Give Us Our Free Market Back!

[Stewie309]

The bot last season had positives and negatives which became more negative in the last month+ of the season but this season it is nothing but negatives. Not only do we have price caps, now we have minimum prices making sniping and flipping virtually impossible. We get it you guys don't want coin sellers taking away some potential money you could make but this is absolutely ridiculous. You're losing many players by making these changes that lead the game down a pay-to-win path that nobody wants to be brought to. Either get rid of the minimum prices on cards or get rid of the bot (my vote goes for no bot but that has 0 chance of happening) because we shouldn't be forced to sell a card for a certain amount. No one has 1.6+ mil so why is the the minimum price for 82 overall cards? Anyone that is fortunate enough to pull one of the Rookie Duo cards can't sell it because of the outrageous minimum price they're allowed to post them for and with the bot being stingy they won't buy a card...

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[X020179]

+1

The game was way more active with the coin selling anyhow and much more enjoyable for players, encouraging them to spend money.

The market in this season at this moment is the worst we have seen across any season. The main and only aspect of the game I enjoy has been nearly completely diminished.

#RemoveTheAHBot

 

[TripDubb]

+1

I can only hope that this is a temporary thing to force a slow start. As of now, the only things we can snipe and flip are coaches.

 

[Cortes]

Good post Stewie.

 

[bigballer607]

Having no problem sniping 70 ovr rookie golds with the "magic filter", so this is not bothering me for now.

 

[Iamlegendz]

Great Post Stewie!! For me, Half the Fun in playing this game is working the AH and BUILDING my team. This season, I cannot do that or not as remotely effective as it was before. Which Diminishes the Fun Big time.

It seems like my team is now made of what EA gives me(campaign) or how Lucky I get pulling good cards out of the Packs( not happening) which is NOT the way I wanna Build my team.

As Commond noted earlier.. seems like the Honeymoon period for S3 is OVER. And the negatives are rearing its ugly Heads.

 

[edlllpt]

This is a good post for discussion, even if I don't subscribe to it entirely.

Looking only at my own interests and playing devil's advocate at times -

I found the Ah fun in season 1, specially arriving when I arrived and had fun trying to catch up in the ovr race.
In season 2 I wasn't going to do things the same way - spending that amount of the time in the AH - as it would be boring, so I stopped caring. Later with the bot I cared even less and then stuff posting tons of golds was even less fun.
And when you don't care that much you don't get disappointed.

If coin sellers and 'friendly transfers' don't exist / don't thrive, that's better as principle, and that's a trade-off that will always exist.
Less regulation will mean more questionable exploits and ToS violations and more regulation will limit the fun and our progress.

Also, I'm not entirely sure there's no chance for the lucky ones pulling a 82ovr card
A card with early bidders in the mirror may not sell. I'm not sure if a card without bidders is a certain no-sale either.

That said, I think they're checking if someone buys coins via cash to go for these from the AH.
Is it a cash grab? of course, yet considering they asked for 800?+ for Superstar Lin when they launched the card in s2, you don't get impressed anymore.

Promos being mostly for P2W players was the regular theme in S2 so again. It's bad - I can't say I'm disappointed either.

For now, it's clear they want to limit progress and keep it slow - which is fine in my book.
The way you spend your resources, including coins in the AH is still going to separate clueless players from players that know what they're doing.
You still are able to get decent coins with first wins and selling you what you get, and eventually will get enough for elites with only a few days of play.

And again, looking only at my own interests, given the the AH is not that appealing, I can focus on other stuff in the game.
I'm still having fun and progressing at a pace that pleases me.

Everyone's concerns here are legit though.

 

[Stewie309]

Also, I'm not entirely sure there's no chance for the lucky ones pulling a 82ovr card
A card with early bidders in the mirror may not sell. I'm not sure if a card without bidders is a certain no-sale either.

A card can definitely sell without a bid on the mirror but if there is 0 interest shown in the mirror price for that card hard for the bot to buy the card if it can't sell any of the cards it mirrors because the bot wants to act like a player and buy cheap and sell high for the most part but as it currently sits the 82+ cards are way over priced for what the stats deliver over an 80 overall for 1/8 of the price

 

[ukmj23]

Also, I'm not entirely sure there's no chance for the lucky ones pulling a 82ovr card
A card with early bidders in the mirror may not sell. I'm not sure if a card without bidders is a certain no-sale either.

A card can definitely sell without a bid on the mirror but if there is 0 interest shown in the mirror price for that card hard for the bot to buy the card if it can't sell any of the cards it mirrors because the bot wants to act like a player and buy cheap and sell high for the most part but as it currently sits the 82+ cards are way over priced for what the stats deliver over an 80 overall for 1/8 of the price

I may add to Stewie here replying to the devil's advocate played arguments, is it fair that after the dumb variety chance packs for example gives you 3 elites in the same damn position and you can't sell even one of it no matter how low you try to post it because the bot now also has a 200k+ minimum bid that 99% can't buy. So you are sitting stuck with elites you can't even use.

How can anyone justify the manipulative nature of EA that reaches new heights constantly.

 

[ukmj23]

Stewie, thank you for this thread. Let us know how we can support you to reach EA successfully to come to reason regarding this. Most of my league mates and friends are frustrated with not being able to sell any elites.

Instead of focusing not having an embarrassing glitchy lvl start like last season, which already exists in the first 2-3 days of season 3 with some accounts' players shooting 100% 3s, it is obvious EA only puts there efforts in the AH manipulation. Smh.

 

[Iamlegendz]

+100000000 bump

 

[Alekk]

Agreed. I've been very disappointed in the auction house, more precisely - price caps. You've got like a 1k range to price gold cards. If it's any higher or lower than the cap (which you have to find what it is yourself) it won't sell.
Plus the jumps in price are ridiculous. 30k for a 79 OVR, 200k for an 80 OVR, 1.6 mil for 82!? No one has that kind of money, so all the elites are just floating around the auction house without ever dropping in price or anyone buying them.

Minimum caps need to be gotten rid of entirely.

 

[JukeNukem1432]

Agreed 100%! As a successful F2p player I'm usually pretty adept at making coins especially at the beginning of the season. This season however it has been almost impossible turning a profit so far. Not only is the AH limits a problem but even if you do the gold rookie set a lot of the players are unauctionable so you could end up spending 6,999 for the silver collectibles only to pull a player you cant sell. EAs logic is that people like me would start spending cash but the opposite is true. Successful F2p players like myself wouldn't mind spending $100 if we found the product worth it (no chance packs, better odds & better toppers) and most importantly a better overall game. I spend on games that I deem worth it. Instead EA tries to limit our in-game success with the hopes of forcing us into the P2p category, ain't gonna happen.

 

[aramwot]

+1

 

[AussieMJ]

Agreed 100%! As a successful F2p player I'm usually pretty adept at making coins especially at the beginning of the season. This season however it has been almost impossible turning a profit so far. Not only is the AH limits a problem but even if you do the gold rookie set a lot of the players are unauctionable so you could end up spending 6,999 for the silver collectibles only to pull a player you cant sell. EAs logic is that people like me would start spending cash but the opposite is true. Successful F2p players like myself wouldn't mind spending $100 if we found the product worth it (no chance packs, better odds & better toppers) and most importantly a better overall game. I spend on games that I deem worth it. Instead EA tries to limit our in-game success with the hopes of forcing us into the P2p category, ain't gonna happen.

At the risk of taking the thread off topic, I?d just like to touch on what you said about spending in the game Juke. Last night the LVL master Kawhi dropped for some leagues and the pack turned up in the store to purchase the 5 tokens, US$15 to train him to 80 ovr.

Let?s say for instance there?s a million players in the game, what percentage would buy that pack? 1%, less? If it was $ 2 or $3 what would the percentage be? 10%, 20%?

At 0.5% it?s 5,000 packs at $15 = $75,000
At 1% it?s 10,000 packs at $15 = $150,000
At 10% it?s 100,000 packs at $2 = $200,000
At 10% it?s 100,000 packs at $3 = $300,000

They?re cannibalising their own market, if you make it more affordable more people will buy something. The idea is to hook your market into getting perceived value so they will repeat purchase. If it looks like a ridiculously priced ripoff, it is, and your customers won?t buy it.

 

[Anatdoc]

Anyone who trained cj/jokic/Kawhi.. does it require coins too?

 

[Altavilla]

Agreed. Great post Stewie. And great replies too.

I spent 10 euros in the start of the season but immediately stopped when i figured where this was going (pay to play).

I played this game hard last season and i saw my efforts rewarded. I started playing hard this season and my reward was a 74 ovr team with one (crappy) elite when, even at rookie levels on SD, it was frequent to see teams with 3 elites on them.
I don't even feel comfortable enough to try and trade elites (selling mine to buy another) because, having less then 50k coins, i'm afraid the trade will eat away too many of those coins.

This strategy from EA doesn't seem to make much sense. Are they broke and need to cash-in fast, even knowing they might be seriously jeopardizing future seasons?

One last thing: this game doesn't seem all that hard to replicate. Specially for someone who's already worked for EA or 2K, but i'm betting that some kid somewhere has already made some crude PC version of this (or other games), just to see if he/she could do it. So, any upcoming competitor of EA and 2K, with much more resources than some high school kid, may be launching some basketball game next week, for all we know. All they need is for EA to make a (big) mistake.
Online gaming is certainly the future (mainly because it's much harder to pirate) and leading companies would be wise to consider the bigger picture and choose their steps carefully.

 

[Altavilla]

Maybe the scenario is that EA is making much more money than they were expecting, and they are now "squeezing" this just too check how far they can push it?
Maybe they feel too confident after 2K's wreck taking a shot at this?

 

[Altavilla]

Or maybe it's like "late in the season we loose money, so we gotta make the most out of the beginning of the season"?

 

[Commondjapan]

First of all, EA set the price caps to encourage people to buy their coins. I'm pretty sure that the server released a lot of the initial auctions in order to establish the price caps. This benefits the buyer more than it does the seller. The fact that you could snipe promo golds for cheap on the first day was evidence of that. And to be perfectly honest, the price cap on base elites is a lot cheaper than the amount I bought and sold elites for in the early days of Season 2.

The trouble is that we have no coins to buy things with and no opportunities to flip cards in the AH. EA's solution is to buy their coins but no-one wants to do that because they're overpriced.

If the bot starts buying elites from people then the market will grow but that doesn't appear to be happening at the moment. People need to make coins for transactions to start taking place. And EA needs to realize that people make decisions in this game based on how many coins they can make off the AH and not on receiving new content for their lineups.