Guild Wars 2

This is one of the most gamble-y slot-machine-y MMOs around right now.
(Ecto merchant, mystic forge, black lion chests. Hell, even loot tables are kittened)

Ever try to get a precursor from the mystic forge? That is straight up gambling, people have lost their entire fortunes doing exactly that. I’ve lost fortunes doing that. There’s no popup warning you about it.

This is one example, and it’s been in the game since LAUNCH.
Three years now, we’ve had gambling as a MAJOR COMPONENT in getting a legendary weapon; something that was an endgame goal to many people for a long time.

You keep saying “this is the first time gambling has been in this game”
And you keep being wrong.

OP mentions that he thought it would be like the New Year Envelopes. Apparently, for him, he got back more than he spent on those.

I definitely did not! I lost about 20 gold throughout the weeks that was going, but that’s fine. This is the exact same, except with much higher stakes. The Ram Envelopes didn’t have a warning either, but OP claims that the Ecto Slots are unprecedented.

As someone else pointed out, the issue here is that OP won at the small time slots, then lost when he went to the big time ones.

I’m still amazed that people obviously don’t read, like, anything in the game and then complain about missing warnings. The skritt item’s description essentially says that you’ll get random amounts of junk. Miyani, when talking to her about the forge, which any new player would have to do to find out about the way it works, will give you this line:
“Zommoros offers the chance to improve items, but he can be wildly inconsistent. You may get a wondrous item. Or, you may get garbage.”
That is a very clear warning. It literally says you might get garbage. How is that not telling you that this is a gamble?

Guys, please, just… read, okay? T_T

Errmmm…. didn’t some of you all realize that you all are throwing one of the most valuable items in the game right? 250 ectos is like hours of my time farming world boss/orr and SW. Why would you even consider using it to get something that could give you random stuff?
I would rather use it to make Legendaries or keep them.

You should make a topic before gambling ^^, a friend of mine double his gold.

SirDrygan.1823:

Errmmm…. didn’t some of you all realize that you all are throwing one of the most valuable items in the game right? 250 ectos is like hours of my time farming world boss/orr and SW. Why would you even consider using it to get something that could give you random stuff?
I would rather use it to make Legendaries or keep them.

You can gain more ectos than you put in

To be honest this post and OP is pointless – Game needs Gold sinks otherwise the in-game economy would fail.

Even if you was not sure what the NPC does or does not – you don’t instantly throw 100g – 1000 ectos (common sense)

You chose to do something – going in blind – and got punished for it – seems a lot more like player intelligence is the problem here.

That said if players read the descriptions more (I believe the item does actually tell you its random returns) it should indicate RNG – Even my gf who went to check what the vendor did noticed it straight away and was like its gambling….

Reading the arguments the OP makes is just funny,

“because i was thinking this npc was the same of the olders, where sometime you should lose a bit, and sometime you will gain a bit more, so i was thinking ok, now i lost, next time i will take back what i lost with a little amount of gain” – Lian Olsam.9541

Exactly what gambling is (if you cant afford losing dont gamble, Clearly you understand or even understood it was gambling as you was thinking you might make it back in the next one – showing you NOTICED you made a LOSS to start with….)

Just admit that you’re salty you made a loss and wanted to vent about it and thus the creation of this post…
And no i don’t think they need to have BIG WARNING signs to tell people that you may lose money by using this NPC – Immersion (no merchant will advertise that) – ANet did say they wanted to build an immersive world – I think as it is, its totally fine – also I rather like them not treating me like an idiot who cant read the description of items.

The funny part?

We would not be seeing this thread if he had won. I’m sure gambling wouldn’t be such a problem then :P

Hyble.4271:

The funny part?

We would not be seeing this thread if he had won. I’m sure gambling wouldn’t be such a problem then :P

Gambling results in profit? Working as intended.

Gambling results in loss? TO THE FORUMS!!!!!

Gambling is based on average net loss to players. Always. Otherwise it wouldn’t be gambling. It would be a job where you earn by doing stuff.

I came across that skritt too, figured it was funny. I tossed in the minimum bid to try it out.. came back with 2 ectos and 50 silver ahead. Thought for a moment about trying again, then reminded myself of the facts and walked away. Friend tossed in minimum bid, lost.. I think 3 or 4 ectos and 40 silver. Walked away too. End of story.

There’s also people who are addicted to gambling, who won’t be able to stop ‘while they are ahead’, but also won’t be able to stop ‘until they get back their own’, because ‘they can feel the luck is just now changing’. Or because ‘after having lost so many times it’s bound to be jackpot right around the corner’.

Is it fair towards them? Maybe not. But honestly if anyone tosses in their fortune to gambling, while knowing the odds are random, the only person to blame can be found in the mirror.

nathanjameson.3542:

Hyble.4271:

The funny part?

We would not be seeing this thread if he had won. I’m sure gambling wouldn’t be such a problem then :P

Gambling results in profit? Working as intended.

Gambling results in loss? TO THE FORUMS!!!!!

Yes, its so true its painful.
No complaints ever when this go in their favor
Nothing wrong with a little bit of gambling in-game with fake money Imo.
Problem only occurs when real money gets thrown in and people get genuinely addicted, as of now i don’t see a problem with the system.

zorokai.1486:

nathanjameson.3542:

Hyble.4271:

The funny part?

We would not be seeing this thread if he had won. I’m sure gambling wouldn’t be such a problem then :P

Gambling results in profit? Working as intended.

Gambling results in loss? TO THE FORUMS!!!!!

Yes, its so true its painful.
No complaints ever when this go in their favor
Nothing wrong with a little bit of gambling in-game with fake money Imo.
Problem only occurs when real money gets thrown in and people get genuinely addicted, as of now i don’t see a problem with the system.

This pretty much. I’d have more of a problem if there was a skritt gambling with gems. But even then the worst incentive would be missing since you can’t trade gems back to real money. The way it is now – who knows, maybe there will be a few people who will take the lesson to heart. That would be great, really.

— edit —
I feel compelled to add this much:
Don’t take me wrong – I can very well understand the feeling of loss and remorse that prompted OP to write the post in the first place. I’ve played since launch, and have never had even 500 ectos to blow, let only 1000. If I imagine the remorse I’d feel if I’d blown away a few years of stashing in an instant, I just can’t feel the amusement I otherwise might.

The net loss from 1000 ectos would be about 430 gold. Add the 100 gold on top of that and we’re at around equal to 4000 gems. What I’d probably do in that situation is to buy the 4000 gems (either straight up, or in form of HoT ultimate), convert them to gold, and buy back the ectos.

The reason is simple – I could forget the loss of that amount of real cash soon enough, while the loss of that many ectos I’d feel for months. I’d just count the loss as a price for lessons learned.

This thread is hilarious, thanks. Especially you OP, pure gold.

1) Go to Vegas and drop your entire life savings on a roulette table. Then go complain to the management. Let me know how that goes for you.

You already admitted you understood it was a gamble. If the stakes were too high for you, don’t play.

2) This entire game is gambling. RNG… RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR. You farm hoping for an item and it randomly selects from a loot table based on specified probabilities. This is why the smart players farm cash, not items.

Black Lions Chests
Moa Racing
The Forge

…the list is lengthy. I know its already been said, but I felt the urge. :P

3) And the most important…

This game NEEDS gold sinks. Gambling is crucial to GW2. Furthermore, it was silly to remove the armor repair costs. The economy inflates and inflates. More gold comes in and not enough goes out. The 15% sink on trades is not enough.

Please, ANET… Please create more gambling, preferably a full-on casino in LA. Please create more ways to leech gold from the game.

Kudos and hats off to you.

OP… Man up and take responsibility for your own mistake and stop claiming it as a trust issue.

I love gambling ectos. I’m aware that, in the end, the house always wins. But I still have fun doing it in small bursts. As of today I’m up 90 ecto and 24 gold. I’m aware that if I keep going, I will likely lose it. That’s the nature of gambling.

There is so much gambling in this game. And it has been this way since day one. Why complain about it now?

its why I do not play the RNG factor with the Mystic Toilet or the Black Lion keys. I mean if a BLK drops ill use it, but I will in no way put time/gold into a BLK farm for a 1% Chance of getting the *number of scrape to make 1/5 weapon tickets for those skins. Just wont do it.

Same goes for the precusor Mystic toilet stuff too.

So why also waste the time/items on a NPC that uses the same % payout as the mystic Toilet?

This is on you OP, you should know better by now.

This is the exact type of player the NPE was originally made for. “I don’t see big red glowing warning symbols, so it must mean, that I cannot lose anything.”

After the first attempt you should have recognized, that you can start lose money and there is no safe chance to get it back. But you’ve continued. Starting with the biggest package possible and sticking to it while complaining is everything but smart. That’s why you can test with smaller amounts of gold and ectos.

You aren’t disappointed about Anet. You seem to be disappointed about yourself and now you start to pin the blame on Anet right after you flushed your ectos through the casino, that’s clearly described as a a gambling machine.