by bakija
ras2124 wrote:
Your situation is not the same for two reasons. First you have the powers for the old monsters and you didn't have to rebuy content to get them so you already have the primary content. Second Iello can't sale the monsters you are missing so you are limited to the second hand market regardless.
I would have to rebuy content to get the monsters themselves to use the Power Up cards with them. Unless I choose to use the Power Up powers with different monsters. Which I can certainly do. Much like you could buy the new Power Up and use the new content contained within with existing monsters. Yes. Some of the cards in the ($20?) expansion will be redundant. But the monster in the expansion has new art and all things being equal, it seems pretty trivial to spend $20 on an expansion to a game you like if you really want those extra power sets for Cyber Kitty and Space Penguin.
Or, conversely, you could just not worry about it. Much like I'm just not worrying about having access to the Kraken and Cyber Bunny character pieces. 'Cause while it would be nice to have them, it does not negatively impact the playing of the game to not have them. And I don't want them enough to shell out the $35 for a 1st edition game that is largely redundant. And I'm ok with that.
On the other hand Iello could EASILY release the content that 1st edition owners need. We know that they distribution is no problem because the are releasing monster packs that are exactly the same, not to mention the art and cards are already ready to go.
Are you a game manufacturer? You don't know that they could do so easily. As there are probably distribution and production issues that, while you are willing to hand wave away, they probably aren't. As game manufacturing tends to be a rough industry, livelihood speaking. Yes. The art and cards are ready to go. But perhaps the production model is such that for every pair of Cyber Kitty/Space Penguin that they give out separately, that leaves the 4 other characters sitting around as waste ('cause they are all printed on the same sheet, for example). And then to make Cyber Kitty and Space Penguin available as separate pieces, they are costing themselves more than it is worth to sell them. Or that each time they make those pieces separately available means that is one less actual game they can sell.
So we are in agreement that it would be nice if they released them, and as I just discussed it would be trivial for them to do so.
You don't know that it would be trivial for them to do so. And propping up your argument with that claim makes it shaky.
It is clear that not releasing these packs makes them more money and is objectively worse for the consumers, particularly 1st edition owners.
It only makes them more money from the likely very small number of people who are obsessive completists. Which is likely a very narrow part of their market. It seems likely that most people who buy this game buy the game itself, play it, have fun with it, and that is the end of the transaction. And don't worry about the corners of the expanded aspect of the game. A relative small number of people who buy the game probably invest in expansions and extra pieces. And then, of those, a likely very small chunk of the player base is fueled by a desire to have All The Things. I'm willing to guess that the number of people who felt compelled to buy the 2nd Edition of this game, when they already had the 1st, just to get those 2 new characters, is pretty miniscule. As that is how this industry tends to work.
So why do people keep acting like Iello is looking out for their customers? Upgrade kit are a very common practice in gaming, especially when the changes are so small so let's not act like they aren't. It is no conspiracy, just Iello screwing over their customers.
I'm not acting like Iello is looking out for their customers. I have no opinion at all on Iello and its treatment of customers. I'm making assumptions about their motives based on my understanding of the game industry (i.e. it is probably much easier and much more cost efficient to not make those two characters available as separate content), this is true. And I might be wrong. It is certainly possible that the folks at Iello are all "Bwahahah! We can replace two characters in the 2nd edition base game, not make them available separately, and then rake in virtually *tens* of extra dollars from people buying the 2nd edition of the game 'cause they feel like they *must* have those extra characters!". But probably not.
I am, however, acting like getting all bent out of shape about this, when due to the specific way this game works, not having specific characters (including Power Up cards) has virtually zero impact on ones ability to play the game, is just silly. Especially when there are easy and obvious solutions to the problem at hand:
-If you desperately want the actual characters and boards, you can, in the end, just buy them. Or if you don't wanna spend $40 on that, you could probably buy the game for $40, take out the two characters you want, and then sell the rest of the game (with everything included except those two characters) for $30 to a buddy or on the internet.
-If you just want the content from Power Up without having to buy all the redundant stuff, you can just print copies of the cards for free by downloading the images off the internet. As due to the way the game works, the Power Up cards can just be index cards, and they'd still work fine (as everyone has their own deck of Power Ups, and there is zero need for the Power Up cards to all match the other sets).