Guild Wars 2

Snerf.1650:

Spendrik.2961:

I don’t get it. Players decide to throw good money after bad over some pixels, then decide that Anet, a profit-driven enterprise when I last checked, is doing the wrong thing?

I’ve thrown no $ into this. I’m arguing that philosophically it is a negative and predatory business practice.

There are ways of making money that don’t resort to gambling. Just offer the skins for a fixed set of gems. PROBLEM SOLVED.

Or if those people knew that it was that much of a gamble before hand, there wouldn’t be as many angry people.

I bought 10 keys which opened about 16-18 chest. I didn’t get anything. Thats when I realized… wait a minute… this isn’t what I was expecting. I’m not here to gamble with real money. So I stopped. Those who bought hundreds of keys, yeah, they should have stopped when they realized this wasn’t what they thought. Some people do have to take some responsibility and not blame it all on ANet. Either way, doesn’t make what ANet did an easier pill to swallow.

dahkot.3579:

Spendrik.2961:

I don’t get it. Players decide to throw good money after bad over some pixels, then decide that Anet, a profit-driven enterprise when I last checked, is doing the wrong thing?

It’s not their fault man , they couldn’t help it , ArenaNet forced them to.

simple question: did Anet gain customers here today, or did they lose customers for the gem shop?

as I said: what you or me think about the whole ‘gambling’ thing isn’t the issue.
It’s the simply the question wheter or not they made their customer base angry or not.
They did, even if you think that this angryness is unjustified. But your opinion doesn’t change that.

Many paying customers are angry.
That means the company made a wrong decision.

This reflects on the reputation of the game.
Reputation for an MMO is everything.

Not really true. The drop rates are so completely borked that everyone from casuals to hardcore players have an equally terrible chance to get one. That’s part of the issue, there’s no real skill involved (unless you just wanna buy it off the TP).

But the “gimme now gimme all crowd” section is what catches the eye, anyways. That’s sort of what the majority of naysayers have been hinting at what those of us who’re voicing our opinions want (which, isn’t really the case).

Snerf.1650:

@Spendrik I’m not sure what that has to do with topic. Are you implying that as the event goes on, they will make the same items obtainable through other means?

Nothing would indicate that this is true. Thus, commenting now is better than waiting until later.

I’m saying that there will be probably other (easier) things to chase, other than playing scratch-a-card.

It may smell like a predatory business practice, but I don’t think the company wilfully misled players with ‘a chance’ and ‘rare’.

A rational player would weigh risk vs reward before sinking too much money.

Caveat emptor: ‘The coffee is hot’

Akhet.6527:

Oh the title, I thought you were all referring to the post. The title’s cut off for me (small resolution, laptop, what can you do).

Still, I would take his actual post into consideration when accusing him of being a jerk because for all intents and purposes his actual post was pretty harmless when it comes to these types of discussions.

It’s pretty clear he didn’t mean it to start anything or his actual post would have reflected that and been rife with similar analogies. This is basically a “thank you anet” thread with a questionable wording of the title and now it’s some horrible mess that will probably get locked.

internet
oh you

except “if they can’t not whipping about the gimme gimme gimme tears” put that with the title. Don’t know about you, but I could do without it. Of course it doesn’t really matter I wanted to comment because of the “greedy company” crap. I’m so sick of seeing that as an excuse for everything. Then my one comment exploded and well I have nothing better to do today. So I’m listening to music on youtube while tabbing to this thread. It’s proved somewhat entertaining.

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

Kimbald.2697:

dahkot.3579:

Spendrik.2961:

I don’t get it. Players decide to throw good money after bad over some pixels, then decide that Anet, a profit-driven enterprise when I last checked, is doing the wrong thing?

It’s not their fault man , they couldn’t help it , ArenaNet forced them to.

simple question: did Anet gain customers here today, or did they lose customers for the gem shop?

as I said: what you or me think about the whole ‘gambling’ thing isn’t the issue.
It’s the simply the question wheter or not they made their customer base angry or not.
They did, even if you think that this angryness is unjustified. But your opinion doesn’t change that.

Many paying customers are angry.
That means the company made a wrong decision.

This reflects on the reputation of the game.
Reputation for an MMO is everything.

Many lucky paying customers would also be happy, except that they won’t be complaining on these forums.

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

Levelord.5746:

OP, using ‘extraordinary good luck’ and ‘earned’ in the same sentence is incredibly contradicting.

He said, “Some of us enjoy variety , seeing that person with the extrodinarily good luck with an incredible weapon skin very few have , or those folks with tons of time to farm some item and craft and then get to show off what they earned.”

You’re deliberately omitting the part where he mentions crafted items just so you can call him out for something he didn’t say. Crafted items have a lot less to do with “luck” than the “gamble chest” items. Putting the dedication into crafting those items makes them “earned” in my book.

It appears that the real debate here isn’t about the time it takes to amass the crafting materials to create some of the items; it’s about the ethics of gambling for the “luck” items.

Can’t quote for some reason, but at xhaiden about the ‘white knighting’ and how this “destroyed” anets PR and that people will never spend a dime again is just as bad with your doomsaying. Do you realize… According to the forums over the last month ANET has completely destroyed their PR 100x’s over and every player in the game will never spend another dime 50x over.

Just because you feel that way does not mean you are speaking for everyone.
You ever think the lotto chests weren’t meant to play again and again blowing tons of money trying to win? People don’t play the real lottery or gamble like that in real life. They don’t spend money until they win. The way I personally see the chests is that (this is my personal view) is hey I have some extra cash/gems maybe I will try some cheats out and maybe I will win and maybe I won’t. Not spend 1800 gems at once trying to win then blow through more when you don’t. Obviously the ones who played like that have never done an MMO event like this. How often do you see exotics drop I the game? That’s how I equated the rare Halloween drops as to getting an exotic. Anyways I’m not arguing over a kitten video game lol this is a game not my life I’m not going to result to name calling or personal attacks over something I do in m spare time.

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

If you design a game that those that play countless hours enjoy much more than those who pay the bills, sooner or later nobody will pay the bills.

It’s plain logic.

If people see that gems are a waste, they’ll stop getting gems and they’ll see a decrease in sales.
And that’s it. There’s nothing more to that.

All I can say is that I won’t pay for anything that won’t be assured to be permanently unlocked in my account.
I may play for something like that, but never pay.
No chance items, no consumables, no single items that will be lost forever if deleted. Unly unlockables. That’s what I pay for.

As for things that consume time anyways, I won’t lose any sleep over it.
If I can’t get them within the time of the festival, I’ll save the stuff for next year.

I just hope they give us all the missing collection slots, because with rare materials, ingredients, consumable-ingredients, festival stuff, equipment I’m saving for my other characters, tonics, consumables, surplus materials I’m saving for crafting, costumes and town clothes you keep stored while you use others costumes (as deleting them means losing them forever), etc
There’s just no room left.

And saving stuff in your character that is not exclusive to that character (that is, their alternate gear sets) is just no good, as it forces you to travel around and go back to towns and juggle inventories to find an item. So ‘mules’ are not an option.

More collections, even if they were unlocked by paying, are to be added.

They also are making some really weird decisions.
Take the celebraton hat.
Why the hell making it an item when they already had he idea of the hat maker from GW1?
What do you do with it if you get a costume that also uses the hat? Discard it? Save it in the inventory?
What if you got 40 characters to try out all profession-race combinatios and got the hat with them all.
What do you when more festivals give away more hats? Keep them all?
And they really xpect people to buy a costume multiple times? One or two may do that, but I doubt many people will.
If they were unlocked like GW1’s costumes, you’ll have completion buying them to collect them.
It’s as if the game was designed with having a single character in mind.

fizzypop.6458:

except “if they can’t not whipping about the gimme gimme gimme tears” put that with the title.

I must have skipped over that since it doesn’t make any grammatical sense and thus I couldn’t clearly decipher what he meant. I can guess but I would prefer not to do that since that presents its own handful of problems. I still find his post pretty tame, especially in comparison to the other garbage posted around here.

Suppose at this point any replies in here are just a drop in the pond. Another lesson in how things spiral out of control at the drop of a hat, it seems.

Akhet.6527:

fizzypop.6458:

except “if they can’t not whipping about the gimme gimme gimme tears” put that with the title.

I must have skipped over that since it doesn’t make any grammatical sense and thus I couldn’t clearly decipher what he meant. I can guess but I would prefer not to do that since that presents its own handful of problems. I still find his post pretty tame, especially in comparison to the other garbage posted around here.

I don’t disagree. I just wouldn’t call it a positive post so me adding negativity to it really didn’t take anything away from the post. It was bound to go there anyways.

fizzypop.6458:

Akhet.6527:

fizzypop.6458:

except “if they can’t not whipping about the gimme gimme gimme tears” put that with the title.

I must have skipped over that since it doesn’t make any grammatical sense and thus I couldn’t clearly decipher what he meant. I can guess but I would prefer not to do that since that presents its own handful of problems. I still find his post pretty tame, especially in comparison to the other garbage posted around here.

I don’t disagree. I just wouldn’t call it a positive post so me adding negativity to it really didn’t take anything away from the post. It was bound to go there anyways.

+1 For rationalizing ones behavior.

To me holiday events in games are supposed to be about the time you play, not how much money you have or how much you can grind within a time limit. I expected the Halloween items to be fairly easy to get, kind of like the book reward for Act 1. It should be that next year when you bust out your vintage greatsaw and people ask, “OMG where did you get that?”, you can say “When I was here for Halloween last year”. The exclusivity should not be about making a mini legendary, but about involvement during this short period.

Edit: @ Mithran; the costumes are accountbound, not soulbound. So there is no need to buy more than one.

Varen.8507:

fizzypop.6458:

Akhet.6527:

fizzypop.6458:

except “if they can’t not whipping about the gimme gimme gimme tears” put that with the title.

I must have skipped over that since it doesn’t make any grammatical sense and thus I couldn’t clearly decipher what he meant. I can guess but I would prefer not to do that since that presents its own handful of problems. I still find his post pretty tame, especially in comparison to the other garbage posted around here.

I don’t disagree. I just wouldn’t call it a positive post so me adding negativity to it really didn’t take anything away from the post. It was bound to go there anyways.

+1 For rationalizing ones behavior.

Rationalizing what behavior exactly? I didn’t know making a comment on a forum was such awful behavior. I’ll consider that next time.

I have 4 keys that I have yet to use from map completions guess its a better time then ever to give them a try. Pay for a free to play? Lol silly people tricks are for kids. Here’s ya sign. Gw2 ftw !!

Xhaiden, go play something else then… perhaps something with a $40 cost for the box and a $15 a month cost for the rest of your life playing the game, instead of a $60 cost, and some carrots dangling that have NO EFFECT on your ability to play the game effectively. Please take your cries to the cry threads, and let us revel in the fact that this game takes EFFORT and TIME and DEDICATION like any good hobby should.

This game puts some things out of reach, and other things RIGHT IN YOUR FACE… the choice is totally your’s and you need to grow up, or move on.

RShara.3265:

Walk into a casino with $50, dunk it all in the slot machines.

How much will you walk out with?

Yeah….

The jackpot. Or I will ask for my $50 back.

Varen.8507:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

Wrong again. I’m arguing based on principle. It’s something that those of us who have morals and strong opinions do on a regular basis.

My momma used to say: Only gamble when you’re prepared to lose your money.

I think some people are confusing ‘gambling’ with ‘purchasing’.

Spendrik.2961:

My momma used to say: Only gamble when you’re prepared to lose your money.

I think some people are confusing ‘gambling’ with ‘purchasing’.

Those of us trying make points are simply saying that gambling has no place here.

Period. Take out the gamble and you will see far fewer complaints.

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

Wrong again. I’m arguing based on principle. It’s something that those of us who have morals and strong opinions do on a regular basis.

You’re coming from a weird moralistic angle, or at least trying to impose your world view on things that are wholly out of your control, ie. Anet’s design and intent.

But I guess any feedback is good feedback, since getting shinies in a video game may be important enough for some to behave irrationally, or have strong views about.

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

Wrong again. I’m arguing based on principle. It’s something that those of us who have morals and strong opinions do on a regular basis.

Sorry , your own “morals” don’t make gambling wrong or right. There are millions in the world who enjoy it in lots of forms , and it will probably anger you to find out that plenty don’t mind it in an online game either.

You don’t have some moral high ground because you don’t like the practice.

Spendrik.2961:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

Wrong again. I’m arguing based on principle. It’s something that those of us who have morals and strong opinions do on a regular basis.

You’re coming from a weird moralistic angle, or at least trying to impose your world view on things that are wholly out of your control, ie. Anet’s design and intent.

But I guess any feedback is good feedback, since getting shinies in a video game may be important enough for some to behave irrationally, or have strong views about.

I don’t see it being odd to expect a company to conduct business in a healthy way that puts customers above shady money.

Would you rather they offer x item for y gems or offer z% of getting x item for y gems? One is straightforward, one seeks to exploit addictive personalities.

dahkot.3579:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

Wrong again. I’m arguing based on principle. It’s something that those of us who have morals and strong opinions do on a regular basis.

Sorry , your own “morals” don’t make gambling wrong or right. There are millions in the world who enjoy it in lots of forms , and it will probably anger you to find out that plenty don’t mind it in an online game either.

You don’t have some moral high ground because you don’t like the practice.

There is a reason real governments have gambling laws. Because it’s not just another neutral practice. It’s a predatory practice that exploits people’s addictive behaviour to get them to spend more money for a good or service than they would directly spend on the good or service.

Make a difference, vote with your wallet!

Spendrik.2961:

Make a difference, vote with your wallet!

I do. I vote with my wallet and with my words. I’m not being offensive or making personal attacks. Both are permitted.

Snerf.1650:

dahkot.3579:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

Wrong again. I’m arguing based on principle. It’s something that those of us who have morals and strong opinions do on a regular basis.

Sorry , your own “morals” don’t make gambling wrong or right. There are millions in the world who enjoy it in lots of forms , and it will probably anger you to find out that plenty don’t mind it in an online game either.

You don’t have some moral high ground because you don’t like the practice.

There is a reason real governments have gambling laws. Because it’s not just another neutral practice. It’s a predatory practice that exploits people’s addictive behaviour to get them to spend more money for a good or service than they would directly spend on the good or service.

Ok, you’re starting to weird me out with this line of argument.

You could very well say the same about eating, drinking, smoking, going outdoors, meeting strangers …

Snerf.1650:

dahkot.3579:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

Wrong again. I’m arguing based on principle. It’s something that those of us who have morals and strong opinions do on a regular basis.

Sorry , your own “morals” don’t make gambling wrong or right. There are millions in the world who enjoy it in lots of forms , and it will probably anger you to find out that plenty don’t mind it in an online game either.

You don’t have some moral high ground because you don’t like the practice.

There is a reason real governments have gambling laws. Because it’s not just another neutral practice. It’s a predatory practice that exploits people’s addictive behaviour to get them to spend more money for a good or service than they would directly spend on the good or service.

Ah gotcha , you want the governement to be able to tell a mmorpg company what they can and can’t do in regards to in game gambling/content etc.

We come from two completely different viewpoints where there is no middle ground.

I like freedom of choice and personal responsibility and suffering the consequences as a result. In other words , no excuses or blaming my habits on other folks or wanting big brother to look out for me.

Spendrik.2961:

Snerf.1650:

dahkot.3579:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

Wrong again. I’m arguing based on principle. It’s something that those of us who have morals and strong opinions do on a regular basis.

Sorry , your own “morals” don’t make gambling wrong or right. There are millions in the world who enjoy it in lots of forms , and it will probably anger you to find out that plenty don’t mind it in an online game either.

You don’t have some moral high ground because you don’t like the practice.

There is a reason real governments have gambling laws. Because it’s not just another neutral practice. It’s a predatory practice that exploits people’s addictive behaviour to get them to spend more money for a good or service than they would directly spend on the good or service.

Ok, you’re starting to weird me out with this line of argument.

You could very well say the same about eating, drinking, smoking, going outdoors, meeting strangers …

I understand your hyperbole, but in a way, yes. I strongly believe that both business and governments need to do a better job of taking care of people rather than exploiting them.

Tolmos.8395

I would rather have rare items be based on how difficult the content I do or even how much time I spend doing it as opposed to RNG. RNG isn’t even worth trying.

We’ll all know that everyone with these special items will be one of two people: someone really lucky (the RNG gods were with them) or some spoiled rich kid IRL who blew $900+ on keys.

Those days are long gone, you aren’t rewarded for being good, you’re rewarded for being lucky. The only saving grace in this scenario is that it’s not like Aion where being lucky means that you’re far more lucky that your unlucky counterpart.

dahkot.3579:

Snerf.1650:

dahkot.3579:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Snerf.1650:

Varen.8507:

Lol I think I like this thread more than the other one. I agree with the OP. People can try to argue about gambling issues or legality like in the other thread. What it comes down to is “I want something, and it seems like I can’t get it w/o more effort than I want to put it”. QQ

That’s not the case, but I guess feel free to oversimplify something and miss the point.

At the core, this is the issue. You can try to dress it up with whatever you want, but in the end if there wasn’t something here that you wanted it wouldn’t be an issue. You wouldn’t have came to the forum to complain about it.

Wrong again. I’m arguing based on principle. It’s something that those of us who have morals and strong opinions do on a regular basis.

Sorry , your own “morals” don’t make gambling wrong or right. There are millions in the world who enjoy it in lots of forms , and it will probably anger you to find out that plenty don’t mind it in an online game either.

You don’t have some moral high ground because you don’t like the practice.

There is a reason real governments have gambling laws. Because it’s not just another neutral practice. It’s a predatory practice that exploits people’s addictive behaviour to get them to spend more money for a good or service than they would directly spend on the good or service.

Ah gotcha , you want the governement to be able to tell a mmorpg company what they can and can’t do in regards to in game gambling/content etc.

We come from two completely different viewpoints where there is no middle ground.

I like freedom of choice and personal responsibility and suffering the consequences as a result. In other words , no excuses or blaming my habits on other folks or wanting big brother to look out for me.

Until governments and business start looking out for people better, or until enough people like me comment, you and I will be nothing more than dollar signs. That’s a sad dystopia that I think we all can do better than.

I’m definitely a very casual player myself, and I can see where the OP is coming from, but my personal gripe (and I think many others) isn’t about the rarity of the items, it’s the fact that a lot of what makes this event awesome ended up revolving around the cash shop, and that just takes a lot of fun out it. It feels gimmicky.

Admittedly, I bought into the gimmick, purchasing 20 keys and not getting anything out of it. It leaves a really bad taste in my mouth, and I don’t plan to purchase gems like that again. Part of what makes this game so appealing to me is I’ve never felt like I had to buy into the cash shop to not miss out on awesome content… Until this event.

Sure, you can tell me that I don’t have to buy into these items, and you’d be right, but truth be told, I want to. Plain and simple, because I would argue some of these skins are better than a lot of the legendary skins, and I’d love to get my hands on some. I’m pretty sure almost any Necromancer would take the scythe skin over the Bifrost, and honestly, I’d take the somewhat cheesy spider bow skin any time of the year over the Dreamer.

I guess my point is, I would at least like to feel like I have a chance at these rare skins without spending real money, even if I don’t end up getting a single thing, having the best parts of the event revolve around the cash shop just doesn’t sit well with me, it’s not fun, and quite frankly discourages me slightly with ArenaNet’s “vision” going into the future.

All they would have to do is give these skins a chance to drop in dungeon chests, jump puzzle chests, rare daily drops, rare mystic forge recipes, anything. Or make them challenging to get, but, oh I dunno, fun? RNG is not fun. Ever.

TL;DR: Keep the items rare, sure, no problem. But, there should be other ways to obtain these skins, not linked to just the cash shop.

Maulor.9847

Please take your cries to the cry threads, and let us revel in the fact that this game takes EFFORT and TIME and DEDICATION like any good hobby should.

If you can’t grasp why upsetting your most valuable customers is a bad thing, I can’t help you and you should probably excuse yourself from this discussion. As you clearly don’t understand the problem here.

Also, what effort, time or dedication are involved with what is basically a slot machine?

Let’s clear up some logical fallacies flying about here.

“Making the skins easy to obtain cheapens their exclusivity”

Whoever said these skins have to be rare or exclusive? There is no shortage of genuinely rare and exclusive items out there (craftable Halloween items, legendaries, etc).

If there is a market, why not let it make you some money. And it’s quite apparent there are many players out there who won’t buy keys, but will buy skins were they available.

“People feel entitled and want everything!”

This is the exclusivity arguement wrapped in a thin guise. If you genuinely want an item to be hard to obtain then those are the items that should be obtained via in-game means only.

Afterall, a weapon still isn’t a sign of prestige if you can simply buy it by throwing money at the problem until you get it. It isn’t a sign of prestige, it just shows you have a lot of disposable income.

“You don’t have to have everything”

Technically you don’t NEED anything more than food, water and shelter. But nessecities and entertainment is nice. Restricting access to digital items that exist in a virtual world for no reason other than “because we can” is completly pointless especially when said market plan is actually clamping their profittability.
______________________________________________

“It’s part of their buisness plan!”

Have YOU bought chests for these rare skins? – Do you know people who have and how much they spent doing so?

None of my guild have bought more than 1 chest each (Mostly in a lottery ticket style fashion see if they got lucky). But almost all of them, me inclusive would happily pay them to simply buy the skin we wanted; for a lot more than the price of 1 key.

I’m no business expert* but it doesn’t seem like the strategy of appealing only to gamblers is really earning them a great deal more than simply letting people buy the skins off the CS; it’d certainly earn them a lot less negative press though that much is certain.

Only thing I see wrong with the chests for the event is that they were hugely marketed that awesome things will be in them, yet opening just 3 of them gave me no new items at all. I didn’t expect 100g rares, but maybe some candy corn or something. At least some indication that “hey, maybe they are bugged and I just wasted a key before they fixed it”.

I think they should have been more honest about the drop rates, and even publish game wide drop tables for everything sometime soon so I know what not to waste my time on. Other than that, I knew it was a gamble going into it, which is why I didn’t buy 50 keys and stopped after the 3 I had.

This is what you call corporate blindness. A moderator or dev reads a thread and the OP is one of the very very few happy with the event, good for them, the dev or moderator then reads the thread and sees that the majority (that used to mean something) are not happy and do not agree with the OP. Suddenly the thread response by the mod or dev is one of pure joy and happiness, like this….

“Glad you’re having fun, and if you’re happy now, you’re in for a real treat come later this week.”

The trend i am seeing is mods or devs only answer the good feedback, so their job is pretty quick.

Once the smoke clears from the first event i can only wonder if the OP has so much influence over devs and mods that the vast majority of unsatisfied folks simply do not exist, like Rodents of unusal Size. They are there, they exist, but you choose to ignore them, all the while taking a thousand little cuts.

I would have bought them for gems on the black lion store, but I will not pay money to play the slot machine to maybe get one. This was a bad design choice that has just upset the community.

Here, let me help you guys out. Read the bolded words.

Black Lion Chest Changes
• Halloween items have been added to Black Lion Chests for a limited time only!
• There is now a chance to get new Halloween-themed weapon skins by opening Black Lion Chests. All weapon skins are tradable.
•Chain Sword Skin
•Ghastly Grinning Shield Skin
•Greatsaw Greatsword Skin
•Grinning Gourd Rifle Skin
•Scythe Staff Skin
•Severed Dagger Skin

•There is now a chance to get new Halloween-themed shoulder armor skins by opening Black Lion Chests. All shoulder armor skins are tradable.
•Deathly Shoulderpads Skin
•Deathly Avian Shoulderpads Skin
•Deathly Bull Shoulderpads Skin

•All Black Lion Chests have a chance to give these items, but only until the end of the Halloween events.
•Get Black Lion Keys from the Consumable section of the Gem Store to open your Black Lion Chests.

Copied from the patch notes. Here is the definition of chance:

chance
? ?[chans, chahns] Show IPA noun, verb, chanced, chanc·ing, adjective
noun
1. the absence of any cause of events that can be predicted, understood, or controlled: often personified or treated as a positive agency: Chance governs all.
2. luck or fortune: a game of chance.

If you really didn’t have the common sense to know that these will more than likely be rare, or the common sense to wait a day or two and find out (or ask) how rare they might BE, well. Go play the lotto. There’s a chance you’ll be a millionaire.

Stark.1350:

If you really didn’t have the common sense to know that these will more than likely be rare, or the common sense to wait a day or two and find out (or ask) how rare they might BE, well. Go play the lotto. There’s a chance you’ll be a millionaire.

Problem is people don’t want the ‘chance’ for an item, they want the item. If they removed the gambling aspect and put the skins on sale for a reasonable price, the angst over this whole issue would evaporate.

Imagine walking into a shop, you buy bread, milk and eggs. You see a pick and mix bag of sweets on offer so you buy some of those too.

You get home, open your pick and mix bag, and find it’s full of dishwasher capsules. When people have a “chance of getting one of these skins”, one rather expects a “chance to get one of those skins”, not a “chance to get something COMPLETELY unrelated you don’t want”

Um, life’s tough?

Honestly, this Halloween event is disturbing. I have no qualms with spending time in-game to acquire unique skins- It is how Anet wants me to spend my time that really depresses me.
Why must I spend time farming an ABSURD amount of mats? A process that is far more mundane and boring than my actual job (which I get paid to do).
Why can’t Anet think of a more exciting and unique way of playing this game?
How does this company expect to keep people playing under its current model?
I get it, the game has no monthly cost.. This seems to just be masking the fact that there is nothing to do (end-game), and there will never be anything to do… besides farm stale events/content.
Seriously.. Video games are meant to be fun. GW2 has everything in place, yet the Devs seems to be completely clueless.

Don’t forget there is more to this halloween event than just crafting stuff, getting skins and all.
I know I could be wrong on this, but with the RNG stuff and all, isn’t it a necessary evil in some way to keep this game alive since it has no subs?
Of course i know alot of people hate the RNG stuff but some still come back to it like an addiction, it’s corrupted in a way yes but still funds anet.
If everything was perfect for the players (which I highly doubt such a game with theses qualities exist) the players would be satisfied and wouldn’t need to purchase anymore. Of course supporters of good heart will continue to buy in support of the game but between that and the RNG which brings more money to Anet?
Probably the ideal one of course in the long run, but we can’t be certain if this game will exist forevermore, it might close down eventually due to another game in the making or other reasons. With the RNG stuff, they could be getting a burst of money in a short time to pay their employees, fees, etc with the risk of losing customers.

As much as it would sound ideal to have no microtransaction whatsoever or RNG stuff, if you had everything you needed, would you rebuy thoses res orbs or repair packs or costumes you already own? Would you rebuy thoses halloween skins if somehow they were made possible to acquire ingame or in the gem shop?
The customer is content and satisfied and has a good opinion of the company but it doesn’t always mean he’ll continue to buy the same objects he already owns or used.

Of course i’m no good at argumenting but this is my thoughts about it.

The problem isn’t with the players here. It is a miscommunication/misunderstanding, but it was on Anet’s side. If they hadn’t said anything about the new skins, or if they had simply said people would have “a small chance” of getting them, this whole thing could have been avoided. They built it up. Anet made the new skins a big deal. Build up creates anticipation, which leads to expectation, which leads to the dark side… er, anger when that expectation isn’t met. I really have to shake my head in dismay at this. It was a company fubar. They should have had PR in on it and if they did have their PR team in on it, they should fire them and get a new team that is competent.

Xhaiden got it right. After the expectation of these new items was built up and then not delivered upon, Anet loses future customers. Me for one. I won’t be buying any cash shop items now. Not until Anet proves that they are who they said they were and not money-grubbers trying to milk the MMO cash cow. (And by the way, I haven’t purchased anything yet. Though I had planned to tonight before finding out what Anet did.)

Prop 32.

I’m just unhappy with the fact that the skins are obtainable only through the investment of a lot of gold rather than being a chance-reward from an event, karma, or bag: Trick-or-Treat with a small chance of getting a random skin similar to the chests.

The costumes i don’t mind paying for (in gold or cash), it’s been that way for as long as i can remember in GW1.

The fact that craftable Halloween weapons cost hundreds of gold (10,000c) to make, or in the case of the farmer, a long time of farming, is ridiculous.These weapons have the value equivalent to a legendary, if not more.

In the case of gambling, this game is not supposed to be an online slot machine.

For future reference, just because you have a job, children, or tons of cash does not make you superior to anyone. Other people do not have these because they are either students, minimum wage earners, and/or retirees, which you have been or will be at one point in your life.

The going rate for gold→ gem is ~1g per 100gems. Each key is then ~1.30g. Let’s say you spend it on a reasonable amount of chests (10) and get a skin. You spent about 13g. On the TP right now, skins average around 3-5g with some being ~24-28g. More likely than not, you’ll get boosters from all of them. Not everyone is able to break even with the chests and therefore just aren’t worth getting.

Most of us ( personal speculation) want the skins to be obtainable through a reasonable amount of effort similar to that of obtaining Oppressor weapons in GW1
as opposed to paying hundreds of gold/gem/cash for a CHANCE to get an item that is a one-time-use consumable applicable to one weapon and one weapon only. And even then you might not get anything.

Some are saying “this game is not about skins/aesthetics”. Yes it is. GW1 for example, all end-game weapons have the same stats. The only differnce is rarity in skins.

My example: this whole conflict is like a car
You can do one of two things: Build it from scratch by yourself. or Throw in 100 tickets into a raffle and 99 of those tickets burn in some freak hand-picking accident.

Eh~

Twoflower.3176:

Casual player here, full time job, etc.

It’s fair to ask someone to work for a reward but I don’t think the level of work required by this event is fair. So, I’m not bothering to go for the rewards.

Fortunately there are events and missions which I can play anyway and still enjoy the holiday. It’s just a shame I’ll have nothing to show for it at the end of the day because the bar was set too high.

So, not angry, not demanding changes, just a bit disappointed that this much of the event was placed outside the realm of possibility. I’m not rewarding that approach with money (to buy gems or keys). Hopefully future events will be a bit more forgiving and fun.

Nothing to show for it? This is just 1/4 of the events. The horns are also already in
the gem shop and they are free. So that is at least ONE thing.

Xhaiden.3891:

If you can’t grasp why upsetting your most valuable customers is a bad thing, I can’t help you and you should probably excuse yourself from this discussion. As you clearly don’t understand the problem here.

Also, what effort, time or dedication are involved with what is basically a slot machine?

I think you are very much mistaken about who is the “most valuable customer”. The most valuable customers are the ones who will buy all the stuff rather than the ones whining 90% of the time.

Stop using the current gold to gem conversion rate when making your calculations. Everyone who thought ahead bought gems with gold before there was a huge demand for them that drove up gem prices. This was when 100 gems went for 25 silver or less.

The price of gems and generally everything halloween related went up because there is a lot of guild wars in-game currency not in circulation. Events like this bring out that currency and inflate the economy a bit because they have the function that ectos used to have in the first game: the money sink required to combat the infinite inflation.

Before you do any investment in this game – especially a real world money investment – do your research. 1000 people opening 1 chest gives as much data as 1 person opening 1000 chests, and if I was that 1 person and didn’t know what my odds were going into the game, I would not be surprised at all if I completely struck out because nobody led me to believe otherwise. Welcome to gambling.

This is being handled in a similar way to how TF2, which pioneered the pay-for-cosmetics design, manages holiday events – give out some easy-to-get achievements and common items (one hat) and put out some ultra rare (1% or less drop rate) unique hat around that event time, the only difference there being that you can’t buy keys with anything but real money.

My only suggestion would be to make it even more like the TF2 holiday event – have black lion chests give an extremely strong – even guaranteed – chance to drop common holiday themed items which while nice will hardly generate a profit, with a very small chance of getting an exceedingly rare and coveted item. Greater rewards for opening chests during this time period would be appreciated because it is generally harder to open chests during this time for any reason due to how the cash shop works.

Please bear in mind that items from these black lion chests are tradeable – if you did not prepare for this event because you did not anticipate wanting an item that suddenly caught your eye, you will still be able to purchase it with gold later on. Now would be a good time to cash in some of those gems, or if you bought black lion chests, well, that’s what magic find is for. Activate a few of those boosters and watch how you can breeze through mobs with crappy gear.

Is the amount of speculation and key buying going to go down for the next holiday (Thanksgiving, probably, according to that secret explorable area nobody knows about yet)? Probably, but do you really want to see more posts about how this one guy spent $2500 looking for a permanent black lion trader? Nobody needs that kind of life ruining profit. Look before you leap, and if you don’t have the revenue to come out with a good return, don’t spin the wheel. Real life will screw you over far harder with less of a safety net than this environment of structured entertainment, so might as well get your practice in. Play responsibly.