Guild Wars 2

XD aparently my post from another forum ended up here… let me fix that.

i knew this entire RNG thing would become even worse, i stopped caring about rng related skins/weapons/armor when i killed Tequatl over 300+ times (when he was the new enhanced version of map bosses) and not a single weapon/wings/or mini dropped.

i do however come back to the forums to see if there’s something of interest worth logging into the game again. NPE, WvW, Pvp patches don’t interest me so i was really looking forward to halloween with a new story for the mad king and the bloody price. as a person that has bought a ton of things from their gem store seeing the new items for halloween though no new content at all. i logged in for the first time in several months only to just log back out again.

Astralporing.1957:

lordkrall.7241:

Why?

How is this worse than the first time around where you could ONLY get a chance on it by using the gem store?

There’s a limited number of chances. this means, that other participants reduce your chance of winning

Hoaxintelligence.4628:

But when I (sorry about my kittenty english) go mouse over the ‘’Shiny Foil Candy Wrapper Contribution’’ you see the discription and overthere they’r saying stuff like:

The chances of receiving an item will depend on the total number of shiny
foil candy wrappers submidded.

What does this mean?

Basically – they will be picking 1000 wrappers, and giving rewards to their owners. The more wrappers you use, the bigger chance that one of them (or more) will be picked. The more wrappers other players will use, the less chance for yours to be picked. It’s theoretically possible that someone might use 1000 wrappers, and win every reward, leaving all other players with nothing.

And as for your chances… i’d expect the number of wrappers to be in millions (if not more, depending on how easy they will be to farm), mostly coming from a relatively small group of players.

Roybe.5896:

Let’s look at this discussion from a different view. Would people be agreeable to this same system for precursors? Every month x numbers of each precursor can be won by a group of people turning in some type of ‘ticket’. The ‘ticket’ could also be purchased at a minimal price in the Gem Store. Would it be better or worse if the current possibility of RNG drops for these items would be removed and this was the only way to obtain them?

You are joking, right? In this system, the chances of getting precursors would get shifted even more towards those that can obtain more “chances”. The rich would get richer, the poor would get poorer. Definitly not a good idea.

Actually, I am quite serious. These skins are actually rarer in the game than precursors. So again, why should it matter if it’s these or those? I disagree with your rote ‘rich get richer..’ the only reason the rich are that way is because of luck. If it wasn’t everyone would be rich. If everything comes down to RNG, why is one more accpetable than the other?

nomad.7210:

“Why not give them for a fixed price in the gem store?”
How can you say the reasoning behind the tickets is money grabbing and then ask for the skins to be in the gemstore? This doesnt make any sense xD

Lets say there is a lottery for a trip to Disneyworld. If i didn’t enter the lottery, then i could just spend the 6-8 grand on the trip and the vacation and be done with it, without entering a “lottery” or gambling for it. At that point, its PURELY optional if i want to gamble for it…optional…Meaning, i have a choice and my choice is not to gamble.

nomad.7210:

I honestly dont understand the whining. And its not really gambling if you didnt invest something, and cmon the time you spend doing the event and having fun is hardly an investment.
I see Tequatl more of a gamble than these random shiny ticket drops.
Every time i do Tequatl i invest time and gold, for the possibility of an ascended weapon drop.
I do that now for a year and didnt get one weapon chest. NOT ONE!!

Now, keep that reference and add that ascended weapons can be gambled for by buying tickets in the gem store. Now, instead of harmlessly playing a game and using my “time” as the investment…well… now i’m going to use the money i work for to do it as well. I am going to give someone money for a “chance” at something. Thats gambling. Thats where, people like me, are drawing a line and saying, “THIS is NOT how you do business in a video game!”

Yep it’s now not only popular but fun apparently with these new players to have RNG to the extreme in this manner. It’s reached it’s apex I agree OP. And they’ll defend it too. You’ll read statements like “it’s not all that bad” or “it’s a natural extension of the games design” or my personal favorite “why worry about go play something else”. I saw the worst of it in other titles recently. Their forums (just like this one) were filled with new players who’ve never played an mmo before or who were just too stupid to do the math who basically think it’s perfectly fine to play a game that is basically a lottery. Everything should have a drop rate. DR is awesome. People should pay for every tiny aspect of progression or advancement in every title.

Apparently no one has ethics anymore there is no limit to what these mmo developers are allowed to do over here and it’s getting worse. It’s almost to the point of paying per second really that’s what I see coming, a truly Chinese method of paying for game time.

Roybe.5896:

Actually, I am quite serious. These skins are actually rarer in the game than precursors. So again, why should it matter if it’s these or those?

It doesn’t. It’s equally dumb in both cases.

Let’s toss aside anyone that won’t be buying the wrappers from the gem store. To get a wrapper, it’s a fairly rare drop from ToT bags (I got close to 800 last night and ended up with a total of 8 wrappers). So it’s RNG to even get the wrappers, which are then just a means to access the RNG of getting the skins.

It’s RNGInception!

tigirius.9014:

Yep it’s now not only popular but fun apparently with these new players to have RNG to the extreme in this manner. It’s reached it’s apex I agree OP. And they’ll defend it too. You’ll read statements like “it’s not all that bad” or “it’s a natural extension of the games design” or my personal favorite “why worry about go play something else”. I saw the worst of it in other titles recently. Their forums (just like this one) were filled with new players who’ve never played an mmo before or who were just too stupid to do the math who basically think it’s perfectly fine to play a game that is basically a lottery. Everything should have a drop rate. DR is awesome. People should pay for every tiny aspect of progression or advancement in every title.

Apparently no one has ethics anymore there is no limit to what these mmo developers are allowed to do over here and it’s getting worse. It’s almost to the point of paying per second really that’s what I see coming, a truly Chinese method of paying for game time.

we already have that here.

It’s called a subscription.

downside is you can only buy it in sets of 365 days.

I’ve played other MMOs with lotteries and they were okay, but then again, it was one entry per person/character. It was always fun to see elite raiders winning loot and just throwing it on the pile.

If you’re saying that this form of gambling (and preying on problem gamblers) is fine because you can get the tickets in game, then you are fine with Pay To Win.

This is gambling combined with P2W, and it makes the game look really trashy.

Chameleon Dude.1564:

It was always fun to see elite raiders winning loot and just throwing it on the pile.

I really hope you are sarcastic here.

This lottery is a horrible cash grab idea.

Malediktus.9250:

This lottery is a horrible cash grab idea.

Yeah.. except for the small fact that you don’t have to pay anything for a chance to win.

Did you have the same problem with the original release of the skins?

nomad.7210:

there is no logic behind your reasoning. get your facts straight.

the original way to obtain these skins was black lion chest grinding (which means key farming or spending money)

I’m well aware of that. And? This is one step further of the gamble-box idea, lengthening the odds. A lottery ticket is a dice roll pure and simple with nothing of certain value. For sure you can say the minis, dyes and boosts are just junk (I do), but at least there is some inherent value.
Key farming was insanely easy before patch. Still is mostly. I don’t know if it was a thing back in Halloween 2012, I didn’t know of it back then.

nomad.7210:

A-net stated that they dont want to go back to the season 1 meta achievements and that you shouldnt get any unique skins (or stuff like that) this way. They learned from their mistakes which is a good thing.

Is it? Not everyone thinks S2 is an improvement over S1 in terms of how rewards are given out. I far preferred the meta achievements to the RNG and Dry Top grind, even though for some things it probably took similar time. You get enough candy or whatever and trade for the gift of choice, rather than hope on another RNG drop. At least you knew how you were progressing with collecting cobs or zhaitaffys. You bring up Tequatl? He should drop hoard scraps with each kill.

S1 stories were thinner for sure, which was what I remember as most people’s issue with S1. Now we get to rerun the boring story twice more for some AP only and lots more RNG.

nomad.7210:

There is a way to earn them in game, go play the festival events and get yourself a ticket.

As already said, I have no issue if they were just free drops, or even just 1 chance for everyone who talks to the NPC. It’s the additional gambling only chances in the cash shop. Let’s drop precursors in there then.

nomad.7210:

“Why not give them for a fixed price in the gem store?”
How can you say the reasoning behind the tickets is money grabbing and then ask for the skins to be in the gemstore? This doesnt make any sense xD

It makes perfect sense.
In the gem store it is a straight value exchange – x gems or y gold. People can decide for themselves whether it’s good value. Works out to $$ each, they buy or not.
To put them in as a gamble, is quite plainly an attempt to get more gems per skin given out/sold than they feel they could in a straight sale, otherwise they wouldn’t have put the tickets in the gem store. And more than they think they’d get just dropping them back in BLCs. Money grabbing.
Gambling leads to poor decisions.
If it works and they get more gems in from it, we’ll see more.

nomad.7210:

I guess the idea of these skins was, that they are very hard to obtain and not everybody should walk around with them, thats why you didnt unlock the greatsaw skin just by login in

I didn’t suggest they drop like spoons. But just dropping from BLCs as they did originally isn’t very hard to obtain at all, is it? Just a few simple key runs. Hardly very hard to obtain. :p
The biggest difference is they never ended up at a BL weapon NPC.
Just making some less cynical suggestions for some of the most requested items in game.
Perhaps a route that requires some element of skill or at least persistence over just endless dice rolls.

nomad.7210:

And its not really gambling if you didnt invest something, and cmon the time you spend doing the event and having fun is hardly an investment.

But some WILL invest something. Some will invest unhealthy amounts. That’s one issue with gambling and lotteries, why it’s heavily regulated, and one reason why I feel it’s a bad idea for a video game.

nomad.7210:

I see Tequatl more of a gamble than these random shiny ticket drops.
Every time i do Tequatl i invest time and gold, for the possibility of an ascended weapon drop.
I do that now for a year and didnt get one weapon chest. NOT ONE!!

So by your logic above, tequatl hoards should be harmlessly available in a BLC or a gem lottery? “It’s not really gambling if you didn’t invest something”.
What about precursors? Weekly lottery for a pre in the gem store? 1 in however many buy chance to win random pre? Drop them in BLCs too?

If not, why are they different? They’re all just skins, after all, apart from a tiny number who might want Tequatl Hoard for a condi build.

This is starting to resemble a slot machine. At least those have regulated odds and payouts.

I have no issue with gambling though, I don’t think it has a place within a game outside of online gambling games.

There will be a ridiculous amount of foils dropping and entered. The odds will be tiny for both those who do and don’t invest. I doubt even investing $500 will move the odds noticeably in your favour, and there is the problem.

lordkrall.7241:

Malediktus.9250:

This lottery is a horrible cash grab idea.

Yeah.. except for the small fact that you don’t have to pay anything for a chance to win.

Did you have the same problem with the original release of the skins?

Dont get me wrong I spent 100s of real money on this game this year, but this lottery idea is even worse than Black Lion Chests.

Malediktus.9250:

Dont get me wrong I spent 100s of real money on this game this year, but this lottery idea is even worse than Black Lion Chests.

So it is okay to have something that require gems for a chance to get it but it is not okay to have a chance to get something with in-game drops?

So much garbage with this patch.

It’s been going downhill for a while now…. not fun

lordkrall.7241:

Malediktus.9250:

Dont get me wrong I spent 100s of real money on this game this year, but this lottery idea is even worse than Black Lion Chests.

So it is okay to have something that require gems for a chance to get it but it is not okay to have a chance to get something with in-game drops?

100 of the highly demanded skins for all the games population is like nothing. If I buy BLTC keys I know about every 50 keys on average I will get a skin of my choice. In this lottery you have to compete with other players for your items. So RNG on RNG on RNG. Many open variables. How many tickets will I get? How many players will participate? How many tickets are used in total? If I win do I get the skin I prefer or the worthless 80g Pumpkin rifle?
I prefer if Anet wouldnt bring these skins back at all and keep their exclusivity instead of this farce (and no I dont own any of these skins)

Syzygy.5031:

thank you for clearing things up
it really looked like a “I didnt get a greatsaw,kittenGw2” comment ^^ no offense :P
(had to quote like this, the forum didnt let me quote every part)

honestly I dont know if key farming was a thing back in october 2012, however you could make a “mad king chest” out of 2 random boosters(there was a use for this junk omg) 1 piece of candy corn and 6 mystery tonics. which was a nice alternative. so you never really had to buy a BLK or grind for it. (thats how i got my greatsaw skin btw. totally RNG :P)

So you r saying it would make sense to put them in the store because it wouldnt be gambling. makes sense i suppose, but the intention is different, and its obviously not money, its to give the people a possibility to obtain these skins, without flooding the market with them. Not the best solution but its a reasonable one. I dont think they’ll be using this method again.

the whole achievement and RNG discussion is totally another topic, the whole drop system is, like you said, a slot machine, you should remember however that the reason, why we arent grinding for weapon sets, skins and stats in this game, is RNG, not like in traditional MMOs in which you have to work for your gear or skins over a long period of time.

(I personally like the Dry Top meta event mechanic, its very fluid, there is always a sense of progression if you do a organized run and the item drops are specific for this area, it generally feels like im being awarded for my time doing this Meta Event in this specific area.)

back to the topic..
If i get the chance to do a meta achievement, with a unique item as a reward, and i dont like the item, id never do the meta achievement. That was the flaw of S1.
The majority of community felt that way so yes, it is. Its a good thing, they changed the Achievement system. It is now meant to be for the Hardcore achievement hunters, and not for the generic gw2 player.(..casual) o/
also grinding for achievements is not the GW2 way :P

The original drop rates of the halloweeen skins were just as ridiculous, i opened around 50 chests, and got a scythe and a greatsaw, friends of mine opened around 100 and didnt get anything.
Its all RNG, always the same thing. Its not really different this time. You can “buy” yourself chances but in the end it is only a chance. Its not guaranteed.
if people want to pay for a chance of a skin. Let them do it. why not. we cant all be a mathematical genius and know how to spend our money wisely.
aint judging xD

You misunderstood me here, my quarrel with Tequatl is different, im no hurry to get myself his weapon skins, as long as i can say, that i enjoyed beating the sunless, it doesnt really matter to me, because i had a good time doing the boss event. They are only skins so im not going to be better at something because of the ascended weapon TQ dropped for me. Im okay with the way it is, that was, what i intended to say but somehow didnt end up saying

There is a precursor lottery, organized by some community members on NA.
I personally dont like it and hope A-net will never implement anything like it.
(its basically a dude who gets gold from community members, buys with it a precursor and then randomly gives it away while keeping 10 % of the gold)

to add something to your last sentence,
Yes there will be an insane amount of foils, thats why people who are rather paying RL money instead of playing the game, will be very disappointed when they realize they didnt get anything.
Its their choice, their money and their disappointment.
I cant really see the reasoning behind the Gem store foils, but it doesnt bother me in any way, so i cant really speak against it. Its basically the same system as the item drops so its nothing new or special, except maybe the the skins for some people and the 0.0001% chance you can buy in the gem store.
In the end Im still running better with my 30 foils i got today from a few hours of gameplay.
So to anyone who pays cash for shiny foils, get your gem codes, credit cards and paypal accounts rdy, because i intend to no-life the next 2 weeks!! lol

The way I look at this, the odds of me winning are about the same as me winning an ACTUAL lottery. So, I’m not going to waste real money (or my gold) buying tickets for it. I’m just going to give the skritt any Foil Wrappers I do get from loot (got 2 from opening ToT bags after an hour of Labyrinth farming for the achievements last night).

If I happen to get a windfall, awesome! If not, it’s not like my life is adversely affected anymore than if that random person who won had instead found Dusk through a super-lucky loot drop from a level 1 Bandit.

lordkrall.7241:

Vayne.8563:

I’m certainly not okay with this. I won’t spend a red cent on it. In fact, I’m not spending anything on the cash shop this month because of it.

I will hand in any wrapper I get dropped in the game… but the whole thing leaves me feeling quite blah.

Why?

How is this worse than the first time around where you could ONLY get a chance on it by using the gem store?

It’s not worse….I didn’t like that either and said so at the time.

lordkrall.7241:

Malediktus.9250:

This lottery is a horrible cash grab idea.

Yeah.. except for the small fact that you don’t have to pay anything for a chance to win.

Did you have the same problem with the original release of the skins?

The original release was bad. This is actually worse, because the chances are way lower, and it turns all the other players into enemies. In a cooperative game, this is a kitten move.

Astralporing.1957:

lordkrall.7241:

Malediktus.9250:

This lottery is a horrible cash grab idea.

Yeah.. except for the small fact that you don’t have to pay anything for a chance to win.

Did you have the same problem with the original release of the skins?

The original release was bad. This is actually worse, because the chances are way lower, and it turns all the other players into enemies. In a cooperative game, this is a kitten move.

Enemies even…. wow.

Its a chance of getting a skin you may otherwise not have had, using a drop that you get for free just by opening a random bag.

No more, no less. It’s not even pvp.

You do realize it’s just a game, right?

It’s basically the same system they had the first time the skins were released, but with the added twist that there are only a finite number of skins available.

Which seems strange considering the massive backlash that system received. They tried similar things twice more (Consortium Chests and Winterday Mystery Boxes) then scrapped pure RNG systems in favour of awarding tickets, which eventually turned into the Black Lion Ticket system we had now.

I’m not sure why they thought it’d be a good idea to bring it back after how unpopular it was before.

I think this was probably the best idea ANet had that would provide an opportunity to obtain the skins without crashing the markets. I’m all for the skins being reintroduced somehow, even if I don’t win the prices will likely drop to a point I could seriously consider buying them.

That being said I think they could take suggestions to improve it, should it return again next year. A free giveaway from ANet should equitable for all players imo. The odds of the raffle are determined by the number of wrappers submitted, so it has bias towards richer (time/gold/gems) players.

A way around this would have been to have a cap on the amount of wrappers submitted (i.e. 500 max) that still requires some form of player investment. After the cap, players could sell the tickets to a vendor for other exclusive items (e.g. outfits, minis) or perhaps there could be an overflow raffle for other account bound prizes.

lordkrall.7241:

Malediktus.9250:

Dont get me wrong I spent 100s of real money on this game this year, but this lottery idea is even worse than Black Lion Chests.

So it is okay to have something that require gems for a chance to get it but it is not okay to have a chance to get something with in-game drops?

The problem is you are not “guaranteed” a foil wrapper. I know the pain of opening 100-200 ToT bags and not receiving a foil wrapper. The only way you are guaranteed a foil wrapper is buy buying gems. And what makes it worse is….this is only to enter a raffle which you have a slim to none chance of winning.

I think Arenanet loves RNG so much, I decided to go further with it.
Now, if I want to buy gems with real money, I start throwing 6 dices, if 4 of them gives a 4 or more, then I throw a coin. If the coin stop on the slide, then I buy gems.

People complained about RNG too much. Get RNG x2. Enjoy. Now you will remember with nostalgia times when RNG was just an RNG. Bwahahahahaaa

MeGaZlo.9516:

People complained about RNG too much. Get RNG x2. Enjoy. Now you will remember with nostalgia times when RNG was just an RNG. Bwahahahahaaa

In spite of what anybody sees on the forums here nobody has ever really enjoyed RNG loot. There are just always those few forumites who like to play devils advocate on any issue, those who will side with ANet on anything, and of course those poor fools who think RNG is good because they’ve been lucky before. I’ve been lucky before, I got seven of these weapons in the first halloween with only opening fifteen boxes, and didn’t want any so I sold them all, still don’t want them now and I can say objectively that this is dishonest, disrespectful to the playerbase as a whole and as individuals, and most of all really really stupid.

I’m ok with how they handle it.
1.) Only VERY limited amount means it will have very little impact on price for those who bought it from TP.
2.) It is RNG, so what, almost everything is RNG in computer games, live with that.
3.) If you spend real money or gold to increase your chance, you are fool and you deserve to be screwed.

RNG is a necessary evil. You will not find an MMO that does not use it. It is impossible for a game company (especially an MMO) to provide carrots faster than the players can consume them without it, and even then you can argue they STILL can’t keep up with their players very well.

If you cannot accept that, you should not be playing MMOs. Good day.

Amazing how the hyperbole in this thread took off like a rocket…
Typical…

There is one detail that people aren’t bringing up… Here in America, you have to pay to get a lottery ticket. If this was truly the same thing, the wrappers would /only/ be obtained by buying them.
As it is, this is not the case, since these wrappers drop in game from Trick or Treat bags, and are obtainable without spending any sort of currency, either in game or out of game.
But then why is it in the Gem Store at all?
Perhaps to give those players that can’t play the content a chance, at least? An alternate method of acquiring these wrappers that doesn’t require playing the content.
While I personally have very mixed feelings about that, I certainly don’t see it as the heartless, greedy money-grab that some people here want to so vehemently paint this as.

Now, it -would- venture into Pay to Win/Money-grab territory if the wrappers you could buy from the Gem Store gave you better odds of winning or if you could not get them any other way. Neither of which I see happening here, so that argument is null and moot.

Surbrus.6942:

If you’re saying that this form of gambling (and preying on problem gamblers) is fine because you can get the tickets in game, then you are fine with Pay To Win.

This is gambling combined with P2W, and it makes the game look really trashy.

It’s not P2W, they’re SKINS, not higher stat items…it’s only cosmetics, and you aren’t required to purchase the tickets in the Gem Shop, or even enter the lottery for that matter, it’s purely optional.

If you want to look at it as gambling, then living is gambling as you’re gambling with your life every day. Get over it and leave it alone, you don’t like it, don’t do it, it’s that simple.

I have seen a lot of people here who dislike the idea of a skin lottery, which I am very surprised at. Personally, I absolutely love the idea and I am very happy that they brought back the 2012 skins in this way.
When I first saw the skritt guy offering the skins I thought ‘WOW, this is such a clever and fun way of giving out valuable skins’ I am considering spending lots of gems on the wrappers even though I pretty much accept that I am doomed to get nothing!
In addition, I think it would be a great idea to use this lottery system in future for exclusive rewards.

Talk about it.
It’s very similar to the way the BL tickets work and there has been a lot of complains about that.

It’s not a fun way. Making it as a rare drop in the Halloween dungeon (the one from first Halloween) or a type of scavenger hunt would be much better.

Now it’s just yet another currency grind (those candies are a type of currency) as if GW2 did not have enough of that followed by a lottery.

Some people might think this will be better to keep them very exclusive but Anet did not mind making last years skins and mini’s less exclusive so then they could just as well also make the first years Halloween skins less exclusive.

GW2 was supposed to be all about fun they said and this is simply the least fun way to do it imho.

suffish.4150:

I have seen a lot of people here who dislike the idea of a skin lottery, which I am very surprised at. Personally, I absolutely love the idea and I am very happy that they brought back the 2012 skins in this way.
When I first saw the skritt guy offering the skins I thought ‘WOW, this is such a clever and fun way of giving out valuable skins’ I am considering spending lots of gems on the wrappers even though I pretty much accept that I am doomed to get nothing!
In addition, I think it would be a great idea to use this lottery system in future for exclusive rewards.

Bringing back the 2012 skins is great. They way they do it is the problem.

Don’t know why you consider if clever and fun.. grind grind gind that candy and then likely miss out on it. Thats not fun and I also do not see how thats clever other then trying to get some more gem sales of people baying those things (and then upsetting those people if they did not win a skin).
So from a monetize perspective it’s maybe clever because they manage to trick people like you into buying gems but from a game-play perspective no.

And the lottery system has been used for that for a long time (Mystic forge, BL tickets) and has always got mainly negative feedback. It’s nice to see there is one person who seems to like that. (or get tricked into doing that).

One personal advise for you, stay away from gambling halls.

Devata.6589:

It’s not a fun way. Making it as a rare drop in the Halloween dungeon (the one from first Halloween) or a type of scavenger hunt would be much better.

I do understand why a lot of people would think that a scavenger hunt would be better (you personally would be more involved in getting it) but I like how unique (for this game) the lottery system is so far.
I will not say it is perfect, I think a better idea would be that when you complete your meta achievement you are awarded one lottery ticket and you can’t get any more. This would stop the super-hardcore farmers or the very rich getting all the skins and so everyone who contributed to the festival would get an equal chance. But I really do like the idea behind the system and would like to see it appear in future releases.

Firedancer.8350:

Enemies even…. wow.

Its a chance of getting a skin you may otherwise not have had, using a drop that you get for free just by opening a random bag.

No more, no less. It’s not even pvp.

You do realize it’s just a game, right?

So? If i want a chainsaw skin (for example), and every other person participating in this raffle lowers my chances of getting it, that every person suddenly becomes a competitor i’d rather not have. If i wanted to play competitively, i’d go PvP.

Thank you all for the proper level of discourse. Since this is actually a topic that is being discussed by the economist of GW2, John Smith, I am certain that the points made here are being noticed.

I have mixed feelings about it. I bought the 2 handed chainsaw and the one handed a long time ago. I paid 175g for the 2 hander and it was a good chunk of change for me at the time so that my character could have one. I like the lottery for these skins because it doesnt hurt the value of the skins on the market but it also puts some more of them in circulation for people that weren’t playing when they came out. As with anything in this game if you want an item, the best course of action is to earn the money and buy what you want.

I just wish ArenaNet would put as much time and effort into a non-RNG solution for precursors as they do with the gem shop. I am one of those people that likes to give money to games because they seem to care more about quality and player enjoyment over cash grabs and lock boxes. That is why I said I have mixed feelings about this in my first sentence. ArenaNet has slowly gone from being the company that cared about making an awesome game that was for players with the belief that if you make it awesome people will want to support your game to, just going with the lowest common denominator cash shop tactics found in any two-bit f2p game on the market. Might as well just start selling Lock boxes with a chance at a precursor in them on the gem shop.

chemiclord.3978:

RNG is a necessary evil. You will not find an MMO that does not use it. It is impossible for a game company (especially an MMO) to provide carrots faster than the players can consume them without it, and even then you can argue they STILL can’t keep up with their players very well.

If you cannot accept that, you should not be playing MMOs. Good day.

Totally agree.

However, this is obviously an experiment by ANet. There’s quite a bit of wailing and gnashing of teeth on these forums about bad RNG. I’m not sure what good RNG would be — other than offering increased chances — but let’s leave that aside for the moment. However, given the negativity about RNG in this particular game, I have to question the wisdom of this particular mechanic at this particular time.

They should’ve just brought the skins back at 2-3 tickets each as well as having this lottery. I mean really, 1000 skins for the entire non chinese playerbase? They also should’ve done 10 each per home server for each region. It’s a drop in an ocean of unfairness. Note I was around for the first one but like most people didn’t have the money to throw away on hoarding skins, and honestly thought Anet wouldn’t be this bad at handling their distribution.

Iason Evan.3806:

I have mixed feelings about it. I bought the 2 handed chainsaw and the one handed a long time ago. I paid 175g for the 2 hander and it was a good chunk of change for me at the time so that my character could have one. I like the lottery for these skins because it doesnt hurt the value of the skins on the market but it also puts some more of them in circulation for people that weren’t playing when they came out. As with anything in this game if you want an item, the best course of action is to earn the money and buy what you want.

I just wish ArenaNet would put as much time and effort into a non-RNG solution for precursors as they do with the gem shop. I am one of those people that likes to give money to games because they seem to care more about quality and player enjoyment over cash grabs and lock boxes. That is why I said I have mixed feelings about this in my first sentence. ArenaNet has slowly gone from being the company that cared about making an awesome game that was for players with the belief that if you make it awesome people will want to support your game to, just going with the lowest common denominator cash shop tactics found in any two-bit f2p game on the market. Might as well just start selling Lock boxes with a chance at a precursor in them on the gem shop.

They didn’t mind hurting the value of last years skins.

It’s 1k skins more than what I was expecting. I’m more miffed that they’re available at all.

What I dont agree with is the pay to win vibe. it has two tiers, a double RNG (RNG1+RNG2) and apaid option (guaranteed and RNG2)

Lets look at probabilities:
Tickets
Random drop from ToT bag = x (less than 1)(0.022 from the wiki)
Gem store chance = 1

Chance to win in the draw = y (1000/sum of tickets).

Player who cant/doesnt want to spend money on gems.
Chance = x*y (where x and y are both less than 1)
This creates a very low probability of actually getting anything.

Looking at the Paying player:
Chance = y*1
This gives a chance that is 45 times greater at winning a weapon skin (1/0.022).

In my mind this is highly unbalanced

Devata.6589:

Iason Evan.3806:

I have mixed feelings about it. I bought the 2 handed chainsaw and the one handed a long time ago. I paid 175g for the 2 hander and it was a good chunk of change for me at the time so that my character could have one. I like the lottery for these skins because it doesnt hurt the value of the skins on the market but it also puts some more of them in circulation for people that weren’t playing when they came out. As with anything in this game if you want an item, the best course of action is to earn the money and buy what you want.

I just wish ArenaNet would put as much time and effort into a non-RNG solution for precursors as they do with the gem shop. I am one of those people that likes to give money to games because they seem to care more about quality and player enjoyment over cash grabs and lock boxes. That is why I said I have mixed feelings about this in my first sentence. ArenaNet has slowly gone from being the company that cared about making an awesome game that was for players with the belief that if you make it awesome people will want to support your game to, just going with the lowest common denominator cash shop tactics found in any two-bit f2p game on the market. Might as well just start selling Lock boxes with a chance at a precursor in them on the gem shop.

They didn’t mind hurting the value of last years skins.

True, but you can see how much work went into the design of quite a few of the first year skins. Both the chain swords have unique sound effects. The quality of weapon design in how intricate it is has gone down considerably. The second year ones pale in comparison in terms of design quality. I won’t argue which set is better because that comes down to personal taste, but you can see how more work went into the first year designs.

I’d personally like to see more skins of that quality for players to be able to earn in game. The lottery is cool and all(at least they weren’t outright for sale for 5-7 tickets)but a cash shop skin doesn’t have the same value to me as say, a Fractal skin(Hint: the Fractal skin holds more value to me).

nice compromise by anet.
addresses the desire of those who missed out on those skins to get one, but won’t shock the market value or “uniqueness” of the highly desired skins (GS,shield,staff) the way putting them back in BL chests or as earnable rewards would.

its actually kind of shocking, as reintroducing the 2012 skins to BL chests would earn them a killing in gem sales.

Relshdan.6854:

nice compromise by anet.
addresses the desire of those who missed out on those skins to get one

It didn’t. People that wanted to get one will not be affected by this at all, because:
1) they won’t get the skin
2) this won’t affect the prices

This is simply one more step in the “make a wish, and we’ll try to make it true in a way that will not make you happy” game Anet likes to play.

Astralporing.1957:

It didn’t. People that wanted to get one will not be affected by this at all, because:
1) they won’t get the skin
2) this won’t affect the prices

This is simply one more step in the “make a wish, and we’ll try to make it true in a way that will not make you happy” game Anet likes to play.

Of course it will.
Now it gives them a CHANCE to get it, compared to no chance before.

lordkrall.7241:

Astralporing.1957:

It didn’t. People that wanted to get one will not be affected by this at all, because:
1) they won’t get the skin
2) this won’t affect the prices

This is simply one more step in the “make a wish, and we’ll try to make it true in a way that will not make you happy” game Anet likes to play.

Of course it will.
Now it gives them a CHANCE to get it, compared to no chance before.

That is how people convince themselves to spend rent/grocery money on lotteries. A chance to get something that is so close to zero as to be practically indistinguishable from zero is practically zero.