Yes, soon the next round of Arcade will be here, and it is STILL worth boycotting! Just as I did with previous rounds.
Why?
Because there are TOO MANY gatchas with $75 or $100 pulls, that's why! And the prize for 25 pulls is NON-transferable.
Here's the wall o' shame:
Caboodle $75
ClaW $75
Clawtooth $75
David Heather $75
Dead Dollz $75
Doe $75
Empire $75
Fawny $75
Genesis Lab $100
Glam Affair $100
!gO! $75
Hazy $75
Ink $75
Lagyo $75
Lamb $75
Lcky $75
Le Fille Casse $75
Le Primitif $75
Little Bones $75
M.Birdie $75
Mikunch $75
Milk Motion $75
Nani $75
Nomad $75
Olive $75
Belladona $100
The Plastik $75
Tabelau Vivant $75
Wilds of Organica $100
Vale Koer $75
YS&YS $75
If nothing else, you can give these machines a pass. If the retort is, but they are making hair or animals, then I point out that others who make hair and animals aren't charging this at the same show. Not an argument.
There's also the issue of the drop in value of the LindEx exchange, which these famous and wealthy merchants are in a position to raise with the Lindens. They have not done so.
Now, for the ideologically-challenged assholes who always pipe up and say (as if this is news or a fresh idea) that you "can't" tell people what to charge in a free market, and they can charge anything they want, let me note that I'm a bigger capitalist than you are, and I get all that. Of course they can.
AND in that same free market -- a free market being defined as a place where a WILLING buyer meets a WILLING seller -- I can also protest that the prices are too high and are causing less sales and further driving down the re-sale price and basically depressing the entire gatcha thing. Free speech and free markets go together!
I'm all for merchants charging whatever the market will bear. But I believe that if they are getting to the point of charging $100, the item should go in their store, outright, and not be a chance offering in a gatcha.
I also think in this same FREE market where the norm in gatchas is to RESELL and put EVERYTHING on transfer, that making prizes that do NOT transfer is wrong. Let me note that at Epiphany and the Gacha Garden, the prizes for the 20 or 25 pulls are on transfer and resellable, as they should be.
Interestingly, I see some merchants now moving back to $50 from once higher prices -- maybe they saw their volume of sales fall further than their higher price justified. I even see some merchants like Half+Deer putting the items to $15! Imagine, the old spirit of the gacha when it was first born and rarely over $25!
The Arcade, which I think was the first gatcha event, remains the premiere event. And while in the past it has been disappointing at times, and some artists disappoint (they are overworked and over-extended), in general there are still some of the best items for sale here. I'll be buying THEM, I just won't buy them at PULL price, which is what I'm boycotting. I find that within a week, because of the frenzy, you can find many things for half off.
Let me note that I feel no sorrow over my boycott meaning I can't get these non-transferable prizes. None of them are worth it. Seldom are they ever in these things. It's the usual bunch of not-really-worth it stuff, given that you may be paying $2500 top dollar for some of them or US $9.25. That's a scream.
PS one of the organizers is something of an asshole too.
Some comments:
RH Design House at first blush looks identical to everything they've ever done -- that's because of that distinctive Chinese red colour. But a closer look shows some subtle differences, some new types of things. The futon and the house are the same-old same old but some of these other items are different. For example no. 15, the mirror and no. 23 party food. Kimono on the floor I think has never been done before, either.
Obviously, they will have a lot of sun-sand-sea stuff, and that's predictable -- and fish. Here's some nice ones -- note Hextraordinary and Soy give you animated fish for $50 so the "but animals" argument doesn't fly.
tarte has something different by choosing "Georgia," as usually gatchas are "New England" when it comes to summer.
I love hive's summer camp. I'm going to be watching the MP for these and getting them to add to the Grote camp, maybe multiples.
Scarlett Creative has a lovely Daisy Cottage.
Love the journals in sari-sari's Vacation Dream. I have a whole bunch of things like that mainly from vespertine and dust bunny. Like the savings jar too. These are original things in a sea of mundane stuff. The only off note here is the retro fans, we all have a million of those. In the real 1960s we didn't really have these as much as they make it seem.
This is very glam. Like tres blah.
This is audacious and I bet a lot of people will try to get the wrap.
Plastik always gives you A LOT of stuff in their gacha which means less repeats. And it's all kind of weird and different.
Don't pay $75 for these at the show, look for them cheaper at yard sales.
miwa's airship is my new favourite. I like the rustic pan hanger.
Ice cream parlours have been done a zillion times. I'm really sick of them. But I want the newspaper with the glasses!
All this is cool, to put on the Hacienda or at the Flamingo.
The player reward with this set is a motel office. I already have multiples of that kind of thing but someone will like it.
Bauwerk's Lake House looks promising. In trying to get it, many people will create cheap sales of the rest of the set.
Aria's bed is worth getting. Poufs, never. They are always garbage.
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