Elyssandariel.2679

Yes, this assumption was a mistake. Congratulations. You have now seen just how "surprise mechanics" (aka gamble boxes) work. Be grateful you didn't fall for the other assumptions: the gambler's fallacy that you are due for a change of luck; and the sunk-cost fallacy that you should continue to pour money into getting the desired item so that the initial money was not "wasted." Randulf is correct. As long as people buy keys (either with gems or gold), and as long as laws don't interfere, gaming companies will continue to milk consumers with these boxes. I don't even buy BL weapon skins on the TP anymore, because even that supports the system. While I would buy a skin I like at a price I considered reasonable, apparently the "what the market will bear" price is not enough, and I'm not part of ANet's target market. I just want to take the time to appreciate your psychology here. Those fallacies are straight-up murder to your wallet. Thank you for posting about them!

In ESO I made an extremely fat pirate Kajhiit....no idea if I spelled that right. He was adorable and had a fat bear waddling along right next to him his entire journey. Fat cats need love too!!!

You know that his VA is an actual Englishman? The rest of the Sylvari are Americans doing an accent, so he's not the one mispronouncing things. I meant from an American point of view. My husband is an actual Englishman as well, so I’m well aware that there are differences between voice acting and “the real deal.” I enjoy listening to Trahearne, his voice is very peaceful. But honestly I don’t think anyone hasn’t chuckled at Clawr Island at least once with someone else who plays this game. As for the other sylvari, I believe Gideon Emery is also an English voice actor in this game so no, not all of the others are Americans putting on an accent.

Unpopular opinion: I miss Trahearne. Hear me out. I loved his melodramatic mispronunciations. He wasn't particularly useful but I enjoyed having him around if only to laugh at "Clawr Island" and other things of that nature. I have gone through the cycle of hating Logan and making fun of him to the point I have a character called "Sir Logan Slackeray" and hated Braham and Taimi as well. They've become a lot more tolerable to me now. So I'm going to say Kasmeer and Marjory. Because I honestly have not enjoyed a single moment of their onscreen time. I don't like their voices, I don't like their overly-dramatic "Help meh!" from Kasmeer and then Marjory rushing into trouble. TL;DR: Kas and Jory gotta go. Or improve somehow.

Immersed or not, if he got offended, he should grow thicker skin. I actually find it worse in fantasy settings if they DON'T have some sort of cursing or swearing (using their own words for it in their culture of course, they don't have to use our vulgar words but they should use THEIR vulgar words), and we should be able to grasp that what they said was considered vulgar in their world (wheel of time comes to mind where Mat would say "Blood and Ashes!" and Nynaeve would chastize him about his language), based on context of when those words and phrases are said.Blood and bloody ASHES!!! LOL just glad someone else was thinking of this, as they read this thread :D

Yeah I knew exactly what was going on too. I would go for cheap discovery too. Congrats on your grandmaster though!!

I thank Mesmers for the port and tip when I can. Sometimes I forget, I just see a shiny portal on the ground that everyone is pouring into and I go along with it and forget to thank, especially in a Meta. But if it's one on one, then it's polite to thank the person, especially if the port was done out of the kindness of their heart.

I think it's sweet. RIP Stewie.

Thanks for the information, guys! This discussion caught my eye because I'm looking to get my griffon still too :)

Welcome back! Fractals are accessible for everyone, at the lower levels, as long as you have a level 80 character. To reach the upper levels you need ascended gear, but that can be gotten in the fractals and through various vendors. I would definitely recommend getting both expansions. Gliding and the Specializations for each class is worth it for HoT. Mounts are so much fun to ride and customize, in PoF as well. I like story, so I enjoyed those things about the expansions too. If you want to play Living World content, then the expansions are required for Season 3 and 4.

@Chickenooble.5014 said: I laughed so hard at this response, only because I am a very dry, sarcastic person when dealing with my friends. I tend to agree, though, that if you put up a post on social media, all bets are pretty much off. It's public. People will read it, respond to it, use it, in whatever way they see fit. I'm pretty sure unless they are making money from something someone wrote, its not necessary to contact the original person for quotes, such as reposting on a forum. Now, it is polite, if you WANT to ask them, but I don't think people should get bent out of shape over repostings of public posts (not that PeaceInLove did. They were pretty chill about the request). Like, I quoted you both in this post. I'm not going to ask you if I can. ;)

I totally agree with you 100%. This is absolutely shady how they handled this. You and I and a few other people that have posted too know the science behind this stuff. It's all Behavioral Modification 101. Watson and Skinner would love this stuff going on right now. I would rather just have a few skins ingame, even if they were just the 4 channel ones, that we can work towards, and then buy the others directly. Someone made a point that they based this whole expansion on mounts and very little else, so that ANET could monetize it so heavily in the gemstore. I don't mind something being monetized, just not to the extreme we are seeing now. Prices are too high for RNG or for individual skins for the one they DID release. If they had done this RIGHT they could have made SO MUCH MONEY. I agree that many people would have had less of a problem with an RNG box with only 5 skins. I would not have been one of those people, but many would. It would still not be a simple 1:1 of me buying the skin I want. I wouldn't like it either, but I wouldn't mind it so terribly much as I do now. It's a 1 in 5 chance instead of a 1 in 30, to begin with. Sometimes random loot boxes are fun to play with. I like opening them as much as the rest of the players. I think they should keep the boxes on the market, for people that like to have that kind of fun. They should reduce the chance and split up the skins somehow, definitely. But, put the skins out for individual purchase, as well!!!

No, you bought a skin. You have to have POF and unlock the type of mount that the skin goes to, before you can use that. That is not an actual "mount." That is a skin for an existing mount.

People are happy to pay for mount skins. Directly. Not for lottery tickets. I want mount skins to be like glider skins - I buy what I choose. There is only ONE REASON why they did mount skins this way: Anet knows that gamble boxes force people to spend more than they would if they simply purchased what they want. There is no other reason - forcing people to spend more money if they want skins.Yes, and I agree with WP on the fact that GW2 needs to make ANET money, so that we continue to have a game to play. I don't dispute that at all. We need to buy the things that are done the way we like them, when we buy gems. And before anyone starts in about gold to gems, those gems that you are buying with gold? Someone BOUGHT them with REAL MONEY. It is real money gems that go into the system. If they are needing money because they are working towards GW3, or they are trying to fundraise for the next expansion in the works, that is ok! What is NOT ok is doing what they are doing right now withholding skins from the game except for cash shop only RNG boxes. WP brought up a REALLY great point, as much as I am disappointed for other things he mentioned. He said if they did this five skins at a time, just put 5 skins in a loot box, then people would have bought it with no problem. If they released 5 more next week, in another box, then people would buy that one too. We have a problem because they have no ingame skins, and then they dumped THIRTY of them in a box, and said "Here you go guys! If you buy a huge amount of these, we'll give you a discount!!" Yeah, that's not the best way to make your players want to spend real money in the gemstore.

Yes, they have outright closed the thread that talks about the damage of gamble boxes instead of merging it. Interesting, huh? Yeah, I noticed that too. All of our psychological evidence gone in one fell swoop, when they eventually clear it away. I might repost my stuff in this thread just so everyone gets a chance to see it before the other thread "disappears." I love how that merged almost ALL of the other threads, but that one.