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Official Mount Adoption Feedback Thread [merged]


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Here is my constructive and honest opinion of this Mount Licensing matter:Personally I do not like the RNG or random element of receiving the mount skins. To me, this feels like a cheap method of having consumers spend more of their cash than they really need to. Worst of which, it's pretty close to gambling, which I don't support. The Black Lion Chests are pretty much kind of acceptable since its the only system like that in the game, but I cannot accept another system like that. I know for a fact that this method could potentially bring in more money for you, but to me this feels a bit anti-consumer. Sure, people can argue that this is all entirely optional, but you have to admit that this is off putting cause there are no other (especially in-game) methods of obtaining skins in the game, and people do want to standout because that's kind of how we play the game. I honestly wish that Mount Skins were sold like Glider Skins. Giving us the ability to choose what Mount Skins we want in the end would in the end make people happy and it would be a considerate move on your part for the community at large.

This couldn't be a decision made by everyone in Anet for sure, so whoever made it should reconsider this method of getting the skins we all want. If this is the best offer you can come up with, I'm terrified of what other methods you wanted to take mount skins. I propose that you make a slight increase of the gem price depending on the type of mount (Ex. Mounts with less lighting effects and such 500, shiny, obnoxious looking mounts 700) you want. I'd pay a little more for a choice than pay less for something that is out of my control. I do question if my idea has been thought about before this was implemented. Did you ask this question: "Would players want to pay less in the short term for mount skins but remove our ability to choose, or rather have us pay a little more to get what we want, like the Gliders?" Cause if you want an answer, I'd go for the latter.

To me: Player Choice is more valuable than having things be randomized to cheapen our purchase.

Guild Wars 2 is a game that didn't follow most other MMO trends, but rather try to evolve what exists and even strive to make it their own thing that stands out from other MMOs. Trying to emulate a lootbox system doesn't seem right for a company of your reputation (whoever is in charge of this decision). It's been criticized to death how these lootbox systems just ruin games for everyone and encourages gambling and I cannot support that. I'm sorry. I won't buy into it. Fix this soon, please.

P.S. 2000 gems for one Jackal skin....really? Maybe 800, but not that despite what it can do. I'm sorry. I can't support that.

P.S.S. Couldn't at least 5 or even 10 of the more subtle, less effect heavy mount skins be unlocked through in-game collections? Couldn't we earn those than buy them off and just have the more effect heavy skins to purchase in the store?

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The gem store should not have RNG account bound items that can only be obtained through RNG, period, end of discussion. If I want item X, set a fair price for it and let me buy it at that price. 9600 gems for 1 skin is outrageous and yes, it is 9600 gems for 1 skin if you only want 1 skin and it takes 30 boxes to get it. I don't care what the odds are of this happening because the odds of it happening are NOT ZERO. There are accounts in this game with that bad of luck. Also consider what else 9600 gems can buy like 17 shared inventory slots, which are far more useful and definitely worth 9600 gems.

The black lion chests started adding things like this with the elementalist sword and it is absolutely infuriating and demoralizing, and yet ANET just keeps being horrible to us adding more of these types of horrible, demoralizing, account bound, unattainable items. "You want X, too bad, you'll never get it because you have horrible luck and the item is only available for a short, limited time, so instead of playing the game how you want and enjoying it, you need to farm 24/7 until it's gone and you still won't get it."

Let us buy the mount skins for a set reasonable price, no RNG. You can keep the RNG boxes if you want or have bundles at a discount, but let us have a way to buy INDIVIDUAL skins for a set reasonable price as well.

STOP adding account bound RNG items to the black lion chest or the gem store. It is NOT fun, it is demoralizing and makes people want to quit the game not support it. Let us buy them at a set reasonable price or make them non-account bound so we can buy them off the TP like dyes.

It is quite clear that many of these skins are just recolors of the base model to require more rolls of the dice to get the ones you want. These base skins with 4 color channels should have been in-game rewards for some rare, lengthy, involved collection instead, with the flashy ones being gem store items.

I said when mounts were first announced that the only reason they were being added was to sell skins in the gem store. It was not to make our lives easier in game or give us some amazing new experience. We could have gotten all the advantages/abilities of mounts without actual mounts being added since all the mount skills already existed in HOT in one form or another that could have been extended. But instead of fixing and building on these easy to use/intuitive systems that already existed, ANET decided to spend their resources on adding clunky/unintuitive to use mounts. Resources that could have been spent on a huge host of things like fixing glaring bugs that have existed for years, adding build templates, making a 6th map for POF with a meta, improving WvW & sPvP, making another raid wing that could have come out months ago like it should have, etc, etc.

And while I'm at it, so the arts department has time to make 30 new mount skins, but not add a 4th dye channel to legendary armor in the past 6 months like was promised?

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Your implementation of "buying" mount skins, besides HOW Black Lion chests always worked and are even worse now with heavily rare skins just behind a real money pay wall, is RNG gambling.You're basically promoting an addiction instead of advertising against it and making an example how games should be. But instead you had to add on top of rng lootboxes, congratulations.

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People cry about the random loot but it's still a better system than any other game with lootboxes such Overwatch/CS/etc, because you get what you pay for not some random shit like icons and duplicates in Overwatch. 400 gems for the random skin is fine, but you should add smaller bundles so we can buy them over time, instead of all 30 at once. The 2000 gem skin is way too expensive, how is it not 800 gem like the glider skins.

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For me will be okay too, if Anet give Jackal Adopt License, with random Jackal skins, Raptor Adopt License, etc...i really dont want this lottery..i am using only jackal, dont want grifon, dont use raptor, and very rarely i use other 2 mounts..so for me are these Adopt licenses really useless

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@Zaklex.6308 said:By definition it is not a gamble:

"verb1.play games of chance for money; bet."she was fond of gambling on cards and horses"synonyms: bet, place/lay a bet on something, stake money on something, back the horses, game; informalplay the ponies"he started to gamble more often"2.take risky action in the hope of a desired result."the British could only gamble that something would turn up"synonyms: take a chance, take a risk; Morenoun1.an act of gambling; an enterprise undertaken or attempted with a risk of loss and a chance of profit or success."You are guaranteed an item, therefore it is not a chance, it's not risky, nor is there a chance of loss or profit(see item guarantee).

You are guaranteed an unwanted unwish for item but not exactly that item you wanted to buy in particular. Players gambled and took ramdom rolled chances in a wish to get any item from the bag. When probability and chances involve in a game it is gamble. You gamble your chances for the item you wish. Its like lottery number system picking one out of the bag. So may I pls excuse

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I've bought various harvest tools and gliders for a single alt (I have 16) because of fashion wars. Even though I think they're a bit pricey, all of them haven't been rng and I'm willing to support a game I love playing. I want to buy different mount skins for my alts but I refuse to support the rng nature of this update and won't ever buy a mount skin if this model doesn't change.

The Halloween mounts were actually a nice balance. If you like gambling, get black lion key's. If not, it's 2k gems for a set.

I would be ok with continuing this trend. Have guaranteed ways of buying a mount skin (I'm ok with a bit pricey here but 2k gems for one jackal is too much). 2k for a set, 500 for guaranteed individual, and 300 for those that feel the need for rng. Or a rare drop in blc that gives you a random unlock.

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So, definitely mixed feelings on this. Obviously it seems I'm in the minority because I'm not 100% outraged by this.The bottom line is that RNG is becoming such a pervasive monetizing strategy all over the place. From video games to blind boxes for real-world collectibles, it's clearly a method that has been proven to work at draining money away from customers. It's been going on long enough that I fully agree with the frustration that's built up about it.

Now, I feel better about the mount skins than I've ever felt about Black Lion chests. The fact that there is a known, rational, and finite pool of outcomes from the mount contracts is good to know. If I patiently pitch in $10 every few weeks, eventually I'm guaranteed to get what I want because duplicates don't happen, which is more than can be said about typical RNG loot boxes. It resembles Overwatch's loot box system in that every roll contributes to getting that much closer to the skin you really want. The caveat is that, in Overwatch, you earn loot boxes, whereas here we can only buy them.

There is definitely an element of player greed coming into play. They want their favorite skins, and ONLY their favorite skins, and they want them RIGHT NOW. That's largely immature, but in a game with such an emphasis on cosmetics, it's understandable. For players like me, I'm happy to roll the dice every once in a while to add something fresh to my collection, even if it isn't the thing I most wanted. As one person phrased it, the majority of this batch of skins feels like "hey, here are some generally equally-desirable skins with four dye channels." It's perfectly reasonable to roll a few times, get one or two skins per mount, and call it good, because the skins overall are actually really nice and add the variety and customization we've wanted. So the people who set their sights on one single skin and refuse to be happy without it are doomed to hate this system without any hesitation.

The biggest problem, in my opinion, is the way this was delivered. With so much demand for mount skins right from PoF's launch (and even before that), the inclusion of these skins was obviously something people had been eagerly awaiting for a long time. Long wait times just make people more hungry for satisfaction, and more likely to spend more money to get what they want. But that's not a very honest business practice. I get you were going for something fun, but this is kind of manipulative when compounded with the fact that people have wanted this for a considerably long time now. It preys on the high demand for skins, but delivers it in a way that doesn't guarantee someone can get what they want for a reasonable price.

I've even heard complaints that griffon skins are unlockable even if a player lacks a griffon. Now for some players, they've seen that as a good thing because they are working on unlocking the griffon, and just haven't yet. Others find this as a negative thing because they have no interest in unlocking the griffon and any griffon skins would be a complete waste of money. I can't help but sympathize with that. The least that could be done to fix that issue is to make separate boxes for each type of mount. Like, I've gotten eight boxes myself, but haven't gotten a single skimmer (and I really like the skimmer skins), so that would definitely be a plus.

So, if people were patient and were able to see each skin as something unique and worthwhile, this system would be loads of fun. But people aren't patient, and they get tunnel vision when they find the one thing they want most, especially when things like the starry griffon are clustered in with things like the three-horned raptor. On top of that, it's just disappointing to see another company add another RNG element to their game. I want to enjoy this and I want to support the game, but RNG is a really slippery slope.

I don't know. This definitely isn't enough to make me quit the game. I think the outrage is warranted, but misdirected. You guys didn't invent this system, it's become a huge part of the gaming industry for years now. It's usually shady and manipulative but can be fun and beneficial if handled (and received!) well. I doubt you had malicious intent, but this is a bad time for RNG on the whole.

Hopefully this was rational enough to be genuinely helpful. There's a lot of grey area in this whole mess.

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These 31 black lion stables mount skins seems like the perfect thing to put as achievements (even if they would be on the harder side) since they're mostly regional variations it would be so much fun to travel Tyria to collect pieces of them! It would be amazing! Now I'm not going to get any of them because I don't want to gamble which one I get...

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My main issue with the RNG method of buying the skins is the ethics or rather the lack of ethics. Is it legal for Anet to put a cosmetic behind an RNG gate? Yes, it's something they can do as I'm sure it is highly profitable. Is it ethical for them do so? No, it's a predatory method of making profit geared towards people who have low inhibitions. Gambling addiction is very real and can be devastating. Personally I don't like the RNG system as it makes the cost very high, but all that means for me is having to save a ludicrous amount of gold to get what I want. I will not be one of those who gamble with USD.

The question I have for Anet is what sort of company do you want to be. I can't blame you for wanting to make profit, it's the goal of any company. But is this profit really worth the potential harm? Right now, the gaming industry is okay with this and all this means for Anet is do they join the crowd or stand against it.

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First let me say I'm clearly against the RNG method applied in this specific case. As for the price, that is a whole other matter of debate, but 400 gems may be fair. From where I stand it is a more a matter of perception based on passed decisions with regards to items you've added to the gem store. Looking at the RNG in this case, I would say a lot of people's perception of the mount skins is likely similar to the way they perceived the glider skins. Theses are intended to be an optional monetized customization to an added feature in each expansion, and there is nothing wrong with that in principle. However, when in the first instance, glider skins, you allow us to purchase them out right with NO RNG, and then in the second instance, mount skins, you FORCE an RNG on us, it leaves us perceiving that you may care more about making money than continuing to build a trusted relationship with your players.
One of the things I hear a lot on forums and Reddit for numerous games is that players want transparency. While the obvious form of transparency is the flowing of information to players, another from of transparency is consistency. The more consistent you stay in your approaches, the more we the players can trust you are being transparent in what and how you are doing things. That's not to say you can't change processes to make them better. You just need to understand how it will be perceived from all sides equally. Speaking of the gem store, you need to be aware of how your, and other developers, passed decisions will likely effect our perception of any changes you make.

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I think there is also a problem with the three different ways of how the skins were sold that we have seen so far, the Spooky mounts being only a bundle priced at 2K gems without the discount (In which some people only wanted maybe one or two skins, and ended up not buying it because of the wasted gems for the rest of the mounts). Now we have seen single mount skins at 400 gems but they are only random and then the single reskin of the jackal which is 2K gems. It's inconsistent and honestly 2K gems for the one skin seems like a lot, eventhough it is more detailed and has more effort. It'd help if there was something like three kinds of skins differently priced and handled.1) New skins with more effort put in that would come as a one off version of the mount, something like different takes on the skins, (Forged Jackal, Feathered peacock raptor and so on) those would be priced at a higher amount but less than 2K (Would have to be tested for sales what would be better for time put in and expected profit and so on) so maybe 1K or so.2) Packs of themed skins. (Spooky skins, the probably incoming Merry Skins for wintersday) that would all come out at once but not sold as packs so people can pick and buy what they specifically want, these could be priced at 400 but because of the interetsing theme could be put at 500 as they'd be sold separately and not in the bulk. (Yet again depends on sales profits and so on.)3)The adoption stables, ironically you can ussually choose in adoption pet places. Anyways, these would stay at the same price and you could choose,which one you'd want or atleast choose which kind of animal you want the skin for, someone who doesn't plan on getting a griffon any time soon surely wouldn't want skins for just that mount or once you get the skin you wanted for that animal you would move onto next ones. The second option could potentially still be a bit too random as i expect that there will be more of such big additions of skins to the mount wardrobe (Is that what it's called....? Having a literal wardrobe for my mounts is a funny thought.) I disagree with making the adoptions cost less, the skins are surely worth the 400 gems and i also disagree with making the skins sellable, creating such a market would just be a bad gold sink and not create a good economy around them.I sincerely hope this was a helpful post and that this situation gets solved soon, it's a shame seeing so much negativity around this considering how amazing some of the skins look.

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Personally I'm really disappointed. I must say that I'm a Guild Wars fan since the release of Prophecies. I've bought outfits, char slots, bonus missions in GW along with all the games, and countless skins in GW2 in addition to the expansions. Even met Gaile Gray in a game con 10 years ago (you gave me skill pins ! I still have those). I'm a die-hard fan.

I know that nowadays, every game companies will have a random loot option, because a small subset of the community (whales) are falling for them, hard. I'm not stupid. I won't buy those, or anything rng, but it doesn't matter because you probably get more money from those whales swimming in gambling boxes than from players like me buying a nice skin once in a while. Its sad that Anet couldn't resist the tide, but I didn't thought you would embrace it and go full RNG for the mounts.

Still, look at what Path of Exile is doing for example. They release rng boxes with new skins, then 2 months later the skins are introduced and can be bought separately in the shop. Everyone wins. Hope that can happen in GW2, because the way it is I won't support you guys anymore. You get the whales money from gambling addiction anyway, you don't really need mine... I guess.

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I bought gems to buy the mount skin bundle, because I plan on using unique skins across all my characters.

This is also the absolute last time I will support the GW2 gem store.

ArenaNet has shown since Heart of Thorns that they don't plan on rewarding players through gameplay with anything lucrative except for what they have to - such as new stat sets + obligatory themed gear (a parallel to questing gear in other MMOs) - and even then its a grind. Every time I see a new gemstore outfit/skin, I think of ways that it could be rewarded for playing the game, but there seems to be a massive disconnect given that even LEGENDARY ARMOR looks worse than a vast majority of the Gemstore items. When ArenaNet announced that Legendary weapons would be put on indefinite hold ( https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Legendary-weapons-6 ) there sure wasn't a slowdown on new gem store offerings, whether they be black lion chest items or otherwise.

My complaints would be absolutely nonexistent if ArenaNet actually FIXED legacy issues and UPDATED features that REWARD the players:

  1. Dungeons, including the introduction of new instances. The Mastery system could benefit from dungeon hardmodes.
  2. Cultural Armor could be updated into Tier 4 and beyond. Gold sinks are a form of gem buying for some.
  3. World bosses could be updated into something that isn't just a massive pinata, with actual chances of failure, zone-wide penalties, and armor reward tracks. The Tequatl overhaul was a good thing - don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.
  4. Have multiple lieutenants of an Elder Dragon terrorize a random racial city in 1 of 4 possible fight scenarios with different mechanics - if we repel the attack, we get phat lewtz. If we fail, we have to rebuild via group events. Right now, the racial capitals are basically useless except for new players to see how empty they are.
  5. Enhance the Orders of Tyria. Have the Vigil organize crafted armor and weapon donations to reinforce cities against world threats, have the Priory send us out to research and collect artifacts to buff players during world events, have the Whispers organize black ops teams to weaken incoming threats and bolster intel against the dragons.

To those of you complaining just now about loot boxes, We've had them since launch: they're called Black Lion Chests and the community has already proven time and time again that they aren't worth it: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/6vsese/results_of_102_black_lion_chests/

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I had been planning to purchase $35 of gems (2800) so that I could buy one 400-gem skin for each mount. You lost that sale with this RNG gamble-box system. Under this system, there isn't even a guarantee that I will get one skin for each mount, let alone the exact mount I had my eye on.

Give me the safety of a direct purchase, and I will support you.

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I have spent a lot of money with this game. So much, that I don't even want to think about what I've spent in this game. The two highest tier EP's, and disgusting amounts of gems... but I always felt like I was getting my money's worth. I play this game quite frequently and it helps me de-stress from a terrible retail job and it's certainly cheaper than a therapist or drugs, plus I get awesome looking content or things that just make my game time easier (unlimited tools, anyone?) So I want to make this painfully clear: I do not mind spending money for in-game cosmetics.

What I do mind is someone trying to gank me for all they can. I watched helplessly as I've seen great games take on RNG, promoting gambling lifestyles. Hell, as someone who spent $50-100 on Overwatch lootboxes for each event, I was at the very least almost guaranteed a certain coinage with dupes - but when Blizzard nerfed the dupe system, you could buy all those loot boxes and essentially get nothing but garbage - so I stopped buying lootboxes (keep in mind, they are also purely cosmetic but I'm a weak person who loves the shiny). Two events have passed and I haven't spent a single dime on a blizzard lootbox, and won't. The risk outweighs the reward, and I'm afraid that this is exactly what you have done.

I only started playing GW earlier this year. My friend had been trying to get me play it for a couple of years at best, and when I was fed up with Overwatch and its community, it proved to be a refreshing place. Helpful player community, I could choose if I wanted to do PvE or PvP or even WvW! And I could completely customize everything from my look to my play style. It was great! And then PoF was announced along with mounts and I was SUPER hyped! Then the SotMK happened and we got skins for those mounts which were super cool! So imagine me and my excitement when I saw the stables. Each of my characters has an 'aesthetic' per se, and there were some mount skins that I knew I wanted immediately... and then I slowly realized what a stunt you were trying to pull.

So, giving you the benefit of the doubt, I looked at how much the full set of skins would cost and I remember thinking about how insane that was. I'd be paying a substantial amount of money to guarantee that I get the skins I want, while having a host of other skins I know I'd never use... and then I saw 2k for the forged warhound.. now Anet, I ask this quite seriously... have you ... lost your mind?

2k gems gets you a level 80 character, full gear and all with some waypoints unlocked and a tonne of other add ons. 2k gets you an entire outfit kit with added on benefits be it boosters, skins, dyes, etc. And you're sitting there, putting a mount skin on the TP for 2k gems. I don't know who's deciding your pricing for that, but you should consider running a drug test on them, because 2k for a mount skin that you may or may not frequently see for some "custom animations" is absurd and it makes no sense. These mounts can't even get me out of battle or actively help me fight there is no way in hell the skins are worth 2k - they should be priced just like the gliders are.

TL;DR: Let me pay for the skins individually and at a fair price. Your team is incredibly inspiring talented and creative. LET ME PAY THEM because I assure you I will not be buying anything outside of Dye Kits that are RNG.

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When Path of Fire launched, everyone wanted mount skins, even players who didn't buy Path of Fire and demanded a mount be given to them. The skins were to be expected since the gliders from Heart of Thorns got skins, but nobody said how they wanted skins to be implemented. It should have been obvious the skins would be in the Gem Store, the paywall of Guild Wars 2 as many call it since that's where other cosmetic options are available such as gliders and outfits and exclusive armor sets. Where's the outrage for outfits being Gem Store only? Fancy mining tools? Gliders? Instruments? I'm sure they're somewhere but come on. How do you expect ANet to give us content if they don't do this sort of thing?

"This RNG is crap! We should earn all these skins in-game!" Well... sure, the RNG sucks. However, I love all of the skins and I'm not going to be a picky whiner for not getting the one I so desperately want. Where's the outrage at the one skin, the Reforged Warhound, that costs 2k gems/$25? I'd rather have five skins for that price, even if they're random, instead of choosing just one skin, regardless of how cool it looks. How many of the gliders are earnable in-game? Two maybe? WvW and PvP if I recall correctly. I wonder what the price would be if you got to choose your skin? I read earlier that paying 1,000 gems just to pick one of the 30 skins would be fine, if they kept the 400 gems price if you wanted a random one. I suppose that would be fine. Honestly, a reddit poster put it in a way I 100% agree with: https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/7bevvt/mount_adoption_licenses_are_an_outrage/dpj3kol/

If you enjoy the content of GW2, and expect them to keep giving us content, this is how they are able to do so. Guild Wars 2 is free to play for the base game and they only charge for optional stuff in the Gem Store and expansions. You don't even have to pay for Living World so long as you log in while it's live and have the previous expansion (though you might just need to log in while it's live, whether you have the previous expansion or not I don't know). There will never be happy people, and I don't expect ANet to try to appease every single hater right now. If people want them, then they'll buy them, regardless of risk. That's all.

Besides.... this is still better than Black Lion Chests... You still get a mount skin you don't already have, compared to getting the same old thing in those dang chests 90% of the time.

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The adoption skins could have been sold in bundles like the halloween skins for 2k gems or in smaller groups for less. At this point I'd pay around 1600 gems for a bundle of starbound and stardust, and I ALREADY own stardust! (not expecting a discount, but that would be cool)

The amount of grind/money it currently takes to unlock these mounts is just unreasonable thanks to the RNG.

Also, putting the wild magic items temporarily and account bound in the BL chests as the same time as this makes it all feel worse; Instead of playing content from the new expansion more, or really anything else, I now feel like I have to spend all my time grinding gold or keys. I feel like 'fun' is a constantly missing factor from the equation.

I think there are multiple reasonable solutions to this problem that would result in players getting the mount skins they want and arena net making a lot of money from it.

You could cut the RNG by a reasonable amount by selling animal-specific licenses for 600 gems. If someone only wanted one specific skin, that would now cost them 3600 gems, at worst, instead of 9600. At the current rate mostly people who want all the skins are likely to buy the 9600 gem option, while people who only want specific skins are going to be more hesitant to spend any money at all based upon how many skins they want vs. how random it is.

Ultimately, I think bundles are the better way to go. Bundles feel more like how gliders were sold, and that felt more reasonable.

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I dislike the RNG aspect of the Adoption Licenses; imo it should be around 350-400 gems for any Mount Skin, selectable upfront, as it's not that different from a Glider Skin..And 2000 gems for ONE specific Mount Skin when the Halloween Mounts were 1600 for all 5 (that's 320 each)? I'm sorry, but are you high?!

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