Guild Wars 2

The random generation of dye given from a gem store pack needs a revamp.

Problem:
Have you ever purchased a gem store dye pack only to get all commons, repeats of dye in the same pack, or ones you already have?

Solution:
Much like the way the birthday dye is handled; Provide a list on use that only shows dyes you do not have in “said” categories, if all dyes are owned in the category for the account using the pack, then disable the purchase from the gem store or ask the user if they want to switch packs/continue with a random from said pack.
The dyes from “non-random” packs would have to be account bound on acquire to prevent people from farming the logic so they always get high value dyes to resell, but still allow for a “random” pack for the luck seekers to try for expensive resale dyes.

Please post your thoughts and comments
—Loran Warmaster [Hyrr]

Anet won’t endorse this. It doesn’t make them money.

Miss Lana Too.5794:

Anet won’t endorse this. It doesn’t make them money.

False, imo.
I’m pretty sure more people will buy those if it’d be guaranteed to get something worthwhile out of them. Right now they’re just not worth the investment, your chance of getting something worthwhile isn’t even all that high

SrebX.6498:

Miss Lana Too.5794:

Anet won’t endorse this. It doesn’t make them money.

False, imo.
I’m pretty sure more people will buy those if it’d be guaranteed to get something worthwhile out of them. Right now they’re just not worth the investment, your chance of getting something worthwhile isn’t even all that high

If I know that I could get the remainder of the dyes I need every time I opened one kit, I’d buy them in an instant. Then I wouldn’t buy any more. You see the problem there? By making it RNG they increase sales in the long run. What OP is suggesting will increase them for the very short term, with long dry periods in the middle.

May as well ask them to do the same for the black lion chest skins. That’s not gonna happen either.

But it will mean more ppl will buy them since they know they will get the dye they want. Currently many like me who want them, just don’t bother due to the silly rng. The dye kits do not have a long term shelf life anyway due to being in the store for limited period. It doesn’t matter if ppl complete their sets if more people are buying more kits.

Improving the chances of getting an exclusive dye will only improve direct sales.

See, what you’re saying makes sense, except for the part where years of microtransaction metrics indicate that people spend more money on RNG gambling boxes that might contain stuff they want than on direct purchases to obtain exactly what they want, even if the pricing is normalized.

This is why practically every microtransaction store has some sort of randomized gambling feature. Even if you sold a 1000gem dye, and a box that had a 10% chance to drop that same dye for 100gems, people are actually far more likely to spend more money in your shop buying the 100 gem box.

This is especially pronounced when the gambled items are tradable, as they are in GW2. In this instance users don’t generally stop buying gambling boxes when they get the thing they want, as they can see the profit potential (the jackpot) of gambling well and selling the result to other users.

Despite what users say on this subject (and we ALL say random boxes are something we hate) it has been proven time and time again that the number of users willing to just grumble and buy the gamble boxes anyway is far higher than the number of users that actually put their money where their mouth is and refuse to spend money on them, or only spend money on non-RNG microtransactions.

For this reason, I wouldn’t expect to see an end to things like dye packs or black lion skins. They make far more income per development dollar than their non-RNG counterparts. If you can convince the entire user base to stop buying them, that’s when they’ll stop selling them.

Loran Warmaster.1026:

The random generation of dye given from a gem store pack needs a revamp.

Problem:
Have you ever purchased a gem store dye pack only to get all commons, repeats of dye in the same pack, or ones you already have?

That’s only a “problem” if you think the dye packs are intended to offer anything more than a lotto ticket.

If your goal is to get a specific dye, it is always cheaper to buy that color on the TP, unless (a) it’s within 48 hours of the dye being released or (b) you are very, very lucky.

Only pay gems for dye kits if you enjoy the thrill of rolling the dice to see what might happen.

Randulf.7614:

But it will mean more ppl will buy them since they know they will get the dye they want. Currently many like me who want them, just don’t bother due to the silly rng. The dye kits do not have a long term shelf life anyway due to being in the store for limited period. It doesn’t matter if ppl complete their sets if more people are buying more kits.

Improving the chances of getting an exclusive dye will only improve direct sales.

Did you read my previous post? Please do, as it addresses this already.

People will pay to gamble in-game. Removing the gambling part of it will reduce their revenue. Have a think about it.

If you are talking about the special BLTC dyes they tell you the odds up front for the RNG, usually 6 in 25. 24% may sound good, assuming equal weighting, but it really isn’t because a 5 pack still gives you a touch over 25% of not getting any with a 5 pack. If you are that 1 in 4, it will seem terribly unfair for 500 gems.

If you are talking about the normal 7 pack dye kit they do say 5 common and 2 not common. There are 181 common, 119 uncommon and 82 rare dyes. We don’t know if the uncommon and rare have equal weightings and even if they did it’s a 35% chance of not getting a rare. That’s the nature of RNG. Again if you’re the 1 in 3 that didn’t get a rare for your 200 gems … shrug.

The red color swatch dye kit from season 2 achievements had every dye selectable in red spectrum and no RNG involved like the birthday versions. I wonder of that was intended at all, as most of the achievement rewards are carbon copies of the gem store stuff you buy. I already used it, so oh well.

I’m just waiting for the day laws catch up with technology and put restrictions, taxes, ECT on online digital sales such as RNG gambling based products in video game cash shops.

Maybe the gaming industry will become more ethical.

Miss Lana Too.5794:

Randulf.7614:

But it will mean more ppl will buy them since they know they will get the dye they want. Currently many like me who want them, just don’t bother due to the silly rng. The dye kits do not have a long term shelf life anyway due to being in the store for limited period. It doesn’t matter if ppl complete their sets if more people are buying more kits.

Improving the chances of getting an exclusive dye will only improve direct sales.

Did you read my previous post? Please do, as it addresses this already.

People will pay to gamble in-game. Removing the gambling part of it will reduce their revenue. Have a think about it.

They will pay, but only ever to a very limited extent. At their peak I used to sell merchandise which included pokemon cards. I made considerably more money from individual cards than i ever did from the packs. Whilst not an exact comparison, it bears similarities in the trading pattern.
I myself have both gambled and bought individual, on many items incl dyes and would spend far more money on a guarantee than a gamble.

Whilst I do not have anets metrics, i can comment from trading patterns i have observed in 20 years of sales and retail.