The Current Event Pass Grind is Backloaded Like The Dockyard, and Just Convoluted, To Boot

[Utt_Bugglier]

Like the Dockyard having the 99,000 BXP grind in the final stage, the current event pass has lots of grind shoved to the back:

https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/general-news/event-pass-1311-li-wei-and-olaf-lundgren/#chapter-1

Yeah, I played one battle yesterday and cleared five stages of the BP, but when you get to the tail end, it’s going to be 100 points per stage. And that’s preceded by a few stages at 75 points per.

Yeah, yeah: this pass has extra weeks and all that, but…

then there is the division into “chapters.” WG’s article on the pass says points will be reset after Chapter 1 ends. So, “no getting ahead early for YOU!” Also says “no catching up for YOU!” for those who didn’t grab all the points/stuff for Chapter 1.

It further says you need 945 points to complete “Chapter 1.” The period of time from 13.11 going live until “Chapter 2” begins is 21 days, in which you can earn 1095 points. At best, this means up to 150 points of your grind in mid-pass are going to be steered into obtaining bonus levels instead of furthering your progress, or at worst those points will be cast aside for the reset that occurs on 12/18.

Looks like another contrived way to force a tight timeline onto another event. And by splitting it into two “chapters” this way, they get to shove it into both ends (Thanksgiving, then Christmas) of people’s holiday times.

Edited Thursday at 07:14 PM by Utt_Bugglier

[Admiral_Karasu]

There is wisdom, I suppose, to deciding to upgrade to the premium BP only at the end then.

[Utt_Bugglier]

11 minutes ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

There is wisdom, I suppose, to deciding to upgrade to the premium BP only at the end then.

The article says the ship unlocks at stage 11, so you don’t have to wait any longer than that. I’m away doing holiday stuff with family, so I can’t verify, but I think that is what I saw in-game yesterday.

Frankly, the description of the reward ship, coupled with its reasonable placement in the event pass, has me thinking that despite the way the pass is presented, (and despite my opinion of the pass) that it might be a much better goal to target, than is the dockyard ship. (Plus, superships take the shine off a T9 dockyard ship in my book.)

[Wulf_Ace]

I really dont see whats the fuss about, its not like rewards are must have. I see their point, they want people to play more, which is understandable.

 

[Ensign Cthulhu]

45 minutes ago, Utt_Bugglier said:

And by splitting it into two “chapters” this way, they get to shove it into both ends

Having the line break at this point made me giggle. 

IMO the only reason you think the grind is back-loaded is because the premium ship which is its high point is in the middle rather than at the end. In fact, compared to most battle passes with a premium ship, the main reward is FRONT loaded. The first night of play is almost enough in itself to get you there.

Two Tier 7 premium ships for a minimal grind and 3500 dubs each is actually quite cheap when you consider the effort you're putting into each pass, compared to the Dockyard. 

 

[BigHeadShrimp]

Not to defend WG, but if you get 1000 BXP every day, you should be able to complete the pass without problem. Even with the meager COOP payout, that should amount to 2-3 games. That's about 15 minutes or so playtime.

[Darlith]

Meanwhile it is basically 2 days to get the ship if that is what you want. Depends on your goals.

[Admiral_Karasu]

It's true, though, that everything in this game that's mission and reward related has gotten way too complicated at this point.

[Aragathor]

32 minutes ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

It's true, though, that everything in this game that's mission and reward related has gotten way too complicated at this point.

That's true, I try to stay on top but I barely make it. Luckily it's enough to warn my clan from pitfalls.

On the other hand a lot of casuals just run into the traps set up by WG, where a small detail means you either pay or get nothing valuable.

[Utt_Bugglier]

9 hours ago, BigHeadShrimp said:

Not to defend WG, but if you get 1000 BXP every day, you should be able to complete the pass without problem. Even with the meager COOP payout, that should amount to 2-3 games. That's about 15 minutes or so playtime.

You mean like I already stated in my second post about it being available at stage 11, before you made your post?

9 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

IMO the only reason you think the grind is back-loaded is because the premium ship which is its high point is in the middle rather than at the end. In fact, compared to most battle passes with a premium ship, the main reward is FRONT loaded. The first night of play is almost enough in itself to get you there.

Same as above.

You guys are missing what IS locked behind the backloaded grindfest, which is, among other things: certificates/Santaboxes(lootboxes).

Yeah, it seems trivial, but WG has put some effort into convoluting the process and putting the “trivial” behind a mindless grindwall while fronting the “good stuff.” Maybe WG thinks the draw of “just one more” shiny lootbox potential big score near event pass end is a greater draw for more players than the advertised reward ship is.

 

[Admiral_Karasu]

3 hours ago, Utt_Bugglier said:

You guys are missing what IS locked behind the backloaded grindfest, which is, among other things: certificates/Santaboxes(lootboxes).

Yeah, it seems trivial, but WG has put some effort into convoluting the process and putting the “trivial” behind a mindless grindwall while fronting the “good stuff.” Maybe WG thinks the draw of “just one more” shiny lootbox potential big score near event pass end is a greater draw for more players than the advertised reward ship is.

 

An interesting point, that is. Let's remember, though, essentially both the 'good stuff' and the 'trivial' are something that has more value for the players and zero value for WG except in terms of what they see as lost sales. Play before you pay, I think.

[Verblonde]

I have to admit to some ambivalence about the Xmas BP: while the latter part (of the first chapter) is - comparatively - rather grindy, you do get an awful lot of stuff quickly early on, with not much effort. Even more so, if you pony up the doubloons.

Presumably, WG have some sort of customary predatory plan going on, but what the typical player (who may want to spend at least some of the holidays with their loved ones - heaven forfend!) gets seems to be pretty decent?

That said, what you get from the Satan Boxes will drastically impact how good it is for you personally (on my main account, including the paid track, I've dropped a T6 and a T8 premium - rather beating the odds, I suspect).

[Ensign Cthulhu]

59 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

Presumably, WG have some sort of customary predatory plan going on

It's called "making money to keep the game running and fund future development".

[Frostbow]

2 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

It's called "making money to keep the game running and fund future development".

So you are defending WG's continued use of predatory mechanics. Why am I not surprised.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

1 minute ago, Frostbow said:

So you are defending WG's continued use of predatory mechanics. Why am I not surprised.

I'm not defending anything; I'm stating their intentions. Please note the difference.

[Verblonde]

18 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

It's called "making money to keep the game running and fund future development".

I'm not going to get into the whole thing about whether it's okay to take unscrupulous advantage of a subset of your punters; it seems to be a regional thing: EU folk usually think that companies should be ethical, where NA tends towards anything being fair game, and it being down to said punters to spot the more egregious urine-extraction.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

36 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

I'm not going to get into the whole thing about whether it's okay to take unscrupulous advantage of a subset of your punters;

I take the viewpoint that anyone intelligent enough to even play this game is also intelligent enough to avoid the sucker traps. My esteemed opponents seem to take the viewpoint that they are all rubes who need protecting from themselves with legislation that ruins it for everyone. 

[Verblonde]

7 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

I take the viewpoint that anyone intelligent enough to even play this game is also intelligent enough to avoid the sucker traps. My esteemed opponents seem to take the viewpoint that they are all rubes who need protecting from themselves with legislation that ruins it for everyone. 

Like I said, opinions tend to be regional.

[Utt_Bugglier]

6 hours ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

An interesting point, that is. Let's remember, though, essentially both the 'good stuff' and the 'trivial' are something that has more value for the players and zero value for WG except in terms of what they see as lost sales. Play before you pay, I think.

I’m not that worried about it, and I’ve never really been an anti-lootbox crusader. It’s just that the path through this event pass is divided, backloaded and convoluted to extent it has not been before, it has taken some effort to make it that way, and it is curious that WG would undertake that effort on backloading the “minor” rewards…

…unless…

…unless it’s a behavioral test thing on WG’s part to see how much grindwall/paywall players will push through (for was is considered the “best RNG crates WG offers”), to assess if what we call “minor” isn’t as minor in WG’s calculus as we might think.

Or maybe that determination has already been made, and we’re just seeing the result.

 

[Admiral_Karasu]

5 minutes ago, Utt_Bugglier said:

I’m not that worried about it, and I’ve never really been an anti-lootbox crusader. It’s just that the path through this event pass is divided, backloaded and convoluted to extent it has not been before, it has taken some effort to make it that way, and it is curious that WG would undertake that effort on backloading the “minor” rewards…

…unless…

…unless it’s a behavioral test thing on WG’s part to see how much grindwall/paywall players will push through (for was is considered the “best RNG crates WG offers”), to assess if what we call “minor” isn’t as minor in WG’s calculus as we might think.

Or maybe that determination has already been made, and we’re just seeing the result.

 

WG moves in mysterious waves.

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

21 hours ago, Utt_Bugglier said:

Like the Dockyard having the 99,000 BXP grind in the final stage, the current event pass has lots of grind shoved to the back:

https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/general-news/event-pass-1311-li-wei-and-olaf-lundgren/#chapter-1

Yeah, I played one battle yesterday and cleared five stages of the BP, but when you get to the tail end, it’s going to be 100 points per stage. And that’s preceded by a few stages at 75 points per.

Yeah, yeah: this pass has extra weeks and all that, but…

then there is the division into “chapters.” WG’s article on the pass says points will be reset after Chapter 1 ends. So, “no getting ahead early for YOU!” Also says “no catching up for YOU!” for those who didn’t grab all the points/stuff for Chapter 1.

It further says you need 945 points to complete “Chapter 1.” The period of time from 13.11 going live until “Chapter 2” begins is 21 days, in which you can earn 1095 points. At best, this means up to 150 points of your grind in mid-pass are going to be steered into obtaining bonus levels instead of furthering your progress, or at worst those points will be cast aside for the reset that occurs on 12/18.

Looks like another contrived way to force a tight timeline onto another event. And by splitting it into two “chapters” this way, they get to shove it into both ends (Thanksgiving, then Christmas) of people’s holiday times.

Nothing says we have to actually complete the Battle Pass.

Nothing says we actually have to give WG money. If the rewards aren't worth the effort...don't go for them.

It's pointless to try to get WG to change business strategy...this IS the game they want. Decide whether you want the stuff or not.

20 hours ago, Wulf_Ace said:

I really dont see whats the fuss about, its not like rewards are must have. I see their point, they want people to play more, which is understandable.

 

Yup.

The worse thing that can happen, from WG's point of view, is that we ignore the game.

So...if you really are angry about WG's business model...IGNORE THE GAME.

That behavior gets noticed real quick.

3 hours ago, Verblonde said:

I have to admit to some ambivalence about the Xmas BP: while the latter part (of the first chapter) is - comparatively - rather grindy, you do get an awful lot of stuff quickly early on, with not much effort. Even more so, if you pony up the doubloons.

Presumably, WG have some sort of customary predatory plan going on, but what the typical player (who may want to spend at least some of the holidays with their loved ones - heaven forfend!) gets seems to be pretty decent?

That said, what you get from the Satan Boxes will drastically impact how good it is for you personally (on my main account, including the paid track, I've dropped a T6 and a T8 premium - rather beating the odds, I suspect).

I mean, this is a game in the free2play genre...predatory to customer business plans ought to be expected...and WG is no different than the rest of the gaming industry in this regard.

Set your personal expectations accordingly. WG is not an ethical business...nor is it in an industry known for it's ethical behavior.

If we want actual change, we will have to convince the government to regulate it...which has its own issues...but at this point, I might choose it out of spite, just because making these companies suffer has some degree of schadenfreude for me.

And don't use the above as evidence that the industry is somehow being victimized by me. If companies behave exceptionally poorly for this long and with this consistency, don't expect anyone to defend them from the inevitable consequences of the backlash.

2 hours ago, Frostbow said:

So you are defending WG's continued use of predatory mechanics. Why am I not surprised.

I mean...it's the whole industry.

What do you want him to do or change?

[Utt_Bugglier]

9 minutes ago, Daniel_Allan_Clark said:

It's pointless to try to get WG to change business strategy...this IS the game they want. Decide whether you want the stuff or not.

I’m not trying to get WG to change their business strategy. If I were, this wouldn’t be the place to attempt it.

I’m just trying to inform folks here so that when it takes three days’ grind to finish a couple of stages at the end of the pass, that they’re not surprised.

But, inevitably, some will be.

And I expect we’ll hear about their surprise, right here.

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

24 minutes ago, Utt_Bugglier said:

I’m not trying to get WG to change their business strategy. If I were, this wouldn’t be the place to attempt it.

I’m just trying to inform folks here so that when it takes three days’ grind to finish a couple of stages at the end of the pass, that they’re not surprised.

But, inevitably, some will be.

And I expect we’ll hear about their surprise, right here.

Indeed.

Though in that case we will just have to help them decide if the prize is worth the price...and also point out this is normal practice from WG.

[dcSerge]

Not sure if it's been mentioned elsewhere, if you use Steam there is a free DLC that gives you 30 event pass points for completing some straight forward missions.

Cheers,

Serge

[Sumseaman]

On 11/30/2024 at 1:30 AM, Ensign Cthulhu said:

I take the viewpoint that anyone intelligent enough to even play this game is also intelligent enough to avoid the sucker traps. My esteemed opponents seem to take the viewpoint that they are all rubes who need protecting from themselves with legislation that ruins it for everyone. 

That's usually how legislation is drafted in this day and age unfortunately. Lowest common denominator. The foolish must be protected from themselves. They have children too so it's all the more important I suppose.