Allowing the weapon skins to be traded is a HUGE concession by Anet. Obviously this is a business and they’re in this business to make money. Monthly weapon skins through RNG is a great way to make money and keep this game subscription free. But allowing skins to be traded shows they’re listening and are trying to find a middle ground between earning profit and pleasing all players (i.e., paying and non-paying) alike.
When is this update going live?
Just logged in – nothing, no downloads.
Patches usually get in around a couple of minutes to at the most, three or four (not sure on the number) hours after the patch notes go live on the forums.
Allowing the weapon skins to be traded is a HUGE concession by Anet. Obviously this is a business and they’re in this business to make money. Monthly weapon skins through RNG is a great way to make money and keep this game subscription free. But allowing skins to be traded shows they’re listening and are trying to find a middle ground between earning profit and pleasing all players (i.e., paying and non-paying) alike.
If only the forums had more people as reasonable as you :|
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Allowing the weapon skins to be traded is a HUGE concession by Anet.
I agree. I only think it’s worse for everyone – most players and ArenaNet – than if the skins were untradeable and sold in the Gem Store.
With the RNG boxes, players who actively give ArenaNet more money will (still) be more punished than not (most of the time they won’t get a skin).
The “safer” way to acquire skins will be not by giving ArenaNet money, but by buying the skin from the TP. This rewards the most TP flippers, especially considering how each individual skin will likely be relatively rare and thus easy to manipulate.
We end with a situation in which a player’s safest option is to ignore the RNG boxes, not give money to ArenaNet, and instead farm for the TP flippers.
If the skins were not tradeable but sold directly in the Gem Store, the safest way to get the skins would be by giving ArenaNet money, or try farming gold to exchange for Gems and risk watching as the currency exchange prices increase (which would also be good for ArenaNet).
“I think that players are starting to mature past the point of wanting to be on that
treadmill, of being in that obvious pattern of every time I catch up you are going to
put another carrot in front of me” – Mike O’Brien right before Ascended weapons
But we have nothing to compare to. What if they put the skins themselves on sale in the gemstore and see how much people buy them compared to the randomness? (yes they do this with the armors, but for the most part, they are fugly. Most people want to buy the weapon skins for this round and the previous one.)
I would guarantee you players would be much happier too. Or do you think players would instead complain that now that they took the randomness away, they have nothing to grind and waste money on?
I can’t understand how some people support ANet over this so sincerely. You don’t have to lecture me about how ANet is a business and has to make money either – I don’t think that their whole existance depends on selling Black lion keys on the gemstore. (if it does, their business model is designed probably by some Skritts.)
However I agree that the tradability is a good thing. Does that mean they can be sold in the TP as well?
maybe because the only weapons sold directly on TP were the most awful skins this game ever seen?
GW2 balance:
A PvE player is supposed to avoid a 1-2 second 1 shotting aoe.
A WWW player is considered uncapable of avoiding a 5,75 second aoe for half his health.
But we have nothing to compare to. What if they put the skins themselves on sale in the gemstore and see how much people buy them compared to the randomness? (yes they do this with the armors, but for the most part, they are fugly. Most people want to buy the weapon skins for this round and the previous one.)
I would guarantee you players would be much happier too. Or do you think players would instead complain that now that they took the randomness away, they have nothing to grind and waste money on?
I can’t understand how some people support ANet over this so sincerely. You don’t have to lecture me about how ANet is a business and has to make money either – I don’t think that their whole existance depends on selling Black lion keys on the gemstore. (if it does, their business model is designed probably by some Skritts.)
However I agree that the tradability is a good thing. Does that mean they can be sold in the TP as well?
Anet has put plenty of items on the gem store directly (e.g., unlimited gathering equipment). They also put the Rox & Brahm skins directly onto the gem store. For whatever reasons, Anet has decided it makes more sense to make weapon skins available through RNG. You can argue that it doesn’t make “business” sense to you for them to do this, but they are doing it nevertheless, so it’s fairly safe to assume that there are legitimate reasons and that these are not merely arbitrary decisions designed to aggravate players.
EDIT: I also want to add that I sincerely doubt that money is the only motivation behind making these skins are RNG. I think it’s relatively obvious to anyone who plays this game that widely available skins are less desired by the majority of players. Rare and difficult to acquire skins, on the other hand, are more widely desired.
I’m sure that part of the analysis in deciding which skins to make RNG v. which skins to make directly available includes discussion of future value of the skin. Rox’s shortbow was extremely popular when initially release and is now largely ignored. I, for one, regret the decision transferring gold to gems to acquire the thing. I would hazard to guess that Anet has this in mind when releasing new skins; they want those skins to retain some value, and the best way to ensure retention of value is by making them somewhat rare.
I don’t think that their whole existance depends on selling Black lion keys on the gemstore. (if it does, their business model is designed probably by some Skritts.)
We can probably guess which are the best selling consumables in the Gem Store based on what they give us for free (which would likely be the items that sell less, so it wouldn’t matter if players get them) and what almost never drops.
The achievement chests gave us a lot of boosters, repair kits, and similar items.
We get make over kits when we reach 5.000 points.
I’m at 5000 AP and no chest has ever given me level 80 Transmutation Stones or keys. We have just been told in today’s patch notes that ArenaNet has nerfed the drop rate of keys from chests.
Thus, it’s likely that in ArenaNet’s main source of money – the Gem Store – some of the best selling consumables are the level 80 Transmutation Stones… And the keys.
I guess Guild Wars 2 is a game made by Skritts for Skritts.
You can argue that it doesn’t make “business” sense to you for them to do this, but they are doing it nevertheless, so it’s fairly safe to assume that there are legitimate reasons and that these are not merely arbitrary decisions designed to aggravate players.
It could be a mistake, too. Wouldn’t be the first time ArenaNet makes a mistake.
“I think that players are starting to mature past the point of wanting to be on that
treadmill, of being in that obvious pattern of every time I catch up you are going to
put another carrot in front of me” – Mike O’Brien right before Ascended weapons
You can argue that it doesn’t make “business” sense to you for them to do this, but they are doing it nevertheless, so it’s fairly safe to assume that there are legitimate reasons and that these are not merely arbitrary decisions designed to aggravate players.
Legitimate reasons in this case being that they have estimated that it makes them more money than selling them separately in the gemstore, hence, my original point about greed.
I do admit though that I am not perhaps being as objective here as I would usually be, mostly because I have failed in the randomness challenge to get myself the skins I wanted for the last few events. And now, I really, really, want that rapier, since it’s the weapon of choice for my mesmer, has been even before the game launched. I’m so disheartened to have it locked behind a wall of randomness and spending real money that I’m very bitter about it, and I can admit it. I guess my only chance is that if they are indeed tradeable, I can at least try to farm some gold and buy one in the TP (can we get confirmation on this?).
maybe because the only weapons sold directly on TP were the most awful skins this game ever seen?
This is a subjective opinion, and will always be present whenever ANet releases new weapons via the Gem Store. Obviously it will vary, but it still stands that not everyone would have jumped at the past RNG weapons had ANet released them as direct buy.
You can argue that it doesn’t make “business” sense to you for them to do this, but they are doing it nevertheless, so it’s fairly safe to assume that there are legitimate reasons and that these are not merely arbitrary decisions designed to aggravate players.
Legitimate reasons in this case being that they have estimated that it makes them more money than selling them separately in the gemstore, hence, my original point about greed.
I do admit though that I am not perhaps being as objective here as I would usually be, mostly because I have failed in the randomness challenge to get myself the skins I wanted for the last few events. And now, I really, really, want that rapier, since it’s the weapon of choice for my mesmer, has been even before the game launched. I’m so disheartened to have it locked behind a wall of randomness and spending real money that I’m very bitter about it, and I can admit it. I guess my only chance is that if they are indeed tradeable, I can at least try to farm some gold and buy one in the TP (can we get confirmation on this?).
I totally get that RNG isn’t even handed and can be very frustrating. But applying pejorative labels like “greed” to the process are simply incendiary and provoke complaints over constructive criticism.
And anyway, you say that the RNG “wall of randomness” is the cause of your angst, but Anet is clearly on your side by making the skins tradeable. You’ve won. You can avoid the headache of RNG entirely by proceeding directly to the TP. You should be celebrating and you’re not.
maybe because the only weapons sold directly on TP were the most awful skins this game ever seen?
Ah yes, lets invalidate actual things just because “they were the most awful skins ever”.
Sounds logical.
Not everyone have the same taste after all.
No no, probably most of the population would agree some wooden weapons aren’t worth spending money on and thats why they didn’t sell. The first time I ever saw someone use one of those weapons was like two days ago really~
some options needed:
- setting for reducing white flashes and blinding white vistas
- switch for authentic female sylvari pain sound
- more game sounds split up. many combat sounds too loud vs. other effects like footsteps. same goes for different voice sounds and different environmental sounds
- dark background for the character screen
how about some gameplay addition, beside the living story……
You do know living story is pretty much another name for “content update” or “gameplay addition” right?
Truth be said, this time many of the update notes for the Living Story are just “thing X is still there…”, not really new things being introduced. It looks like we get basically 3 mini games and one story instance.
“I think that players are starting to mature past the point of wanting to be on that
treadmill, of being in that obvious pattern of every time I catch up you are going to
put another carrot in front of me” – Mike O’Brien right before Ascended weapons
how about some gameplay addition, beside the living story……
You do know living story is pretty much another name for “content update” or “gameplay addition” right?
Truth be said, this time many of the update notes for the Living Story are just “thing X is still there…”, not really new things being introduced. It looks like we get basically 3 mini games and one story instance.
Theres also the fact that players will vote via in game actions on future development, which is kind of a HUGE thing.
No no, probably most of the population would agree some wooden weapons aren’t worth spending money on and thats why they didn’t sell. The first time I ever saw someone use one of those weapons was like two days ago really~
Oh?
I am rather sure that I saw on these very forums people shouting about being able to get Brahams Shield and Mace and Rox’s Bow and Quiver. All of those were later added in the game store as direct buys.
But I suppose “most of the population” didn’t like those either?
Wow thank god warriors and guardians have been buffed considerably, they really suck, especially in WvW.
Fixed that for you… every change for necros was a nerf…
Increased Mark radius
Fixed a damage bug that caused the Necro to take increased damage in DS
Increase in Lifeforce generation
Not seeing how everything is a nerf, to be honest.
Moved greater marks to master tier, overall nerf.
Made DS spill over into necro health, can no longer be used to “block” heavy hits. Overall, undecided, no one was aware or sure of how much increased dmg we took until right now… so this is a wait and see.
Added one second internal CD to those LF skills, vast nerf.
You also forgot… Terror Nerf and Dark Path nerf.
We did get increased LF generation from ghastly claws. That is a genuine buff for some specs.
And anyway, you say that the RNG “wall of randomness” is the cause of your angst, but Anet is clearly on your side by making the skins tradeable. You’ve won. You can avoid the headache of RNG entirely by proceeding directly to the TP. You should be celebrating and you’re not.
Well, that is what I was asking. If it indeed is so that the skins can be sold on the TP, then I am pleased (however I have a feeling I won’t be after I see how much the rapier is going for).
But even if I personally didn’t want to buy these skins, I’d still oppose “random” as an element of item sales. Even with in-game loot it’s not good. That’s why ANet gave us dungeon tokens, instead of randomly dropping some dungeon skinned items from the end-chest. You say business strategy, I say greed – maybe the truth is somewhere in between.
Wow thank god necros and guardians have been buffed considerably, they really suck, especially in WvW.
Yes yes, that Monk Focus and Divine Intervention were used left and right in WvW because they were OP, now we will see them even more! Just like Rampage doesn’t deserve a buff because Warriors are good in PvE right?
Screw logic or understanding other classes, let’s just complain when we see “buff”.
“We have no first-person view because stupid people would lock into it”
“You can’t have more than 10 HS decks because that would confuse people”
“30 fps is more cinematic”
My main is a Ranger and I like how the skill changes look (haven’t gotten on the game yet). We needed that blast finisher on Call of the Wild badly, and stealth is a nice touch.
On the note of Black Lion keys/scraps, it’s going to depend on how many scraps you need compared to the drop rate of scraps whether or not it’s actually a good thing. The reduced drop rate of keys makes me a little apprehensive.
Giving Rangers stealth. What kind of kittenery is this?
No just They refuse to touch the broken stealth from thief now, now we have to deal rangers stealth. Last night i was in Spvp and i was dealing whit a engineer that was able to stealth himself for 2-3sec every 10-15sec i dont know what was that finisher but was kinda annoying.
We just don’t want players to grind in Guild Wars 2. No one enjoys that.
Wow thank god warriors and guardians have been buffed considerably, they really suck, especially in WvW.
Fixed that for you… every change for necros was a nerf…
Increased Mark radius
Fixed a damage bug that caused the Necro to take increased damage in DS
Increase in Lifeforce generation
Not seeing how everything is a nerf, to be honest.
Moved greater marks to master tier, overall nerf.
Made DS spill over into necro health, can no longer be used to “block” heavy hits. Overall, undecided, no one was aware or sure of how much increased dmg we took until right now… so this is a wait and see.
Added one second internal CD to those LF skills, vast nerf.
You also forgot… Terror Nerf and Dark Path nerf.
We did get increased LF generation from ghastly claws. That is a genuine buff for some specs.
The Greater Marks thing is a nerf if you use it in your spec, but increasing the base radius is a buff if you don’t.
If you take into account that the damage you take in DS has been reduced to normal amounts, it somewhat equalises it out (depending on how much the damage was increased prior).
Spectral Armour now generates LF while active. This is a buff, or at least negates the 1s cooldown. Spectral Grasp and Haunt have been buffed.
Life is a journey.
Time is a river.
The door is ajar.
@TriggerSad: You will need 5 tickets if you want to buy it after this event.
Aetherblade weapon skins have been added to the Black Lion Weapon Specialist. For two weeks only, Aetherblade weapon skins cost only one Black Lion Claim Ticket! After August 5, Aetherblade weapon skins will cost their regular price of 5 Black Lion Claim Tickets. All Aetherblade weapon skins are soulbound on use and can be traded until used.
Really, “only” one ticket? Was it ever more than one? Also, the addition of the ticket scraps might help the players to eventually get the weapon but on the other hand it forces them to buy at least 10 keys (if they’re lucky), what makes the skin cost minimum 900 gems.
And the better alternative is the old one, where you could buy 10 keys and end up with nothing at all?
The new system being sligthly better than the old one doesn’t mean it’s good. The current system rewards the grinders/exploiters who have a lot of gold and can make more by just flipping the new skins in the TP (no wonder a certain someone is defending it). If the skins were untradeable but sold directly in the Gem Store, instead of being available through RNG boxes, it would be a more honest system and people would still have the option to trade gold for Gems, while still giving more money to ArenaNet than if the main way to acquire the skins is by paying TP exploiters.
Or you take 20 minutes each day and farm a key. kitten , you guys will never stop to complain.
The new system being slightly better than the old one doesn’t mean it’s good. The current system rewards the grinders/exploiters who have a lot of gold and can make more by just flipping the new skins in the TP (no wonder a certain someone is defending it). If the skins were untradeable but sold directly in the Gem Store, instead of being available through RNG boxes, it would be a more honest system and people would still have the option to trade gold for Gems, while still giving more money to ArenaNet than if the main way to acquire the skins is by paying TP exploiters.
Hum….. Does not a trading post flipper benefit you if you buy the skin and put it up for sell lower then what the flipper thinks it is worth.
Who is to say grinders and exploiters are the only ones with a lot of gold. I currently have about 30 myself I am sure that I would be able to obtain at lest one for that amount. Most players I think earn about 1 gold at minimum a day unless they are busy crafting or WvW(Two Vary costly things).
Personally this is the best of both worlds. This allows a guaranteed drop. As well as gives availability to the item after the event(But still with limited stock to make it valuable.) In addition to that I don’t think that the skins would cost more then 30 gold up on the trading post.
You know, I have the faintest inkling that this skews votes even more in favor to Evon, what with the reduction of key prices and all….
What did you expect from the guy running the BLTC, running in an election that allows voters to vote an infinite amount of times, to get a council seat to run a pirate town? You didn’t think this would be clean politics like here in America, did you?
Also, Ranger longbow went from being my favorite weapon to being my favorite weapon is sPvP. So there’s that too.
Leader of The Guernsey Milking Coalition [MiLk] Sanctum of Rall
You can argue that it doesn’t make “business” sense to you for them to do this, but they are doing it nevertheless, so it’s fairly safe to assume that there are legitimate reasons and that these are not merely arbitrary decisions designed to aggravate players.
Legitimate reasons in this case being that they have estimated that it makes them more money than selling them separately in the gemstore, hence, my original point about greed.
I do admit though that I am not perhaps being as objective here as I would usually be, mostly because I have failed in the randomness challenge to get myself the skins I wanted for the last few events. And now, I really, really, want that rapier, since it’s the weapon of choice for my mesmer, has been even before the game launched. I’m so disheartened to have it locked behind a wall of randomness and spending real money that I’m very bitter about it, and I can admit it. I guess my only chance is that if they are indeed tradeable, I can at least try to farm some gold and buy one in the TP (can we get confirmation on this?).
you are still missing the logical part in your thinking. you will get stuff in chests to outright get the skins you want. the skins will also be purchase-able on the TP because players can sell them, and you can get them from the aetherblade horde mode thing. you can also get them from old school RNG. They keep refining their system and I for one think that it keeps heading in a better and better direction.
Leader of The Guernsey Milking Coalition [MiLk] Sanctum of Rall
But everything you listed besides the TP is still random. You have a chance to get weapon ticket scraps, I don’t think every BL chest will give them. Same with the events, you can get them. Oh, I will open a few chests with the keys I have spare, and I will do the actual events too. I’m just not putting too much hope on getting a skin from those due to my past horrible experiences. That’s why it’s good that there’s a surefire way to get the skin, even if you have to pay – be it gems or in-game gold.
I’m really happy about the new ticket system. This could mean we could get weapon skins year around with these tickets. I would love a chance to get the jade or fused weapon skins again.
Voting for Evon results in cheaper BL keys for the next four weeks. So if you buy gems with real $ you get the best bang for your buck. And if you buy gems with gold, you should convert now.
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