items. From my perspective, I like this. It makes VMK at least "sort-of" fair, even if there are many items that I'll never be able to get on my own.

What a long rant, without much point. I guess my only point is, as many dumb things that VMK does, many of them are justifiable, somehow.

 

[tinkattitude!]

I totally agree with you, if everyone got the costume it would just sit in the back of my virtual changing closet. All I hope for is that at least they could make it less then 1 in 5,000 codes to get now thats just an outrage!!

 

[Dashzap]

I am not talking about the pin I mean the Dive suit and I think it is a good analogy because we are all talking about how rare this costume is I am showing the other side, the other extreme which is everyone having it.

Of course the best place to be is right in the middle but in VMK that always doesn't happen.

oh, I see. The dive suit was before my vmk time. Yes, the middle is good, but rarely seen, even in real life.

 

[jasonpwns]

Ye but why do they have to go through vmk showing it off? someone came up to me and said haha you may have inferno but i have the new suit i just left

 

[Maleficent2]

VMK is so much like life with supply and demand. If they made the pirate costume easy to get people wouldn't appreciate it. We might for a day or two but it would end up in the backs of our VMK closets.

Disagree with me? Lets search back a few months and hear all of the ohhhs and Ahhhhs over the Dive suit. Everyone couldn't wait to have it. Remember the anticiapation of that suit? Most every one of us has it and on any given day how often do you wear it? How many of them do you see being worn in VMK?

I know that it's frustrating that you can't get something that you want. How many people wanted that exclusive X Box in real life? How many had to wait months. How many just didn't get it.

There is such a sense of entitlement in this game.

Lets all calm down and wait a few weeks, as people get the suit some will get bored and trade it and more people will win it.

My rant is, and always has been that VMK has terrible "customer service".

I am going to totally disagree with you on this. Big surprise, right. I have the dive suit, yes, do I ever wear it? yes, sometimes. Not alot but then it was never a favorite anyway. In fact I wore the shoes to it just this week.

Do I want the pirate suit? yes! by all means, of course I do! would I wear it all the time? no, probably not after the initial excitment had faded. But I would wear it alot.

If it was easier to get would I appreciate it less? NO! this is where I disagree with you, we all know how big a trader you are and how you like things to be rarer so you can expect bigger trades, I do not begrudge you that. But then again I think the in park quest items should be the hardest things to get in the game. I do not think anything should be as hard as the Quest Machine is for some, inferno, and now this pirates suit.

What I and alot of people are upset about is making some items virtually impossible to get. I feel that is sad and I do not expect a game to teach me or my child lifes lessons. I play VMK to escape life lessons just like I go to WDW or DLR to escape and to be a kid again. I nor do I want my child or any child to be stressed, intimiated, made to feel inferior or just plain sad about anything when playing VMK.

I like the trading I think it is a intregal part of VMK but things should be more easily obtainable.

Do I feel entitled to have the suit? NO nor do I think that most players do not. If there were more suits won there would be more out there trading them and more happy players.

Do I feel entitled to have a good time while playing VMK yes I do and so should everyone else.

Oh and Lisa don't have a X box and never will don't want one

 

[JulyGirl]

Ye but why do they have to go through vmk showing it off? someone came up to me and said haha you may have inferno but i have the new suit i just left

I think some people are falsely accused of "showing off". I saw one girl waiting to play fireworks in her new Sparrow coustume. The girl was just standing there and people were calling her a show off!

 

[The Wolf]

Well said Mal

True an item should be hard to get to make it more desirable, it should not be nigh on impossible to obtain it.

I know people are going to say it is supply and demand, but making it this hard to get is just opening the door to scammers and those who milk multiple items out of a game purely for trading purposes.

 

[tigressjewel]

As you can see, there are a LOT of different ways to get items of varying degrees of rareness. And NO MATTER what VMK does, there will be people who will find a way to complain that it's not fair. "I don't have parents who will bring me to the park" "I can't score 200k in fireworks" "I don't want to click and enter codes for 4 hours a day for the next month" "I don't want to play mules through the quest" "I don't want to buy a cruddy movie" "I wasn't around the weekend they sold that item" "I don't have the time to play all day to get the credits to buy XYZ"

On the other hand, almost everybody has SOME way to get SOME relatively rare items. From my perspective, I like this. It makes VMK at least "sort-of" fair, even if there are many items that I'll never be able to get on my own.

You made some excellent points and this really sums it up well. Its the old saying, "You can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. Ok, so I probably just butchered that saying completely, but I think you get my point! I wholeheartedly include myself in the group of never completely satisfied people. I have my own opinions and I know that they will be different than those running VMK, so by expressing my opinion, ideas, thoughts (rants) here and by writing to vmk I'm taking what action I can to hope things improve.

In the meantime I will most likely wait out the code frenzy and hope the fallout in a few weeks is favorable and there are more available. I have no control over the situation that vmk has created, but I have complete control over how I choose to react to it, as do we all. I won't let it spoil my fun in the game, why should it? The game hasn't changed, my friends are still there, well sort of.. (looking up occasionally from a flurry of codes to mutter a hello )

Here is something I want to really emphasize though for those of you who are upset because you feel some are "showing off" their costume.
Next time you see it happening, congratulate the person, tell them how nice it is and how happy you are for them. I promise it will deflate their attempts to make you feel bad, and even if it doesn't the act alone will make you feel good!

 

[bevgray]

Back to my point from my earlier comment on another post - I have no problem with the concept of EARNING an item. But let's EARN it (as in Bat Magic where it was necessary to earn the credits to buy it.)

I'm sorry, there is nothing "earning" connected to random codes generated with a low algorithm. That is pure luck of the kind that fuels lotteries and roulette wheels. Teach a child that they are not entitled and have to earn what they want (such as you have X amount of credits, not enough to buy the costume, hmmm, guess you'd better play some games to get more or you have to chose between the two cool items since you can't afford both). But don't play the "one in 5000, you are one lucky VMKer" and call that a life lesson. How is hitting a random code a lesson in anything but "if you are lucky, you get stuff for nothing".

As for the desire to have the nice, shiny, new thing, yes that is true for a lot of folks. But I don't think the dive suit is a fair analogy. For one thing, there were not a chosen few walking around for days before hand implying that this would be available for EVERYONE soon. Also, the dive suit does not have the emotional pull that a favorite character from one the HOT movies of the summer will have.

There is an emotional tie for a lot of players to Jack Sparrow. If you want the "rare" costume, make it Barbosa or Davy Jones, not the "hero" that almost every child wants to dress up as.

Let's get the "adult, I understand about collecting" mentality out of this and look at it from the perspective of a child that just wants to pretend.

 

[Maleficent2]

Still, the method of distributing the Jack Sparrow costume seems a bit silly... Still, even that I can sort of justify. VMK needs some rare items, to keep people interested, to give something people to "strive" for, to feel the thrill of acquiring. And, perhaps, VMK wants to mix up HOW these rare items can potentially be obtained. And for that, they've done a decent job.

- Quest items, available at both WDW + DLR: obtainable only by going to a park, the whole reason of VMK's existence

- items only from WDW or DLR, but not both: encourage people to go to parks (see above), AND encourage people to go cross-country, and/or trade

If VMK only used these, then people would complain that only lucky / rich / etc. people got the "cool" items. So VMK brought about other ways to get rare items.

- Herbie costume -- buy a fairly reasonably-priced movie

- items for sale that remain around for only a weekend / month -- will eventually become "moderately" rare

- VMK in-game rewards (i.e. fireworks magic, invisibility magic, space suit, etc) -- reward people who are skilled at games

- staff room games -- reward persistence and ability to endure pain

- staff quests -- reward people who have fast internet connections, and the patience to play through many mules to get good times

- week-end limited quests -- reward people who are willing to go through a 30 minute quest, over and over, during the weekend

- best room / game / quest / event rides -- reward people who design and create impressive rooms (or, the sarcastic might say, have good color sense). these items are not generally tradable, and so, encourage people to participate in events or create nice rooms.

I agree, Be, that VMK needs RARE items but not so rare that the majority of people will never get them Like inferno(used to be getting better now but should be it has been around a YEAR!!!)stitch stuff(forgot about that before), new pirate costume(1 in 5000, give me a break for goodness sakes)etc etc

I totally forgot about item purchase things like the Herbie stuff, I think that is acceptable way to do rare items also because there will be enough to make it not impossible to obtain.

I know you can not please all the people all the time. But making it more fair is afterall the RIGHT thing to do.

I do not have a problem with limited availablity in the game, in park quest items there are enough of those so that at least people can trade for them or be gifted, item with a purchse promos(like Herbie...in fact I think this is a great idea), week-end quests as long as they are not so hard or so long it takes all darn day and night to do them and then they are not tradeable.

I do have a problem with HIGH credit item prices, non tradeable items, overly limited items(like 1in 5,000) etc. that to me is not and will never be justifiable.

 

[Kingsfoil]

I have no fashion sense. I always wear the diver pants. I could choose to wear something else but i dont.