darkSpyro

Decent article on why acti thinks resetting crystals is unneccessary . It's total BS lol, apparently they think people won't want to change battle class .

http://www.gameinformer.com/ga...r-friendly.aspx

They really think people are that stupid, huh. Obviously Acti's decision and not TFB. Ugh, with that phrasing though, seems like it'll be our Traptanium Gates - no yelling can fix.

Yeah definately you can tell some public relation guy worked hard on that response to not make them sound like money grubbing fouls lol. And it still didn't work .

Full customisation options = less fun ? Yeah that's definately how it works .

Quote: Bifrost

They really think people are that stupid, huh. Obviously Acti's decision and not TFB. Ugh, with that phrasing though, seems like it'll be our Traptanium Gates - no yelling can fix.

There's always the one decision that screws over the whole game's hype period for the fans.

*sigh* I guess I'm just getting less Crystals then!

Wow, just when I thought this may be the best skylanders game they do this crap...way to make future children cry and swear off the game completely, that'll sell more crystals.

If they don't correct this decision then the fire starter crystal is all I'm getting.

They definitely need to put in protection this time, so people can't buy crystals, put them on the portal in unopened packs and pick a class, then return it to the store later...

They said they wanted to encourage experimentation of different elements and classes, but then they do this? Absolutely horrendous decision.

Either way, I won't be getting a single Crystal outside of the Starter Pack and Adventure Pack. At least not until I know which elements will be in each Adventure Pack.

Might've gotten lost last page, but again, if you're against the decision entirely, no need to skip the game over this. Just buy no crystals, get your Senseis and call it a day, as you only need them to get level unlocks anyway. Make your choice of wanting to make a choice obvious since not buying the game is going to make the kids who buy everything matter even more to Acti - but a fan that buys but only the things they support, it's another subject.

I guess what I'd do is pick a class to go with an element its not in. Like a Dark Sorcerer, or a Fire Swashbuckler.

Magic Bazooker?

Possible things that might happen.

1. Tons of Crystals get bought, leaving very few on shelves. Might happen in rich areas or something.

2. Barely any Crystals get bought, over-flooding the shelves.
2a. (Semi-likely) To get rid of stock, stores put increasingly cost-efficient discounts on the Crystal packs.
2b. (Extremely unlikely) Seeing the sales figures, Activision panics and patches in a reset button to try and win back customers.

Either way, these news have made me extremely pessimistic. I'll just keep the Starter Fire Crystal and Gryphon Observatory Earth Crystal locked away and collecting dust until further notice.

Quote: Nightmoon

Either way, these news have made me extremely pessimistic. I'll just keep the Starter Fire Crystal and Gryphon Observatory Earth Crystal locked away and collecting dust until further notice.

Exactly my plans. At this point I'll be aiming for the adventure packs, hoping Mysticat and Starcast are included in one of them.

Total BS....They can spin it however they want but they fully knew what they were doing. Little tid bits said here and there at e3 so that they could cover their asses with "we have been up front from the beginning" which they were but it was never talked about at length and made clear. There are going to be a ton of upset children and parents come this holiday season with the way they're handling this.

As I said before don't expect to be able to keep your crystals in the packaging this time around, they will be protected for sure.

I will only get cc if they were on sale or in adventure packs

With this system I would be too scared to make an imaginators till I completely finished the game anyway and had all the parts so I knew what I wanted it too look like too .


The people above who said "just play the game with senseis " are right. Even though making a skylander was a big draw of this game, if you don't wanna give into the crystals, playing with senseis only seems like a decent idea . The levels and game it self still seem good and imaginators arnt technically needed for anything in game.

If imaginators didn't exist this game would probably just be called Skylanders:villains or Skylanders:redemption anyway where the villain figures would've been the big draw.

Quote: Nightmoon

Possible things that might happen.

1. Tons of Crystals get bought, leaving very few on shelves. Might happen in rich areas or something.

2. Barely any Crystals get bought, over-flooding the shelves.
2a. (Semi-likely) To get rid of stock, stores put increasingly cost-efficient discounts on the Crystal packs.
2b. (Extremely unlikely) Seeing the sales figures, Activision panics and patches in a reset button to try and win back customers.

Either way, these news have made me extremely pessimistic. I'll just keep the Starter Fire Crystal and Gryphon Observatory Earth Crystal locked away and collecting dust until further notice.

I'm expecting Fire Crystals to be the new Water Trap and flood store shelves, and for the used market to be full of Crystals that are stuck as either Brawlers or Knights (since I'm betting those will probably be the most popular).

Wow. Wow. Unnecessary? Wow. Good one.

Not using any crystals on Day One. Thanks TFB.

“Congratulations Activision, you’ve officially ruined Imaginators! First the Trap Masters, and now them!” –Anger (with some slight revisions).

If Acti seriously thinks this will win them more money in the long run, hello new Water Traps. How well will Creation Crystals sell when parents find out that their little one is crying over a half-height Fire Ninja? Smart move.

I am still willing to get Imaginators, but with this in mind, I will have to make sure my little siblings know EXACTLY what type of Imaginator they want before they get a crystal of their own. I’ll be getting a set of ten to at least experiment with each of the classes and elements, but I will do research to see which combinations would work best for my playstyle (note: I don’t use Youtube for a variety of reasons, so I would greatly appreciate a list of abilities given by dark52 or some other user when this releases). It would only be adding salt to the wound if there is only a few arena challenges as post-game content.

The wiki has a list of abilities as we find them in footage. For elemental abilties, just go into the individual elements, same thing. Watch out for spoilers in Soul Gems.

http://skylanders.wikia.com/wiki/Battle_Classes

I didn't add the shape modifiers yet since I had a tiny hope we'd be able to choose, but it's not looking like that'll happen either.

Ugh... guess I have to be really sure about my choices now, huh? This is their shoddiest attempt yet to cover-up what is a blatantly obvious money grab. I was already planning on getting multiple crystals of some elements, but still... ugh.

[youtube]zG5q7Ab8BB4[/youtube]

Everyone on darkspyro right now

Quote: B-BOB358

Decent article on why acti thinks resetting crystals is unneccessary . It's total BS lol, apparently they think people won't want to change battle class .

http://www.gameinformer.com/ga...r-friendly.aspx

That stupidity is the first thing that needs to get patched out - or preferably removed prior to release. Give the game to a kid and they will have no idea they cannot change their minds. I will guarantee this will cause lots of returns of crystals for being "broken" because someone picks something then changes their minds. If my kids were to play and that were to happen I will guarantee I would take it back to the store and exchange it.

Not to mention if someone sets it through the box - they better have some blocking discs in the box (like Amiibos), or people are going to return crystals with creatures that are very questionable in form and name, and a decision that cannot be undone.

The first rule in kids games is YOU DO NOT MAKE ANY DECISION PERMANENT. Sure you can make it a little time consuming to do (like tie the ability to portal master level), but you do not do that to kids. They change their minds constantly.

FYI: Include the full url to link the video, not just the Youtube code in the bar.

Anyways, hopefully my siblings will think their decisions through. I started to get an idea out of my four-year-old brother: An Undead tiger Bazooker that's tiny with a deep voice. Sounds funny to me, but hopefully a bazooker is what he wants...especially considering he would only be able to get a Crystal once every few months...

Activision: "What's that? Sorry, I can't hear you over all this money!"

Activision is unfair!
Lou Studdert is in there!
Terrible crystal decision!
Plotting their opression!

Quote: AdamGregory03

Activision: "What's that? Sorry, I can't hear you over all this money!"

This is the thing they need to hear about constantly. It is so ridiculous I couldn't believe it was true. I get making it so you lose levels/etc. if you change class, but this is beyond dumb. Everyone considering Imaginators needs to know about this and voice their displeasure. It would be so simple for them to simply put in a reset feature. A game that is all about options and choice limiting options and choice is moronic, and come Christmas morning a whole bunch of kids are going to screw up their crystals experimenting. THAT'S WHAT KIDS DO.

I went from being excited for the game this morning and pre-ordering to completely disgusted tonight.

Well, preordering months in advance has been proven time and again to be the green sign for the company to do whatever they want since they'll get money anyway - right? no; the game industry gets away with that constantly? yes. Not having thousands already at the doorstep means they'd have to be a interesting in the coming months to actually make it happen during launch.

Quote: Pickle

Activision is unfair!
Lou Studdert is in there!
Terrible crystal decision!
Plotting their opression!

I can't tell if you're being serious or if you're just mocking people who I'd say have a right to complain about something like this...

I hope they see what their decision is causing and change this, because I hate to see one of the last few non-human games die out due to a ****-****ed decision like this.

Yeah, secondary market for this will be crushed if they don't allow a reset. It may offer speculators an opportunity to stock and resell after inventory dries up. I'm wondering if the "tool that shall not be named" can reset the toy. I can guarantee you that if Acti/TfB doesn't solve this, someone will. What I really dislike here is that they are selling your imagination, but they are locking you in on a random initial decision.....I can guarantee kids won't know about this and will get very FRUSTRATED with the game....doesn't this sound like SuperChargers all over again?

I know why they are doing it....in theory someone can buy just one crystal and experiment to their hearts content (at least to one element)....this is helping the "gotta try them all" crowd go out and buy at least one crystal for each class. From a diligence to their shareholders perspective this is good business sense.

I don't really think it matters as I think this is their swan song and they're trying to maximize returns. Burning bridges is probably the last thing on their mind at this point since they won't have to deal with the repercussions of it.

To the note about the "game article" trying to "corporate splain" the lack of reset....media in gaming is so in bed with developers that they are basically an extension of the corporations they represent. I know everyone knows this, just stating the obvious.

Quote: AdamGregory03

Quote: Pickle

Activision is unfair!
Lou Studdert is in there!
Terrible crystal decision!
Plotting their opression!

I can't tell if you're being serious or if you're just mocking people who I'd say have a right to complain about something like this...

I'm serious. Terrible choice. Freedom of speech. Etc.

^ Ack. There's no constitutional right for a company to give you unlimited expression with their technology. Granted, that's what they are billing this as....

Quote: Nightmoon

Possible things that might happen.

1. Tons of Crystals get bought, leaving very few on shelves. Might happen in rich areas or something.

2. Barely any Crystals get bought, over-flooding the shelves.
2a. (Semi-likely) To get rid of stock, stores put increasingly cost-efficient discounts on the Crystal packs.
2b. (Extremely unlikely) Seeing the sales figures, Activision panics and patches in a reset button to try and win back customers.

Either way, these news have made me extremely pessimistic. I'll just keep the Starter Fire Crystal and Gryphon Observatory Earth Crystal locked away and collecting dust until further notice.

Your extremely unlikely scenario is kinda what I felt what happened last year when they "suddenly" announced the Nintendo figures outside of starter packs after hearing of the outrage. Never say never.

^
I'm confused. Whatchu saying about me?

The game encourages creativity, yet they restrict it so much...

agree with Kat-kun.
I've been really hyped for this game. I still care more for the imaginators then any official skylander.
However I now get a bit worried about the future of the imaginators if down the road when crystals become hard to find and yeah people will be on ebay looking for used crystals.
Sellers are now going to need to list the battle class of the used crystal they are selling. But nobody is going to want to just buy a random crystal that they don't know what battle class it is. Also some could just put the higher selling battle class sticker onto the crystal.

I think the reason Acti have even considered pulling something like this is because they think we will only want to create one character in each crystal. Ugh... It's hard to explain, but they're selling this as a 'Make the character you've aways dreamed of!' kind of thing. They think I'm gonna make my Magic-Tiger-Creature and be done with it. Locking in the battle class makes the character more permanent, like a real Skylander. I know this looks like I'm on Acti's side, but I'm just trying to pin down their logic.

What I don't understand is that if we can't reset the battle class, can we reset the powers, etc?

I imagine the reason they are making the Battle Class unchangeable is because there's some sort of in-game content that will require one character of each Battle Class to access. (Ala elemental gates, vehicle gates, swap zones, etc.)

If you could switch the Creation Crystal character's Battle Class, you could use a single crystal to access all the Battle Class exclusive content by constantly editing your character. I can get why that would mess up their whole business model. It would be like including a character in Spyro's Adventure who could switch between all 8 elements.

But if the end result is that every toy can only ever have one Battle Class assigned to it, I wish the Crystals were just designed with set Classes to begin with, instead of set Elements. (IE: A Sentinel Crystal, rather than a Fire Crystal.) Or if they were feeling amibitious, they could make the crystals two pieces... one dictating Element and one dictating Battle Class... so that both aspects are locked to a toy, but can still be disconnected and combined in other ways, ala Swap Force.

But locking both an Element AND Battle Class to one toy just seems bizarre to me. It makes it impossible to experiment with all the possible combinations of Element and Battle Class. There are 100! No one is going to buy 100 crystals.

Quote: esrever

I imagine the reason they make the Battle Class unchangeable is because some sort of content will require one character of each Battle Class to access. (Ala elemental gates, vehicle gates, swap zones, etc.)

If you could switch the Creation Crystal character's Battle Class, you could use a single crystal to access all the Battle Class exclusive content by constantly editing your character.

If that's the reason the Battle Classes are permanent, I wish the Crystals were just designed with set Classes to begin with instead of set Elements. (IE: A Sentinel Crystal, rather than a Fire Crystal.) Locking them in two ways just feels bizarre, especially when you have to choose the second locked component. There are 100 possible combinations of Element and Battle Class... surely they don't think anyone is going to buy 100Creation Crystals!

Fixed it for ya.
10 elements, each with 10 battle classes, makes for 100 movesets.

-Sigh- why does everyone forget Light and Dark exist...

I was hoping Activision wouldn't **** up this badly after Supercharger's terrible sales and Infinity being cancelled. I was wrong.

I was only planning on getting the Light and Dark Crystals originally, but I'll probably just stick to the Fire and Earth Crystals from the Starter and Adventure Packs, and any other Crystals I might get with other Packs (such as the second Adventure Pack, if there is one). However, I'll probably not make many Skylanders with them, and definitely not as much as I thought I would.

They are clearly trying to avoid people buying just a couple figures the using create a figure for the rest of their roster. If you go out an buy a new figure of a Battle Class you do not already have, you have to buy a crystal to use it. People aren't going to have un-set crystals lying around.

And since you have to have both figures of a battle class to unlock both moves, will existing crystals of that Battle Class pick up new moves when you buy a new figure? Probably not.

This all reeks of forcing people to buy more crystals every time they buy a figure if they want to, you know, use them for what they are intended and train a created character.

This needs to be front and center every time the game is brought up. If I were a reviewer for a major site I would tell them that the game gets docked 20% off the top for such a consumer unfriendly move that limits the main feature of the game. Start affecting their Metacritic average and they will listen, they get bonuses based on that.

The article describing the interview where they say why they're not allowing resets has made its way to a couple of other review game sites. So the issue is being advertised. I bet when some of the regular skylanders game interviewers start having their next meetings... The question about resetting crystals will be a pretty common one.

Good. This is an issue that needs to be addressed and fixed before the game goes gold. Unhappy customers means less money for Acti in the long and they need to realize this soon.

We'll see, we all know they ignored the communities want for a decent trap function for SC and SI, but we were left disappointed. Bit of a different issue though coz the traps were already sold out, whereas crystals are yet to be released . We'll see if they listen this time.

It's not a simple thing to reset and change battle classes to unlock whatever; you'll lose hours and hours of progress on all your stuff and have to customize your character all over again.

Activision probably won't listen unless youtubers swarm them with stuff revealing their displeasure... And they never do, even on other scummy things like DLC on other games. And of course, now that the cortex reveal is through, we no longer exist to the i ternet again.

But enough is enough of just being apathetic like their PR. I just wish that for damn once there was someone to hear us like an actual creator and community relationship.

Quote: Bifrost

It's not a simple thing to reset and change battle classes to unlock whatever; you'll lose hours and hours of progress on all your stuff and have to customize your character all over again.

Activision probably won't listen unless youtubers swarm them with stuff revealing their displeasure... And theh never do, even on other scummy things like DLC on other games. But enough is enough of just being apathetic like their PR.

It shouldn't be easy to perform and should have confirmation to do so. But resetting the data on the crystal back to original settings is easy.

I'd even maybe be ok with them making it an ability you could only do with an upgraded Portal Master level, not max level but enough that you would have to earn it. If they do that, it should tell you that you have to earn that ability.

The YouTubers need to highlight this in every video leading up to it, and deduct points on reviews if it remains for release. The way you get developer reaction is you affect their bottom line. And these days that is through Metacritic, contracts are set with publishers based on review score aggregates. "I won't buy it" isn't good enough, they ignore that. But risk their bonus and I bet they find the motivation to fix this.

Well, just do like the Gear, you can only enter with a level 10 Imaginator or something. That way there's no choice but go through several levels just to go back there.

Yup, no full boycott, we will get the game and the cool figures, but not the thing they're trying to get away with, which might be the meat of the profits since it's nowhere as cheap as a trap. Maybe even sell away the Fire starter crystal and swarm the used market with them to see if someone notices.

Quote: Bifrost

It's not a simple thing to reset and change battle classes to unlock whatever; you'll lose hours and hours of progress on all your stuff and have to customize your character all over again.

Activision probably won't listen unless youtubers swarm them with stuff revealing their displeasure... And they never do, even on other scummy things like DLC on other games. And of course, now that the cortex reveal is through, we no longer exist to the i ternet again.

But enough is enough of just being apathetic like their PR. I just wish that for damn once there was someone to hear us like an actual creator and community relationship.

losing progress levels of a single skylanders isn't a big deal though. a large amount of the community reset characters constantly coz they like raising/training them . And it'll be the Same with customising an Imaginator.

The very things you think are tedious are the best part of the games for a lot of fans.

Flooding of used Fire Crystals on the used market could easily happen anyway, if people don't like the classes they originally picked.

Quote: B-BOB358

losing progress levels of a single skylanders isn't a big deal though. a large amount of the community reset characters constantly coz they like raising/training them . And it'll be the Same with customising an Imaginator.

The very things you think are tedious are the best part of the games for a lot of fans.

I don't think it's tedious; I love that. But you're still sinking hours into it back, which I don't exactly like because I play in short sessions; also why I always hold off on changing upgrade paths until I can't take it any longer since then it's usually an issue for my next session.

Edit: *sigh* here comes r/skylanders decidedly thinking boycott is the way to go. Congrats, now you no longer exist to Acti.

I don't mind time required if you change your mind on a choice to recover back to where you were. What I mind is requiring money. If you change your mind on the class, you have to spend $10 for a new one. That's moronic. Especially since come Christmas day a bunch of kids will be playing around with the game and not know they are making un-alterable choices. I don't care if they have a warning screen, as a parent that makes me mad. What kind of kids game does something punitive to a kid like that?

And no, boycotts never work. Not enough people ever participate to make a blip on their radar, most kids will get it and never know.

YouTubers, writers and reviewers making a big deal out of it will though. The game isn't out, reviews haven't been written yet. I'll bet TfB wises up REAL quick if they have to field questions on this in every interview they do leading up to the release. It is not the kind of thing you want being a headline when you want hype to be building.

The issue is that aside from our Skylanders youtubers, people don't care; worse, think we somehow will accept any and all paywalls the moment we accept the existence of the games because slippery slope. They only turned an eye to us when Crash was announced, and when they got their fill, the backs were turned again. IGN and friends will only care again when they have to review this game, slap a "7/10 I hate paying attention so mediocre story" and call it a day. Heck, GameInformer is publishing that horrid PR response without a word about it.

Maybe we can make an uproar, but if even when the internet does care(like with COD) they're apathetic... I get a bit pessimistic. But again, enough is enough, even if it amounts to nothing I'd rather put this money on Netflix for Skylanders Academy.