Guild Wars 2

It’s really starting to tick me off. For 6 days, non stop, I have grinded the hell out of silverwastes, no beta portal has dropped…. Why is it based on RNG when clearly RNG has hatred for giving people things when others get it multiple times within minutes???? How about a little diversity…. this farming thing, sure its a good idea, but it really isnt for everyone. Instead, how about mix it up by creating several pools to draw beta contestants from… EX::
1) Original pre-order clients
2) Amount of Achievement points on the account
3) Number Of hours played on the account
4) Amount of cash to gem purchases
5) Random draw from all accounts
6) People who have the beta portal.

This would create a diverse situation where everyone has a true chance of participation instead of just those who have the luck of the kitten RNG gods!
I understand that this beta portal thing was implemented to aware beta spots to active players. But how the hell is it at all justified that someone who just purchased the game gets beta access over someone who has been playing since the original beta and has over 3500 hours on the account…….
Its just annoying as hell to be playing one kitten map, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over……………….. doing the same event, for one little piece of crap that will never drop for you simply because the RNG hates you….
I mean seriously.
k…. my rant is over now….

Know how you feel, and reports of newer accounts being luckier, and some accounts getting multiple portals is very worrying, it seems they are not rewarding players correctly, or fairly!

And if you were not chosen from any of those pools? Would you feel better about RNG, then?

If fate has it that you will not be privy to this particular Beta Test, then what difference the method of chance?

Good luck.

Fate favors the foolish

John.8507:

Know how you feel, and reports of newer accounts being luckier, and some accounts getting multiple portals is very worrying, it seems they are not rewarding players correctly, or fairly!

Multiple portals are not a worry, they will still count as just one.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

And if you were not chosen from any of those pools? Would you feel better about RNG, then?

If fate has it that you will not be privy to this particular Beta Test, then what difference the method of chance?

Good luck.

Pretty sure the answer to the first question would be, “No!” It is truly interesting to see the mental gymnastics people go through with stuff like this. I mean, it’s in part because Anet hasn’t explicitly said how many invitations are being sent out. That’s a big part of it. But people like the OP assume that Anet is/should be inviting around 3/4 of the people farming Silverwastes and Drytop. That’s, at least drawing on past experience, an unreasonable assertion and it leads to this level of disappointment.

The only way players are going to get attention to this issue is through Anet’s precious metrics. They measure everything, so stop going there. Stop playing the way they want you to play, scrabbling around in the dust for an RNG portal.

I didn’t go there in the first place, because I detest RNG in gaming.

It’s just a beta. It’s not a big deal.

John.8507:

Know how you feel, and reports of newer accounts being luckier, and some accounts getting multiple portals is very worrying, it seems they are not rewarding players correctly, or fairly!

lol stop the tinfoil hat theories, there is no such thing as lucky accounts, luck is just luck, you either get it when you need it or you don’t.

The RNG is the only thing. It is the sun. It is the moon. With out it there is nothing. If it has one flaw it is that it is too fair.

While I normally have an issue with SOME of the reward systems based around RNG in this game(looking at you, fractals), I have no issue with this portal drop being based on RNG.

After on and off farming for a few days I went on an 18hour bingefarm through Saterday night into Sunday morning to finally get it around 10AM.

And my was it the most fun I had in a long time, was commie at indigo and met some of the funniest and coolest people in game and played hours with them, we stayed on map without breach hopping, made jokes, some even stayed even after dropping the portal so much fun was being had.

In short, I think enjoying the journey should be just as important as the end result.

Well iknow will not getid for 100% ifen after playing the game for 981 days begus it nr shows how many days h is 4731 and 6days of grinding means no betet for me and iknow people inguild who only doned for 10m total sorry for my bad gramer i am dylexil and world seams to hate dylexiks in general and gw2 to isend my only bad luck rng i hate in generalal rng

tonny.7580, not sure if legit or troll…

Yea I’m startin to think my account is cursed because I fail every RNG event. Its a little disappointing when you put so much effort into something and get nothing, while you constantly see people that barely play get the item within 5 minutes =P

Novamatrix.2569:

But how the hell is it at all justified that someone who just purchased the game gets beta access over someone who has been playing since the original beta and has over 3500 hours on the account…….

If the new players already seriously beta tested 20 other games previously, and if the guy with 3500 hours never beta tested any game before, my choice would be obvious….

people who just joined shouldn’t even beta test, they haven’t even played this dam vanilla game yet and they are testing an expac??

anet should be giving people who have done it all, like lots of AP, lots of game time, lots of expertise etc….

Even if he is salty or not….someone who already has experience using a program is usually better at testing/reporting bugs for that program compared to someone who just now got his hands on it. He is kinda right.

In this case it’s a game.

As a Guild Wars 1 player with a decent AP figure, several thousand hours played and no portal… I think it’s a good idea for RNG to play a significant role in this.

Anet wants a good sample of players. Not just the elite, not just the ‘deserving’, but people who will play the game in wildly different ways and thus, provide some nice data to poke at.

Good luck to all still farming and congrats to those who’ve obtained their goal.

Safer Saviour.9685:

Anet wants a good sample of players. Not just the elite, not just the ‘deserving’, but people who will play the game in wildly different ways and thus, provide some nice data to poke at.

How do you know that? Is there a red post about it? A blog post? Or interview? Or is it your inside info? I’d like to know the source for the revelation of “what anet wants”.

I would honestly rather have a beta test group demographic of active NEW players than experienced but bored and/or inactive players.

Obviously, the beta test group would be best if they knew the game in depth, but you can’t guarantee that vets of the game will walk in with an attitude that is not biased based on however they feel about ANET’S previous models and content drops.

There is no real way to screen players to ensure they will be the BEST beta testers… so lets all not pretend there is and let RNG do it for us. I didn’t get one by the way, but like I said above, I’m glad to have mostly active players in the beta (some of which may have grinded SW & DT for many many hours or days, which forced them to play at least a little bit more hahah).

soakman.7539:

I would honestly rather have a beta test group demographic of active NEW players than experienced but bored and/or inactive players.

Obviously, the beta test group would be best if they knew the game in depth, but you can’t guarantee that vets of the game will walk in with an attitude that is not biased based on however they feel about ANET’S previous models and content drops.

There is no real way to screen players to ensure they will be the BEST beta testers… so lets all not pretend there is and let RNG do it for us. I didn’t get one by the way, but like I said above, I’m glad to have mostly active players in the beta (some of which may have grinded SW & DT for many many hours or days, which forced them to play at least a little bit more hahah).

Beta is made to test content not to admire landscapes. At least it should be because anet haven’t shared with us any info about what is going to be tested in the next beta. If my statement is the case then vets are better at finding bugs and exploits than new players which most probably have no idea what is a bug and what is intented in this game mechanics.

segman.3560:

Beta is made to test content not to admire landscapes. At least it should be because anet haven’t shared with us any info about what is going to be tested in the next beta. If my statement is the case then vets are better at finding bugs and exploits than new players which most probably have no idea what is a bug and what is intented in this game mechanics.

Betas are about hype and stress testing more than anything else.

ANETs bug fixing policy and frequency is poor enough as is to make me think they won’t really care about the bugs reported unless its MAJORLY game breaking which any dunce can find/exploit since that is how they have done it for almost 3 years.

Your best chance at a beta portal is to buy a new account. You will have significantly increased luck.

segman.3560:

Beta is made to test content

Not in the last decade. It used to be about testing once, but now it’s a marketing tool.

Do try to keep up.

GrandHaven.1052:

segman.3560:

Beta is made to test content not to admire landscapes. At least it should be because anet haven’t shared with us any info about what is going to be tested in the next beta. If my statement is the case then vets are better at finding bugs and exploits than new players which most probably have no idea what is a bug and what is intented in this game mechanics.

Betas are about hype and stress testing more than anything else.

ANETs bug fixing policy and frequency is poor enough as is to make me think they won’t really care about the bugs reported unless its MAJORLY game breaking which any dunce can find/exploit since that is how they have done it for almost 3 years.

Sadly that is also true.

Morte.5916:

segman.3560:

Beta is made to test content

Not in the last decade. It used to be about testing once, but now it’s a marketing tool.

Do try to keep up.

Just because game developers are using beta testing for advertising it doesn’t mean it’s supposed to be just this. However the quality of game market is so low I expect the worse from developers, including anet.

Beta testing is to present product before release to wider audience, to check players acceptance and solve issue that can be revealed only with bigger stress than internal testing. This is how it should be and this is how I expect anet to make their beta.

If this is just a hype preview, they should have a courage to name it like this. Since they didn’t I’m assuming this will be a literal beta testing so I expect veteran accounts should be prioritised to get access.

I’ve gone sick of farming. It is not fun. Tried switching maps (Dry Top, SW) but no luck. I’m not even interested in participating in beta anymore. Only regret is that I felt like I lost my time the entire weekend.

Rebound.3409:

…someone who already has experience using a program is usually better at testing/reporting bugs for that program compared to someone who just now got his hands on it…

When testing, you need input from every kind of user, from the experienced to the casual, so you can fix things on every level. A new user wouldn’t know how to fix an experienced player’s problems as a an experienced player sometimes wouldn’t quite know how to fix a newbie’s problems, because he’s simply in too deep in gaming to actually have the needs of a new gamer in terms of interface / gameplay.

But as the other guy said, now it’s more of a marketing tool. People do give their feedback, though.

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

I didn’t go there in the first place, because I detest RNG in gaming.

Must have a hard time playing games at all then, seeing as more or less every single game ever released with any sort of loot (or damage-system) uses RNG.

Valento.9852:

I’ve gone sick of farming. It is not fun. Tried switching maps (Dry Top, SW) but no luck. I’m not even interested in participating in beta anymore. Only regret is that I felt like I lost my time the entire weekend.

Why? SW netted me a ridiculous amount of ecto, silk and resource and raw gold over the course of my farm, how is it a waste?

GrandHaven.1052:

Valento.9852:

I’ve gone sick of farming. It is not fun. Tried switching maps (Dry Top, SW) but no luck. I’m not even interested in participating in beta anymore. Only regret is that I felt like I lost my time the entire weekend.

Why? SW netted me a ridiculous amount of ecto, silk and resource and raw gold over the course of my farm, how is it a waste?

You enjoy farming? Good for you. I do not. I was looking for a beta portal. I don’t enjoy farming because it is too repetitive, I even vary how I play to avoid repetition.

Valento.9852:

You enjoy farming? Good for you. I do not. I was looking for a beta portal. I don’t enjoy farming because it is too repetitive, I even vary how I play to avoid repetition.

Understandable.

MAKING something repetitive fun is still very possible though.
Met some of the coolest people throughout my 18hour binge command of Indigo, some people stayed on map even after dropping their portal so much fun we had.

The problem with this event has nothing to do with the event, but with the assumptions people make.

1. certain people are entitled a beta key because x The truth is no one is entitled a beta key, see below.

2. Anet should prioritize x group of players The problem with this is obvious, there is more than one group of players in any game and they need that variety to test. No one group is better qualified to beta test.

3. In game RNG is different from the mailing list RNG It is not. Everyone who didn’t get an invite then complained too.

4. Portals are the only method to gain beta access Anet has said they will be pulling from the mailing list again, so even if you don’t get a portal you could wind up with a beta invite.

If stop to searching/thinking about only the portal and looking for gold that you’re making during this farm one day (until tomorrow) the portal will drop.
My guild mates, me and my husband got our portals after we stopped to look about it and only thinking about the gold that we will make selling materials that we got in this entire week.

Some advices…
- Find secondary reason to go to Silverwastes/Dry Top – Maybe it would be good time to get your Luminescence gear or Ambrite weapon set.
- Kill as many creatures as fast as possible – seems easy, but merdrems are quite tough, so I prefer dry top. If you are grouped you don’t even have to kill, just hurt enough to get kill contribution.
- Sandstorm is your friend – every hour at begining of sand storm (X:4o), and in the middle (X:50 / 10 min until end) there is spawn of dust mites south of first way point. In most maps there be huge crowd waiting for this spawn. Due to scaling there will be many of these spawning (it is the most effective farm). Just get guardian with staff, or engineer with bomb kit and this forgotten trait “forceful explosives” (you don’t need to perfect your build, you just need to hurt them) and spam 1. You can try to also farm Haze, but there is a bit harder to farm. Still during these around 15 minutes you will get tones of kills. Now you get around 40 minutes to do as your please…
During sandstorm there is usually 1 drop on the map (So like 1 in 150 people). Once I even seen 3.

GrandHaven.1052:

Valento.9852:

You enjoy farming? Good for you. I do not. I was looking for a beta portal. I don’t enjoy farming because it is too repetitive, I even vary how I play to avoid repetition.

Understandable.

MAKING something repetitive fun is still very possible though.
Met some of the coolest people throughout my 18hour binge command of Indigo, some people stayed on map even after dropping their portal so much fun we had.

It’s a little more complicated. I did meet cool people and had fun, but playing SW for a beta portal since it became available and specially a full weekend got me burnt out.

The reason why I played so much and admittedly didn’t take breaks during this weekend is because I got a full-time job, and I will not be able to spare time playing GW2 this week. Oh well… I’ll pray the RNG gods to choose me from the newsletter subscription, though I’m not feeling that lucky.

kiryuuki.3264:

If stop to searching/thinking about only the portal and looking for gold that you’re making during this farm one day (until tomorrow) the portal will drop.
My guild mates, me and my husband got our portals after we stopped to look about it and only thinking about the gold that we will make selling materials that we got in this entire week.

That’s….That’s not how it works at all..

Ranatoa.4869:

The problem with this event has nothing to do with the event, but with the assumptions people make.

1. certain people are entitled a beta key because x The truth is no one is entitled a beta key, see below.

Agreed! But you go off the rails after that…

Ranatoa.4869:

2. Anet should prioritize x group of players The problem with this is obvious, there is more than one group of players in any game and they need that variety to test. No one group is better qualified to beta test.

Then why are they prioritizing players with the time/willpower to farm DT/SW? If you want the test group to be fair and cover all groups, add a small chance for portal drops to appear with daily log-in rewards.

Ranatoa.4869:

3. In game RNG is different from the mailing list RNG It is not. Everyone who didn’t get an invite then complained too.

Of course it’s different. Mailing List RNG doesn’t compel players to spend dozens of hours farming one particular zone in hopes of getting lucky.

You can say these players made the choice to farm and I’d wholeheartedly agree, but it’s nonsense to claim they are the same thing. One requires only luck, the other requires both luck and perhaps a substantial time commitment.

Ranatoa.4869:

4. Portals are the only method to gain beta access Anet has said they will be pulling from the mailing list again, so even if you don’t get a portal you could wind up with a beta invite.

The wording on this was confusing and I’m not as confident as everybody else that they meant what players think. I’d love to see confirmation on this. Either way, if they send the newsletter-only invites AFTER the farming period is over, it creates a problem: if you want an invite, you don’t know whether you need to farm (didn’t get ML invite) or not (did get ML invite) until it’s too late.

If they sent out the invites to newsletter folks FIRST and AFTER THAT opened the “farm for a portal” option, it’d be far better.

Valento.9852:

You enjoy farming? Good for you. I do not. I was looking for a beta portal. I don’t enjoy farming because it is too repetitive, I even vary how I play to avoid repetition.

And you think you would have enjoyed a beta with very limited content?

lawl

I think most just want it so they can play it be for other ppl what they don’t want to do is TEST do all the quest to see if any bug / spelling errors explore the rim of the world for places you can get stuck . It’s not about having fun it’s about work
if you want fun wait for a open beta test aka stress test but atm i rather have ppl that would go into the beta with the mindset of making it better and not just so they can play hot be for its out

Just my 2 coppers

Eh, I got sick of farming for those Portals. A repetitive grind for one specific high-value item is not why I play Guild Wars 2. I left that kitten behind when I stopped playing WoW.

The biggest failure is that the same people can get portal multiple times. The drop sysstem should exclude anyone who already had one, and randomly keep rewarding new people, so that a fair amount of people get play chance. Now Anet basically gives us the impression (weither its true or not – I don’t believe it’s true) some people are favoured heavely.

If everyone only gets one portal stone, and new drops do to new people, then I see way smaller problem for people not getting one, cause they had a fair chance then.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

The biggest failure is that the same people can get portal multiple times. The drop sysstem should exclude anyone who already had one, and randomly keep rewarding new people, so that a fair amount of people get play chance. Now Anet basically gives us the impression (weither its true or not – I don’t believe it’s true) some people are favoured heavely.

If everyone only gets one portal stone, and new drops do to new people, then I see way smaller problem for people not getting one, cause they had a fair chance then.

Technically, if it’s true RNG, then someone rolling favorably more than once doesn’t affect anyone else’s chances. Furthermore, it would be really silly for them to limit the number of items that drop in-game versus the number of accounts that get keys.

If the current drop rate is so high that it technically could reward almost all players (or even half/quarter of them for that matter), if everyone can only get one key but the full loot table is dropped, then I agree with you Matty, then RNG is no prob. Thing is we dont know, and as far as I see it, very limited people (maybe 500-1000?) are getting beta access. The question begs, if those portal stone were more divided (i read someone got 3 portals), wouldnt 3k people have been awarded or maybe 2k? Was this ‘Unfavorable rng’ taken into account when setting up the system? That is what we don’t know. It seems to have been put very fast in gameplay, and for just Access to beta, not even anything serious, I doubt anet put a hell of a lot of time in it (that doesn’t mean implementation is bad per se though).

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

The biggest failure is that the same people can get portal multiple times. The drop sysstem should exclude anyone who already had one, and randomly keep rewarding new people, so that a fair amount of people get play chance.

If everyone only gets one portal stone, and new drops do to new people, then I see way smaller problem for people not getting one, cause they had a fair chance then.

The question begs, if those portal stone were more divided (i read someone got 3 portals), wouldnt 3k people have been awarded or maybe 2k?

Here we go again….

Someone dropping 2, 10 or 1.000.000 portals has NO EFFECT on everyone else chances to drop a portal themselves.

Everyone have the same chance to drop one, no matter how many were dropped by others.

There is not a box with every available portals in it from which one is removed every time one is dropped.

So, even if they would have limited the drops to one per account, your chances to get one would still have been the same as they are now.

Got lucky and had one drop off of a random Hyena in the Silver Wastes. Been with the game since BETA, so this is not a newer account. Keep the faith!

Blanche Neige.7241:

Valento.9852:

You enjoy farming? Good for you. I do not. I was looking for a beta portal. I don’t enjoy farming because it is too repetitive, I even vary how I play to avoid repetition.

And you think you would have enjoyed a beta with very limited content?

lawl

Yes, I would, why? I think I missed the point.

I had one drop today and I didn’t notice until i got in game mail.

hmmm i agree that this randomness of beta tester choosing is not optimal. I mean i dont particularly care about beta testing (i wont say no but i wasn’t intentionally farming for portals). I go to SW just to test my warrior builds against relatively tough and varied mobs. I was using GS/Longbow and went through one round of Breach and Vinewrath. When i was cleaning out bag noticed TWO portals. So very random indeed.

I supposed the AOE multi mob tagging ability of LB fire fields helped a lot.

well i agre abut first first post becous rng is soo bad for me generaly in every game and it seism to show now 7days no portal andi see on mamb how soom people get 2-4 portals seim people realy rng is bad