Guild Wars 2

Test.8734:

Arkinos.7245:

Black Lion Chests are basically Anet way to cash in on stupidity.

There is nothing in these chests that is actually worth the price of the keys considering the average drop rates.

I think they are relevant as a symbol.

They are probably the biggest thing in the game that are clearly bad for the players – they rely on players doing something for their own detriment.

And yet ArenaNet is perfectly happy in exploiting that.

It’s worth taking a very good look at, just so everyone realizes that ArenaNet is not above doing something bad for their players in order to get some profit.

But thats a good thing.

These chests and even the keys in the shop clearly state that you get random items.

Everybody that is, lets say adventurous enough to spend real money on what is ultimately a lottery knows what they are buying.

They obviously get kitten on by RNG most of the time, but the money these people drop into the toilet founds the game and ultimately benefits all players.

Anet exploits the gullibility of a few not so bright individuals for the greater good of the game. On top of the fact that there are certainly enough people buying keys in full knowledge of what they’re getting because they like the lottery thing or w/e.

Reminds me of that time I bout $50 worth of lottery tickets and didnt win anything from it, and the guy at the convenience store wouldnt even give me a refund! What a jerk

Would be grand to get the easy key farming back :/
Only done it once since the change, more annoying now. Some extra passive farms would be nice, thankfully not many skins have interested me… Pact Fleet stuff I woulda went for the full set.

The gamble boxes in MMO’s always reminded me of trading card games. There is usually a very limited number of drops from a gamble box that I’d want, and this would also be true of trading card boosters. The “trash” in trading card packs might have some small trading value, so in that respect the card booster has it over the gamble box. However, the developer might argue that the trash drops have a gem value on the store and are thus not worthless — it’s just that individual players don’t value them.

Either way, I am not going to be spending money on a (small) chance to get something I might want. Not going to happen, which is why I don’t play trading card games and the only gamble boxes I’ve opened were with keys from zone or story completion, and the 1 or 2 I’ve gotten as drops in close to 3K hours since head-start.

I’d recommend that attitude to everyone, as the only way these companies will stop with the gamble boxes is if no one buys them.

kitten man that sucks so kitten hard

Raigai, i recently just spent 2100 gems on 25 keys for the first time. i got 8 scraps and…. boosts. Which are useless when you have a hoard of 80’s geared in ascended. I’m equally disappointed. Spending 30 dollars should actually net me something. There should at least be some kind of warning on how much of a gamble this is. Next time, i will just convert to gold and buy weapons i want.

Anyway, i’d love a refund, but that’s a pipe dream. I feel for you!

Personally, I would be more comfortable with keys if they cost the equivalent of at min $1. (80 gems)

(Yeah, yeah, I know, inb4 “But what about the people that think keys should be 50 cent, what about 25 cent?” etc)

To make a more serious post, I don’t like the fact that black lion tickets are the only way for gem store weapon skins to be created by players and that they can only be obtained through rng on the black lion keys. It hides the true price of the items which is really dodgy.

Lambent.6375:

Personally, I would be more comfortable with keys if they cost the equivalent of at min $1. (80 gems)

(Yeah, yeah, I know, inb4 “But what about the people that think keys should be 50 cent, what about 25 cent?” etc)

Hey, if they cost only 40 gems per worthless key, I’d easily flip ANet a few quarters. If you actually like to use the boosters, even a dollar isn’t so bad on its own. But at $1.56? Newp.

I’d like to see ANet experiment, with full metrics and intent to analyze, with two things:

1. Lower the prices on keys to 100 / 80 / 40 gems
2. Guarantee a ticket scrap

While it could earn ANet some real money for doing so, I suspect that gem prices would spike pretty hard and that JS would be wary of approving such a move.

But here’s how I see it going if they tried:
Play-for-free methods of attaining keys would increase.
Key farms become more lucrative. The response may be to nerf key farms in some fashion. Persistent key farms would reduce skin prices on the trading post. Cheaper keys may nudge some key farms to paying, if the time/reward balance were adjusted. ($0.50 or 2 hours. Hm…)
Gold to Gem conversions would spike gem prices. It’s a risk, but Gem to Gold conversions may increase (after they fix the kitteny ripoff UI -_-) as paying players find more value in rising gold rates, and skin prices come down to reasonable levels on the trading post.
Cash to Gem purchase may increase. Or, in the very least, ANet will sell one or two keys to round out the stray 100 gems after outfit sales or other promotions. But, I suspect the 125 cost is set as such because, nefariously, having an uneven number of gems makes some players buy more. Terrible on player trust and strictly exploitative.

Arkinos.7245:

Black Lion Chests are basically Anet way to cash in on stupidity.

There is nothing in these chests that is actually worth the price of the keys considering the average drop rates.

But since some people dont bother researching that and/or just like to gamble Anet gets to make some easy money without exploiting the majority of customers that is semi intelligent.

Basically: Fools pay the game for not so foolish people and get some fun with the lottery.

I call that a win for everybody.

Really?

I call it a lose for everybody – except, possibly, ANet (and even that is arguable, IMO).

I am happy to spend a reasonable amount of money on a game I play frequently and have already spent quite a lot.

Although, admittedly, that was with the idea of an initial investment, to an extent.

However, I am not prepared to gamble with bad odds and I am not happy that others are being tempted to.

It’s obvious why it is a lose for the gamblers – but the reason I feel it is also a lose for someone like me, is that (perhaps, because they feel they can make more from gambling?) there is a lack of choice of items to buy outright in the gemstore.

I wish they would just offer a bigger range of items and sell everything for a (reasonable) set price.

For example, I would love to be able to buy some baby animal minis, but there are none available ATM and I would love a good selection of bow skins and things like boot skins (on their own – not necessarily in an outfit).

But, again, there are either none, or virtually none (in the case of boots).

I understand that they may feel that if they provide a lot of different items, at the same time, that may mean more work for less money per item; but I think they’re a long way from that situation, currently.

TBH, I would prefer a sub model, plus a vanity item store, as opposed to feeling they are trying to scam people like this.

Scamming implies you didn’t know what you were getting. You do know but you don’t like it. Lets read in in game description.

“This key will unlock one Black Lion Chest containing random Gem Store merchandise, including some rare items not sold separately.”

So how did they scam you exactly?

I belive I had my breaking point with keys a few days ago, when I opened about 13 chests only to get 2 scraps, leaving me with 4 scraps. I still had 600 gems left, and for a second I wanted to buy more chestkeys, until I realized, if I would exchange those for gold, I would get my shadowweaponskin for certain from the traidingpost, while not even getting enough scraps out of chests even if every single one had one.

But et the end of the day I think it’s just skins, I don’t like how big the RNG on this is, but it doesn’t affect my own game and I don’t have to consume if I don’t want to.