Guild Wars 2

Buttercup.5871:

Welcome to skinwars. Your highest goal is a weapon skin. It’s dubbed: “legendary”.

Wait, it is?

kitten , I must have been playing this game wrong this entire time =(

Honestly…by far not everyone in game wants a legendary. I know PLENTY of guildies who find them as ugly as me And the same goes for all the added new weapon skins so far. Not a fan. There is by far more people out there, who DON’T want a legendary. than there is people, who do. I am absolutely certain of that So yeah…they are rare for a reason, but it’s not, that anet wants to get rich. If legendaries and precursors weren’t hard to get, there wouldn’t be any reason to want them anymore.

watch anet suddenly realise they could make more money and make precursers drop rate half

I had such high hopes for this game. it really does have ALOT of potential but NCSoft has shown time and again that their focus is on pleasing their pocket books and not the players. the horrid RNG and constant nerfing of EVERY good farming spot is proof of this.

Enix sucks anyways
Square Soft was were it was at

BUT regardless
Meddling your mind around a legendary can get you irritated- if thats what you focus your gaming experience around- yea, im going for a legendary because the stats are good for my character- but I can get a similar staff- so what if I want to be a little more shiny than someone else? If there were more armors- or personal armors as they were in gw1- class specific instead of class generalized, then I wouldn’t care about a legendary.
If you have the patience and the time for a legendary then by all means go for it and ignore the rest.

Buttercup.5871:

Welcome to skinwars. Your highest goal is a weapon skin. It’s dubbed: “legendary”. The terminology is laid on thick so that you know that this is your goal.

Most people cannot acquire this skin. Why? Well, we all know why. The droprate of the necessary “precursor” is so abysmally small, that the price is abysmally high.

Now consider the following. With each event, including the next event (Jade weapon tickets incoming), the new tactic appears to be: introduce RNG boxes that contain a “temporary” weapon skin. This skin is exclusive. It’s practically like a legendary. Veeeery exclusive.

Unless you’re dirt rich in-game, you cannot buy enough keys/boxes to get a “skin ticket”. And you cannot save for them, nonono; they’re “temporary”. So flip out your credit card, or grind yourself into oblivion (the latter is actually made impossible due to the DR system).

Now, tell me, are you still wondering why these precursors barely drop? Still wondering why there’s no “scavenger hunt” more than half a year after the very idea was announced? Or why your WvW chest contained nothing but masterwork items?

It’s so obvious, I should have seen this coming from miles. It’s just like in Aion, where NCSoft did the exact same thing (They lowered the droprate and adjusted the game mechanic of certain items to increase the sale of related store items. Manastones, anyone?).

Well said. With every patch they destroy their reputation further. They can’t develop actual content apparently, they would rather gate skins behind RNG boxes. Add to the fact they charge exorbitant prices to even make your character look halfway decent, no new skins really added in 9 months besides temp skins that were pretty bad anyway…What’s going on? Are we giving up on class balance, new skins, new content altogether? How do I explain to my friend that he can’t just buy the skin he wants, no matter how much he would spend, he has to play Anet’s pull the lever kitten your face gambling system.

The only part that I don’t really agree with is that legendaries are the end all be all of skins in this game. They are pretty god kitten ugly.

Those more focused on getting shinies than having fun in the world see no content. Those who enjoy having fun in the world and don’t care too much about weapon skins, that’s another story.

I didn’t get a legendary to show off. I got it to get the stupid empty space off my load screen. I’ll get an underwater legendary secondly because I love the way it looks. I don’t care if anyone ever see it.

But beyond that I have 18 characters and every single one of them, at least the high level ones, have a look I love. I love their armor and their weapons for them. None of them actually have anything beyond the dungeon stuff or the basic skins, except for one character who has one legendary that I don’t get to see that often, because he’s an engineer and he’s often using a kit.

It’s a matter of focus pure and simple. What do you focus on. I had a ton of fun playing crab toss. I thought it was a great addition to the game. It won’t be staying but while it was here, I had fun with it. Does it matter that there are weapon skins that I won’t get. Sure. It matters.

But it’s not my focus. I don’t like RNG any more than anyone else but RNG isn’t going to ruin the game for me. It’s not locking me out of content. It’s not stopping me from playing the game. It’s not stopping me from enjoying myself.

WildStar= more NCSoft trash. If your having issues liking gw2 you will be in the same boat with WildStar. Its a wow look alike with the same crappy micro-transaction scheme as gw2. Dont expect any of the bugs or gameplay issues to get fixed in that game either.
More Real money sinks for in game content.
NCSoft = money over players

Vayne , not being able to obtain a legendary UNLESS i spend real money IS blocking me from content. You may not see a legendary weapon as content but it is for most of GW2, and that’s as bad as blocking someone from the last boss of a dungeon or story arc.

Doomknight.7923:

WildStar= more NCSoft trash. iIf your having issues liking gw2 you will be in the same boat with WildStar. Its a wow look alike with the same crappy micro-transaction scheme ast gw2.
More Real money sinks for in game content.
NCSoft = money over players

That’s hilarious because:

1) WildStar’s art style is more like Torchlight 2 than WoW.
2) No information is available on the WildStar business model.
3) I would rather deal with NCSoft, which brought me the first Guild Wars than Square Enix which has brought me nothing of value in recent years. Hell, despite it’s problems, Guild Wars 2 is still easily better than 90% of the competition (and I don’t care about RNG boxes for AESTHETIC ITEMS anyway.).

Duke Blackrose.4981:

(and I don’t care about RNG boxes for AESTHETIC ITEMS anyway.).

….and there’s the rub.

Ignore them. Anything that doesn’t drop from a the game and requires freaking dollars shouldn’t even be considered as a legit skin. Btw where are the new armors? Im tired of them adding new weapon skins every single month but ZERO armors since game was launched.

thats hilarious because
1. those are all opinions =)
2. NCSoft owning Wild Star is fact.

and i will bet that the micro-transaction model used in GW2 will be in Wildstar.

this is the last NCsoft game i brough, for me all those korean can stay in the other part of the world. we need more quality game, no more recyclable trash game they been throwing to us since 2000.
MMORPG era is becoming the same line of anime era. all the good one stay before 2005. i remember i never log in the WoW forum, or we dont even have forum in Gw1.

btw where is Mike O’Brien? that guy know how to run a game.

Doomknight.7923:

thats hilarious because
1. those are all opinions =)
2. NCSoft owning Wild Star is fact.

and i will bet that the micro-transaction model used in GW2 will be in Wildstar.

Actually, 1 and 2 were facts. WildStar’s artstyle is more comparable to Torchlight’s because it is a cleaner cartoon style without the characteristics of the WoW style (ie: oversized spiky shoulders). And no information on the business model is available – that is not an opinion, it’s a fact. They are still debating on the model.

And if it is – good. That means that WildStar will be a game with no subscription fee, no pay to win, and the ability to buy everything in the game with gold.

I can’t name one MMO business model that is more reasonable.

My highest goal is to have fun, and having a legendary isn’t a part of that as I can’t tolerate the grind. To each their own.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Doomknight.7923:

thats hilarious because
1. those are all opinions =)
2. NCSoft owning Wild Star is fact.

and i will bet that the micro-transaction model used in GW2 will be in Wildstar.

Actually, 1 and 2 were facts. WildStar’s artstyle is more comparable to Torchlight’s because it is a cleaner cartoon style without the characteristics of the WoW style (ie: oversized spiky shoulders). And no information on the business model is available – that is not an opinion, it’s a fact. They are still debating on the model.

And if it is – good. That means that WildStar will be a game with no subscription fee, no pay to win, and the ability to buy everything in the game with gold.

I can’t name one MMO business model that is more reasonable.

Pretty much anything without RNG. If it has gambling for items in it, it will be the same garbage cash shop that is worse than every other MMO out there currently in GW2 now. EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, soon to be Rift, etc. all have better cash shops that guild wars, and most of those have sub options. I can buy any skin/membership/anything I want in EQ1 and 2 with in game gold as long as it’s for sale. All of these games are more “free to play” than GW2 could ever hope to be as long as they gate content behind RNG boxes. Oh, and I don’t have to gamble with hours of my time that Anet likes to waste! The only 2 games I can think of with worse cash shops is Neverwinter and ToR, and both of those games are notoriously crappy.

Aeonblade.8709:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Doomknight.7923:

thats hilarious because
1. those are all opinions =)
2. NCSoft owning Wild Star is fact.

and i will bet that the micro-transaction model used in GW2 will be in Wildstar.

Actually, 1 and 2 were facts. WildStar’s artstyle is more comparable to Torchlight’s because it is a cleaner cartoon style without the characteristics of the WoW style (ie: oversized spiky shoulders). And no information on the business model is available – that is not an opinion, it’s a fact. They are still debating on the model.

And if it is – good. That means that WildStar will be a game with no subscription fee, no pay to win, and the ability to buy everything in the game with gold.

I can’t name one MMO business model that is more reasonable.

Pretty much anything without RNG. If it has gambling for items in it, it will be the same garbage cash shop that is worse than every other MMO out there currently in GW2 now. EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, soon to be Rift, etc. all have better cash shops that guild wars, and most of those have sub options. I can buy any skin/membership/anything I want in EQ1 and 2 with in game gold as long as it’s for sale. All of these games are more “free to play” than GW2 could ever hope to be as long as they gate content behind RNG boxes. Oh, and I don’t have to gamble with hours of my time that Anet likes to waste! The only 2 games I can think of with worse cash shops is Neverwinter and ToR, and both of those games are notoriously crappy.

Skins are not content. Lotro has races and quest areas that you have to pay for. DDO has the same. And EQ 1 and 2 are owned by Sony and don’t provide content updates nearly as often. I’m not sure either are currently as ambitious as Guild Wars 2 is.

Also don’t they offer option subs?

Vayne.8563:

Aeonblade.8709:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Doomknight.7923:

thats hilarious because
1. those are all opinions =)
2. NCSoft owning Wild Star is fact.

and i will bet that the micro-transaction model used in GW2 will be in Wildstar.

Actually, 1 and 2 were facts. WildStar’s artstyle is more comparable to Torchlight’s because it is a cleaner cartoon style without the characteristics of the WoW style (ie: oversized spiky shoulders). And no information on the business model is available – that is not an opinion, it’s a fact. They are still debating on the model.

And if it is – good. That means that WildStar will be a game with no subscription fee, no pay to win, and the ability to buy everything in the game with gold.

I can’t name one MMO business model that is more reasonable.

Pretty much anything without RNG. If it has gambling for items in it, it will be the same garbage cash shop that is worse than every other MMO out there currently in GW2 now. EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, soon to be Rift, etc. all have better cash shops that guild wars, and most of those have sub options. I can buy any skin/membership/anything I want in EQ1 and 2 with in game gold as long as it’s for sale. All of these games are more “free to play” than GW2 could ever hope to be as long as they gate content behind RNG boxes. Oh, and I don’t have to gamble with hours of my time that Anet likes to waste! The only 2 games I can think of with worse cash shops is Neverwinter and ToR, and both of those games are notoriously crappy.

Skins are not content. Lotro has races and quest areas that you have to pay for. DDO has the same. And EQ 1 and 2 are owned by Sony and don’t provide content updates nearly as often. I’m not sure either are currently as ambitious as Guild Wars 2 is.

Also don’t they offer option subs?

This. At the end of the day, nothing in Guild Wars 2’s cash shop or business model is unreasonable. The RNG boxes offer SKINS. NOT CONTENT. NOT POWER. SKINS.

No other MMO on the market offers the large, frequent patches for the price of this game. Very few MMOs offer gold → cash shop currency conversion – and most that do involve pay-to-win shops.

made me chuckle, then i cried

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Vayne.8563:

Aeonblade.8709:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Doomknight.7923:

thats hilarious because
1. those are all opinions =)
2. NCSoft owning Wild Star is fact.

and i will bet that the micro-transaction model used in GW2 will be in Wildstar.

Actually, 1 and 2 were facts. WildStar’s artstyle is more comparable to Torchlight’s because it is a cleaner cartoon style without the characteristics of the WoW style (ie: oversized spiky shoulders). And no information on the business model is available – that is not an opinion, it’s a fact. They are still debating on the model.

And if it is – good. That means that WildStar will be a game with no subscription fee, no pay to win, and the ability to buy everything in the game with gold.

I can’t name one MMO business model that is more reasonable.

Pretty much anything without RNG. If it has gambling for items in it, it will be the same garbage cash shop that is worse than every other MMO out there currently in GW2 now. EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, soon to be Rift, etc. all have better cash shops that guild wars, and most of those have sub options. I can buy any skin/membership/anything I want in EQ1 and 2 with in game gold as long as it’s for sale. All of these games are more “free to play” than GW2 could ever hope to be as long as they gate content behind RNG boxes. Oh, and I don’t have to gamble with hours of my time that Anet likes to waste! The only 2 games I can think of with worse cash shops is Neverwinter and ToR, and both of those games are notoriously crappy.

Skins are not content. Lotro has races and quest areas that you have to pay for. DDO has the same. And EQ 1 and 2 are owned by Sony and don’t provide content updates nearly as often. I’m not sure either are currently as ambitious as Guild Wars 2 is.

Also don’t they offer option subs?

This. At the end of the day, nothing in Guild Wars 2’s cash shop or business model is unreasonable. The RNG boxes offer SKINS. NOT CONTENT. NOT POWER. SKINS.

No other MMO on the market offers the large, frequent patches for the price of this game. Very few MMOs offer gold -> cash shop currency conversion – and most that do involve pay-to-win shops.

I disagree. Also Sony does weekly updates still, just like they always have. Every F2P I have played in the past 6 months let me get anything I wanted in their cash shop with in game money, sans Neverwinter, which was awful.

Defend it all you want, I’ll continue to spread the word to those I know of the shady business model they have in place. At the end of the day I’m happy because I’m not ignorant enough to buy the content gated behind a .2% chance drop

It sounds funny…. but it does sounds right… hmmm….

Aeonblade.8709:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Vayne.8563:

Aeonblade.8709:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Doomknight.7923:

thats hilarious because
1. those are all opinions =)
2. NCSoft owning Wild Star is fact.

and i will bet that the micro-transaction model used in GW2 will be in Wildstar.

Actually, 1 and 2 were facts. WildStar’s artstyle is more comparable to Torchlight’s because it is a cleaner cartoon style without the characteristics of the WoW style (ie: oversized spiky shoulders). And no information on the business model is available – that is not an opinion, it’s a fact. They are still debating on the model.

And if it is – good. That means that WildStar will be a game with no subscription fee, no pay to win, and the ability to buy everything in the game with gold.

I can’t name one MMO business model that is more reasonable.

Pretty much anything without RNG. If it has gambling for items in it, it will be the same garbage cash shop that is worse than every other MMO out there currently in GW2 now. EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, soon to be Rift, etc. all have better cash shops that guild wars, and most of those have sub options. I can buy any skin/membership/anything I want in EQ1 and 2 with in game gold as long as it’s for sale. All of these games are more “free to play” than GW2 could ever hope to be as long as they gate content behind RNG boxes. Oh, and I don’t have to gamble with hours of my time that Anet likes to waste! The only 2 games I can think of with worse cash shops is Neverwinter and ToR, and both of those games are notoriously crappy.

Skins are not content. Lotro has races and quest areas that you have to pay for. DDO has the same. And EQ 1 and 2 are owned by Sony and don’t provide content updates nearly as often. I’m not sure either are currently as ambitious as Guild Wars 2 is.

Also don’t they offer option subs?

This. At the end of the day, nothing in Guild Wars 2’s cash shop or business model is unreasonable. The RNG boxes offer SKINS. NOT CONTENT. NOT POWER. SKINS.

No other MMO on the market offers the large, frequent patches for the price of this game. Very few MMOs offer gold -> cash shop currency conversion – and most that do involve pay-to-win shops.

I disagree. Also Sony does weekly updates still, just like they always have. Every F2P I have played in the past 6 months let me get anything I wanted in their cash shop with in game money, sans Neverwinter, which was awful.

Defend it all you want, I’ll continue to spread the word to those I know of the shady business model they have in place. At the end of the day I’m happy because I’m not ignorant enough to buy the content gated behind a .2% chance drop

Have you realized that ANet might have put in 0.000001% chance for these things?

.2% is actually very generous of you.

But at the end of the day, gamblers are gamblers, defenders are defenders, and investors are not gamers. Try as we might, they will never get rid of Random Number Female Canis lupus familiaris boxes. I actually expect ANet to start putting every single thing in RNFClf for the heck of it: Repair canister? RNFClf. Crystals? RNFClf. Stones? RNFClf. Clothes? RNFClf. Colors? RNFClf Oh wait…

There are so many things I’d like to buy in GW2, but as things stand, I’d rather throw my money at Rubicon so they can make “Great Huge War Game”

Vayne.8563:

Skins are not content. Lotro has races and quest areas that you have to pay for. DDO has the same. And EQ 1 and 2 are owned by Sony and don’t provide content updates nearly as often. I’m not sure either are currently as ambitious as Guild Wars 2 is.

Also don’t they offer option subs?

Well I have2 lifetime accounts with Lotro and they are releasing the Helm’s Deep expansion later this year. Being a vip I get Turbine points every month on both accounts and should have enough TPs to get the expansion without having to pay a cent. Anything in the Turbine store can be bought using Turbine Points you earn in the game. If you want it faster then you have to pay money to buy the points. Unlike GW2 where you earn Turbine points in the game, you cannot earn gems here, you have to use gold to buy the gems or real life money. As far as content updates go “Rider of the Rohan” expansion came out last fall which included mounted combat. Helm’s Deep. this years expansion should prove to be interesting as it will have mass warfare.

Aeonblade.8709:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Vayne.8563:

Aeonblade.8709:

Duke Blackrose.4981:

Doomknight.7923:

thats hilarious because
1. those are all opinions =)
2. NCSoft owning Wild Star is fact.

and i will bet that the micro-transaction model used in GW2 will be in Wildstar.

Actually, 1 and 2 were facts. WildStar’s artstyle is more comparable to Torchlight’s because it is a cleaner cartoon style without the characteristics of the WoW style (ie: oversized spiky shoulders). And no information on the business model is available – that is not an opinion, it’s a fact. They are still debating on the model.

And if it is – good. That means that WildStar will be a game with no subscription fee, no pay to win, and the ability to buy everything in the game with gold.

I can’t name one MMO business model that is more reasonable.

Pretty much anything without RNG. If it has gambling for items in it, it will be the same garbage cash shop that is worse than every other MMO out there currently in GW2 now. EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, soon to be Rift, etc. all have better cash shops that guild wars, and most of those have sub options. I can buy any skin/membership/anything I want in EQ1 and 2 with in game gold as long as it’s for sale. All of these games are more “free to play” than GW2 could ever hope to be as long as they gate content behind RNG boxes. Oh, and I don’t have to gamble with hours of my time that Anet likes to waste! The only 2 games I can think of with worse cash shops is Neverwinter and ToR, and both of those games are notoriously crappy.

Skins are not content. Lotro has races and quest areas that you have to pay for. DDO has the same. And EQ 1 and 2 are owned by Sony and don’t provide content updates nearly as often. I’m not sure either are currently as ambitious as Guild Wars 2 is.

Also don’t they offer option subs?

This. At the end of the day, nothing in Guild Wars 2’s cash shop or business model is unreasonable. The RNG boxes offer SKINS. NOT CONTENT. NOT POWER. SKINS.

No other MMO on the market offers the large, frequent patches for the price of this game. Very few MMOs offer gold -> cash shop currency conversion – and most that do involve pay-to-win shops.

I disagree. Also Sony does weekly updates still, just like they always have. Every F2P I have played in the past 6 months let me get anything I wanted in their cash shop with in game money, sans Neverwinter, which was awful.

Defend it all you want, I’ll continue to spread the word to those I know of the shady business model they have in place. At the end of the day I’m happy because I’m not ignorant enough to buy the content gated behind a .2% chance drop

Skins <> content. You keep saying content. Other games have content gated behind a cash shop,. this isn’t one of them.

I do hope you’re honest enough to make that distinction to others you’re telling furfies to.

Theftwind.8976:

Vayne.8563:

Skins are not content. Lotro has races and quest areas that you have to pay for. DDO has the same. And EQ 1 and 2 are owned by Sony and don’t provide content updates nearly as often. I’m not sure either are currently as ambitious as Guild Wars 2 is.

Also don’t they offer option subs?

Well I have2 lifetime accounts with Lotro and they are releasing the Helm’s Deep expansion later this year. Being a vip I get Turbine points every month on both accounts and should have enough TPs to get the expansion without having to pay a cent. Anything in the Turbine store can be bought using Turbine Points you earn in the game. If you want it faster then you have to pay money to buy the points. Unlike GW2 where you earn Turbine points in the game, you cannot earn gems here, you have to use gold to buy the gems or real life money. As far as content updates go “Rider of the Rohan” expansion came out last fall which included mounted combat. Helm’s Deep. this years expansion should prove to be interesting as it will have mass warfare.

You got VIP for free? Or you bought it when it was sold? Red herring is a red herring. I was a VIP to, a privilege for which I paid $15 dollars a month. Sure if I pay $15 a month I can save my points to get the expansion free with the points I didn’t spend on other stuff. But that’s not free. That’s not even CLOSE to free.

In the short time I played Lotro, I paid double the money I put into Guild Wars 2, for a whole lot less.

You know, if I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard an RNG box called ‘shady’ or ‘gambling’ over the past couple of years, I’d probably be able to afford keys for all the Black Lion boxes I’ve got filling up my bank.

And yet, here we are: Almost every F2P game now has RNG boxen in some form.

I have no problems with BLC’s as long as they add more in-game skins instead of just skins obtainable through chests.
The game is about skin, and there is a tremendous lack of it.

Never have I so immediately disagreed with the entire thesis of a thread. :P

Fortus.6175:

made me chuckle, then i cried

“It’s not true unless it makes you laugh, but you don’t understand until it makes you weep.” ~ Mavis

At least here we don’t (yet) have system-wide “So and so got such and such from a something or other box!” spam that can’t be turned off.

Hawkian.6580:

Never have I so immediately disagreed with the entire thesis of a thread. :P

I invite you to articulate your criticism. I did not create this thread in order to receive a pat on the back, I created it to hear your opinion. Having said that, man, this thread has been cleaned out professionally of opinions by the moderators. It was twice as long this afternoon.

Firefly.5982:

Honestly…by far not everyone in game wants a legendary. I know PLENTY of guildies who find them as ugly as me And the same goes for all the added new weapon skins so far. Not a fan. There is by far more people out there, who DON’T want a legendary. than there is people, who do. I am absolutely certain of that So yeah…they are rare for a reason, but it’s not, that anet wants to get rich. If legendaries and precursors weren’t hard to get, there wouldn’t be any reason to want them anymore.

LOL I have to laugh people actually think that business models = conspiracy theories.

There is nothing gained solo in this title. He’s absolutely right. All of the focus is on those who group constantly. And if you try to do something solo in this game you have to be rich to do it. That’s how it works here.

Let’s just put that aside for a moment and talk about how this game was built on things that any real mmo gamer (which is what the devs call themselves, gamers that understand us gamers who built this game for us gamers) would never have used in a million years simply due to mmo development history.

1. DR
2. dungeon focus
3. higher tier gear
4. precursors for legendaries
5. the grind to acquire drops
6. excessive RNG in everything including acquiring gear
7. a crafting system that doesn’t require a crafting rating (mystic forge)
8. more RNG as the solution for RNG

So while I agree that precursors aren’t the only problem, there’s ALOT of problems here that any self respecting mmo gamer would never put into their own game. Honestly folks, cmon now, be honest with yourselves, if you were to make your own game right now would you seriously put your players thru this?

Vayne.8563:

Skins are not content.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

At the end of the day, nothing in Guild Wars 2’s cash shop or business model is unreasonable. The RNG boxes offer SKINS. NOT CONTENT. NOT POWER. SKINS.

Actually you are both wrong.

SKINS = CONTENT in horizontal progression games. SKIN =/= CONTENT in vertical progression games. Consider this, if new armor/weapons with better stats is considered content for stat gear grind games why are you dismissing armor/weapons with better visuals as not content for a visual gear grind games? It’s not the only form of content (races, dungeons, zones, etc) but it IS content. Another game that you can see this idea of SKINS = CONTENT is TF2 but it’s just a portion of it and not all inclusive. So don’t be ignorant to think that skins don’t equal content in GW2 as it does and right now a lot of new skins are pushed into the cash shop while those paltry few that are put into the game are gated behind massive grinds.

I am not against skins in the cash shop, however I am against the abuse of it. Right now the financial money making department of GW2 are focusing too much in the wrong direction. If end game for GW2 is about trying to look cool don’t shove it too much behind money only or RNG only. RNG boxes can coexist with direct to buy, grabs the company money from two pools of customers. However there still needs to be emphasis outside of the cash shop as well. New armor/weapons skins available in game should be made too however 9months in and all we’ve gotten is fractal stuff gated behind a massive grind. The disparity is TOO much and they need to a small yank on their leash so that they can close the gap between cash shop releases and in game releases. It will be better for them in the long run if customers are treated like humans instead of wallets.

Also I don’t truly believe the conspiracy of less precursors for more cash shop RNGs. That’s a real leap in thought there instead of following the money trail of what is really going on. Also NCsoft isn’t EA.

RoChan.1926:

Vayne.8563:

Skins are not content.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

At the end of the day, nothing in Guild Wars 2’s cash shop or business model is unreasonable. The RNG boxes offer SKINS. NOT CONTENT. NOT POWER. SKINS.

Actually you are both wrong.

SKINS = CONTENT in horizontal progression games. SKIN =/= CONTENT in vertical progression games.

I am not against skins in the cash shop, however I am against the abuse of it. Right now the financial money making department of GW2 are focusing too much in the wrong direction.

Also NCsoft isn’t EA.

Have to totally disagree with you there bud. NCsoft is definitely acting EA ish. I’m waiting for the day (that some of us predicted back when Ascended was announced) where content will be gated off to those who have to have agony resistance to see it. Something else they promised never to do before they launched the game.

The limitation of loot/gold in this game was directed for the soul purpose of getting more sales. Now that they are feeling the squeeze someone in upper management holding the reigns on the loot thinks that squeezing it more tightly will cause people to spend more. That’s not how it works in the mmo universe. You do enough squeezing you scare away your customers and we’re starting to see it. I’m not happy about it and I don’t want anyone to be hurt by it but I’m waiting for the day when we’ll see layoffs directly as a result of lower sales due to this practice it’s coming.

Nobody ever said you HAD to get a legendary…. Besides my main, all my alts are doing perfectly fine without legendaries.

Dommmmmmmmmm.6984:

Nobody ever said you HAD to get a legendary…. Besides my main, all my alts are doing perfectly fine without legendaries.

I wasn’t advocating that you had to get a legendary, or that you could not do without one. I’m saying that legendary weapons were designed to be a very important goal in this game; a big fat medal in your start-up screen is meant to remind you of this every time you log in.

I then said that the low droprate of precursors seamlessly fits into the business model of RNG boxes containing weapon skins. You can refuse to believe this because you cannot imagine a company doing something as morally reprehensible as that. But RNG boxes are so morally reprehensible in and of itself, that the thought of adjusting droprates is not such a big leap as some make it out to be. It merely complements the current business model. Investors would call it “a means to enhance profit”, even if it only generates substantially more profit in the short run. Milk ‘m while your product is hot, right? These days, people switch MMO’s very rapidly anyway, so no harm done, right? “Outrage!” or “tin foil hat conspiracies!” you may say. But if you consider that over the last 9 months nearly half of the forum was filled with the gripes of acquiring a precursor, and that no meaningful sustainable solution has been implemented to date – except for the introduction of RNG boxes that conveniently fill the void of exclusive weapon skins – I’d say it’s not that far fetched at all.

tigirius.9014:

RoChan.1926:

Vayne.8563:

Skins are not content.

Duke Blackrose.4981:

At the end of the day, nothing in Guild Wars 2’s cash shop or business model is unreasonable. The RNG boxes offer SKINS. NOT CONTENT. NOT POWER. SKINS.

Actually you are both wrong.

SKINS = CONTENT in horizontal progression games. SKIN =/= CONTENT in vertical progression games.

I am not against skins in the cash shop, however I am against the abuse of it. Right now the financial money making department of GW2 are focusing too much in the wrong direction.

Also NCsoft isn’t EA.

Have to totally disagree with you there bud. NCsoft is definitely acting EA ish. I’m waiting for the day (that some of us predicted back when Ascended was announced) where content will be gated off to those who have to have agony resistance to see it. Something else they promised never to do before they launched the game.

The limitation of loot/gold in this game was directed for the soul purpose of getting more sales. Now that they are feeling the squeeze someone in upper management holding the reigns on the loot thinks that squeezing it more tightly will cause people to spend more. That’s not how it works in the mmo universe. You do enough squeezing you scare away your customers and we’re starting to see it. I’m not happy about it and I don’t want anyone to be hurt by it but I’m waiting for the day when we’ll see layoffs directly as a result of lower sales due to this practice it’s coming.

If they were really greedy then, they’d allow people to buy ascended gear in the cash shop, something that so far has not materialized. This is why your statement contradicts itself.

You can’t get ascended gear for gold or cash, and that’s BIS gear. The game isn’t pay to win and you’ve pretty much proved it. A more greedy company would have had some way to get BIS gear for cash, even if it was just sold on the trading post.

Vayne.8563:

If they were really greedy then, they’d allow people to buy ascended gear in the cash shop, something that so far has not materialized.

That’s like saying someone cannot be a thief because he isn’t a murderer, either.

Now replace the words "thief with “greedy”, and replace “murderer” with “pay to win supporter”.

There are different ways to obtain profit from a game. The most profitable way is probably the one that doesn’t stare you directly in the face when playing it.

Buttercup.5871:

Vayne.8563:

If they were really greedy then, they’d allow people to buy ascended gear in the cash shop, something that so far has not materialized.

That’s like saying someone cannot be a thief because he isn’t a murderer, either.

Now replace the words "thief with “greedy”, and replace “murderer” with “pay to win supporter”.

There are different ways to obtain profit from a game. The most profitable way is probably the one that doesn’t stare you directly in the face when playing it.

I was answering Tigrius’s post and he was the one who brought up ascended gear. Again, one would think that if it’s the highest gear in the game, the easy and obvious thing to do is throw it on the trading post. After all, players were ASKING for this to happen…but Anet didn’t do it.

Assuming greed is an assumption. I’m sure Anet wants to make money. Every company wants to make money. If you owned a business, you’d want to make money.

That doesn’t necessarily equate to greed however. Greed’s a lot harder to prove.

Vayne.8563:

Greed’s a lot harder to prove.

When a company turns its game into a virtual casino, I’d say “proof” is not the biggest problem. The problem is: how do you force the company to change its course? Voting with your wallet, I saw someone say. Yes, this is indeed the best way. It doesn’t work in practice though, because people like to gamble. It’s the very thing casino’s thrive on; gambling is addictive. Combine this with a gaming addiction, and you get a very explosive combination. Now tweak the game mechanics (droprate) here and there, and it’s big bucks. Bonus: contrary to casinos, you don’t have to pay out. The bank doesn’t just mostly win, it always wins.

Casinos, for good reasons, have age limits and, in some cases, attentive staff to protect people who cannot (yet) handle the responsibility to gamble. I worked in a casino, I know about addiction; heck, half the regulars at my table were addicts. They were rich addicts, but addicts nonetheless; glazy eyes, no joy when winning, short-tempered, all the signs you’re supposed to look out for, and more. It was a very sad sight.
But who is looking out for the players at the GW2 roulette table? The company whose investors require it to make a profit? Or you and me?

The sad thing is, I don’t have an answer to this problem. People will simply quit as a result, as with all the other MMO’s I saw die these last years as a result of poor choices by the company running it. And yes, players will rather quit than not buy RNG boxes – either because:

(i) they didn’t get the skin they wanted for the umpteenth time (and constantly see others running around with those skins),
(ii) they’re fed up with seeing some of the nicest skins in the game in temporary RNG lockboxes, or
(iii) they realize they’re being scammed.

Either way, decisions such as these by a gaming company will cause the players to doubt the company’s true motives on every decision it makes, now and in the future. Usually, the next thing that happens is that the community will harden (“yea yea yea, we’ve heard the ‘gambling’ argument already, like we care”), causing even more players to leave. Mostly, those players that leave first will be the players previously defended the game and its creators to the teeth, providing them with a moral compass and ensuring a civil atmosphere on the forums and in map chat.
It’s the same downward spiral, every time.

Anet can turn this around by removing RNG lockboxes and sell its skins in the store. The game could run for years, and remain successful until Guild Wars 3 comes out. I doubt that the company will change its current RNG course, but it’s possible. People will inevitably jump ship if it won’t. And that’s not just Anet’s problem; it will become mine and yours, too.

Buttercup.5871:

I invite you to articulate your criticism.

I didn’t mean to be glib- I didn’t offer specific criticisms of your points because all of them are predicated on an opinion I disagree with. I was just expressing that, in isolation.

To clarify: “Your highest goal is a weapon skin.”

No, it isn’t. Note how I did not see fit to phrase this “In my opinion, no it isn’t,” because you stated your original premise without any such caveat. But both of our statements are opinions, and they are equally valid. However, being as I disagree with your foundational opinion, I can’t grant any weight to the conclusions that follow. The skins found in RNG boxes are wholly unrelated to precursors/legendaries from my perspective.

Furthermore you make a lot of semi-faulty backhanded accusations which wouldn’t really hold up to evidence (precursor scavenger hunt was, wisely or not, confirmed by Colin to be coming this year; WvW chests are a new additional chance at a precursor, not a preexisting source of frustration; 30 seconds of Googling reveals that Manastones in Aion are noncosmetic items that simple add raw stats to weapons and armor, rendering your argument in total a little weak- show me ArenaNet doing THAT with their gem store and you’ll get me on your side. Can you even convert in-game currency to buy cash shop stuff in Aion at all…?).

But I see you’ve gone on to draw sweeping conclusions about the nature of ArenaNet’s regard for their customers, suspicion of malicious intent, the nature of gambling, the future of this game and its playerbase, what causes MMOs to die, etc., so now I am happy to articulate my criticisms in list form.

1. Guild Wars 2 is not a virtual casino. For one thing, there is literally nowhere in-game you can bet anything except for one rather humorous instance in Diessa Plateau involving in-game currency and the aerodynamics of cows.

And by the way, in a casino, the house always wins, not just mostly wins- the solitary exception being when the player defrauds them. A jackpot is a drop in the bucket compared to a successful casino’s revenue, even if won by an advantage player.

2. Believe it or not, no matter what the drop tables contained within, RNG boxes are not “gambling” in any sense except the metaphorical one (i.e.: “taking a risk with uncertain outcome”); the same definition applies to throwing crap in the Mystic Forge. If you legitimately worked in a casino surely you understand what actual gambling is and why in the case of the above two examples one is no more of a gamble than the other.

3. Gambling addiction, while a terrible scourge on society, should really not be taken seriously as a risk factor of playing Guild Wars 2. People need to control their own spending habits when it comes to gems; be it buying every single Mini released in the shop or putting $100 worth into Black Lion Chests. Every individual player must know his or her limits, and younger players should simply not be given access to a credit card for gem purchases. What the gems are spent on- be it RNG boxes, funny town clothes or a book that teaches you how to dance- is irrelevant when talking about such a serious subject.

Video game addiction, and specifically MMO addiction, on the other hand, is a very real psychological concern with behavioral similarities to compulsive gambling. However, the design decisions of Guild Wars 2 do not strike me as inordinately likely to foster such an addiction. As you apparently note yourself, particularly frustrated players (such as by not getting an RNG skin) are more likely to just quit than keep playing more and more.

4. The temporary skins in Guild Wars 2 have not all been offered solely through RNG boxes purchased in the gem store. In fact, no two sets of weapon skins have yet been offered exactly the same way. Halloween skins were in the BLC/Mad King Chests, randomly, but tradeable on the TP. Wintersday skins could be purchased outright. Fused Skins were only in BLCs and not tradeable, but a ticket allowed you to purchase the one you wanted. SAB skins where wholly obtained through in-game means and not even available through the gem store. Sclerite skins borrow the redeemable tickets, but are in their own boxes, which themselves drop in-game. They keep doing different things and they will continue to.

5. None of the above methods of item delivery are “scams.” It’s pretty disingenuous to label them as such. A scam by nature involves fraud of some form. All of these instances have been labeled accurately. RNG boxes are not fradulent, they just have overwhelmingly poor odds, which is why I recommend simply not buying them, especially if you’d like to see their use restricted.

6. In the simplest terms, NCSoft/ArenaNet making money is going to be the most important factor in the game’s long-term success. For existing customers, they aren’t trying to sell a product anymore, they’re looking for sustained, optional luxury purchases. Accepting this premise, business decisions that make the company the most money will be the best ones for the total playerbase, as counterintuitive or annoying as they might seem. It’s apparent to me that this is making them substantial money or they wouldn’t continue iterating on it. It’s for this reason I can’t get all that worked up about RNG boxes, despite disliking them quite a bit myself. What’s good for the game’s bottom line is good for me in the long term, despite the fact that you think this particular thing will cause the game to fail.

7. It strikes me that you have no evidence that the delivery of cosmetic skins through RNG boxes will cause significant numbers of players to quit and affect the game’s chances of success. If you do, please provide it and I will promise to read it in full.

8. The question of which skins in the game are the nicest is highly subjective, wouldn’t you say? Personally I find the Sclerite skins to be pretty hideous. The skins I want most are all actually available on the trading post right now, simply at in-game prices I can’t yet afford. Luckily, I’m in no rush.

I hope that you take some of these points seriously and reconsider your suspicions of deep malice and greed on ArenaNet’s part. You’ll honestly enjoy the game more without it hanging over your head.

Vayne.8563:

You got VIP for free? Or you bought it when it was sold? Red herring is a red herring. I was a VIP to, a privilege for which I paid $15 dollars a month. Sure if I pay $15 a month I can save my points to get the expansion free with the points I didn’t spend on other stuff. But that’s not free. That’s not even CLOSE to free.

In the short time I played Lotro, I paid double the money I put into Guild Wars 2, for a whole lot less.

I got my accounts on release when they offered lifetime for a flat one time fee. I realize that option is no longer available but I do not have to pay a 15$ per month fee, still get my TPs each and every month, and have gotten my full enjoyment out of the game for my initial investment. Everything that came after that, including Mines of Moria, Riders of the Rohan and this years expansion Helms Deep, I got (or will get) with my points. So three expansions, plus the original game all for my initial investment was well worth it for me. If I want something from the store I do not have to buy “chances” to get something, I buy the item outright with earned points and no rl money.

So although I enjoy both games, GW2’s rng business model is rapidly lowering my enjoyment for this game.

i hope some one from arena net is reading this cuz anoying skins and the fakt i will never ever buy black KEY

And here I am playing the game, because playing the game is a reward in itself.

Am I doing this wrong, according to the OP?

It’s simple math. ANet wants to make money, and the only thing they really have to sell is digital items. So, the riddle is how can they make the most money off of their digital items while minimizing the amount of items they have to create. The answer is quite simple. Find a way to get people to buy multiple copies of the same item.

If they just sold skins at a flat rate they’d have to sell them to a huge number of players to even approach the amount they make selling a few people 20-50 each. But with a random element that’s exactly what they can do. Since there’s only a chance to get a skin in a box people will now feel compelled to buy lots of keys/boxes. Some of these people will buy so many keys that they’ll completely negate the lost revenue of a majority of the players that would have bought a flat-rate skin but instead bought nothing.

That’s what the mining picks and scythes were about, btw. It was simple market research. If we sell X item with a lot of broad appeal for a flat rate will it outstrip the amount of revenue we make off of Y item with a narrow appeal and random outcome?

The answer, I’m guessing, is no.

Non-Subscription games are funded by whales that spend loads of cash in the cash shop, and the rest of us get a free ride because of them. Don’t be angry about it. Without those whales that buy 1,000 Black Lion Keys and then post Youtube videos of using all of them the rest of us wouldn’t be able to get off so cheap. Developing an MMO is expensive. Running an MMO is expensive. Unprofitable MMOs are shut down.

Is it really so bad that the people who pay for this game’s continued existence get rewarded with a shiny weapon skin the rest of us can’t get?

@hawkian: thank you for your elaborate response. As you can imagine, I have a lot to say in reply, but I’ll reply tomorrow when I’m fresh (just came back from a long day at work). All I can say for now is that your post is dripping with guile and misguided cynicism, which result in borderline, if not full-fledged, personal attacks. I am not a fan of such a writing style. You’ve simply replaced my “sweeping conclusions” with your own sweeping personalized attacks. An argument is not won by superiority, it’s won by superior arguments; please try to refrain from poisonous adjectives if you’re actually interested in a response. Anyway, that’s just briefly on the form, I’ll address the content tomorrow.

Hawkain, you had an interesting post, but I feel the need to address these parts one by one, so I’m going to do so.

Hawkian.6580:

1. Guild Wars 2 is not a virtual casino. For one thing, there is literally nowhere in-game you can bet anything except for one rather humorous instance in Diessa Plateau involving in-game currency and the aerodynamics of cows.

This is, in fact, incorrect. Betting does actually take place with things such as RNG boxes and the mystic forge. Most dictionaries define a bet as “1. An agreement usually between two parties that the one who has made an incorrect prediction about an uncertain outcome will forfeit something stipulated to the other; a wager.
2. An amount or object risked in a wager; a stake.”

In this respect, we can make the logical connections. The agreement is the use of the Mystic Forge or opening of an RNG chest. The prediction of the person is that the outcome will benefit them, while the forfeit is that they either lose in-game gold or gems (Potentially actual Money). They risk a certain amount of in-game money and/or real money on an object (RNG Boxes/Mystic Forge) to wager that they will get something better. If they win, they win. If they lose, they lose.

This is the nature of a bet. So, yes, this is essentially what casinos are based upon. The only difference is rigging, but that’s a whole other can of worms. Since we do not know what the chance at RNG is for either of these, then we can only assume how fair the chances are to the player versus the loss.

Hawkian.6580:

And by the way, in a casino, the house always wins, not just mostly wins- the solitary exception being when the player defrauds them. A jackpot is a drop in the bucket compared to a successful casino’s revenue, even if won by an advantage player.

The idea that the “House always wins” is more of a phrasing that excuses the explanation of the complicated nature and mathematics that go behind casinos. In some respects, it’s like a stereotype. Ultimately, there is truth to it, but it’s not always true — people have been known to walk away with more money than they started. Whether this affects their overall profits is minimal, but it -is- a loss to the casino, no matter how miniscule it is. It’s the fact that it is miniscule that makes them not care about it.

There have been plenty of instances with RNG boxes and the Mystic forge by people who have opened hundreds of boxes or thrown in hundreds of items and received garbage in return (Sometimes even nothing). Just because you get a consolation item that is worth less than a fourth, if not much, much less than the price of the original item, that does not mean it isn’t gambling.

Hawkian.6580:

2. Believe it or not, no matter what the drop tables contained within, RNG boxes are not “gambling” in any sense except the metaphorical one (i.e.: “taking a risk with uncertain outcome”); the same definition applies to throwing crap in the Mystic Forge. If you legitimately worked in a casino surely you understand what actual gambling is and why in the case of the above two examples one is no more of a gamble than the other.

Gamble Definition:
Play games of chance for money; bet.
Bet (a sum of money) in such a way.
(Source: Google. Just type in “Define Gambling”).

In every way is RNG boxes and the Mystic Forge gambling. You are betting money (Virtual or Real, in this case) that you will win the outcome and either A. Get something you want, or B. Get something of higher value than what you started with. This is tkittenence of gambling, and thus does not make Guild Wars 2 have content that is metaphorically gambling, but literally.

Continued in next post~

(Also, I have know idea why I got kittened on the phrase “t.h.e. e.s.s.e.n.c.e”, but whatever Anet :P)

Hawkian.6580:

3. Gambling addiction, while a terrible scourge on society, should really not be taken seriously as a risk factor of playing Guild Wars 2. People need to control their own spending habits when it comes to gems; be it buying every single Mini released in the shop or putting $100 worth into Black Lion Chests. Every individual player must know his or her limits, and younger players should simply not be given access to a credit card for gem purchases. What the gems are spent on- be it RNG boxes, funny town clothes or a book that teaches you how to dance- is irrelevant when talking about such a serious subject.

Let me turn your phrasing around for you for a moment:

“Gambling addiction, while a terrible scourge on society, should really not be taken seriously as a risk factor of playing at a casino. People need to control their own spending habits when it comes to money...”

See what I did there? I didn’t do that to mock you so much as that is an excuse casinos use all the time to defend themselves. “It’s not our fault, it’s the people! We shouldn’t take an responsibility because it’s not our fault!”

Whether Casinos are at fault or the people is a whole other can of worms as well, and seems to vary off the actual point, though it seems silly to say that gambling addiction does not apply to this situation. I’ve already pointed up and given definitions in previous posts several times that show this is a form of gambling, even if it isn’t legally considered one yet. Also, keep in mind for that last part that just because it isn’t legally considered gambling according to the law, does not mean it isn’t exactly that — it just means they can get away with it.

Hawkian.6580:

Video game addiction, and specifically MMO addiction, on the other hand, is a very real psychological concern with behavioral similarities to compulsive gambling. However, the design decisions of Guild Wars 2 do not strike me as inordinately likely to foster such an addiction. As you apparently note yourself, particularly frustrated players (such as by not getting an RNG skin) are more likely to just quit than keep playing more and more.

See above in response to how the system does foster gambling. Video Game addition, however, is a serious problem — have no doubt of that. But that addiction has less to do with the amount of money that someone gives a game so much as it has to do with the amount of time, energy, and life someone spends on video games to the point of making themselves physically unhealthy, emotionally so, and socially so.

Hawkian.6580:

4. The temporary skins in Guild Wars 2 have not all been offered solely through RNG boxes purchased in the gem store. In fact, no two sets of weapon skins have yet been offered exactly the same way. Halloween skins were in the BLC/Mad King Chests, randomly, but tradeable on the TP. Wintersday skins could be purchased outright. Fused Skins were only in BLCs and not tradeable, but a ticket allowed you to purchase the one you wanted. SAB skins where wholly obtained through in-game means and not even available through the gem store. Sclerite skins borrow the redeemable tickets, but are in their own boxes, which themselves drop in-game. They keep doing different things and they will continue to.

Just because they use slightly different tactics of approaching them (Aka being able to sell them, or at extreme low chance, get them in game) does not mean the main focus and purpose of some of these weapons sets was not for people to acquire them through chests that take gems to get. In fact, those low chances play — and prey — upon the idea that people will get so sick of trying to get them in game that they will spend real money just to have a “better” chance. But three of the item sets offered so far in this game have been offered in RNG chests, such as:

Halloween.
Flame and Frost.
Southsun.

So far, that’s it, but it seems like we’re seeing some form of consistency here. The only time they haven’t is Wintersday and Super Adventure Box, though the latter are less than the former so far. Don’t get me wrong, Super Adventure Box was wonderful, and I’d love to see more skin content in that form — one where you earn it, not just buy it or RNG it. But RNG boxes seem to be the most common form of content Anet has given us to get new skin sets.

If getting money wasn’t the main goal of this entire endeavor, and getting as much as possible, why wouldn’t they just release these skins as something you can outright buy with a set amount of money — or, heaven forbid, allow you to earn them for your hard efforts in game? And don’t give me that crap about “they don’t want everyone to have it”. That’s just a weak argument that can’t be proven, and makes no real effort to deal with the problem — it’s only an excuse.

Continued in next post~

Hawkian.6580:

5. None of the above methods of item delivery are “scams.” It’s pretty disingenuous to label them as such. A scam by nature involves fraud of some form. All of these instances have been labeled accurately. RNG boxes are not fradulent, they just have overwhelmingly poor odds, which is why I recommend simply not buying them, especially if you’d like to see their use restricted.

Now, this, I will agree with to some extent. It is blatantly obvious what RNG boxes are, and there is some level of honesty with Anet about them. The part I think that most people confuse it for being a scam, however, is the fact that the odds are not stated anywhere. There’s no certain way to calculate your odds mathematically, except by guessing off what other people have. Odds for every game at a casino can be determined with math just by looking over it, though it may be complicated to do so (and also assuming they’re not rigged). But RNG boxes? They give no knowledge of the percent of the desired and predicted drops, which can make them feel like a scam — because they do not tell you what your chances are. “Random” is not knowing chance, since random could mean a 99% chance, or a 0.000001% chance.

Hawkian.6580:

6. In the simplest terms, NCSoft/ArenaNet making money is going to be the most important factor in the game’s long-term success. For existing customers, they aren’t trying to sell a product anymore, they’re looking for sustained, optional luxury purchases. Accepting this premise, business decisions that make the company the most money will be the best ones for the total playerbase, as counterintuitive or annoying as they might seem. It’s apparent to me that this is making them substantial money or they wouldn’t continue iterating on it. It’s for this reason I can’t get all that worked up about RNG boxes, despite disliking them quite a bit myself. What’s good for the game’s bottom line is good for me in the long term, despite the fact that you think this particular thing will cause the game to fail.

I do not disagree with the fact that Anet has to make money to continue their work. I just disagree with some of the way they go about it, which is that part with RNG boxes. Games have proven before that they can stand on selling items to people without the use of RNG — in fact, Riot Games and Valve do this both quite efficiently by selling skins and items for champions in both League of Legends and Dota 2 for static prices.

I know plenty of people who would pay a static amount of money for a new skin, especially if they came out with them consistently. I’m quite sure Anet could easily make money off of doing so, and plenty enough to keep their game going, given how other games can do it (and make massive profits. Have you seen League of Legends? The prize pool is enormous for their main tournaments!).

So here’s the question then: Why are they using RNG for this? The only reasons I can think of are “Because they don’t want everyone to have it” or “They make more money on it.” I honestly can’t think of a sensible reason otherwise, and the first one is pretty weak as is, and the second one doesn’t give faith that the company has what’s best in mind for the players while making the company look shallow and greedy.

Continued in next post~