Guild Wars 2

I would love to see some of the people posting in here to go into a Las Vegas casino or a carnival booth and complain about how they are being taken advantage of like they are doing to ANet in this thread. You know you are gambling when you spend your money on any chest item in the shop or game. When you gamble, you can lose. If you don’t want to lose, don’t gamble and when you lose, don’t whine about it.

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

Hi everyone,

The statistics reported on the wiki pages for the Wintersday Mystery Box drop rates are incorrect, due to the method being used for calculating them. Some of our item packages use more than one loot table to determine what you get from opening them. Whenever you open a Wintersday Mystery Box, it randomly drops items selected from 2 tables, each having specific items and their own drop rates.

We’ve seen people mention the low drop rates of Foostivoo from Wintersday Mystery Box and would like to remind people that the primary way to obtain this miniature is from the Mystic Forge, by combining other minis (wiki link).

Thank you.

I think at this point we all realize the RNG nature of the Wintersday Mystery Boxes. The point that the community is making is another thing all together. With adding mini pets to the RNG boxes and making them account bound a huge wave of anger and disappointment in a company many of us love and want to continue supporting is on the rise.

Many have pointed to the nature of these boxes making it extremely difficult to obtain all 4 mini pets with a reasonable amount of money, and I will agree with them. So I’ve been wondering what the motivation behind making these RNG mini pets account bound was. I’m not entirely sure, but I will say this. The way that Halloween and Lost Shores mini pets were handled were good (The mini pet box being the best method).

At Halloween I bought 2 sets of the Spooky Trio to get the four mini pets and felt satisfied and was happy in my support of the guild wars franchise. I didn’t even mind the Consortium Chests as the community was still able to buy the mini pets on the Black Lion Trading Company to complete their collection. This method allowed players with multiples of the mini pet(s) to sell those they did not need stimulating the in-game economy and giving players a sense of achievement. I myself bought 20 consortium chests, got one of the mini pets and bought the other 2 on the trading post.

Further the way the toy mini pets were handled wasn’t a bad method either. I see many people saying this is a good method. Allow players to buy each mini for 350 gems, or whatever is deemed an appropriate price for that mini pet. I bought the 3 I was not able to craft using the Tixx dungeon rewards and was more than glad to do so.

The perception is the community on a whole would be glad to never see account bound mini pets in RNG boxes ever again. Non account bound, sure we’re fine with that. We can buy them on the Black Lion Trading Company that way. Account bound mini pets from RNG boxes…well lets just say people are not happy about this.

On the note of Foostivoo…great, we know how this mechanic works. Take any of the 3 RNG holiday mini pets and throw them into the mystic forge with 50 wads of stuffing. Another way to obtain Foostivoo is through Giant Wintersday Gifts. Personally I would have liked to see them purchasable from the wintersday gift exchange NPC for something like 500 Wool Socks for the Festive Golem, 500 Wool Hats for the Snowman, and 500 Wool Sweaters for the Infinirarium, or something like that. This would give the player the sense of achieving their mini pets through rigorous play of the holiday content that many developers spent months on.

Players would have a sense of achievement at having mastered areas of the holiday content. I know many people are raving about the bell choir and how much they love it, many have gone on to master the songs. Further this has led to many people seeking after the unbreakable choir bell so they can play songs on them year round. I know I have heard many players playing all sorts of christmas songs on them, truly a wonderful thing.

I would love to see some of the people posting in here to go into a Las Vegas casino or a carnival booth and complain about how they are being taken advantage of like they are doing to ANet in this thread. You know you are gambling when you spend your money on any chest item in the shop or game. When you gamble, you can lose. If you don’t want to lose, don’t gamble and when you lose, don’t whine about it.

Sure, but the problem is that gambling is the ONLY way Arenanet has presented for acquiring several items in the game. That is the complaint, that many of us would like more sure-fire ways of getting it. If you could spend $10 on a bunch of boxes, and have a chance of getting a desired prize among other prizes, but you could ALSO just spend $10 and get it outright (but with no other prizes), then players would be less upset about it. Yes, if you go to Vegas and gamble then you may lose money, but there are other ways to make money, that do not involve gambling. The problem is that there are not other ways of gaining the mini-pets.

Long story short, the total average cost of acquiring the minis should be cheaper than it is, and should be less based on luck. If you want to roll the dice and take the chance that you can get it for cheaper then that should be an option, but so too should having a direct path that does not involve chance.

The gem store team is trying things out to find a nice balance, it seems. Halloween the only pets were the Miniature Spooky Trio + Chainsaw Skeleton, which were all account bound because they could only come from the gem store. Lost Shores brought about the two karkas and the reef drake and they were tradable since they came from both a Consortium Chest and (supposedly) as a very rare drop from the karka mobs.

Wintersday we have five in-game obtainable pets of which we can only claim two (well, three now) and the four Mystery Wintersday Box pets. All of these pets are account bound.

Looking at just these three options, I’d guess some combination of all three would be good (if they add 9 pets or so like they did for Wintersday). If it’s like Foostivoo or Chainsaw, then the Halloween method is best for that. The rest of them are okay if delivered either like in Lost Shores (boxes or grindable, able to sell on Trading Post) or for the five toys (do event dungeons to obtain materials to craft a few of them, buy the rest).

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

Hi everyone,

The statistics reported on the wiki pages for the Wintersday Mystery Box drop rates are incorrect, due to the method being used for calculating them. Some of our item packages use more than one loot table to determine what you get from opening them. Whenever you open a Wintersday Mystery Box, it randomly drops items selected from 2 tables, each having specific items and their own drop rates.

We’ve seen people mention the low drop rates of Foostivoo from Wintersday Mystery Box and would like to remind people that the primary way to obtain this miniature is from the Mystic Forge, by combining other minis (wiki link).

Thank you.

Well it cant be far off, I am at 90 boxes opened, yet to get the snowman, only gotten 2 of each of the other minis.

Iason Evan.3806:

I would love to see some of the people posting in here to go into a Las Vegas casino or a carnival booth and complain about how they are being taken advantage of like they are doing to ANet in this thread. You know you are gambling when you spend your money on any chest item in the shop or game. When you gamble, you can lose. If you don’t want to lose, don’t gamble and when you lose, don’t whine about it.

In a casino, you gamble money to win money. There are a myriad of ways to make money that aren’t gamble in a casino.

Here, we’re not gambling gems to win gems. We’re gambling gems to win items that can only be gotten via gambling (account bound minis).

The complaint isn’t so much about the gamble itself (though I dislike it regardless) but the fact that if you want these minis you have to gamble. Don’t make them account bound and you solve the problem – you could gamble, or you could buy them from people who already gambled and not need to take your chances.

Iason Evan.3806:

I would love to see some of the people posting in here to go into a Las Vegas casino or a carnival booth and complain about how they are being taken advantage of like they are doing to ANet in this thread. You know you are gambling when you spend your money on any chest item in the shop or game. When you gamble, you can lose. If you don’t want to lose, don’t gamble and when you lose, don’t whine about it.

I dont think you get the point here. People DONT WANT to gamble. The thing is that the only way to get the minis is gambling, and that’s what people DONT want. I know it is hard for fanboys to understand some things, but I thought that one was simple to get.

I don’t see why the people who claim to have spent 70$ on the mini-pets and have them all feel more entitled than the person who spend 100$ and has one mini-pet. It’s a bad attitude, it’s all luck and it really shouldn’t be. Not in a Christmas holiday. No spirit of giving in Tyria with everything being account-bound. I would laugh if the strategy was to milk these mini-pets until the event is over and then remove the account-bound after the holiday.

I agree that paying money just for a CHANCE at minipets is over the top and the system could be handled better. The store should be more of a shortcut, where you can pay to get pets/outfits that you otherwise have to grind for. I liked WingOfAsgard’s suggestion of having the minipets also be purchaseable for high amounts of ugly wool clothes or similar. It feels better to grind/work for a reward in a game than just to dish out on a gamble, and those who don’t have time to grind could still buy the pets at the store. Free to attain boxes can have a low drop rate and that’s fine, but something you pay for should not be a gamble.

Joukehainen.5148:

I agree that paying money just for a CHANCE at minipets is over the top and the system could be handled better. The store should be more of a shortcut, where you can pay to get pets/outfits that you otherwise have to grind for. I liked WingOfAsgard’s suggestion of having the minipets also be purchaseable for high amounts of ugly wool clothes or similar. It feels better to grind/work for a reward in a game than just to dish out on a gamble, and those who don’t have time to grind could still buy the pets at the store. Free to attain boxes can have a low drop rate and that’s fine, but something you pay for should not be a gamble.

I suggested another possibility in a similar thread this morning. Make a mystic forge recipe that takes 10 Wintersday Boxes, 100 Wads of Stuffing, 100 Drops of Glue, and 100 cogs to create a Wintersday Mini Trio Box. Many of us now have an additional 200 cogs lying around and this would be a good use for them.

WingsofAsgard.9201:

Joukehainen.5148:

I agree that paying money just for a CHANCE at minipets is over the top and the system could be handled better. The store should be more of a shortcut, where you can pay to get pets/outfits that you otherwise have to grind for. I liked WingOfAsgard’s suggestion of having the minipets also be purchaseable for high amounts of ugly wool clothes or similar. It feels better to grind/work for a reward in a game than just to dish out on a gamble, and those who don’t have time to grind could still buy the pets at the store. Free to attain boxes can have a low drop rate and that’s fine, but something you pay for should not be a gamble.

I suggested another possibility in a similar thread this morning. Make a mystic forge recipe that takes 10 Wintersday Boxes, 100 Wads of Stuffing, 100 Drops of Glue, and 100 cogs to create a Wintersday Mini Trio Box. Many of us now have an additional 200 cogs lying around and this would be a good use for them.

I think that’s an excellent idea. After opening 60-ish boxes and still NO mini-pets whatsoever; I’d be thrilled with that opportunity.

Kitty La Boom Boom.4065:

WingsofAsgard.9201:

Joukehainen.5148:

I agree that paying money just for a CHANCE at minipets is over the top and the system could be handled better. The store should be more of a shortcut, where you can pay to get pets/outfits that you otherwise have to grind for. I liked WingOfAsgard’s suggestion of having the minipets also be purchaseable for high amounts of ugly wool clothes or similar. It feels better to grind/work for a reward in a game than just to dish out on a gamble, and those who don’t have time to grind could still buy the pets at the store. Free to attain boxes can have a low drop rate and that’s fine, but something you pay for should not be a gamble.

I suggested another possibility in a similar thread this morning. Make a mystic forge recipe that takes 10 Wintersday Boxes, 100 Wads of Stuffing, 100 Drops of Glue, and 100 cogs to create a Wintersday Mini Trio Box. Many of us now have an additional 200 cogs lying around and this would be a good use for them.

I think that’s an excellent idea. After opening 60-ish boxes and still NO mini-pets whatsoever; I’d be thrilled with that opportunity.

I’d also cough up some cash, I’ve opened 80 boxes myself and I don’t have the mini-pets I want. Haha

rtommaso.3120:

Iason Evan.3806:

I would love to see some of the people posting in here to go into a Las Vegas casino or a carnival booth and complain about how they are being taken advantage of like they are doing to ANet in this thread. You know you are gambling when you spend your money on any chest item in the shop or game. When you gamble, you can lose. If you don’t want to lose, don’t gamble and when you lose, don’t whine about it.

I dont think you get the point here. People DONT WANT to gamble. The thing is that the only way to get the minis is gambling, and that’s what people DONT want. I know it is hard for fanboys to understand some things, but I thought that one was simple to get.

It’s really not necessary to resort to name calling to make your point.

You are correct in that the current setup requires you to gamble to get the desired minis. And yes, it can get to be ridiculously expensive.

However the most logical approach to remedying this situation is: If you don’t want to risk your gems/cash, you should decline to gamble.

If enough people do that, rather than stepping off the gambling cliff like lemmings, the setup WILL change. Companies only do what is profitable. When it becomes unprofitable, marketing has to look at how to better entice the consumer to spend his/her hard earned cash. Always remember, when you make a purchase, you are in essence agreeing that the terms are reasonable.

Unfortunately, for some reason people are unable to stop spinning on this obsession with obtaining that elusive mini. Even when they know they’re giving up more cash (and in some cases FAR more) than is reasonable. They just keep getting in line, event after event, with the same outcome.

In some quarters doing something over and over with the same negative result is called insanity.

Debsylvania.7396:

rtommaso.3120:

Iason Evan.3806:

I would love to see some of the people posting in here to go into a Las Vegas casino or a carnival booth and complain about how they are being taken advantage of like they are doing to ANet in this thread. You know you are gambling when you spend your money on any chest item in the shop or game. When you gamble, you can lose. If you don’t want to lose, don’t gamble and when you lose, don’t whine about it.

I dont think you get the point here. People DONT WANT to gamble. The thing is that the only way to get the minis is gambling, and that’s what people DONT want. I know it is hard for fanboys to understand some things, but I thought that one was simple to get.

It’s really not necessary to resort to name calling to make your point.

You are correct in that the current setup requires you to gamble to get the desired minis. And yes, it can get to be ridiculously expensive.

However the most logical approach to remedying this situation is: If you don’t want to risk your gems/cash, you should decline to gamble.

If enough people do that, rather than stepping off the gambling cliff like lemmings, the setup WILL change. Companies only do what is profitable. When it becomes unprofitable, marketing has to look at how to better entice the consumer to spend his/her hard earned cash. Always remember, when you make a purchase, you are in essence agreeing that the terms are reasonable.

Unfortunately, for some reason people are unable to stop spinning on this obsession with obtaining that elusive mini. Even when they know they’re giving up more cash (and in some cases FAR more) than is reasonable. They just keep getting in line, event after event, with the same outcome.

In some quarters doing something over and over with the same negative result is called insanity.

I don’t think it’s necessarily that people aren’t fine with gambling…it’s how the gambling has been implemented. Gambling for the chance to acquire anything should mean that item is not account bound or soul bound. That way, for the people that do end up with multiples of the same item, say the festive hat or festive golem for instance, they can sell things on the Black Lion Trading Company, much like what they did with the consortium chests.

With the consortium chests during the Lost Shores event the only reliable way of acquiring the mini pets was through the Consortium Chests. A good deal of people received multiples of certain mini pets which in turn they sold for reasonable prices on the Black Lion Trading Company. People who weren’t as lucky could then buy the missing mini pets from their collection and stimulate the market further by dumping cash back into the pockets of the lucky player that received the multiples of various items. This worked extremely well, and left little bad taste in the mouth of the gaming community.

If the items in these mystery boxes are going to be account bound there needs to be other means in place for acquiring them, a mystic forge recipe to create a mini pet trio box for instance. RNG boxes, on general purpose should only be used for year round items like the Black Lion Chest(s). Since they are year round it makes sense to have account or even soul bound items within their contents. When you have a limited special event account bound/ soul bound items should never be something attainable through gem store only.

Take for instance the Wintersday Gift Boxes, which there should have only been one size of imo. Within the Giant Wintersday Gift resides the Unbreakable Choir Bell. A lot of people would like to get their hands on this item and since it is attainable through gameplay and tradable on the the Black Lion Trading Post you see very players complaining about the implementation of its distribution. The reason being they will still be able to purchase it from the trading company after the event has finished and they were unable to get it through their own personal gameplay during the event.

The point being…people want to take their chances to an extent then have another option in attaining RNG items. Boosters are a good example of this. People buy keys or trade in commendations for a chance to get a karma or magic find booster and some other random items. But see, here the box is a year round RNG box (Black Lion Chest), therefore people don’t have a problem with it on a whole.

Veruca Salt or Charley Bucket. Your choice. Move on.

I opened 90 chests and got all 4 minis…goal achieved, lesson learned, surprisingly no satisfaction earned from it, and that’s it, I won’t gamble my money next time any more when Anet do the same thing with minis on festival event .

Minis should be tradable. If they are account bound, there should be other way to deal with them, recipes for Mystic Forge is also a good idea, at least we could know we will have what we want at the end.

I still have 7 snowmen lying in my bank, sneering at my foolishness.

WingsofAsgard.9201:

Debsylvania.7396:

rtommaso.3120:

Iason Evan.3806:

I would love to see some of the people posting in here to go into a Las Vegas casino or a carnival booth and complain about how they are being taken advantage of like they are doing to ANet in this thread. You know you are gambling when you spend your money on any chest item in the shop or game. When you gamble, you can lose. If you don’t want to lose, don’t gamble and when you lose, don’t whine about it.

I dont think you get the point here. People DONT WANT to gamble. The thing is that the only way to get the minis is gambling, and that’s what people DONT want. I know it is hard for fanboys to understand some things, but I thought that one was simple to get.

It’s really not necessary to resort to name calling to make your point.

You are correct in that the current setup requires you to gamble to get the desired minis. And yes, it can get to be ridiculously expensive.

However the most logical approach to remedying this situation is: If you don’t want to risk your gems/cash, you should decline to gamble.

If enough people do that, rather than stepping off the gambling cliff like lemmings, the setup WILL change. Companies only do what is profitable. When it becomes unprofitable, marketing has to look at how to better entice the consumer to spend his/her hard earned cash. Always remember, when you make a purchase, you are in essence agreeing that the terms are reasonable.

Unfortunately, for some reason people are unable to stop spinning on this obsession with obtaining that elusive mini. Even when they know they’re giving up more cash (and in some cases FAR more) than is reasonable. They just keep getting in line, event after event, with the same outcome.

In some quarters doing something over and over with the same negative result is called insanity.

I don’t think it’s necessarily that people aren’t fine with gambling…it’s how the gambling has been implemented. Gambling for the chance to acquire anything should mean that item is not account bound or soul bound. That way, for the people that do end up with multiples of the same item, say the festive hat or festive golem for instance, they can sell things on the Black Lion Trading Company, much like what they did with the consortium chests.

With the consortium chests during the Lost Shores event the only reliable way of acquiring the mini pets was through the Consortium Chests. A good deal of people received multiples of certain mini pets which in turn they sold for reasonable prices on the Black Lion Trading Company. People who weren’t as lucky could then buy the missing mini pets from their collection and stimulate the market further by dumping cash back into the pockets of the lucky player that received the multiples of various items. This worked extremely well, and left little bad taste in the mouth of the gaming community.

If the items in these mystery boxes are going to be account bound there needs to be other means in place for acquiring them, a mystic forge recipe to create a mini pet trio box for instance. RNG boxes, on general purpose should only be used for year round items like the Black Lion Chest(s). Since they are year round it makes sense to have account or even soul bound items within their contents. When you have a limited special event account bound/ soul bound items should never be something attainable through gem store only.

Take for instance the Wintersday Gift Boxes, which there should have only been one size of imo. Within the Giant Wintersday Gift resides the Unbreakable Choir Bell. A lot of people would like to get their hands on this item and since it is attainable through gameplay and tradable on the the Black Lion Trading Post you see very players complaining about the implementation of its distribution. The reason being they will still be able to purchase it from the trading company after the event has finished and they were unable to get it through their own personal gameplay during the event.

The point being…people want to take their chances to an extent then have another option in attaining RNG items. Boosters are a good example of this. People buy keys or trade in commendations for a chance to get a karma or magic find booster and some other random items. But see, here the box is a year round RNG box (Black Lion Chest), therefore people don’t have a problem with it on a whole.

My point stands whether the issue is with cost or implementation. If either doesn’t meet your needs/standards, then don’t participate. It’s the only way changes will be made to the current structure.

Debsylvania.7396:

My point stands whether the issue is with cost or implementation. If either doesn’t meet your needs/standards, then don’t participate. It’s the only way changes will be made to the current structure.

If that were true then the method we obtained weapon skins from the Black Lion chests would be the same, the “mini-pet trio” would also be the same. They sold more Black Lion keys than they did these Wintersday chests, I’m sure of it. Because of the negative response from the community they changed these things. If we don’t voice our opinions then how will ArenaNet know that the poor sales are because of the low drop rate and not that no body wants these mini-pets? They might come to their own conclusions.

Giles Marchand.6970:

Debsylvania.7396:

My point stands whether the issue is with cost or implementation. If either doesn’t meet your needs/standards, then don’t participate. It’s the only way changes will be made to the current structure.

If that were true then the method we obtained weapon skins from the Black Lion chests would be the same, the “mini-pet trio” would also be the same. They sold more Black Lion keys than they did these Wintersday chests, I’m sure of it. Because of the negative response from the community they changed these things. If we don’t voice our opinions then how will ArenaNet know that the poor sales are because of the low drop rate and not that no body wants these mini-pets? They might come to their own conclusions.

The complaints resulting from the Halloween event certainly did lay the ground work in terms of consumer response to drop rates, etc. Were the complaints effective? I don’t see that much has changed this time around, though the setup may be slightly different.

Yes, people should certainly voice their opinions, but too many are saying they’re tremendously unhappy after spending large amounts of money AGAIN.

Once you’ve been burned (at Halloween, for example), wouldn’t you stand back (before spending again) to see what others are experiencing in terms of rewards before spending another big wad of cash? Why financially support something that isn’t working the way you think it should?

My previous posts weren’t centered at all on voicing opinions, which I’m completely for. I was thinking about how people didn’t seem to be using their money as leverage in any way, and they really should.

You could also say you refuse to participate because you don’t want to support the Mystery Box model.

Wintersday box definitely sold less than its Mad King or Consortium brothers. Nearly everything being account bound kind of pushed it that way.

I dont think ill ever buy a box with a chance to get what i want. I would gladly just pay upfront a certain amount , its never a good feeling to know you pay’s say £30 to get a pet where your friend may have got lucky and only had to spend £15

I hate this gamble system i mean i bought 20 euro gems but also had to spend almost all my ingame gold on gems to get the 4 pets. Anet has become greedy i mean 5 euro a pet should be way enough but noooooooo they add gamble. I’m actually thinking off leaving the game beceause the road they are taking i rather pay a monthly fee for my game.

Iason Evan.3806:

I would love to see some of the people posting in here to go into a Las Vegas casino or a carnival booth and complain about how they are being taken advantage of like they are doing to ANet in this thread. You know you are gambling when you spend your money on any chest item in the shop or game. When you gamble, you can lose. If you don’t want to lose, don’t gamble and when you lose, don’t whine about it.

Its a game if i want a casino i go there but Anet (or better NCsoft) has become greedy and added gamble to the store. 20 euro of gems should be enough to buy 4 minipets i say but there is no option. The y know people collect pets and will spend cash on it. Oh well i guess they wont be loosing sleep over it.

The cost of these minis is what made me decide to not bother spending any cash in the gem store this festival. Had there been a wintersday mini trio, I would have bought 2 sets, one for the minis and one to craft Foostivoo.

Seeing Anet make this blatant cash grab, no thanks. I’ll keep my credit card in my wallet.

I am not here to debate the definition of gambling, nor argue with the people accusing those of us who feel taken advantage of as whiners. This is my experience.

I spent $60 over the last two weeks on these ridiculous boxes. The first 10-20 boxes popped 2 mini snowmen. My initial, logical, assessment was: “The drop/return numbers for these things aren’t horrible. A couple more dollars and I should have my third one.” Forty dollars later, nothing but utter useless trash. My next question is, I see many people stating on this thread that they have 2 of the 3 specific minis, including duplicates, and cannot get Foostivoo until they get that specific third mini to drop. The official wiki says “The applicable minis are Mini Festive Golem, Mini Snowman, or Mini Infinirarium; you can use duplicates”. If that statement is incorrect, ArenaNet was highly misleading and owes us all our money back. I have decided that is the last I will spend any money on any future event items, should they remain this way. Looking over the numerous threads on this exact topic, I am obviously not the only one, and we are the vast majority.

For those who wish to lecture us about how no one forced us, it’s a gamble/get over it, ArenaNet is making money – “stop whining”. I will re-educate you on this very important point, which is the major point with our concern, and should be ArenaNet’s. The purpose of any company on the face of the planet is to make money. The second major purpose, is to continue doing so in the future. With the way these RNG Mystery boxes are currently executed, the vast majority of us will NOT be spending another dollar on these kinds of events. And that is something ArenaNet needs to be very, very concerned about. You got some dollars out of us now…. You won’t be doing so again.

No one is asking to have anything handed to them. They just want a more reasonable alternative to obtaining these things.

Note: The only reason I am posting this here, is the insulting response from the ArenNet CSR told me to do so for the Devs to read. I’d much rather not as we are all very aware, that for many people, forums exist only as a medium to insult and argue with others. I will not be checking back.

This

Raincrow.1840:

As long as people support RNG, Anet will keep useing it.

If you bought a bunch a chests, or threw things into the Forge hoping to win, and then came here to complain after you didn’t get what you wanted…. It’s YOUR FAULT.

You already voted IN FAVOR of RNG with your wallet. Coming here to complain after the fact is pointless.

Just remember next time, if you don’t like RNG, don’t support it in game. That’s the only way to stop ANet from using it in the future.

So at this point ANet the question is are you going to do anything with a week left to go in the holiday?

Felicela.2810:

So at this point ANet the question is are you going to do anything with a week left to go in the holiday?

Like what? The only people unhappy are those who bought chests and had bad luck. If they made the minis available to buy directly at this point, the people who got minis from chests already would complain.

EnemyCrusher.7324:

Felicela.2810:

So at this point ANet the question is are you going to do anything with a week left to go in the holiday?

Like what? The only people unhappy are those who bought chests and had bad luck. If they made the minis available to buy directly at this point, the people who got minis from chests already would complain.

What is there to complain about? The only complaint I could see is that their pets are less rare because they became available to everyone, which is how it should have been in the first place considering its real life money(primarily, yes I know you can change gold to gems). Its not like a decrease in rarity would hurt these people in any form or fashion as they are account bound and cant be sold. Which if they want to “fix it” by making them non account bound, that is fine by me at this point, and would make the “lucky” ones happy as they could sell extras.

Not really seeing much of a downside to selling a Trio, ANet makes more money on those like myself with poor luck who will buy a Trio, or makes everyone happy by unbounding them and allowing lucky players to make cash, and giving us unluckys a chance to get them, again with real life cash converted to gold or hard work in game and saving.

It breaks trust, as mentioned in either this or some other thread where that suggestion was brought up.

Would you be willing to spend money on a company that would have no problem changing methods of acquisition weeks after previously stating the only way to obtain it was a Mystery Box?

Look at it from a different POV. Say you were the guy above that spent $163 just to get all of those pets. Then ArenaNet came out right after and just silently added a trio pack without telling anyone (since that’s probably how they would do it lol). Would you, as that guy, be willing to spend money again? You would probably only wait until the end of events or something so that you don’t end up in that situation again.

If they are going to do anything to this specific set of minis (which they aren’t, commerce team has pretty much laid down that law) while the event is still going they’d be better off removing the account bound property. That’s something they could do at any time though I guess.

Regular mini’s and one time mini’s are different. The normal minis are not account bound and can be traded as far as I am aware.

They have broken trust already, stating only 2 of the Tixx Mini’s would be crafted and due to errors we could craft 3 without the possibilities of refunds, of spent gems, to those who bought them based on ANets word of only being able to craft 2, and bought them upon release instead of waiting.

Personally I would be far less mad if they opened up the Mini’s to everyone, it is a holiday event, it should have never been account bound RNG in the first place, admitting the mistake and finding a way to improve it will make a lot more people happy than mad.

Lacechan.6524:

It breaks trust, as mentioned in either this or some other thread where that suggestion was brought up.

Would you be willing to spend money on a company that would have no problem changing methods of acquisition weeks after previously stating the only way to obtain it was a Mystery Box?

Look at it from a different POV. Say you were the guy above that spent $163 just to get all of those pets. Then ArenaNet came out right after and just silently added a trio pack without telling anyone (since that’s probably how they would do it lol). Would you, as that guy, be willing to spend money again? You would probably only wait until the end of events or something so that you don’t end up in that situation again.

If they are going to do anything to this specific set of minis (which they aren’t, commerce team has pretty much laid down that law) while the event is still going they’d be better off removing the account bound property. That’s something they could do at any time though I guess.

The problem is no one should have to spend 50$ on each mini-pet. ArenaNet has never stated that these mystery boxes were the only way to obtain these mini-pets, in fact according to the patch notes, the mystery boxes are supposed to drop around Tyria. (Which they haven’t been.) The poster who spent 163$ even says he can’t afford to keep doing this, I think he’d be willing to take a hit this once for the sake of having these mini-pets cheaper in the future.

Giles Marchand.6970:

The problem is no one should have to spend 50$ on each mini-pet. ArenaNet has never stated that these mystery boxes were the only way to obtain these mini-pets, in fact according to the patch notes, the mystery boxes are supposed to drop around Tyria. (Which they haven’t been.) The poster who spent 163$ even says he can’t afford to keep doing this, I think he’d be willing to take a hit this once for the sake of having these mini-pets cheaper in the future.

In the interview with the event team they said the commerce team decides how you obtain all mini pets. In response to “How do you obtain Foostivoo?” they said one way (and the only method they knew of) was by fusing the three pets which only come from the box. They didn’t know the other ways because it’s handled by a different team so they try to avoid speaking in absolutes. It’s interesting because before he was interrupted it sounded like he was going to say “As far as I know the only way”

So if there are other methods to obtain pets outside of the boxes, the teams aren’t fully communicating with each other at all.

It is a bit odd that they haven’t bothered to update the patch notes or even clarify whether or not the Mystery Wintersday Box can even drop in the world. It’s obvious it doesn’t, but they don’t want to come out and say it.

I agree with you that no one should have to pay $50 for each pet.

I will start by saying that I purchased the Halloween trio… and an additional one so that I could make the special Halloween mini. Which is more then I thought id do but at the time I had every intention of collecting every mini in the game as I did in GW1 previously.

But with this new system of gambling for minis with real cash, I’ve decided to not even bother, now its not even worth it for me to get the final 2 gem store miniatures (not from the wintersday mystery boxes) as my collection will always be incomplete. And this is a feeling that several friends and I are sharing stemming from this wintersday celebration.

It is one thing to gamble your time and effort in game to hopefully get a mini drop, or even if other people decide to gamble their cash in the cash shop but the minis were left tradable so that others could purchase them directly. But the extremes of account binding and no alternate ways of acquiring these minis have left many with a not so fond thought of the whole situation.

The Halloween event was quite a success in my eyes and if this is progress, I wouldn’t mind if anet reverted to a system that pleased everyone.

Yeah im pretty annoyed that i spent $10 and did not receive a single mini. I am not going to keep dumping $10 in like a slot machine…. it is insulting that all i got was some potions… would have rather gotten more bag slots or more practical consumables. I do not care of the average for getting 3 wintersday minis is the random chance with no static rewards is enough to cause me not to buy such chests ever again and i recommend others do the same. I should be encouraged to spend $20 a month… not made to feel i wasted money.

Guardian.9543:

Yeah im pretty annoyed that i spent $10 and did not receive a single mini. I am not going to keep dumping $10 in like a slot machine…. it is insulting that all i got was some potions… would have rather gotten more bag slots or more practical consumables. I do not care of the average for getting 3 wintersday minis is the random chance with no static rewards is enough to cause me not to buy such chests ever again and i recommend others do the same. I should be encouraged to spend $20 a month… not made to feel i wasted money.

This is probably how most of the average players feel, and the reason they should consider allowing another purchase option for these Mini’s before the holiday is over.

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

Hi everyone,

The statistics reported on the wiki pages for the Wintersday Mystery Box drop rates are incorrect, due to the method being used for calculating them. Some of our item packages use more than one loot table to determine what you get from opening them. Whenever you open a Wintersday Mystery Box, it randomly drops items selected from 2 tables, each having specific items and their own drop rates.

We’ve seen people mention the low drop rates of Foostivoo from Wintersday Mystery Box and would like to remind people that the primary way to obtain this miniature is from the Mystic Forge, by combining other minis (wiki link).

Thank you.

I am and I believe most are aware there are 2 loot tables. 1 table is to determine the number of presents you get (the first column of the wiki). The second table determines what “cash shop” item you get. I can’t double check it now but when I first saw this thread I remember checking the op’s numbers to see if he/she accidentally included the presents and he/she did not.

The op’s numbers were based on the second loot table and were mostly accurate except for the fact that some items come in groups of two. This is easily adjusted. The wiki drop rate page is not set up well but the data is still data that can be used to get a decent rough idea of the drop rates of special items.

It still appears that common items drop ~85% of the time and pets ~10% of the time. give or take a few percentage points.

I got all 3 minis and 3 extra snowmen for the baby quaggen with 40 boxes. Costed me 3200 gems.

I currently bought 80 boxes.

5 mini golems, 4 mini infin,

ZERO Snowmen.

This sucks so much…

Wish it was a ticket system like the weapon skins…

60 boxes, 3minis and twice the same.
80 golds spent.
I feel like being robbed.

Anet → I’ll never put real money in random discovery items.

:s

NGaze.7196:

I currently bought 80 boxes.

5 mini golems, 4 mini infin,

ZERO Snowmen.

This sucks so much…

Wish it was a ticket system like the weapon skins…

The ticket system, in addition to having them available in the gem shop (like the weapon skins) would have been a nice way to go.

My first 5 boxes i opened had 2 different mini’s.
The 23th box had the third mini i needed to make my Foostivoo.
The remaining 7 boxes (since i bought in stacks of 10) had another 2 minipets.
I can’t complain but i feel bad now for the people including some in my guild that spent a little more…

In my country, gambling is legal only when the company keeps track of what people do, to prevent them from spending more than a reasonable amount and protect them from themselves.

Since I doubt ArenaNet has such a check in place, they may be very close to doing something extremely illegal in my country. Especially since they make it available to minors too.

Finally got all the minis.

Took 100 Wintersday boxes. Or 8k gems. All gotten from gold I farmed.

If I’d actually bought the gems, I’d feel robbed. Now I just feel unlucky.

Just to put it in my face, got 2 snowmen, the one I was missing in my last 4 boxes…

Just glad its over. I can go play another game for now.

:-p

Took me 60 boxes, got 7 minis. Last 20 were in an effort to acquire the golem. Before that I had 3 snowmen and 2 infiniariums. Also got a winter’s weapon claim ticket.

I really hate everything based on luck…
Time… Money… You with those you know where you’re going.
Luck it’s just… too bad…

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

Hi everyone,

The statistics reported on the wiki pages for the Wintersday Mystery Box drop rates are incorrect, due to the method being used for calculating them. Some of our item packages use more than one loot table to determine what you get from opening them. Whenever you open a Wintersday Mystery Box, it randomly drops items selected from 2 tables, each having specific items and their own drop rates.

We’ve seen people mention the low drop rates of Foostivoo from Wintersday Mystery Box and would like to remind people that the primary way to obtain this miniature is from the Mystic Forge, by combining other minis (wiki link).

Thank you.

Translation: The original count was wrong because we use multiple drop tables to make it even more difficult to get the coveted Quaggan minipet; because we want you to spend as much money as possible and hope you won’t realize that we’re actually having you gamble in hopes for a very, very long shot.

Come on, people. ANet went full-on Korean-style “milk the player dry” non-subscription model, here. This isn’t Guild Wars, this is Guild Wars 2: Rise of the Wallet.

I spent 10 bucks to try and get the Quaggan mini for a friend – without realizing that I wouldn’t be able to trade it anyway, and without realizing that I was playing ANet Roulette. I thought the minis I’d need were just going to be in the box – and that’s why you had to pay for it (my fault for not reading more closely – lesson learned there. I expected better from ANet and that’s obviously my own fauilt).

The simple result? I’ll never spend another penny in the gem shop or on any other ANet product. Once bitten, twice shy.

Never again.

A picture is worth a thousand words. We can scream all year long and ANet will not listen to it until they detect less and less money flowing into their pockets.

IMO, besides of expressing our pain up here, we simply just stop using real money to gamble in any type of boxes in TP. ANet will turn and address the issue once the cash flow is no longer there.

I learned my lesson well at Halloween event for weapon skin RNG and never again, I would repeat the same mistake. This event, ANet changed and you can get the weapon skins that you wanted w/o going through RNG. I am happy that I could purchase the skins that I want. Other than that, ANet will not see another dime into RNG “luck” boxes.

Peace.

ArenaNet introduced the Mad King’s chests to ease the pain, I have yet to see something like that for this event. I’m not impressed with ArenaNet and like many others I feel frustrated when I log in, the empty slots in the mini-pets tab, another reminder of the money I wasted.

They are too busy banning people for ruining the economy due to an oversight on their holiday recipe that allowed you to generate infinite money (that has been reported since the day the event started).

I bought and will probably hold onto 50 stuffing because of a silly rumor I heard for what happens to things later on after the event has ended. It probably won’t even happen but eh it’s just 40s so I’m fine with that.