Once again, Totem has left us standing out in the cold. Our only hope of getting the special event cards is to gamble away BUKU credits with no hope of getting discounted cards and very little chance of winning a SEC.

I've seen nobody else ***** this year, so apparently nobody else is bothered, or everybody else has decided it is fruitless to speak. Are none of my compatriots who also have complete collections bothered by this? I saw Number 6 say he only spent a net of 50 credits and got the SEC and a joker, I think, but he spent 1000 credits to do that! That's a risk I cannot afford to take.

SInce Totem has once again turned its back on the long standing, loyal customer base, is it time for me to move on? I came super close last year at this time and thought for a while Totem was listening to the collectors. It appears I was wrong because this is just another repeat of last year. I spent a few months away, missed a few SECs (2 of which I want VERY badly), and now it looks like I will miss another since I do not want to throw dollar bills to the wind hoping one will stick. This is a MAJOR disappointment.

It wouldn't be so bad if the scratchoffs that would normally win discounted cards could be banked to be used on future cards, but there are only four SECs I lack (including the new Jia Lissa one), so the scratchoffs that might otherwise win are worthless.

A ballpark 'odds of winning' a SEC would be nice Totem, so I can better decide if gambling is a risk i want to take. And there needs to be another way for members with complete collections to get missing SECs than gambling away money a dollar at a time.

In my experience, gamblers cannot be dissuaded. There is money to be made, and when you offer them the opportunity, they bite. Totem is encouraging a feeding frenzy. Selective customers who hold on to their credits are not as profitable.

@boan000 - I have a full collection but do not feel that Totem have treated me at all badly with these events.

And, you are 100% certain to get this week's SEC if you buy 50 scratch cards irrespective of what you may also win by playing those cards. This is of course likely to be expensive (but there is a good chance that it will not be) but as far as obtaining the current SEC itself is concerned there is no gamble.

I set myself a limit how many credits I gamble with and this time I was very lucky;

I stopped after 98 scratch cards and a lot of spins.
I got 10 lottery tickets, the Jia Lissa SEC and the joker card.
I won 1 SEC of Skye Blue, 1 card, 2x 100 credits, 6x 50 credits and very often 10credits, a lot of 1 bonus credits in the scratch games.
I won 4 cards for 50%, a lot of one and two stars in the slot machine.

In the end I paid 0 credits.

I forgot to add to my previous post that the Reload Bonus is part of this Black Friday's offers. That is an effective extra 20% discount that we full collection owners can benefit from. Combining the Triple Diamond discount, the Premium Discount and the Reload Bonus discount brings the overall discount up to just over 60% - what more do you want.

In my experience, gamblers cannot be dissuaded. There is money to be made, and when you offer them the opportunity, they bite. Totem is encouraging a feeding frenzy. Selective customers who hold on to their credits are not as profitable.

The non-gambler will always be more profitable in the long run. Even a VAST majority of lottery winners end up more broke by winning the lottery than if they had never tried in the first place. A customer/service interaction starts in an ***** manner. A company provides a wonderful service to a customer who then trades a object of equal value. The most beautiful girls in the world dancing and teasing for 13/16/25 credits each.

The gambler wants to gain a thing of great value for nothing and by nature is attempting to take advantage of others. Ironically the "house" is a greater gambler who has control of the entire situation and dictates that they will receiev a thing of value that is vastly greater than the service they provide, if they even provide a service at all. Ethics on a porn forum is a itself a morass but gambling is unethical as are the consequences. I would prefer that totem not take advantage of people who wish to take advantage of totem but in a world where we can steal porn whenever we want it is probably small potatoes.

@TheEmu

And, you are 100% certain to get this week's SEC if you buy 50 scratch cards irrespective of what you may also win by playing those cards.

Is that true or a joke? If it's true the game is rigged.

@boan000 I feel you bro. I wouldn't say completionists are losers, but I do feel like the SEC system makes for more unhappy customers than happy ones. Sure there's an occasional thrill for the gamblers, and dissapointment in even larger measure for the losers, but those of us who chose not to play are guaranteed regret, even though we know that our actions are optimally rational.

For me to spend 500 credits on 50 scratch cards wouldn't be a big deal because I'm doing quite well financially, but I refuse to participate in this system.

If no one participated, they'd get rid of the SECs. But I don't see that happening because it's a collective action problem. We'd all have to boycott at once, but individually we're greedy.

@TheEmu

And, you are 100% certain to get this week's SEC if you buy 50 scratch cards irrespective of what you may also win by playing those cards.
Is that true or a joke? If it's true the game is rigged.

No - it is the way the game works.

Everty time you buy 10 scratchcards you gain 1 Lottery Ticket entry and progress 1 space on the progress bar. After 50 scratchcards you reach Jia's card on the progress bar and it is yours. After 100 scratchcards you get to the joker.This is irrespective of what you win on the scratchcards.

The house always wins.

The only way you can win is not to participate, the more sukkers fall for this the more they will run these games.

They run these games because you keep playing them.

How many customers you think Totem has? do the Math they HAVE to keep running these bro. I for one enjoy the different types of things they do. Totem add a poker game if you ever get the chance.😜

The house always wins.

The only way you can win is not to participate, the more sukkers fall for this the more they will run these games.

They run these games because you keep playing them.

Don't really care. I can well afford the 50 credits net that it cost me particularly as I have gained 640 credits from 2 reloads.

I have no need to play anymore but I may well do another reload before th 3rd DEC. It should give me enough credits to last until next November.

It shows 15,165 Members total....That's Total. Imagine trying to keep this site, hireing Models etc... Less then probably a third are active. How many of those are paying customers? C'mon...Dude they are probably barely making it. We sit here and critisize and they are probably like WTF do they want? We are trying and they just keep telling us how unfair it is...etc...Just one dudes opinion

I threw in the towel after the first “SEC” was offered..think it was the Genebra Bellucci bikini card soaping her hot body up. I gave up after only losing 5 credits! I am not a gambler... won’t even play the lottery. I’ve accepted to just buy the cards I’m able to buy at the normal price I can get them for. As they say... it is what it is

The house always wins.

The only way you can win is not to participate, the more sukkers fall for this the more they will run these games.

They run these games because you keep playing them.
Don't really care. I can well afford the 50 credits net that it cost me particularly as I have gained 640 credits from 2 reloads.

I have no need to play anymore but I may well do another reload before th 3rd DEC. It should give me enough credits to last until next November.

You haven't actually gained anything though, you have just spent money.


@jonnBGood

The more a few people pump thousands of credits into gambling games the more totem will run them, they are a buisness after all. Look what has happened in the computer gaming because of the whales that pump thousands into games. Game after game ruined by microtransactions and gambling, then look at how some of those games have failed (battlefront 2 comes to mind).

If people carry on like this i wouldn't be surprised if every TGIF becomes a gambling game with a special event card and that will drive customers away. I have seen posts where people have gotten sick of being milked and said they will never buy again so my saying it will drive customers away is not hyperbole. As more customers are driven away they will have to resort to price hikes, and even more egregious gambling.

I won't blame totem for this, the blame rests on those who spend hundreds if not thousands of credits to get 1 card.

"surprise mechanics"

The only things I don't like with the scratsch game is the time it takes to scratch lot of cards.

But after 120 cards I was up if added correct 579 credits and had won a Joker and the latest SEC. And it was about the same the last time they had the scratsch game.

@TheEmu

@boan000 - I have a full collection but do not feel that Totem have treated me at all badly with these events.

Interesting.

And, you are 100% certain to get this week's SEC if you buy 50 scratch cards irrespective of what you may also win by playing those cards.

Seriously, you think having to spend $50 to be guaranteed one card is a good way to treat loyal customers? Really Emu?

@TheEmu

the Reload Bonus discount brings the overall discount up to just over 60% - what more do you want.

I thought I made that clear. I want a way to acquire SECs without having to gamble away money or spend $50 to be guaranteed the SEC. You might think that is a deal and a good way to treat customers. I do not.

The only customers who do not have much to lose are the ones that still have cards to buy. We who have full collections have almost everything to lose.

@JohnBeGood

How many customers you think Totem has?

A lot. Seriously, bro. Totem might be a small company, but they have far reach. I've seen Rex bragging to other pornographers on industry boards that they're bigger than Hustler. And that was several years ago.

I don't know where this notion comes from that they are always on the verge of going out of business, but I'd bet my last 10 cents that it is fiction.

I can well afford the 50 credits net that it cost me particularly as I have gained 640 credits from 2 reloads.

That's great, Number 6, and I am glad you did well. However, I am NEVER lucky in these things. I am ashamed to admit how much I spent last year trying to get the SEC. It is beyond my means this year and I am not pleased to be left out in the cold again. That 1000 credits you spent, odds are, if it were I gambling them I'd just be $100 poorer and 1320 credits emptier with nothing to show for it.

Seriously, you think having to spend $50 to be guaranteed one card is a good way to treat loyal customers? Really Emu?

You buy the scratch cards using credits.
so if you buy the credits with the 20% reload bonus, it's less than $50

But that Also presumes that you will Win 0 credits on the scratch offs.
That is highly unlikely, that you will get all Looser tickets, but yes, it is a possibility.

Chances are though, you will win enough credits on the first 10 to 20 scratch offs
to Allow you to Scratch the Next 30..

So besides reaching the Goal of 50 scratch off tickets to advance the progress bar to get the SEC card
you might even end up ahead, and if not ahead, you'll have spent far less than 500 credits to get there.

Just another way to look at it...

Yeah, that's another way to look at it. But then again, so was the first way.

A subset of cards has been walled off so they can't be purchased through credits directly, causing (some) people to spend money on things they wouldn't have wanted otherwise, namely the Advent Calendar or legalized gambling.

Everyone knows what they're doing. Must be tiring to pretend you don't know what's going on.

@Wyldanimal,

Chances are though, you will win enough credits on the first 10 to 20 scratch offs
to Allow you to Scratch the Next 30.

That's still $10 to $20 I'd have to spend on one card.... WAY more than anybody should have to pay, imho.

So besides reaching the Goal of 50 scratch off tickets to advance the progress bar to get the SEC card
you might even end up ahead, and if not ahead, you'll have spent far less than 500 credits to get there.

I actually rather doubt that. Like I said, I NEVER win in these things and I spent an obscene amount of money last year trying to get the SEC. The only reason I did not walk away from Totem for good is because there are people in the company that gave me the impression that they were listening. Yet here we are with another Black Friday event just like last year's, where collectors with full collections have to risk everything on a pipe dream... or spend 500 credits (yes, that is $50 however you slice it because that much money would have to be spent buying those credits)

I appreciate you trying to put a positive spin on it, but the cold hard reality is that I would have to spend $50 to get one card I want with no guarantee of being able to get any of the other 3 SECs I lack.

And that, my friend, blows balls.

I myself have voiced my concerns in the past but to me i feel there is nothing really to be said anymore. I enjoy the product, I will support them as long as I live. This site has helped me through rough times and coming home sometimes to a very hard day and seeing these models on my desktop brightens even the worst day ive had. Its real simple if you dont want to support them, then dont participate. Just like what alot of you have said its only 1 card and you can enjoy their others. They make revenue significantly. The forum might be a small minority and majority who dont post or care about the forum, probably participate in events that empowers them to keep running different games/events to get profit. All in all if these events/games causes them to make more profit to better the service, to invite new models and make the experience overall better im perfectly fine in helping them. Im a full card owner and I dont feel like a loser at all, but instead a winner with all these cards that I can choose from. Nothing in life comes free, just as this. If you dont want to gamble dont go to a casino, its that simple protesting outside one, or in this case here is not going to change them when majority probably gamble and enjoy the games/events. I myself dont gamble until the special event cards come out and if i dont get a card it is what it is, ill try next time, plus to me i feel totem has been reasonable. However this is my two cents and im pretty sure people will ***** regardless.

I wish I had understood the nature of the progress bar better. I'm still not sure I would have played. Essentially the progress bar puts an upper limit on the cost of the SEC card (500 credits = $37.88) and an upper limit on a Joker card. If you are lucky with the scratch game you could pay nothing as some people have. If I had known this and known the scratch game odds I might have chosen to play. It's too late now because I "spent" my prior Joker on the SEC card.

@Reg90 The service goes where the money goes. I can ask my developer friends how much it costs to make a casino app, but my educated guess would be that there are costs associated with making a "good" scratch card app that didn't get spent on hiring better talent. And the more money we spend on gambling, the more money they focus on gambling, whether rewards or UX.

I'm totally fine with not having 1/6 cards for an attractive lady I'd like to see. I'm not fine with the awareness that some people (maybe more in past years than this one) have spent waaay too much money on spins or scratches, only because they want one card, not because they "want" to gamble.

It's not that far from opening packs of collectible baseball or game cards looking for that one special valuable card. That instills a scarcity value collectors view as disproportionately desired, and it's very different than gambling for money where one dollar is just as good as another. I was here before "gamification." They could have just added gambling for discounts, but they didn't. They added the SECs because it brings a wider audience to the tables than gambling for straight credits would have, and I refuse to be played. None of you should either.

The house always wins.

The only way you can win is not to participate, the more sukkers fall for this the more they will run these games.

They run these games because you keep playing them.
Don't really care. I can well afford the 50 credits net that it cost me particularly as I have gained 640 credits from 2 reloads.

I have no need to play anymore but I may well do another reload before th 3rd DEC. It should give me enough credits to last until next November.
You haven't actually gained anything though, you have just spent money.


@jonnBGood

The more a few people pump thousands of credits into gambling games the more totem will run them, they are a buisness after all. Look what has happened in the computer gaming because of the whales that pump thousands into games. Game after game ruined by microtransactions and gambling, then look at how some of those games have failed (battlefront 2 comes to mind).

If people carry on like this i wouldn't be surprised if every TGIF becomes a gambling game with a special event card and that will drive customers away. I have seen posts where people have gotten sick of being milked and said they will never buy again so my saying it will drive customers away is not hyperbole. As more customers are driven away they will have to resort to price hikes, and even more egregious gambling.

I won't blame totem for this, the blame rests on those who spend hundreds if not thousands of credits to get 1 card.

"surprise mechanics"

Whales have always existed...even Bach used to write crappy compositions for rich folk back in his day to make ends meet because doings things purely for the art left him broke. There is plenty of "art" in video games and porn...especially with totem...their production value has increased and although I wish they would get more top pornstars this could be out of their control a bit since most only visit europe a few days a year. I bet the gambling makes a good chunk of their team uncomfortable, but they were late to the game and only did it once it became apparent that this was the way that entertainment software was drifting. It isn't like the gambling doesn't make real value for the player...they can get cards cheaper.

Seriously, you think having to spend $50 to be guaranteed one card is a good way to treat loyal customers? Really Emu?

No, I do not think it is either a "good" or a "bad" way to treat loyal customers - but I never said that it was either, Overall I feel that we are treated well enough.

What I did say was that you do not have to gamble to get the Special Event card (which is what had been claimed in the post I was replying to). I also said "This is of course likely to be expensive". As things worked out the SEC cost me about 5 euros - expensive but not exorbitant.

We may not be getting the best deal on this one card - but to claim that because of that we are BIG losers way overstates the matter. We can simply ignore the card and give up on owning 0.023% of the available cards, which is not what I would call a big loss, just a ***** irritation.

In passing may I also point out that we may be loyal customers, but we are a long way from being Totem's current best customers. We buy 365 (or so) cards a year, the current best customers each buy over 1000 cards a month - some even as many as 2000 cards. So with just the three such customers we can see each month they are buying as much as 100 of us. It is that ever changing group that Totem logically should concentrate on encouraging - and in my view it is they that "deserve" being rewarded.

And not least for everyone to look forward to next year. Yay!

http://www.istripper.com/de/forum/thread/43421/3?post=641249

Tudo sobre iStripper / Black Friday: questions & answers

2nd PRICE: All 2020 special event cards for free (5 winners) For me the worst info. This means we will continue to be ***** with this BS of S.E. cards next year. Very sad and annoying. 😖