"I didn't think it was such a bad thing at first, because I thought it was simply a way to exchange crowns for gold at a better rate than usual (5 crowns->20 gold) with an extra treasure card thrown in from time to time. What I had obviously MISSED was that the amount you tossed in kept increasing with each throw."
My friends this mechanic still exists in the game. The second chance chests in each boss area uses the exact same style of betting crowns for something good.
Last night I farmed Malistaire again attempting to get Amber's elusive robe. I put together a little timeline graphic of how my second chances went. I missed a few screenshots of the cost because at the time that wasn't what I was really concerned with. But you'll pretty much get the gist of what I'm saying here.
For those of you who don't know how the second chance chests work, after you defeat a boss, you get to walk up to their wishing well . . . um, I mean chest . . . and spend crowns on trying to secure that elusive drop you wanted from that boss. It doesn't respawn the boss for you like some may think. It just starts acting like an ATM machine. The bidding starts at 50 crowns and goes up . . . I stopped when it became painful at 500+ crowns for an attempt.
(click that graphic to expand it so you can see what I'm talking about)
So for the cost of around 1,000 crowns I basically got 605 gold, 2 iceflame cloaks (ontop of the 1 I already got), 1 Malistaire Drake Ruby Signet, 2 crates of chickens, and 2 ruined paintings.
I don't know if I'd let my son (who LOVES to burn through crowns) use that second chance chest unsupervised . . . not because it's "gambling" so much, but because of the progressive nature of the cost. Do I feel burnt because I was unlucky? Probably. If I had gotten a rare mount and Amber's cloak, you better believe this post would have a different tone. LOL.
I do think 50 crowns for a second chance at loot is fair, but I don't think 500 crowns for an eighth chance is . . . unless it was the jackpot. OH SNAP! There goes that gambling metaphor again!
I kind of wish I had an ice wizard on this account. haha! He'd have three colors of tunics to choose from.
Happy Dueling!
9 comments:
Does Kingisle like gambling so much? 500 crowns for something you don't want? You could get a mount instead! You could buy SO much stuff with that. And why, why, would people use it on second chance chests? What's more fun, farming them several times with good friends, or, spending all your time standing there, trashing away crowns. What would you do?
Actually you could not buy a mount with 500 crowns....
Lol yeah, remember when you won that contest and your son burned the crowns on santa suit.
Evil, I tells ya! EVIL! O_o
Oh well, whatever.
I didn't get around to trying out the second chance chests on test, but my kids and I did Big Ben today, and there were two, one for Meowiarity and one for the spilled milk guy (love the badge from this guy: "Crusher Crusher"). My son tried it out, and after three tries actually ended up with a pretty nice robe he could sell. When I tried it, I didn't get squat, and went three times before I balked at spending more than $.20 of real money on "second" chances. The increase in cost surprised me (I noticed it this time), and I took a moment to point out to my son that 100 crowns was worth .20 of REAL money.
This new way of getting more cash from us makes it way too easy for kids to throw away money, and I think there should be some kind of parental control on it, particularly for younger kids. Especially if a parent doesn't play the game with their kid, they need to have the chance to explain how it works before a kid can use it, I think. If they take the time to read the update notes, the description of this function is a little lacking: "Simply use the chest after your initial duel, pay a few Crowns and you are given a second chance at the exact same rewards the boss drops normally. These chests can only be used a certain number of times per day per character." 500 is not a "few" crowns, in my opinion.
Parent permission to use this feature should be required. A more detailed description of what it actually does should also be provided to the adult before they can give their child permission to use it. (Sorry for the overly long comment.)
I agree about the parental control idea. It's just too easy to burn through crowns, with are after all, REAL MONEY.
I also think that with the increased price of those second chances, that the chance of getting a rare, school-specific drop should increase as well. Otherwise, it's kind of a rip.
I spent my remaining crowns on Malistaire's chest. Got about six Death Robes, three ice Robes, a Storm Robe, Fire Robe, but no Life robe >_>
There is a way to somewhat control crowns if your kids wizards are on a subaccount (a different subscription). On the W101 account management page, you can move all the crowns associated with the master account into any one of the accounts. I've done it so that I've left only 150 crowns in my sons account and the remaining crowns are in mine. I just dole the out to him as I see fit.
I think this works even if you create a free account to act as the master account.
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