Losing Their Marbles
I'm sure by now that most of you have already heard about the Mog Bonanza event.
In case you have not (because you either don't play FFXI or have been living on the moon), here's the basic concept:
Step 1) Players buy a marble
Step 2) Players put a number on that marble
Step 3) ???
Step 4) Profit
It all boils down to a simple lottery where players can pick a random 5 digit number in hopes of winning prizes.
Top prizes include some of the hardest to obtain or most valuable items in the game.
Or...
100,000,000 gil.
No, that wasn't a typo.
One hundred million gil.
I think one of the devs has seen Austin Powers a few too many times.
With that much gil you could buy Bastok.
Or something good.
I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Put down the rocks and ugly, hairy children.
Honestly, the system itself looks great. Some random player will be given the opportunity of a lifetime and get to choose one of the most coveted items in all of FFXI.
They'll carefully weight the impact each piece of armor or weaponry might have on their character. Epic debates will ensue over which piece is truly the most valuable.
And then they'll pick the money.
This isn't even a question.
Sure, the items are just plain awesome. I doubt there's a player in FFXI that wouldn't want something from that list.
And then they'll pick the money.
It's just a matter of plain old practicality. Those items may be hard to get, sure, but you can still get them.
But think about what you could do with one hundred million gil.
Just think about it.
...
It could even be, dare I say it... wicked awesome.
Now, what do you think the player base did with this announcement?
Did they talk about which prize they'd want? Yeah.
But we expected that.
There were two other things we didn't expect:
a) everyone trying to figure out exactly how they could cheat the system
b) people claiming the lottery would break the economy.
That's not true. We totally expected that.
Well... I expected that.
I have a very low opinion of most of the player base.
I know. You're shocked.
Do you know what happened right after we made the announcement?
Half of the players hit the forums ready to complain about the impact on the economy.
The other half logged in and started making mules.
Lottery mules.
There are seriously people right now trying to level 15 mules to level 5 just so they can buy marbles.
I don't even have a punchline for that.
Apparently, the people behind the lottery concept did not consider the impact this would have on the Vana'diel bunny population.
I'm just wondering what someone is going to do if they win the 100,000,000 gil.
It'll probably take them about a minute to remember that you can only send 1,000,000 gil at a time to other characters.
Even your own.
That'll be a funny minute.
Player>> HOLY SHIT!
Player>> I WON!!!
*runs to the delivery NPC*
Player>> &*%@!!!
I swear I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.
Now, what do you think the player base did with this announcement?
Did they talk about which prize they'd want? Yeah.
But we expected that.
There were two other things we didn't expect:
a) everyone trying to figure out exactly how they could cheat the system
b) people claiming the lottery would break the economy.
That's not true. We totally expected that.
Well... I expected that.
I have a very low opinion of most of the player base.
I know. You're shocked.
Do you know what happened right after we made the announcement?
Half of the players hit the forums ready to complain about the impact on the economy.
The other half logged in and started making mules.
Lottery mules.
There are seriously people right now trying to level 15 mules to level 5 just so they can buy marbles.
I don't even have a punchline for that.
Apparently, the people behind the lottery concept did not consider the impact this would have on the Vana'diel bunny population.
I'm just wondering what someone is going to do if they win the 100,000,000 gil.
It'll probably take them about a minute to remember that you can only send 1,000,000 gil at a time to other characters.
Even your own.
That'll be a funny minute.
Player>> HOLY SHIT!
Player>> I WON!!!
*runs to the delivery NPC*
Player>> &*%@!!!
I swear I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.
posted by Goblin Smithy @ 8:54 AM
16 Comments:
Haha, I hadn't thought about the delivery limit. That's awesome.
"Apparently, the people behind the lottery concept did not consider the impact this would have on the Vana'diel bunny population."
Sure they have.
1$/mule x 15 mules/player x millions of idiots = Profit
As we all know, bunnies reproduce fast, so I don't think there'll be any serious impact on the bunny population.
The only impact there might be is having to develop a form of bunny viagra to supply all the mules.
I've been drooling over an Ares Cuirass for my dragoon since they came out, but come on. With 100 million I could get every other piece of purchasable gear I'll ever need, and finish woodworking to 103. Plus, I think I'd rather get my cuirass by earning it.
Oh wow, I just realized how dumb and innocent I am. I totally wasn't even considering getting the marble on my mule...wow, I'm glad I read this lol.
But c'mon now seriously, who would pick anything else???
you forgot something, the people posting about "OHMYGOD WHAT IF RMT WIN??!?!?!???!"
but yes, fingers crossed on my lucky numbers eh?
This comment has been removed by the author.
"you forgot something, the people posting about "OHMYGOD WHAT IF RMT WIN??!?!?!???!""
Then they get banned when they sell it? :3
Holy hell, this is news to me. I need to get my new computer and start playing FFXI again. Curse this crappy laptop for not having enough room for FFXI!
RMT winning would be hilarious. However, while you may not like WoW, Blizzard set a nice precident for SE when the filed a federal lawsuit against the parent company for Peons4Hire. Btw, this resulted in a permanent injection effectively shutting down their entire WoW operation.
*Hint*hit*
well i kinda look at it like this.. 100mil doesnt really matter what armor they offer.. go up to a HNMLS and say hey it (for example) takes 18 people to kill this mob for this armor.. i got 1 mil for each of your members that wanna do it and say an extra mil for the ls fund..
i dont see many LS's turning down an offer like that so winning player could get armor peice for that example and still walk away with 70 some mil left..
As usual, Dave is right, and Caramis compounds this point.
Even the most coveted Rare/Ex item in the game would require less than 30 mil in bribes to HNMLSs to adquire, leaving you swimming in 70 mil.
That is an INSANE amount of money.
also has anyone given a thought to server population issues?
i know this isnt going to affect people logged in at same time, i am reffering to memory issues possibly.
they just posted about one of the servers population continuing to rise and were debating on offering free transfer off that server..
now they are doing this when most that can afford the extra 10 or so dollars a month for mules are going to go out and level them to better the chances.
say you have a server pop (theoretically here) 30k people and say 80-90% are middle class or upper middle and can afford the extra 10-12 whatever.. say 21k do make say 12 more characters you just jumped technically around 250some thousand characters added to required saved spaces on the servers..
granted my earlier comment may be read one way or the other and dont get me wrong i go down to the gas station once or twice a month to chance a dollar on the lottery but in this.. i dont see any good coming from it..
will i try it.. um yeah.. but still not gonna say this is a good thing.. what would i do if i win? pass it around mainly to friends.. not much i really want or need for what little i do while playing..
Well, if someone named Aladfji tries to say, "I can have the money gils now?" I think we deserve a re-draw.
C'mon, now. Daddy needs a new Haubergeon +1... or 50.
Yeah.
Also, the proportions seem odd to me. Which rank is it again where you can win 100k? You can also win a Behemoth Hide. That's worth 800k (on Odin). And 100mil? Vs. a Kracken Club? Sorry, but I'd take the money.
Then buy THREE Kracken Clubs.
Well probably not, but you get the idea.
But seriously, it's not hard to take a mule to Jeuno or something and just use the mule to buy everything you want and send THAT. I just think they should have made the minimum level something that takes... you know... less than 20 minutes to obtain.
Screw transferring the money. With 100,000,000 gil, your level retarded bunny just became your main character.
Seriously, you'd never have to wander around LFG again - anytime you showed up without three people in tow, there'd be two dozen greedy bastards breathing down your neck for a chance to protect you and maybe earn a 10,000 gil tip. The entire server would know and respect the name xDraxoniSx, because everytime an enemy hits him, money comes out.
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