Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-71.63.178.61-20130805154359/@comment-71.63.178.61-20130806142528

The more I think about how this event was laid out - the more I think it was a deliberate move my Mobage to max profits. essentially - they are banking on the previous 'free' players to pony up for Soundwave.

In previous events, you would have the top tier players that fork over to be in that top tier. In addition to them, you have the second group of folks that would go thru a couple of loops on the space bridge and/or spend the $30 for the gauranteed Robot+Alt of the x5 card in a given event. Then there is Group 3: the free players.

With this event, they introduce the x7 Robot and Alt card for $50 (WTF?), a cheaper/shorter looping bridge but - most importantly - an EXTREMELY CHEAP opportunity to get an awesome episode Soundwave. When given 2 'gauranteed catch' chains right off the bat.. I think Mobage banked on it being 'too tempting to pass up' for folks to spend the equivalent of $4 to buy the extra 2 chains to guarantee an x5 Soundwave. They already knew that the top tier players were going to continue to fork over huge $$$ to play and the second group I spoke of would still spend something or other... but now there are many out there that thought 'I usually play for free but $4 for that Soundwave card is a no-brainer'. If 2 chains didn't cause someone to spend $$$ on the remaining chains to get a complete Soundwave... that 3rd one should have sealed the deal.

Additionally - as someone pointed out - people newer to the game may choose to spend even more in order to get multiple Soundwave's for their deck - quickly bringing them up to part with many that have grinded it out thru past epidoses. That or those of us that have been playing and have moderate decks (I have an Episode Swoop, Starscream, Slingshot, Sliverstreak, etc.) - could easily buy in for more chains to add an extra Soundwave or two to our decks.

People have a lot of legitimate complaints about this episode but - all in all - you have to admit that the pricing and ability to get that Soundwave card for cheap was a smart money maker on Mobage's part. It would be REALLY interesting to see what their profits are on this particular event as opposed to ones past.