Collection events from a “whale’s” point of view.

Wall of text, no TL;DR read if you’re on the toilet or waiting for a Respawn.

Anytime a collection event comes out there’s a lot of controversy. I understand it for the most part but I thought I’d offer a different perspective.

For context, I have almost every item in the game, with the exception of a few random legendary weapon skins and random quips for revenant/skins for the sentinel since they’re fairly new. I got the wraith heirloom in season 1, I skipped the iron crown event(I’ll explain that in a bit) and I got both lifeline and pathfinder heirlooms during their events. Every recolor that comes into the shop I have the legendary for it and 100’s of thousands of legend tokens so I always get those as well. I’ve spent a lot of money on Apex and have never spent a dime on any other game aside from games that cost $60 or whatever to purchase in the first place.

Why do I spend so much on this game? Because it’s my hobby and the only thing outside of bills and basic costs of living that I bother spending money on. I’ve met people who spend insane amounts on gear and memberships to golf once or twice a month. People who have financed a boat to use a handful of times a year and pay for it to be winterized for months with no use at all. People buy $100 jeans with holes already in them just to buy another nearly identical pair a few months later. The point is that people waste a lot of money on things that they feel they’ll enjoy. Are they buying physical real world items? Yes, but how is it any different if the money just goes to waste anyways? If they feel they got their enjoyment out of it and they had the means to spend it, good for them. It’s their money. I get enjoyment out of apex, it’s my only real hobby and spending on it has no affect on my financial situation so I buy things that I’m going to see for hours every single day and I like to do it.

As for events in general, I skipped the iron crown because I did not approve of the way it was structured. The extra $35 for the heirloom was an insult in my opinion and I did not agree with the fact that everyone, no matter their spending habits or financial situation, were forced to gamble in hopes they would get an item they wanted or even one they didn’t hate for that matter. After the outrage from the community and the quick changes to the event allowing individual items to be purchased, I did get a couple of the skins I wanted but never bought the packs or spent the extra $35 for the heirloom.

Collection events from that point on were far more reasonable in my opinion. $160 is not small purchase, don’t get me wrong. But it is not there to encourage avg. Joe or little Timmy to spend $160 on a free game. It is there for people who are already comfortable spending that. Anyone comfortable spending that isn’t going to complain about it, the complaints honestly come from a portion of players who were never even expected to spend that amount, feeling like they were expected to spend it.

The developers solved the only serious issues with the iron crown event, the insulting $35 required after already spending $160, and the gambling being the only way of getting items. They removed the $35 and they allowed everyone to purchase or craft individual items. $20 may be a lot for a skin in plenty of people’s mind but that’s an argument in and of itself, the fact is $20 is what a legendary skin costs in this game. If you want a legendary skin, you’d have to pay $20 whether there was an event or not.

I get that people do not want to spend hundreds on a video game and that it perfectly fine. You are not expected to. People who already spend a lot on games are the target for these events and we don’t have a problem with it because as I said, we already spend a lot, another opportunity to spend is not bothersome. To the players that don’t want to spend that much, don’t. They’re not trying to get you to, they’re not forcing you to, they’re not expecting someone who’s never spent a dime to drop $160. If you see something you like, pay $20 for it and go about your day. The same as you would if it was in the regular weekly shop. I understand the complaints and controversy but I think it’s important to remember that people who play for free can still play the game like they always have and if you’re bummed about having to pay $20 for an event skin then you’ve probably never paid $20 for a skin that’s already in the game either, so it’s not the event, it’s just your mindset or financial ability to spend on the game.