Guild Wars 2

I’m curious.

As it stands it seems to me that the average stuff you get from a black lion chest is no where near worth the price of keys from the gem store.

The only real incentive is the chance of getting one of the permanent contracts or the endless tonic. However the chance of getting these seems so small that I’m not even tempted to dish out loads of gold for a gamble; I can’t help but feel I will be very disappointed.

At the moment the whole black lion key system is pretty unsatisfying. I know ArenaNet need to sell gems to keep the game running, but do many people actually spend them on keys? Would they not sell more gems if keys were at a reasonable price?

I have bought them a few times.. but I still have unopened chests because it is not worth the cost to buy them in all reality. Usually it is just left over gems from buying something that I did want lol. At the begining of the game I did buy gems to get keys and it was not a good idea my bank was stuffed with so many potions. I eventually talked my self into just trashing them so I could use my bank :P

No. I only use keys I get as story/map completion rewards. (And drops if I ever got one.)

As you said the chances of getting something useful is too low to justify the cost. My bank is already full of stuff from chests I haven’t used yet.

I got a few at first, and got a feel for what’s in the chests.

I don’t buy them any more. I can think of better ways to throw away my money. And if I have a few “leftover gems”, I either hold on to them or consider selling them for gold.

I won’t even buy the keys with in-game coin, let alone real cash. Why? Because they, quite frankly, suck. The contents of the chests is not worth the investment at all.

Why would anyone? On release I might have, but the chests have been made worse with each change. They used to at least give out great tools and BL kits almost every time you openend one, then the tools were made useless and now they barely ever drop BL kits, most of the time you get some copper a potion and a completely useless item. Not even worth a tenth of the cost of a BL key.

noooooo

the rewards are just awful.

It’s not that bad. YOU don’t have any use for the items, but other players might.

Normally I would spend 60 bucks for some new console game (there are quite a few out that are on my ‘to get’ list), but GW2 has me in it’s grasp atm. So that money just gets saved up and spent on gw2. Point being is that I do spend quite a bit on keys and I make use of all of the items I get. Even with the mystery tonics I’ll use a recipe to craft some owl or skritt tonics.

Conncept.7638:

Why would anyone? On release I might have, but the chests have been made worse with each change. They used to at least give out great tools and BL kits, then the tools were made useless and they barely ever drop BL kits anymore, most of the time you get some copper a potion and a completely useless item. Not even worth a tenth of the cost of a BL key.

That might be bad luck. Since they updated the chests I’ve gotten 2 kits and no tonics at all (which is good because they’re my least favourite item).

Flax.4980:

I’m curious.

As it stands it seems to me that the average stuff you get from a black lion chest is no where near worth the price of keys from the gem store.

The only real incentive is the chance of getting one of the permanent contracts or the endless tonic. However the chance of getting these seems so small that I’m not even tempted to dish out loads of gold for a gamble; I can’t help but feel I will be very disappointed.

At the moment the whole black lion key system is pretty unsatisfying. I know ArenaNet need to sell gems to keep the game running, but do many people actually spend them on keys? Would they not sell more gems if keys were at a reasonable price?

Firstly, about the only thing these are good for is to get more boosters to increase speed of levelling alt’s. I can’t see any practical reason why you’d go out and buy these in any other case.

I used to buy these when I first started, but they’re hardly worth the value that Anet wants to heap on them, causing a rather big disparity between cost and worth. I’ve never even seen one drop in the whole time I’ve been playing (since 3-day headstart), and the likelihood of one dropping anywhere in the game is so remote, and the chance of getting something of any real value is even more remote. It’s like they’re deliberately sharpening the saw before they cut their leg off.

And I’m sorry, but 3,000,000+ accounts x ~$60 per = quite enough to keep both staff paid and servers up and running for a long while to come. Selling gems and other MTA’s through their store is just gravy.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

Flax.4980:

I’m curious.

As it stands it seems to me that the average stuff you get from a black lion chest is no where near worth the price of keys from the gem store.

The only real incentive is the chance of getting one of the permanent contracts or the endless tonic. However the chance of getting these seems so small that I’m not even tempted to dish out loads of gold for a gamble; I can’t help but feel I will be very disappointed.

At the moment the whole black lion key system is pretty unsatisfying. I know ArenaNet need to sell gems to keep the game running, but do many people actually spend them on keys? Would they not sell more gems if keys were at a reasonable price?

Firstly, about the only thing these are good for is to get more boosters to increase speed of levelling alt’s. I can’t see any practical reason why you’d go out and buy these in any other case.

I used to buy these when I first started, but they’re hardly worth the value that Anet wants to heap on them, causing a rather big disparity between cost and worth. I’ve never even seen one drop in the whole time I’ve been playing (since 3-day headstart), and the likelihood of one dropping anywhere in the game is so remote, and the chance of getting something of any real value is even more remote. It’s like they’re deliberately sharpening the saw before they cut their leg off.

And I’m sorry, but 3,000,000+ accounts x ~$60 per = quite enough to keep both staff paid and servers up and running for a long while to come. Selling gems and other MTA’s through their store is just gravy.

You realize that there are a ton of other things the money goes towards right? It’s not just paying staff and keeping the servers up.

oh please – enlighten us…

don’t leave us all hanging. :P

I bought them a few times until i realized they were subject to the same DR that makes my drops suck and stopped opening chests altogether

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

oh please – enlighten us…

don’t leave us all hanging. :P

If you’re referring to what else the gem store purchase money goes towards, there’s lots of stuff like marketing, licensing fees, building and equipment fees (outside of servers), out of that $60 for the game: the developer probably only gets around 30 at most (the rest goes to shipping fees, retailers, and other middle-man expenses), if you really need me to continue I can. There’s probably even more expenses than I know about too.

Danikat.8537:

Conncept.7638:

Why would anyone? On release I might have, but the chests have been made worse with each change. They used to at least give out great tools and BL kits, then the tools were made useless and they barely ever drop BL kits anymore, most of the time you get some copper a potion and a completely useless item. Not even worth a tenth of the cost of a BL key.

That might be bad luck. Since they updated the chests I’ve gotten 2 kits and no tonics at all (which is good because they’re my least favourite item).

I’ve opened over ten since they added the stylist kits to them. I’ve received one single BL kit, and nothing of worth beyond that. Before the change, it seemed BL kits and tools were clearly the common items from the kit, now they seem to be among the more uncommon items. And the common items have become junk potions and boosts, and a pitiable amount of copper. So basically, they now give better rares (when they give them…) but give worse commons.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

Flax.4980:

I’m curious.

As it stands it seems to me that the average stuff you get from a black lion chest is no where near worth the price of keys from the gem store.

The only real incentive is the chance of getting one of the permanent contracts or the endless tonic. However the chance of getting these seems so small that I’m not even tempted to dish out loads of gold for a gamble; I can’t help but feel I will be very disappointed.

At the moment the whole black lion key system is pretty unsatisfying. I know ArenaNet need to sell gems to keep the game running, but do many people actually spend them on keys? Would they not sell more gems if keys were at a reasonable price?

Firstly, about the only thing these are good for is to get more boosters to increase speed of levelling alt’s. I can’t see any practical reason why you’d go out and buy these in any other case.

I used to buy these when I first started, but they’re hardly worth the value that Anet wants to heap on them, causing a rather big disparity between cost and worth. I’ve never even seen one drop in the whole time I’ve been playing (since 3-day headstart), and the likelihood of one dropping anywhere in the game is so remote, and the chance of getting something of any real value is even more remote. It’s like they’re deliberately sharpening the saw before they cut their leg off.

And I’m sorry, but 3,000,000+ accounts x ~$60 per = quite enough to keep both staff paid and servers up and running for a long while to come. Selling gems and other MTA’s through their store is just gravy.

I want to say- and could be wrong- that NCsoft gets most of the box sales profit and not so much for Arenanet. Arenanet gets all the gemstore profits so it is a big deal for them to have things there for people to want to buy.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

oh please – enlighten us…

don’t leave us all hanging. :P

I would go back and think about your maths first before you start pulling up others.

@OP

I haven’t bought keys or anything else in the CS as there’s nothing I need you get lots of stuff just completing maps, dailies and monthlies

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

And I’m sorry, but 3,000,000+ accounts x ~$60 per = quite enough to keep both staff paid and servers up and running for a long while to come. Selling gems and other MTA’s through their store is just gravy.

Assuming an initial game budget of $100MM (that’s possibly on the high end) and an average net sale of $50 (remember, Anet only gets $60 for direct sales, most players bought the game through a retailer who gets a significant cut) ignoring any post launch costs, taxes, or overages you’re looking at $50MM net from that. Now figure out the cost to run the servers, retaining legal representatives, salaries for the “51-200 employees” their profile claims they have, taxes, building maintenance, and so many other operating costs. You’re not looking at some huge, ridiculously lucrative endeavor here with just software sales. It seems they’re pulling a profit, but you can’t just say “well they sold 3 million at $60 a pop so that’s like $180MM they must be rich!”

Nay of the Ether.8913:

If you’re referring to what else the gem store purchase money goes towards, there’s lots of stuff like marketing, licensing fees, building and equipment fees (outside of servers), out of that $60 for the game: the developer probably only gets around 30 at most (the rest goes to shipping fees, retailers, and other middle-man expenses), if you really need me to continue I can. There’s probably even more expenses than I know about too.

You’re talking about over $200M here. I know business as much as anyone else does here, and I factor in all the other ‘hidden’ stuff that goes into making a game… but burning through that kind of cash? That’s really pushing it. They didn’t need anything like this amount to keep GW1 running for 7+ years and I don’t know how many total copies of original game + expansions were sold, but I thing GW2 by itself has already overshadowed those figures. They only started really pushing sales of costumes and other “bargain” stuff in their stores from about their 3rd or 4th year of running the game.

You can’t honestly tell me the meagre makings of but a few cash shop transactions per day (perhaps in the hundreds) could possibly keep afloat the mighty destroyer “RNG Arenanet”… the stuff that’s offered in the cash shop right now is aimed at the unsuspecting teenager and the occasional girl-gamer. Anyway, enough hyperbole and digression from the OP.

BL keys need to become more accessible, and not through MTA’s/gemstore. Not only this but the chests more useful other than for getting your alt’s up to speed quicker.

With in game money and right before an major event (so the gold cost is not that major).

Heck no! Almost nothing in the gem store is worth what they charge for it. The only thing that I feel is worth the cost (not to say I wouldn’t mind them dropping the price, heh) is the character slot. That’s it. One thing in the whole store.

That’s not to say that the other stuff isn’t useful or fun, just that they are way overpriced. Is it better to make less net $$ by selling few items for high cost, or more net $$ by selling more stuff at lower cost? I believe that if they were to permanently slash prices by 50% on 98% of stuff in the store, they would end up with quite a bit more income from it. And take a huge chunk of Gold out of the economy at the same time.

The other benefit to this is that they get more players to register their credit cards, and this makes it even easier the next time around to buy Gems. It’s a freaking game ANet!!

I think I bought some on black friday

I used a legit ’’trick’’ for get free keys by ingame mechanics of using my gold with the new currency and new npc added a few months ago….but apparently anet didnt like that and was another ‘’not as intended’’ when someone posted that method in youtube and spread the word…it was actually as intended and they removed the npc or deactivated it if iam not mistaken, i havent checked it anymore since then.

But ive never bough from the TP

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

And I’m sorry, but 3,000,000+ accounts x ~$60 per = quite enough to keep both staff paid and servers up and running for a long while to come. Selling gems and other MTA’s through their store is just gravy.

You’re assuming they aren’t trying to expand the services they’re offering (e.g. more staff, more servers).

To answer the original question, I buy them from time to time. The rewards may not be cosmic, but it’s kind of fun to open them.

I bought a couple of keys early on. Then after I found out what sort of items were in there and the drop rate, not after that. The keys cost more than the items you are likely to get are worth. I think the most I would be willing to pay, with real money, is about a quarter.

No, I never have bought a key and consequently have over 250 chests. The fact that there are chests in the game indicates that you should also occasionally find a key. This is one of the most glaring funnels to the gem shop in the game. Outside the personal story I don’t believe I’ve ever found a key. Sometimes you get something of value out of the box, but I wouldn’t spend money to open one.

I used to buy them prior to the Halloween event. However, the RNG was so bad in that event for chests that I swore off ever wasting a penny on those worthless keys again.

There were people during that event who spent over $900 and never saw a single rare drop… just consumable, 1 time tonics, and similar useless trash.

Raine.1394:

No, I never have bought a key and consequently have over 250 chests. The fact that there are chests in the game indicates that you should also occasionally find a key. This is one of the most glaring funnels to the gem shop in the game. Outside the personal story I don’t believe I’ve ever found a key. Sometimes you get something of value out of the box, but I wouldn’t spend money to open one.

Seems like the overwhelming majority of opinion in this thread is that the items in the chest are not worth the cost. If that is true for the overwhelming majority of players, then chests/keys are a failed “glaring funnel to the gem shop.”

Never. Their price is a ripoff and you’re always getting worthless crap from chests.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Raine.1394:

No, I never have bought a key and consequently have over 250 chests. The fact that there are chests in the game indicates that you should also occasionally find a key. This is one of the most glaring funnels to the gem shop in the game. Outside the personal story I don’t believe I’ve ever found a key. Sometimes you get something of value out of the box, but I wouldn’t spend money to open one.

Seems like the overwhelming majority of opinion in this thread is that the items in the chest are not worth the cost. If that is true for the overwhelming majority of players, then chests/keys are a failed “glaring funnel to the gem shop.”

If the RNG for them wasn’t so craptastic it would be worth it.

When the game first released the RNG wasn’t near this bad. My loot for headstart weekend:

1 Abyss dye
1 Black dye
1 Midnight Fire dye
1 Everlasting Mystery Tonic (or whatever it’s called- the infinite mystery tonic :-P)

I got all of that between Friday-Sunday. I was one of 11 people in headstart that I saw on Divinity Reach chat say they got one of those tonics… and I didnt stay in DR that much, nor does that count for the other towns. I used a total of 7 keys to get it.

After that? In ALLLLL the time since headstart? I’ve have never seen another everlasting tonic, despite having used close to 100 keys since release. My gf, who used close to that many, never saw even one everlasting tonic. And I never see folks saying they are getting them on town chat anymore.

Sometime between headstart and now the RNG got demolished. There is no sense of reward for using the keys anymore. It’s not that there are no good rewards (unless you just don’t like cosmetic stuff), it’s that you have a better chance of winning the RL powerball lottery than actually seeing those rewards.

I have, too much so but not any more.

Lion Keys do not worth what they cost. The rewards are awfull for what we need to pay in gems for them.

Anyway in my main char I don’t got by drops or a chest a Lion Key since November 2012.

No, the chests are like a 1 dollar grab bag at the five and dime store. If you open one you probably will get a grey hairnet or a bunch of bobby pins.

I once wondered if buying keys.
Then I’ve seen the chart with the % chances to get things on wiki, I realized chests are merely a gold sink/cash grab.

You’re probably better off converting gems to money if you want a return.

I bought 10 total keys for Halloween, my RNG was great, scored a chainsaw greatsword and the scythe staff. Sold the staff for 25G and kept the chainsaw for myself.

I won’t have a problem buying 10 keys on a holiday event like that again, its not like I am doing anything else with the gems I have.

I have 130 chests sitting in my bank account

I spent around $40 on keys, I forget how much exactly, when the halloween stuff was supposed to be in chests. That burned me bad enough that I will never pay this company for a lottery-style item again, no matter how excellent the odds and high quality the items. I’ve got 100+ unopened chests in my bank right now, but I have fairly intense alt-itis, and I’m whittling them down with story and map reward keys.

No and i never will. The chance of getting something really good out of those boxes is too abysmal. Let me put it this way, when i played tera recently and got 11 keys for free for their rng boxes i got over 1500 gold worth of end game materials (which is probably equivalent to 200-300 gold in gw2). So until gw2 decides to stop worrying too much about their economy and starts to add worthwhile items to the game or the boxes i won’t spend another dime.

I also honestly think they care too much about the economy to the point where it’s starting to hurt the game.

vespers.1759:

noooooo

the rewards are just awful.

this!
all chests I got opened were with rewarded keys.

Nope and I never will. It’s a ripoff, won’t even trade gold for gems and purchase them.
They need to actually put them back on the loot table, have like 100 or so chests sitting in my personal guild bank just collecting dust, I’ve actually ended up just trashing them.

I’ve gotten some pretty cool things like full makeover and hair makeover. Also its always nice to get some more keys Heres some things ive gotten from boxes:

http://s965.photobucket.com/albums/ae137/bruce_w/GW2%20Keys/

Some of these are repeats after opening with more keys, each of which were only 5-10 keys used not including the keys that drop from boxes after opening.

There’s a few things I consider “lottery” in this game, BL chests, Laurels that buy Mats, and the Karma boxes in Orr. They are fun, just know the game your playing

I did. ONCE.

Learn my lessons the hard way, lol.

Tolmos.8395:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Raine.1394:

No, I never have bought a key and consequently have over 250 chests. The fact that there are chests in the game indicates that you should also occasionally find a key. This is one of the most glaring funnels to the gem shop in the game. Outside the personal story I don’t believe I’ve ever found a key. Sometimes you get something of value out of the box, but I wouldn’t spend money to open one.

Seems like the overwhelming majority of opinion in this thread is that the items in the chest are not worth the cost. If that is true for the overwhelming majority of players, then chests/keys are a failed “glaring funnel to the gem shop.”

If the RNG for them wasn’t so craptastic it would be worth it.

When the game first released the RNG wasn’t near this bad. My loot for headstart weekend:

1 Abyss dye
1 Black dye
1 Midnight Fire dye
1 Everlasting Mystery Tonic (or whatever it’s called- the infinite mystery tonic :-P)

I got all of that between Friday-Sunday. I was one of 11 people in headstart that I saw on Divinity Reach chat say they got one of those tonics… and I didnt stay in DR that much, nor does that count for the other towns. I used a total of 7 keys to get it.

After that? In ALLLLL the time since headstart? I’ve have never seen another everlasting tonic, despite having used close to 100 keys since release. My gf, who used close to that many, never saw even one everlasting tonic. And I never see folks saying they are getting them on town chat anymore.

Sometime between headstart and now the RNG got demolished. There is no sense of reward for using the keys anymore. It’s not that there are no good rewards (unless you just don’t like cosmetic stuff), it’s that you have a better chance of winning the RL powerball lottery than actually seeing those rewards.

Tweaking the RNG to allow for some big winners early is a marketing technique common in Asian MMO’s with gamble boxes. Perhaps it was used here as well.

Personally I think they are far too costly to purchase for the gamble that comes with them. This is coming from someone who has spent a fair bit of cash buying gems to buy deluxe, extra char’s, extra bag slots, all bank pages etc.

So what I do is farm keys – 1 key every 30-40 mins of game time is worth it in my opinion. It also makes a nice change of gameplay when I’m bored too.

Now if they were to lower the price on keys to a realistic price then yes I might be tempted to purchase them instead of getting them free like I currently do.

Just want to note, if the price of keys is higher than you are willing to pay, that just means the price for keys is higher than you are willing to pay. Outside of one of the events where there were skins in the chests, I’ve never bought the keys because they’re priced higher than I’m willing to pay. However, I know there’s plenty of people out there who think the price is fine. My wife is one of those people, but (thankfully for my bank account) she doesn’t buy them with any regularity.

Did they lower the drop rate of the keys since launch? I remember at the beginning I got like 1 key a day. After coming back from my break, I’ve gotten 1 key in 2 weeks of farming. What’s up with that?

I did once or twice, but unfortunately the contents of the boxes are not worth the use of gems.

I have stacks of useless tonics. The ones that turn you into a moa or something? What on earth are these even for? I have no idea.

Now, if they contained 250 stacks of harvesting tools that harvested every level, or some other things that were actually useful, I would buy them again.

The way it stands now, no, I’ll just let my boxes stack up because I know what’s actually in them isn’t worth finding out.

The only really good things of value is the Permanent Contracts. However, the drop rate is so low that it is not worth the money trying to go for them. Its just better to spend your money on other things.

As of now, it is much better to hoard your keys and wait for something good to come out and use them then.

I want to add, personally I think that Anet hasn’t put in enough reward for the risk to get me to buy enough keys that would open the boxes I have in my bank.

I think this might be an opportunity for us to let them know the type of things we would like in the boxes we open outside of the events. XP and Karma boosters just don’t do it. Give me a regular chance at getting some nice skins for armor or weapons, maybe a small chance at some gems, I’ll buy more keys for that stuff.

Till then, you can expect me to only buy a subscription worth of gems on a holiday event. That amount of money is worth it me so I can support the development of the game.

edit: spellcheck make subscription = superscription

Bought some once. Never again. -_- I’m better off exchanging the gems for gold.