I propose to show the actual size of things in screenshots at the market. Then players who bought, for example, a statue that turned out to be a small figurine, will not have any complaints against you!
I think I’m not the only one who fell for this! And I feel deceived!
This is what was shown at the market, and this is what turned out to be in reality)))
I suggest not buying anything until you see a review.
There are some content creators that are gifted BLB such as @Eradicati0n who share very informative videos.
This might mean you’ll have to wait longer as it will go out of rotation but will return eventually. By then you will have an informed choice to make instead.
I treat the bazaar a bit like ordering something off wish, I kind of expect it to come in the wrong size… maybe be made of styrofoam, and if there’s a power button it’ll start playing “Smile - Butterfly” on some washed out phone speakers and then start smoking
I like the idea of ‘try’ and ‘return’, but the more I try to figure out how that would work, the more I’m wondering about practicality.
scenario a - refund policy allows refund any time after purchase - too long scale, no company would ever likely go for it - very easy to abuse (eg, use something as much as you want to, then go for a refund once you’ve had your fill - in effect allowing infinite recycling through bazaar offferings for a single initial payment. Safeguards needed.)
scenario b - limited returns time window (more standard option) - all depends on the time window itself. Some items, assuming you already have the necessary construction materials, could be easy to assess in a couple of minutes - but what about a newer player who also needs the time to harvest the materials to construct whatever they have purchased? Certainly they can’t be excluded from the returns system - but what if they saw a nice item in the bazaar rotation and bought it, not realising that they need to get their character to a higher level before they can even try it out? And how long does it take to ‘test’ a build set to decide if we like it, compared to a single item? Do they need different returns timescales?
And what about any samples we may have placed in the world to assess? If they can be kept, then that can be abused easily. So maybe you are required to have dismantled before you can refund - but that would likely work by a ‘does the character own item x?’ type check, which would allow for shenanigans with forming and leaving clans, so that the character ‘no longer owns’. So maybe some sort of code to auto destroy any refunded item that was previously constructed? (Are game objects even tagged in a way that would make that practical?)
I’ve no idea. Like I said, I like the idea, I’ve just stumbled down a rabbit hole of possible complications
All great questions, with many different possible answers. That’s why I said “reasonable refund policy”
That said, I have an idea that could solve all that: instead of a “refund policy”, allow people to try BLB stuff by making a “trial” pseudo-purchase. It doesn’t deduct any CC, but you can only use the trial stuff in single-player during a limited trial window. You can convert it to a full (non-refundable) purchase at any time, which would deduct the CC and allow you to use it online and in co-op.
Could it be abused? Sure, in single-player games. But it probably wouldn’t be abused enough to matter.
The other game I am playing, has a policy of refunding any item purchased if it wasn’t equiped or used. In Conan Exiles, I guess it would apply in the form of trying the “ghostly” form of the craft, without finalizing its placement.
The game also comes with a policy of gifting “refund tickets” for items which were bought and used within the last 30 days. They basically give back the same amount of in-game money, and make you wait a whole year before gifting a new refund ticket to replace the ticket you used (date to date). Either way, you cannot cumulate more than 3 tickets a year.
For that specific trait of refund policy, the players only get a limited amount of chances in a limited amount of time to return items which were not to their liking, which prevents any abuse.
i like your idea, problem with that is… people who plays exclusively on singlr player, can put many of those, and move then afterwards, if needed.
how about for 72 hours people will be able to place ONE of those items,.
the easiest is to have clear descriptions and/or put something next to it that servers as a ruler, for size. etc.
it will take a few minutes to do that. (Very few)
emotes : let people know which one works for thralls,
put very specific information about the placeable so ther eis no confusion.
add picture that shows the real size of it.
i still wait for eradication video about those items, and we know eradication only seems to do bundles, and not items with a 24 hour cicle.
Here is an idea. In the item description of the bazaar have a short GIF that actually shows the item in game. Kinda the way the weapon selection screen does on Monster Hunter World.
I have a counter to that proposal. If they had in fact shown the actual size of the object, how many of said object do you think they would have sold in comparison to how many they have actually sold already? Does that make what they do acceptable? Not in my opinion, but I do not buy anything from the BLB so there is that. Is it deceptive? Yes. But that is the way of marketing in the real world as well. They sell you on “expectations” not on “actual results”.
Which they can easily explain away as a matter of perspective. One image is against a drop screen with nothing else near it to use as a judge of scale. The other image is on a set of foundations (or ceiling tiles), and next to another small decoration object thus showing scale. One is also a much higher resolution image (the one used for marketing). So in all, it is simply a matter of perspective. It is much the same way that in movies they can film miniatures to give the illusion of large scale epic scenes.
And this goes directly into what I had said above. Had they shown the actual scale of the object how many people like yourself who had bought the item would not have? I think it is fair to say a good percentage of them. So by cleverly disguising the size of the object without actually saying that the object is larger than it actually is they can project the illusion that it is in fact larger but legally speaking not ever make any such claim that it is. Thus people such as yourself will purchase said item and then be sadly disappointed with the end result and threads like this are the result.
This is not the first time such an item has be, shall we say, not exactly as advertised. I am sure that it will not be the last time either. And I am not even talking about the items that either had missing pieces (pieces shown in the image but now included like in the aquilinian bath set, but were later added I believe), or pieces that just straight up didn’t work until they were fixed at a later date. I am only talking about item that either were not of the size they appeared to be shown as, or of the quality they were shown as, or did not even function the way they were eluded to (but never explicitly said to).
The BLB is an EXTREME case of BUYER BEWARE! As @Kikigirl suggested, you are better off waiting to see a review of the objects offered by content creators who are often gifted said items.
Is it deceptive? Yes. But that is the way of marketing in the real world as well. They sell you on “expectations” not on “actual results”.