Guild Wars 2

I Just spent $35 dollars on gem cards and used ALL of the gems on black lion keys. I only got FIVE ticket scraps out of all of the chests I opened. Are you telling me I need to spend $60 to get an aetherized weapon skin? Ridiculous.

Also, if I had just transferred all of those gems into Gold, I would have basically had enough money to buy one of the skins off of the TP. If you people at ANET are trying to tell me not to buy black lion keys, youre doing a kitten good job of it. This is what I get for trying to support the frieking game.

When I read that scraps are now a “common” drop from BL chests, I used my 5 saved up keys, I got 2 scraps. Ok, that sounds reasonable… So I thought, that’s common enough to warrant a 5 pack of keys from the gem store. Of course, anyone who follows the RNG threads already knows what I found..none. Not one. How is that common? I guess common is still “unlikely.” I had received 2, or even 1 more, I would have probably sprung for another pack… But ah we’ll, I guess that covers my gem purchase qualification for the next time ArenaNET gives a free gift to customers.

Check the threads for people who have spend hundreds of dollars for “rare” chances.

I was ready, so I am not submitting to make a complaint, but it help make people aware than even common can still mean nothing!

Allisa Wonderland.8192:

When I read that scraps are now a “common” drop from BL chests, I used my 5 saved up keys, I got 2 scraps. Ok, that sounds reasonable… So I thought, that’s common enough to warrant a 5 pack of keys from the gem store. Of course, anyone who follows the RNG threads already knows what I found..none. Not one. How is that common? I guess common is still “unlikely.” I had received 2, or even 1 more, I would have probably sprung for another pack… But ah we’ll, I guess that covers my gem purchase qualification for the next time ArenaNET gives a free gift to customers.

Check the threads for people who have spend hundreds of dollars for “rare” chances.

I was ready, so I am not submitting to make a complaint, but it help make people aware than even common can still mean nothing!

RNG on in-game stuff is one thing but we’re talking about REAL money here! I mean if there’s any ONE place in the game that anet should strive to make people feel satisfied its the frieking in-game purchases! We’re supporting your game, can’t you make this fair to us anet? The fact that the first reply to this thread is someone who has already been through this should SAY something.

Working as intended. I spend a lot more in Gems than what you put in, and I’ve failed a lot more than you. Yet I’m not complaining. Nothing is guaranteed, and I go in fully aware of that.

Do I get mad? Of course I do. But I’m mad that I didn’t get the item, not at the game or its mechanics.

i spent 40 g on the staff, a good deal I take it (after reading this). My alt is a pvper so it may be used. Otherwise, it will gather dust in the bank til people stop undercutting each other and eventually demand a reasonable payment for their horrible clashes with the RNG.

How much gold can you get with $60?

Convert $60 into gold, buy from TP if you don’t like randomness.

I got 10 scraps out of 50 or 51 Black Lion Chests (bought 30 keys, the remainder were from world completion), but RNG is RNG and it’s not really a valid complaint to say the equivalent of you played the lottery and didn’t win. I think most of us who were happy to throw money at it were doing it for the lols, just to see what the drop rates were like, and we have expendable income. You really ought to know after opening ten chests that ticket scraps aren’t going to be raining from the heavens, which would have only been 900 gems, and you could have used the rest of the gems to convert to gold for your skin.

From the release notes:

Black Lion Chest Keys are now a rare drop from the Black Lion Chest. Most key drops have been replaced by Black Lion Ticket Scraps. This guarantees progress toward a reward rather than a simple retry.
———————————————

This would seem to indicate the drop rate of ticket scraps is the same or less than the drop rate of keys before the update. I didn’t open chests often, but when I did the keys didn’t replace themselves very often, maybe 20% of the time. Not sure why anyone would expect ticket scraps to show up more often.

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

I got 10 scraps out of 50 or 51 Black Lion Chests (bought 30 keys, the remainder were from world completion), but RNG is RNG and it’s not really a valid complaint to say the equivalent of you played the lottery and didn’t win. I think most of us who were happy to throw money at it were doing it for the lols, just to see what the drop rates were like, and we have expendable income. You really ought to know after opening ten chests that ticket scraps aren’t going to be raining from the heavens, which would have only been 900 gems, and you could have used the rest of the gems to convert to gold for your skin.

I didnt open Ten chests, I spent 2400 gems on black lion keys and I only got 3 scraps.

I’m not buying the b-s you people are throwing me about how I shouldn’t be angry about this. And yeah, I think you ought to complain Penguin. Maybe youre all satisfied with throwing extra money at the game and getting nothing of value, and “that’s just how it is.” I reject that sentiment. This game is free to play and if you spend as much money as some of us have on trying to support it’s future, then you ought to get something of value from it. The game shouldn’t be a lottery and I’m not going to lie down and accept it.

Yeah and I’ve spent over 20,000 gems on RNG boxes to get at least one skin from each event. If you’re not willing to part with the money, I think now that you can buy the skins with gold, you should convert your gems to gold instead. Most of us have no sympathy for people who say “I played RNG and I’m angry that I didn’t win the game”.

Many threads here about the Black Lion Chests and the consenus is Don’t spend real money on them. They are ,simply put, money pit and Anet doesn’t bother changing the drop rates because people continue to be stupid enough the spend money on the fluff /cotton candy that Anet offers for sale while keeping the ‘good stuff out of most players hands. People must quit buying the the RNG stuff. Quite bluntly, there is no way (imho) that there is any randomness in the all various drops—I firmly believe they are always programmed/skewed in Anets favor and they will continue to do so regardless of the devs saying ’no way’ it just the way our random generator works. Actually ,No, it’s the way they programmed the random drops to work regardless of how flawed it is.
Don’t spend real money with the RNG game!!!

Nightingale.9714:

Allisa Wonderland.8192:

When I read that scraps are now a “common” drop from BL chests, I used my 5 saved up keys, I got 2 scraps. Ok, that sounds reasonable… So I thought, that’s common enough to warrant a 5 pack of keys from the gem store. Of course, anyone who follows the RNG threads already knows what I found..none. Not one. How is that common? I guess common is still “unlikely.” I had received 2, or even 1 more, I would have probably sprung for another pack… But ah we’ll, I guess that covers my gem purchase qualification for the next time ArenaNET gives a free gift to customers.

Check the threads for people who have spend hundreds of dollars for “rare” chances.

I was ready, so I am not submitting to make a complaint, but it help make people aware than even common can still mean nothing!

RNG on in-game stuff is one thing but we’re talking about REAL money here! I mean if there’s any ONE place in the game that anet should strive to make people feel satisfied its the frieking in-game purchases! We’re supporting your game, can’t you make this fair to us anet? The fact that the first reply to this thread is someone who has already been through this should SAY something.

come agien how can it be that your unsatisfied with what you got from the chest given that the chest states you get a RANDOM price amoung othere things and given that you got that there is nothing to complain about tho you did not get the random price you wanted but it where still a random price you got

Buy the skins with gold. It’s cheaper, and you won’t pull your hair out.

This is why I don’t buy keys. Why the F would anyone pay real cash for a small chance of maybe getting something shiny? I just can’t figure out the thought process behind that.

Congratulations you fell for it like a little kid as Anet wanted, it’s made to make money for them not to make you happy, why do you think the key drop rate from chests was lowered?

Julie Yann.5379:

This is why I don’t buy keys. Why the F would anyone pay real cash for a small chance of maybe getting something shiny? I just can’t figure out the thought process behind that.

How about paying cash to support the MMO you like? Granted I’m not saying everyone should chuck 60 bucks on RNG, but 10 bucks a month or something doesn’t seem so bad to me.

I’d rather spend it on “sure thing” like the infinite tools or similar and not RNG, though.

I don’t understand.

The small chance of getting skins or whatever the current cool item out of the lockboxes Black Lion Chests is well known and admitted up-front. Cryptic PerfectWorld ANet isn’t hiding anything about them.

Anyone who chooses to play the lottery should accept the very real potential outcome that they’re not going to get what they want regardless of how much money they spend on it.

My apologies, OP, I don’t wish to take joy from your outrage. But I just don’t understand it when people makes posts like this as if they hadn’t known this ahead of time.

DONT.SPEND.REAL.MONEY.ON.RNG.STUFF

Simple as that.
Company that does this kind of stuff, doesn’t deserve my or anyone else’s money.

I’m totally ok with perma tools (I’ve bought all three of them) and things you are sure you’ll get your money’s worth by buying them.

This RNG policy is getting out of control, and it only makes working for something in the game worthless and i really can’t see how can this end well.

I’d like to dedicate part of a song by Archive to anyone who thought this would be fun/good for the community:

There’s a space kept in hell with your name on the seat
With a spike in the chair just to make it complete

Nightingale.9714:

RNG on in-game stuff is one thing but we’re talking about REAL money here! I mean if there’s any ONE place in the game that anet should strive to make people feel satisfied its the frieking in-game purchases! We’re supporting your game, can’t you make this fair to us anet? The fact that the first reply to this thread is someone who has already been through this should SAY something.

I know. I was more upset when the trading post listing and sell fees were hidden during beta and for a short while after launch. That was pretty unethical, in my not so humble opinion

The problem is that key buyers will get burned once, then come to the forums and learn about it.. Fuming mad.. And rightly so. When they go back and buy more, well… that said, in this case, there were a lot of statements made by the company which suggested the success rate would be much higher. Even putting these skins “on sale” has only brought the estimated value of them down to a ridiculous real dollar price, not an insane one.

I filed a support ticket, asking to be in on any list of people affected if this turns out to be a bug. Nice and friendly, no angry words.. People of any support will always be more helpful when you approach the problem in a friendly way, regardless of the hue of purple your (or my) face is, at that moment.

Farm keys from storyline, I suppose is the best advice I can give.

Tom Gore.4035:

Julie Yann.5379:

This is why I don’t buy keys. Why the F would anyone pay real cash for a small chance of maybe getting something shiny? I just can’t figure out the thought process behind that.

How about paying cash to support the MMO you like? Granted I’m not saying everyone should chuck 60 bucks on RNG, but 10 bucks a month or something doesn’t seem so bad to me.

I’d rather spend it on “sure thing” like the infinite tools or similar and not RNG, though.

I’m the same way. I’ll pay c ash for extra banks slots, character slots, limitless harvesting tools, cool skins, or the odd make over kit to support the MMO I enjoy. Not some stupid RNG item that has horrible odds of getting the item you want. I guess gambler will be gamblers.

Never invest in RNG. “House always wins”

Don’t pay for anet’s bad design.

Yeah Anet can go kitten themselves on this one

Someone in my guild has been buying in batches of 10 and getting literally 8 scraps and a claim ticket each time has made hundreds of gold so far. I got excited bought 20$ worth of of gems opened up all of them I DIDNT EVEN GET ONE kittenING SCRAP NOT EVEN A SCRAP I GOT BOOSTERS

kitten THAT

For some reason i have this… weird feeling, that it’s actually NCSoft pricing gem store and not ANet.

I honestly can’t believe they tried this again after the HUGE mess the Halloween event made.

Honestly at this point most people should know better, if we stop buying keys and chest – they will stop making them and maybe do oh I DON’T know…

Add a quest line in game to obtain a single ticket to turn in for a single weapon skins…WHAT a novel idea…

-rolls eyes and rolls away-

Thaiseeran.9243:

For some reason i have this… weird feeling, that it’s actually NCSoft pricing gem store and not ANet.

Probably because the GW2 monetization manager is the same guy who made the Maplestory many of the cash shop items.

Nightingale.9714:

RNG on in-game stuff is one thing but we’re talking about REAL money here!

You see, the problem with that is you knew before hand it was RNG. Yes it’s RL money and the fact that you decided it was worth the risk to buy gems and spend them that way. Your choice. There are lots of other things you can buy with gems that aren’t RNG. Stick to those.

Well…you should have realized that the quickest route that avoids RNG is ALWAYS the best route in an ANet game. That means: RM > Gems > Gold > TP. Why you would expect RM > Gems > RNG to give you a better return is beyond me. They are KNOWN for RNG RNG RNG RNG.

tl;dr: don’t waste RM on RNG; ALWAYS choose the RM > Gold option if possible.

Whether or not the OP should have known better (which now you do). I agree that the one thing that ANET should make feel worthwhile is purchases with Gems.

After all Gem purchases with Cash are the thing that ANet is counting on to keep them afloat. As it stands there is very little in the gem store that isn’t better purchased with gold. That’s stupid.

Gem purchases should be a comparable way to get those items. If something sells for 40g on the TP it should cost about 1700 gems to get it through the gem store.

However, the simple fact is that you are ALWAYS better off trading gems to gold and buying off the TP.

Tom Gore.4035:

Julie Yann.5379:

This is why I don’t buy keys. Why the F would anyone pay real cash for a small chance of maybe getting something shiny? I just can’t figure out the thought process behind that.

How about paying cash to support the MMO you like? Granted I’m not saying everyone should chuck 60 bucks on RNG, but 10 bucks a month or something doesn’t seem so bad to me.

I’d rather spend it on “sure thing” like the infinite tools or similar and not RNG, though.

Anet is supported as soon as you buy the gems, the problem is when they give you practically nothing back for those gems. If I liked this set of skins i’d tap into my cash purchased 2400 gems(currently) but with bad rng and me not asthetically liking them i’m going to sit this patch out. Hopefully they put out a perma mining tool triple pack or some nice skins for direct purchase next time.

Another “I spent my money knowing full well I wasn’t guaranteed the item but I am still mad at you Anet!” thread huh?

It I will never fully understand this reaction. I could see if you were totally dupped and unaware. But going in knowing you are not promised the item…then raging about it?

Anet has stated the skins from now will no longer be account/soul bound, or something to that effect. Take this as a learn from your mistakes lesson and convert to gold next time.

Solo.9027:

Tom Gore.4035:

Julie Yann.5379:

This is why I don’t buy keys. Why the F would anyone pay real cash for a small chance of maybe getting something shiny? I just can’t figure out the thought process behind that.

How about paying cash to support the MMO you like? Granted I’m not saying everyone should chuck 60 bucks on RNG, but 10 bucks a month or something doesn’t seem so bad to me.

I’d rather spend it on “sure thing” like the infinite tools or similar and not RNG, though.

Anet is supported as soon as you buy the gems, the problem is when they give you practically nothing back for those gems. If I liked this set of skins i’d tap into my cash purchased 2400 gems(currently) but with bad rng and me not asthetically liking them i’m going to sit this patch out. Hopefully they put out a perma mining tool triple pack or some nice skins for direct purchase next time.

It is your choice to gamble away those gems or not. You obviously made the wise choice (you could have bought a skin off the TP with those gems if you liked), some people did not.

It’s threads like this that make me think people should spend more time in RL and less time on the internet.

So hopefully your thread can be a signpost for everyone to learn something, although there are many threads like this already. The consensus seems to be: the people who are willing to spend real money on gems fall into two categories.

There are those who are comfortable spending those gems on a random chance at an item, and those who simply require a promised result from those gems.

My (unsolicited) advice to anyone is: before you spend any gems, you think long and hard about into which category you belong. If you spend all of your gems and get “nothing” back, is the fact that you supported the company reward enough for you, or is it insufficient? That should guide you on how to best spend your gems.

As an aside, it may also be worth reflecting on this (obvious) property of randomness: if I toss a coin into the air twice, am I promised that it will land on heads at least once? Of course not. If I roll a 6 sided die 6 times, am I promised that it will show a 6 at least once? Of course not. Is there any reasonable number of Black Lion Chests that will promise me the item that I really want (obviously another crafting booster)? I suspect the number that virtually promises the desired payout will not reflect your definition of reasonable, given the direction of the thread.

Nightingale.9714:

If you people at ANET are trying to tell me not to buy black lion keys

Whether they are or not, this is exactly what you should take away from this: don’t buy Black Lion keys. They aren’t worth anywhere near what you pay for them.