Guild Wars 2

dbgamer.3407:

Uruz Six.6594:

dbgamer.3407:

0/54 southsun crates – countless hours.

Nope, you’re right – doesn’t hurt the player base

So you have no counter to my argument, just griping over playing the lottery and coming up short. Well alrighty then.

Sarcasm: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm

LOL woooosh

0/59 tickets to crates – love it

1/2 tickets to crates – lucky as hell

I still think making the skins account or soul-bound upon use rather than acquisition would solve a lot of the dissatisfaction. People that have gotten tickets that don’t want them could sell them and people whose luck with RNG crates is horrendous could then buy them. I understand this would reduce the number of crates being bought, but, by the same token, if it was filled with items that I could sell rather than items I’m stuck with, I might be more inclined to purchase more crates. For example, with the BLC crates, I always seem get mystery tonics … i’m not doing anything but stockpiling them right now, but i’d happily sell them if I could. If the wintersday skins and the halloween skins can be dumped onto the TP, why can’t the molten and sclerite skins?

I got my winning crate from a rioter, think it was my 4th crate total.

mojowalker.3798:

I still think making the skins account or soul-bound upon use rather than acquisition would solve a lot of the dissatisfaction. People that have gotten tickets that don’t want them could sell them and people whose luck with RNG crates is horrendous could then buy them. I understand this would reduce the number of crates being bought, but, by the same token, if it was filled with items that I could sell rather than items I’m stuck with, I might be more inclined to purchase more crates. For example, with the BLC crates, I always seem get mystery tonics … i’m not doing anything but stockpiling them right now, but i’d happily sell them if I could. If the wintersday skins and the halloween skins can be dumped onto the TP, why can’t the molten and sclerite skins?

No kidding. I’m praying (if I did, anyway) that I don’t get one of those godawful, what is that in Londo’s neck eyeball skins. At least if they weren’t bound I could sell it to someone who likes that eyeball, dripping crap. Like the Censor for my necro tho. She’s my Necrocutie so it goes with my theme. No one sees her and thinks, ’that’s a necro’. The hentai Violator-san piece is on my Ele. Complements her skin colour. Warrior got the Fused longbow. Figure it suits his burnfield and flaming arrow shot stuff.

To much stuff in this game is bound. And what the hell is the use (read: “reward”) of a portable Mystic Toilet or craft table. Cause they are so hard to come by, after all :s

Sleel.8365:

mojowalker.3798:

I still think making the skins account or soul-bound upon use rather than acquisition would solve a lot of the dissatisfaction. People that have gotten tickets that don’t want them could sell them and people whose luck with RNG crates is horrendous could then buy them. I understand this would reduce the number of crates being bought, but, by the same token, if it was filled with items that I could sell rather than items I’m stuck with, I might be more inclined to purchase more crates. For example, with the BLC crates, I always seem get mystery tonics … i’m not doing anything but stockpiling them right now, but i’d happily sell them if I could. If the wintersday skins and the halloween skins can be dumped onto the TP, why can’t the molten and sclerite skins?

No kidding. I’m praying (if I did, anyway) that I don’t get one of those godawful, what is that in Londo’s neck eyeball skins. At least if they weren’t bound I could sell it to someone who likes that eyeball, dripping crap. Like the Censor for my necro tho. She’s my Necrocutie so it goes with my theme. No one sees her and thinks, ’that’s a necro’. The hentai Violator-san piece is on my Ele. Complements her skin colour. Warrior got the Fused longbow. Figure it suits his burnfield and flaming arrow shot stuff.

To much stuff in this game is bound. And what the hell is the use (read: “reward”) of a portable Mystic Toilet or craft table. Cause they are so hard to come by, after all :s

Oh I don’t know, I guess you may feel the need in the heat of a battle to craft yourself a brand new pair of gossamer booties?.

I honestly don’t know what to do here.. I don’t want to spend a lot of money on a random chance, so I’m continuing to farm the crates – i’m at 60 crates without a single ticket.

At this rate who knows if I’ll get one before they remove it entirely.

Also with the introduction of those stupid exotic rings and accessories, the drop rate of the tickets has gone down. Now when I get a wooden box that usually has a southsun crate, it’s usually one of the exotics.

If I put this much effort into this and can’t get a ticket by the time the event closes simply due to terrible luck in RNG, I’m going to be REALLY kitten ed. There’s literally nothing I can do if I just continue to get bad luck.

And before all of you trolls jump on and say “you don’t HAVE to get the weapon skin you know..” – well, I want one, so that’s the whole reason for the gripe.

Bought 30 crates with 3,600 gems at the start of this, I knew it was going to be a failure, but still, what I am more surprised about is that a friend of mine after 200+ chest farmed, got 0 skins.

Totally horrible how you are doing to get money out of the gem store. Your community asked you to please not do that, and still from time to time you continue with it, gives you way more money I assume.

Please do as the Rox and Braham skins (Christmas also), I loved the Mace & Shield and expended 1200 gems, without hesitation (If they are worth it, people will buy them).

Solution: Ticket in Gem Store for 600 gems, you get 1 ticket exchange it for any weapon on a merchant. I guess you’ll still make enough money and stop this nonsense.

Aveneo.2068:

Personally I don’t even find the Sclerite weapons all that interesting. I mean they blinking eye is nice (in a creepy way), but the rest is a little meh.

If anything, they should have looked even more organic with wiggling tentacles to match the Sclerite back item!

However, from my perspective ArenaNet should seriously reconsider these constant RNG boxes. It would have been a better policy towards your customers to have these weapon skins for a fixed price in gems at the Store directly (just like you did with the Rox and Braham skins) instead of these RNG boxes where you try and tempt people to pay lots of money for a chance at a skin.

Only 5 crates to show for my many hours in Southsun. At this point it is not the tickets that has me bugged, just let me find the stupid crates. I would estimate that I have put in well over 40 hours in Southsun with a MF of over 300% and well 5 crates in total just does not do anything for me.

Even worse I took one day off from Southsun completely, went and worked on an alt for the day and the next day in 2 hours of farming with a three hour break doing other things in between each hour, I found a grand total of 0 crates.

I had one of my worst luck today and after opening 28 crate at once (farmed all) i got 3 ticket :/ I have no idea what to do with them as I would love anything else, mainly some kasmeer minis.
I guess if ppl know what to farm its easy to gather 20-30crates a day which worths tons of gems while even if my case is pretty much rare makes it stupid to buy them with rl money.
Kinda understandable tho…anyhow we look at them these skins are nothing to the fused ones and for that matter I guess this is farmable.

I opened over 150 crates, no ticket.

I have to agree with the posters here and would like to know what Anet has to say about this. I’ve not spent gems on crates, but after hours of farming I can say, with the drop rate being so low, that for most players tickets will just not happen. Worst still, even if you do shell out cash for gems on crates there’s no guarantee. And this is for a timed event. It’s Halloween all over again.

Worst for me is I just want a Kasmeer – and that thing is suppose to be just a blue – isn’t that like common??? I have 4 mini reef riders and they’re exotic…

83 crates

3 Faren minis
2 Kasmeer minis
3 mobile crafting stations

0 tickets. Absolute BS.

A-net conveniently ignore all of these threads in the hope that they will go away.

They post in threads above or below it, but ignore the pages and pages of complaints – great customer service all around.

Scrounged the gold for another 10 off the TP, still nothing. 93 crates, 4 Faren minis, 2 Kasmeer, and othe random stuff no one wants.

I was thrown out of a zeppelin.

“No ticket.”

140 crates opened
(not a single one bought):
1 Ticket
1 Consortium Crafting Station
1 Consortium Mystic Forge
Rest Crap

3 crates opened ( 1 hour of farm)
Second with a ticket.

95 crates opened, finally got a ticket. I was weirdly angry when I got it.

I’m at 230 crates now – still no ticket

brokkolispinat.1304:

I’m at 230 crates now – still no ticket

Wow, how did you loot so many crates?

Zanshin.5379:

Wow, how did you loot so many crates?

Farm skelks, they die faster than karkas and there are places where groups of ppl farm them and if u are lucky u can get a lot (ofc its still rng as u might just get rares).

Maximillian Greil.1965:

That’s the general idea. Look at the Wintersday Skins, no one uses them because they were soooo common. It’s been 5 months since Wintersday and the skins are still at less than 10 silver.

The idea behind rare items is to give them value. Yes, putting them in lottery boxes is a way to make money, and yes they are a company that needs to make money to continue to keep the game running, but no one is forcing you to get this skin. If you think it’s unfair or you don’t like the way it’s implemented… the solution is simple, don’t get it.

Rarity has jack all to do with no one using the Wintersday skins. They were ugly/goofy looking.

Maximillian Greil.1965:

It’s a skin, you don’t need it.

If you want it, start farming/buying. If it’s not worth the trouble than don’t do it. It is not detrimental to your gameplay NOT to have the skin.

I fail to see how this is hurting the playerbase in any way what-so-ever. They’re not giving ascended gear, they’re not giving anything that makes you a better player or gives better stats… it’s just a skin, you don’t need it. You don’t magicly get more awesome because you have a scelerite weapon.

I really wish people would stop saying things like this. If you remove transmutations and skins from the game there’s not a whole lot in the way of carrots dangling at the end.

Getting the stats you want is fairly easy. Getting the look that makes you happy represents a fair bit of content in this game. Suggestions that players get too caught up in the visuals of their equipment makes me wonder if you even play this game, because I’m really not sure where else you expect them to be shifting their focus on once other more easily obtainable goals have been reached.

Now, I’m not suggesting gaining desired skins should be easy, but I am tired of seeing them locked behind some sort of extreme-RNG based mechanic.

I’m not even going to try for one of these new skins. If the drop rate or odds of scoring a ticket were reasonable, I’d be participating in this particular bit of content right now. That’s why they spent time, effort, and money creating it, is it not?

But they’re not, so I’m not even going to bother wasting my time or money on it. There is a point at which content becomes wasted because RNG mechanics makes obtaining it undesirable. In the end, by going this route ANET loses out on my money (they could have just sold it to me like the Flame and Frost skins I happily purchased, because I will never gamble on their chests or boxes), and I don’t even feel the slightest urge to go farming for super rare crates in the hopes of scoring a super rare ticket.

The game is, with rare exception, about absolute reward for time and effort invested. Dungeons are a prime example of this. Want a pretty TA armor skin? Invest enough time in the dungeon to acquire the tokens, and you get it. Want a Fractal Capacitor? Invest time in fractals, accumulate a fixed number of materials, buy/upgrade it. End of story.

With things like Precursors and the RNG chest skins (Fused, Sclerite, Halloween), instead what happens is you invest time, effort, and money ad nauseam for a chance at maybe getting one. It’s a moving target. There is never any guarantee that no matter how much time, effort, and money you invest, that you will get one. And that is kittening stupid. It’s not fun, and it’s not compelling gameplay. And “just not doing it” isn’t a good reason to absolve Anet of making unfun, uncompelling choices.

I dislike the RNG-gating for cosmetic skins too, but I could accept it if the skins were tradable on the TP. I’ve gotten 3 Crates so far just from wandering around killing mobs on Southsun. If I had gotten a ticket from one, I wouldn’t know what to do with it, since I don’t like any of the Sclerite skins. What would be the point of me holding onto it then? Surely it would make more sense for me to be able to sell it and make someone in this thread very happy?

Not to mention that, depending on the rarity, ANet might actually see purchases of Crates/BLK’s go up due to people buying them in hopes of a fat payoff from getting a ticket.

Avigrus.2871:

A-net conveniently ignore all of these threads in the hope that they will go away.

They post in threads above or below it, but ignore the pages and pages of complaints – great customer service all around.

I agree with this completely.

I thought I had it bad – I’m at 0/64 now – but was blown away that people are at 200+ crates with no tickets.

I’m not even mad at the people who got a ticket on their first few crates, I say congrats to them! but it reinforces the fact that these skins are NOT rewarding people who really want them, for the time they’ve put into it. Like a poster above mentioned about farming a dungeon for that piece of armor, it’s crazy that someone can be so dedicated to farming a piece of equipment that they’ll open 200+ crates over the period of the event, and not even have a chance to be rewarded because of RNG.

ANET, stop ignorning this thread – please address this major issue.

It doesn’t matter – they probably made a ridiculous amount of money off of this, and there are so many people defending them on the forums that they don’t even need to address it themselves.

See guys, if everyone had the skin it wouldn’t have that rarity to it. What would be the point if everyone had the same skin? It’s much more rewarding having a rare item than an item everyone has.

Zaxares.5419:

I dislike the RNG-gating for cosmetic skins too, but I could accept it if the skins were tradable on the TP. I’ve gotten 3 Crates so far just from wandering around killing mobs on Southsun. If I had gotten a ticket from one, I wouldn’t know what to do with it, since I don’t like any of the Sclerite skins. What would be the point of me holding onto it then? Surely it would make more sense for me to be able to sell it and make someone in this thread very happy?

I have to agree with this. On this occasion the RNG god looked my way, twice. I got my first ticket from my second box and the other within 15 more crates, which was my most recent. However the RNG god has a butter face and I just have to get the tickets when I hate the skins…

They have made a step forward in making these crates a rare drop to allow people who don’t want/can’t spend a lot of money on them to have a chance at getting something and I hope they continue this trend (Mainly cause all my crates were drops). But I don’t think it is too much to ask of ANet to make them tradable or perhaps make it so if someone doesn’t get a ticket after so many purchased chests then the next will guarantee one.

CrazyDuck.4610:

See guys, if everyone had the skin it wouldn’t have that rarity to it. What would be the point if everyone had the same skin? It’s much more rewarding having a rare item than an item everyone has.

You have to understand, there are at least two schools of thought here. From your comment, I tend to believe you’re in the first, where as I am in the second.

School of thought #1: “I truly believe with every fiber of my being that everyone in the game is paying attention to my avatar whenever I’m around, and spending time + energy processing how cool my equipment looks. How can they not, for I am the center of the universe and the specialists of snowflakes.”

School of thought #2: “The only time I pay attention to the avatar of another player is when it happens to be blocking the view of my own avatar, the pride and joy of my focus – which I can no longer see because someone else has annoyingly parked their stupid pixels in front of my camera. Begone, eyesore.”

See, the people in group #2 generally don’t give a flying fig about how rare your equipment is. What they want is options, and lots of them. In fact, the more rare an item is, the less of an option it is, and the more everyone starts to look the same. Thus, rarer = less options, common = more options.

Now, I’m fine with things taking an effort to get so that players feel like they’re achieving something and being rewarded. But rare through RNG is not the kind of “achievement” I’m looking for. You score a 01 on a random hidden loot table roll while I score a 73, which nets you a rare item and me diddly squat. What’s special about that?

I want to farm items knowing that if I put X amount of effort in, there is a guaranteed reward awaiting me at the end. That’s an achievement.

CrazyDuck.4610:

See guys, if everyone had the skin it wouldn’t have that rarity to it. What would be the point if everyone had the same skin? It’s much more rewarding having a rare item than an item everyone has.

Not trying to be a jerk, but you’ve completely missed the point.

I agree with your statement completely, but the point I’m making is that they’re not rare items. They are in some cases common, in other cases non-existent. If they were very difficult to attain but were POSSIBLE based on one’s own volition, then you could consider them rare, and would uphold your principle above. But by having them be a RNG drop, you’re giving them away to some people quite easily, but making it so that some people, regardless of the 100’s of hours spent farming, will quite simply not get these no matter what they do.

If the event was 6 months long, it would minimize this greatly, as the chance for you to NOT get an item for 100’s of hours of farming go down the more time you have to farm, but it’s not – it’s going to be done in a week – which means some people will have wasted all that time for nothing.

Again, my whole argument goes out the window (and I would no longer have an issue) if the RNG wasn’t paired up with a limited time offering.

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General
World: Southsun – Reduced density of reef skelk around Pearl Islet

Really, Anet? We were getting too many Southsun crates by not paying you money, I guess.

Overkillengine.6084:

Maximillian Greil.1965:

That’s the general idea. Look at the Wintersday Skins, no one uses them because they were soooo common. It’s been 5 months since Wintersday and the skins are still at less than 10 silver.

The idea behind rare items is to give them value. Yes, putting them in lottery boxes is a way to make money, and yes they are a company that needs to make money to continue to keep the game running, but no one is forcing you to get this skin. If you think it’s unfair or you don’t like the way it’s implemented… the solution is simple, don’t get it.

Rarity has jack all to do with no one using the Wintersday skins. They were ugly/goofy looking.

I liked the Wintersday gemstore skins and bought several of them. The particle effects are nice, and I’m looking forward to getting my warrior to level 80 so he can use them (no sense in transmuting while leveling, it happens too fast). If you’re talking about the toy skins, then yeah, those are weird looking. The only nice one is the Princess Wand. Hammer is maybe good to keep around for next Christmas.

Honestly, I’m tired of fighting the RNG battle. There’s so many nice skins in the game already that I honestly don’t care anymore, I can always find something I like. At this point, nothing we can really say will stop ANet from putting these out, and there’s a whole huge gambling industry to show that building a business on the back of suckers and addicts is viable. ANet isn’t going to turn down that revenue stream.

foofad.5162:

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General
World: Southsun – Reduced density of reef skelk around Pearl Islet

Really, Anet? We were getting too many Southsun crates by not paying you money, I guess.

I guess so.
Although I haven’t had that many from them. Maybe one per hour.

foofad.5162:

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General
World: Southsun – Reduced density of reef skelk around Pearl Islet

Really, Anet? We were getting too many Southsun crates by not paying you money, I guess.

Holy Crap, so after all that – they’re making it even HARDER for this?

Unbelievable.

They should implement an exchanged of like 50 crates gives you a ticket.

Then you have the option to buy 50 crates or save your crates that drop or take your chances and open them as they come.

well by doing this they funnel you towards the gem-store

How dare you expect to be allowed to farm any gold unless you buy your gems!11!1

week after week they nerf every single farm possible (except Cof) and wonder why the playerbase is getting smaller and more and more annoyed with the devs.

OnyX.9027:

well by doing this they funnel you towards the gem-store

How dare you expect to be allowed to farm any gold unless you buy your gems!11!1

week after week they nerf every single farm possible (except Cof) and wonder why the playerbase is getting smaller and more and more annoyed with the devs.

All they’re really doing is setting people up for the next good MMO. And it sure looks like one is going to show up later this year. I’m certainly going to give it a shot. While I really enjoy GW2, there have been SO MANY annoyances, both big and small, that I’m probably not alone in being ready to jump ship should a worthwhile alternative appear. ANet is acting like having a good number of unhappy players is no big deal, but I’m just thinking there might be a drastic drop in the player population come “mid to late 2013”.

foofad.5162:

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General
World: Southsun – Reduced density of reef skelk around Pearl Islet

Really, Anet? We were getting too many Southsun crates by not paying you money, I guess.

SERIOUSLY!

Runs off to hurl herself off top of Pearl Island onto wrecked ship deck

Zanshin.5379:

brokkolispinat.1304:

I’m at 230 crates now – still no ticket

Wow, how did you loot so many crates?

Play Guild Wars more than 5 hours every day since the beginning of Southsun, sell every valuable item you have and farm like mad…
I have farmed since early may and haven’t gotten a single ticket yet.

over 300 crates now – no ticket

Gilosean.3805:

Overkillengine.6084:

Maximillian Greil.1965:

That’s the general idea. Look at the Wintersday Skins, no one uses them because they were soooo common. It’s been 5 months since Wintersday and the skins are still at less than 10 silver.

The idea behind rare items is to give them value. Yes, putting them in lottery boxes is a way to make money, and yes they are a company that needs to make money to continue to keep the game running, but no one is forcing you to get this skin. If you think it’s unfair or you don’t like the way it’s implemented… the solution is simple, don’t get it.

Rarity has jack all to do with no one using the Wintersday skins. They were ugly/goofy looking.

I liked the Wintersday gemstore skins and bought several of them. The particle effects are nice, and I’m looking forward to getting my warrior to level 80 so he can use them (no sense in transmuting while leveling, it happens too fast). If you’re talking about the toy skins, then yeah, those are weird looking. The only nice one is the Princess Wand. Hammer is maybe good to keep around for next Christmas.

Honestly, I’m tired of fighting the RNG battle. There’s so many nice skins in the game already that I honestly don’t care anymore, I can always find something I like. At this point, nothing we can really say will stop ANet from putting these out, and there’s a whole huge gambling industry to show that building a business on the back of suckers and addicts is viable. ANet isn’t going to turn down that revenue stream.

Yes, the toy skins. Not that it matters, I had already learned from the Halloween event to give up on getting any skins locked behind RNG. They may as well not exist; since it does not matter how much or how little effort one puts forth to obtain them; it’s random, and at kitten odds.

I just wish they’d devote some of that time wasted on RNG locked item skins to something more worthwhile to the population at large.

I’ve mostly stopped playing this game after burning over $100 trying to get a fused weapon. Definitely wont participate in RNG gambling ever again.

Astralporing.1957:

Canakun.8031:

Vampirial.9056:

Canakun.8031:

Just an fyi to those of you with a vendetta against ANet about this…
The gem store and it’s products is NCSoft, not ANet. Stop being mad at the company that made the game…and better yet, don’t even be mad at NCSoft, because the cash that’s gone in to these crates (and other things) have given them enough to give the nod for a GW2 expansion.
If you don’t have a job and your mum is getting tired of you using her credit card, then just don’t go for these appearance-only items. You’ll live.

Last i knew most of the profit from the gem store went to NCsoft and funded their other MMOs? But maybe i was mislead somewhere?

Yeah, the profit goes to NCsoft who then decide what to do with it. Because the profit from the gem store in GW2 was so good, they decided to use that money to fund an expansion for the game which I guess would in turn equal more profit?

You should read more closely. they already said that was a misunderstanding and no expansion is currently in the works.

In fact, if gem shop income is that good, then all that income will buy us is even more of the RNG boxes.

YOU should read more closely. I said that NCsoft said that profits were enough that they decided to fund an expansion, I at no time said there was one in the works.

And ofcourse more RNG boxes will come. I hope they do, too. More greatswords for me to collect.

dbgamer.3407:

Canakun.8031:

Vampirial.9056:

Canakun.8031:

Just an fyi to those of you with a vendetta against ANet about this…
The gem store and it’s products is NCSoft, not ANet. Stop being mad at the company that made the game…and better yet, don’t even be mad at NCSoft, because the cash that’s gone in to these crates (and other things) have given them enough to give the nod for a GW2 expansion.
If you don’t have a job and your mum is getting tired of you using her credit card, then just don’t go for these appearance-only items. You’ll live.

For the record I spent $40 of the cash that I earned from working on the game, because the game is worth it in my opinion. Not only that but knowing that my purchases haven’t gone to nothing and that it’s helped fund an expansion, I’m actually happy.

Last i knew most of the profit from the gem store went to NCsoft and funded their other MMOs? But maybe i was mislead somewhere?

Yeah, the profit goes to NCsoft who then decide what to do with it. Because the profit from the gem store in GW2 was so good, they decided to use that money to fund an expansion for the game which I guess would in turn equal more profit?

dbgamer.3407:

Canakun.8031:

Just an fyi to those of you with a vendetta against ANet about this…
The gem store and it’s products is NCSoft, not ANet. Stop being mad at the company that made the game…and better yet, don’t even be mad at NCSoft, because the cash that’s gone in to these crates (and other things) have given them enough to give the nod for a GW2 expansion.
If you don’t have a job and your mum is getting tired of you using her credit card, then just don’t go for these appearance-only items. You’ll live.

For the record I spent $40 of the cash that I earned from working on the game, because the game is worth it in my opinion. Not only that but knowing that my purchases haven’t gone to nothing and that it’s helped fund an expansion, I’m actually happy.

Do you think that ANET had nothing to do with the gem store? that another company just randomly dropped in and started selling stuff? of course not. ANET has absolute say in this…

ANet DESIGNS the items that go into the store, yes. But the gemstore is hardly their jurisdiction. NCsoft is the development company and they are the company in charge of the gemstore.

Dude that’s like saying McDonald’s isn’t responsible for their beef patty because they don’t farm the cattle.

If it’s in their game, they’re responsible.

The gem store is there because the game was published by NCsoft. Anet designs skins, yes, but then they hand that over to NCsoft who then decide on a price/marketing and put it in the gemstore.

McDonald’s BUYS beef from where they choose to buy it, but the cattle farmer doesn’t decide how to market McD’s burgers. Unrelated comparison.
Yeah ANet of course has some say in the matter, but with this I assume they say:
“look, we want to keep getting money from this game, so you can fund us to create more content, so NCsoft, please, make money the best way you know how”.

Edge.4180:

CrazyDuck.4610:

See guys, if everyone had the skin it wouldn’t have that rarity to it. What would be the point if everyone had the same skin? It’s much more rewarding having a rare item than an item everyone has.

You have to understand, there are at least two schools of thought here. From your comment, I tend to believe you’re in the first, where as I am in the second.

School of thought #1: “I truly believe with every fiber of my being that everyone in the game is paying attention to my avatar whenever I’m around, and spending time + energy processing how cool my equipment looks. How can they not, for I am the center of the universe and the specialists of snowflakes.”

School of thought #2: “The only time I pay attention to the avatar of another player is when it happens to be blocking the view of my own avatar, the pride and joy of my focus – which I can no longer see because someone else has annoyingly parked their stupid pixels in front of my camera. Begone, eyesore.”

See, the people in group #2 generally don’t give a flying fig about how rare your equipment is. What they want is options, and lots of them. In fact, the more rare an item is, the less of an option it is, and the more everyone starts to look the same. Thus, rarer = less options, common = more options.

Now, I’m fine with things taking an effort to get so that players feel like they’re achieving something and being rewarded. But rare through RNG is not the kind of “achievement” I’m looking for. You score a 01 on a random hidden loot table roll while I score a 73, which nets you a rare item and me diddly squat. What’s special about that?

I want to farm items knowing that if I put X amount of effort in, there is a guaranteed reward awaiting me at the end. That’s an achievement.

Well I agree they should add more skins etc that are none RNG, like more legendaries for sword/staff, new exotic skins etc. But I think the RNG skins should stay “exclusive” , something to work for with the excitement of gambling. Anet isn’t forcing people to farm it, the stats are not any better etc it is your decision.

“You score a 01 on a random hidden loot table roll while I score a 73, which nets you a rare item and me diddly squat. What’s special about that? "

Not everyone can win the lottery, but that doesn’t stop people from buying those lottery tickets day in and day out. So ya it is pretty special when you receive the winning ticket Hehe

Edge.4180:

School of thought #1: “I truly believe with every fiber of my being that everyone in the game is paying attention to my avatar whenever I’m around, and spending time + energy processing how cool my equipment looks. How can they not, for I am the center of the universe and the specialists of snowflakes.”

That’s a lot of judgement for one italicized paragraph.

I Suggested this idea in another post. This idea is only if Anet is determined to have RNG chest in the game. I would rather they didn’t. But at least with this idea players will get something of value for their money.

For every 10 crates, 1 guaranteed skin
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/For-every-10-crates-1-guaranteed-skin/first#post2124025

I got a ticket on my 5th crate, haven’t seen one since. To be honest, I really don’t want any of those skins. Which is a crying shame since I can’t sell or give it away to those in need.

I would like the mini’s. I finally got my first mini in game a few hours ago. The Reef Rider one. Not one I’ll use but, it’s a mini. In the end, the only thing we’re doing is creating the foundation supply of karka shells as the new currency

TobyTucker.5317:

All they’re really doing is setting people up for the next good MMO. And it sure looks like one is going to show up later this year. I’m certainly going to give it a shot. While I really enjoy GW2, there have been SO MANY annoyances, both big and small, that I’m probably not alone in being ready to jump ship should a worthwhile alternative appear. ANet is acting like having a good number of unhappy players is no big deal, but I’m just thinking there might be a drastic drop in the player population come “mid to late 2013”.

Last November in this post , Nicolle Rodgers made a comment that has stuck with me since. This is not a personal attack on her; I understand it is not a response from her, but a representation of the company’s initiative. I encourage you to read it so that you don’t read my comment here without proper context, but the portion that made it’s mark on me was:

Nicolle Rodgers.4926:

<snip> …You may not get that elusive rare item you hope for, but you will get something you can use. As always, we do not encourage anyone to spend more money in the Gem Store than they are comfortable with.

The first claim is (trivially) true, but that second sentence. What is that?! I’d stopped recommending the game to others since that day but have continued enjoying the game myself – as anyone familiar with my post history understands.
I love the game, but on top of this game is something that strikes me as distinctly “anti-consumer”. (I’ll edit this post later to describe what I mean by that, don’t have time right now)

Anyway, in response to your comment, Toby: I have been actively looking for an exit for a while now and have a game on pre-order. I don’t want to leave, I love this game and the people behind it. However, cash-bound/no upper-limit RNG lockboxes for unreasonable chances (on the average) for desirable items is deeply troubling. I’ve proposed alternatives – see my post history – but the company has its own plans and initiatives. I respect that and bear no ill-will towards them, but I need to be a responsible consumer and make choices that are right for me. “The responsibility falls on me”.

Sorry, have to stop here as I’ve really got to run.

-Vawn