Preview of New Premium Crystals

[baroqueinjection]

Gpots : Premium Crystals = 1:1 ratio. (GM confirmed)

Gpots : Gem Shards = 1:1 ratio. (GM/CS confirmed)

Gem Shards : Premium Crystals = 1:1 ratio. (Unconfirmed)

[vespers119]

I must be missing something here... if premium shards are 1:1 with gpots and i can convert gpots or regular shards to get premium crystals then there's no point in having them to start with.

if one cannot convert regular shards into premium shards and the only way to aquire premium shards is by buying gpots and then converting them then that makes more sense, but also is annoying.

There is an item that costs 100 gPotatoes. It has 10 charges. Each charge gives between 10-15 gPotatoes, and also a chance to give 10000 gPotatoes.

Win 10000 gPotatoes, purchase another 100 boxes, repeat.

Instant millionaire.

is this available now? i don't see it

[shockpix]

There seems to be some confusion about the function of the crystals. The reason they were created and added to the game was to allow us to more easily grant players prizes that they want. In the future, they will be used as something similar to a gift voucher, given as prizes from contests and promotions.

Keep in mind that they can be purchased with both gPotatos and Gem Shards, and Gem Shards in turn can be purchased with gold. None of the "Premium Crystal" items is truly exclusive to Item Shop spenders - it's not really another way to make money, it is simply another currency that makes giving prizes that you can choose easier =)

Pardon the analogy I'm about to lay out here, but imagine our events and contests are like games at an arcade. Before we would just hand you a teddy bear or a handful of spider rings, but you might already have the biggest teddy bear, or not like spiders. Now we are able to dispense tickets when you win, so you may redeem those tickets for the prize you want from behind the counter. Maybe you didn't want either of those things, maybe you wanted the finger trap or to save up for the nerf gun. Now you can do that =)

It's not so much a means of selling items through the item shop as it is an alternative means of purchasing those items - for free.

[gonionknight]

Pardon the analogy I'm about to lay out here, but imagine our events and contests are like games at an arcade. Before we would just hand you a teddy bear or a handful of spider rings, but you might already have the biggest teddy bear, or not like spiders. Now we are able to dispense tickets when you win, so you may redeem those tickets for the prize you want. Maybe you didn't want either of those things, maybe you wanted the finger trap. Now you can get it =)

It's not so much a means of selling items through the item shop as it is an alternative means of purchasing those items.

Can I turn this super-rare GM-created Indigo Wolf you gave me into a teddy bear?

Seriously, even my mounts have mounts...

[therealskypirate]

There seems to be some confusion about the function of the crystals. The reason they were created and added to the game was to allow us to more easily grant players prizes that they want. In the future, they will be used as something similar to a gift voucher, given as prizes from contests and promotions.

Keep in mind that they can be purchased with both gPotatos and Gem Shards, and Gem Shards in turn can be purchased with gold. None of the "Premium Crystal" items is truly exclusive to Item Shop spenders - it's not really another way to make money, it is simply another currency that makes giving prizes that you can choose easier =)

Pardon the analogy I'm about to lay out here, but imagine our events and contests are like games at an arcade. Before we would just hand you a teddy bear or a handful of spider rings, but you might already have the biggest teddy bear, or not like spiders. Now we are able to dispense tickets when you win, so you may redeem those tickets for the prize you want from behind the counter. Maybe you didn't want either of those things, maybe you wanted the finger trap or to save up for the nerf gun. Now you can do that =)

It's not so much a means of selling items through the item shop as it is an alternative means of purchasing those items - for free.

So using this event as an example, people who had lion mount and won the biggest prize would instead be able to use this voucher system for something else?

[gonionknight]

There seems to be some confusion about the function of the crystals. The reason they were created and added to the game was to allow us to more easily grant players prizes that they want. In the future, they will be used as something similar to a gift voucher, given as prizes from contests and promotions.

Keep in mind that they can be purchased with both gPotatos and Gem Shards, and Gem Shards in turn can be purchased with gold. None of the "Premium Crystal" items is truly exclusive to Item Shop spenders - it's not really another way to make money, it is simply another currency that makes giving prizes that you can choose easier =)

Pardon the analogy I'm about to lay out here, but imagine our events and contests are like games at an arcade. Before we would just hand you a teddy bear or a handful of spider rings, but you might already have the biggest teddy bear, or not like spiders. Now we are able to dispense tickets when you win, so you may redeem those tickets for the prize you want from behind the counter. Maybe you didn't want either of those things, maybe you wanted the finger trap or to save up for the nerf gun. Now you can do that =)

It's not so much a means of selling items through the item shop as it is an alternative means of purchasing those items - for free.

So using this event as an example, people who had lion mount and won the biggest prize would instead be able to use this voucher system for something else?

A better example would be someone like me winning the old-school epic bag and epic bank, and then winning another epic bag and epic bank, which I ended up giving away via a raffle.

[shockpix]

There seems to be some confusion about the function of the crystals. The reason they were created and added to the game was to allow us to more easily grant players prizes that they want. In the future, they will be used as something similar to a gift voucher, given as prizes from contests and promotions.

Keep in mind that they can be purchased with both gPotatos and Gem Shards, and Gem Shards in turn can be purchased with gold. None of the "Premium Crystal" items is truly exclusive to Item Shop spenders - it's not really another way to make money, it is simply another currency that makes giving prizes that you can choose easier =)

Pardon the analogy I'm about to lay out here, but imagine our events and contests are like games at an arcade. Before we would just hand you a teddy bear or a handful of spider rings, but you might already have the biggest teddy bear, or not like spiders. Now we are able to dispense tickets when you win, so you may redeem those tickets for the prize you want from behind the counter. Maybe you didn't want either of those things, maybe you wanted the finger trap or to save up for the nerf gun. Now you can do that =)

It's not so much a means of selling items through the item shop as it is an alternative means of purchasing those items - for free.

So using this event as an example, people who had lion mount and won the biggest prize would instead be able to use this voucher system for something else?

Not quite. These would be used instead of those prizes. In the case of the log-in event, they were not. The prize is a Sinister Lion.

However in the future the main prize might be an equal amount of Premium Crystals, meaning you can spend those how you want in the Item Shop, instead of us just telling you you're getting a Sinister Lion. You might still choose to buy one (if one is in the Item Shop at that time) but it's your choice.

We won't be exchanging current prizes for Premium Crystals, these are just a new feature we introduced today that we'll be occasionally using in the future.

[drascoll]

they can't hardly make everything in the item shop essentially free.

Dude? Yes they can. If you look at this factor. FARMING FOR GOLD IS NOT FUN! ITS BORING A HELL! Let's use the one guys example of farming for estimated 8-24hours on a saturday to make 10k gold. At 3:1 he is making about 3k gpotatos. Now lets assume he is not insane and only worked for 8 hours farming. That would equal the equivalent of $3.75 for an hours work. Now lets assume he is nuts and 10k was made in a 24hour period. Then he is only making $1.25 per hour.

However I have only made 500g per hour framing during lm so that would = only 4k gold for an 8 hour day. If I worked for 8 hours and made 4k gold then I would have made $1.25 per hour. hmmm...

Being a person with a Job, I know my time is valuable. Would you take any job in America @ $1.25 per hour? Let's assume your rent is $500-$900 per Month. You would be homeless. You ever hear the saying "Time equals Money"?

My point is this. NOTHING IS FREE! The people who farm ingame gold to buy things are people who work for it. The fact that they can work for it supports the idea that the game is FREE TO PLAY. However anyone with any self worth would realize that they would rather go to work and get a real pay check then easily buy what they need when they need it. BECAUSE FARMING GOLD IN AN MMO SUCKS! And $30 for a in game mount is Highway robbery. Thank God for Forum games, and giveaways.

/end my derailment of the thread.

[liquin_ii]

How to introduce more useless levels of abstraction. Please respond.

Exactly. the prices are already too high, & the shards added nothing you couldn't have done with gpots.. having a THIRD level of abstraction can only be for the purpose of making things more costly/confusing to the user.

[Condulus]

Exactly. the prices are already too high, & the shards added nothing you couldn't have done with gpots.. having a THIRD level of abstraction can only be for the purpose of making things more costly/confusing to the user.

The Premium Crystals were created by the developer due to a few technical issues with Gem Shards and some events. They needed some extra functions on a secondary currency that were not available with Gem Shards due to the nature of them.