Guild Wars 2

Editted to make room for the quote.

“The average price of getting a weapon ticket is equivalent to 40 black lion keys, or 3600 gems, or $45.”

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1iyu11/anet_love_the_black_lion_ticket_scraps_idea/cb9dsks

45 USD.

Really?

TERA offers weapon skins for 10 dollars.

A legendary is near $1000 USD. Your point?

well you have a choice not to buy it.

Surprisingly, this doesn’t bother me. However, it does make me really consider if I ‘actually want’ the skin, or if my collection demon is taking over.

Or you could just convert gold to gems. Or you could get lucky and get a ticket without opening many chests.

Or you could not buy them at all.

Easy.

Not purchasing the item is definitely valid. However, so is providing feedback on how we are dissatisfied with the well above market pricing of weapon skins. He provided a comparative pricing of a skin in another game in the same genre, and this is a 350% increase over that.

The pricing is definitely too high. IMO $10 is still too high though. At $10, you are essentially saying that the 6 weapon skins are of equivalent worth to the rest of the game.

The “funny” thing is that is the “discount” price.

It goes up to $180 next week.

I don’t think it would hurt if scraps were made a little more common.

Maz.8604:

Editted to make room for the quote.

“The average price of getting a weapon ticket is equivalent to 40 black lion keys, or 3600 gems, or $45.”

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1iyu11/anet_love_the_black_lion_ticket_scraps_idea/cb9dsks

45 USD.

Really?

TERA offers weapon skins for 10 dollars.

Relevance?

Offering a skin isn’t the same thing as offering a chance for a skin. They’re completely different. You’re buying a black lion key, not a skin. A skin is one thing you can get from it. A guildie of mine got a endless makeover kit and sold it for quite a bit of gold.

So the price of a skin is only relevant if in fact you’re only paying for a skin.

Or you could buy them on the BL Market for 40-60 gold each outright. I really have zero clue what the problem is here. I would understand the OP’s argument IF the only way to get them was off the gem shop and we didn’t have the ability to purchase them with in game currency. We can though, so the OP’s point is moot.

Just like an expensive car, you don’t have to get it IF you can afford a cheaper car. If you do go for the expensive car, be prepared to pay the price for it.

Honestly, why do ppl feel the need to complain about skins being expensive when you can simply just don’t bother getting it.

silvermember.8941:

Just like an expensive car, you don’t have to get it IF you can afford a cheaper car. If you do go for the expensive car, be prepared to pay the price for it.

Honestly, why do ppl feel the need to complain about skins being expensive when you can simply just don’t bother getting it.

and.. Honestly, why do people feel the need to judge others for providing feedback?

For the last 3 posts, I agree with what you are saying, that there is more than meets the eye. Like you can get the skin through other means, that you get other things in the BLC and that you can always choose to not buy it. That said, it is also fair enough that someone provides feedback that they are unhappy with the current system.

Therefore, the point isn’t ‘moot’ and the comparison to another game is relevant.

The shop prices are really high in general and I can imagine that rather costs them money than earn it. Many items exceed what I like to call my personal wine threshold. I played 2 other games that shifted from subscription fee to microtransaction and the prices were just that low that you would execute the “oh, what the heck, it´s just a few bucks”-click when playing rather tipsy late at saturday night. But here, I never felt that compulsion. Just look at the infinite gathering tools. 800 gems – 10 Euro for just one character, that is too unappealing even for an impulsive transaction in my opinion. I can see they need higher prices than many other microtransaction MMO because of the option to pay with in game money, but the way it is now, a lot of potential buyers are probably put off.

Algreg.3629:

The shop prices are really high in general and I can imagine that rather costs them money than earn it. Many items exceed what I like to call my personal wine threshold. I played 2 other games that shifted from subscription fee to microtransaction and the prices were just that low that you would execute the “oh, what the heck, it´s just a few bucks”-click when playing rather tipsy late at saturday night. But here, I never felt that compulsion. Just look at the infinite gathering tools. 800 gems – 10 Euro for just one character, that is too unappealing even for an impulsive transaction in my opinion. I can see they need higher prices than many other microtransaction MMO because of the option to pay with in game money, but the way it is now, a lot of potential buyers are probably put off.

I love your “personal wine threshold” statement since I live in wine country

The permanent harvesting tools for me was an outright buy because it is infinite and I know what I was paying for.

The problem I have with BL keys is that I do not want the stuff in the chests- at least not for gems because I am quite content getting it from the game with the few keys I get, as well as the daily extras you get sometimes.

I love the fact that you can buy the skins off the TP too but as a system for introducing skins in the future- the BL key method sucks.

I would be happy if they put any weapon skins for 800 gems each outright- all though I feel that 600 gems might be more realistic since people are then more likely to get more than one.
Either /or make a scrap a guaranteed drop from the chest- so that you know if you are unlucky- you only need 10 keys.

imo there should be at least 1 scrap in every box. that means you would need a maximum of 10 boxes, or 900 gems to get a skin. This is still way more than enough, but removes the terribad RNG ccomponent and encourages more people to buy keys since they know they will eventually get what they want.

I can’t really see why they wouldn’t do this. It still lets them make money from gambling, trying to get a ticket, but you make even more money from people who just outright buy 10 keys because they know they will get something in return.

Of course this all becomes 5x worse next week anyway, then it is just absurd.

I love the arguments that go; don’t like that game, don’t play it. Don’t like the weapon, don’t get it. Don’t like the president, move to another country.

These are absolutely ridiculous closed minded statements which do nothing to help the ongoing discussion.

I personally want nothing to do with these skins, that doesn’t change the fact they’re way too overpriced. It’s not even like saying if you want an expensive car you gotta be willing to pay for it.

In reality it’s like paying 300,000 USD for a car that’s worth 25,000 USD. It’s not about being expensive, it’s overpriced – outrageously so.

Buying them off the TP isn’t a valid point at the moment since the events are going on and they drop the skins. Once the events are gone and the “discount” is done, they’ll be worth 5 BL tickets instead of one, and there won’t be another way of getting them. This’ll make the prices in the TP sky rocket.

One way or another, this isn’t right. Even the argument to say “well you can farm for the keys” isn’t a logical solution. Farming for the keys requires such erratic and broken gameplay that it was even questioned by players if it was considered an exploit.

If there was an actual way to farm for the keys without completely breaking natural gameplay then the high cost of black lion keys wouldn’t even be such an issue.

Jemmi.6058:

silvermember.8941:

Just like an expensive car, you don’t have to get it IF you can afford a cheaper car. If you do go for the expensive car, be prepared to pay the price for it.

Honestly, why do ppl feel the need to complain about skins being expensive when you can simply just don’t bother getting it.

and.. Honestly, why do people feel the need to judge others for providing feedback?

For the last 3 posts, I agree with what you are saying, that there is more than meets the eye. Like you can get the skin through other means, that you get other things in the BLC and that you can always choose to not buy it. That said, it is also fair enough that someone provides feedback that they are unhappy with the current system.

Therefore, the point isn’t ‘moot’ and the comparison to another game is relevant.

It would be fine if the feedback provided were of all sides to the argument. The argument the OP is making is invalid because you can get the items with in game currency. They are trying to make it sound as if there is only 1 way to get the weapons and that simply isn’t the case.

Iason Evan.3806:

Jemmi.6058:

silvermember.8941:

Just like an expensive car, you don’t have to get it IF you can afford a cheaper car. If you do go for the expensive car, be prepared to pay the price for it.

Honestly, why do ppl feel the need to complain about skins being expensive when you can simply just don’t bother getting it.

and.. Honestly, why do people feel the need to judge others for providing feedback?

For the last 3 posts, I agree with what you are saying, that there is more than meets the eye. Like you can get the skin through other means, that you get other things in the BLC and that you can always choose to not buy it. That said, it is also fair enough that someone provides feedback that they are unhappy with the current system.

Therefore, the point isn’t ‘moot’ and the comparison to another game is relevant.

It would be fine if the feedback provided were of all sides to the argument. The argument the OP is making is invalid because you can get the items with in game currency. They are trying to make it sound as if there is only 1 way to get the weapons and that simply isn’t the case.

The argument is not necessarily invalid. You can argue against him, but calling his entire post invalid is disrespectful.

You can say the same thing with:

The main difference between Tera and Guild Wars 2, is that you can get the weapons via in-game currency. You can also obtain other items from the black lion chests outside of the skins. Therefore, the skins are not a flat $45 as you say, but they can be either cheaper or more expensive.

With that post, you make your argument and address his points that you disagree with, but you do not flat out say that his entire opinion is invalid.

While this is horrible and greedy, could be worse. The fused weapon skins cost 600 dollars on average, not that any single person spent that much, but for every one dropped that was ANets average intake between all players that had tried for one, while only one person received it.

It’s like taking the worst attributes from capitalism and communism and combining them; everybody contributes unequally, one person gets all the reward in spite of their contributed share.

One skin in GW2 is almost as much as a GW1 expansion.

Yea, have fun with that.

stayBlind.7849:

One skin in GW2 is almost as much as a GW1 expansion.

Yea, have fun with that.

more*

Delryn.7235:

I love the arguments that go; don’t like that game, don’t play it. Don’t like the weapon, don’t get it. Don’t like the president, move to another country.

With the exception of the president one (moving to another country because of a temporary person in office is very different than simply not purchasing something), I’d say that those arguments are completely valid.

If you don’t like the game, don’t play it.

If you don’t like the weapon, don’t get it.

How are those bad arguments?

Even your 300,000USD car example: If it’s obviously overpriced, don’t buy it. <— that’s a completely logical argument.

I see overpriced stuff online all the time. I don’t buy it…

I laugh and say “pffft, what idiot is dumb enough to pay that! Good luck selling it!”

It’s the same here. If the price is so outrageous no one buys it, then the price will go down for similar items in the future. If the price stays the same then unfortunately it sounds like people are dumb enough to pay that price and thus it is a smart business decision to continue doing it.

I’m curious what the demographic of GW2 item purchasers is. We can assume off the bat that the majority of players don’t spend any money at all. Many people just can’t justify spending real money on a video game after already paying box price.

That leaves us with just the ones that spend real money. There are those that spend lots of money ($50+/mo),those that spend medium ($20-50/mo) and those that spend very little ($10-20/mo or less).

Decreasing the price may allow for 20% additional purchases, but overall it might mean less money. Remember these purchases are what fund the company completely. They have no other revenue stream outside of box sales AFAIK.

Without knowing these numbers all we can do is speculate.

But I’d like to think that Anet is putting enough research into these comparisons to justify the high price.

I mean if 1000 people will pay $50 for an item: $50,000 you would need 5000 people to pay the $10 price to just even out. I have a feeling that dropping the price won’t drive as many people to the store as we think it would.

Just like lottery. Limited rewards and you cannot really name a price to luck.

Between the prices and the increased frequency of the cash shop updates (seems to have gone from monthly to almost weekly), this game definitely feels like it has entered its “milking” phase.

Maz.8604:

Editted to make room for the quote.

“The average price of getting a weapon ticket is equivalent to 40 black lion keys, or 3600 gems, or $45.”

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1iyu11/anet_love_the_black_lion_ticket_scraps_idea/cb9dsks

45 USD.

Really?

TERA offers weapon skins for 10 dollars.

I’m not sure why the TERA comparison is needed. I’ve “purchased” up to ~$100 worth of Gems completely free through in-game cash, because I enjoy spending my time in-game and earning everything in-game.

But IIRC you can’t convert your in-game time into EMP in TERA unless they changed something since I’ve played. So the comparison is incredibly difficult to make, since they are very different business models.

silvermember.8941:

Just like an expensive car, you don’t have to get it IF you can afford a cheaper car. If you do go for the expensive car, be prepared to pay the price for it.

Wrong. If you buy an expensive car, it usually will out perform a cheap car. You don’t pay $200k for a Ferarri and get a Chevy Malibu with a neat looking exterior

Viking Jorun.5413:

A legendary is near $1000 USD. Your point?

Legendaries aren’t tied to temporary content. You can at least somewhat work toward them.

The point is that people are paying $45 on average for an average chance at something, or they could become the outlier and spend $200 and not get the kitten thing. lol

Hell Avenger.7021:

The point is that people are paying $45 on average for an average chance at something, or they could become the outlier and spend $200 and not get the kitten thing. lol

Spend $45 on 3600 Gems.

Convert 3600 Gems to ~84 G

Purchase Aether skin off the TP without RNG (Currently ~50-60G).

Choices!

Maybe I missed something but how’d they get to that $45 estimate? From the reddit:

“And now we know. The average price of getting a weapon ticket is equivalent to 40 black lion keys, or 3600 gems, or $45. That’s the price of one of these skins. Are you willing to pay it?”

Can someone point me to how they came to that? Are they just basing it off current TP prices?

Mourningcry.9428:

Maybe I missed something but how’d they get to that $45 estimate? From the reddit:

“And now we know. The average price of getting a weapon ticket is equivalent to 40 black lion keys, or 3600 gems, or $45. That’s the price of one of these skins. Are you willing to pay it?”

Can someone point me to how they came to that?

I believe they’re basing off the assumption that 1. you don’t get the golden ticket and that 2. the scraps have a 25% chance.

Not very rigorous, but I imagine it’s a decent estimate.

Ursan.7846:

Mourningcry.9428:

Maybe I missed something but how’d they get to that $45 estimate? From the reddit:

“And now we know. The average price of getting a weapon ticket is equivalent to 40 black lion keys, or 3600 gems, or $45. That’s the price of one of these skins. Are you willing to pay it?”

Can someone point me to how they came to that?

I believe they’re basing off the assumption that 1. you don’t get the golden ticket and that 2. the scraps have a 25% chance.

Not very rigorous, but I imagine it’s a decent estimate.

Ok… Thanks.

My gut feeling is that it’s a rather generous estimate.

Yeah, the store is an absolute joke in this game. Compare it to one like say the “Rift” store.

You can buy 3,250 credits in that game for 20 dollars. They have like 150 armor bundles for cosmetics that are mostly 850 credits each. Plus they have a loyalty system where you earn points for buying and spending credits in the store. You advance through the loyalty tiers to earn claimable rewards for supporting the game.

GW2 gives you a highly overpriced, small selection. A lot of the items they put in are limited time only to get you to buy right away. And if you’re lucky they might throw you a bone with some holographic pets or a kite, lol.

These guys seriously need to fix their store.

Jemmi.6058:

silvermember.8941:

Just like an expensive car, you don’t have to get it IF you can afford a cheaper car. If you do go for the expensive car, be prepared to pay the price for it.

Honestly, why do ppl feel the need to complain about skins being expensive when you can simply just don’t bother getting it.

and.. Honestly, why do people feel the need to judge others for providing feedback?

For the last 3 posts, I agree with what you are saying, that there is more than meets the eye. Like you can get the skin through other means, that you get other things in the BLC and that you can always choose to not buy it. That said, it is also fair enough that someone provides feedback that they are unhappy with the current system.

Therefore, the point isn’t ‘moot’ and the comparison to another game is relevant.

This is not a proper way to give feedback. If that was his intent his kittening up. Whining and Hyperbole are not the same as giving feedback.

Araziel.7201:

Yeah, the store is an absolute joke in this game. Compare it to one like say the “Rift” store.

You can buy 3,250 credits in that game for 20 dollars. They have like 150 armor bundles for cosmetics that are mostly 850 credits each. Plus they have a loyalty system where you earn points for buying and spending credits in the store. You advance through the loyalty tiers to earn claimable rewards for supporting the game.

GW2 gives you a highly overpriced, small selection. A lot of the items they put in are limited time only to get you to buy right away. And if you’re lucky they might throw you a bone with some holographic pets or a kite, lol.

These guys seriously need to fix their store.

Yea its just bullkitten… but still… ppl buy it for some magick unknow reason.

I would prefer to buy this 2h weapons for 800, and 1h for 400 gems rather than buys RNG!!
As for me, i spend many money in LoL and Tera, not only bcos i wanted something, but also bcos i could support a Dev Team in that way. But as you pointed, in both Tera and LoL prices were “nice placed vs what you got”(you didnt fell kittened by dev team) Especialy in LoL after they add more currencies, other than "$ " and “E”. For me each item, each 800 gems, each 10E is worth 4x more than for my Eu brothers, if they said LEgendary is worh 1000$ for me its 4000$. So i need ware what to buy.

the point:
As for now. For me bough Krytan/Phoenix/Aether Armor for 800 gems are fine, and i goth them/will get every time cos price go well with reward, same go for Perf Transs Stones or BL Salvage kit i bought them cos price=item you got. All other things in shoop, are higly overrpriced to what you get, and thus i dont buy them, even if i have 10$ to spare i dont spend them in game.

Skins for armors and weapons for 400/800gems -yes
Pay for rngs-no

Has ANet said whether the Aetherized skins will stop being sold in the future? If they are a permanent addition to the BL Weapon Vendors, then I honestly see no problem with the system, as we have all the time in the world to accumulate ticket scraps.

RoRo.8270:

Legendaries aren’t tied to temporary content. You can at least somewhat work toward them.

And based on the information we have now, neither are these.
They will stay at the ticket vendor, so you can get it half a year from now if you wish.

They should just sell the skins, for a flaw price of 10 bucks aka 800 Gems, I mean seriously get rid of the Black Lion Chest….really they are horrible and frankly I wised up on them during the Halloween event.

I got my rifle skin for 35g buy-order; why would you spend $45+ RM on RNG? You could make 35-50g for a buy-order in 5-6hrs of CoF (basically 1hr a day for a week…wow lots of hard work).

That said, I agree it would be nice to just be able to straight buy (RM) some special skins. ex: Aetherized weapons for $10 (same as an armor set). Then again, ANet probably makes MUCH more cash off the people who buy into RNG and “waste” their RM on RNG boxes.

Let ANet know what you want with your wallet: if you don’t want RNG boxes for RM, then don’t buy it anymore. Either use in-game funds or flat-out say no.

I think lack of scelrite weapons anywhere to be seen would have shown them something but alas no.

Viking Jorun.5413:

A legendary is near $1000 USD. Your point?

A few Kanaxai mini’s in Gw1 went for the value of a 2-year old Used Car…

That said… LOL $45?? …and I thought Blizzard was pulling some shenanigans back when they first announced a 25$ Mount/Pet. (that sounds dirty together)

lordkrall.7241:

RoRo.8270:

Legendaries aren’t tied to temporary content. You can at least somewhat work toward them.

And based on the information we have now, neither are these.
They will stay at the ticket vendor, so you can get it half a year from now if you wish.

For 5 times the current price.

Avatara.1042:

For 5 times the current price.

Which is however completely irrelevant to the argument in question, since they will still be available.

Based on inflation and such Legendaries will probably be around 5 times the current price in a few months as well.

@lanfeasr “Surprisingly, this doesn’t bother me. However, it does make me really consider if I ‘actually want’ the skin, or if my collection demon is taking over.”

I suffer from this collection demon as well. Recently started to sPVP. That locker may be my undoing.

KOPPER.1458:

@lanfeasr “Surprisingly, this doesn’t bother me. However, it does make me really consider if I ‘actually want’ the skin, or if my collection demon is taking over.”

I suffer from this collection demon as well. Recently started to sPVP. That locker may be my undoing.

It will be, good luck

lordkrall.7241:

Avatara.1042:

For 5 times the current price.

Which is however completely irrelevant to the argument in question, since they will still be available.

Based on inflation and such Legendaries will probably be around 5 times the current price in a few months as well.

Oh, a rabid fanboy. I will just ignore you then, seeing as you believe $200 U.S is fair for a single weapon.

Ive gotten 3 gold claims in 25 chests, your point?