About the rebirth of the mandrake backpack

[Keller Max]

8 hours ago, milsonmeow said:

Hope those will get to the store for a reasonable price.

[Kaioh]

Meh, whatever. I've said what needed to be said, and now that comments are being deleted, I have no desire to discuss this any further (although that also means at least someone at Klei is reading this, so I'm satisfied), so I will take my leave.

For those of you who are celebrating the current price tags of resurrected skins, you might be laughing, joking about it etc. now, well don't cry if Klei suddenly puts out an announcement later that looks something like this:

"We are shutting down Don't Starve Together"
"We are being acquired by Tencent"
"We are selling Don't Starve Together to Valofe/Gamigo/other*"

*Companies that deliberately buy games to zombify them and extract as much money as possible from players, disregarding player satisfaction.

I mean I don't think anyone wants to see such a dystopian future considering even Tencent acquiring a majority stake at the company was a big deal for many. Deliberately severely devaluing items is no joke when there's real money involved, even when they are virtual items (and unlike other previous vague devaluations, this one is official), which is why this move is rarely even considered. Many companies don't understand this, which is how they suddenly find themselves in a decline after thinking they can do whatever they want without consequences. Angering the people who monetarily support the business heavily is never a good idea, because it reduces their consumer confidence, which in turn reduces revenue, and they might even abandon the project entirely, leading to its eventual collapse or sale. Any legal protections Klei might have in EULA doesn't in any way, shape or form prevent a severe backlash from paying users in the form of reducing or fully withholding investments. It will also hurt Klei's reputation going forward, which isn't useful when they want to make more games (and I don't think they need a revenue/popularity reduction with the size of their games). Just something to think about, be careful what you wish for.

I am thankful to those of you who tried to understand my perspective and didn't just throw it out out of principle everything needs to be extremely cheap... for whatever reason.

That is all, peace 

[gaymime]

On 6/16/2025 at 8:04 AM, Johnny_Waffles said:

I do agree with 10 bucks each being too cheap for some skins (crabbit pack right now), the issue is most of the plushies were very expensive on the site (average is around 45 if i remember) so the main issue is they can't make these skins too expensive, or too cheap. And while so far it hasn't been set in stone, they might need to up the price of the future ones by a tiny bit, since if they all stay 10 bucks, for the people who bought it originally it sucks that the expensive plush skin they got has lost alot of value, though they still get a plush. and if they make it too expensive, it'll feel crappy for people who don't own them to kind of get scammed on skins since the plush that it came with a few years ago was expensive to make. 

so i might have to disagree. making the price ridiculously high just to be "fair" feels super not cool. the current price is already pretty painful and is tolerated only because it has a free option coupled with it. making future skins even more pricy to keep it to scale isnt really reasonable.  right now if i were to buy the skin again i would have to work for a little bit less than two and a half hours, meanwhile i just bought the full complete skinset from this update and it was not quite five hours of work to get it. it feels really uncomfortable to hear people talking about raising the price of a single item when it is already so much more expensive than any other digital-only item especially since it is only to service the ego of people who already bought the item.

 

for sure having it available to buy is still good but making the price too high to justify is not the way to go. it puts it back in the same category of unattainable it was in when it was tied to a physical good

[Johnny_Waffles]

13 minutes ago, gaymime said:

so i might have to disagree. making the price ridiculously high just to be "fair" feels super not cool. the current price is already pretty painful and is tolerated only because it has a free option coupled with it. making future skins even more pricy to keep it to scale isnt really reasonable.  right now if i were to buy the skin again i would have to work for a little bit less than two and a half hours, meanwhile i just bought the full complete skinset from this update and it was not quite five hours of work to get it. it feels really uncomfortable to hear people talking about raising the price of a single item when it is already so much more expensive than any other digital-only item especially since it is only to service the ego of people who already bought the item.

 

for sure having it available to buy is still good but making the price too high to justify is not the way to go. it puts it back in the same category of unattainable it was in when it was tied to a physical good

Sorry if it seemed like I agreed with it, I was just saying that for the ridiculously expensive items like the 60$ chester maybe could go for a little more (like 5 more at most) but if you read my other comments I don't agree with it, especially since unlike other games, 10 dollar can buy you ALOT of skins.

[gaymime]

7 minutes ago, Johnny_Waffles said:

Sorry if it seemed like I agreed with it, I was just saying that for the ridiculously expensive items like the 60$ chester maybe could go for a little more (like 5 more at most) but if you read my other comments I don't agree with it, especially since unlike other games, 10 dollar can buy you ALOT of skins.

oh, then i misunderstood then. i thought it was a general agreement not a conditional one,

yeah, i have bought almost all of my skins on sale, the only time i paid full-price is when klei put out a super big update

[Faintly Macabre]

On 6/19/2025 at 10:37 AM, Kaioh said:

For those of you who are celebrating the current price tags of resurrected skins, you might be laughing, joking about it etc. now, well don't cry if Klei suddenly puts out an announcement later that looks something like this:

"We are shutting down Don't Starve Together"
"We are being acquired by Tencent"
"We are selling Don't Starve Together to Valofe/Gamigo/other*"

Bro if those things are said it will have absolutely nothing to do with the inability of you and some other contingent of players to value things reasonably. $10 is not "extremely cheap." It is in fact quite expensive for a single, solitary item skin. The items they came with—high quality plush toys with electronic components—retailed for $30-35. 25-33% of MSRP of the entire package seems pretty reasonable to me! Especially since it's the part that costs virtually nothing to reproduce. If you don't think the remaining components of your purchase are worth $20-25, I don't know what to tell you.

[NexusMercer]

On 6/20/2025 at 12:37 AM, Kaioh said:

I mean I don't think anyone wants to see such a dystopian future considering even Tencent acquiring a majority stake at the company was a big deal for many. Deliberately severely devaluing items is no joke when there's real money involved, even when they are virtual items (and unlike other previous vague devaluations, this one is official), which is why this move is rarely even considered. Many companies don't understand this, which is how they suddenly find themselves in a decline after thinking they can do whatever they want without consequences. Angering the people who monetarily support the business heavily is never a good idea, because it reduces their consumer confidence, which in turn reduces revenue, and they might even abandon the project entirely, leading to its eventual collapse or sale. Any legal protections Klei might have in EULA doesn't in any way, shape or form prevent a severe backlash from paying users in the form of reducing or fully withholding investments. It will also hurt Klei's reputation going forward, which isn't useful when they want to make more games (and I don't think they need a revenue/popularity reduction with the size of their games). Just something to think about, be careful what you wish for.
我的意思是，我认为没有人愿意看到这样一个反乌托邦的未来，因为即使腾讯收购该公司的多数股权对许多人来说也是一件大事。当涉及真金白银时，故意严重贬值物品可不是开玩笑的，即使它们是虚拟物品（与之前其他模糊的贬值不同，这次是官方的），这就是为什么这一举措甚至很少被考虑的原因。许多公司不明白这一点，这就是他们在认为他们可以为所欲为而不受后果地后突然发现自己陷入衰落的原因。激怒那些在金钱上大力支持企业的人从来都不是一个好主意，因为这会降低他们的消费者信心，进而减少收入，他们甚至可能完全放弃该项目，导致其最终倒闭或出售。Klei 在 EULA 中可能拥有的任何法律保护都不会以任何方式、形状或形式阻止以减少或完全扣留投资的形式向用户付款的严重反对。这也将损害 Klei 未来的声誉，当他们想制作更多游戏时，这没有用（我认为他们不需要随着游戏的大小而降低收入/人气）。只是要考虑的事情，小心你的愿望。

I am thankful to those of you who tried to understand my perspective and didn't just throw it out out of principle everything needs to be extremely cheap... for whatever reason.
我感谢那些试图理解我的观点的人，他们不仅仅是出于原则而抛弃它，一切都需要非常便宜......无论出于何种原因。

That is all, peace 
就这样，和平

I completely agree with your point of view. I also believe that the sale of the Resurrected skins is a huge betrayal to the original buyers. Admittedly, this is a decision Klei made to satisfy the majority of players who wanted these skins, but the current pricing completely disregards the OG buyers.

Previously, these merch-related skins were bundled with products priced as high as $60, and those who were willing to support that merch were likely players who truly loved the game and wanted to support the developers. But now, pricing the skin this low is essentially devaluing that support to almost nothing.

I'm not saying the new Resurrected skins need to be outrageously expensive, but in China they cost only 18 RMB (about $2.5 USD), while I paid $45 (including shipping) for the merch — that’s essentially a 95% discount on the skin, which is completely unacceptable.

This decision effectively pushes away those who love the game deeply and are willing to spend more to support it. Sure, there are many regular paying players in any game, but it’s the ones who are willing to spend more that form the core of a company’s revenue. I honestly don’t understand what Klei was thinking. Either way, I will no longer support any of Klei’s merch in the future — who knows when it’ll just get a 95% discount again.

[Bumber64]

6 hours ago, NexusMercer said:

I'm not saying the new Resurrected skins need to be outrageously expensive, but in China they cost only 18 RMB (about $2.5 USD), while I paid $45 (including shipping) for the merch — that’s essentially a 95% discount on the skin, which is completely unacceptable.

No, the physical product doesn't come free with your purchase of the skin. It's amazing how dishonest people can be about this.

You're even including a shipping cost for the skin? You realize that money didn't go to Klei, right? At most they're getting a license fee on the merch.

Edited June 30, 2025 by Bumber64

[Kaioh]

17 hours ago, NexusMercer said:

I completely agree with your point of view. I also believe that the sale of the Resurrected skins is a huge betrayal to the original buyers. Admittedly, this is a decision Klei made to satisfy the majority of players who wanted these skins, but the current pricing completely disregards the OG buyers.

Previously, these merch-related skins were bundled with products priced as high as $60, and those who were willing to support that merch were likely players who truly loved the game and wanted to support the developers. But now, pricing the skin this low is essentially devaluing that support to almost nothing.

I'm not saying the new Resurrected skins need to be outrageously expensive, but in China they cost only 18 RMB (about $2.5 USD), while I paid $45 (including shipping) for the merch — that’s essentially a 95% discount on the skin, which is completely unacceptable.

This decision effectively pushes away those who love the game deeply and are willing to spend more to support it. Sure, there are many regular paying players in any game, but it’s the ones who are willing to spend more that form the core of a company’s revenue. I honestly don’t understand what Klei was thinking. Either way, I will no longer support any of Klei’s merch in the future — who knows when it’ll just get a 95% discount again.

Wait, resurrected skins are only $2.5 in China? Wow, I don't even know what to say to that, that's real bad. Now I feel even more averse to buying merch than before. I have spent a grand total of $444.88 ($610.47 if we include shipping, taxes and customs/duties) on 12 skins so far. Resurrecting these would reduce their cost to only $120, or apparently just $30 in China... Yeah, no, I absolutely reject this move by Klei and nobody can convince me otherwise

[NexusMercer]

8 minutes ago, Kaioh said:

Wait, resurrected skins are only $2.5 in China? Wow, I don't even know what to say to that, that's real bad. Now I feel even more averse to buying merch than before. I have spent a grand total of $444.88 ($610.47 if we include shipping, taxes and customs/duties) on 12 skins so far. Resurrecting these would reduce their cost to only $120, or apparently just $30 in China... Yeah, no, I absolutely reject this move by Klei and nobody can convince me otherwise

Yes, in China these Resurrected skins only cost about $2.5. I also bought twelve pieces of merch, so I'm really upset about this behavior that harms OG buyers.

By the way, in China, many people also bought the merch just for the skins — they didn’t actually need the figures. As a result, these figures can now be bought on shopping sites for only 80 RMB (around $11, though you could consider them second-hand). So honestly, Klei completely overestimated the value of their toys, haha.

10 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

No, the physical product doesn't come free with your purchase of the skin. It's amazing how dishonest people can be about this.

You're even including a shipping cost for the skin? You realize that money didn't go to Klei, right? At most they're getting a license fee on the merch.

You need to acknowledge that the skins were actually part of the value of the merch — and Klei was well aware of that. If they truly believed the skins had no value, they should’ve released the Resurrected skins in the in-game store at the same time the merch originally launched. But they didn’t. Instead, they promoted the exclusivity and rarity of those skins, clearly targeting players who were buying the merch just for the skins.

Now, with the release of the Resurrected skins, they’re essentially abandoning those players and devaluing the rarity they themselves marketed. This is nothing short of commercial fraud.

[Bumber64]

3 hours ago, NexusMercer said:

(around $11, though you could consider them second-hand)

They could also be possible counterfeits without the skin bundled. That was part of the reason they started doing this to begin with.

3 hours ago, NexusMercer said:

You need to acknowledge that the skins were actually part of the value of the merch — and Klei was well aware of that. If they truly believed the skins had no value, they should’ve released the Resurrected skins in the in-game store at the same time the merch originally launched. But they didn’t. Instead, they promoted the exclusivity and rarity of those skins, clearly targeting players who were buying the merch just for the skins.

Now, with the release of the Resurrected skins, they’re essentially abandoning those players and devaluing the rarity they themselves marketed. This is nothing short of commercial fraud.

They're certainly part of the value. What are we to make of players selling skins for more than the original cost of both combined? Perhaps some unethical scalping by the same individuals who are offloading the physical goods for cheap?

Most likely Klei was prohibited from selling the skins separately for a period of time as part of the partnership. Once production of goods stops, the partner isn't at risk of losing sales.

The Resurrected skins are actually marked as being of a different rarity. You just don't like that you can't show off your wealth to other players in-game. (It's visible from Steam inventory, IIRC?)

Edited July 1, 2025 by Bumber64

[NexusMercer]

12 minutes ago, Bumber64 said:

They could also be possible counterfeits without the skin bundled. That was part of the reason they started doing this to begin with.

They're certainly part of the value. What are we to make of players selling skins for more than the original cost of both combined? Perhaps some unethical scalping by the same individuals who are offloading the physical goods for cheap?

Most likely Klei was prohibited from selling the skins separately for a period of time as part of the partnership. Once production of goods stops, the partner isn't at risk of losing sales.

The Resurrected skins are actually marked as being of a different rarity. You just don't like that you can't show off your wealth to other players in-game. (It's visible from Steam inventory, IIRC?)

That’s not how it is. When Klei released the merchandise skins, they specifically promoted their rarity and exclusivity. Now they introduce the Resurrected Skins and tell me that this so-called rarity and exclusivity only comes down to an invisible “Proof of Purchase” tag in-game? Isn’t that just playing word games — essentially a form of deception? If Klei had made it clear from the start that the only thing rare or exclusive about the skin was the “Proof of Purchase” label, there would be no issue. But you can’t put out vague and misleading marketing to trick merchandise buyers who only wanted the skin. It’s like a store advertising a limited-edition piece of clothing, saying it can only be purchased from their store right now. Then after you buy it, they start mass distributing it — you can get it online or from any random shop. When you question them, saying “Wasn’t this supposed to be limited and exclusive?”, they tell you, “The only limited part was the price tag attached to the clothing.”

[Bumber64]

That's not really how it went down. It's back years later because players demanded it. There's a difference beyond the price, you just don't like it.

In essence, complaining that people playing competitive card games with you aren't looking at the rarity stickers on your deck.

Edited July 1, 2025 by Bumber64

[NexusMercer]

5 minutes ago, Bumber64 said:

That's not really how it went down. It's back years later because players demanded it. There's a difference beyond the price, you just don't like it.

where is the different? the last time Calico Chester was out of stock, they didn’t do anything like this either — it took two years before a reissue came out, and during that time, scalpers were allowed to sell it on the market for over $300. Why didn’t they release the Resurrected Skin back then? Was it because they were also launching other new merchandise at the same time?

[cybers2001]

Ya know, I used to take pride in owning ultra rare, discontinued skins and items in games. I loved showing off my PAX Sivir in LoL or gravedigger in Fortnite. The fact that a company can just bring discontinued items back into circulation any time they feel like it (which happened in both such cases), did kill the experience for me. This used to be a fun part of such hobbies, like first gen magic or shiny Pokémon cards. The idea that nothing should be rare or limited is an unfortunate trend in games these days.

I do use my crabpack and calico chester skins, even though I wasn’t an OG holder of either, but it will be a sad day for me if my Tesla coil lantern skin gets unvaulted, even though I don’t care about the resell value of it.

[lowercase skye]

If these threads have taught me one thing, it's that a lot of people are disturbingly comfortable with some of the worst aspects of capitalism. Having #fun by showing off that I could pay $60 + shipping for a single video game cosmetic.

[cybers2001]

2 hours ago, lowercase skye said:

If these threads have taught me one thing, it's that a lot of people are disturbingly comfortable with some of the worst aspects of capitalism. Having #fun by showing off that I could pay $60 + shipping for a single video game cosmetic.

Not really the point, but if you're a collector, then, yeah, having rare collections is fun. If you're not a collector, then you shouldn't care. So... what's the problem?

[Bumber64]

14 hours ago, cybers2001 said:

Not really the point, but if you're a collector, then, yeah, having rare collections is fun. If you're not a collector, then you shouldn't care. So... what's the problem?

You're saying non-collectors shouldn't care about encouraging the practice of putting outrageous costs on infinitely-produceable digital items they might want?

$10 is actually already luxury for such a good, but it's funding all the game development and skins that are otherwise free.

[cybers2001]

7 hours ago, Bumber64 said:

You're saying non-collectors shouldn't care about encouraging the practice of putting outrageous costs on infinitely-produceable digital items they might want?

How did my comment sound even remotely like this to you?

[Bumber64]

22 hours ago, cybers2001 said:

How did my comment sound even remotely like this to you?

You said others "shouldn't care" in response to a statement on some people being "disturbingly comfortable with some of the worst aspects of capitalism".

[cybers2001]

54 minutes ago, Bumber64 said:

You said others "shouldn't care" in response to a statement on some people being "disturbingly comfortable with some of the worst aspects of capitalism".

Yes, which you're completely taking out of context.

If I liked pokemon cards, and I collected pokemon cards, and I had some cool shiny charizard that I like, and suddenly the value of the card goes up $1000, am I endorsing "outrageous costs on infinitely-produceable items" just because its value went up? Or is the real problem that an item people previously didn't care about suddenly are feeling fomo over because they don't have it? Should I be happy if TPC decided to flood the market with shiny charizards to appease people despite the effort and care I took to acquiring and preserving mine?

The fact that there's a price tag on rare items has nothing to do with it. It only serves to illustrate the point that people place value on rare things. In my previous example, I mentioned the gravedigger and my pax sivir, neither of which can be resold, and my tesla coil lantern, of which I have no intention of selling. And demanding that you should have access to any virtual good you want at a cheap price just because it exists is entitled behavior.

[Bumber64]

12 hours ago, cybers2001 said:

Yes, which you're completely taking out of context.

If I liked pokemon cards, and I collected pokemon cards, and I had some cool shiny charizard that I like, and suddenly the value of the card goes up $1000, am I endorsing "outrageous costs on infinitely-produceable items" just because its value went up? Or is the real problem that an item people previously didn't care about suddenly are feeling fomo over because they don't have it? Should I be happy if TPC decided to flood the market with shiny charizards to appease people despite the effort and care I took to acquiring and preserving mine?

The fact that there's a price tag on rare items has nothing to do with it. It only serves to illustrate the point that people place value on rare things. In my previous example, I mentioned the gravedigger and my pax sivir, neither of which can be resold, and my tesla coil lantern, of which I have no intention of selling. And demanding that you should have access to any virtual good you want at a cheap price just because it exists is entitled behavior.

It's a little different because you couldn't just buy a guaranteed shiny charizard from TPC. You were buying lottery tickets. The promo ancient mew is a better comparison. Anyone who bought a movie ticket in a participating theater in the year 2000 got one. Guess what? They did a reprint in 2019 for the CGI remake of the movie. The various prints are valued differently, with the extremely rare Japanese "Nintedo" typo version being the most valuable. (I've got the common USA version sitting in my closet a few feet away from me. If I had the typo one, I'd have it stored in a bank vault or sold it instead. Less enjoyable for me, actually.)

So now we've established that different versions of things have different values. The version of the DST skin you have can be determined from the main menu and Steam inventory. (This has been pointed out several times between the two threads, BTW.) What you seem to be doing is gatekeeping the reprints, despite them being of a distinct rarity.

The rarity based on price is the exact problem. It's not an extremely rare drop. It's a promo item they produced as many of as people wanting to buy during the sale period. People with higher shipping fees had to pay more for them. They're not expensive because they're rare, they're rare because they're expensive!

(I've always liked the tesla coil lantern because it looks cool, not because it's rare. However, I'm not going to buy one at $100 or even $10. It's not that spectacular.)

Edited July 6, 2025 by Bumber64