I guess my point is this.
It is fair to argue that you don’t want to see rnd chance for skins. (more on this in a sec)
It is not fair to say that you were cheated out of your money/gold after the fact. (For example if you bought black lion keys because you wanted a Permanent Bank Access Contract [I just picked something that can’t be bought on the gem store normally] and then said you were cheated when you didn’t get it?)
As for why I think Anet uses this rnd chance system.
1) Anet needs to make money somehow -
if they sold the skins in the store (for say 800 gems as some have suggested), they would lose money (or at least they think they would lose money, otherwise they would do that). yes, people here say that “i would buy 3 skins if they were in the store, but i won’t buy rnd boxes” but for everyone of those people there are those that spend $50, $75, or even $100 trying to get just one ticket.
if they sold them for a very high cost ($50-$100 worth of gems) people would just shout “you just want our money and this isn’t fair”2) It gives a “fair” chance to “everyone” –
if content was locked behind some hard dungeon/jp/something people would complain (like they did for the halloween jp) and it shuns the casual players.
if it was only in the store some people could complain that they couldn’t afford it this month for whatever reason or that they would rather have a way to earn the skin in game and this shuns those that don’t have much disposable income.
this allows someone to have a chance for 5 minutes of play
technically it still is most in favor of those that have the most time/grinders (but that will almost always be the case)Do I think this system is perfect? No, but I can at least understand why they use it. I think this is a better system than it has been. It’s a lot easier to get these coffers than previous holiday events, and you technically don’t need to spend any real money or gold to get one (you just need to be lucky). And personally, I think I like this approach more than “big world boss has a 0.5% chance to drop a ticket, but only spawns every 2-3 hours, have fun!” or “you can only get this by rnd chance through the gem store.”
Once again this isn’t to go against the “we don’t want rnd chance in the future” or “we’d prefer to have some sort of challenge to get X item” which are both valid complaints.
you made some pretty valid points. I totally dislike the rng-approach, but I dont spend money and dont complain about not getting anything as I get how the system works.
As for selling the skins in the store and making less money….still not convinced on this as I somehow refuse to believe people are that stupid…then again, Anet has the numbers….
Also agree on this being better than lets say the fused weapons….at least you can get a “chance” much more easily. What I dont agree on is that it is better to “only” need to be lucky than to spend gold/gems or do “hard work/grind”….because I always prefer something to have a fixed amount of whatever it needs, so I can calculate it. Do I want to spend that amount, do I want to grind that much? If I actually do, then I’ll be able to get it…
