Day 5 Pirate Shop grind, some thoughts and takes from all this:
- First of all, thank you everyone for 3M impressions combined, so many people are playing right now its insane
- Second, the grind, even with optimal methods, is gruesome, tiring, and near impossible as the odds stand. Sure, there were a lot of randoms posting it at first and it seems like there was a nerf at some point, and there probably was, but we will never know because Epic will never admit to it.
- Third, even a few hundred / a thousand players posting about receiving it seems like a lot but this is literally a few hundred that got it out of the 5 million peak players daily since this came out, most content creators and leakers and grinders that post on here, have not received it and are in the same grind as everyone else, even after 5 days of non stop opening chests.
- Even with full squads of randoms and everyone's looting 100-200 chests a lobby, we've pretty much collectively gone an entire week without receiving it, the odds seem even worse than 1 in 700,000 imo, even say 1 in 700, you could easily do double that and not pull it, which means you could grind every single day of the event, even on power hours if they even do any for this, and not get it.
- Lets say you do get it, it sounds like a great deal, and it might be if you play a lot and love the game, buying out the shop is insane, and its thousands of dollars worth, true, but at the same time, you will probably not use every single cosmetic you buy in those 14 days, most of them are jam tracks or random items that sit unused, the shops aren't as great as they used to be, and most of us were not playing this much before this event started, which says a lot about the state of Fortnite right now.
- Epic did this as a desperate last attempt to survive after GTA 6 release. They know they aren't making much money after price increases, layoffs, and a declining player-base, a lot of their profits are spent on maintaining the scale of the game, AI and metaverse development, legal battles, and paying off investors like Disney, Marvel, Tencent, Sony, etc...
- Epic has also resorted to more and more to gambling, FOMO, using more hostile engagement & retention metrics to keep us playing (harder challenges, longer grinds, more exclusivity), and sexualization of skins and cosmetics to keep us playing and spending. Epic has really lowered their standards and is willing to do anything in order to get sales.
- When GTA 6 drops, many players as well as large creators and leakers will leave as that is where their friends and the money and views are, and some have already started to cover GTA 6 and will likely switch over on release. The pirate shop promo will not do much to change that or make Fortnite better in the long run, and the recent crew changes also show that Epic is making changes as well, looking to downscale game modes and features to adapt to this.
- When I was still a top collector and had one of the best Fortnite accounts in the game, I had everything, I was missing 10 skins and like 3 emotes, I bought EVERYTHING and grinded everything, and honestly, it was great for a while, but right around chapter 6, the game really started going downhill, I remember going entire seasons buying out the shop daily, and I felt nothing, new things came out daily, sometimes 10k vbucks worth of items, and I couldn't enjoy them, and I started to feel empty, despite being insanely stacked. I can promise its only gotten worse and cosmetics don't make the game better in the long run or help you enjoy it more.
- I know for a fact if I don't receive this, I will never play again and will definitely not be buying anything either especially when other people are getting the whole shop for free. If I do receive the pirate shop, I will be happy but at the same time, will only want maybe a few items and will probably stop playing once its done, I probably won't even play besides just getting on to buy out the shop, which is sad, and that's just how its been the past couple seasons, its just over for me now. GTA 6 release is just more of a reason to quit.
- I got a lucky streak when this event came out and pulled the car within a few games and then got all the other items very quickly as well. I dropped this guide to help ya'll out as I was grinding, but the odds are absolutely brutal and they absolutely did nerf it at some point.
- Value your time and energy, some things are just not worth it at all. I know even typing all this out is probably not worth it, I could just move on and say nothing, and others have posted similar thoughts, but it has to be said. 5 days around the clock with nothing to show for it is dumb, I had literally quit and have not played all season just before this event and came back for it, I guess this is one final send off before quitting again, this time for good.