Quote Originally Posted by GrumpyGramps View Post
Have you ever been to Vegas (or any other decent casino)?
What do you think those banners over the slot machines saying "97% payback" mean??
The player DOES win most of the time!! AND STILL the casino's make TONS of money.

Yes the casino's should (and do) cater to their "Whales" but they cater to their "ordinary" players too.
I am constantly getting offers from my favorite casinos to come out - stay free - eat free, etc.

Let me tell you a little about myself.
I'm 58 (WOW soooo OLD and still playing Knights and Dragons)
I go to Vegas at least 4 times a year - ALWAYS with free rooms, yet I never spend more than $100 a day in Vegas. I talked with a slot host once and was told that the $100 a day casino gamblers are the ones that the casino's like best because they are consistent. It's easily budgeted income, they know the cost of inviting me (and the thousands of similar people on their lists) out to the casino, and they know exactly how much profit they will be making on that offered weekend.
You do realize 97% payback doesn't mean the person hitting that slot machine wins 97% of the time right? The house only winning 3% of the time would mean they give away money. The hit tables are WAY lower, likely in the 30-40% range, depending on how loose they want to make the machines.

The Payback means that over time, the machine will pay back 97% of what it takes in, in the form of jackpots, and all the other small winnings combined. And how much do they take in? Millions. That is why even with only making 3% (97% payback seems a little high, but eh, ...) even if the machine makes 1,000,000 a year, then 3% of that is how much? 30,000. Of course they can still make hand over fist.

As far as the free offers. Good for you. Hook a brother up. My friends have won two trips to Vegas doing local radio station stuff. Never been there myself.

But the reason they cater to people like you, or those $100 a day people, is because empty rooms and empty seats in front of the machines in the casinos is the biggest reason they don't make money. If they can guarantee someone will come in and spend a few bucks here and there, that is a few more bucks here and there they didn't have before, even if they have to eat the cost of some low priced food and drinks, and a bed for the night. They're already paying a cook, and a cleaning crew, they have to pay huge electric/water bills. These are marginal costs to them. Same as a restaurant/bar. Main goal is to put butts in seats. Every empty seat is $1000's.

You can, and yet can't, equate this game to a casino though. There is no grand payback. You can't take that epic that you got lucky off one random key, and sell it for 5000 gems, and then re-buy more chests and continue to get lucky. (Another especially good reason to NOT have trading.) You spend gems, and might get some extra stuff to level your armor, but that is it. And that one armor isn't going to win you the game. You still have to compete against other players, or play smart enough to match elements against the bosses, and heaven forbid other content when it comes out. The game isn't setup to be a "get lucky and win the game" type game. Sure, there are stories of arena players playing for almost free after buying some energy, consistently getting gems out of key rewards, but that should also come with a "results not typical" disclaimer.

My issue with the "general $5 a day/month/whatever idea" people, is that they aren't making the content to where that is enough to get by. I understand it. Does it suck for the 99%? Yeah. But my prior example was on them turning around and literally selling an epic. $5 won't cut it. And it really doesn't get you anywhere in this game. It will barely get you a DPC pull for crying out loud. Again, not saying that it wouldn't work, but they would have to re-work the entire game structure to be able to make it so that people paying $5 felt they were getting their moneys worth. Then what do you do to the people that have spent $1000's? Spit in their face? Magically say "hey, thanks for supporting this game, and all the other f2p players that have never spent money on the game... but, we're changing things so Joe Five Spot can now win the arena with $5. Have a nice day.