Let's start with a story. On Tuesday night, September 25, the Cardcaptor Sakura Crossover event was about to end, and in a couple of hours, the crossover hairs would no longer be available, so I decided I would make a final attempt to get the Sakura hair I wanted so much. I had previously purchased 3 Royal Hair Coupons with no luck, and an alliance friend was very kind to give me a $25 NX code so I could try again to get the Sakura hair. 25,000 NX is enough to get me 7 more Royal Hair Coupons, and I went through all 7 without ever getting the Sakura hair. My other alliance friends who had come to watch me felt bad, and they decided to pitch in more NX to get me the hair. It ended up taking a total of 22 Royal Hair Coupons to get the Sakura hair, which is equal to 72,600 NX.
Does it make sense that any user should ever have to reach about $73 worth of NX or Maple Points (or even more) before they can finally obtain the hair or face that they want for their character? Unlike items from Surprise Style Boxes, hairs and faces are not tradeable; receiving the same hair/face has no benefits or rewards. Therefore I don't think it makes sense to have to spend so much to receive a specific hair or face.
That's why I would like to suggest to Nexon to alter the way Royal Hair Coupons and Royal Face Coupons, and other similar cash shop coupons, distribute hairs and faces.
Option A:
Once a user has received a certain hair or face from the rotation, during that 2-week time frame until the next rotation, that hair or face will be excluded from the pool when the user uses more coupons.
(Color matters)
Pros:
• User only needs to use the coupon about 5-7 times to receive all the hairstyles or faces.
• User spends a maximum of 23,100 NX or Maple Points to receive the specific hair or face they want.
Cons:
• If user forgets to save a specific hair or face in their salon before replacing it with a new one, they will need to purchase more coupons and try again in a different color.
Option B:
Once a user has saved a certain hair or face, they will no longer be able to receive that hair or face until it is deleted from their salon.
(Color doesn't matter)
Pros:
• If user has salon slots to spare, they only need to use the coupon about 5-7 times or less to receive all the hairstyles or faces.
• If user has salon slots to spare, they spend a maximum of 23,100 NX or Maple Points to receive the specific hair or face they want.
• If user already has hairs or faces saved in the salon, those hairs and faces will be excluded when using the coupon.
Cons:
• When using the coupon, user cannot receive a hair or face they already saved in a different color; they need a hair dye coupon to alter their hair color, or contact lens to alter their face color.
• User will need to purchase more slots and/or replace saved slots to guarantee they will receive the desired hair or face.
Whichever option, both of them equate to using up to about 30,000 NX/Maple Points, which puts a cap at how much NX or Maple Points needs to be spent to achieve a desired hair/face, instead of an indefinite amount such as 72,600 NX/Maple Points. I think users will also feel more secure about spending their NX and Maple Points on hair and face coupons if either of these options is implemented.
Let me know what you think about this suggestion or if you have a similar hair/face story you would like to share.
Comments
You do realize that that maximum of 23,100 NX is a "pro" to us, but a huge "con" to Nexon, right?
The whole point of Royal coupons, like EXP hair/face coupons before them, is to get some unlucky players to pay more than what a real-life haircut would cost, in the hopes of obtaining the desired result. Furthermore, according to data released by KMS and CMS, not all styles have an equal chance to appear. The new or highly desired ones are lower probability than each of the old or unpopular ones.
Then they should at least be transparent about what rate each hairstyle/face drops, no? According to data (note that you didn't mention GMS releasing any data), not all styles have an equal chance to appear, but that fact is not something all players know because it's not explicitly mentioned anywhere. Rather, it is something that players start to feel after spending so much NX trying to obtain those supposedly rarer hairstyles or faces. I'm sure there are quite a number of players who have a different initial impression of obtainability rates compared to what is fact.
I'm aware that it is a big con to Nexon in terms of potential profits, but I also don't think Nexon should be profiting off of unlucky players with Royal Coupons. Like I mentioned, when receiving duplicates in things like Style Boxes, the player can at least trade the duplicates away, or equip them on their Android. Receiving duplicates on hair/face coupons has no meret whatsoever. It creates a lot of player dissatisfaction because not only is the player spending a lot, but there's also nothing to gain from duplicates. The player can't purchase the hair or face from a different player, so their only option is to continue buying coupons or give up. It is especially disappointing with these event-specific hairstyles, because the player cannot wait until next time to try again, as it is a one-time event.
It might not be that big of a con when you consider that more players may buy more Royal Coupons if they are guaranteed to receive the hair they want after a certain point. Furthermore, that extra $50 worth of NX they might have spent on coupons could end up being spent somewhere else in the game, so it doesn't mean that $50 is necessarily lost, just redirected.
There are plenty of other RNG-type events in the game that Nexon can profit from, and I don't believe Royal Coupons is their most profitable RNG avenue, but I think it is probably the RNG avenue in which players are most dissatisfied in terms of the limitations. If the potential profits of these coupons is more important than tending to the heightened player dissatisfaction, given the above-mentioned conditions, it can build a negative perception of what the game company values.
What Nexon could do instead of the options above is implement a system similar to the one in MapleStory2, where the player can buy the hairstyle after they have saved up enough vouchers, which are gained by "returning" a hair or face.
No one liked REG coupons to begin with. VIP was the standard for a long time. And no, 23k NX is not a "pro" to us, it's still too goddamn expensive for a desired hair/face. The point is that we shouldn't have to spend astronomical amounts on base cosmetics. RNG should only be reserved for surprise boxes, gach, etc. I am not aware of any other game of this nature that plays dice with hair and face cosmetics.
Your opinion on this issue is valid, but there's no need to undermine how I and other people feel about the issue. Also, just because something is RNG doesn't mean it can't and shouldn't be altered. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Perhaps you should consider getting a better attitude.
For example: There are people who've spent thousands (yes, with an s) of dollars trying to get a Frenzy Totem from philosopher books with no luck. Let that sink in for a moment. At approximately 2,600NX per attempt, even just one thousand dollars [US] is about 385 attempts, two thousand would be 770 attempts. That's less than 0.0013% chance of receiving this particular prize, yet its one of the main prizes they list and use to sell philosopher books, full well knowing its so rare as to be nigh on impossible for most people to get, and some poor unsuspecting kids will look at the event listing and think they have a good chance to get the item, given how prominent the top tier prizes are listed in the event notes. If Nexon's target demographic is a younger audience then it could be seen as questionable to not provide some context when they display and use the top tier prizes to motivate selling cash shop items that provide random rewards (special hair styles included) when the chance of actually getting them is quite low.
Although, normal VIP hairstyle coupons were never a thing initially, only after mass complaints about the RNG of random hairstyle coupons, and the inability to get that darn Metrosexual hairstyle, did Wizet/Nexon introduce the VIP ones. So I could see potential modification to this situation being possible. Yet some would argue royal styles were introduced to counter the profit-loss of VIP hairstyle coupons... So I wouldn't get my hopes up.
Also, I am pretty sure the laws and regulations on explicitly stating the odds of something occuring for any betting/gambling in videogames (i.e. getting 1 hairstyle in the royal selection) are not in our favour, whereas they are in other jurisdictions Nexon is in.
The reality is, the casual players looking to save that sort of money in this game are neglected, because so many maplers are caught on the hook of spending substantial amounts of money on this game, it wouldn't make sense (from a business perspective) to listen to your suggestion. Conclusively, my suggestion to you would be to be prepared to spend that sort of money on this game, plus a lot more.
I think you make some pretty good points. Indeed, because hairstyles and faces are not tradeable, it has less of a possibility to conflict with gambling laws, as they are less likely to be considered as goods that have a value. Of course, the debate on game "loot boxes" and gambling laws is still ongoing and hasn't reached a consensus yet. I agree with you, I actually don't expect my suggestions to be implemented, but rather I wanted to bring up the subject to other users because I know there are a lot of users who have been frustrated from spending several coupons in an attempt to obtain something that is untradeable to boot. I hope someone else might come up with better suggestions and reasoning than mine that are more likely to be implemented, so that it may ease some of the frustration from royal coupons and the like, if even a little a bit.
I don't believe every user comes onto the suggestions forum expecting a change to be made. But more importantly, I don't think users should feel like they should only post a suggestion if they see a chance of it being implemented. People should feel free to share their suggestions. Even if the suggestion is not perfect or implementable, if it stems from a sentiment other users share, someone along the way might come up with a better suggestion.