Guild Wars 2

Like title states, please stop copy/paste of items. You take items from your own product (aka Guild Wars 1) and “sell” them to us with gems. For example you recently added Elemental Sword taken from Guild Wars 1.

When you do this with common items, people can understand the difficulty of creating a game and trying to release content fast, but trying to actually sell this with 2000 gems makes me think why I play this game. I do not wish to play Guild Wars 1 and it’s content again. I want something new, fresh, completely different. If I want to play Guild Wars 1 I can simply login there, and avoid spending 2000 gems.

I feel offended. You copy/paste items, and then you want to make $$$ from me by selling those to me. Seriously?! What do you think about your players?

Like this is not enough, let’s try to remember you already did this in the past with many other items, some of them directly sold to Gem Store (for example: Emissary Staff). This shows lack of imagination, weak communication with player community, a somewhat laziness in game design, inability to adapt on modern graphics.

Sorry for the criticism, but in all honesty, I want something new and interesting, with your designers perspective. If a school teacher sees a child copying from a friend, that teacher will not stand by and watch this happening. I had to take action and make this post.

And yet, time and again, we see threads and posts begging ArenaNet to bring back this or that content (have you ever seen the Cantha thread?) from Guild Wars, often with the statement, “Take my money!!!”

I’m not sure where the ‘2000 Gems’ comes from, seems an arbitrary number. Of course, no one is forced to purchase anything, sans the game itself (and any expansions for added content). Actually, with Play4Free, one is not even forced to purchase the game, come to think of it.

These items are new and interesting to a big part of the playerbase who havent touched gw1 and i like that in order to get to play with such weapons i dont have to buy the first game. And theres nothing wrong really with bringing weapons from gw1 to gw2 wether its with gems or in the actual game.

Are you for real?
You don’t even have to buy anything from the Gem store or Trading Post.
If you don’t like it, then dont buy it. Let those who likes and enjoy seeing returning old content come back to life again.
GW1 --> GW2. If you’re literally saying you don’t want to play anything related to GW1, then I suggest you to uninstall GW2 and be done with it.

No one is forcing you to even bother with said items. Ignore them if you don’t want any part in them. Personally i do like to see any and all additions of GW1 added but that’s just me.

Any ideas and suggestions on what you do want in game, keep pushing them. Some eventually get considered.

There’s a very simple solution. If you don’t want to buy copy paste items then don’t buy them. Hold on to your gems until they’re selling something new. That way you’ll be happy and the people who liked the copy paste items are happy.

As a GW1 player (still active) I really like seeing these.

Admittedly the Elemental Sword somehow flew under my radar, I didn’t know about it until I saw people saying it was originally in GW1 but I was very happy with the Storm Bow and especially the full set of chaos weapons. And of course the Fiery Dragon Sword. (Sadly the Draconic scythe isn’t likely to make an appearance.)

I’m surprised you’ve missed all the forum topics asking them to bring back everything from individual weapons and armour skins to hard mode, elite missions and Cantha/Elona. A lot of players really enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) GW1 and want to see their favourite parts make the transition to GW2 as well.

Anyone who saw the original elemental sword and saw this one knows well that this isn’t just a copy/paste. This skin was remade for this game, based on an image from the other game. It’s harder to do than you think it is, and a lot of people seem to like it.

At this point I’m just about ready to admit defeat and pay 10€-12€/month if in turn all the skins and all will be achievable ingame somehow.

I mean I tried FF14 recently, and it definitely shows how their sub income gives them a lot more space to work with as developers. Which is a shame, because as an underlying framework, GW2 is worlds stronger.

Like the elemental sword which has been a popular returning item? Or the even more popular chaos gloves?

I understand wanting new and interesting stuff, that’s all fine and good, but there is enough demand for re-released skins from the older franchise for those to exist as well.

It costs exactly $0 to obtain the Elemental Sword, or anything in the gemstore. Invest more in game gold into your gems

Carighan.6758:

I mean I tried FF14 recently, and it definitely shows how their sub income gives them a lot more space to work with as developers. Which is a shame, because as an underlying framework, GW2 is worlds stronger.

Just to make it clear: I played FF14 for 1.5 years and it has been stated a lot that the income of FF14 went into a big fund of SquareEnix to be spent into to other projects. As far as I know, which also might be off, but a lot of the cash shop income of FF14 went into FF15 – not back into the game.

FF14 has a subscription fee that returns cheap dungeons as update – a bad deal. Then you got to pay the base game – which should cover the cost, just like all other conventional games did in the past 35 years. Then there is a cash shop recycling ingame content – just like with the brand new games that already have DLCs going on which could have been put in the game to achieve by playing. And then, after all, an incredibly expensive merchandise shop that rips you off thrice (!) at once: Item price, what you actually get and shipping cost (Non-Insurance shipping over €20 for EU shipping? Never! Just to artificially increase the price). And the end result is a good-looking, yet mediocre gaming experience and a H U G E copy/paste of things, the 5.000th tomestone farming and the 6.000th fetch quest.

Just to be clear: FF14 and square enix live off of their big names, NOT by their actual quality. Else, FF14 would be €1 / month because the €60 for the game or expansion is only worth it. All the other stuff inbetween is Ca-Ching for something else.

Excelsior.

“Copy & Paste” is a strange way to describe a skin that is only evocative of its GW1 counterpart. Sure, the concept art is a close match. However, the implementation of the GW2 version is wonderfully different from its GW1 inspiration.

I’m all in favor of ANet concentrating resources on the new. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t some room for nostalgia, too, especially since some people remain quite passionate about their memories of GW1.

Zedek.8932:

Carighan.6758:

I mean I tried FF14 recently, and it definitely shows how their sub income gives them a lot more space to work with as developers. Which is a shame, because as an underlying framework, GW2 is worlds stronger.

Just to make it clear: I played FF14 for 1.5 years and it has been stated a lot that the income of FF14 went into a big fund of SquareEnix to be spent into to other projects. As far as I know, which also might be off, but a lot of the cash shop income of FF14 went into FF15 – not back into the game.

FF14 has a subscription fee that returns cheap dungeons as update – a bad deal. Then you got to pay the base game – which should cover the cost, just like all other conventional games did in the past 35 years. Then there is a cash shop recycling ingame content – just like with the brand new games that already have DLCs going on which could have been put in the game to achieve by playing. And then, after all, an incredibly expensive merchandise shop that rips you off thrice (!) at once: Item price, what you actually get and shipping cost (Non-Insurance shipping over €20 for EU shipping? Never! Just to artificially increase the price). And the end result is a good-looking, yet mediocre gaming experience and a H U G E copy/paste of things, the 5.000th tomestone farming and the 6.000th fetch quest.

Just to be clear: FF14 and square enix live off of their big names, NOT by their actual quality. Else, FF14 would be €1 / month because the €60 for the game or expansion is only worth it. All the other stuff inbetween is Ca-Ching for something else.

Excelsior.

Excelsior +1

Carighan.6758:

At this point I’m just about ready to admit defeat and pay 10€-12€/month if in turn all the skins and all will be achievable ingame somehow.

I mean I tried FF14 recently, and it definitely shows how their sub income gives them a lot more space to work with as developers. Which is a shame, because as an underlying framework, GW2 is worlds stronger.

Personally I much prefer this system. I get all the non-expansion content for free (if I somehow miss a chapter I can buy it with gold to gems) and I only have to pay if I want a specific skin or item. Overall, even including the cost of the game and the expansion I’ve spent far less than I would on a subscription and I don’t feel under pressure to play to make sure I’m getting my moneys worth. (I know that last bit is just my issue, but it really does bother me.)

The only problem is when they go and put an item I might want in the Black Lion Chests and make it account bound. I refuse to gamble with real money (especially for virtual items) so I’m restricted to keys I can get for free and that seriously limits my chances. It’s extremely frustrating to know that an item I’d be happy to pay for is locked away behind such a negative system. It’s actually put me off using any keys I do get – after the Celestial Rooster mini pet was locked away in Black Lion Chests I feel like I need to save them all in case something I really want comes up.

Even more frustrating is when I know people who got one they didn’t even want and now feel stuck with it – they know if only they were allowed to sell it they could make a lot of gold, making both them and the buyer very happy, but they can’t so they’re stuck with a sword they will probably never use and someone else is stuck missing out on it.

All on the off chance someone doesn’t understand the odds and actually spends the money to gamble for it.

They didn’t copy and paste from guild wars 1. They had to completely remodel and texture the asset. The only thing that is the same is concept. But complaining that was copy and pasted is ridiculous. At that rate you might as well say humans in every game are copy and pasted into games.

1. None of the GW1 weapons have been copy/pasted into GW2; they’ve been re-designed for GW2, using the original model as the starting point for design.

2. You don’t have to try to get it. You are completely within your right to not buy black lion keys for a shot at opening it. Other people, however, do want it and will gamble to get it.

3. Former GW1 players often speak fondly of these GW1 throwback skins. You may not be one of those people, but they certainly do exist and do buy those skins.

All that being said, I have no plans to try to get this skin because, like others said, I prefer not to gamble with real money. If I get keys in-game, I’ll definitely use them, but I’m not likely to spend cash for gems (or even trade gold for gems) for something in black lion chests. If it were a skin we could just buy directly (like the chaos gloves, storm bow, or emissary staff), I’d probably buy it.

Personally I love that ArenaNet is bringing skins from GW1 to GW2. I’d love to see the Glacial Blade, Vampiric Dragon Sword, Rose Focus and Exalted Aegis return as well.

As for complaining…I just don’t get it really. If you don’t like a skin that is added, fine. If you do, great. But why complain about it?

To each his own…
I’d buy some things that are only available via Hall of Monuments:
- Sohothin
- Black Widow pet
- White Raven pet.

I’d gladly pay 1000 gems for each one of these… I don’t have GW1 and I don’t think I’ll ever buy the game. But these items are just too cool.

:)

… why are they making rare things from the Black Lion chests account bound? We should be able to sell almost anything we receive from them.

Zedek.8932:

Just to be clear: FF14 and square enix live off of their big names, NOT by their actual quality. Else, FF14 would be €1 / month because the €60 for the game or expansion is only worth it. All the other stuff inbetween is Ca-Ching for something else.

Oh definitely.

But that was sort-of my point: Even in FF14, it works better. You don’t really need to search for a long time to find evidence of how the moneymaking scheme of GW2 doesn’t seem to be working out all that well.

Of course, that being said, I get what I pay for, and per-money-spent, GW2 has tremendous value. Just so long as you don’t entirely overdo the time you spend on it (because then you run into issues with the lack of manpower available for continued development), it works fine for the money it asks of you.

Sartharina.3542:

… why are they making rare things from the Black Lion chests account bound? We should be able to sell almost anything we receive from them.

Because people asked for exclusive stuff only available through chest gambling. There’s all kinds of people playing this game, and the chests are targeted at those that like to gamble for exclusives it seems.

If things go south through bad choices the player base starts demanding a vanilla server.

In Gw2 however it’s asking for gw1 content though the vast majority of it relates to gw1 QOL. As for the weapon skins sure somenget asked for it the design for them already exists and they own the rights so it’s just easier to take gw1 skins and port them over. A new weapon needs to be designed and discussed an existing weapon already has that work done for it and thus can be created in game much faster and cheaper.

Carighan.6758:

Zedek.8932:

Just to be clear: FF14 and square enix live off of their big names, NOT by their actual quality. Else, FF14 would be €1 / month because the €60 for the game or expansion is only worth it. All the other stuff inbetween is Ca-Ching for something else.

Oh definitely.

But that was sort-of my point: Even in FF14, it works better. You don’t really need to search for a long time to find evidence of how the moneymaking scheme of GW2 doesn’t seem to be working out all that well.

Of course, that being said, I get what I pay for, and per-money-spent, GW2 has tremendous value. Just so long as you don’t entirely overdo the time you spend on it (because then you run into issues with the lack of manpower available for continued development), it works fine for the money it asks of you.

Also for the sub cost i hear the raiding content they provide is superb. About the sub fee idk at times i feel it would make gw2 a thousant times better, but then again the lack of it is what drew me in. Oh and wvw (~hello darlness my old friend~ ;-;).

Then again ESO’s business model could work just as well but both are big steps few would agree with.

Sorry, I don’t get this argument. I don’t want to play GW1 and the things in it, so I want you to not provide me with a way to easily avoid acquiring an item, which in this case is to lock it behind an RNG real money method of acquisition. It’s super easy for me to avoid getting, by simply not opening chests.

I mean, what’s the problem here? If you don’t want it you can easily not have it.

zealex.9410:

Carighan.6758:

Zedek.8932:

Just to be clear: FF14 and square enix live off of their big names, NOT by their actual quality. Else, FF14 would be €1 / month because the €60 for the game or expansion is only worth it. All the other stuff inbetween is Ca-Ching for something else.

Oh definitely.

But that was sort-of my point: Even in FF14, it works better. You don’t really need to search for a long time to find evidence of how the moneymaking scheme of GW2 doesn’t seem to be working out all that well.

Of course, that being said, I get what I pay for, and per-money-spent, GW2 has tremendous value. Just so long as you don’t entirely overdo the time you spend on it (because then you run into issues with the lack of manpower available for continued development), it works fine for the money it asks of you.

Also for the sub cost i hear the raiding content they provide is superb. About the sub fee idk at times i feel it would make gw2 a thousant times better, but then again the lack of it is what drew me in. Oh and wvw (~hello darlness my old friend~ ;-;).

Then again ESO’s business model could work just as well but both are big steps few would agree with.

Not arguing but just want to point out that FF14 business model is changing their adopting the exact same thing WoW has done excluding the WoW token. FF 14 will be F2P up to level 35 I think without a time limit on the trial. Considering the fact players can change their classes on the fly they can just get every profession in the game to that cap which will take a good while. I haven’t played FF14 since before they launched the first expansion but their changing and adapting as they go.

Doam.8305:

zealex.9410:

Carighan.6758:

Zedek.8932:

Just to be clear: FF14 and square enix live off of their big names, NOT by their actual quality. Else, FF14 would be €1 / month because the €60 for the game or expansion is only worth it. All the other stuff inbetween is Ca-Ching for something else.

Oh definitely.

But that was sort-of my point: Even in FF14, it works better. You don’t really need to search for a long time to find evidence of how the moneymaking scheme of GW2 doesn’t seem to be working out all that well.

Of course, that being said, I get what I pay for, and per-money-spent, GW2 has tremendous value. Just so long as you don’t entirely overdo the time you spend on it (because then you run into issues with the lack of manpower available for continued development), it works fine for the money it asks of you.

Also for the sub cost i hear the raiding content they provide is superb. About the sub fee idk at times i feel it would make gw2 a thousant times better, but then again the lack of it is what drew me in. Oh and wvw (~hello darlness my old friend~ ;-;).

Then again ESO’s business model could work just as well but both are big steps few would agree with.

Not arguing but just want to point out that FF14 business model is changing their adopting the exact same thing WoW has done excluding the WoW token. FF 14 will be F2P up to level 35 I think without a time limit on the trial. Considering the fact players can change their classes on the fly they can just get every profession in the game to that cap which will take a good while. I haven’t played FF14 since before they launched the first expansion but their changing and adapting as they go.

Great to hear i hope Anet change and adapt their model for the game’s best interests.

If you don’t like it don’t buy it.

I hate copy/paste too. Too much reforging in this game. Developers should be more creative in my personal opinion.

Argument “if you don’t like it, don’t buy it” does not stand. Players should have the incentive to buy those virtual items. If players do not like the content, they will leave the game, and what is now “don’t buy it” will become “don’t play it”. The game will desolate and the community will scatter in time (like it already does?).

I am not saying copy/paste should be avoided at all costs, but new content should outweigh reforging and revamping, by an extremely high percentage, since the percentages of players and guilds from GW1 are not that high as we may think.

Not to mention accounts who post on these forums are a very small percentage from active game accounts, and even a smaller percentage from all game accounts. Listening to only a few players requests, some from GW1 used with forums and chat, is extremely bad for business.

To survive in those fast economic days , any product has to always come with something new, creative, never seen before, never thought before, using “out of the box” thinking. I hate to copy from other people thinking and make it my own idea, I hate not evolving into something new and interesting and unique.

it is here because PLAYERS REQUESTED for it…. even if you didn’t, many others did, and yes, you don’t have to buy it….

Geez… and some people around here think I’m unreasonable lol… This skin, and any gw1 skin here, is for nostalgia… please stop being silly about it. Also, I’m pretty sure the core complaint by the op is the means of acquisition, and not all that other stuff.

Swagger.1459:

Geez… and some people around here think I’m unreasonable lol… This skin, and any gw1 skin here, is for nostalgia… please stop being silly about it. Also, I’m pretty sure the core complaint by the op is the means of acquisition, and not all that other stuff.

nah im pretty sure hos core complaint is that he already has the weapon in gw1 so reselling it to him in the second game is unacceptable.

zealex.9410:

Swagger.1459:

Geez… and some people around here think I’m unreasonable lol… This skin, and any gw1 skin here, is for nostalgia… please stop being silly about it. Also, I’m pretty sure the core complaint by the op is the means of acquisition, and not all that other stuff.

nah im pretty sure hos core complaint is that he already has the weapon in gw1 so reselling it to him in the second game is unacceptable.

Yeah, “means of acquisition”… op wants it for free and that’s the real complaint.

what exactly is the problem with them adding skins from a previous game? I mean, I absolutely hate gamble boxes in micro transaction stores and will never spend a nickle to support it but I fail to see the issue with bringing skins from gw1 into gw2. Especially so when there’s plenty of players that would like them and nobody is forced to get them.

you might have had a legitimate argument if they were making a new tier of gear and they just copied the art from gw1 and we couldn’t use other skins to change the look of our gear, but saying that adding an optional skin is bad just because a previous game had it does not make any sense to me at all.

azizul.8469:

it is here because PLAYERS REQUESTED for it…. even if you didn’t, many others did, and yes, you don’t have to buy it….

They requested a skin to be a rare random drop and be account bound, from an already RNG-bound real money gamble mechanic?

Such a skin would be awesome as a reward from a quest akin to the HoT legendary precursors. It doesn’t actually have to be a legendary, just implement those long quest chains for them, including a ton of mats at some point so it drains the economy (which is, after all, equivalent to real money spent).

Acrisor.8097:

I hate copy/paste too. Too much reforging in this game. Developers should be more creative in my personal opinion.

Argument “if you don’t like it, don’t buy it” does not stand. Players should have the incentive to buy those virtual items. If players do not like the content, they will leave the game, and what is now “don’t buy it” will become “don’t play it”. The game will desolate and the community will scatter in time (like it already does?).

I am not saying copy/paste should be avoided at all costs, but new content should outweigh reforging and revamping, by an extremely high percentage, since the percentages of players and guilds from GW1 are not that high as we may think.

Not to mention accounts who post on these forums are a very small percentage from active game accounts, and even a smaller percentage from all game accounts. Listening to only a few players requests, some from GW1 used with forums and chat, is extremely bad for business.

To survive in those fast economic days , any product has to always come with something new, creative, never seen before, never thought before, using “out of the box” thinking. I hate to copy from other people thinking and make it my own idea, I hate not evolving into something new and interesting and unique.

If many players are not from gw1, as you imply, then gw1 skins are new to them.

Carighan.6758:

azizul.8469:

it is here because PLAYERS REQUESTED for it…. even if you didn’t, many others did, and yes, you don’t have to buy it….

They requested a skin to be a rare random drop and be account bound, from an already RNG-bound real money gamble mechanic?

Such a skin would be awesome as a reward from a quest akin to the HoT legendary precursors. It doesn’t actually have to be a legendary, just implement those long quest chains for them, including a ton of mats at some point so it drains the economy (which is, after all, equivalent to real money spent).

Players can get it for free by converting gold to gems…

Edit- Using mats to “drain the economy” is not equivalent to “real money spent”.

Carighan.6758:

They requested a skin to be a rare random drop and be account bound, from an already RNG-bound real money gamble mechanic?

Fans have requested that special skins be less common (see also: feedback on the Storm Bow, that included people saying it was too easily obtain, cost too little). Fans have requested that some skins be available for gems rather than “grinding out currencies” or “long scavenger hunts.”

There aren’t all that many ways to implement that.

Assuming that the Elemental Sword drops once in 50 chests, ANet would have to charge 4200 gems for “guaranteed acquisition” to be approximately as rare as its current acquisition mechanic (that’s the cost of 50 keys). Would the community be okay with US$50 for a skin?

At least as RNG, some people are going to get it for free from map completion or key runs and many will get it for far less than 50 keys.

I do think ANet could have done the same thing they did with BL tickets: there could be a “GW1 nostalgia skin ticket,” that drops rarely, allowing one to get e.g. Storm Bow or Elemental Sword. ANet could also introduce “nostalgia ticket scraps” so that someone opening 40 chests would be able to keep getting closer to a full ticket, even if they didn’t get lucky.

In short, RNG might not be a great system, but it still might be better than the alternatives.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Carighan.6758:

They requested a skin to be a rare random drop and be account bound, from an already RNG-bound real money gamble mechanic?

Fans have requested that special skins be less common (see also: feedback on the Storm Bow, that included people saying it was too easily obtain, cost too little). Fans have requested that some skins be available for gems rather than “grinding out currencies” or “long scavenger hunts.”

There aren’t all that many ways to implement that.

Assuming that the Elemental Sword drops once in 50 chests, ANet would have to charge 4200 gems for “guaranteed acquisition” to be approximately as rare as its current acquisition mechanic (that’s the cost of 50 keys). Would the community be okay with US$50 for a skin?

At least as RNG, some people are going to get it for free from map completion or key runs and many will get it for far less than 50 keys.

I do think ANet could have done the same thing they did with BL tickets: there could be a “GW1 nostalgia skin ticket,” that drops rarely, allowing one to get e.g. Storm Bow or Elemental Sword. ANet could also introduce “nostalgia ticket scraps” so that someone opening 40 chests would be able to keep getting closer to a full ticket, even if they didn’t get lucky.

In short, RNG might not be a great system, but it still might be better than the alternatives.

I spent well over the 4500 gems mentioned, as in double, attempting to get the two minipet tickets that would allow me to buy an avian minipet. I got one ticket, insufficient for one of the only minipets in the game that interest me…and absolutely nothing else of value to me. I understand that encouraging their customers to gamble can be more profitable than offering a desirable product for direct sale, but it can also have consequences. Encouraging people to not spend money on gems at all, for example.

I’ve seen some players post (more than once) that ‘new’ content should out-weigh ‘copy/paste’ content by a large degree.

Considering we get 16 ‘new’ skins per Black Lion Weapon set, and get them a lot more often than any singular ‘copy/paste’ weapon skin, I’m not sure what the concern is, as far as ratio goes.

Plus, we just got the Caladbolg set, as well. (I don’t think I’ve seen some of those skins before; of course I could have just missed them.)

Thus, over all, there seems to be a heck of a lot more ‘new’ skins than ‘copy/paste’.

Ashen.2907:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Carighan.6758:

They requested a skin to be a rare random drop and be account bound, from an already RNG-bound real money gamble mechanic?

Fans have requested that special skins be less common (see also: feedback on the Storm Bow, that included people saying it was too easily obtain, cost too little). Fans have requested that some skins be available for gems rather than “grinding out currencies” or “long scavenger hunts.”

There aren’t all that many ways to implement that.

Assuming that the Elemental Sword drops once in 50 chests, ANet would have to charge 4200 gems for “guaranteed acquisition” to be approximately as rare as its current acquisition mechanic (that’s the cost of 50 keys). Would the community be okay with US$50 for a skin?

At least as RNG, some people are going to get it for free from map completion or key runs and many will get it for far less than 50 keys.

I do think ANet could have done the same thing they did with BL tickets: there could be a “GW1 nostalgia skin ticket,” that drops rarely, allowing one to get e.g. Storm Bow or Elemental Sword. ANet could also introduce “nostalgia ticket scraps” so that someone opening 40 chests would be able to keep getting closer to a full ticket, even if they didn’t get lucky.

In short, RNG might not be a great system, but it still might be better than the alternatives.

I spent well over the 4500 gems mentioned, as in double, attempting to get the two minipet tickets that would allow me to buy an avian minipet. I got one ticket, insufficient for one of the only minipets in the game that interest me…and absolutely nothing else of value to me. I understand that encouraging their customers to gamble can be more profitable than offering a desirable product for direct sale, but it can also have consequences. Encouraging people to not spend money on gems at all, for example.

I’m sorry that your experience was miserable. Does that negate the experience from a huge number of people who didn’t spend a thing to get theirs?

Again, I’m favor of ANet reducing the risk of opening 50 without a sword. I just don’t think it’s as simple as accusing ANet of encouraging people to gamble with real money.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Ashen.2907:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Carighan.6758:

They requested a skin to be a rare random drop and be account bound, from an already RNG-bound real money gamble mechanic?

Fans have requested that special skins be less common (see also: feedback on the Storm Bow, that included people saying it was too easily obtain, cost too little). Fans have requested that some skins be available for gems rather than “grinding out currencies” or “long scavenger hunts.”

There aren’t all that many ways to implement that.

Assuming that the Elemental Sword drops once in 50 chests, ANet would have to charge 4200 gems for “guaranteed acquisition” to be approximately as rare as its current acquisition mechanic (that’s the cost of 50 keys). Would the community be okay with US$50 for a skin?

At least as RNG, some people are going to get it for free from map completion or key runs and many will get it for far less than 50 keys.

I do think ANet could have done the same thing they did with BL tickets: there could be a “GW1 nostalgia skin ticket,” that drops rarely, allowing one to get e.g. Storm Bow or Elemental Sword. ANet could also introduce “nostalgia ticket scraps” so that someone opening 40 chests would be able to keep getting closer to a full ticket, even if they didn’t get lucky.

In short, RNG might not be a great system, but it still might be better than the alternatives.

I spent well over the 4500 gems mentioned, as in double, attempting to get the two minipet tickets that would allow me to buy an avian minipet. I got one ticket, insufficient for one of the only minipets in the game that interest me…and absolutely nothing else of value to me. I understand that encouraging their customers to gamble can be more profitable than offering a desirable product for direct sale, but it can also have consequences. Encouraging people to not spend money on gems at all, for example.

I’m sorry that your experience was miserable. Does that negate the experience from a huge number of people who didn’t spend a thing to get theirs?

Again, I’m favor of ANet reducing the risk of opening 50 without a sword. I just don’t think it’s as simple as accusing ANet of encouraging people to gamble with real money.

I wi be honest here in admitting that I was, and am, unaware of a means of getting the minis without spending anything. Personally I spent about 1500 gold as well as real money (around $100) hoping to get enough tickets for at least one minipet.

Did I miss another option?

The thing is that it is about encouraging people to gamble because people will spend more, incrementally, on gamble chances than they would otherwise have been willing to pay for a given item. That is the entire point of the gamble box trend in games.

Ashen.2907:

I wi be honest here in admitting that I was, and am, unaware of a means of getting the minis without spending anything. Personally I spent about 1500 gold as well as real money (around $100) hoping to get enough tickets for at least one minipet.

Did I miss another option?

No, you didn’t miss another current method of acquisition.

I was using option to refer to the fact that ANet has a limited number of methods to distribute skins (including mini pets) that (a) allow them to make money (as they need to, to stay in business) and (b) keep some skins rare among the playerbase.

There just aren’t that many ways to achieve that. Lotto-boxes are one such system; it has the advantage that some people might not spend anything, although some would spend too much. Offering an item for an extremely high price is another; that’s good because it’s guaranteed, but bad because they’d have to charge a heart-stopping amount to make it fit the requirement of being rarely unlocked.

Tonight, I just got the elemental skin from opening a random black lion chest after completing ember bay with my necro. I am sad that I can not choose to sell it to other players who seem to like this skin because I never understood what was the fuss about it when playing guild wars and I still fail to understand the fuss about it now, even though the skin has clearly been updated. On a similar level I am sad that I cannot sell every mini skins as it is possible to automatically unlock one to your wardrobe through the guaranteed account bound skin unlock.