I was thinking more along the lines of an item you can just equip and it changes the colour without any decay except maybe 1pec decay when you equip it or something like that, the seasonal ones could be rare and the non-seasonal ones could just be uncommon crafted items that generate a bit of markup/stimulate activity, adding a bit of decay to their use could be seen as acceptable and doesn't take too much away from the idea, but I'm not even really sure it's ideal/necessary.
I hear you. More craftable items are always nice and these would be good in loot or boxes.
It just also happens to be a good example of something that EU passes over that would be harmless and pretty much guaranteed to generate straight revenue for them, as well. It's in no way 'pay to win' it's a pure bit of customization that many players would happily take at a premium.
I didn't realize until later this may be a draw for LA owners too who pay significant sums to change chat messages and otherwise attract players to their lands. It wouldn't have the advertising impact, but it would add amusement and maybe help with retention for LA owners with mobs that are available elsewhere.
This idea actually seems that it might have some development cost, and impact to the code for the looting event, so I'm not sure how lightly it would be implemented, even though it seems like it should be (relatively) simple to add the player-specific animation check it also means adding assets, etcetera...
I am not necessarily hungry for cash shop items to waste potential PED on but the company needs revenue and players have shown time and time again that they will pay for this sort of thing. If this is what funds staff to fix my floors I'm 100% for that. TBF there are several places where I would rather be paying some PED as revenue to MA than to the other players they're currently directing it to.
Once the system th check for and select the various animations is in place there can be tons of fun with this. Event swirls, Holiday Swirls, LA Swirls, Promo Swirls, etc...
This could in fact accommodate tiny promo/box drops that burn off in 1-5 uses, crafted items that are configurable, maybe even (L) and UL versions. Cash shop items aren't a bad idea either, of any or all of these types.
Overall, I think players would eat this up, through any or all of several delivery channels. It may sound silly for a moment but TBH King never generated billions in revenue trying to bait people into PVP situations. And people understand this sort of spend, nobody would be trying to call it an 'investment' or a 'gamble'.
OMFG i have a wall of text again. TL;DR I love the idea. There's a ton of stuff they can do with this.