@boan000 If this helps, go to Studio in the website or GUI, backstage Eva Elfie from June .First Pics!! Wowww

@PascalsWager - I have said it in these forums many many times. I just don't ***** about it.

@boan000 If this helps, go to Studio in the website or GUI, backstage Eva Elfie from June . First Pics!! Wowww

@boan000 If this helps, go to Studio in the website or GUI, backstage Eva Elfie from June .First Pics!! Wowww

@theEmu You're probably right. If so, there's no ***** whatsoever about me ***** about perceived inequities on their public forum because everyone's gone in five months anyway (except us, apparently).

But if you "do not like the SECs or the gambling games and would very much prefer it the cards were just sold at a fixed cost," I'd love to see you saying that in the same forums instead of the two of us going back and forth about why Totem does whatever it does.

Use your bronze frame to highlight your opinion, which is that the SEC cards are an annoyance you'd rather not experience. They don't pay you. There's precisely zero reason for you to devote your day typing out answers as to why Totem is persuing a policy you don't even want unless you're just trying to add to your commenter badge (which is another vapid reward from Totem you'd be just as validated by for agreeing with me instead of rebutting my points). There is reason for me to keep pinging the boards to argue against a policy that precisely none of the people here particularly want, though some seem to tolerate.

Hi guys, ok i have been making more scenes.
Hope you enjoy.

Maid in Heaven
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1YlEG7Eqf8uqXI80MrW3Bib8jetKuJcpI

In th Classroom
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1od01bzAxepdmrupVHNRWXOe7TGc3hprX

Helloooo Nurse
https://drive.google.com/open?id=14FZFD2PtPMoHbXQv7YNvHsi-iVN4G3hL

@boan000

If this helps, go to Studio in the website or GUI, backstage Eva Elfie from June 2018. First Pics!! Wowww

@PascalsWager - although we seem to agree over many things I doubt we will ever be in agreement about the overall effect.

Firstly, I see no unfairness in anything that Totem have done. Putting a high price on a non-essential item is for me not an unfair action, though it may be unwise.

Secondly, Totem seem to have a large turnover of customers compared with the number of their long term regular customers. Totem say on their affiliates page that new customers stay active on average for about 5 months. Those new customers include many that buy much more per month than we do and will be far less affected in their buying habits by the conditions under which the SECs are available.

If this helps, go to Studio in the website or GUI, backstage Eva Elfie from June 2018. First Pics!! Wowww

Hmm, weird, when I click the blank thumbnail for the card, it takes me to a Viola page. Anyway, thanks, looking forward to this one myself. Hopefully, we'll get to see more Skye Blue as well.

@TheEmu Exactly!!! And, uh, duh? We've spoken a lot about Totem's motivations. And we agree. Now let's speak about ours. If we don't like the direction of the company, we shouldn't support that direction with or purchases. Unfortunately, it's a collective action problem. My decision not to purchase SEC cards in any way at all isn't enough. And this particular SEC card was nearly tempting enough to cave.

The equation that Totem needs to balance and is balancing is whether reasonable people like ourselves choose to continue to play the game where they pull all the levers, pun intendended. I can't control their decision making, only my own. I do know there's a point out there where if they paywall enough content, I'll defect.

There's a classic economic experiment called the Ultimatum Game, and it's about fairness. Two participants, Spliter and Decider. The Experimenter offers the Splitter a dollar to divide between the two, but only if the Decider agrees to the division. If the Decider says no, they both get nothing. In theory, the Decider should say yes to anything, because, free penny. But in practice, the Decider often says no to <$0.25, because FU.

That's what I'm heading towards. I like being able to buy hot girls for my desktop. I'm starting to ***** the sytem that provides them because I perceive it as unfair. It's easy enough for me to skip the SEC BS now. If it starts to grow, I'm gonna skip it all even though it ***** me personally. Because we're social monkeys who learned how to share before we could talk. And I know fair when I see it.

@Nebal
Maybe Santa will make it up to me and I'll get the last... for now... Eva Elfie maid card. Now that would be a very Merry Christmas!
Elfie Baby did a maid card?

Yes! Eva Elfie card" Anything Else" 0536. Sorry I am so not computer literate but thanks to @lukaszr...he has a preview site... https://Isworkshop.eu/showroom/. Otherwise I would post pics! Check it out!

102 so far.

@PascalsWager - Again I agree with you about much of this. I have many times said that I do not like the SECs or the gambling games and would very much prefer it the cards were just sold at a fixed cost. But if Totem, who unlike either of us have the sales data to guide their judgments, think otherwise then that is the way it is going to be.

When I spoke of extra effort I was not speaking about the effort in making a card but about the extra effort, time and money involved in devising and offering extra rewards to what are often refered to as "loyal customers". I fall into that category but there is essentially nothing that Totem can offer me that would increase the profit that they make from me - except to some extent the very things that you are objecting to.

@theEmu Huh? Extra effort?

I wasn't there on the set when they shot Jia or any other SEC, but it doesn't look like the Clockwork Orange outfit cost 25x a typical outfit. I can't comment on the lighting or the camerawork on account of not owning the card.

Since I joined a decade ago, they've increased their output of shows. I can only assume that's because the marginal revenue from producing more shows exceeds the marginal cost. If MR>MC, continue to produce. Basic Econ. That was true before the gamification of rewards as well as after.

I wasn't paying perfect attention on release day, but I think it fell under the normal release schedule, which was fine for 25 credits / card in any other month. The director said it's one of the best cards he's ever shot and her personality's amazing, so it seem unlikely that she was a real ***** in the butt or otherwise requires added "effort.

Added effort was definitely spent on making casino games, and they're clearly profitable or it wouldn't be continuing despite widespread discontent.

I'm not arguing they're failing to maximize profit. I'm observing they're making us crazy. And that the only way to get around it is to stop playing crazy games.

What you should wonder is if the casino stuff is so wildly profitable, what's the reductio ad absurdum? Will we have "Special" cards every Friday in two years? I very well hope not. But if we the community keep treating the cards they've made artificially rare as prizes, they will be financially incentivized to do so.

Maybe there are members out there who really love paying more than 25 credits for "rare" cards and prefer this system to a la carte, but I'd actually bet not many. The community as a whole was better off before the "improvements" spins and scratches have brought us.

@Nebal

Maybe Santa will make it up to me and I'll get the last... for now... Eva Elfie maid card. Now that would be a very Merry Christmas!

Elfie Baby did a maid card?

@PascalsWager - I agree with you - the reason is the money. If you understand it so well why do you keep suggesting that Totem spend extra effort where it is least likely to result in any extra profit?

@theEmu We know!!!! Gosh, the Totem team are such good sports for offering us the opportunity to buy one card we'd definitely like along with 24 others we may or may not want, all because they decided to make some cards unavailable for direct purchase, because they're Magic: The Gathering fans, or some other excuse. And yet, you're perfectly capable of observing that they're finanancialy motivated to maximize their profits around a set of cards they've walled off from direct purchase because of money, the real reason.

And if somehow that's hard to comprehend, I've got a Black Lotus card to sell you. It's just a piece of paper with some ink on it, but Wizards of the Coast only made 1100 of them, so it's like, special. Because WotC understands the economics of artificial rarity being bundled with regular stuff. And we're all idiots who don't get that the 1s and 0s in Jia Lissa 1381 are only more valuable than the bits in 0582 because Totem designed it that way, so we need someone to explain the intuition we already posess.

Maybe Santa will make it up to me and I'll get the last... for now... Eva Elfie maid card. Now that would be a very Merry Christmas!

@ComteDracula - for the latest special event card you just had to pay, not play. As I said, expensive but no gambling involved unless you chose to do so.

First " special event card" i'm getting.. all because I bought the Advent calender. In all honesty I wish it was the Ginebra Bellucci bikini card...Oh well....

@ComteDracula - but they do now provide ways other than gambling to obtain the special event cards (and for most of them always did). These alternatives may be expensive, but they exist.

And what are these ways @Emu? because I buy deals that include special event cards, such as the forward calendar.

However, I do not consider that having to participate in slot machines and scratch cards is an alternative, because it is gambling.


Et quels sont ces moyens @Emu ? car j'achète les offres qui inclus les cartes évènements spéciaux, comme le calendrier de l'avant.

Par contre je ne considère pas que de devoir participer aux machine à sous et aux cartes à gratter est une alternative, car c'est du gambling.

@PascalsWager = As I have said many times I am not defending Totem's behaviour, only explaining it.

We all get it. Everyone understands the why. Deep down in our guts, we know exactly what's happening. In fact, that's precisely we're annoyed.

I think those defending Totem on this are either rationalizing their own behavior as acceptable, when deep down they know they have disappointed themselves, or are in Totem's pocket in some way.

Correct.

@ComteDracula - but they do now provide ways other than gambling to obtain the special event cards (and for most of them always did). These alternatives may be expensive, but they exist.

What would be stupid for a company is to turn its back on their best customers by not allowing other alternatives to purchase some of their products, than by gambling.

Ce qui serait stupide pour une compagnie, c'est d'en venir à se mettre à dos leurs meilleurs clients en ne permettant pas d'autres alternatives d'achat de certains de leurs produits, que par les jeux de hasard.

@PascalsWager = As I have said many times I am not defending Totem's behaviour, only explaining it.

I think those defending Totem on this are either rationalizing their own behavior as acceptable, when deep down they know they have disappointed themselves, or are in Totem's pocket in some way. Or maybe they truly believe it is OK to pay severa hundred credits on one card? Maybe these cards truly do have that much value to them? I guess it's possible.

@theEmu There are only so many car(d)s to buy. So the people who buy 5 "cars" per month for any length of time are gambling the rest (away). Not "buying."

Work with me on the math for a second. Call it 25 Credits/ Card. ~4350 Cards. 4350*25=108,750 credits. Anything beyond 11 months of "best customer" behavior can't possibly be "buying" cards. It's money that's spent on nothing but scratches or wheel pulls. So we have two options. The "best" customers are either those heavy spenders on cards who roll over every 11 months, OR: They're problem gamblers past their first year.

Either way, they can't be Porsche buying sheiks who purchase 20 wheels a month for more than a year because there are no more wheels to buy.

I guess I don't really understand your motivation defending the company on this. Are they behaving rationally? Sure. Are the gamblers behaving rationally? No. Are they knowingly profiting from psychological ***** of weak minded people? Yes. Is it flat out wrong? No. Is it shady? Yes.

I have no SEC cards. Never spent a dime on scratches or pulls. I'm not begging for SEC cards. I'm just voicing my dissent on what I (and others) perceive as questionable behavior, and will continue to do so as long as I observe it.

But let's not derrail The Count's thread. If you want to argue some more, by all means dig up the thread from last year and revive it. Maybe others will chime in to school ya...

I agree with you @boan000 ,

Totem must allow its best customers to acquire these cards outside games of chance.

This would be true recognition, for their loyalty, and would encourage people to acquire the entire collection, to finally get those cards.

Obviously those who would like to obtain these cards by the "Gambling", could always prevail of this means.

Following games of chance, and after a while, those who do not have the entire collection, could also acquire these cards with a cost of acquisition, which could go down, depending on the number of cards that people have.

Totem gives 45% off, plus 30% off for reload, plus 20% and 4k for premium...so the "best" customers can get a 25 credit card for less than 10 credits if they do the full 1320 reload bonus....you are looking at nearly 60% off compared to a new customer. And it is obvious many people would fill their collections if each card was still 25 credits. Stop acting entitled to something. You paid money for cards. You have access to the cards...totem doesn't owe you anything. You have thousands of cards to enjoy...enjoy them.

I quoted the science to you last year. Gender is a binary construct, always has been, always will be. Science is not on your side in this, and I doubt it will ever be. Do you want to know who is on your side? Those who see gender dysphoria as dictating reality. IOW, the insane.

@boan000 - read what I actually said in the posts that you seem to be refering to - and read up on the science rather than the simplified versions you see in elementry popular science books and basic school level texts. In particular learn to distinguish between intersex and transsex,

@TheEmu, ummmm.... what?

@theEmu I agree with you. The financial motivation must be significant. If I were them, what would I do, truly? Financially, I'd want to know how large an impact the SEC cards and associated gambling were having on my profits. Would the 10000 credit players shift to 8000, or 1000? I have no idea from the outside.

Then as I counted my money, I'd look at the forums and I'd see the dissatisifcation of people who'd basically built my company, having spent 10 years buying cards through normal means. And went to bed at night, I'd ponder the cognitive dissonance of knowing I was making some of those people very frustrated and angry based on my profit maximizing choices. Those thoughts would bounce around between moments where I pondered the people who were spending $12,000/year, and how their families and children would feel if they knew they were basically problem gamblers when it came to naked ladies at the base of their screen.

I'm not a problem gambler. Even about naked ladies. So if I ran this, would I think, gosh I'm lucky my business has all these idiots throwing money at me? Sadly, I admit the answer is maybe. But I wouldn't be proud of it. I'd probably distract myself by remembering the days where I felt lucky to be in a job where I got to see the same beautiful creatures we drool over, stripping live, in my office.

People are "stupid". They do not always or often think clearly. This happens with any person who spends thousands of dollars for thousands of cards on their desktop. But it is taken to an extreme with people who must have every card even though they haven't watched thousands of them in the last year. They are collectors of a thing they can't even resell, and are obsessive about it. A customer has no right to own everything that a company offers. If I showed up at a car dealership and was pissed off because the lamborghini was out of my price range I would be laughed out of the building. Fortunately, totem is selling normal cards for exhorbinant prices. Normal minded people would ignore this and say that totem is stupid and just lost money because that card cost money to produce...but the reality is people spend thousands of credits for a normal card. That is not totems fault. They aren't actually selling special cards, they are selling normal cards and people can't control themselves. I understand that a pandoras box may have been opened, and entire sets could fall under special categories... at some point totem will go too far like many gaming companies have...

Says the guy who thinks there are more than two genders...

That is misrepresenting what I said in a major way - in those posts I said that gender was a continuum.

And you would do well to well to consider what the Count has just said. The best customers are those who buy everything a company sells.

BTW, it wasn't my analogy.

Says the guy who thinks there are more than two genders...

@boan000

Your analogy is very flawed,

A better one would be to compare someone who bought one Porce every four or five years with someone who bought 5 Porches in one year (and surprisingly such customers do seem to exist).

but, contrary to your opinion, we are NOT Totem's best customers. Their best customers spend over 1000 credits per month, we spend about 300 per month. We are already rewarded by a huge discount - currently I pay abourt 80 cents per card.

@Emu, I’m one of their best customers, because I buy everything Totem gets out, and I can’t buy more than they can sell me.

@Emu, je fais partie de leurs meilleurs clients, car j'achète tout ce que Totem sort, et je ne peux en acheter plus que ce qu'ils sont capable de me vendre.

Pascal, damn you're even more cynical than I am! LOL.

@theEmu I agree with you. The financial motivation must be significant. If I were them, what would I do, truly? Financially, I'd want to know how large an impact the SEC cards and associated gambling were having on my profits. Would the 10000 credit players shift to 8000, or 1000? I have no idea from the outside.

Then as I counted my money, I'd look at the forums and I'd see the dissatisifcation of people who'd basically built my company, having spent 10 years buying cards through normal means. And went to bed at night, I'd ponder the cognitive dissonance of knowing I was making some of those people very frustrated and angry based on my profit maximizing choices. Those thoughts would bounce around between moments where I pondered the people who were spending $12,000/year, and how their families and children would feel if they knew they were basically problem gamblers when it came to naked ladies at the base of their screen.

I'm not a problem gambler. Even about naked ladies. So if I ran this, would I think, gosh I'm lucky my business has all these idiots throwing money at me? Sadly, I admit the answer is maybe. But I wouldn't be proud of it. I'd probably distract myself by remembering the days where I felt lucky to be in a job where I got to see the same beautiful creatures we drool over, stripping live, in my office.

This is a bit like saying that Porsche's best customers are the ones who bought a 911 this month, not the ones who bought a 914 in 1980, a 944 in 1990, a 911 in 2000 and a Cayenne in 2010.

BOOM! You nailed it. This perfectly reflects my thoughts towards those who say that customers with incomplte collections are better customers than those who own all cards because they are spending more at any given time.

@PascalsWager

After reading the other thread, I'm disappointed to hear you caved.

Me too, I'm disapointed in myself; I feel like what a $10 whore must feel like... I ***** that I am helping to perpetuate this messed up system, but you don't know how badly I wanted that Red Fox card, LOL. And the thought of missing another hot redhead was too much to bear. I'm a weak man, weak I say.

I am not at all happy about having no choice but to gamble to get cards I wanted. I lost my reload bonus and spent 66 extra credits on the Black Friday SEC and to get the Red Fox SEC. I know others made out much worse, and that there are even chronic gamblers out there who are being unethically exploited.

This syetem needs to end. As it is, there are still two SECs I lack, and I await Totem making good on their promise to reward loyalty to obtain Joker cards because all these gambling events do for me is to ***** me more and more from the company. I differ from you in that I will not simply temporarily boycott a sytem I do not like, but will part ways from a company and no longer ever give them any patronage at all. I have been a Totem customer since the beginning and love their product, so this thought saddens me greatly. But last holiday season this nearly happened; this year, however, it seems they actually increased the odds of winning. So while I feel ***** and resentful, there is the ***** salve of better winning odds. Still, this Black Friday event has been another wedge between me and the company.

Actually I made a mistake - the best customers spend 10000, not 1000, credits a month. It makes no difference to Totem that the group of "best customers" changes each month. If yoy were Totem which group would you try to encourage?

but, contrary to your opinion, we are NOT Totem's best customers. Their best customers sopend over 1000 credits per month, we spend about 300 per month.

This is a bit like saying that Porsche's best customers are the ones who bought a 911 this month, not the ones who bought a 914 in 1980, a 944 in 1990, a 911 in 2000 and a Cayenne in 2010.

Nope.

@ComteDracula - you say

Totem must allow its best customers to acquire these cards outside games of chance.

but, contrary to your opinion, we are NOT Totem's best customers. Their best customers spend over 1000 credits per month, we spend about 300 per month. We are already rewarded by a huge discount - currently I pay abourt 80 cents per card.

FYI, I just discovered what an Advent Calendar should be. Check out BadoinkVR's 24 days of completely free downloadable content. Not sure if I'm allowed to post outside links, but a search for BadoinkVR calendar should get you there. I subscribe to BDVR, and they also give a free video to subs from one of their sister sites each week. I feel well treated.

That. Is. How. You. Treat. Your. Subs.

In my "Customers With Complete Collections Are Big Losers" thread, I voiced this sentiment. Only because I did not want to miss YET ANOTHER hot redhead card I finally succumbed to the siren's song

After reading the other thread, I'm disappointed to hear you caved. Don't support this system. Paying them will teach nothing. EA has learned the negative response to loot boxes, but it took years. This is a long fight. I hope to hear your voice next year.