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Posted by: Thaia.5146

Thaia.5146

~3k gems later – 2 minis… :<

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Posted by: Cerebelum.6087

Cerebelum.6087

I will, eventually I suspect, spend some real cash on extra bank space and possibly character slots as I do like GW2, but anything involving RNG loot or rares that require real £££ rather than some fun time invested in the game are now and always have been a no go area.
Not once in 14 years of MMO gaming have I ever paid for anything other than the game/play time. I think the ‘I need to complete everything/get everything’ mentality encouraged by % completion bars and achievement lists should almost be viewed as an illness. I appreciate the nice bonus of karma etc for completing the daily 5 things, but just playing to have a complete set of x,y or z etc that seems to be infesting all games on all platforms is not good.

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Posted by: deffy.1320

deffy.1320

i’ll only buy things that are useful to myself or desired and i know what i’m getting, as for mini pets, bah humbug can we roast them because those griffons would look great on a spit.

“Deleted for being inappropriate”

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Posted by: Noviere.7309

Noviere.7309

RNG for real money is GAMBLING no matter how you look at it and it should be ILLEGAL and should be BANNED and DISCOURAGED.

I personally don’t spend money for RNG nor I even support RNG with gold in game. I hate it and ANET should be a shame for doing this with REAL MONEY.

Except it is not gambling from a legal standpoint. It is no different than those vending machines that give you a random prize.

Don’t get me wrong… I hate random prize boxes too… But I’m pretty sure Anet has a legal team, and knows what is and is not permitted by US law.

(edited by Noviere.7309)

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Posted by: Jairlyn.1429

Jairlyn.1429

RNG for real money is GAMBLING no matter how you look at it and it should be ILLEGAL and should be BANNED and DISCOURAGED.

I personally don’t spend money for RNG nor I even support RNG with gold in game. I hate it and ANET should be a shame for doing this with REAL MONEY.

Yeah okay Sir Vincent III, What are you, 10?

You don’t have to be a minor to see that it is gambling — with REAL MONEY — and there’s a law about that and in many States, it’s ILLEGAL.

I’d rather like to see ANET’s response to this issue since this is not just virtual money, but REAL MONEY.

Gambling is paying money for a chance at more money and if you lose you get nothing.
Here you are paying for a random reward but you do get something. Just because it is not what you want doesnt mean its you are not getting something.
Why should Anet respond to you about gambling? Their response is in the fact they are selling random rewards in the first place around the world.
If you feel its illegal then grab an attorney. I’d rather like to see their response to you.

Jairlyn: Guardian- Yak’s Bend

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Posted by: Lacechan.6524

Lacechan.6524

It’s a bit more than just “paying money for a chance at more money and getting nothing if you lose” as far as gambling laws are concerned, but yeah these things will never fall under it.

There are some pretty specific conditions that have to be met as far as gambling is concerned in games and as long as the prizes are cosmetic the chances of that happening are very low.

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Posted by: Korsbaek.9803

Korsbaek.9803

Sir Vincent III where is the gambling in what they are doing??(im not saying its some what random generated, even tho I will keep saying something human made cant be random BUT we dont know what it uses to generate the items with, as it could be a factor of time, when a mob is slain, what dragon where there last, who has what in WvW, something going on in the real world and the list can go on and be combinded in many diffrent ways and at some point it will be impossible for us to know when what comes out but that dont make it random)

as gambeling is where i can be given a chance to gain money or material value but as the things you gain in the chests is account bound i gain no value for doing it, and its not even needed to be real money to gain the chest as it can be done with gold to.

and if you are that much agienst real money gambling then i would like to see all sports, horse raceing, lottery and all thoes kind of things gone as they are all gambling oh hell even the stock market is gambling, do you want me to go on??

Commander Korsbaek lvl 80 Guardian
Ayano Yagami lvl 80 ele

(edited by Korsbaek.9803)

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Posted by: Smooth Penguin.5294

Smooth Penguin.5294

The sad part of certain forums or communities is that there’s always those couple of kids who think they understand our legal system, and start shouting nonsense without any sort of justification.

And for the record, Gems can be purchased with in game currency. You don’t need to spend a single dime outside of your initial $$$ investment to purchase an account.

In GW2, Trading Post plays you!

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Posted by: LaughingLoser.9806

LaughingLoser.9806

RNG for real money is GAMBLING no matter how you look at it and it should be ILLEGAL and should be BANNED and DISCOURAGED.

I personally don’t spend money for RNG nor I even support RNG with gold in game. I hate it and ANET should be a shame for doing this with REAL MONEY.

Yeah okay Sir Vincent III, What are you, 10?

You don’t have to be a minor to see that it is gambling — with REAL MONEY — and there’s a law about that and in many States, it’s ILLEGAL.

I’d rather like to see ANET’s response to this issue since this is not just virtual money, but REAL MONEY.

Gambling is paying money for a chance at more money and if you lose you get nothing.
Here you are paying for a random reward but you do get something. Just because it is not what you want doesnt mean its you are not getting something.
Why should Anet respond to you about gambling? Their response is in the fact they are selling random rewards in the first place around the world.
If you feel its illegal then grab an attorney. I’d rather like to see their response to you.

^ This and the previous poster. If it were illegal there would be no baseball cards.

I’m sure people are angry about those too and go to stores complaining they didn’t get the rare version of whatever card they wanted. I remember I used to do that all the time… right? cough

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Posted by: Raebfle.5914

Raebfle.5914

RNG for real money is GAMBLING no matter how you look at it and it should be ILLEGAL and should be BANNED and DISCOURAGED.

I personally don’t spend money for RNG nor I even support RNG with gold in game. I hate it and ANET should be a shame for doing this with REAL MONEY.

Lawl. Tell casinos that gambling should be illegal. Las Vegas would be no more I don’t even live in America and I would know that one.

A-Net shouldn’t be shamed for having an option for people to spend money/gold on gems. You don’t have to partake in that aspect of the game. I haven’t yet, but I have spent thousands of dollars on various other games without any issue.

As for A-Net being ashamed. A-Net! Take real money payments out of the game, and impliment a monthly sub. It’s shameful that you’re giving people the option to buy stuff with their money. Gosh. That’s so bad and you should be so shamed for it. >.<

Give me a break.

If you spend the money on RNG, then it’s your desicion to do so, knowing full well that you may or may not, get what you want. If you don’t, tough luck. If you do, congratulations. But it isn’t anybody elses fault for you spending your own money and making your own desicions.

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Posted by: Rayya.2591

Rayya.2591

i would sell you the snowman ^^
and i agree it should not be account bound
i got few festive hats , that only waste spae in my bank

http://imgur.com/a/fKgjD
no.1 WvW kills

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Posted by: Avigrus.2871

Avigrus.2871

Sir Vincent III where is the gambling in what they are doing??(im not saying its some what random generated, even tho I will keep saying something human made cant be random BUT we dont know what it uses to generate the items with, as it could be a factor of time, when a mob is slain, what dragon where there last, who has what in WvW, something going on in the real world and the list can go on and be combinded in many diffrent ways and at some point it will be impossible for us to know when what comes out but that dont make it random)

as gambeling is where i can be given a chance to gain money or material value but as the things you gain in the chests is account bound i gain no value for doing it, and its not even needed to be real money to gain the chest as it can be done with gold to.

and if you are that much agienst real money gambling then i would like to see all sports, horse raceing, lottery and all thoes kind of things gone as they are all gambling oh hell even the stock market is gambling, do you want me to go on??

It’s gambling mate… no spin is going to convince anyone otherwise… definition below.

“Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value (referred to as “the stakes”) on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period."

I have no issue with gambling, but pretty sure it’s illegal in some places and would certainly be an issue if kids were doing this… just saying..

80 Necro (5), 80 Guard (4), 80 Mesmer (3)
80 Ranger (3), 80 Warrior (3), 80 Thief (3)
80 Ele (2), 80 Engi (3), 80 Rev (2)

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Posted by: Silentstorm.7531

Silentstorm.7531

To be fair I find what ANet did with the shop a good thing, the drive people have to farm and offer tons of money for minis comes from wanting to have the full collection something which is now impossible and should cure quite a few people from bad spending habits.

What he said and why would you continue another 10 usd after the 50? They already said they make it so even collectors can get what they desired even if it’s missed. Seems your a little too impatient with your funds.

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Posted by: Horheristo.3607

Horheristo.3607

It’s Halloween all over again. I have nearly 10 of each of the other minipets and have yet to see a single mini Snowman. Bought 10$ more of gems for some more boxes again tonight and this time it was just a ton of tonics and presents (a.k.a sweaters socks and hats).

Meanwhile, my friend has ~20 of each pet and can’t send me a single snowman because they’re account bound. I’m not spending another cent on gems because I know I won’t get it if after 50$ I haven’t already gotten it.

Is there any plan to make these pets from the boxes tradable? Because this is a bit obnoxious.

The only problem with GW2 is people like you.
I’m glad you have learned your lesson but you’ve done so much damage to the game now that Anet will probably just continue with this farcical excuse for content for the foreseeable future.
What happens when the next “holiday” content is released and they have a new mini that you just HAVE to have. Will you say to yourself ’I’ll just spend 20$ on keys" ?

Think of the amount of genuine content they could have released instead of putting all the dev time into new minis and costumes. More development time could of been spent on squashing bugs, fixing broken content and balancing classes.
But NOOOO, because the sheeple in the world and the Pokemon kittenen mentatlity, the genuine gamers, the people who actually want to game, and help develop the communities of the game… we have to suffer.
If I had one wish this Christmas (and if that fat, pagan, red dressed effigy of corporate greed actually existed), it would be for the GW2 community to STOP BUYING KEYS kitten

Cheers

People like me? Cool bro, 7+ years of GW1 and played GW2 since the closed betas before pre-order beta invites were even conceived. I’m not crying about the game, I’m saying that RNG + Account-bound only is not a good way to go.

But thanks for your input, I guess? Even if it is worthless. I’m not a “pokemon sheeple”. I am a completionist. I strive to get achievements, pets, weapons, etc. Being a completionist has nothing to do with Pokemon you tool.

I also didn’t buy a single key. Good job reading my thread. I am bringing up an issue with the account-bound, random nature of the mini-pets available from the 10 / 10$ Christmas Gifts.

That’s quite funny what you say there, you call yourself completionist, yet I haven’t seen any of the account bound minis count towards the mini achievement.
So if anything, it is your own little personal goal that no one will ever know about your great collection feat.

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Posted by: Jairlyn.1429

Jairlyn.1429

It’s gambling mate… no spin is going to convince anyone otherwise… definition below.

“Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value (referred to as “the stakes”) on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period."

I have no issue with gambling, but pretty sure it’s illegal in some places and would certainly be an issue if kids were doing this… just saying..

Could you explain then how baseball cards and CCG cards have been sold to minors for decades in all 50 states of the U.S. where gambling is illegal to minors?

Jairlyn: Guardian- Yak’s Bend

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Posted by: Smooth Penguin.5294

Smooth Penguin.5294

All these kids keep claiming Anet is doing illegal activities, when they have no basis for their accusations. You need to look at the LEGAL definition of the term “gambling”.

It’s gambling mate… no spin is going to convince anyone otherwise… definition below.

“Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value (referred to as “the stakes”) on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period."

I have no issue with gambling, but pretty sure it’s illegal in some places and would certainly be an issue if kids were doing this… just saying..

A person engages in gambling if he stakes or risks something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under his control or influence, upon an agreement or understanding that he or someone else will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome. Gambling does not include bona fide business transactions valid under the law of contracts, such as the purchase or sale at a future date of securities or commodities, contracts of indemnity or guaranty and life, health or accident insurance.

Federal law defines illegal gambling activity as:

-Is a violation of the law of the state in which it is conducted; and
-Involves five or more persons who conduct, finance, manage, supervise, direct or own all or part of such business; and
-Has been or remains in substantially continuous operation for a period in excess of thirty days, or has a gross revenue of $2,000 in any single day.

State laws on illegal gambling activity vary by state and often include offenses for possessing illegal gambling devices and promoting illegal gambling activity. An illegal gambling device is any device, machine, paraphernalia or equipment that is normally used or usable in the playing phases of any gambling activity, whether that activity consists of gambling between persons or gambling by a person involving the playing of a machine. However, lottery tickets, policy slips and other items used in the playing phases of lottery and policy schemes are not gambling devices within this definition.

Gambling is accepting, recording, or registering bets, or carrying on a policy game or any other lottery, or playing any game of chance, for money or other thing of value. Title 18, U.S.C., Sec. 1955, makes it a federal crime or offense for anyone to conduct an ‘illegal gambling business.’

TL;DR – Everything in the Gem Store has no value. They are virtual items that give you benefits from the game, such as boosts or different looks/skins to weapons. You cannot sell these items for profit. You cannon sell these items for real money. Therefore Anet is doing nothing wrong. Case close.

In GW2, Trading Post plays you!

(edited by Smooth Penguin.5294)

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Posted by: Electro.4173

Electro.4173

I’m not saying “RNG” is bad, those Halloween skins wouldn’t be half as cool had they been readily available, either remove the account-bound for the mini-pets or sell them like the Halloween mini-pets.

I don’t really get the “its only cool if its rare” thing.

If you think a skin looks good, how does everyone else having it make it look less impressive? A cool skin is a cool skin regardless, IMO.

Unless you’re not picking gear you think looks good yourself, but only to make other people go “Woah, its THAT weapon, I never see that!”.

That said, I definately agree that stuff from these sorts of “lottery chests” should not be account-bound, ever. It turns what should be a good drop into “Oh goody, another mini I can’t use because I already have one”. A lucky drop from a lottery chest should always be good, and being account-bound really makes that not the case for anyone opening them in larger amounts.

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Posted by: Lacechan.6524

Lacechan.6524

TL;DR – Everything in the Gem Store has no value. They are virtual items that give you benefits from the game, such as boosts or different looks/skins to weapons. You cannot sell these items for profit. You cannon sell these items for real money. Therefore Anet is doing nothing wrong. Case close.

That doesn’t automatically make you immune to lottery laws. It is still possible to violate a state’s lottery law with virtual items of no value that you are unable to cash out on. As long as you don’t meet all three of the criteria though it will not violate it.

Mystery Boxes by their nature are usually hitting two of the three, but they usually slack in one aspect of it (typically the part where you are forced to pay money to participate).

Is it a gamble? Of course it is. So is dropping the 50 cents in the gumball machine. Is it an illegal gamble? So far the states have all said “No”.

Exercise restraint, buyer beware, and all that jazz.

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Posted by: coffeeisyum.5297

coffeeisyum.5297

I agree. I’m sick of spending money on items even when I know I may not get much in return.

I think Anet should make us pay monthly instead of giving us the option to buy gems if we want.

/rolls eyes

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Posted by: cargan.5689

cargan.5689

TL;DR – Everything in the Gem Store has no value. They are virtual items that give you benefits from the game, such as boosts or different looks/skins to weapons. You cannot sell these items for profit. You cannon sell these items for real money. Therefore Anet is doing nothing wrong. Case close.

You do how ever buy those items with real world money. A 50 inch plasma TV has no real world value once the 60 inch comes out

At least in Arizona those “virtual” goods are real enough to be included in divorce proceedings a grey area and far from case closed.

Ulfar SOR

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Posted by: Elwer.7654

Elwer.7654

just stop wasting money, they will most likely add the same pets for next year.

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Posted by: Smooth Penguin.5294

Smooth Penguin.5294

TL;DR – Everything in the Gem Store has no value. They are virtual items that give you benefits from the game, such as boosts or different looks/skins to weapons. You cannot sell these items for profit. You cannon sell these items for real money. Therefore Anet is doing nothing wrong. Case close.

That doesn’t automatically make you immune to lottery laws. It is still possible to violate a state’s lottery law with virtual items of no value that you are unable to cash out on. As long as you don’t meet all three of the criteria though it will not violate it.

Mystery Boxes by their nature are usually hitting two of the three, but they usually slack in one aspect of it (typically the part where you are forced to pay money to participate).

Is it a gamble? Of course it is. So is dropping the 50 cents in the gumball machine. Is it an illegal gamble? So far the states have all said “No”.

Exercise restraint, buyer beware, and all that jazz.

A lottery is a promotion that has three elements:
1) Prizes
2) Winners Chosen by Chance
3) Consideration

To avoid being classified as an illegal lottery, sweepstakes must ensure that at least one of these elements is missing. Because prizes and luck are central to sweepstakes where the winners are drawn at random, legitimate promotions can never have “consideration”.

Definition of “consideration”: In sweepstakes terms, consideration is simply payment for a prize. Generally, sweepstakes that award prizes by chance are not allowed to have an element of consideration. Consideration doesn’t have to be money; it can be anything that can profit the sponsor. For example, a company cannot require that entrants purchase a product to participate in sweepstakes (or, if they do, they must provide an alternate method of entry).

So purchasing mystery boxes from the Gem Store requires the use of “Gems”. Gems can be either purchased via real money, or traded for with in game currency (i.e. Copper, Silver, and/or Gold).

Can someone please show me where players are being forced to spend real money to participate?

In GW2, Trading Post plays you!

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Posted by: Lacechan.6524

Lacechan.6524

They aren’t, which is why I agree with people who say it isn’t illegal.

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Posted by: Smooth Penguin.5294

Smooth Penguin.5294

They aren’t, which is why I agree with people who say it isn’t illegal.

I didn’t mean to argue your post. Sorry if it seems as though I was. I was merely adding to it. The last part was for the armchair lawyers who keep claiming otherwise.

In GW2, Trading Post plays you!

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Posted by: Nathan Dragonslayer.4089

Nathan Dragonslayer.4089

also not spending 1 more coin in the store for real money, mayby they should move HQ to the Las Vegas strip.

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Posted by: Thaia.5146

Thaia.5146

After 12 days:

Attachments:

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Posted by: hungryhippos.4980

hungryhippos.4980

If your solution to the problem is to throw more money at it, I don’t see where the incentive is for the problem to be fixed on the developer’s end.

This is a very silly response. If you read what the guy said, he’s not spending any more money because he doesn’t trust the dev’s decision to make the RNG on the pet drop so low. On the developer’s end, they have lost trust and any future financial transactions for this customer. And personally from listening to other people, I can’t think of a good reason why I would spend my own real money for just maybe getting what I want. I’d rather play lotto for a chance in real money at least.

anet could be making so much more money if customers could actually buy what they want.

I’ll say this again. Make a separate currency that has nothing to do with gems and gold (like diamonds?!?) that can only be bought by cash and sell things that can be bought with cash. I’d pay 20 dollars for foostivoo. I would not pay 20 dollars to maybe get it. I’d also pay 20 dollars for volcanus (soul bound obviously). So what if I didn’t grind hundreds of hours to play the game, you the developers would get extra money from your product. You guys like making money right? or else this game would be free to play I’d imagine if that was the case.

on a complete side note:
Here is also a fun idea, make a weapon that can be imbued with 5 of the same sigils (only 1 would be active) so that whenever you use that weapon it would have the visual effect related to that sigil for example superior sigil of air, everytime you swing your staff or sword or whatever, lightening bolts would come out. I’d also pay for the item that could imbue that kind of effect onto my weapons.

Ayra Bleu Wynd (80 Elementalist), Carly R Jepson (80 Thief), Six Inch Samurai (80 Guardian)
Sir Spanx Too Much (80 Warrior), Lanevo X (80 Necromancer), Miss Meryzia (40 Mesmer)

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Posted by: hungryhippos.4980

hungryhippos.4980

Wanna hear something funny?

A 50 inch plasma TV has no real world value once the 60 inch comes out

Ayra Bleu Wynd (80 Elementalist), Carly R Jepson (80 Thief), Six Inch Samurai (80 Guardian)
Sir Spanx Too Much (80 Warrior), Lanevo X (80 Necromancer), Miss Meryzia (40 Mesmer)

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Posted by: PopeUrban.2578

PopeUrban.2578

As other posters in this thread have stated: Vote with your wallet.

I used to play a game that actually did have an exploitative cash shop, based completely on random number generation, that was required to actually play the game competitively in PvP.

“Random Boxes” in cash shops only exist because people like you buy them. I really enjoy GW2. I have purchased gems, and used those gems to get sure-fire things like bank pages, res orbs, bank access and merchant spawners, and was happy to do so. I paid what I felt was a reasonable amount of money for a little extra non-gamebreaking item which supports the development team.

What I have not done, and refuse to do, is gambled my real life money on the chance to get something. I don’t agree with the “mystery box” model in concept, and thus I choose not to support it. The more people that simply choose not to support it the less viable it becomes as a monetization strategy. if you don’t like losing money, its very simple: Don’t gamble your money.

If what you’re gambling on is important enough to you that you risk $60+ of your hard earned cash, then you obviously felt that the gamble-boxes were worth the asking price, else you wouldn’t have purchased them.

I wouldn’t go to the local shop and buy a “mystery box” that may have contents that i deem worth less than the asking price, and therefore I don’t make that buy ingame. It really is that simple. If you don’t like gambling, then stop gambling.

Guild Master – The Papacy [POPE] (Gate of Madness)/Road Scholar for the Durmand Priory
Writer/Director – Quaggan Quest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky2TGPmMPeQ

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Posted by: Lacechan.6524

Lacechan.6524

You know, I think it’s something like ~40% of all purchases for virtual goods are Mystery boxes (if it’s in a game’s cash shop), and they are mostly bought by males in their late teens / early twenties or over forty.

It isn’t that surprising, sadly.

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Posted by: Diva.4706

Diva.4706

GW2 is a front to sell people gold. They control drop rates and RNG chance, and they will sell you gold to overcome/lower these barriers.

Pretty clever business model, but it spoils the game in the end.

(edited by Diva.4706)

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Posted by: Zorby.8236

Zorby.8236

At first I wanted to support…but then I realised that I actually don’t find this offensive…
I’d rather have this than lottery boxes with straight out power in them…like in the other f2p game I played. I agree with some people here, vote with your wallet…

~This is the internet, my (or your) opinion doesn’t matter~

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Posted by: Iason Evan.3806

Iason Evan.3806

Why would ArenaNet bother selling the minis for $10 when so many people are willing to treat the gem shop like a Las Vegas Casino? If you don’t keep your money in your wallet when it comes to gambling, the house will always win.

Leader of The Guernsey Milking Coalition [MiLk] Sanctum of Rall

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Posted by: Bastion.2457

Bastion.2457

I already paid for my game in full. The Gem Store doesn’t exist to me. The items sold through it are of zero want to me. There is no sense of achievement from buying an item from the store you have done nothing to earn.

Guild Wars 2 is fantastic, my only gripe with it is that there is no option to remove the Gem Store from my UI completely. To this day, since release, I have not once opened it.

Wanna hear something funny?

A 50 inch plasma TV has no real world value once the 60 inch comes out

Tee hee hee.

(edited by Bastion.2457)

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Posted by: Minion of Vey.4398

Minion of Vey.4398

I’d be pleased if they ditched all RNG and focused on adding things people would have fun buying.

This is the first MMO with a cash shop that I’ve played that wasn’t loaded with cosmetics. It’s pretty strange. I mean people like those and they buy them. They also won’t feel cheated or feel like they should stop buying or just anything negative. They’ll look at something they want, see the price, buy it, and they’ll have what they wanted.

Anyone buying cow finishers? How bout having them last a week instead of 60 minutes or whatever it was? Then they’d be cheap and fun, people would buy them.

For some reason here though they insist on the “town clothes” thing which just means a large group people no longer want to buy their gem store appearance items.

TLDR: They need to work more on adding things people will enjoy buying, not things that will leave customers with a bad taste in their mouth.

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Posted by: Gasoline.2570

Gasoline.2570

30 boxes, 1 mini infarium. Never again, anet.

The balance team is chained to SPVP, and the PVE team is all about producing carnivals

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Posted by: Gaudrath.6725

Gaudrath.6725

To all who are upset by “gambling” – nobody is forcing you to participate in it. You could be like me, I don’t spend real cash at the gem store, and I didn’t get a single mini; I just play the game and enjoy what is available to me (99% of the game is).

Gambling is for those who want a chance to get something for nothing. That’s what you get. A chance. Don’t like it? Don’t gamble.

Uthgar Stormbringer, elementalist
Sigurd Greymane, guardian
~ Piken

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Posted by: Jezath.7395

Jezath.7395

3 boxes one mini festive golem and one infinarium. oh and 2 mortars

Tis not what they can do for you
Tis only what you can do for all

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Posted by: Giles Marchand.6970

Giles Marchand.6970

Gambling is for those who want a chance to get something for nothing. That’s what you get. A chance. Don’t like it? Don’t gamble.

If that were the case we’d all be happy, but it costs 2 gold to participate which is something and we don’t get any return except the cosmetic mini-pets, so in essence the problem is that we get nothing from something on a regular basis. I don’t see why everyone who doesn’t participate feels the need to state that in these threads, it wouldn’t affect you one way or another?

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Posted by: Wayshuba.5912

Wayshuba.5912

It’s not gambling, for those who argue. But i will say it is probably not good business as those that use these systems tend to get burned and it leaves a very sour taste (and in the future a closed wallet) with customers.

I am one example. Although I only did about $20 on the chests at Halloween and got diddly, I learned my lesson then. I put a few bucks into ANet and some other store things (character slots, storage, dye packs, keys, etc.). After the October and November events, I have learned my lesson. Haven’t dropped a dime on events since then, nor do I intend to again. In fact, I have cut back my spending altogether as I feel we have moved from providing value to a degree of illusion in coaxing us to spend cash in hopes of something.

For the store, I don’t want a chance at something, I just want to buy it. I don’t want grind so ridiculous and excessive (which ANet’s is king of the end-game MMOs at) that it is designed to get me to buy in game cash with real cash and makes very little sense at all in game terms (ex.: 2g for a rune for 18 slot bag, 10g for a 20 slot rune – ludicrous increase for only 2 slots extra storage).

Fact is, game is changing. You can smell it in the RNG. You can touch it in the Ascended gear. You can taste it in the decreased drop rates. You can see it in the insane end game prices and grind. A shadow is falling over the land that was once a myth, but is now reality.

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Posted by: Northlander.4619

Northlander.4619

I don’t like RNG. In fact I never purchase any RNG items. However I also don’t have any statistics to back up that they would earn significantly more money if they eliminated the RNG.

I think part of the problem is that you can get relatively easily gems with ingame gold. If there was no RNG what would prevent people from easily purchasing all the stuff with actual ingame gold as opposed to using real money? People spending ingame gold aren’t really giving anything to the company. Currently you can easily get extra character space and other static items without spending any real money provided you are willing to spend the gold on them.

All it takes is a little bit of time. Even if the items were in the gem store only for a limited time it would still mean that people had all the time between events to farm for gold.

If RNG was removed they might limit the gold farming even more than they have already. The question is that would this actually boost gem sales or just alienate players who would be pretty much forced to buy gems to actually get the exceedingly rare (and pricey) ingame items.

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Posted by: Borssimus.8694

Borssimus.8694

30 boxes and all 4 minis. I’m happy.

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Posted by: krizzle.9127

krizzle.9127

50 boxes, still no snowman, multiples of all other minis not happy. Why didn’t Anet just let us buy the minis like at Halloween? Because its Christmas/holidays and everyone’s buying gems Please please please let us trade minis Anet! Or just sell them to us directly in future please! Thank you. Rant over, share the OP’s pain.

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Posted by: Gaudrath.6725

Gaudrath.6725

Gambling is for those who want a chance to get something for nothing. That’s what you get. A chance. Don’t like it? Don’t gamble.

If that were the case we’d all be happy, but it costs 2 gold to participate which is something and we don’t get any return except the cosmetic mini-pets, so in essence the problem is that we get nothing from something on a regular basis.

No actually it doesn’t work like that. 2 gold is the cost of the chance. If you “win” you get something whose arbitrary value is perceived as much higher than those initial two gold. Thus, you get “something for nothing” because in case you win, that initial investment is instantly forgotten. Of course, if you lose, then you are acutely aware of those two gold pieces. With each failed repetition you get more and more aware of the fact that you are gambling until you finally arrive at the conclusion that chance-based activities are really not a reliable way of getting anything.

Uthgar Stormbringer, elementalist
Sigurd Greymane, guardian
~ Piken

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Posted by: Giles Marchand.6970

Giles Marchand.6970

Gambling is for those who want a chance to get something for nothing. That’s what you get. A chance. Don’t like it? Don’t gamble.

If that were the case we’d all be happy, but it costs 2 gold to participate which is something and we don’t get any return except the cosmetic mini-pets, so in essence the problem is that we get nothing from something on a regular basis.

No actually it doesn’t work like that. 2 gold is the cost of the chance. If you “win” you get something whose arbitrary value is perceived as much higher than those initial two gold. Thus, you get “something for nothing” because in case you win, that initial investment is instantly forgotten. Of course, if you lose, then you are acutely aware of those two gold pieces. With each failed repetition you get more and more aware of the fact that you are gambling until you finally arrive at the conclusion that chance-based activities are really not a reliable way of getting anything.

Except I don’t think anyone perceives the mini-pets as being a much higher value. Which is why I stated nothing from something.

(edited by Giles Marchand.6970)

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Posted by: Kuzzi.2198

Kuzzi.2198

40 boxes = 1 golem, 1 snowman

Am I really expected to pay $20 more just to have a chance to get the quaggan?

I think all minis should be tradeable, and they should all be part of the same collection.

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Posted by: Danikat.8537

Danikat.8537

I really don’t understand why they don’t just make the minis tradeable. That way everyone could be happy. Those who have extras could sell them to those who didn’t get the ones they wanted or can’t/won’t buy the boxes and no one would be complaining.

As far as I saw at the time no one complained about the Lost Shores minis at all and they were only available from an RNG box or a very rare drop in-game.

As it stands I’ve decided I’m not going to buy any of these boxes, even after buying the Lost Shores ones with no complaints. Yes it sucks that my collection will never be complete (and I’m not getting into why that bothers collectors, if you don’t get it then you don’t get it) but it’s better than throwing money down the drain to find myself in the exact same position.

Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).

“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”

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Posted by: Lacechan.6524

Lacechan.6524

Yeah the commerce team seems pretty stuck in their ways. It’s a bit of a shame because it’s not like making that one change would ruin them or anything.

Best guess is that they are determined to stay with it til the end so they can discuss it within the team and figure out what to do for the next event. It sounds like all the different teams for the most part act independently and only come together when they need assets created or to give them a vague description of what they are doing for when the other teams get interviewed.

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Posted by: cephiroth.6182

cephiroth.6182

Yup. Simply don’t buy RNG-stuff. You knew in advance and still you put those $ in.

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Posted by: Giles Marchand.6970

Giles Marchand.6970

Yup. Simply don’t buy RNG-stuff. You knew in advance and still you put those $ in.

No one knew how bad the chances were to get all four mini-pets.