Marketing Strategy

So most of you know I'm a complete dork, and your choice of terminology generally synonymous to "geek" as well. I play lots of video games, roleplay via message board online composing stories rather than roleplaying in bed (which has always seemed really weird and backward to me, which I imagine is strange given my general curiosity toward other kinks and the fact that the general population seems to find that more normal than my hobby), play virtual Legos on Minecraft, and then write about it all in a blog.

So I roleplay on GaiaOnline.

Gasp!

I also have started avoiding most of it's population like the plague, which I'm not sure if has to do with a personal arrogance grown with associating my roleplaying with my writing rather than as a time-killer, or with the fact that most of it's community is now between five and ten years younger than me and extremely hormonal and otherwise painful to deal with.

But regardless, this site has been selling digital items for money. Normally I haven't purchased these, only a few for Tabi (and a few for myself meanwhile making those purchases >.>) and go figure, among the first items I get are randomly generated items.

And I just felt this was [i]wrong[/i]. First of all, they grossly mis represented what the majority of the items to be gained were and how you got them. Pick options and gain items according, right? Awesome. It's like a choose your own adventure just like all the other ones were, where if you picked the right options you were almost certain to get particular related items! Good strategy, right? Everything you can get is new, you have some control over what you can get but there's also a little mystery. There's a game involved, where good decisions (or waiting for a guide) can get you the items you want.

So... then they represent this other item as that... when it's just a lottery.

The theme was fantastic, but the only options on any given stage were "quite now or keep going" and it seemed you had a 75% chance (I'm not even kidding) of losing out and getting crap items from the first stage all the way to the last. When I bought it, it felt like a cheat.

Now, I'm sure this lottery strategy felt like a good idea at the time. After all, no control over the winning will make people keep buying up tickets and trying to win big, right? They'll shoot for that item they want, or make the rarer ones extra rare. I don't think it's morally questionable in so far as business ethics, given their lack of information and method of advertisement, but I'm curious what everyone else thinks about it in that way, and in so far as practical business.

After all. I now know I'm not buying any more chance items from them; probably none at all.

Your call. If you read and care enough to stop and type an opinion on that kind of business practice, I'd love to hear your responses!

Ciao.