IRE has initiated a new type of lottery! Every time you purchase credits, you'll receive lottery tickets equal to the number credits (i.e., 100 credits = 100 tickets). There will be more tickets for large purchases. The lottery will be across all IRE games so the winner could be from any game. Of course, we would much prefer that said winner is from Lusternia!
This is a true lottery insofar that there may be no winner. The jackpot starts at 5,000 credits and increases 5,000 credits whenever there is no winner in the weekly drawings.
See HELP CREDIT LOTTERY for details.
Comments
That said, I am all for this. Getting more credits into the system is good for the game.
It's mostly intended to provide a neat extra incentive for most people... but don't kid yourself, part of the design is also to be able to buy 2,000 credits, get the lottery tickets for those, and then buy an additional 2,000 tickets with credits. That would end up netting you 5,000 tickets for the lottery. Keep in mind that gambling is kind of an addictive thing.
So, basically, I'm a bit put off by this lottery specifically because lotteries utilizing real-world-cash are kind of (by nature) designed to prey on certain individuals, while playing up the "neat option" aspect for the bulk of the lottery players who only buy a ticket or two each time.
Yes, I may have some biases on the subject. :P
Be nice if people with memberships got at least a few tickets when it renewed this month. I know its already a good deal and im not saying anything about that, but anytime there is a extra promotion like the presents, or this one, we have to spend even more money. Not asking for the full 100 for 100, but some would be nice...like half or even less. *pray*
You can buy tickets that there is literally no winner for. This is not a raffle, it is a lottery in the traditional sense, not the usual version IRE uses (which are raffles).
Lotteries are generally restricted in most countries to those individuals over the age of eighteen. As we have a large number of younger players, I'm curious how that plays out.
Regardless, yay neat promo.
You have purchased a ticket in the IRE lottery. Good luck!
The IRE lottery prize is currently 5000 credits.
You have purchased 1 tickets in the lottery.
Lottery drawings occur every Sunday at 00:00 GMT - see HELP IRE LOTTERY.
Tickets are obtained with credit purchases.
You can also use IRE LOTTERY BUY <amount> TICKETS [FOR <player>]. Each ticket costs 1 bound credit.
PS: I'm now wondering why I just spent a credit to prove a point. Iasmos-griefed.
Im wondering how many people will buy tickets with credits. If its a lot, its going to suck that every game has another credit sink to inflate prices even more in the current markets. Couldnt buying them with gold (like 10k or 15k per?) be a better solution? I know the admin probably like higher prices in general because that makes people feel more need to pay real money for them. But that is a double edged sword the way i see it. Lower prices would mean people wouldnt feel so overwhelmed, thinking " well i have to have these artifacts (like weapon runes) to compete with everyone else, but thats going to be 50 million gold...ill never get that in my lifetime." ...and 50 million gold is roughly 2k credits which wouldnt even fully deck out a warriors weapon/s. if you got 25k an hour, which is quiet a bit in my opinion, that would take 2000 hours, which is 83 straight days of playing, or around 2 years of playing at 8 hour days getting 25k an hour just to come close to maxing out a weapon/s...Before the previous auctions, the market was around 30k per and rising weekly. I dont see why more people dont see this as a problem. A problem with easy solutions...even some that help the game money wise...like gold auctions. Or good credit promotions to help flood the market (which the admin have been doing decent with the past few months).
Easy solutions:
More gold auctions...every 6 months, each one bringing down the levels to much more manageable levels and letting steadily rise in between.
Gold sinks, like auctions, or making more things available with gold, like tickets for the lottery, as it seems like this might be a permanent addition to the game.
More credits to drive supply up <-opposite of what is happening with the lottery, unless someone from Lusty wins, which is unlikely, around a 1 in 6 or 7 chance i would think.
Things that are already doing good and should have additions to them: gold auctions, being able to buy curios and ikons with gold (wish all were like this).
Also, on a semi-unrelated note, why isnt there a dingbat market? ie selling dingbats on a market like credits, though for gold only like the credit market. That way there is a chain of events of: someone selling 200 credits on the market to get gold, spreading the wealth around and getting more on the market, then buying the dingbats with the gold? Right now people are doing the reverse: buying credits off market then transferring to get the dingbats....not a huge change, but its still something that can make the dingbats trade easier....people on forums have been making posts to buy or sell lately, would be better to just put them on the market.
Also, i might just be completely dumb in this post on some things, anger fueled typing after seeing prices march back towards 30k....
/end rant