Guild Wars 2

I just checked how much the gold to gem conversion rate was and it offered 247 gems for 2g.

Seriously im not spending my 2g on that amount of gems, considering this halloween event tells us we can get items we can use for the mystic forge to get a chest and halloween items it seems only be available for those with money,

Why can the keys turn up more often in events like halloween and christmas if your going to make them important. I mean im sure increasing the drop rate and trick or treat bag rates would make sense and then decrease them later afterwards.

Sadly I have to agree, 125 gems=1g5s for a key is just ridiculous

The post may be a little naive, yet touches on a serious issue with the current trend of Mmos.
People will spend real money to buy gems for items. Gw2 would seem to be using a model based on the current trend of ‘F2P’ games that are actually P2P.
Hence now the massive problem with bots and Rmt’s. It’s a shame.
Of course they need to pay staff, upkeep servers and so on, yet the current systems used do not work. I do not pretend to know what the answer is to solve the issue of maintaining income, keeping the loyal player base that Gw1 had, and deterring RMTS.
I certainly don’t mind spending a reasonable amount per month, in some ways prefer the subscription model, yet prices do seem inflated.
Already many loyal Gw1 friends have stopped playing, and my interest is waning for a number of reasons. The real money trading being a major deterent. Guild Wars 1 was unique and special. Those days have sadly gone it seems.
Point being in relation to topic though is that I will not buy keys either to open chests.
I find it offensive to have chests continually drop yet forced to buy keys from a store to open them.
Just happened apon this thread so sharing my thoughts. Not interested in troll or fanboy replies and fyi will most likely not look at this thread again.

Basically the problem here, which the OP touched, is that P2P people might lock out non P2P-people from certain content in the future, if for example gems are only affordable by real money.
And yeah, I also find the black lion chests dropping offensive, although at the same time funny because they’re so crappy – as someone said “The best item you can get out of a black lion chest is a black lion key”

x per fection x.2096:

Then don’t buy them? No need to come make a post about how your going to not buy them.. just don’t. i actually took the time to log in and post something for once because i think this is the dumbest most “give me attention mommy” post i’ve seen in a long time.

Nice of you to call the OP a whiner.

I don’t buy BLC keys either. The contents of the BLC aren’t worth it.

If you don’t feel that the devs should be notified that there is a problem with the design of the game in the eyes of many (and I do mean many, I’ve seen several threads on this subject, some quite lengthy) of their customers that’s your option.

However, some players actually like this game and would like to see areas they feel are lacking improved.

x per fection x.2096:

Then don’t buy them? No need to come make a post about how your going to not buy them.. just don’t. i actually took the time to log in and post something for once because i think this is the dumbest most “give me attention mommy” post i’ve seen in a long time.

Some content is locked for players who don’t buy the keys.

They said you can mystic tonic which can be used in the mystic forge and get custom skins and other halloween stuff, only those extremely lucky to get a key or buy them get access to this content.

Everybody else gets the finger.

If they are going to make the Black Lion chest useful during and event then they should boost the key drop rate for the event only and then go back to normal if they must.

Just don’t make it “exclusive” to those willing to pay real money.

Guarantee if they doubled the amount of keys they gave you for the same price, then more people would buy them. I have 120 chests sitting in my bank. The keys are a waste of gems currently.

Don’t buy keys… they aren’t worth it.

I would say convertion rate has gone up mostly because of halloween. Once it dies back down prices should hopefully lower.

Antiriad.7160:

… as someone said “The best item you can get out of a black lion chest is a black lion key”

And given that so many people feel that way, the devs might want to review the contents of the BLCs.

Paulus magintie.7432:

x per fection x.2096:

Then don’t buy them? No need to come make a post about how your going to not buy them.. just don’t. i actually took the time to log in and post something for once because i think this is the dumbest most “give me attention mommy” post i’ve seen in a long time.

Some content is locked for players who don’t buy the keys.

They said you can mystic tonic which can be used in the mystic forge and get custom skins and other halloween stuff, only those extremely lucky to get a key or buy them get access to this content.

Everybody else gets the finger.

If they are going to make the Black Lion chest useful during and event then they should boost the key drop rate for the event only and then go back to normal if they must.

Just don’t make it “exclusive” to those willing to pay real money.

Honestly? this again? Seriously BLC are not required for game play at any rate, the things that drop for Halloween are purely cosmetic, and the stuff that drops out of the mad kings chests were a solution to those whining that they didn’t get ample amount of chance to get those purely cosmetic skins. So in essence they made it that way for those of you who deemed them “worthless” in the first place. If your going to dwell on a minor part of the game that was added because they felt they needed some extra income (How dare they!) every now and again from the players that feel they want to roll the dice on some shiny holiday items, or the people that want some of the unique tools and such from the chests, then all I have to say is have fun.

Colonel Kernel.7506:

Antiriad.7160:

… as someone said “The best item you can get out of a black lion chest is a black lion key”

And given that so many people feel that way, the devs might want to review the contents of the BLCs.

Actually there ARE quite a few things that drop that are quite useful e.g. the BL salvage kit which is a great way of getting ectos, the unique gathering tools which yield alot more rare stuff from nodes, and some of the unique boosters which are nice aswell.

None of that is required for gameplay, but they are nice things to have, and once you’ve gotten to 80, you can easily get gems with in game gold if you so chose rather then having to pay real money. Basically the people that whine they can access them because they don’t want to pay real money, obviously haven’t played enough to even really need the things that come out of them. other then the new Halloween skins, which are purely cosmetic and yet again don’t effect game play in the slightest.

tl;dr: A net is a game company trying to make money, simple as that.

x per fection x.2096:

Then don’t buy them? No need to come make a post about how your going to not buy them.. just don’t. i actually took the time to log in and post something for once because i think this is the dumbest most “give me attention mommy” post i’ve seen in a long time.

No. This is a customer telling a company that their prices are too high.

It is an opportunity for that company to learn about how to serve their customers better. And we all get better from that.

Saying ’don’t voice your opinion’ and trying to bully someone into silence deprives Anet from the possibility to learn and see how they can a- make players more happy and b) make more money.

I have never understood why stuff is always so expensive in in-game shops. It would make much more sense to make it cheap enough so that people didn’t feel like getting ripped off (few costumes + stuff, same price as whole game). But I’m not a market-guy so…

Darknass.1903:

tl;dr: A net is a game company trying to make money, simple as that.

tl;dr back at you, since you obviously didn’t read the comments upthread.

ANet would probably make more money if they dropped the price on BLC Keys and/or put desirable stuff at a higher probability on the drop table for BLCs.

After all, 50% of something is always worth more than 100% of nothing. Which is what they are getting from me at the moment.

Quite the fine line between making money and providing entertainment for us customers huh?

The keys are wicked expensive.

That is all.

Demand and supply will tell them in time what is expensive and what’s not.

Items with no demand will drop in price or fall into discount catergory.

A post here on how expensive a certain item is with thousands others agreeing on it will do not anything when a handful of rich people are still spending hundreds and thousands of dollars on it.

Ferrari do not need half the world to own their cars.

No I am not rich. I am a poor guy who accepted this sad fact.

What makes you think Anet has a team working on balancing game stats and skills but no one to monitor and balance gem/gold rate and BLTC, their source of income?

If keys went for 15-20 gems I “might” consider buying them but yeah, anything beyond 10-20s a key is outrageous considering the % chance you will get anything desirable.

I spent 60$ on keys opened like 60-70 chest (had some other keys saved up) and 30 MK chests and you know what I got?? One kittenhoulder skin that I didn’t want WHOOP DI DO!!!

You want to know what I look like after that? Just look at Elisabeth Cardy face on Gamebreaker TV, Guildcast episode 46. That’s the face of someone who spent 70$ on keys and got nothing. The face of someone that’s depressed and fed up. An just like her Im never buying keys again. Good job Anet.

I refuse to buy keys too, but not for the same reasons. I refuse to buy them because on principle, I will not buy anything for which I do not receive value. Since there is no way to know what I will get by buying a BL key, there is no way to know if it will be worth buying.

I will spend my hard earned money on thing that I feel are worth it. I will buy skins that I like, but I won’t spend one red cent on a “chance” to get a skin. I will buy a dye that I like, but I won’t drop a penny on a grab bag of dyes.

I encourage everyone else to respect their money the same way. Don’t ever let go of your money unless you know exactly what it is you are getting for it in return.

You EARNED that money. Make NCSoft do the same.

I think a better price would be 125 gems for 10 keys.

i wish they put legendaries in the chests. or allow me to forge a super chest, of some sort. i bought 10 keys once, and received ONE key back, and 54 tonics. the ONE key got me 3 more tonics, and an XP booster. that’s not cool or interesting, because of the 57 tonics, 20 owls, 2 hyleks, 10 rabbits, and the rest hyenas.

i m actually wishing for 125 gems = like 30 keys. or why not add keys to merchant vendors? or make keys like 50 karma each. add dungeon tokens in the mix, maybe even more money (i have not received money from chests, yet, so idk)

I just wanted to say, I am not voting for a democrat or a republican for the presidential race.

I am just sharing that information, because it is about as relevant as the OP is.

I would buy keys if they were like 5 gems per key.

Well, I initially thought they would have a special promotion for keys during Halloween. Slash the price down by a quarter, and they’re guaranteed a whole lot more sales even with the crappy skins drop rate.

Tallis.5607:

x per fection x.2096:

Then don’t buy them? No need to come make a post about how your going to not buy them.. just don’t. i actually took the time to log in and post something for once because i think this is the dumbest most “give me attention mommy” post i’ve seen in a long time.

No. This is a customer telling a company that their prices are too high.

It is an opportunity for that company to learn about how to serve their customers better. And we all get better from that.

Saying ’don’t voice your opinion’ and trying to bully someone into silence deprives Anet from the possibility to learn and see how they can a- make players more happy and b) make more money.

Excellent reply to Ms or Mr Perfection. Everyone has questions, opinions, and suggestions, no matter how mundane some of these may sound to others, they are all legitimate concerns. Reading the concerns of the customer is what businesses should do and Anet is a business.

Over 99% of the player base agrees that keys are not worth buying.

oh well who cares

Coming from someone who fell into the Halloween weapon skin trap, the keys are not worth buying at all. I spent nearly enough on BLkeys, trying to get weapon skins, that I could have almost purchased another basic copy of the whole game, and I didn’t get anything out of them that I wanted. I was angry and fairly jaded, but then realized that I was primarily angry because I was, and am still, pretty embarrassed that I fell for it.

Don’t buy the keys….I trying to build my enjoyment of the game back up after feeling so ripped off.

Please, someone, please, explain how GW2 is Pay to Play here.

I am lost.

edit: Oh and I buy a key if there is something that I want to GAMBLE for, but that is all that the Black Lion Chests are, a gamble. If you cannot see that and mistake it for P2P then I want to smack you for being a bookah!

Chests were seen as useless which is why ANet upgraded them with permanent merchants like the TP, venders, and bank NPCs. I’m sure they had a huge boost in key sales then, but I wonder how much sales have dropped now that people realized the drop rate for the chests is very low.

Personally I will never buy keys or anything that is a gamble. Already spent a few hundred in another game and never got the item I wanted, not going to repeat that mistake.

Except the permanent items have as bad or worse drop rate as the Halloween items.

Personally I think they need to add a lot of more items to the drop tables of the chests to make them more appealing.

I’m done spending cash on a couple of crappy tonics and a 30 minute buff.

There’s a pretty hefty amount of black lion chests floating around that are very unlikely to ever be opened unless some major changes are made. I firmly believe that the keys should be available in bulk for a much lower gem price.

illgot.1056
Personally I will never buy keys or anything that is a gamble.

Spending RL money on virtual items is a questionable practice to begin with.

Gambling to receive specific items from a pseudo RNG on a rigged drop table is best reserved for people with more dollars than sense.

Charging extortionate rates for keys to unlock chests of worthless items (I paid how much to drink a tonic (that I can’t even sell) that keeps me from actually playing the game for how long?) is…. well strong words like dishonest, scam, and thievery come to mind. Sorry, if I could think of a politer way to put it, I would.

You want to sell BL keys, Anet? Drop the price by 75% and you will probably make more money monthly than you did over Halloween.

I would buy more black lion keys if they were 25-50 gems per. The only item worth anything in the BLCs is the perma bank access which is god awful rare. Maybe put minis in BLCs?