Guild Wars 2

Remove XP & Kill Streak Boosters from Black Lion’s Chest

The PvE xp boosters are 100% USELESS in a game that has zero exp death penalties & a complete new casual player can come in & get to lvl cap in two weeks using consumables & just doing map explore & story quests. It is one thing to add items, but to manipulate the rates or to replace keys with scraps over other items that are 100% useless is a rip off. No one needs 1 of those boosters let alone 100s. There are enough other gold sink boobie prizes in the chests, such as the endless tonics, the mystery tonics, & the tiny bags of coin & many of the account bound crap. You added a nice new 25 key package, but the product is getting worse especially when considering a key is valued at about 3g. Please in the future be a little more fair to the consumers.

I do find it a bit odd that the people who can afford the keys tend to be the people who no longer need almost all of the items from the chests.

I think that ArenaNet should probably review either the content or the acquisition of keys as there does seem to be a big disconnect.

keys has a liqued value in gold that is depending on the gold to gem ratio and in my oppinion it should be like that and if the gold price raises then be it as that is the value of the item in gold then.

xp boosts are not useless in any way they are not as atraktive as some of the other stuff but that does not make them useless

I’d make you a chart, but I don’t have the time. The value of XP boosters drops rapidly as you level each character as the benefit they provide decreases. Once you’ve reached 80 on each character, the only value they provide is slightly faster Skill Point gains, which is of marginal value.

They are never “useless”, but the value of what they provide decreases over time until they are almost valueless, meanwhile the keys used to open the chests that drop them are limited access making them expensive. At least the “useless” items from the BL chests (tonics, etc) are fun and have value outside of a meaningless stat boost.

mtpelion.4562:

I do find it a bit odd that the people who can afford the keys tend to be the people who no longer need almost all of the items from the chests.

I think that ArenaNet should probably review either the content or the acquisition of keys as there does seem to be a big disconnect.

Actually the players who can most afford them are casual players with well-paying jobs who don’t have a lot of leisure time for playing games. Therefore they can make good use of boosters in the limited time they have in game.

It’s futile to argue the cost in game currency (gold) for cash shop items because the cost in gems – and therefore the cost in real money – is fixed but the cost in gold can change from day to day or even minute to minute.

Keys are the same cost they were a year ago, it’s the $/gem value of in-game gold that changes.

Save them up and hope for new races/professions to use them on, along with your birthday gift of automatic level 20.

Even if it only takes 80 hours to level simply clearing all the level 1-25 zones, to do so in only 14 days is hardly “casual” play. Even a month isn’t enough time for a “casual” player with a life of RW obligations to level to 80.

As an aside why the rush? I never understood why so many players feel the need to level cap their character as fast as possible, not all MMOs are WoW.

So the XP booster are for the player who plays less than 10 hours a week.

There should still be semi-reliably good rewards in chests. I know it would encourage more people to buy the keys, which seems desirable from Anet’s standpoint. As it stands, I’d rather have something I know I can use, instead of gambling with something that is full of largely useless items. Account bound mystery tonics? 70c dyes? Account bound killstreak boosters? 3 scraps of black lion tickets in 15 chests? Yeah, not worth it.

Guhracie.3419:

There should still be semi-reliably good rewards in chests. I know it would encourage more people to buy the keys, which seems desirable from Anet’s standpoint. As it stands, I’d rather have something I know I can use, instead of gambling with something that is full of largely useless items. Account bound mystery tonics? 70c dyes? Account bound killstreak boosters? 3 scraps of black lion tickets in 15 chests? Yeah, not worth it.

Don’t ID the dyes and sell them for 20 silver each. Use the mystery tonics for a combat brawl daily achieve. Accumulate the scraps till you get a ticket and then buy the newest weapon skin and sell it on the TP. I sold one for 50 gold. Kill streak boosters, well, I’ll give you that one.

No, my point is that I’m not going to spend any more money on keys because none of that is even remotely interesting to me. I’m not going to open chests until I get 50 scraps. That’s just not appealing. The skins are nice, but the risk/reward for scraps?

Also, don’t ID the dyes? Are you out of your mind? O_o

Guhracie.3419:

No, my point is that I’m not going to spend any more money on keys because none of that is even remotely interesting to me. I’m not going to open chests until I get 50 scraps. That’s just not appealing. The skins are nice, but the risk/reward for scraps?

Also, don’t ID the dyes? Are you out of your mind? O_o

10 scraps for a current weapon skin, not 50. And as you said, ID dyes are typically 70c. Sell them for 20 silver each and buy the ones you want, which would be about 28 dyes for each unid sold.

The thing about dyes is my own neurosis, and was meant to be lighthearted- the bit about not identifying them. However, I’d like it if the chests had a “quality” filter- masterwork or higher. They already have unidentified hues in the game, so quality shouldn’t be hard to program in.

That said, as far as I know, there are currently no skins available at 10 scraps. Given that my preference is currently for the skins at 5 tickets, with some of the sclerite pieces following, the minimum I need is 30 scraps. This may change in the next two weeks, but that’s hardly my point.

My point is that the risk/reward for chests is ridiculously unbalanced. Thus, I’m not buying any more keys. I’ll settle for the ones I get from personal story/exploration/drops. I’m not asking for ascended weapons or anything that would make the game buy-to-win. I just feel like the chests should be more rewarding than they are. Nothing you say will make me feel otherwise, because we have the same data.

Guhracie.3419:

The thing about dyes is my own neurosis, and was meant to be lighthearted- the bit about not identifying them. However, I’d like it if the chests had a “quality” filter- masterwork or higher. They already have unidentified hues in the game, so quality shouldn’t be hard to program in.

That said, as far as I know, there are currently no skins available at 10 scraps. Given that my preference is currently for the skins at 5 tickets, with some of the sclerite pieces following, the minimum I need is 30 scraps. This may change in the next two weeks, but that’s hardly my point.

My point is that the risk/reward for chests is ridiculously unbalanced. Thus, I’m not buying any more keys. I’ll settle for the ones I get from personal story/exploration/drops. I’m not asking for ascended weapons or anything that would make the game buy-to-win. I just feel like the chests should be more rewarding than they are. Nothing you say will make me feel otherwise, because we have the same data.

Well I won’t actually argue (too much ^^) about the risk/reward being unbalanced. I do key runs occasionally in order to get tickets or ticket scraps for future weapon skins I might want. Other than that, there is nothing of real value for the money in them.

You’re welcome to your opinion, but just because you do not feel the rewards are worthwhile does not make it so for the rest of the people playing. The boosters appeal to people without much time to play, or leveling alts, and the ticket scraps alone motivate a lot of people to buy keys.

I’ve seen a lot more people carrying Fused weapons than I used to, and those take 7 tickets/70 scraps. That’s a lot of keys. Even if they bought them from the TP, someone farmed or bought enough scraps to get that skin.

I don’t buy keys, but I do a key run when I get bored, I have seven scraps towards the next set of skins (probably in October) and once I got a complete ticket, I made about 40 gold selling a Zodiac skin.

So those of you here that feel the exp boosters are so essential to casual players leveling ability, truly feel they would require the rate of those particular booster to be higher than scraps, key rerolls & tonics among other things? When there are consumables in the game that can be used for costume brawl what does anyone need with 1k of them from chests? How many exp boosters do new players really require to make it from 0-80 wearing one every hour they play? PvE exp is a GIVEN in this game & to have the rng of PvE exp boosters set to where players get over 100 backed up in their banks pretty much shows they are not needed or else they would never accumulate so many.
Perhaps I over exaggerated with loosely saying “useless” instead of bad value, but at the end of the day from my individual wallets percpective it is valid to say that the rng of keys for rerolls being replaced by scraps instead of just altering the rng of scrap drops on their own, leaving the reroll keys in place &adjusting the rng of other items like these particular boosters would have been more friendly to real money investors as well as ingame players or at least tone those two down & make ones for enhancements like running, hp regeneration etc higher. There truly is a a very low number to how many PvE exp boosters any account needs.
It is not as well balanced as it could be.
I love the staff here & is why I personally choose to spend money on the game, while I am very aware the amount is not much in the scheme of things, I am running out of justifications for supporting it with real money when all I am left with is to sell gems for gold.
The new key packs while exciting , just aren’t enticing when my odds of getting more & more PvE exp boosters & tonics than anything useful is like just handing them money. At least before I could say "it’s ok that 700th tonic came with a key I get another shot at the perma item I seek.
It is not good for business when I can sell the gems & buy what I want in game rather than gold sink a few into gambling boxes, that means I spend LESS real money if any because there are zero mistakes as what my money will buy, whereas before I would buy a few extra gems to get some keys~ I was willing to accept a few boobie prizes before gambling for the empty dream of acquiring the perma items like TP/Banker etc~ even a frivolous spender like me can’t ignore the house is taking advantage a little too much in this instance.
If they continue to alter this product with total disregard to the consumers it forces consumers into only spend exactly what is needed instead of getting a few more gems to gamble with or just stop spending at all to avoid the headaches.
I am not saying my ideas fit every player, they represent my gaming experience & therefore are just an opinion. I just honestly feel the imbalance is too great to ignore any longer as they alter other items before these particular ones.
Nobody that spends real money to get the keys likes being forced to destroy hundreds of tonics (aka throwing real money away) etc to make bank space on top of accepting the other boobie prizes that are necessary to protect the value of the rarer ones & make a solid profit to maintain the overhead. I will never use all those boosters or tonics, even if they raise the cap tomorrow to 120 or made some achievement that upped the amount of costume brawls I would spend game time on. I am here expressing my opinion as a consumer, & if Anet & other players disagree with me it is ok, it just let’s me know I was completely wrong & therefore I should keep 100% of my real money in my wallet based on I have no clue & it is very possible I am out of touch with the average consumer. There are more than enough consumers to keep the lights on & contribute towards expansions. If I feel I must throw money around, the casino is just down the road from me & I know I don’t spend enough to affect Anet adversely if I pulled my monthly spending. I am one small fish in a very big pond. If it is their desire that I farm keys in game over buying them, that is what I will do~ I honestly have no problem with that option.

Thank you all for the honest feedback, it is nice to see the diverse players representing what items mean to them.

White space please?

We don’t feel that items like XP boosters are essential but they are there if those players want them. Why take them away? Your point seems to be since they and other items at the Gem shop aren’t useful for you and/or you think they cost too much they should be removed since they are a ripoff. Who are you again and why your opinion trump all others?

You do realize that the purpose of the gem shop is to generate income with the sale of Gems for cash. Nobody is holding a gun to you head and forcing you to buy anything there.

Behellagh.1468:

White space please?

We don’t feel that items like XP boosters are essential but they are there if those players want them. Why take them away? Your point seems to be since they and other items at the Gem shop aren’t useful for you and/or you think they cost too much they should be removed since they are a ripoff. Who are you again and why your opinion trump all others?

You do realize that the purpose of the gem shop is to generate income with the sale of Gems for cash. Nobody is holding a gun to you head and forcing you to buy anything there.

Attacking my lack of proper writing skill doesn’t excuse the over dramatic tone you are using with my post. I am assuming you didn’t bother to read it because you prefer perfect grammar & presentation over content & intention . Had you read it you would have seen my admission it was an individual opinion & how I am a small fish in a very big pond. Most would interpret that to mean I am aware of how little I contribute financially compared to others :P

Your implying consumers should give no feedback on products ~just to spend blindly or don’t spend at all ~doesn’t solve anything for anyone involved. Yes, this is a business that does indeed need to generate income but I always understood the gems I sold to other players were used by them in the gem shop , is there somewhere in game they use those gems for or something that I don’t know about? ^^ They need paying consumers. This is their livelihood it is just our hobby & maybe they appreciate the warnings that they may lose a lil monthly income. Perhaps, my opinion is something valid then again perhaps it is B.S. but at the end of the day they want to make money & not all consumers are just throwing temper tantrums so knowing GW2/Anet they will consider various opinions & scenarios before doing anything, they are professional like that. They are actually pretty good at sifting through the emotions in opinions & seeing if a complaint or suggestion has merit or not without taking poor grammar or bad presentation as a useless opinion or wallet of lesser value compared to those who are perfect. In case you weren’t aware of that knowledge they possess it is basic business 101 ^^

Maybe this particular game makes enough selling NON gambling items like bank expansions. I really don’t know what their overhead or profit margins are. That is their business.

My explanation of why I CHOOSE to spend money on the game was for them to use how they see fit, even if that means it’s toilette papier. Perhaps improving sales means keeping things the way they are~ lose a portion of one consumer monthly spending maybe gain 10 others or improvement can mean losing too many average consistent consumers will hurt & a lil reassessing may be in order. Again that is their job to review & decide which one holds true to their particular formula. They cannot get the best out of their investments if we all just stay quiet & stop spending. It can be helpful if they avoid that, because once you lose the interest of repeat spenders it is very difficult to entice them back. If too many do as you suggest & just don’t spend because they don’t like the product that means in game players that buy gems are SoL too as gem prices will go even higher as their are less sellers.

So please I beg your forgiveness, for attempting to communicate to the business I built a relationship with that things are feeling a bit rocky. Your financial relationship with them is your business & may not be anything like mine. Yes, I could be imagining the rockiness, but that is for them to decide not you, unless ofc you are an employee & my opinion is adversely affecting your payday.

I can afford the keys, and do not feel that the boosters are useful enough to be in there. They are just a waste of space. I would rather the chests dropped more keys, maybe interesting skins, more skill points, backpacks, tomes of knowledge, dye packs, Rez orbs, etc. When I drop $20 on keys, I don’t want to wonder; ‘Will I get anything at all fun or useful?’ I want to wonder; ‘WHICH fun useful thing will I get?!’

I don’t mind the XP booster (I use it on Alts) but that kittening bag of coins needs to go.

@ItWasntMe

Fine, let’s look at your OP in detail shall we. And it wasn’t grammer, simply a little white space adds to readability. How many, like me simply read the first line or two of your reply and simply moved on from the wall of text?

Remove XP & Kill Streak Boosters from Black Lion’s Chest

The PvE xp boosters are 100% USELESS in a game that has zero exp death penalties & a complete new casual player can come in & get to lvl cap in two weeks using consumables & just doing map explore & story quests.

First the BL Chest was always first a sampler of what’s available at the Gem store. It wasn’t until recently when they decided to put scraps and tickets for skins in them to encourage players to buy keys. They even made scrapes a relatively high percentage drop. Also as I pointed out earlier anyone who levels their character in only two weeks is hardly a casual player, as in 5 to 10 hours a week of play.

It is one thing to add items, but to manipulate the rates or to replace keys with scraps over other items that are 100% useless is a rip off. No one needs 1 of those boosters let alone 100s. There are enough other gold sink boobie prizes in the chests, such as the endless tonics, the mystery tonics, & the tiny bags of coin & many of the account bound crap.

Obviously you don’t like what was put in it but you didn’t say what exactly is ticking you off. What do you think it should be dropping instead. What was manipulated negatively, other than keys that you though should be dropping? Can’t be scraps and tickets because they just added scraps and tickets.

You added a nice new 25 key package, but the product is getting worse especially when considering a key is valued at about 3g. Please in the future be a little more fair to the consumers.

As it has been said before gold to gems is simply a convenience was not ever meant to be the player’s primary way to buy gems. They want you to spend cash because that’s what keeps the lights on.

Now looking at that wall of text that was your 2nd post. You seem to believe that the Chest’s primary purpose is to provide more keys and scraps. As much as I admit I enjoyed cascading one key into opening several chests it only became an issue when they introduced scraps and tickets. Think this through. People weren’t buying keys because the chest contains mostly uninteresting stuff. As for tonics, who cares? Oh I’m a chair. Oh, I’m an imp. Oh, I’m a tree. But I digress. So they add skin tickets and scraps to up demand (oh boy did it up demand) in keys so why would they keep the free key chance the same now?

So now I get it. Your complaint is that you want skins and feel it’s unfair that the odds of getting a ticket or skin is relatively small in relation to all the stuff the chests have always contained, most you consider junk, even though tickets and scraps have only been added recently. I think the argument is better directed at the conversion rate of scraps to tickets and tickets to skins because scraps are never going to be a one in two shot with an extra key tossed in for good measure.

I know it can be aggravating not getting what you think you should be getting out of blind box governed by a RNG you should know by now that your odds are slim and that we are talking about opening hundreds of chests on average to get enough scraps and tickets for a single skin. And unless you enjoy milking keys out of the human person story, those keys will cost you either real money, $1.05 – 1.57 each , or an ever increasing amount of gold, 4-6g each, depending on quantity bought at once.

TL;DR version – Chests were always and will be always be Number One a Whitman Sampler of items from the Gem Shop. The “secret toy surprise” in the guise of tickets and ticket scraps will always be secondary even though they will drive demand.

Behellagh.1468:

Fine, let’s look at your OP in detail shall we. And it wasn’t grammer, simply a little white space adds to readability. How many, like me simply read the first line or two of your reply and simply moved on from the wall of text?

I am touched by your concern, so worried about others & if they are interested enough or not in the topic to read my poor presentation.

Obviously you don’t like what was put in it but you didn’t say what exactly is ticking you off. What do you think it should be dropping instead. What was manipulated negatively, other than keys that you though should be dropping? Can’t be scraps and tickets because they just added scraps and tickets.

I believe by many of the other opinions here, that others understood the content I was talking about the fact there were other rngs to manipulate to fit scraps into the equation & that they chose key rerolls to be downsized rather than something like tonics or some of the boosters. If the lowered the rng of some other item in order to make room for the scraps it would have been better for all, & if they removed these particular boosters no1 truely would have felt an earth shaking difference in their gaming experience especially the kill streak booster. Let’s be honest it is a non grind game so really how many alts wear these booster & kill the mobs over & over again to level up vs those who do the story quests & a variety of other “non mob killing” things that boosters don’t affect? ^^ Do you thinking lowering the rng of those particular boosters that can be bought for less gems than gambling boxes will really impact those players leveling ability? Are the demand for them so great? Heck I really don’t mind getting them if they weren’t ACCOUNT BOUND, then I could help those players out by selling them dirt cheap in the TP along with the millions of other PvE exp boosters that would find their way out of bankers & into the TP.

Behellagh.1468:

Now looking at that wall of text that was your 2nd post. You seem to believe that the Chest’s primary purpose is to provide more keys and scraps. As much as I admit I enjoyed cascading one key into opening several chests it only became an issue when they introduced scraps and tickets. Think this through. People weren’t buying keys because the chest contains mostly uninteresting stuff. As for tonics, who cares? Oh I’m a chair. Oh, I’m an imp. Oh, I’m a tree. But I digress. So they add skin tickets and scraps to up demand (oh boy did it up demand) in keys so why would they keep the free key chance the same now?

So now I get it. Your complaint is that you want skins and feel it’s unfair that the odds of getting a ticket or skin is relatively small in relation to all the stuff the chests have always contained, most you consider junk, even though tickets and scraps have only been added recently. I think the argument is better directed at the conversion rate of scraps to tickets and tickets to skins because scraps are never going to be a one in two shot with an extra key tossed in for good measure.

I know it can be aggravating not getting what you think you should be getting out of blind box governed by a RNG you should know by now that your odds are slim and that we are talking about opening hundreds of chests on average to get enough scraps and tickets for a single skin. And unless you enjoy milking keys out of the human person story, those keys will cost you either real money, $1.05 – 1.57 each , or an ever increasing amount of gold, 4-6g each, depending on quantity bought at once.

Now looking at that wall of text that was your 2nd post. You seem to believe that the Chest’s primary purpose is to provide more keys and scraps. As much as I admit I enjoyed cascading one key into opening several chests it only became an issue when they introduced scraps and tickets. Think this through. People weren’t buying keys because the chest contains mostly uninteresting stuff. As for tonics, who cares? Oh I’m a chair. Oh, I’m an imp. Oh, I’m a tree. But I digress. So they add skin tickets and scraps to up demand (oh boy did it up demand) in keys so why would they keep the free key chance the same now?

So now I get it. Your complaint is that you want skins and feel it’s unfair that the odds of getting a ticket or skin is relatively small in relation to all the stuff the chests have always contained, most you consider junk, even though tickets and scraps have only been added recently. I think the argument is better directed at the conversion rate of scraps to tickets and tickets to skins because scraps are never going to be a one in two shot with an extra key tossed in for good measure.

I know it can be aggravating not getting what you think you should be getting out of blind box governed by a RNG you should know by now that your odds are slim and that we are talking about opening hundreds of chests on average to get enough scraps and tickets for a single skin. And unless you enjoy milking keys out of the human person story, those keys will cost you either real money, $1.05 – 1.57 each , or an ever increasing amount of gold, 4-6g each, depending on quantity bought at once.

Yah~ I am NOT INTO SKINS AT ALL. I do believe I said trying for the perma tp/banker if you really must know. Scraps were mentioned because Anet/GW2 recently said they chose that rng to be tweaked & lower/replace the key reroll which are much better to many than some of the other items that have extremely HIGH rng in the chests. So in short I am here stating I would rather have key rerolls untouched over some of the boosters could be lowered to make room for scraps.

Honestly, I am not understanding your motivation. Are you saying I am illogical to point out there were potentially better/different options for scraps to replace? Or are you truely happy with things exactly as they are & are here defending it’s safety from possible change? Everyone else who joined the convo whether they agreed or disagreed with me expressed their own opinion of what THEY found useful or liked/disliked.
I get it, you don’t like me, but you have yet to contribute anything helpful to Anet or players as far as solutions or ideas or even what you like or dislike with the current state of affairs. All you have done is act condescending & shown your kitten without shame to pick my post apart piece by piece with no particular goal…
You feel you can say it all better, super! Give me your email & next time I decide I want to make a post I will use you as my secretary, writing & expression are the slowest part of my recovery & I really could use someone else to do it for me so I don’t have to put myself out there to be unjustly ridiculed or belittled by trolls that see poor writing indicative of stupidity & inability to have valuable input. I will even pay you what I don’t spend in gems ^,^

I would question the kill streak booster’s usefulness at ALL, honestly. There are several boosters I do use, and some that I don’t, though I can see their usefulness to others. The kill streak ones, though…. ?

Repair canisters, rez orbs, etc. Those are awesome, and of time and money saving use to all players.. Dye packs, makeover kits, etc., are purely cosmetic. I think they should drop more often; players obviously adore cosmetic enhancements. And buying keys to randomly get them is more fun than buying them outright.

The scraps were an awesome addition. I love it. The key drop nerf was not awesome.

ItWasntMe.7102:

Yah~ I am NOT INTO SKINS AT ALL. I do believe I said trying for the perma tp/banker if you really must know. Scraps were mentioned because Anet/GW2 recently said they chose that rng to be tweaked & lower/replace the key reroll which are much better to many than some of the other items that have extremely HIGH rng in the chests. So in short I am here stating I would rather have key rerolls untouched over some of the boosters could be lowered to make room for scraps.

Honestly, I am not understanding your motivation. Are you saying I am illogical to point out there were potentially better/different options for scraps to replace? Or are you truely happy with things exactly as they are & are here defending it’s safety from possible change? Everyone else who joined the convo whether they agreed or disagreed with me expressed their own opinion of what THEY found useful or liked/disliked.
I get it, you don’t like me, but you have yet to contribute anything helpful to Anet or players as far as solutions or ideas or even what you like or dislike with the current state of affairs. All you have done is act condescending & shown your kitten without shame to pick my post apart piece by piece with no particular goal…
You feel you can say it all better, super! Give me your email & next time I decide I want to make a post I will use you as my secretary, writing & expression are the slowest part of my recovery & I really could use someone else to do it for me so I don’t have to put myself out there to be unjustly ridiculed or belittled by trolls that see poor writing indicative of stupidity & inability to have valuable input. I will even pay you what I don’t spend in gems ^,^

Geez lighten up there Hoss. I’m not getting personal.

What I’m saying is players should realize that 98% of the time they are going to get Gem store stuff from the chests that they may not be interested in at all. That’s it’s primary purpose, to offer a sampling from the store. Now there is an off chance that there is something really cool and really rare in one but they shouldn’t make it their life’s work to find one.

And isn’t the Perma TP or Perma Banker contracts extremely rare, as in 1/10ths or a percent chance if that high. That’s a Melville level quest there. They are meant to be extra, extra rare otherwise they aren’t special then.

As for unfair, now if you were sitting on a bunch of keys and they changed up the odds by adding or removing the “special” non Gem Store items in a patch, yea, that can be unfair. But what I’m pointing out is that the boosters are never going to be removed from the chests and their odds will remain relatively the same. And as I said before, tweaking the majority of key drops to add scraps and tickets for skins is logical from ANet’s POV since the purpose of scraps and tickets is to increase the sales of keys. Keys bought with Gems that are hopefully bought with cash.

I understand your frustration. You have a bunch of XP and Kill Streak boosters, which has like a 20-25% chance to get one of them in every chest, and you are mad as heck that you aren’t seeing the rarer items like the contracts. And by denying you extra keys for something you don’t care of like skin tickets/scraps you feel that it’s a money grab.

Well it IS a money grab, you’re just caught up in the wake of it. But ANet needs players to buy gems with cash, to show a profit to their masters in the Korea. These “grab bag” items are the most profitable way to do so in every MMO with a cash shop. And the really desirable stuff has to be rare to ultra rare. Even one in one hundred can be considered too common when you consider tens hundreds of thousands of chests have been opened.

I’m not attacking you, I’m just trying to talk some sense as to why what you suggest will never happen. Keys have gone from a common to rare drop to make room for skin tickets/scraps, whose purpose is to sell more keys. Boosters and common one time use items will always be the majority of what gets dropped from a chest. And when you do get something uncommon it will likely be a BL salvage kit or one of those laughable gathering tools.

And as of right now, for the cost of roughly 225 keys when bought with gold, roughly 800g, you can buy those two contracts off the TP right now. That’s around $325 in gold bought with gems bought with cash. That’s your alternative. Playing “scratch tickets” hoping for a one or pony up the gold. Just putting it into perspective.

Behellagh.1468:

Geez lighten up there Hoss. I’m not getting personal.

What I’m saying is players should realize that 98% of the time they are going to get Gem store stuff from the chests that they may not be interested in at all. That’s it’s primary purpose, to offer a sampling from the store. Now there is an off chance that there is something really cool and really rare in one but they shouldn’t make it their life’s work to find one.

And isn’t the Perma TP or Perma Banker contracts extremely rare, as in 1/10ths or a percent chance if that high. That’s a Melville level quest there. They are meant to be extra, extra rare otherwise they aren’t special then.

As for unfair, now if you were sitting on a bunch of keys and they changed up the odds by adding or removing the “special” non Gem Store items in a patch, yea, that can be unfair. But what I’m pointing out is that the boosters are never going to be removed from the chests and their odds will remain relatively the same. And as I said before, tweaking the majority of key drops to add scraps and tickets for skins is logical from ANet’s POV since the purpose of scraps and tickets is to increase the sales of keys. Keys bought with Gems that are hopefully bought with cash.

I understand your frustration. You have a bunch of XP and Kill Streak boosters, which has like a 20-25% chance to get one of them in every chest, and you are mad as heck that you aren’t seeing the rarer items like the contracts. And by denying you extra keys for something you don’t care of like skin tickets/scraps you feel that it’s a money grab.

Well it IS a money grab, you’re just caught up in the wake of it. But ANet needs players to buy gems with cash, to show a profit to their masters in the Korea. These “grab bag” items are the most profitable way to do so in every MMO with a cash shop. And the really desirable stuff has to be rare to ultra rare. Even one in one hundred can be considered too common when you consider tens hundreds of thousands of chests have been opened.

I’m not attacking you, I’m just trying to talk some sense as to why what you suggest will never happen. Keys have gone from a common to rare drop to make room for skin tickets/scraps, whose purpose is to sell more keys. Boosters and common one time use items will always be the majority of what gets dropped from a chest. And when you do get something uncommon it will likely be a BL salvage kit or one of those laughable gathering tools.

And as of right now, for the cost of roughly 225 keys when bought with gold, roughly 800g, you can buy those two contracts off the TP right now. That’s around $325 in gold bought with gems bought with cash. That’s your alternative. Playing “scratch tickets” hoping for a one or pony up the gold. Just putting it into perspective.

If it is their aim to sell more keys, they have failed miserably with me, and others. I’m not begging for something rare, I’m asking that chests reliably have something fun, interesting and useful. If I open 25 chests, there should be several things I can point to at the end of it which feel rewarding. It shouldn’t feel like opening my daily chest.

I get that random is random, but this system is not engaging as is. I think you’ll find yourself in the minority if you try to argue that chests are satisfying as is.

Did I say the chests are satisfying? If you look back through my history, which I might do later and post the actual link, I thought keys were entirely pointless. I still do. I rarely use any of the stuff I’ve gotten from chests other than keys, BL salvage kits and one Karma booster just before they changed karma containers. I have 15+ slots full of chest stuff that I’m to stubborn to just delete from my bank. Who knows, maybe someday I will find a use for them.

What I said above is they tried to spice them up with the skin tickets. But if you sit down and work out the cost it makes that monocle in EVE that caused such an uproar look down right cheap in comparison. But people still buy them just as they buy scratch tickets at the gas station. Maybe this time I’ll win something good.

Edit: Post from six months ago, gold price for key has gone up 2.1x since then.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Frustrated-by-lack-of-Black-Lion-Keys/first#post1556733

If their goal is to get us to buy more keys… and it is, then almost everything in the gem store except the boosters would make them more attractive. It’s not that we don’t understand that 1. they need to make money, and 2. handing out super rares like candy isn’t going to happen. It’s that we would happily make them MORE money if they adjusted the drops on more universally useful items.

I personally would love 100 claim tickets. I would be satisfied with things like repair canisters, makeover kits, rez orbs and the odd booster or two, plus occasional scraps, tonics, etc. I am NOT happy with a million coin bags containing 2s, and buckets of killstreak boosters.

I am not asking for super rare drops to be upped; just that the regular drops make more sense. We are already paying money for the key; it’s notlike we want stuff free.

Behellagh.1468:

I understand your frustration. You have a bunch of XP and Kill Streak boosters, which has like a 20-25% chance to get one of them in every chest, and you are mad as heck that you aren’t seeing the rarer items like the contracts. And by denying you extra keys for something you don’t care of like skin tickets/scraps you feel that it’s a money grab.

I’m not attacking you, I’m just trying to talk some sense as to why what you suggest will never happen. Keys have gone from a common to rare drop to make room for skin tickets/scraps, whose purpose is to sell more keys. Boosters and common one time use items will always be the majority of what gets dropped from a chest. And when you do get something uncommon it will likely be a BL salvage kit or one of those laughable gathering tools.

And as of right now, for the cost of roughly 225 keys when bought with gold, roughly 800g, you can buy those two contracts off the TP right now. That’s around $325 in gold bought with gems bought with cash. That’s your alternative. Playing “scratch tickets” hoping for a one or pony up the gold. Just putting it into perspective.

1. I have no emotional attachment to keys, boxes, or the items inside.

2. I 100% understand how gambling boxes work, as do any other players that ever played PWI or GW2s sister AION. ^^

3. You are underestimating the staff here if you think changes to the mall products will never happen. This staff has gone to bat for players on more than one occasion & in my personal opinion~ the only way we tie their hands is by not giving our opinions at all on various products. They cannot always ask for certain changes even if they see it could be different/better, if they don’t have our voice behind it. It is alot easier for them to get their superiors to adapt their ideas if those players whether in game gold gem buyers or cash gem buyers make the product high repeat demand. That includes removing or lowering the rng rates on items like kill streak boosters.

If you are sincere in you quest to gain insight to my lack of sense you are welcome to track some of the trends @ http://global.ncsoft.com/global/ir/structure.aspx.
Anet/GW2 cannot live up to it’s potential without player support. They cannot please NCsoft if spenders don’t repeat spend. So after glancing that , do you still think Anet/GW2 is so inflexible they would ignore the concerns or perceived concerns of their players? You think they wouldn’t go to bat for their product to get as many resources from the pool as possible? Do you think they want to be the next NCSoft tax write off? Do you still believe it is players that have the only thing to lose if things get stagnate even over a perceived mundane gambling keybox boobie prize selection?

IDK maybe you are right & nothing an average cash spender like me says will make a difference. Maybe writing & expression are not my BIGGEST flaws hehehe. Either way I am glad you came back & cleared up the misunderstanding & I do apologise if I came across unfairly about your opinions. I do say though that I really hope you are wrong about our inability to influence change You can be right about everything except that :P

And what are you trying to say pointing at the NCSOFT IR site? Yes sales are down a lot from 4Q 12 because most of that were box sales while the game was still new as well as the holiday season. 2Q 13 is down a bit from 1Q 13 but so is every other MMO NCSOFT is willing to report on except for granddaddy Lineage. Page 4 of the 2Q 13 includes the phrase “Revenues grew on the back of historical high L1 and stable GW2” emphasis mine. Since they don’t break out proxy currency sales from game sales maybe the sales attributed to Gem purchases are relatively stable and the decrease can be attributed to fewer and fewer game sales. We don’t know. They don’t provide that degree of transparency. Less actually in the last few years. I’ve been tracking NCSOFT since 2005.

Even with the decrease in sales GW2 is still the 2nd largest source of sales NCSOFT has, by a noticeable margin, nearly 25% more than AION and twice that of equal newcomer Blade & Soul. So by mid November we’ll see if the trend continues and if GW2 continues to be the number 2 sales earner for NCSOFT.

One thing to think about is how are the chest item distribution is coded? As a software developer I tend to think “how would I code that if it was assigned to me”? I’m thinking it’s three individual tables (think wheels on a slot machine), one for each slot. Is the table for the first slot include just common items, second uncommon and last rare or are they mostly common, mostly uncommon and mostly rare with a common item in each table? The reason I’m thinking this is that if the boosters aren’t on the same table that include desirable rarer items then modifying odds on boosters does nothing to improve the odds on the other tables. This way if keys were on only one table, then it makes sense why reducing it’s odds makes room for skin tickets/scraps while not affecting the odds distribution on the other tables.

Just thinking out loud.