Guild Wars 2

I’m not one to usually complain about much in games but this has gotten to be a little ridiculous now and ANET needs to hear its customers opinions otherwise this **** will keep on going.

Halloween event was a nightmare for trying to get any of the skins; I spent a bit of cash trying to get lucky with chests and walked away with none. Christmas rolls around and I wasnt very interested in any of the items but they seemed to go in the right direction and put the skins on the TP for gems which is perfectly fine with me in a F2P model; the company does need to make their money afterall.

Now comes fire and frost….I have sunk 40 dollars and over 100g to buy gems for some random chance to get these tickets and have not gotten a single one. Yet my friend used 2 keys and got 2 tickets. This kind of RNG behavior is absolutely absurd, its is completely reminiscent of Activisions greed in most of their games.

ANET I am asking you as a loyal customer and player to please stop this RNG based loot system and just move these skins from this event and all that follow it to the TP for a straight up gem purchase. I cannot see ever spending a dime again on any RNG based loot after Halloween and now this event.

People may say that you do not “need” these skins and they are purely cosmetic which is true, but this game has not progressive loot system past lvl 80 exotics which as extremely easy to get within a few days of hitting 80 if you know what you are doing. These skins are basically this games progressive loot system; new skins make the game feel new for lots of people myself included.

If you truly do not wish to redo what you did during the Christmas event then at least like so many games before gw2, at the end of the event give everyone who completes it one ticket as a reward for doing what I know as a programmer took many long hours to do. Many people do not go enjoy these events you design due to their being no decent reward at the end.

All in all Im hoping someone at ANET reads this, hell it’d be great if someone could respond to it, and hopefully with enough people voicing their opinions about the current system that something can be done about it.

If you don’t like the possibility of losing, don’t put your money into a slot machine.

I dunno why they just don’t put them in the gem shop either. Its made for that type of thing.

This is not the first time anet put nice stuff in those black lion chests. If you don’t want to gamble don’t buy them. OP you just sound mad because you lost at the casino.

TheBlackLeech.9360:

If you don’t like the possibility of losing, don’t put your money into a slot machine.

The whole point of this post was that there should not be a slot machine. Cash shop micro transactions are fine but they should not be RNG based.

morrolan.9608:

I dunno why they just don’t put them in the gem shop either. Its made for that type of thing.

Because they make FAR more money by making it a gamble.

the entire reason it’s rng is to increase revenue for anet

gw2 is a b2p game, they depend on people to buy gems to keep them as a company going; i don’t really see what the issue is

Tower Guard.5263:

This is not the first time anet put nice stuff in those black lion chests. If you don’t want to gamble don’t buy them. OP you just sound mad because you lost at the casino.

I am upset and have a valid right to be, this a video game not vegas and if the trend continues then eventually everything will be this way ans it will anger many more people than just myself. My point was they did it right during Christmas and I am hoping they go back to that trend. Nothing in my post was raging or angry, just a calm and cool informative post about my opinion.

While I’d prefer them to be something that could be purchased outright from the gem store, I would be satisfied if people could sell the ticket or skin on the TP. At least then there is a choice between gambling and paying (even at a a premium) for a sure thing. Having something only available by gambling bothers me a bit.

hamsteak.1368:

the entire reason it’s rng is to increase revenue for anet

gw2 is a b2p game, they depend on people to buy gems to keep them as a company going; i don’t really see what the issue is

They will get much more revenue if they made it so you could buy the items straight out. I probably would have still dropped 40 bucks and kept my in game gold and have bought the skins i wanted for all my characters that I play.

MisterEction.9382:

While I’d prefer them to be something that could be purchased outright from the gem store, I would be satisfied if people could sell the ticket or skin on the TP. At least then there is a choice between gambling and paying (even at a a premium) for a sure thing. Having something only available by gambling bothers me a bit.

Thats another completely reasonable option

Tower Guard.5263:

This is not the first time anet put nice stuff in those black lion chests. If you don’t want to gamble don’t buy them. OP you just sound mad because you lost at the casino.

Can’t blame the man for being mad at a RNG-plagued MMO.

I just dont understand the need for it, they will make tons of cash either way and have a much happier player base without the rng

hamsteak.1368:

the entire reason it’s rng is to increase revenue for anet

gw2 is a b2p game, they depend on people to buy gems to keep them as a company going; i don’t really see what the issue is

Its arguably exploitative even unethical. They can get people buying gems by putting the items direct on the cash shop.

Anet used to be a company with the interests of the players being paramount. its actions like this that have completely trashed their brand.

I’d urge everyone not to buy gems for this sort of crap.

I’m pretty sure if the standalone skins (Wintersday) were more profitable than the RNG chests (Halloween / Fused), they’d go for the standalone skins.

Gamble boxes are the rage in many Asian games. Perfect World, for instance, has a lot of them, and their Western-based MMO’s (STO, CO and probably also in NWO which is in beta) feature them.

That said, I’ll add my preferences to this thread. Gamble boxes will in no way entice me to spend money. If I want to buy something in a game, I want to buy it, not buy a chance at it. I will continue to buy things I want in the gem store, when and if I have money, but I will chose to do without anything that is exclusively available in a gamble box.

TheDaiBish.9735:

I’m pretty sure if the standalone skins (Wintersday) were more profitable than the RNG chests (Halloween / Fused), they’d go for the standalone skins.

Right now it might be but in the long run it will kitten people off to the point that they dont want to spend anymore money, where as putting the items in the shop and charging for them at least will give people a sense of trust with the company that they arent trying to totally rip them off.

Rawkfist.8214:

I just dont understand the need for it, they will make tons of cash either way and have a much happier player base without the rng

It’s simple. They’re betting that they will make more money from the compulsive gamblers and the people who “have to” have the items than they will lose from those who will not gamble.

Regardless of what an individual player thinks of the practice, it remains one of the best ways for a company running a subscription-free MMO to make money. Take items that are exclusive or in high demand but not game-altering (cosmetic items like backpack and weapon skins) and put them into random boxes. A dozen people or so complain about bad luck, a dozen people or so boast about good luck, and a million people buy boxes by the dozens (or in this case, keys to the boxes that already drop in massive quantities).

People do not complain in numbers anywhere near the sales figures, so however you, personally, feel about the practice it is going to continue.

Rawkfist.8214:

TheDaiBish.9735:

I’m pretty sure if the standalone skins (Wintersday) were more profitable than the RNG chests (Halloween / Fused), they’d go for the standalone skins.

Right now it might be but in the long run it will kitten people off to the point that they dont want to spend anymore money, where as putting the items in the shop and charging for them at least will give people a sense of trust with the company that they arent trying to totally rip them off.

Yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I won’t touch gambling.

But as long as they make more money, they won’t take notice of the people who don’t like the model.

Not to mention, ANet isn’t in charge of monetization (Firefox is telling me this isn’t a word? -.-).

tolunart.2095:

Take items that are exclusive or in high demand but not game-altering (cosmetic items like backpack and weapon skins) and put them into random boxes. A dozen people or so complain about bad luck, a dozen people or so boast about good luck, and a million people buy boxes by the dozens.

.

I thought the whole point of this game was to play with items that “weren’t game altering” since I always heard so much preaching about no gear treadmill and no stat chasing. So… now we chase stats in Fractals (lolwut), and for the stuff that the game was originally stated to be about we have to gamble? (lolwut)

This is just what I’m gleaning from these posts and from things I read about this game during its development etc etc. I’m still a new player, so maybe I’m wrong.

morrolan.9608:

hamsteak.1368:

the entire reason it’s rng is to increase revenue for anet

gw2 is a b2p game, they depend on people to buy gems to keep them as a company going; i don’t really see what the issue is

Its arguably exploitative even unethical. They can get people buying gems by putting the items direct on the cash shop.

Anet used to be a company with the interests of the players being paramount. its actions like this that have completely trashed their brand.

I’d urge everyone not to buy gems for this sort of crap.

If they just put the skins in the Gem Shop, and not the stats, then it stays away from the Pay2Win/Unethical aspect much more.

The Black Lion Chest/RNG/Pay4Keys thing is pretty unethical if you ask me. People should be able to walk away with an item after spending tons of money. Not, the hope of walking away with an item.

Milkduds.7109:

tolunart.2095:

Take items that are exclusive or in high demand but not game-altering (cosmetic items like backpack and weapon skins) and put them into random boxes. A dozen people or so complain about bad luck, a dozen people or so boast about good luck, and a million people buy boxes by the dozens.

.

I thought the whole point of this game was to play with items that “weren’t game altering” since I always heard so much preaching about no gear treadmill and no stat chasing. So… now we chase stats in Fractals (lolwut), and for the stuff that the game was originally stated to be about we have to gamble? (lolwut)

This is just what I’m gleaning from these posts and from things I read about this game during its development etc etc. I’m still a new player, so maybe I’m wrong.

You are right on the money. The philosophy of ANet has changed dramatically in the last few years.

RNG is killing a lot of customer good will. ANet really needs to be careful with this.

Rawkfist.8214:

The whole point of this post was that there should not be a slot machine. Cash shop micro transactions are fine but they should not be RNG based.

- Should not be? Who are you to tell a company how it should run its business? If you don’t like it, then don’t buy gems to burn to useless crap. Simple as that.

I can’t believe people spend that much cash on pixels.

Zenith.6403:

Rawkfist.8214:

The whole point of this post was that there should not be a slot machine. Cash shop micro transactions are fine but they should not be RNG based.

- Should not be? Who are you to tell a company how it should run its business? If you don’t like it, then don’t buy gems to burn to useless crap. Simple as that.

It’s because people thought that the game would not come to things like this per the way the game was advertised to us for years…

If you make a game with the promise of no gear treadmill, but then you put one in the game, and you take what people THOUGHT the game was going to be about, and you gate it behind a slot machine that takes real money to play…

You really think people have no right to say something about that?

Only in America are businesses treated like they have feelings or something….

Edit: and to be clear, putting cosmetic items on the cash shop from time to time (like the quaggan backpacks) is fine! It’s the slot machine technique with no other way to acquire the items that is making people upset.

If you want them to fix this RNG based skin deal, then stop the frigg gambling with the system.

Why people so dumb?

As long as there’s idiots falling for this scam, they keep on making tons of money and have no reason to stop this RNG crap any time soon.

Zenith.6403:

Rawkfist.8214:

The whole point of this post was that there should not be a slot machine. Cash shop micro transactions are fine but they should not be RNG based.

- Should not be? Who are you to tell a company how it should run its business? If you don’t like it, then don’t buy gems to burn to useless crap. Simple as that.

Isn’t that the same kind of attitude that gets us into a lot of trouble with businesses? There should be some sort of ethical standard to hold businesses to. I mean, don’t you think someone should have told the banks that they should stop selling bad loans to home buyers? Shouldn’t we have people that tell business that polluting is bad?

There are some things that should and should not be – and taking advantage of customers by using impossible RNG to sucker them out of $50-$100+ is just not good business. We didn’t buy a casino game, we bought an MMO.

Milkduds.7109:

Zenith.6403:

Rawkfist.8214:

The whole point of this post was that there should not be a slot machine. Cash shop micro transactions are fine but they should not be RNG based.

- Should not be? Who are you to tell a company how it should run its business? If you don’t like it, then don’t buy gems to burn to useless crap. Simple as that.

It’s because people thought that the game would not come to things like this per the way the game was advertised to us for years…

If you make a game with the promise of no gear treadmill, but then you put one in the game, and you take what people THOUGHT the game was going to be about, and you gate it behind a slot machine that takes real money to play…

You really think people have no right to say something about that?

Only in America are businesses treated like they have feelings or something….

Edit: and to be clear, putting cosmetic items on the cash shop from time to time (like the quaggan backpacks) is fine! It’s the slot machine technique with no other way to acquire the items that is making people upset.

Exactly. Someone needs to remind Zenith that companies work for us – the consumer – and not the other way around. We get to tell them whatever the hell we kitten well please because we paid for their game.

You don’t have to buy the keys, it is not compulsory. Yesterday, on release, I bought 10 keys (and that was my limit), which with the keys that dropped from the boxes themselves, enabled me to open 14 chests. I didn’t get a ticket. Meh, I thought and carried on grinding the mats for Volcanus which I am currently working on.

Today, a BL key dropped from a mob in Cursed Shore, I opened a box and I got a ticket.

I was pleasantly surprised.

You dont have to buy the keys….fact.

You are the victims of the “I want it now” phenomenom that seems to be a bit too common. It’s meant to be rare, they even stated it’s rare and you’ve got people spending hundreds of real dollars / pounds / euros on it. You are your own worst enemies. Veruca Salt syndrome.

Make it common, no-one will want it. You can’t blame ANet for your own reckless spending.

pricer.5091:

You don’t have to buy the keys, it is not compulsory. Yesterday, on release, I bought 10 keys (and that was my limit), which with the keys that dropped from the boxes themselves, enabled me to open 14 chests. I didn’t get a ticket. Meh, I thought and carried on grinding the mats for Volcanus which I am currently working on.

Today, a BL key dropped from a mob in Cursed Shore, I opened a box and I got a ticket.

I was pleasantly surprised.

You dont have to buy the keys….fact.

Lol. I’m playing GW2 since end september, and I think I only looted one black lion key for mobs, the drop rate is incredibly low so we have to buy them or farm toons…
Also it is nowhere announced that the Fused weapons were coming, last week I bought a lot of keys with the sale, and used them all. Now I regret I have done that because of the Fused weapon skin I want so badly

The funny part is the only reason they release the means of acquiring skins like this is because individuals like you waste real life money and dump crazy amounts of gold in. If you want it to stop, simply stop participating in the system and encourage others to do so.

Personally, I think these skins looks like kitten.

pricer.5091:

You don’t have to buy the keys, it is not compulsory. Yesterday, on release, I bought 10 keys (and that was my limit), which with the keys that dropped from the boxes themselves, enabled me to open 14 chests. I didn’t get a ticket. Meh, I thought and carried on grinding the mats for Volcanus which I am currently working on.

Today, a BL key dropped from a mob in Cursed Shore, I opened a box and I got a ticket.

Yes because key drops are so frequent <sarcasm>

I have not had a key drop in at least 5 months.

tolunart.2095:

Regardless of what an individual player thinks of the practice, it remains one of the best ways for a company running a subscription-free MMO to make money. Take items that are exclusive or in high demand but not game-altering (cosmetic items like backpack and weapon skins) and put them into random boxes. A dozen people or so complain about bad luck, a dozen people or so boast about good luck, and a million people buy boxes by the dozens (or in this case, keys to the boxes that already drop in massive quantities).

People do not complain in numbers anywhere near the sales figures, so however you, personally, feel about the practice it is going to continue.

If you honestly think its only a dozen or so people upset by this then im sorry but there is no hope for you. There are tens of thousands of kitten off people talking in guilds, map chat, forums(this one and others), even irl at my college where there are at least 20+ people i know who play the game that are kitten off by a rng based micro transaction system.

morrolan.9608:

pricer.5091:

You don’t have to buy the keys, it is not compulsory. Yesterday, on release, I bought 10 keys (and that was my limit), which with the keys that dropped from the boxes themselves, enabled me to open 14 chests. I didn’t get a ticket. Meh, I thought and carried on grinding the mats for Volcanus which I am currently working on.

Today, a BL key dropped from a mob in Cursed Shore, I opened a box and I got a ticket.

Yes because key drops are so frequent <sarcasm>

I have not had a key drop in at least 5 months.

Neither had I until today.

George Steel.1804:

The funny part is the only reason they release the means of acquiring skins like this is because individuals like you waste real life money and dump crazy amounts of gold in. If you want it to stop, simply stop participating in the system and encourage others to do so.

Personally, I think these skins looks like kitten.

Your personal views aside, it is nearly impossible to stop all the people from doing something. People have been trying to stop poverty, wars, religious hate, etc since time began. What makes you think that telling people to stop will work? We all bought a license to this game and have the right to vocalize our disappointment to it developers and attempt to get them to change their policies for the betterment of the license.

pricer.5091:

You are the victims of the “I want it now” phenomenom that seems to be a bit too common. It’s meant to be rare, they even stated it’s rare and you’ve got people spending hundreds of real dollars / pounds / euros on it. You are your own worst enemies. Veruca Salt syndrome.

Make it common, no-one will want it. You can’t blame ANet for your own reckless spending.

Or they could provide a way to acquire the items via playing the game… like through a challenge or a crafting grind… I dunno… I’d like that a lot.

I’m ok with not having it now. And people thought Diablo 3 was bad… lol

OP: You are the exact reason the system is the way it is now. You spent $40 and over 100g to try and get a skin.

If they put the skin right in the cash shop, you would have gotten it for maybe $5 and no gold spent? Or just spent 10g to get the item you wanted and no cash spent.

So long as people like you are going to pay ridiculous amounts on random chance, it is far more profitable for them to keep it that way. So, you have nobody to blame for this but yourself.

There is a reason why ANet has done this a second time, it makes them money and with that in mind, I’m fine with it. You cannot regulate stupidity, if people are going to do this, power to them and good luck.

Rawkfist.8214:

George Steel.1804:

The funny part is the only reason they release the means of acquiring skins like this is because individuals like you waste real life money and dump crazy amounts of gold in. If you want it to stop, simply stop participating in the system and encourage others to do so.

Personally, I think these skins looks like kitten.

Your personal views aside, it is nearly impossible to stop all the people from doing something. People have been trying to stop poverty, wars, religious hate, etc since time began. What makes you think that telling people to stop will work? We all bought a license to this game and have the right o vocalize our disappointment to it developers and attempt to get them to change their policies for the betterment for the license.

There are many things I don’t like about this game, the RNG is one of them which is why I very rarely buy anything for cash. I’ve spent less than £100 on gems since launch, which is less than I would have spent if I was still playing WoW and I have managed to get a full set of Norn T3 armor, Vision of the Mists and am working on Volcanus. Beyond buying 10 keys for the Christmas event and 10 keys for this event I have had nothing to do with RNG.

And yet I have mostly everything I could want in the game. Didn’t get a precursor, didnt get a halloween skin, didn’t get a christmas skin…didn’t cry about it.

Not sure why you’re complaining about this. You knew it was rng beforehand and past experience would tell you the chance of getting 1 isn’t that high yet you still do it then complain? A sucker is born every minute

The only bit of RNG in the game I DO have a problem with is the mystic forge precursor lottery. Everything else is entirely fair. But the legendary thing isn’t. Yu have to play the game to get every other part of the legendary, but you have to gamble for the main component…..thats not giving people a choice.

RoRo.8270:

Not sure why you’re complaining about this. You knew it was rng beforehand and past experience would tell you the chance of getting 1 isn’t that high yet you still do it then complain? A sucker is born every minute

Yes, it is dumb to buy BLKs hoping to get anything of value. That doesn’t mean that what ANet is doing is any better.

For the record, I have never bought a BLK and never intend to. But, I still think we shouldn’t have skins gated behind terribad RNG.

Rawkfist.8214:

If you honestly think its only a dozen or so people upset by this then im sorry but there is no hope for you. There are tens of thousands of kitten off people talking in guilds, map chat, forums(this one and others), even irl at my college where there are at least 20+ people i know who play the game that are kitten off by a rng based micro transaction system.

LOL ok, whatever…

Sure, tens of thousands of people complain, then get out their credit cards…

The same thing happens in many other MMOs, and at convenience stores all over the country… people buy tickets, complain because they didn’t win anything, and buy more tickets…

I don’t buy gems, or keys, and I don’t care about getting the cool new weapon skins… but I’m not a typical MMO player. They know what they are doing, and have a good grasp of customer behavior.

clay.7849:

RoRo.8270:

Not sure why you’re complaining about this. You knew it was rng beforehand and past experience would tell you the chance of getting 1 isn’t that high yet you still do it then complain? A sucker is born every minute

Yes, it is dumb to buy BLKs hoping to get anything of value. That doesn’t mean that what ANet is doing is any better.

For the record, I have never bought a BLK and never intend to. But, I still think we shouldn’t have skins gated behind terribad RNG.

This isn’t a p2p game anet is a business not a charity

Milkduds.7109:

I thought the whole point of this game was to play with items that “weren’t game altering” since I always heard so much preaching about no gear treadmill and no stat chasing. So… now we chase stats in Fractals (lolwut), and for the stuff that the game was originally stated to be about we have to gamble? (lolwut)

This is just what I’m gleaning from these posts and from things I read about this game during its development etc etc. I’m still a new player, so maybe I’m wrong.

That is because a million or so ex-WoW players bought the game, rushed to 80, and expected a WoW-like endgame. They complained, loudly and through multiple channels, because the game they got wasn’t the game they wanted.

The game they wanted was not the game that was promised or advertised, but that’s beside the point. They spent money on the game and have a voice in it just like every other customer.

When a large chunk of your customers demand something, you give it to them. Fractals and Ascended gear and all that are as optional as legendaries and cultural armor skins. The only people who feel they NEED these things are those with a compulsion to experience every single aspect of the game no matter what it is. I feel sorry for these people, but short of suggesting a good therapist there’s nothing we can do for them.

RoRo.8270:

clay.7849:

RoRo.8270:

Not sure why you’re complaining about this. You knew it was rng beforehand and past experience would tell you the chance of getting 1 isn’t that high yet you still do it then complain? A sucker is born every minute

Yes, it is dumb to buy BLKs hoping to get anything of value. That doesn’t mean that what ANet is doing is any better.

For the record, I have never bought a BLK and never intend to. But, I still think we shouldn’t have skins gated behind terribad RNG.

This isn’t a p2p game anet is a business not a charity

Then give us stuff that will make me want to purchase gems. Like I said, I haven’t purchased gems because of RNG – same with you. So, the smart people aren’t purchasing gems. How is that helping their bottom line?

Well, I finished my level 10 story quest today and got a key from completing it. I said what the heck, bought a chest off the trading post for 7 copper…

Yep… I got a ticket.

._____________________________________________.

My brother bought me 2000 Gems about 5 months ago or so. 5 months later I still have that same 2000 Gems and will not buy any more gems till I run out. I already bought the character slots I wanted prior to my brother giving me 2000 Gems.

Anet, the skins would have been stuff I would have spent gems on if RNG was not in the system. Please, give me something to spend my Gems on, cause when I run out of Gems I will spend more money.

Here is a hint, items that changes the look of my characters combat gear is stuff I am willing to buy.