…it is because I feel really sick so I’m going to apologize in advance.

So, I remember reading this post a while back in regards to “Gambling Boxes”. For those not familiar with them, they are boxes that can have a number of items (I have seen some places have up to 60 items in a “Gambling Box”), usually with a few rare items. And usually all the items or at the very least, the rarer ones, can only be gotten through these boxes.

What bothers me is the fact that when they mention the Cartel Packs, they do not say they are not Gambling Boxes in a topic that is about them which really worries me and makes me think they really will be Gambling Boxes over random item packs.

“How are random item packs different?” You don’t really ask but I’m continuing this format anyway.

An example of a random item pack just means an item pack filled with a random collection of items–for example an armor set, a pet, and a mount. Those items are pretty different and have randomly been decided to put in a pack together, however, every time someone buys that pack, it is always the same armor set, pet, and mount. That is Cartel Pack #1 and it will never change.

Another example, however, is a mixture of a Random Item Pack and a Gambling Pack where there’s fewer options, but you are paying for more due to it coming with more. So, you’d buy the set and you will get an armor set, pet, and mount but which of each is random. So let’s just make an example:

Armor sets:
Blue
Pink
Red
Yellow
Rainbow

Pet sets:
Lobel
Tauntaun
Orobird
Monkeylizard

Mounts:
Mantyke Thranta (sorry, I told you I am sick >_>)
Tauntaun
Orobird
Pod Racer

You then buy a pack and you get: Blue Armor Set, Orobird Pet, and Pod Racer Mount. You then buy another and maybe you get Rainbow Set, Lobel Pet, and Tauntaun Mount and then maybe you get one more and you get horribly unlucky and get another Blue Armor Set, another Lobel Pet, and another Pod Racer Mount. Just completely random which you get, but you will get one of each type.

…if you couldn’t guess though, I prefer option 2. It’s just…a random collection of items. And maybe if I buy Cartel Pack #1, I can find someone who bought #2 and we can trade–like if I hate the armor set, maybe I can trade it for their pet.

The first season of Cartel packs will draw heavily on preexisting armor appearances that haven’t been used for player-wearable equipment thus far. They’ll include some new models, but we did not draw on endgame content appearances for them.

Unsurprisingly, the Cartel Packs will be limited. I just hope it’ll be a reasonable time–like a month or so. I’ve seen too many sites where they just do like a week.

Regardless, I really hope they will make the items tradeable. Gambling packs suck enough to begin with, but even more so when you’re stuck with the crud you got. I have awful luck. There is another site I go to where they, unfortunately, make their donation items random. They released about 10 items last month. There were only 2 I didn’t like. 7/10 chests I bought were one of those items. 1/10 was the other of those items. Leaving me with 2/10 that I actually wanted.

I was, thankfully, able to trade for some, but others I actually had to donate more to get and that stinks. In fact, there is another site I quit when I realized the average amount to get everything was about $300. The sad truth of these things are, they are brilliant ways to make money even if it makes more people miserable.

I’ve seen more people boycott features like that than those who buy them. The issue comes in that the people who do buy them are more than willing to spend thousands to get everything and in the end, they pay more money than the people who do not buy those items at all. And I hate gambling in real life–gambling for virtual things is just kind of infuriating to me (and having money issues right now doesn’t help).

But yes, considering the response to the topic, I am really really really worried. 🙁 I hope, if they unfortunately do go that route, that they will at least be tradeable… but I really hope they’re not and they just didn’t think to say something.