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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5299072" data-attributes="member: 2067">I get that it'll sit at different places for different people. I'm certainly not arguing that this is like heroin, but I am saying that it seems too exploitative to me for me to be comfortable with it at my tables. I'm saying it's more like horrible fast food, or maybe cigarettes. It is bad for you. It does little for you that can't be done in a better, more constructive way. It is entirely unnecessary and indulgent. It cultivates the most base of human instincts (a little thrill of the unexpected) for the most base of reasons (raw profit, since selling them like that isn't better for the actual games that will be played with them). It plays into a habitual psychological reward system ruthlessly (as gamers, we're probably more inclined to want that thrill of the unexpected, since we play a game where that is one of the basic psychological tools used to encourage play even without the cards -- we're more vulnerable to it). And, yes, other things are too. That doesn't mean that the fate deck booster pack isn't, just because it isn't one of those things. It's still using the rush to drive sales when the rush itself doesn't add anything. That's a little exploitative to me. Using love to drive sales would also be exploitative to me (in that case, more so, since I value love pretty highly). Using sugar to drive sales also seems exploitative to me (in that case, less so, since I don't value a sugar rush that highly). Using alcohol to drive sales I recognize as exploiative, I just usually don't care (hooray beer). In this case, I care. If WotC was serving beer at their Encounters sessions, I wouldn't care (in fact, it would make me roughly 300% more likely to attend), but I bet at least a few parents would. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> If WotC had strippers at Encounters, I would care, but I bet a big chunk of the posters here wouldn't. We can, I hope, officially stop with the "It isn't drugs, you reactionary crazy person!" line of discrediting. I can easily throw more links into the grist mill for <a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/hints/shop.html" target="_blank">why exploiting this reward system is potentially problematic</a>, independent of any illicit chemicals, but I think I've explained my rationale pretty in-depth at this point. The marketing logic behind randomized boosters is something I find unpleasant, because the randomization doesn't add to anyone's D&D game, but it does exploit a very human reaction for pure monetary gain without giving anything back for that exploitation (since pack randomization doesn't in any way make the game better, AFAICT). Magic is "crack." <a href="http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/familyresources/a/pokemon.htm" target="_blank">Pokemon itself has been cause for attention</a>. I don't really appreciate seeing D&D go down the same rabbit hole. That's not a very extreme position to take, really.I wouldn't expect everyone to have that reaction. But when I see this, I think of people in my life that I've seen hurt by things like compulsive gambling, or a severe WoW or "Evercrack" habit (one that gets in the way of doing things they should be doing), or that guy who eats a KFC double-down to make himself happy, or the girl I know who might buy shoes instead of clothes for her kid. Whatever the "true cause" of the problems for these folks, little marketing tricks like this are fuel for the fire. I can understand that most of the time these things are harmless and have might have some marginal benefit, but I don't clearly see the benefit to the consumer, to a D&D player, in selling Fate Packs like this. I only see the benefit to the company. Which makes it not just a bad purchase, but a bad purchase that uses a problematic mental trick to ensure that it keeps getting made by some sucker. It's raw, naked profit motive, and that irks me for a whole host of other reasons too long and political to get into here. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> But since the Fate cards are getting it from at least two sides, yeah, I'd say I feel pretty strongly about it. It makes the things not fun anymore.</blockquote>

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