Zeta Event that may not happen:

Look, nothing is official until it's official, but in the datamines there's information that if you have at least ONE (1) JKCK toon at 7 stars, then you will be eligible for bonus zeta drops. Actual wording under spoiler since it's obviously subject to change/cancellation:



There are two reasons I bring this up. The first is that if this happens, it might be useful for folks short on Zetas to have a couple extra days to finish up JKCK toons so that they can access the event.

But the second is about CG. Not terribly long ago I put up a thread called "CG, Could you look at your Zeta economy?" The idea was that as someone who listens to a lot of other people, I'd been hearing about zeta shortages. And when I looked at my own zetas, I had about the same as a year before, but was on the verge of Leia and dropping a bunch. So I wasn't growing in zeta cache, and depending on the timing of the comparison, it was possible that I was falling behind a little. I wasn't worried for myself long term, but the fact that an end game player wasn't able to increase her stash lended credence to the idea that mid and earlier players might be falling farther behind. Combine all that with the fact that Omicrons have superseded zetas, and I thought the economy was worth a look.

That thread went up 2 months ago tomorrow, and we're now hearing that it's very possible (very likely?) that we going to get a temporary zeta boost.

What does that tell me? A couple of things.

First, I probably wasn't wrong that the economy was marginal. There are always bottlenecks and there always should be, but as the game grows we don't expect that things we grew past needing to worry about will suddenly become things we have to actively manage again. The indications were that the economy was marginal and based on this ... it probably was.

Second it tells me that CG probably agrees that Omicrons should be the new bottleneck for Ability upgrades. We don't have infinite Omega materials, but it's been a hugely long time since I have had to think about them at all. The idea of not applying an Omega because I'm low on mats is silly for someone at my stage of the game. While we're not there with zetas, it looks like Omicrons will be moving zetas more towards the level of importance and management concern that Omegas now occupy. ("Towards" doesn't mean that it will reach that level soon, just that it's moving in that direction.)

Third, I just want to point out to people who think that CG never reads the forums and doesn't care about player experience that this is one situation in which we asked for something and we're quickly finding out what CG thinks and, if this event turns out to happen the way the datamine suggests it will, we're getting a positive response with relatively rapid action.

I don't know how many zetas will drop for me on those 3 days, and I don't know if any future zeta bonuses will happen, but I think this is a great step. It doesn't require them to make permanent decisions about what the zeta economy will eventually become. A different release cadence or number of zetas per character over the next year is always possible, and permanent changes to the economy risk being inappropriate to that release rate. I think a temporary boost to Zetas while they monitor the economy over the longer term is a great step that rewards people who bought Lightspeed Bundles as well as the people who have invested in the game over the long term.

Thanks, CG, for reading the forums and acting when we have good arguments and reasonable requests. I hope that people remember this the next time pessimism sets in and someone starts saying you don't care about your players.

And for the rest of you -- snag that first JKCK character if you don't have one already and get ready to swim through your zeta mat vault like Scrooge McDuck.