Guild Wars 2

And this is why i quit atlantica, blatant cash grabs by using gambling tactics on pay to w in or in this case pay to vanity items that everyone want’s, shame on you arena net, at this rate we will have a new skin each week like atlantica had a new mount each week, a 1% chance of obtaining the item you want.

Well I hope this new method does not include tonics because I threw away mine as useless (no attack) to save bank space.

i have a feeling a lot of ppl threw away there stuff because quite frankly it was a joke.
i cannot fathom the reason anet didnt like mentioned before make everything in the chests halloween themed, that is what it sounded like when they made the announcement. given that it gives the same rubbish as before it just feels broken.

for ppl who keep complaining that people are whining, you really should try look at the bigger picture which is what most of the people are saying instead of just deciding what you think people are complaining about.

most of us are not complaining that we didnt get something, we are complaining about the way it was handled which is beyond shocking for any company if i was in charge of it id be hurling myself out a building or telling people i was drunk when i came up with the idea.

and anyway anet said they are looking at changing it so lets just see what they come up with, im very curious to see quite honestly

The weapons you get from Black Lion Chests can be used over and over, as many times you want. There should be a weapon that you can use once and use transmutation stones the next times you use it. The current three weapons you can get with candy corn only last for 4 hours… that’s just stupid.

Feedback to ArenaNet

Rare Halloween Weapons – Infinite uses (Drops from Black Lion Chests)

Uncommon Halloween Weapons – One use only.transmutation stone needed after first use (Drops from Black Lion Chests, Craftable)

Common Halloween Weapons – Last for 24 hours (Bought with candy corn)

They can’t turn back the clock.
At least they are doing something about it, and it’s just been a day.

Of course some people will feel left out because they destroyed all in the chests.
While others will be angry they bought their skins in game for gold.
Those that said the buyers knew what they were in for, should now also realise the ones buying the skins for gold knew what they were in for…

But personally I feel sorry for those inevitable ones who will be left out in any proposed solution. There will be some, always.

One thing strikes me as funny though: the same people who been defending Anet through all of this are now popping up to say how they resent Anet for giving in?
Bit odd…

As I said before: this is not about who is right or who is wrong.
It’s about doing bad business if something (legit or not) disapoints your best paying customers, those willing to spend extra cash in the shop.

Anet took only one day before reacting and announcing the outlines of a solution.
I give them credit for that.
Maybe they do it out of sincere regret they messed up, maybe they just do it because they are worried for future sales.
Either way: they are reacting and seem to take steps in setting as much right as they can.

That’s about all they can do, since the damage is done.
Reacting only a day after the ‘BLC affair’ is pretty decent in timing.

Now let’s see what the details of the solution will be.

the real question is, how can they restore our faith in them?

ReginaBuenaobra.6953:

Hey, everyone. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the team has taken on board your feedback and concerns.

We’d recommend not throwing away or selling the items you’ve been receiving in the Black Lion Chests, as we’ll be providing ways in which those items can be used to obtain Halloween-related items…

We’ll have further updates when they become available.

Thank you again for all your feedback.

Can you please at least confirm it won’t need the tonics?
In normal habit I just deleted them, without realizing they could be (possibly?) used for the costume brawl (only tried it after doing everything else). I though that was going to be like the original one, with the instanced free for all like it was in GW1.

Can the weapon skins really be used multiple times?

If thats true doesn’t it change the mechanic somewhat (“buy” the skin, use it, resell it for the same price, transmute the copy for yourself forever more)

I Thank your team for discussing this over. I plan on spending another xx$ on things i would have bought had the chest thing been even remotely accessible. So yeah ill wait for the changes for whatever your doing then ill see if its still going to be a game i continue to pay for/play for. If you guys do chest thing well , ill happily buy the witch costume/minis like i originally intended on the first

Ooh I hope they use Mystery Tonics as a temporary currency for buying the weapon skins from the Halloween vendor! I have almost 200…but burnt $50 acquiring them. I’d feel good about that solution though. Sorry to hear of others that deleted their items.

I don’t understand where it says we only have a small chance to receive these Halloween themed items. The only thing I saw when I opened the gem store was the attached picture. It says nothing about a small chance or 1/10,000,000,000 odds to getting it. The picture clearly implies that they replaced the items in the chest with Halloween themed ones. It is pretty obvious why people feel misled.

It doesn’t say : “Have a very very small chance to discover the secrets of the black lion chest”

It says: “Discover the secrets of the BL chest”, with a picture that clearly implies the BL chest contains there unique weapon skins. Clicking on the picture takes you to the page to buy the keys. never anywhere did it say there was a small chance or it was a gamble. The expectation given was that you “discovered the secret” by opening a chest and you got some of the items advertised.

Man I’ll be kitten if it’s the mysterious tonics, I threw those out on reflex :/

Bloodthirsty.9604:

the real question is, how can they restore our faith in them?

Faith? What faith?
If you learned something from this event and Anet attitude, next event (Christmas etc) you will use JUST what you dropped (keys, gems bough just with ingame gold) and keep your credit card inside your pocket and the childish desire of stupid things (noone around of you care of your halloween weapon/armor no more than a couple minutes) under control, and get what you can. What you didn’t got, amen. After all, are you truly planning to use halloween armor skin or halloween themed weapons during christmas?
Enjoy your childish pleasure, i’ll go around with a Santa’s sword, using inworld currency farming a DE

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

What you didn’t got, amen. After all, are you truly planning to use halloween armor skin or halloween themed weapons during christmas?

I’ll be bringing a giant smoke spewing chainsaw to the winter elves

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Bloodthirsty.9604:

the real question is, how can they restore our faith in them?

Faith? What faith?
If you learned something from this event and Anet attitude, next event (Christmas etc) you will use JUST what you dropped (keys, gems bough just with ingame gold) and keep your credit card inside your pocket and the childish desire of stupid things (noone around of you care of your halloween weapon/armor no more than a couple minutes) under control, and get what you can. What you didn’t got, amen. After all, are you truly planning to use halloween armor skin or halloween themed weapons during christmas?
Enjoy your childish pleasure, i’ll go around with a Santa’s sword, using inworld currency farming a DE

You do understand that Anet really, really has to restore our faith in them? We are the paying customers, the ones who will continue to support the game beyond the initial purchase. Without faith in Anet, no one is gonna spend money. Which is a problem for all the players? Why is it so hard to see that?

Ryuujin.8236:

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

What you didn’t got, amen. After all, are you truly planning to use halloween armor skin or halloween themed weapons during christmas?

I’ll be bringing a giant smoke spewing chainsaw to the winter elves

My Santa’s sword will be cooler, and the mechanism of your chainsaw will not work, too much cold

I love how all these awesome new costumes and items to get in the spirit of halloween are mostly obtained with gems. The Black Lion Chest scam was genius. I spent $70 on keys and not a single kitten weapon skin. I guess I should have known better. Crafty capitalists. It’s almost as bad as when they announced the perma versions of those 3 items added to Black Lion Chests. That is the LAST time I fall for their gimmicks and dump money on those chests. What a sick money grab. Guess it worked out for them.

@buzzapow
Why, are you seriously planning, after this experience, to waste again money with your credit card? Hahahaha
You will support more than enough buying the next expansion

When I first bought a skin I also didnt notice any info that the skin I buy is one time use only and that it makes only sense to use it with level 80…instead of level 10….
This was the first time I thought…wow…nice rip-off…

But this…wow…. I will not use any words that might get me banned here….

I know for sure that I will not spend another single $ on this product until they
will make clear what I will get in detail for real money.

Any other shop…..look at amazon for example…must clearly state what you get for your $. I think Anet is using a legal grey area with those somewhat vague terms and veiled descriptions….and I have seen this bevaviour only on adult sites so far…

I also hope they don’t use tonics for that as I always delete or spam-use them as well directly after opening the chests because I find them utterly useless and just clogging my inventory.

If I have opened a lot of chests, I’d already be out of tonics.
For the sake of people who actually opened a lot of chests (I haven’t myself), ANet please look into this because there is definietly quite a bunch of people doing exactly the same, as i can see in this thread.

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Bloodthirsty.9604:

the real question is, how can they restore our faith in them?

Faith? What faith?
If you learned something from this event and Anet attitude, next event (Christmas etc) you will use JUST what you dropped (keys, gems bough just with ingame gold) and keep your credit card inside your pocket and the childish desire of stupid things (noone around of you care of your halloween weapon/armor no more than a couple minutes) under control, and get what you can. What you didn’t got, amen. After all, are you truly planning to use halloween armor skin or halloween themed weapons during christmas?
Enjoy your childish pleasure, i’ll go around with a Santa’s sword, using inworld currency farming a DE

First of all Lucas, are you aware of the fact that games you buy for ing-gold have to first be bought by some other player for real money?
If, as you suggest, everyone indeed stops buying gems for real money, there will be no gems to be bought in-game.
The problem here is that the people who were most likely to spend big real bucks have done so this event and are mostly very unhappy about the outcome and many of them are unlikely to spend big again.

Also, who are you to tell people how are they to enjoy their free time, proceed with their money or hobby?
Personally: yes, if a Halloween skin fit my RP desires for the night, I’d use my Halloween skin during Christmas, because I want to.

salutations from a guy who spent 35g+ opening about 40-50 chests and gettin nothing halloween related. i dont feel bad tho!
all the more reason to get em back

Posting this here because my thread got locked:

Spent $2500 didn’t even get a potion.

Let me start by stating the title was an a lie, not because it was an exaggeration, but because I used other means of getting the same item. That means was not told at first, the patch notes states:

“Personalized Trick-or-Treat Bags can be found in the Consumable section of the Gem Store for 100 gems apiece, 375 gems for a pack of 5, or 2,000 gems for a pack of 35.”
Also note how it says 2000 gems there, we’ll get back to that later.

A personalized trick or treat bag is 750 gems for 35 on the AH. And for $50 you get 4000 gems. That is 185 bags.

I just bought 10000 bags trying to get an endless tonic, guess what I got, nothing. That was the equivalent of 212000 gems or $2500.

There is two huge issues with the current way to get Halloween items, the first is RNG and the second is the price of the gem store. The RNG has been with us from the start in the Mystic Forge and Black lion chests but the fact that keep the % chance of items dropping secret is the worst part.

The second issue I have is that increase of price of the items you are making available to people. As stated earlier, the patch notes were almost double what the in game value was so at some point in time it was discussed that they wanted to charge us $25+ for 35 trick or treat bags. I also spent 100 gold on black lion keys, opened around 200 chests and got 1 skin and 4 shoulders. Even that 100 gold alone is 10000 gems or $120 and this is with the market at it’s worst yet, only a few weeks ago did I get 16000 gems for 50 gold.

All that is happening at the moment is they are causing the prices of gems to skyrocket and the price of gold to be worthless as you can not use it for any of the event’s. This needs to stop, people need to be able to buy what they want off the gem store for a reasonable amount not have to gamble it all with an unspecified chance of success.

People seemed to thing that I was angry that I lost money, that isn’t the issue for me as I have a lot of it, I am more having issues with the direction the game is going where over half of the new items implemented are using a RNG system on a cash shop.

Attached is a screenshot of me wasting $50 on some bags that netted me around 50 silver of items.

Honestly, I think the worst part of what’s transpired so far is the misanthropy from our fellow gamers and consumers. I’m reminded of the defense of other game companies that have made mistakes and garnered customer complaints. Now, some of those companies made far bigger errors (Bioware’s handling of ME3’s DLC/ending come to mind), but in that case, I think any reasonable person would say that there is literally nothing to gain by simply dismissing what a sizable portion of your consumer base is telling you. As long as our thoughts and feedback are constructive, I do not see any good reason to be derisive or immature in response.

If you do not agree with what has been said by those who have complaints, then by all means, state it as such. To insult those people directly, or to try and stereotype them as being an easily dismissed demographic may be how it works with some changes, but not when these are people who are putting money directly into the game. As a comparison, back when they changed aspects of the Guardian’s greatsword skills, there were some people who went to such great lengths to say that they would not play anymore, or that this killed their game experience. In that instance, I feel those complaints may have been warranted, but the length at which they were taken was a bit absurd.

In this instance, however, we are talking about people who are directly paying into a matter of the game that they will not pay into again. To say that those people are idiots is not productive in any way, nor is it going to help anyone. As I’ve stated several times in this and other threads, we all want ArenaNet to be profitable and successful. Part of that process is understanding when a function that is directly related to income and profit is seen by those who have participated as something that needs to change. This is not a matter of asking for free items, or gambling, or anything of that nature. This is a matter of several customers feeling unsatisfied, and that is something that other customers have no real say in. You cannot dismiss that, regardless of how snide your remarks are, and you cannot say that it does not matter, because these are people who are, again, putting money into ArenaNet’s pockets. ArenaNet is the one who decides how to proceed, and they will hopefully proceed in a direction that will generate more income for them, instead of one that will satisfy the misanthropic few who continue to attempt to derail this thread with personal attacks and broad generalizations.

I haven’t opened any chests, I was waiting for the kittentorm of tears to hit and for the bugs to be flushed out before I blew my load of keys.

To everyone who is upset or disillusioned after wasting lots of money on keys and getting nothing for it:

Let the company know how you feel by not opening your wallet the next time. Stop buying anything that requires you to gamble. Encourage others to do the same. Don’t buy black lion keys. Don’t buy mini-pets packs. Don’t buy dye packs. Don’t buy boxes of fun. Don’t buy ANYTHING that doesn’t provide you with a specific item that you know up front exactly what it is.

Tell your horror story to anyone who will listen. Let people know how gambling in the gem store cost you, and how much it cost you. Tell them you are telling your story in order to save them from the same scam.

DO buy things that you feel give you value. Buy bank expansions and character slots, and if you like them, costume items. If you think they are worth it, buy boosters, but ONLY if you know exactly what boosters you will be getting.

Let Arena Net know what you like in the gem store and what you don’t like in the gem store by buying the things you like and not buying the things that are a rip off. Let them know by using your wallet that you WILL spend money, but ONLY if you can get value for it.

That is what I am doing, and I am writing this to encourage anyone who will listen to do the same.

To Arena Net: I am happy to spend real money to support you, IF I can get value for my money. I have a good job, and make good money, and have already spent money on gems, and will probably continue to do so. If you were to offer those skins directly for gems, at a price of say, about the same as a full costume, I’d buy one or two of them. They could even be account bound, leaving the ones gotten by gambling as tradeable, so those that want to gamble still have a reason to do so. I bet you’d sell a lot of them. In fact, I bet you’d make more money than you have selling black lion keys. How many of those people that spent tons of money on keys and got nothing do you think will keep doing that in the future? How much of a long term business strategy do you think that is? Maybe I’m wrong, and there is much more money to be made by pretending to be a casino than there is by offering value, but you’ll never get MY money that way. Sure, I’ve spent money, and I’ll probably spend more, but rest assured, I’ll never spend it on what is essentially gambling, especially when I don’t know the odds.

The amount of sillyness in this entire threat is amazing. Is the range you can obtain these skins too much? Probably! Are you are ALL suprised given the range on anything else in this game? I certainly am not. Would I have wasted more than $25 for a chance at these skins? Most certainly not. This is as silly as the guy who got 4000 exoctics and no pre-cursor. Buy the skins, or buy the pre-cursor if you don’t want to take risks, otherwise enjoy the other aspects of the Halloween event or the entire game. Do not however whine and complain about things to a point that they need to waste time handing petty customer service complaints.

After sleeping on it and thinking it over, this incident really leaves a bad taste in my mouth. For me personally I gambled and lost, I don’t need any items in return, I also don’t need money back. Personal responsibility and all that. No skins, theme items, no trading them in the Mystic Forge for items/tokens, Anet can keep their stuff. I accepted the fact that my image of Anet and this event was wrong and that.. well that hurt.

Let’s hope for the best until Christmas, but mystery presents will really be a bad idea.

ANet has got to understand that a delayed response via Forums and Twitter is not a good way to get the word out to people. I opened just over 100 chests, and this filled my characters inventory with mostly junk.

Depending on what items they decide are going to be “trade-ins” my lack of following them on Twitter (which I refuse to even look at on general principle) FaceBook (has there ever been a more Evil data grab in history) or anywhere else except the actual game or official forums is going to cost me a lot of money. The correct method would have been an in game pop-up notification when you went to open a chest, but even that would have probably been too late.

I might be one of the lucky ones. I kept the tonics since they stack. I have an entire row of my bank for the boosters, and I do not use any of them except the crafting ones in general. I keep and use the salvage kits… but I dang sure delete the BL gathering tools. They do not stack, so all they do is fill inventory. They are not worth carrying around because of the few uses and the fact that top tier tools are fairly cheap. And worst of all they are not even account bound, they are soulbound. So I dumped all the ones I had from before the event, and the ones I got from the event.

I am not complaining over all. I did get two dagger skins and three shoulder skins, and I knew it was gambling. I had just assumed from all the hype that the odds were much higher. Guess that is what I get for buying all the keys and unlocking all the chests before actually opening the first few. I should have done them in sets of 5 (like the keys are purchased), and then I probably would have stopped when I hit 15 and still had nothing to show for it.

I walk into a shop with £1 in my pocket, I might spend it on a scratch card and get lucky. I’m not going to go to the bank, get out £100 and blow that on scratch cards. For 2 reasons.

1) I don’t have a gambling problem and realize that the house always wins no matter how much cash you throw at a jackpot. I do enjoy the odd flutter however and if it comes good then all the better (responsibility of user).

2) I know the odds of scratch cards and know that £100 worth does not increase my chances enough to be worth buying £100 over £1, and I would be throwing money away. (responsibility of company you are purchasing from to inform you of the odds of winning)

So, I would say everyone has played a part. ANet should have really given people an idea of the odds, or at least made the cost / reward stack up. And I can’t understand how people have spent hundreds of £/$ keep opening chests hoping for a weapon skin without giving up.

I’ve spend around $50 on gems thus far (not on keys) and I’m sorry to say that this incident has put me off ever buying any in future.

I can’t do so in confidence any longer knowing ArenaNet finds it acceptable to pull this sort of thing on their customers, and that it took 23 pages of complaints for them to cave and fix the mistake caused by sheer greed.

I was all excited for this event since halloween is my favorite holiday and i liked what was done in gw1 with it. I bought the costumes (although i was miffed that the witches hat is town clothes only when i wore a witches hat on my necro all the time in gw1), thought i would open 80 black lion chests for the scythe skin. lo and behold no chance. Then i figured oh i’ll just buy it from the trading post ( on my realm 22 gold a piece). Like any average player has that kind of money. I went into this with high hopes but now just feel cheated by a company that is supposed to care about its player base. I logged off upset and like a lot of others dont feel like logging in again until the event is over. Never again will I pay arenanet a single dime.

Wonder when the new change goes in (for the use of BL items to get halloween items)?, i have no bank space left and it’s a hassle to have to log into my other charcater to access all the stuff i had to move around to make room.

Hopefully it’s not to long.

Yeah, I intend to buy the witch’s outfit, the mad king outfit, the phantom’s hood, and the spooky trio minis. That’s all, and I’ll gladly put my money down to get these.

As for the RNG BS… whatever.
My footing remains firm. The weapon skins should have been obtainable through a token system, rewarding you for participation, while the BL chests shouldn’t have been involved. A Halloween specific chest with spooky themed goodies would have sufficed.

When I was a child, there was a big box at the front of the TG&Y that had paper bags neatly stapled and labeled “grab bag 10 cents”. My parents would never let me buy one, telling me: That is just cheap junk the store wants to get rid of.

Once, in a moment of weakness, my father let me put down my hard earned dime (I had to do chores for my allowance of 25 cents a week) and I gleefully pulled out a bag. I opened it excitedly, and found….a grey hair-net.

I feel the same way about the Black Lion Chests when one drops off a mob. Pieces of junk that are not worth my dime.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I don’t understand where it says we only have a small chance to receive these Halloween themed items. The only thing I saw when I opened the gem store was the attached picture. It says nothing about a small chance or 1/10,000,000,000 odds to getting it. The picture clearly implies that they replaced the items in the chest with Halloween themed ones. It is pretty obvious why people feel misled.

It doesn’t say : “Have a very very small chance to discover the secrets of the black lion chest”

It says: “Discover the secrets of the BL chest”, with a picture that clearly implies the BL chest contains there unique weapon skins. Clicking on the picture takes you to the page to buy the keys. never anywhere did it say there was a small chance or it was a gamble. The expectation given was that you “discovered the secret” by opening a chest and you got some of the items advertised.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

I don’t understand where it says we only have a small chance to receive these Halloween themed items. The only thing I saw when I opened the gem store was the attached picture. It says nothing about a small chance or 1/10,000,000,000 odds to getting it. The picture clearly implies that they replaced the items in the chest with Halloween themed ones. It is pretty obvious why people feel misled.

It doesn’t say : “Have a very very small chance to discover the secrets of the black lion chest”

It says: “Discover the secrets of the BL chest”, with a picture that clearly implies the BL chest contains there unique weapon skins. Clicking on the picture takes you to the page to buy the keys. never anywhere did it say there was a small chance or it was a gamble. The expectation given was that you “discovered the secret” by opening a chest and you got some of the items advertised.

+1

From the sounds of things, on this thread, I think a more intelligent use of my money would be to purchase lottery tickets, instead of gems for BL keys, to open chests for Halloween items. At least my odds of winning would be far greater.

They have already responded to this that they are working on a fix. I know it’s a huge hot button topic, but we might want to give it a rest till they tell us what they have in mind to remedy this problem.

I for one had 18 chests, opened them all with 3 sets of keys. Got no Halloween specific items, but don’t feel ‘robbed’ as I knew the chances of getting ‘winning’ one of the skins was highly unlikely but felt like giving it a try anyway (as the way I see it the real money I spent on keys in the end equates to what I could have spent on a monthly subscription to another MMO, and at worst I am contributing to the further success of Anet and GW2 which I am enjoying).

Constructive feedback:

The feedback I can give is the understandable feeling some have gotten from the fact that the Chests are not a given (heck friend of mine’s guild pooled 500 chests and only pulled 2 skins). As a multi prize lottery structure (which is what the chests really are) nobody advertizes you have a 1-10 chance of a free play as the major marketing ploy, no they push the grand prize up front and center . With the dynamic structure that Anet has with the chests (can turn up/down the reward rates), published specific chances don’t make sense, a little " *these items/skins are extremely rare and you a very limited chance of randomly getting one/any of these items. " could have saved a bit of face for some users, so instead of player ‘x’ feeling robbed by not getting a weapon skin from # of chests (and understandably no matter what, there will always be those who even with standard lotteries are incensed they did not win, even with published 1-10 Billion odds or such, the ‘I bought a ticket I should have won’ response).

At any rate, some type of message around the Black Lion Chest system being a type of ‘lottery’ would be a good move especially given that GW2 has such a diverse population of players that your chances of success may vary and that no specific rewards are guaranteed.

I didn’t read all of this, but here’s my 2 cents.

I own two small businesses, I’m pretty kitten good at it and I personally love ANet and the game…

But…

This was a really dumb idea, I’ll explain.

The cash shop is an important income stream for the company, therefore the goal of the team devising it is to get people to USE it.

They initially did a great job with this as a lot of people bought gems to get keys to get loot. The problem simply was that people didn’t feel they revieved a proper Return on Investment (ROI) for the cash that they spent. This was the failure of the team plain and simple, whoever did this made a HUGE future business impacting mistake and really should be disciplined for it. I would if it was my employee. The problem isn’t how much money they did/didn’t make, it’s the faith that they lost for it. There are MANY people that will now never use the cash shop. An exact contridition of what they SHOULD be accomplishing.

They need to do something to earn back those peoples’ trust (if they can). This will entail something like: Return of gems used for keys since the event started (yes I realise that people will get free stuff). Anything short of this will have reprecussions. People will have destroyed/used items, etc…

I will say I have nothing to gain from this as I waited to buy gems and didn’t after I heard of what was going on.

EDIT: It is a very hard balance to make btw between making the highest profit possible while still keeping your customers very happy. They weren’t even CLOSE.

Has there been any response to the problem?

Dungin.2983:

Oreoz.2573:

Wanna know something ironic?

I lost 30 bucks. You can see me throughout the first 10 pages of this thread putting in my two cents about it.

So I farmed candy corn. For hours.

Guess what.

I’m now the proud owner of the ghastly grinning shield.

:)

^ this. pretty much. Chests were not meant to be the only thing in this event; they were focal because they require no effort other than purchasing a key. (or some cheap chests off of the TP) So I don’t know, people wanted something for nothing (or rather cash for instant gratification) and lost. I don’t believe that Anet handled this great, but let’s be honest if you spent $100’s on this, you have to take some responsibility!

WAIT! WHAT?

Can you obtain these skins through means other than BL Chests?

Someone please clarify!

Thanks!

Bloodthirsty.9604:

Has there been any response to the problem?

From earlier in this thread, from Regina…

“Hey, everyone. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the team has taken on board your feedback and concerns.

We’d recommend not throwing away or selling the items you’ve been receiving in the Black Lion Chests, as we’ll be providing ways in which those items can be used to obtain Halloween-related items…

We’ll have further updates when they become available.

Thank you again for all your feedback."

munkiman.3068:

Bloodthirsty.9604:

Has there been any response to the problem?

From earlier in this thread, from Regina…

“Hey, everyone. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the team has taken on board your feedback and concerns.

We’d recommend not throwing away or selling the items you’ve been receiving in the Black Lion Chests, as we’ll be providing ways in which those items can be used to obtain Halloween-related items…

We’ll have further updates when they become available.

Thank you again for all your feedback."

And now people will whine because they threw away those useless tonics lmao

I guess we should know by now chests are a lottery. Pay real money for a chance at something, no thanks.

Although I guess Anet is making some nice bank on this scam.

Dear Regina and others at ArenaNet,

Let me first say that I love this game and admire your resolve to tackle new ideas and make this game better at each update. I am not going to rage on this issue, but instead provide a suggestion for how to address this for future holiday events.

I think the major issue here is that the way that the rare items were rewarded here were tied to both chance AND real-world currency. In the past I have read in the GW2 blog that the gem system was going to allow ppl with disposable income a way to short-cut through the grind of getting that rare item. On the other hand, those who don’t want to spend the money on gems can just invest game time and eventually have a path to achieve the same rare item.

In this instance, ppl with disposable income only had a chance to purchase the rare item. And although it was stated that this was a chance, nobody knew what that chance was and so they spent alot of money for nothing.

My proposal:
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1.) Rare holiday skins should be straight up purchased from BLTC. I’d advise researching price points and would direct your research to LOTRO’s model as I always felt it was “reasonable”. Something like $9.95 for a single skin makes sense to me as that was what costumes costed in GW1

2.) If you desire to keep the randomness approach, I would suggest going the same route as purchasing mini-pets from BLTC. Basically someone can buy a bag that contains a random skin. If it’s not the one they want, then they can sell it to someone who wants it and take that profit to buy the skin you actually do want.

3.) To keep with the theme that if you don’t have disposable income there is still a path to get that item… Make these rare skins random drops from dungeon chests or even monster drops. A drop rate of 2% on dungeon chests and 0.1% on monster drops is feasible to me. It reminds me of the mini-polar bear in GW1. People were running the snowman dungeon for ages just to get that thing and I think it would apply here as well.

To me, this is the only system that makes sense. People who want to buy cosmetic items should be spending much more than $10 to get want the want. And for those who want to earn it in game… Play the game! When that rare item just drops in your lap there are very few things in this world that can match that level of excitement

Anyways, I hope you will consider this idea for future holidays like Christmas.

Thank You,
Terrell

See now, here’s the thing that a lot of people are missing or are saying that it should be expected of lottery style items like the BLC. This is for halloween, a holiday that people celebrate and typically revolve around fun and festivities.

Anet took that fun and cashed in on it by stashing all these cool novelty items in chests with incredibly low drop rates. This is what has people chuffed. You could spend hundreds and not get a single holiday related item. I have no problem spending money on novelty items like this, I have in other games, and a lot at that.

The problem with Anet’s take on this is that they essentially are making you gamble if you want these items. Instead of making them a purchased item and actually letting people buy what they want, they’re trying to cash in on the fact that people want these items and that they need to beat the odds just to get one.

The whole situation stinks and I’m glad they’re making a change. It should serve as a lesson to Anet for what they pulled and also for future buyers. There’s a reason why those chests aren’t worth squat on the trading post, because that’s their actual value. I hope next holiday Anet doesn’t try capitalize so much on their players willingness to try get in on the holiday spirit. That sort of mentality is what loses you return customers.

I am going to repost this video article again so that those on both sides of the fence can learn something from it. Times have changed and with it the method of the way consumers have to deal with these changes.

Understand that whining and crying IS more effective than boycotting, denying them money in the video game industry where people buy garbage and eat it up like it was the next best thing since sliced bread.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6187-Why-Boycotts-Fail-Where-Whining-Tantrums-Win

This however has no bearings on how I feel about the entire event.

Grim Faust.6349:

I love how all these awesome new costumes and items to get in the spirit of halloween are mostly obtained with gems. The Black Lion Chest scam was genius. I spent $70 on keys and not a single kitten weapon skin. I guess I should have known better. Crafty capitalists. It’s almost as bad as when they announced the perma versions of those 3 items added to Black Lion Chests. That is the LAST time I fall for their gimmicks and dump money on those chests. What a sick money grab. Guess it worked out for them.

Thanks for reminding me about the perma versions of those 3 items added to Black Lion Chests. Has anyone gotten one of them? I think I will not be buying Gems for Keys until I get drop rates for items in the Chests. That simply I hope others request drop rates. Remember we now the odds when it comes to Casinos games. Why they heck does ANet not give out the odds of items from the Chests.