Patch Coming This Week and Changes to Mount Fang Boss Gauntlet

[FluffNStuff]

Hey Hank, thanks for taking the time to voice your opinion and keeping it constructive. I'd like to throw out the alternate viewpoint that a player who doesn't want to purchase Platinum can get everything if they have enough time to farm it. That, like much else in life, is the dividing line. Do you want to spend your time getting it, or do you want to pay to speed up the time investment? To reiterate, this premium option is optional. You can play for free, as you always have, and do runs of the current zones, fighting in to the boss and taking them down for their loot.

While technically true that others getting something easier does not diminish what someone gets, that theory is dangerously ignoring the primal reason people play these games, which is addiction. Addiction in this sense is not a bad things, and is a very real part of human nature. Addiction requires two things, a chance at a 'victory' (a high) and also a greater chance at a 'loss' (low). In this case, killing a boss and getting a pink is a high, and not getting a pink is a low. The lows are what drives the highs, as can be seen by the failure of the all pink Shadow Caves. Every roll became a victory, with no chance at a loss, so there were no lows to drive the highs, and people got annoyed.
Currently in Mt. Fang, there is an excellent balance of highs and lows, but by adding this plat option, you are throwing off the balance for everyone involved by increasing the victories for some, which reduces the over all highs for all players. While 'sell price' and gold are just numbers on a screen, by playing, we have bought into and have contributed to the idea that those numbers have value. All Mt. Fang players want to get a Sanguine Long Bow drop because it has a ~value~ of 3 million gold, and currently are doing runs after runs in order to get that. Why? There is no real reason for it, but our minds put a high value on it, so we become addicted to the idea of having it drop. When the CS starts filling up with the bows, and they become common and drop in 'imaginary' value, that will reduce the highs of farming. Once those highs become diminished, players will slowly stop playing. They might not even know why they stopped playing, they will just feel like the game is not what it used to be, and find reasons to stop, reasons previously blocked by their minds.