Bought keys to waste money...

Bought keys to waste money...

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Posted by: Jaymee.1560

Jaymee.1560

I have had this idea for a while now, and every time I wanted to post here, I didn’t cause usually other players just love putting my words thought the paper shredder. (I feel so special)

Anyhoo, everyone else I told about this idea actually liked it a lot and told me to post it here, so here goes.

Black Lion Keys.

People buy gems, use those gems to buy key, use those keys and… get trick or treat bags, wintersday gifts, mysterious tonics. Okay okay okay, I GET that. These keys are also given to you in game as well during the course of your fame play. I get that too.

How about this. Introduce a new BLK. like make THAT key, I dunno, like a green color, sells for slightly more gems, but if a player uses their gems to buy it, they are promised at least something that would deem significant to their account. I.E., a bank expansion, or character slot or bag slot. If they pay 500 gems for one key, a key they know for a fact is gonna get them something of significance, then maybe players would buy more keys.

I have friends, one of which who told me he buy 50 bucks worth of keys and… well, lets see, he has enough mysterious tonics to mix in with his Asti this New Years Eve.

This is the primary reason why my husband and I refuse to buy BLK with out gems, we buy or gems, if we get the keys and get nothing in return, then that’s 10 – 20 – 50 that we just tossed right out the window. If we knew we were gonna get something that would be a significant value to our game on the long term, then we wouldn’t think twice about getting those keys…

I use to be a Ritualist and a Paragon in my former life…

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Posted by: JustTrogdor.7892

JustTrogdor.7892

Why would I spend 500 gems on a key that will give me either a bag, bank, or character slot (in your example) when I could spend just a few more gems or less in the case of bag slots and be sure to get the exact item I wanted? If I’m going to spend around 500 gems on something I’d rather just buy the item I wanted directly.

The Burninator

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Posted by: Jaymee.1560

Jaymee.1560

well, 500 gems for a key was just a number I threw out there. Know ANet, they would charge more than that, lol.

More or less, I meant that if the key were that much more expensive and we bought them, we would know we WOULD be getting something that would be of equal value, instead of getting… a mysterious tonic crosses eyes

I use to be a Ritualist and a Paragon in my former life…

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Posted by: Tman.6349

Tman.6349

I agree with Trogdor here a bit but I also very much agree that spending 125 Gems (roughly 10g) for some ‘really sweet account bound’ mysterious tonics, swimming boosters, and “bags of coin” makes the average person feel about like how thieves have felt every time they read new balance patch notes since launch…and that’s not a good feeling. People want to feel like they just read warrior patch notes A-net!!! All warm and fuzzy inside especially after spending real money for these things. At least slightly raise the chance of getting another key for one more shot at the ‘BL Crap(s) Tables’ pun intended lol

(edited by Tman.6349)

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Posted by: Kentaine.4692

Kentaine.4692

I agree with this.

After spending gems on some chests (about 30 opened) I decided I’d just delete my remaining 50 chests and delete all the new ones I get. They fill up my bank with tonics (actually I’ve been deleting those since day one) and boosts (though useful, they would be more useful if I could put them in a side bar and not have to waste bag space on them). Not to mention the black lion salvage tickets pieces (not the actual thing, I’ve only gotten 12 out of maybe 100 total chests opened).

To me the chests are just a complete waste of gold or gems and time. I’d be fine if they were removed completely and just let us buy the Black Lion skins for weapons directly (preferably multi-use like the zenith) if we really want them. The value of the chests are shown by the trading post, 3 copper if you’re lucky. Worthless. So what if they ‘could’ drop a perma hair stylist, I don’t want to waste the money (since even collecting the gold takes time) on opening 1000 of them.

If they keep them, I agree they should have something (100% of the time) that is actually beneficial to your account. (hair stylist contract, make over kits, expansion slots, etc…) Not useless things (revive orbs, there’s too many waypoints for me not to just port; boosts, already covered with banners/foods; repair tool, again it’s more convenient to just pay the 6 silver or whatever) That or make the keyes 100 for 100 gems so their gem cost is more in line with the chest’s gold cost.

I remember when I started playing (the first week) the key drop rate was closer to 33%. I would also think they were worth it if that were the case today.

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Posted by: Woljnir.7810

Woljnir.7810

Keys need to be more available. They simply aren’t worth the price, and that is cold hard fact. Back at launch, the chests dropped like crazy. Of those crazy chest drop rate, I have about 80 that I’ve kept for over a year because of lack of keys. The chest drop rate is pretty low now, but the keys are non existent in the world. Have they officially been removed from drops, because I don’t think I’ve gotten one of a drop in, well, probably a year. Again, back at launch, I would get a key, maybe even two every couple of days, maybe even 1 a day if I was lucky.

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Posted by: uknortherner.2670

uknortherner.2670

The chest drop rate is pretty low now, but the keys are non existent in the world. Have they officially been removed from drops, because I don’t think I’ve gotten one of a drop in, well, probably a year. Again, back at launch, I would get a key, maybe even two every couple of days, maybe even 1 a day if I was lucky.

I had a key drop for the first time in eight months last week. It’s the only time I’ve come across a key in the wild and not from the personal story quests.

I stole a special snowflake’s future by exercising my democratic right to vote.

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Posted by: Offair.2563

Offair.2563

Keys arent worth to spent money in considering the junk in the chests, i get far better stuff out of daily chests

Big Babou, Ranger for life.
Madness Rises [Rise] – Banners Hold.
Don’t argue with idiots, they pull you down their level and own you with experience.

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Posted by: Zoe.8310

Zoe.8310

Just replace those kitten tonics with something worth having. Those tonics are completely kittened and aggravate me whenever I open a Black Lion Chest.

I understand that the BLC are a form of gambling/slot machine, and that also happens to be an extremely lucrative form of IAP for many, many games (which is why many have “slot machines”).

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Posted by: Ettanin.8271

Ettanin.8271

Black Lion Chests function the same as the Mystic Toilet. But instead of flushing gold, you flush EUR/USD

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Posted by: GoddessOfTheWinds.2937

GoddessOfTheWinds.2937

Well, what I hate from the BLC is that it drops crap items all the time. Instead of having 3 chances at a rare item, you get 3 crap Mystery Tonics and a useless booster (most of the time). Then you end up with only 1 chance at a valuable item and if you end up with some gifts or a 1 S item, then you lost a lot (considering the price of the key).

I’d prefer they rework the chest to continue to have a chance to drop those crap items, but the 3 items are now randomized and have equal chance at each drop. And one loot entry can loot once per chest.

Let’s say I open 1 chest, I could end up with:
- 1 Self-Hair style kit
- 1 Black Lion Ticket Scrap
- 1 Revive Orb

I hate that I have to absolutely get 3 Mystery tonics and 1 booster each time. It reduces my chance to get what I prefer to get. I’m out of revive orbs, I’d like more chance at ‘em. I need 2 more ticket scraps, I’d like more chances to get the 2 I’m missing.

Then I would be more willing to buy keys. Bought 1 pack of keys and lost a lot of gold on this. I should have bought my skin directly on the TP instead of trying to gamble it.

Currently, the chests are crap.

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Posted by: TWMagimay.9057

TWMagimay.9057

I don’t think you understand how lottery tickets work. Because that is exactly what the keys are. A bunch of people buy a ticket, some even a few. Out of 100 mil tickets, 1 is the jackpot winner. A few bring a good price, some let you come out even. Most give you nothing. And that is why lottery tickets make money. If you could buy a 1 euro ticket and be guaranteed to win stuff worth between 2 and 2000 euro, the lottery wouldn’t stay in business long. Heck, even if half the 1 euro tickets brought in 2 euro winnings and the rest brought in nothing, the lottery would still die.

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Posted by: yurdun.2501

yurdun.2501

I opened 50 Recently and got 1 claim ticket and 11 scraps along with some things worth 10g all together. I spent a lot of money on gems and I hope I can get some roi when they release some new content and I can sell 2 skins on the TP for a lot of gold.

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Posted by: Moramoth.3965

Moramoth.3965

I don’t think you understand how lottery tickets work. Because that is exactly what the keys are. A bunch of people buy a ticket, some even a few. Out of 100 mil tickets, 1 is the jackpot winner. A few bring a good price, some let you come out even. Most give you nothing. And that is why lottery tickets make money. If you could buy a 1 euro ticket and be guaranteed to win stuff worth between 2 and 2000 euro, the lottery wouldn’t stay in business long. Heck, even if half the 1 euro tickets brought in 2 euro winnings and the rest brought in nothing, the lottery would still die.

This situation is not analogous. You can’t compare a real life lottery where folks spend small amounts of real currency for a chance to win a very large amount of real currency to a situation where people are spending real currency for a virtual product that is worth nothing outside of its virtual domain. I believe that if you’re spending actual currency there should be at least some minimal guarantee that you’ll receive something deemed of worth by the virtual market.

I agree with the majority here — we should get more for our money. The best way to make that happen would be to continue to voice our thoughts on these forums and stop buying keys until changes are made.

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Posted by: GoddessOfTheWinds.2937

GoddessOfTheWinds.2937

Well, I did stop buying and farming keys. I now buy skins directly on TP with gold I farmed. I’ll no longer waste my hard-earned money for this random crap. In fact, I completely stopped charging gems with money, I only buy gems with gold now since I only buy 1-2 skins on the Gem Store here and there.

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Posted by: TWMagimay.9057

TWMagimay.9057

This situation is not analogous. You can’t compare a real life lottery where folks spend small amounts of real currency for a chance to win a very large amount of real currency to a situation where people are spending real currency for a virtual product that is worth nothing outside of its virtual domain. I believe that if you’re spending actual currency there should be at least some minimal guarantee that you’ll receive something deemed of worth by the virtual market.

I agree with the majority here — we should get more for our money. The best way to make that happen would be to continue to voice our thoughts on these forums and stop buying keys until changes are made.

I’m gonna skip the discussion of whether a virtual reality is a reality or not since it’s only partially relevant.

Let’s say you are German and as such use Euro as your real life currency. What you are basically saying is that if you purchase a lottery ticket with euro it’s ok to get nothing in return. But if you were to convert your euro to rupees and buy a lottery ticket with those, you should be guaranteed to win something because those rupees aren’t your real life currency. I’m pretty sure you’ll disagree with that. But why are rupees any different from gems? Because the one exists in a physical form and the other doesn’t? You did spend euro on both though.
The problem isn’t with the BLK, it’s with your perception of BLK, gems and thus GW2 as worthless for being virtual. But you aren’t spending your euro on a random virtual item. You are spending them on a hobby. Just like a stamp collector doesn’t randomly buy a coin and an art collector doesn’t end up with a living horse, you aren’t a SWTOR player buying BTKs.
Lastly, back to the lottery. Just because you are buying a lottery ticket for an item with limited “domain” doesn’t mean you are entitled to winning that item or an item of higher value than the ticket. If I buy a ticket for a lottery where the grand prize is an engraved watch, am I entitled to winning something? Since it’s engraved with, say, my name and the lottery date, it’s practically unsellable. Does that mean that by buying the ticket, I should by guaranteed to win a watch that I can sell since I’m spending real cash on it and it’s worthless outside my collection?

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Posted by: Guardian.5142

Guardian.5142

This situation is not analogous. You can’t compare a real life lottery where folks spend small amounts of real currency for a chance to win a very large amount of real currency to a situation where people are spending real currency for a virtual product that is worth nothing outside of its virtual domain. I believe that if you’re spending actual currency there should be at least some minimal guarantee that you’ll receive something deemed of worth by the virtual market.

I agree with the majority here — we should get more for our money. The best way to make that happen would be to continue to voice our thoughts on these forums and stop buying keys until changes are made.

I’m gonna skip the discussion of whether a virtual reality is a reality or not since it’s only partially relevant.

Let’s say you are German and as such use Euro as your real life currency. What you are basically saying is that if you purchase a lottery ticket with euro it’s ok to get nothing in return. But if you were to convert your euro to rupees and buy a lottery ticket with those, you should be guaranteed to win something because those rupees aren’t your real life currency. I’m pretty sure you’ll disagree with that. But why are rupees any different from gems? Because the one exists in a physical form and the other doesn’t? You did spend euro on both though.
The problem isn’t with the BLK, it’s with your perception of BLK, gems and thus GW2 as worthless for being virtual. But you aren’t spending your euro on a random virtual item. You are spending them on a hobby. Just like a stamp collector doesn’t randomly buy a coin and an art collector doesn’t end up with a living horse, you aren’t a SWTOR player buying BTKs.
Lastly, back to the lottery. Just because you are buying a lottery ticket for an item with limited “domain” doesn’t mean you are entitled to winning that item or an item of higher value than the ticket. If I buy a ticket for a lottery where the grand prize is an engraved watch, am I entitled to winning something? Since it’s engraved with, say, my name and the lottery date, it’s practically unsellable. Does that mean that by buying the ticket, I should by guaranteed to win a watch that I can sell since I’m spending real cash on it and it’s worthless outside my collection?

I see what you mean and I understand where you are coming from. I think what people are wanting here, especially since we are talking virtual items, which can be mass produced for essentially nothing, that the rewards be more tempting.

Lets use your lottery analogy. The lottery company needs to do… a slight modification to what the boxes drop and in turn, are out NOTHING for costs and should they put more tempting items in those boxes, people would be more inclined to buy the keys for them.

Best thing you can get from them now is a Black Lion Ticket. At best, its time sensitive, based on whether the special weps cost 1 BLT, but it could mean either an awesome skin or… what, average of 80g if the wep is sold on the TP. So, with your lottery analogy, you buy a 10g ticket that might have a small chance of netting you 80g grand prize. Oooooo.. Spoil me.

What if the permanent hair style item came back into circulation? What if the perminant bank, TP or BL vendors came back into circulation? What if the special skins themselves came into circulation? What if currently unobtainable past back pieces and items became rare drops from BL chests? Maybe the BLTs get a bump to drop rate and be the “didn’t win, but got something for my trouble” prize and something MUCH better became the reason to shoot for them. If the RL lotto charged me one dollar for a chance to win 80 bucks and normally I get pocket change, I won’t risk buying any.

That all being said, I am a shamelessly legendary defender of Shaemoor garrison. Big Nose Ted and I are practically drinking buds and little D’s got some seriously awesome tats… Blaize and Johnny really are just kittens that bank on looks (or scars) to win affections. Logan’s alright after you get a few drinks in him, but I’m not sure how many beers he’d need to finally realize the Countess is sweet on him. Kinda tragic.. but.. oh well, so long and thanks for all the keys….

What did ANET do when the sheer mass of the event ZERG was too much for the server to support?
They had to SPAWN MORE OVERFLOWS!

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Posted by: ikereid.4637

ikereid.4637

1. the BLK system is NOT a lottery. There is NO PROMISE of a large jack pot to 1 or a few lucky winners. We all know what the rewards are, and there is a % that we all share at getting said rewards.

2. BLK and Gemstore RNG is just a scam. plain and simple. Its there to drive up the Gem store to make NCSoft (NOT ARENANET) Cash to support their OTHER GAMES. <— THIS IS WHY I DONT BUY GEMS WITH REAL MONEY!!

3. While you can earn Gold in game, even farm the level 10 story and get a random world BLK Drop instead of paying cash…there is no difference between that and paying cash for the Keys. Either way you get them your chances of XYZ Drops out of the chests are the same. This is part 2 of the scam IMHO. Why on EARTH pay real money for something that does not give you a guaranteed chance above the alternative method? Seems kittened.

And that is why I refuse to partake in the Gem store RNG based items. Instead I will farm for Gold (25 different ways, its NOT THAT HARD) and just buy whatever I am after from other players. Seriously, Screw NCSoft on this part of the game.

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Posted by: TWMagimay.9057

TWMagimay.9057

I see what you mean and I understand where you are coming from. I think what people are wanting here, especially since we are talking virtual items, which can be mass produced for essentially nothing, that the rewards be more tempting.

Lets use your lottery analogy. The lottery company needs to do… a slight modification to what the boxes drop and in turn, are out NOTHING for costs and should they put more tempting items in those boxes, people would be more inclined to buy the keys for them.

Oh, the “they have 0 production costs”-argument. By that logic, they might as well just give everything out for free, right? The thing is, while the items themselves can be mass produced without increasing the cost, there is still a staff behind the game that relies on those item sales to stay employed, get paid and work on the game(be it development or maintenance or w/e else game-related people do). Prices in cash shops are generally balanced around that + profit(duhhh). So, no, it’s not “nothing” for costs.

Best thing you can get from them now is a Black Lion Ticket. At best, its time sensitive, based on whether the special weps cost 1 BLT, but it could mean either an awesome skin or… what, average of 80g if the wep is sold on the TP. So, with your lottery analogy, you buy a 10g ticket that might have a small chance of netting you 80g grand prize. Oooooo.. Spoil me.

What if the permanent hair style item came back into circulation? What if the perminant bank, TP or BL vendors came back into circulation? What if the special skins themselves came into circulation? What if currently unobtainable past back pieces and items became rare drops from BL chests? Maybe the BLTs get a bump to drop rate and be the “didn’t win, but got something for my trouble” prize and something MUCH better became the reason to shoot for them. If the RL lotto charged me one dollar for a chance to win 80 bucks and normally I get pocket change, I won’t risk buying any.

Are we reading the same topic? Cause most of the posts I see here ask for the “loser” tickets to be removed so all tickets can be winners.
Posts actually discussing the drops:
Jaymee: they are promised at least something that would deem significant to their account.
Jaymee: we would know we WOULD be getting something that would be of equal value
Kentaine: they should have something (100% of the time) that is actually beneficial to your account. (hair stylist contract, make over kits, expansion slots, etc…
Zoe: Just replace those kitten tonics with something worth having.
Tman and GoddessOfTheWinds are more reasonable, I guess. But with 3vs2, they are the minority and you said you agree with the majority. The majority wants to have only winning lottery tickets. And lotteries just don’t work that way xD

Tbh, I don’t do gamble boxes. Haven’t done it since the following happened in the other game I play: There was this costume everybody wanted. They released it in a gamble boxes. 6 hours after it showed up in the shop, they announced “oooopsies, we sort of forgot to put that costume y’all wanted inside…our bad”. There was no rollback, no refunds, no nothing. The most eager to get the item got royally puppied for 100s, some even 1000s. I’ve been terrified of RNG boxes ever since. Also, I refuse to support under-age gambling.

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Posted by: sorudo.9054

sorudo.9054

the lock boxes are items made to make money for Anet, if you simply ignore the whole ordeal then you’re better of.

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Posted by: Guardian.5142

Guardian.5142

TWMagimay.9057 – You don’t understand my post, but your wording says “I’m better than you” so I won’t waste my breath either way.

What did ANET do when the sheer mass of the event ZERG was too much for the server to support?
They had to SPAWN MORE OVERFLOWS!

(edited by Guardian.5142)

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Posted by: TWMagimay.9057

TWMagimay.9057

TWMagimay.9057 – You don’t understand my post, but your wording says “I’m better than you” so I won’t waste my breath either way.

Ran out of arguments, I see. It’s ok. Happens to a lot of people, no need to make up excuses.

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Posted by: EdgarMTanaka.7291

EdgarMTanaka.7291

I agree with OP in a way…
I agree what Store Bought keys should be worth it, like atleast always give you a ticket scrap atleast.
While usuall keys could be like they are but I wouldn’t complain if they just made the chests be more valuble.
ATM I would rather buy everything else in the store than a key.

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