Guild Wars 2

aliquis.9180:

NinjaKnight.1340:

@aliquis
if you read my thread of discussion I was using Roulette as a simple example for calculation purposes of house odds.

You are correct that in small samples some people will get nothing. If I place one bet on Red in roulette there is a 59.5% chance I will get nothing and a 40.5% chance I will double my money. IfI were to do this 100 times I would likely get near 81% return.

What you are talking about is more in the realm of lottery where you buy a $1 lottery ticket and have a very small chance of winning $1 million+ and they sprinkle smaller winnings in between so that people are motivated to keep buying.

The Chests are nothing like that because we know there is no gigantic jackpot. The most sought after item ATM is the Chainsaw and it goes for around 50G last I checked. Furthermore, it becomes soulbound once used =/= RL money or assets which can be resold.

Hopefully that clarifies my point.

The chests are very much like the lottery because there are only jackpots and consolation prizes. Nothing in between. So it is absurd and irresponsible to suggest to people that they should expect an 80% return.

no they should expect much more than 100% return long run. ie if you buy 5 keys sure there is a chance that you get nothing. But people have bought 50+ keys and got nothing they want. Most people don’t have more than $10 $20 to spend on a game which doesn’t get you many keys.

Furthermore this is a virtual game. IRL the casino has to make money because they are gambling with real money. Here, it is just a skin or other virtual item they can manufacture ad infinitum at no incremental cost other than the original graphics artists work.

Most MMOs I know of that use gambling have better odds and the rare items and the common items received are tradable.

I don’t actually like any of the skins, so I’m not interested in them. HOWEVER, I am not a gambler, and if ANet is going to make everything that is good (legendaries, holiday event items, etc) a gamble, well, you can just count me out. I’m not interested in 1/100 chances or worse. One in 5 or MAYBE one in 10 will have my attention.

I bought some keys this event, and I’m almost certain I won’t do it next time.

@Erebus
I think the problem is not Anet a US company, but the company they contracted to manage the cash shop Nexon a Korean company with a completely different philosophy. Look up Nexon in the urban dictionary, I was amused to find they have such a bad rep it has become an English language word.

I got two keys from in game events, both i used and got two skins
One handed Chain Sword
Avian Shoulders (Heavy)

Bought 20 Keys from the Cash shop, got no skins at all.

Make of that what you will, its all chance i’m not bothered at all, i like the other items i get.

Dante.1508:

I got two keys from in game events, both i used and got two skins
One handed Chain Sword
Avian Shoulders (Heavy)

Bought 20 Keys from the Cash shop, got no skins at all.

Make of that what you will, its all chance i’m not bothered at all, i like the other items i get.

Quit while you’re ahead?

NinjaKnight.1340:

aliquis.9180:

NinjaKnight.1340:

@aliquis
if you read my thread of discussion I was using Roulette as a simple example for calculation purposes of house odds.

You are correct that in small samples some people will get nothing. If I place one bet on Red in roulette there is a 59.5% chance I will get nothing and a 40.5% chance I will double my money. IfI were to do this 100 times I would likely get near 81% return.

What you are talking about is more in the realm of lottery where you buy a $1 lottery ticket and have a very small chance of winning $1 million+ and they sprinkle smaller winnings in between so that people are motivated to keep buying.

The Chests are nothing like that because we know there is no gigantic jackpot. The most sought after item ATM is the Chainsaw and it goes for around 50G last I checked. Furthermore, it becomes soulbound once used =/= RL money or assets which can be resold.

Hopefully that clarifies my point.

The chests are very much like the lottery because there are only jackpots and consolation prizes. Nothing in between. So it is absurd and irresponsible to suggest to people that they should expect an 80% return.

no they should expect much more than 100% return long run. ie if you buy 5 keys sure there is a chance that you get nothing. But people have bought 50+ keys and got nothing they want. Most people don’t have more than $10 $20 to spend on a game which doesn’t get you many keys.

Furthermore this is a virtual game. IRL the casino has to make money because they are gambling with real money. Here, it is just a skin or other virtual item they can manufacture ad infinitum at no incremental cost other than the original graphics artists work.

Most MMOs I know of that use gambling have better odds and the rare items and the common items received are tradable.

1. No, they should expect a zero return. Gambling is not an investment and you should only gamble what you can afford to lose.

2. The jackpot is not money but virtual items whose value is set by the market, and therefore Arenanet cannot control the value of the jackpot. Arenanet cannot force the jackpot to have any particular value.The paradox is, that the more jackpots they give out, the more worthless they become.

3. Arenanet is a real company with real costs just like a casino. The trading post funds the development of the game instead of monthly fees. The advantage of this system is, that it is voluntary for the players to participate or not.

This whole complaint is completely idiotic; if you actually bothered to read posts instead of rushing here to whine you’d know that players are perfectly capable of crafting Mystery Tonics as a 400 Artificer (which you can raise in half an hour for as cheap as 2-3G). These are the same tonics you get from the Black Lion Chest, and are able to be used in the combination for the Mad King’s Chest.

I’d say the ones getting the shaft right now are early players/people who actually bother to use the boosts (aside from Karma/Magic Find boosts). You can’t craft the boosts after all, that’s Gem Store only.

One Jug of Water, one Vicious Claw, one Vicious Fang, one Crystalline Dust. That’s the recipe for five Mystic Tonics. It’ll cost you about two silver. If you want to complain about something, at least try to be well-informed.

Quite frankly, the rate on the new chests is low enough that after you’re done you’ll practically wish you kept the boosters.

agree, why dont OP compare the gems when he bought it was 23s to almost 1g = 100 gems right now.
i played since early access and i stock up more than 60k gems + spent lots on bank slot AND i’m not complaining

Just a quick note, yes i agree the term “entitlement” is thrown around a bit, but we did pay $98 (AU) here for the game, i understand the Cash shop is not needed and all the game is technically free. (bit miffed at having to pay for bank spaces and bags though..)

I will also say you open say 10 boxes and get nothing do you seriously continue to open 90 more boxes and then complain you get nothing…why would anyone waste that much money on a chance item, and then complain they got nothing…and she did not get nothing…

I would feel more defeated at my stupidity of buying 100 keys in the first place…

This is gambling, the rating on this game says gambling on it, they have to give odds in gambling in Australia by law.

Nub.2391:

agree, why dont OP compare the gems when he bought it was 23s to almost 1g = 100 gems right now.
i played since early access and i stock up more than 60k gems + spent lots on bank slot AND i’m not complaining

So you brought gold from the gold sellers, obvious.

I posted earlier about the Mad King chests, no idea where that is in here. Just wanted to say that with 200 black lion chest’s and 90 mad king chest’s and only 1 weapon skin, the dagger. I do not intend to spend $ on gem’s again. That’s past the point of random, to the house cheating the players IMO.

raxx.8914:

This is gambling, the rating on this game says gambling on it, they have to give odds in gambling in Australia by law.

I’d like some proof of that. I’ve been looking it up, and I found nothing to suggest that they have to give the odds.

Just a note, it appears that the Superior Rune of the Mad King’s raven summon doesn’t work in WvW, so heads up that you probably don’t want to grind for them if you’re hoping to use them there.

Not to jump on the complaining bandwagon, but pretty kitten disappointing after all the grinding given that WvW was the main place I was planning to use them.

Edit: Nevermind, they do seem to be working. Think it was a culling issue – combat tab shows them and they do show up sometimes against smaller enemy groups. Not a huge amount of damage, but seems worthwhile.

At most I would buy the 5 key pack tops on this or any future chance like items. And that is for just the enjoyment of a possibility to win. If it’s some thing that I really want I’ll buy it in TP; it will more than likely be cheaper in the end.

I just came to the forum to see exactly what I’d have to do to get one of the weapons, and I’m TERRIBLY disappointed.

For starters, I’m a sPvP person. I rarely leave the Mists, and it’s already pretty sad that since I don’t pve much I’m a low level outside of there. IE; All my guildmates have great looking armor and weapons and I’m stuck wearing crap looking padded leather. I don’t leave the Mists often, but it’s sad as hell that with 200+ hours played I look like a pauper and have around 80 silver to my name when I do.

Yeah yeah, I look great when in the Mists, but 90% of the time I’m in a match and am chaged to red or blue anyway… anyway, that’s not my point…

My point is I thought "since I don’t PvE much I can leave the Mists and PvE for this event and get some special/great looking stuff.

Pfffft.

I mentioned above, that since I PvP I only have around 80 silver… so I already know, here at the START of the event, that even if I PvE’d 10 hours a day, there’s not a CHANCE I can get a permanent weapon skin without spending RL $… and even if I do buy a dozen keys, from what I read here, the chance is still almost zilch.

I can’t afford to buy the items from the TP because I have 80 silver… and don’t have the time to farm them.

I feel that even though I’ve played close to 250 hours that I’m totally jacked for choosing to PvP…

Come ON ANET! Throw us a bone and give us a way to get something while PvPing that we can wear OUTSIDE of PvP, AND let me have “some” credit for my 250 hours that I can apply towards the skins.

Howbout letting us buy the skins with 50,000 Glory?

It sucks that these will be so rare… and of course the skins will the sell for 500 gold each too.

The rich get richer.

Z

I believe many of you folks misunderstand what I meant by “entitlement” in this particular context.

Do players who feel ripped off have a right to air their views and complain? Yes.

Do the aforementioned players need to insult others for having a different opinion (i.e ArenaNet isn’t an evil gaming corporation bent on sucking your purse dry. )? Not at all.

Do they have to make it sound like ArenaNet owe it to them because they, supposely, have a huge bank account and would otherwise be a fantastic patron, if only ArenaNet would pander to their whims? Absolutely not.

When players thoughtlessly demand or imply that ArenaNet should tweak the odds in their favor, despite the fact that there are other fellow players who have already paid the price, be it in real life money or in game gold, at the original premium and odds, that is “entitlement”, because the first group believe that they deserve more than the second group. That is not fair. It’s an ugly “me, me, me” attitude and it colors the entire side of the community that believes that they have been hard done.

It renders otherwise perfectly rational and applicable views and complains rather inert, which is very sad, because I’ve seen some really good and sensible responses. And instead of condemning such an ugly act, it seemed like as a whole community, the act is condoned, perhaps even encouraged, because the louder the inconsiderate players whine, the more ArenaNet, it seems, would lean in favor of making things easier.

I’ve no issues at all with people voicing their displeasure. I have issues with people voicing their displeasure, taking potshots at others, and making it sound like ArenaNet and life owes them. When you come out here and brandish, “I’d have spent thousands of dollars if ArenaNet had caved in to my demands. Lol, I’ll just spend it on some random competition now. Well done ANet, you just lost my big fat purse.” It’s rather disgusting and it does not contribute anything constructive.

On the other hand, constructive feedback really earns my respect, like how one player mentioned in a topic that ArenaNet should consider adding weapon skins to the gem store to be purchasable via a set amount of gems, to make them accessible to players, while keeping some of them rare via only Black Lion Chests. I personally believe that it is a brilliant idea.

More than anything, I understand that my views are solely my own, and it isn’t the only truth and it is at best only right for me alone, and not everyone else. It is in the realm of fools to believe otherwise; that your opinion is right and thus you should impose it on everyone else and insult those who disagree. Though it seems right now, many are content playing the fool, no?

Edit: For those players who feel like they’ve not gotten anything out of the holiday event because they didn’t get the skin they want, you can consider doing what I did. I’ve spent a total of a little over 3000 gems. 700 on a Mad King’s outfit, 700 on a Witch’s outfit, 200ish for the Phantom Hood, 500 on the Halloween miniature pet set, and 900 gems for 10 Black Lion keys. I did not know what the odds were going to be, but either way, I wasn’t going to pour in hundreds of dollars to get the skin I’d like. If anything, the sensible thing to do is to purchase it off the Trading Post once my ten attempts failed. ArenaNet made the skins tradeable, hence making them much more accessible. Ultimately, I walked away with more than a few Halloween unique goodies, and nary a foul taste in my mouth.

not the town outfits they sell in the gem store the actual mad king armor . thanks for all the replies and help :o)

I guess there will be more info in the future acts.

I purchases some BL keys, but they don’t show up in my inventory. Am I missing something?

Did you check your mail?

Please check under Hero section and try putting on your Town clothes!

Nothing shows up in my in-game email. I tried logging out and back in. It’s my first TP puchase so I am not sure how it works.

No, it’s working for me.

I went to delete the post before you got a reply in. lol This worked, I just remembered how to change it just before I could delete this fast enough. Thanks for the help though!

Go to a Trader and check the transaction section

is your mail inbox full? I’ve had this happen a time or two where I’ve had 9/10 mails and no more will go in.

Thanks nottsgman.8206! I did not notice the email limit. Too used to normal email accounts with much larger limits… lol

Posting my personal results for other players contemplating purchasing keys to open chests.

My results: 78 chests opened = 2 Halloween themed skins dropped (1 deathly avian medium shoulder skin, 1 deathly avian heavy shoulder skin).

Edit: Converted the results from the above into 36 Mad King Chests.
My results: 36 chests opened = 0 (none, nada, nil, nothing, not one, zilch) Halloween themed skins dropped.

When you dangle the carrot too far away, the mule will not follow. Please learn from this choice Anet, because you can reduced your ARPU (average revenue per user) to ZERO dollars with just one event.

1. Will you or will you not be buying black lion trading company or random number generation materials again?

No.

2. Did you buy them in the past?

No.

3. If you would not buy trading post material/gamble, would you support direct to buy weapon skins and what general price do you find acceptable from a business standpoint both as a customer and realizing that they must make money as a business?

Yes. About 10 Euro.

4. Do you believe that future events will also be handled with random number generation to make profit based on limited time item acquisition?

Yes.

5. If you believe that the future events will be handled in the same manner, does this realization negatively effect your trust of Arena Net in regard to handling micro transactions for permanent content?

Yes, slightly though because they do a great job otherwise.

6. Did you obtain a skin or whatever it is you were looking to get from the black lion trading chests? From the Mad King Chests?

Yes (just so: a shoulder skin)

7. Have you bought any of the direct purchase, set priced halloween items. If so, will you be buying more?

No, and I won’t because I don’t want to encourage ArenaNet to continue their random box practice. But I have gladly bought bank expansions. Ok, not gladly…

55 BLC’s and 28 MKC’s later…

Not one skin…

I didn’t get anything of value, nothing at all. I’m quite sad right now too, only thing I really wanted from this Event were the skins, most notably the Greatsaw. sadface.jpg

In games of chance, you should always go in ready to lose. Designate an amount of money you do not mind spending before hand, and then use only that amount. Its a chance you get something good, but count on it being likely you will not hit the jackpot.

I suppose Anet could add some purchasable weapon skins to make people happy. Though at what price do they sell the skins? They deserve compensation for their work in making the skin, right?

With the gold to gem conversion available, people do not really have to spend money directly on gems. The weapon skins are entirely optional- and you have options available for aqquiring them along the way.

If you want a skin and do not want to “chance” aquiring it, then use your in game currency to buy one off the trading post.

Further, we are getting different skins for just playing the game as the event unfolds. Its not a bad take away really.

I used about 1000 gems worth of keys, and disposed of some of the what I thought was fluff tonics and boosters before they implemented the Mad King Chests. Im not really that upset, maybe slightly disappointed, but I do not expect anything strictly given to me in life.

PS. Maybe they named this the Mad King event because they knew a number of players would be mad about some skins being in chests! And some of them act like they are having a competition to see who could possibly complain with the most venom to be crowned the actual MAD king!

I hope all of you know that you can get a third of the skins for less than one gold each right now… hell, you can get all but four of them for less than 2g15s each. The chain sword is 4g. Anyone that whines about not getting a halloween skin was just being greedy hoping that they could make a fortune by unboxing the “rare” skin before everyone else.

^Wait, are you saying that you will not support DIRECT BUYING of items because you dislike their practice of RANDOM acquiring of items? That makes no sense.

I don’t have the in game currency to purchase the skins off the TP. I had cash and the gem to gold exchange is worthless right now. The only reason I was excited for this event were the skins and then they went and screwed their players over. If I had wanted to gamble I would have made a trip to Vegas. I was expecting more out of ArenaNet…

And now i hope you learn something.

Anet is a big company , what they want is in your wallet.

You sad? They dont care really, why should they?

So stop giving them money like crazy , and who knows , maybe next time they will do it better.

Cause while they keep getting money i assure you , they dont care.

The gem to gold conversion is pretty good right now. And there are other ways to generate in game money too that are really easy. Selling things, doing events, gathering.

I don’t have the patience or time to really do those things TransparentlyOpaque.

And Nox, they may be a big company but if they are going to stay in business they have to learn to treat their customers better. I’ve already initiated a refund, I’m not going to be screwed over.

What?

HOW can you get them for 2g15s? Or even 4g?

Your math is way off.

Z

I’m sorry you’re not having a good time with this event, I however, am. People are forgetting these “Extras” are completely optional. Look at Guild Wars 1 for example. The Mini Polar Bear during the Wintersday event was so incredibly rare, added no extra advantages to the game, it was a trophy to show off your luck or dedication.

Same thing applies here. Same company, same principles.

Yoshihito.5928:

I don’t have the patience or time to really do those things TransparentlyOpaque.

And Nox, they may be a big company but if they are going to stay in business they have to learn to treat their customers better. I’ve already initiated a refund, I’m not going to be screwed over.

Smart choice , while i wonder myself how it will work out.

Honestly , what they need is customers paying tons of money , if treating them badly they still get it , nothing will change.

And by the looks of these forums , they wont have problems finding people to profit over.

I think tons of player have learned from this event , that will diminish how much they will get on the next , which if is still like this , will diminish again and again and again.

Till i wonder how many will actually spend money on it , then they will change… if it is not too late.

I’ve sent in a support ticket about a refund. If ArenaNet won’t do it I can do it through my card company, at least I’ve given them the option.

Its really just an very short term event. Really nothing in terms of the rest of the games content. Leaving because of one game event seems a bit dramatic.

Patience is needed in these types of games, as they are intended to be around and expanded for years. If you want everything a month and a few weeks into the game, then your expectations are a bit too high.

Conversely, if you had everything you wanted in game right now, what would be the incentive to play?

So is the Halloween event just chest and items you can get? Why are you playing an mmorpg if you comply leave out the rpg part?

No… the shoulders, the daggers and the rifle skin are all going for less then 2g… the only ones above that are the ghastly shield, greatsaw and the scythe.

Also just adding…. ANet has always had random generated, low drop rate RARE skins/minis whatever. It’s not the whole event, it’s for those lucky enough too have obtained them. As many have mentioned, mini polar bear anyone? The drop rate was something like .001% chance to drop, and I rarely remember people kittening over it. Sure there was some moaning of “wish I could get it”. But not the all out rage I’m seeing here…

TransparentlyOpaque.1824:

Its really just an very short term event. Really nothing in terms of the rest of the games content. Leaving because of one game event seems a bit dramatic.

Patience is needed in these types of games, as they are intended to be around and expanded for years. If you want everything a month and a few weeks into the game, then your expectations are a bit too high.

Conversely, if you had everything you wanted in game right now, what would be the incentive to play?

What i wanted was that short term content , like events had more honest ways to handled.

The clothes or the minis for an example , those are completely fine really. The event should be for fun mostly , while i understand the company should also focus on profit.

The gamble system simple made tons and tons of player grief , over nothing , could have been a very fun event , people already proven they got money to spent. Yet now , many wont anymore.

I dont think things should be handled, they gave us mini “legendary” halloween weapons , hell that is fine , get the halloween stuff now (which is not that hard) and work for it later , you got all the time you want. Same goes for other ingame stuff , the legendaries , dungeon armor and so on.

There are systems to make people work over stuff , i just think they shot their own foot with the system they picked.

Well to late to cry over the spilled milk , i want to see what else i still can get from the event , but like the OP , im not giving them one cent till they stop the chests on events.

Serpent Kiss.9610:

On the other hand, constructive feedback really earns my respect, like how one player mentioned in a topic that ArenaNet should consider adding weapon skins to the gem store to be purchasable via a set amount of gems, to make them accessible to players, while keeping some of them rare via only Black Lion Chests. I personally believe that it is a brilliant idea.

More than anything, I understand that my views are solely my own, and it isn’t the only truth and it is at best only right for me alone, and not everyone else. It is in the realm of fools to believe otherwise; that your opinion is right and thus you should impose it on everyone else and insult those who disagree. Though it seems right now, many are content playing the fool, no?

Edit: For those players who feel like they’ve not gotten anything out of the holiday event because they didn’t get the skin they want, you can consider doing what I did. I’ve spent a total of a little over 3000 gems. 700 on a Mad King’s outfit, 700 on a Witch’s outfit, 200ish for the Phantom Hood, 500 on the Halloween miniature pet set, and 900 gems for 10 Black Lion keys. I did not know what the odds were going to be, but either way, I wasn’t going to pour in hundreds of dollars to get the skin I’d like. If anything, the sensible thing to do is to purchase it off the Trading Post once my ten attempts failed. ArenaNet made the skins tradeable, hence making them much more accessible. Ultimately, I walked away with more than a few Halloween unique goodies, and nary a foul taste in my mouth.

The vocal minority would still kitten about not being able to obtain the skins from the chests, even if there were skins in the store. What everyone doesn’t seem to be thinking of is there is a real possibility of free accessible to everyone skins coming in the next acts. I think more people need to stop kittening and start being patient and seeing what is in store for them over the next 8 bloody days.

I’m not sure how you expected to have fun just throwing open a pile of random chests in the first place…

Nox Aeterna.2965:

TransparentlyOpaque.1824:

Its really just an very short term event. Really nothing in terms of the rest of the games content. Leaving because of one game event seems a bit dramatic.

Patience is needed in these types of games, as they are intended to be around and expanded for years. If you want everything a month and a few weeks into the game, then your expectations are a bit too high.

Conversely, if you had everything you wanted in game right now, what would be the incentive to play?

What i wanted was that short term content , like events had more honest ways to handled.

The clothes or the minis for an example , those are completely fine really. The event should be for fun mostly , while i understand the company should also focus on profit.

The gamble system simple made tons and tons of player grief , over nothing , could have been a very fun event , people already proven they got money to spent. Yet now , many wont anymore.

I dont think things should be handled, they gave us mini “legendary” halloween weapons , hell that is fine , get the halloween stuff now (which is not that hard) and work for it later , you got all the time you want. Same goes for other ingame stuff , the legendaries , dungeon armor and so on.

There are systems to make people work over stuff , i just think they shot their own foot with the system they picked.

Well to late to cry over the spilled milk , i want to see what else i still can get from the event , but like the OP , im not giving them one cent till they stop the chests on events.

As you stated, they have other items and methods to get skins that are obtainable through simply playing the game. Maybe if you cannot get the skin now, at least you can work towards it over time and have it by Christmas or next halloween?