A Note on the Booster Bundle’s Auras

The confusion in the community about the availability of the red and blue Plasmic Auras rests squarely with us as we used words poorly in the descriptions for the previous releases of the Booster Bundle. The description in our second release included this line:

"…an Aura Reward Box that may include one of two new Plasmic Auras, or the rare Nimbus Aura, all exclusive to this bundle!"

The words “this bundle” refer to the Booster Bundle. While the Booster Bundle is in its third release, we here on the DCUO team look at the Booster Bundle as a singular entity, which on occasion shows up for a limited time. Any Aura that we have specifically stated is “exclusive to this bundle” will never be available anywhere outside of the Booster Bundle – not on the Marketplace and not as a drop. Ever. However, because of this current confusion, we want to make a few definitive statements here to clear up any possible future concerns.

You will never again see the following Auras from previous versions of the Booster Bundle become available:

- The Original Plasmic Aura from the first release of the Booster Bundle

- The Original Nimbus Aura from the second release of the Booster Bundle

And because we feel strongly that each release of the Booster Bundle must contain something very special and unique, the original Black Smoke Aura will never again be available after this current release of the Booster Bundle.

I’m really sorry for the confusion and the poor wording in our earlier descriptions. We were excited to get red and blue Plasmic back out there for you guys since we think they are a few of the coolest Auras we’ve ever made. We hope you’re enjoying the return of the Booster Bundle. We love seeing how the new Auras look on your characters, so keep sending us screen shots!

Thank you for clearing this up.....

Glad at least one aura from each round of a booster bundle will be exclusive. Now Mepps can say the black smoke aura is exclusive.

I never saw the big deal about it anyway...

but, thanks anyway, I guess!


IA ARMY

Reminds my of something Bill Clinton would say .

I can dig it.

Because i have a nimbus>smoke

So in other words buying the Smoke is a good deal because we will never get it again? (Broker I mean)

But what happened to the Purple Plasma? Or was this one saved due to WOTL Part II

I think they felt it was best to avoid Purple ANYTHING. Since the main complaint from the last few bundles was people constantly getting the Purple Aura.

You got to wonder is the problem the aura itself or the rarity (or lack there of) of that aura that erked people. I feel it was the latter, but I can understand if SOE wanted to see if they could just get a bundle that didn't cause everyone to raise their pitchforks before going out on a limb.

Please clarify this.

Mepps said-

"No. The original Plasmic is exclusive to the original bundle, and the two new (red and blue) Plasmics are exclusive to this VERSION of the bundle.

There is no way that statement can be misconstrued.

Talking about my earlier post in a related thread

"Tanks" 4 the clarification. Good 2 know the info about the smoke aura & the previous exclusive auras. Also means...possibly other or more exclusive one time only auras in the future!?!

Think that I'm sort of a collector. At least I appreciate things, and do my best to acquire those things I like. Used to be a long time Magic the Gathering player, and had my own comic book collection...


Stopped playing MTG once I noticed how hard it was to get cards I wanted, due to the new Mythic Rares, and how expensive playing became, while my card collection plummeted in price, after some cards got banned from competitive play (and others because of reprint).


Sold most of my comic book collection, including many #1 issues (they were all reprints), because I needed the money at the time. The fact I was able to get a reprint of those comics was just great, because means the publishers decided to rerelease the origins of their most iconic creations to newer generations, rather than simply let them rot in a vault or remain exclusive to a tycoon's personal collection.


But that is the point. These are actual items you can resell, recirculate, recycle, repurpose, republish, etc. You can get actual real life money out of these things. That is why I find this stance of keeping certain virtual items, that become completely account bound to a user, to be completely ridiculous. Sure, the game has its own in-game economy, but these items will keep getting rarer or impossible to get, once they get keep getting used, or those that have the items become inactive.


I sincerely think this announcement is terrible business. If you have a large percentage of the population willing to pay IRL money for an item, be it the Original Nimbus Aura, or the New Smoke Aura, they should be purchasable from the Market Place. If you want to keep the rarity up, and help at least sustain the virtual economy (with its limitations, and all), then at least all these items should still be available up for grabs in every current and subsequent Booster Bundles.

Thank you for the clarification I'm glad I've gotten all the exclusive auras!

Not when previous Booster Bundles were sold to people with the promises that Original Nimbus, Original Plasmic, and Black Smokey, will never again be available.

People chose to buy Bundles based on that information. If someone spent, say, $170 to buy twenty Bundles, the object they spent that much money to obtain because it was exclusive, and DCUO then broke their word, they would destroy their credibility and make those who invested significantly in Bundles very very very angry.

People keep using the word "should" when what they mean is "I want for."

They do not mean the same thing.

It's no skin off my back personally, as I have all these auras, but my opinion is that how you "looked at the Booster Bundle as a singular entity" isn't relevant; it's not a reasonable interpretation of the words for anyone outside the company, and it is a distortion of what a reasonable person would read these words as meaning.

My opinion is that you said the "two new Plasmic Auras" were exclusive to "THIS" -- repeat, "THIS", Bundle, and that it is not reasonable to expect people to understand these words as meaning "Bundles in general." My opinion is that like it or not, you should regard yourselves as morally stuck with the words you used. Players should not suffer or feel misled because DCUO dropped the ball by bad writing.

As I said, I personally have no emotional investment here, since I already have the auras. But right is right.

(Really, would Superman use this sort of torture of the English language to worm his way out from having said something he realized he didn't mean?)

If those Auras stay exclusive to the Booster Bundle, I don't see what is the problem. Those that spent so much money on Auras, likely did because of a broken lottery mechanic. Is it fair for those that spent equal amount of money, not get the aura they were looking for? Worse, telling them that in a virtual world, where things can be created an infinite amount of times, that they will never ever again get the chance to get their hands on an item? Even though $100 were spent trying to get a single aura? I'd say it is not fair.


I'll further illustrate, like I said, I used to play Magic. Before, there were only 3 level of rarities, common, uncommon, and rare. Each booster had a guaranteed a rare. But even back then, there were junk rares, and really sought for rares. Meaning, every so now and then you'd perhaps get an Akroma, Angel of Wrath.


Then WotC, implemented the Mythic Rare card, making it a fourth category. The ratio usually holds that 1 out of every 8 packs will be a Mythic Rare. Within the Mythic Rares, the chance to get one of the most coveted cards is even lower. Purchasing entire booster boxes (as I used to do), did not guarantee I'd get what I wanted. You could probably get x copies of the same Mythic Rare, and never the rarest ones, even after purchasing 2 booster boxes. Getting individual cards could get too expensive, and trading cards too steep.


You'd think that after spending over hundreds on boosters, fat packs, booster boxes, you'd at least get the relief of getting the cards you wanted. If you are out of luck, and they cycle out the expansion, then you can still cross your fingers the cards get reprinted in Advanced/Core. Or at least, you can go to a online retailers years after to purchase those cards.

By reissuing reprints of a card, WotC is not damaging collectors, it is instead doing a favor, as it provides to players to get items they missed.


Besides, like I said, at least these physical things are stuff you can do whatever you want them, until they get lost or damaged. The Auras, don't only have a broken rarity system, they become account lock, so the number avaiable of those items will become much more difficult to get (and if I understand correctly, it is against Terms to sell these items for RL money?). Is it fair to those that spend hundreds of dollars for a specific Aura be left out? Is it fair for new players to not get the chance to get those items? Those new players could spend hundreds of dollars, and revitalize the game's economy, specially as old players move on to other things.

To sum up:

- I think all the previous Auras should be available, in every single Booster Bundle. No matter when they were originally released.

-The devs should rework their Rarity Tiers, and chances of getting certain auras. If devs want to keep these special Auras from becoming too common, then go ahead, avoid the Market Place (IMO, bad idea), but at least increase the chances of getting them.

I'm sure that there are more of us willing to spend money on these Bundles, if these things were fixed. You'd see less angry people that spend hundreds of dollars only not to get what they wanted.

You guys your random system don't work i have be playing since 2012 bought all the boxes 4 to 7 times and never got a rare aura this is becoming online gambling and its not healthy for a video game.Just put on the market place for 1700-2000 sc and make it accessible to everyone i personally will never buy a booster pack again i feel so ripped off and used.people who do get them sell them for 60-80 million in game which is not possibly. This is really a bad system.

What you can also do is to make this a little bit more fair is allow us to buy in game cash from the market place.

Great sooo, The black aura that I've been requesting for months now is finally available and I may never get it... Great.