The Billionaire's Analysis of the Computer Chip Event - Kudos to Funzio?

[InGameName I]

thats like syaing there should be free play tables and slots at the casino

This is a random # slot machine realize where you are and what this is...

[AppleMacGuy]

I placed 22 in this event spent a shi t ton of money. This event will be my last. I've spent a good share of gold on the last 7 events and have succeeded with 10th item each time. This was a huge cash cow for funzio but a bad choice overall. I'm sure this put a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths because of the sheer greed that was exhibited. This was not a fun event more of a chore. I'll start events again if it's old format if not funzio won't see a dime.

I agree with all your points.

[sister morphine]

I'm probably going to be in a minority (of one?) here, but I didn't enjoy this event one bit. Having become thoroughly disillusioned after the ATM/debit card event, when for the first time I used gold all the way and still ended up with only 9 cards I reverted to free openings only for this one. At the end I had 8 chips (a figure which has been pretty consistent through all the events for me). However, whereas with the old style events I would have received three items, this time I got just the one.

I'm happy to accept that some players, presumably including the OP, have large disposable incomes which they are happy to spend in this game, but not everybody is in that happy position and I don't like the increased tendency to regard players as mere cash cows, and if some can't (or won't) compete financially they'll just have to accept second division status. The game surely should be about strategy in building a hood and a strong mafia, and not merely about buying dominance though financial clout. We've had enough demonstration of the corrosive effects of that tendency in the real world in recent years without it becoming the norm in this game.

[InGameName I]

I'm probably going to be in a minority (of one?) here, but I didn't enjoy this event one bit. Having become thoroughly disillusioned after the ATM/debit card event, when for the first time I used gold all the way and still ended up with only 9 cards I reverted to free openings only for this one. At the end I had 8 chips (a figure which has been pretty consistent through all the events for me). However, whereas with the old style events I would have received three items, this time I got just the one.

I'm happy to accept that some players, presumably including the OP, have large disposable incomes which they are happy to spend in this game, but not everybody is in that happy position and I don't like the increased tendency to regard players as mere cash cows, and if some can't (or won't) compete financially they'll just have to accept second division status. The game surely should be about strategy in building a hood and a strong mafia, and not merely about buying dominance though financial clout. We've had enough demonstration of the corrosive effects of that tendency in the real world in recent years without it becoming the norm in this game.

IM A 1% er here to further exert my dominance.
sell some of that moprh and you can join SKK and be a Playa

[Dangerous Greg]

I think they did it to avoid a bash-lash from players who just missed being in the top 50... you see by not having a live list, they could pad the results to make sure that all players who were spending multiple vaults got the final reward and walked away ready to spend on the next event. Has anyone stepped forward and said "Damn it I had 99 chips, spent $500 and got nothing for my efforts..." It seems really odd to have not seen a post like that...

Benni, you do have a point. I even wondered about it. If this was the case, you would think that someone else has the same ranking, which could be the case. Did anyone else get rank #50?

[Olly1]

I'm probably going to be in a minority (of one?) here, but I didn't enjoy this event one bit. Having become thoroughly disillusioned after the ATM/debit card event, when for the first time I used gold all the way and still ended up with only 9 cards I reverted to free openings only for this one. At the end I had 8 chips (a figure which has been pretty consistent through all the events for me). However, whereas with the old style events I would have received three items, this time I got just the one.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I enjoyed it to start with but got more and more frustrated as I leveled up (3 times) trying to find boxes and then stupidly spending money (around 200 gold) a few days before the end. Towards the last day I was still balancing on the top 500 mark and went for the 'in for a penny, in for a pound' logic and ended up spending a bit more gold, more than I was comfortable with really (yes I know it was my own choice!)

I'm definitely going to be taking it easy and not joining in on the next events for a while and it sounds like a lot of other people will be too. To be honest a 300 attack gain over 3 levels isn't great anyway!

[Swingle007]

I dropped 40.00 on gold and finished higher than I expected (230's). The numbers on the lambo justified that much of an expenditure in my mind, so I'm pleased with the event overall. I didn't have any trouble accumulating boxes and ended the event with about a hundred. :-)

[Dangerous Greg]

People need to keep in mind how this was different than an auction. In an auction you place a bid and will get outbid if somebody wants the item more than your bid. You no longer get the item unless you increase your bid. Sounds familiar right? Okay now imagine the same auction except you place your bid and if you get outbid you still have to pay your bid offering but get nothing unless you increase your bid above what anyone else is willing to pay. Doesn't that sound evil? Well, we unwittingly signed up for that!

Now, imagine that you were going about bidding for an item where multiple people are bidding for the item under those circumstances. The same circumstances meaning that you get nothing if you don't bid high enough. The auctioneer decides that he can get more money if he changes the rules. Now, you will not know what other people are bidding and you blindly have to highball your bid or end up with nothing!. You didn't know about this rule before you started the bidding process. This is just utterly and purely wrong! It is an absolute breach of trust! Why would you EVER trust the auctioneer again??? This is stealing no mater how you rationalize it.
Imagine this was a car or a house you were bidding on. Before someone points out it was a virtual item, it was more than just that. It was something that over 50 people paid more than $700 for!! If the virtual item is NOT real let me remind all that more than $35,000 IS very real! that is what Funzio managed to get out of the top 50 people and did so with a total lack of integrity. Sounds harsh? It should sound harsh.

I love this game, I really do. I hate and despise the people that decided that this was an acceptable thing to do.

[BeniBugatti]

People need to keep in mind how this was different than an auction. In an auction you place a bid and will get outbid if somebody wants the item more than your bid. You no longer get the item unless you increase your bid. Sounds familiar right? Okay now imagine the same auction except you place your bid and if you get outbid you still have to pay your bid offering but get nothing unless you increase your bid above what anyone else is willing to pay. Doesn't that sound evil? Well, we unwittingly signed up for that!

Nicely put... I think even Bernie Madoff might not have had the audacity to try that.

[Canoehead]

I finished 64th with 69 chips. Safes were hard to find throughout the event. With an hour to go I had 60 chips and 150 unopened safes. I was two vaults in at that point with all gold opens, a few timer resets and some stamina and energy refills.

At one hour left I was 38 chips out of 50th and thought I could convert my 150 safes to 50 chips. I spent a vault to open 50, but only got 9 chips. When I saw that, and that the leader board was frozen (which I assumed would cause 50th place to go up by 6-10 chips, I said uncle and went to bed.

Frankly I'm happier about the two vaults I didn't spend than I am angry about the three vaults I wasted. I will say that for me the game has changed in a negative way. Gree's obvious greed is part of it, but so us the lack of new things at higher levels. Give me new thug life loot, more levels, new buildings and some valuable things to do with in game $$, and I could overlook the greed. I had a lot more fun below level 100, and the truth for gold spenders is that there will always be another who can kick your azz

[Babytway]

My Thoughts on the Electronic Safe Event

I have to say Funzio i really like the new layout of the latest event. The range of prizes is better, there's two modifiers, a leaderboard and i'm guessing more winners??

During the first 2 days i was extremely frustrated because the drop rate of the safes was terrible. This is why i think every player should start with 5 or 10 safes when an event begins. This would have a number of bonuses to both Funzio and the player.

If funzio listens to you on this idea and implements it, it will be every player can start out with 5 safes for 50gold and 10 safes for 90gold. thats the funzio way

[BeniBugatti]

I finished 64th with 69 chips. Safes were hard to find throughout the event. With an hour to go I had 60 chips and 150 unopened safes. I was two vaults in at that point with all gold opens, a few timer resets and some stamina and energy refills.

I guess that puts a big crimp in my theory.

[Coldcommander]

I have a strong negative response and perspective on the event. I don't think this was a good move (long-term) for Funzio. How much would someone be willing to wager that the next event that is structured like this one will not generate even 70% of this first event? I think that a company that is selling virtual items needs to make money but not appear too greedy at the risk of upsetting the money spenders. There is an element of trust that perpetuates player loyalty that is related to willingness to spend real money on a virtual game.

In the end, we either did or did not get the prize and individually ask "was it worth it". Did I get any kind of value for my money and or time relative to the market established within the reality of this game? In this case, would I have been better off buying crates or other rare items? If the answer is yes, then less players will engage in the event in the future. I can tell you with no doubt that I would have ended up much better buying $800 in crates! Geeze, I almost spent $800 and DIDN"T get the prize! I was # 50! I spent the least amount I could and still got the top prize and I am telling you that it was not a good value proposition for me. What about the people above me that spent more?

Obviously, the question is the same with different answers depending on what prize the player was seeking. It seems the second-tier prize was a good value. In the future, I can see being involved in the event but only for that target.

In my opinion, for the top gold spenders, this was a bad move by Funzio. Being part of this group, I can say that I won't participate in this kind of event (for the top prize anyway) again. Also my opinion, I thought what they did at the end was VERY VERY dirty play. They changed the rules at the end of the game! That is a breach of trust in my opinion! IF I didn't get the prize I know that I would be absolutely furious. Before the leader board was frozen I was in 42nd place with the 4 chips above the 50th person.

Trust is important to maintain your player loyalty. What do you think the top 50 players are feeling? What about the top 100 that didn't make the top 50? For this small group of really big spenders this was a really questionable tactic on Funzio's part.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!

I will say that this event has made me feel a little ill towards the game. On day one I was tied for first by day two I was in 25. I felt the constant pressure to spend if I wanted to stay in the top. It was like watching a bad movie that you hoped would get better. I never would have imagined the amount people would spend to obtain these items. I would never compete in this style of event in the hopes to be top 50! But they sucked me into this one by day one there was no going back!!

[The Billionaire]

I dropped 40.00 on gold and finished higher than I expected (230's). The numbers on the lambo justified that much of an expenditure in my mind, so I'm pleased with the event overall. I didn't have any trouble accumulating boxes and ended the event with about a hundred. :-)

This is exactly how I feel although we seem to be the minority. I enjoyed the event because I only spent 650 gold and made the top 500 (174th place). I can see why everyone else is fuming because I would be if I was in their position but I knew it was going to take a massive gold spend to make the top 50 which I wasn't willing to pay this time.

I'm surprised people are complaining about how hard it was to find safes. After the first 48hrs I always had a safe to open and obtained them by fighting other players as I did in every other event.

[Inzaghi]

People need to keep in mind how this was different than an auction. In an auction you place a bid and will get outbid if somebody wants the item more than your bid. You no longer get the item unless you increase your bid. Sounds familiar right? Okay now imagine the same auction except you place your bid and if you get outbid you still have to pay your bid offering but get nothing unless you increase your bid above what anyone else is willing to pay. Doesn't that sound evil? Well, we unwittingly signed up for that!

Now, imagine that you were going about bidding for an item where multiple people are bidding for the item under those circumstances. The same circumstances meaning that you get nothing if you don't bid high enough. The auctioneer decides that he can get more money if he changes the rules. Now, you will not know what other people are bidding and you blindly have to highball your bid or end up with nothing!. You didn't know about this rule before you started the bidding process. This is just utterly and purely wrong! It is an absolute breach of trust! Why would you EVER trust the auctioneer again??? This is stealing no mater how you rationalize it.
Imagine this was a car or a house you were bidding on. Before someone points out it was a virtual item, it was more than just that. It was something that over 50 people paid more than $700 for!! If the virtual item is NOT real let me remind all that more than $35,000 IS very real! that is what Funzio managed to get out of the top 50 people and did so with a total lack of integrity. Sounds harsh? It should sound harsh.

I love this game, I really do. I hate and despise the people that decided that this was an acceptable thing to do.

I agree with you that this is not a pure auction. But it's not like the case your describe b/c top 51-100 did receive the "small" yet "expensive" car, right?