[POLL] Mount Skins Distribution - A Serious Poll

[Yamazuki.6073]

While I don't like loot boxes, I can tolerate them if they have a fail cap, which these mount boxes do due to no duplicates and no junk items anyways. I just wish they were at a lower price, at least when you buy them in bulk.

[Paradox.8690]

I chose Price is fine but not the RNG aspect because it's the closest to where I think the problem is, and that is the player's perception of the RNG.

I believe the way to approach this would be to have a slightly different system that gives aNet what they want (profit in sales) and gives us what we want (player clarity and choice).The adoption ticket is fine, but getting 1 skin out of 30 seems to be the problem a lot of people have and to expand on that, the price per percentage is really what people don't like.When getting an adoption ticket, I think something similar to the discovery mechanic from Hearthstone would be a great way to address this. Discovery in Hearthstone means you are given a choice from 3 randomly selected cards within their respective card pool and you pick which one you want. If this was introduced with these tickets, I don't think there would be as much outrage as there is now. You are given a larger selection pool on your initial ticket.For example:

• 1 ticket opened gives you the choice to choose 1 from the following: Oasis Skimmer, Striped Tri-Horn, Crowned Ancient
• When you choose the one you want, you unlock it for your wardrobe. The selected skin cannot be offered as a reward in the future, as it is unlocked (similar to accountwardrobe unlocks)

I think this kind of system would have been better than the current one, where they dumped 30 skins all at once. This not only overwhelms the players, but also gives them disparity as they feel the odds are stacked against them. By giving the player what seems like more chances at the skin they want, they would not feel so overwhelmed and upset with the "lootboxes".

Edit: Just to clarify, I think the problem here is the introduction of it, to the player base it feels like a narrow tube in which the rewards came come out from. By expanding the tube, but keeping the amount distributed the same, the player feels they are being offered more than they initially are, while the company gets maybe a little less to the same amount of profits they were projecting.

[bombbrute.5712]

I'm not a fan of RNG packs but I would be ok with it IF you were able to buy chance packs by which mount you were wanting a skin for. That way I wouldn't be forced to buy potentially 15 or more packs just to get a skin with DYE CHANNELS on every mount.

[Kayowin.9217]

You need to specify: Price is fine @ 400 Gems for a single skin (The RNG price for a single skin) or 2000 Gems (Currently for the non RNG Jackal) for a single skin. Or maybe add an additional option outlining the 400 Gem price and the 2000 Gem price. I vote option 4 at the 2000 Gem price and option 2 at the 400 Gem price personally.

[Worlds.7530]

400-600 per skin I'm ok but I'm not ok with RNG because I can't choose the skin.

You can sell 600 per skin and for the pack you can decrease a little for someone need to buy all skin. (example: 600x5 = 3000 > 2800 for all skin)

[choovanski.5462]

I wonder how they are going to damage control this.

if they change the price or remove RNG, they are going to have to do mad refunds- or everyone who bought them (for gold or gems) will kick up a big fuss. which I doubt they want to do at all, I mean they want that money (so I doubt they will be keen to give it back)- which is self evident by the fact they did this in the first place.

it's an awful situation they've made for themselves. wonder if they will do anything, or if they will just make like an ostrich and stick their heads in the sand.

personally, I don't have PoF so I don't even have a reason to care about the skins, but it's interesting from a PR standpoint. what a debacle.

[Svartwolf.3729]

While i voted "price is fine" I do think that they are a little expensive, but i found all the BLC store expensive. the price is fine in relation to the rest of the store. at least you can also buy with in game currency, which makes the high prices more bearable. plus not having to pay a monthly subscription that psychologically forces me to play the month ive payed and i can play whenever i want instead is extremely appreciated, so i dont mind dropping some dollars now and then as a way of supporting this model.

Still, i have purchased at least one hundred dollars in gems in the past 3 years(outside the game and expansions, i mean, i bought the vanilla game and paid 50 for hot) i know that in this fucked up game economy, having payed one hundred dollars make me a friggin rat beggar, but i bring this cause of that money i have bought the exact amount of 0 Black Lion chest keys and 0 dyes cause they are "random". this silly nonsense is mitigated by the fact you can get keys in game and guaranteed dyes on birthdays, but RNG just makes the whole shit stinkier, so im not spending a single dollar in a "chance" for a skin (although there are only like 4 skins i dislike and is appreciated you have the decency of not putting dupes) .

The regular skin/gliders/upgrades felt like entering a luxury store .expensive af but still is an upfront agreement, RNG make it feel underhanded, like entering the same luxury store, but the merchant is a shady dude and you risk loosing your wallet.

The problem with this "optional stuff" is that there are people with gambling problems, and immature people. yeah in the long run i could ignore it, like i have ignored the keys since launch. but other people simply cannot, this is a cancer i hope that it gets legally regulated soon.Plus is a system that is looking that it may collapse, how much really the industry as a whole can milk those whales before the whales die the terrible death of reality?

If the case is a-net is worried that no-one would buy the simpler skins (i doubt it, some may be simply reskins, but there are very well designed nonetheless) they shouldnt fear, not every player wants to look like a frigging puddle of christmas tree matter, some of us enjoy more subtle skins...

Also, how sustaintable is this system in the long run? yeah, now is still mild, but say in the future Anet adds the wallabi mount and the whirling turtle mounts. these means at least 10 more skins to the pools, and then they add a season 2 of skins, eventually every year it passes will be harder and harder to get the skins you want. unless of course you are a "whale".

Finally if they start designing systems that only benefit "whales" they risk people starting to hate those "whales" cause their existence would be an increasing obstacle to get the satisfaction they are searching. this doesn't benefit the little spending players, certainly doesn't benefit the big spending players (getting free hate for enjoying the game as you want?) and can potentially start generating toxicity that thanks god is still at a bare minimum in gw2.

In other words... RNG is a big no, and i can see only harm in the long run, not only for me as a player, but as for the community in general.

PD: the jackal legendary skin is beautiful and all.... but seriously that price?! as someone posted before, if i just want to tons of money in A-net cause reasons, i would prefer to purchase the expansions for friends that spending that absurd sum for a skin...

[goji.4172]

id be fine with p much all of this if they just let us choose which stinkin mount we were gambling for, even

[b k.1648]

I don't expect everyone else to love mystery mounts, but personally I quite enjoy this implementation. Went for the 10-pack myself and ended up with a skin for every mount, with the exception of the Springer which is the one mount I want to chop up and stick on the barbeque.

To some extent I got lucky, but mostly I'm just happy to finally see mount skins and a random gemstore purchase that always gives a new skin and never gives you useless garbage you didn't want (read: Black Lion chests).

[rwolf.9571]

@Raesin.2908 said:You don't even have to no-life to make enough gold for 400 gems a week.

Which is 110-130g at the current exchange rate. I'm a partial no lifer, and probably avg 60-80g per week. In reality this is more of 1 skin per 2 weeks, and would take over a year if you wanted to unlock everything...

Gliders and Outfits were priced nicely. I don't see why they couldn't of done the same.

[jdmThor.3806]

Because one is guaranteed a unique skin for every purchase, I'm completely fine with this. People want to have everything they want too easily. Anet is not even forcing anyone to spend any real money to get all the skins if they don't want to.

[Kronos.3695]

@jdmThor.3806 said:Because one is guaranteed a unique skin for every purchase, I'm completely fine with this. People want to have everything they want too easily. Anet is not even forcing anyone to spend any real money to get all the skins if they don't want to.

Not at all?If out of 30 skins I like only one, it will be possibile that due to RNG I'ìll have to spend almost 10k gems instead of 400 to get the one that I want after unlocking the rest.Is that normal for you?

[Dreamy Lu.3865]

I am sorry, maybe I am too much rational in my way of thinking, but I don't understand this poll.

This is optional yes? Nobody is forced to it and the skins are not required to play the game. This is a "nice to have" with a lottery on it. As far as I can see, this in not even entirely random since it takes into account if we already have a skin or not, to make sure we don't get double. So at the end, the only thing is that we maybe don't get the one we want on first try, but eventually it will come. There is no harm done. That's just a way to make more money than if we could buy straight the one we want. This is a clever way to get more earnings (certainly a marketing strategy).Don't forget we are playing a cost free game. There are no miracles. Money has to come in from one side or the other.

My personal opinion is that one option is missing in this poll: "Anet hope to make money. That's normal."

[Sylv.5324]

I would have bought just about every mount skin because I am a mount collecting fiend, but making it RNG is wrong. This what I was looking forward to the most, and at this point I'm not sure I want to keep playing. I've been with the franchise since early gw1, but this might be what broke my back.

[rwolf.9571]

@jdmThor.3806 said:Because one is guaranteed a unique skin for every purchase, I'm completely fine with this. People want to have everything they want too easily. Anet is not even forcing anyone to spend any real money to get all the skins if they don't want to.

Would I like 1 skin out of the 30 I like? Yes. Am I willing to dump up to $120 to get that said skin. Heck no. There is a difference between easy, and a burning hole in your wallet.

[Aerlen.5326]

The ONLY reason I voted the way I did is because you can get skins for the Griffon even if you have it locked and WOW is that unfair.

[inubasiri.8745]

I'd normally just vote to remove the RNG, but the skins are still too expensive for basically the same model, just reusing some aspect already used elsewhere (twilight effect, zenith armor effect, etc.) While glider skins at 400 gems are in overwhelming majority brand new skins, with new behavior and sometimes even new effects.

[jdmThor.3806]

@Kronos.3695 said:

@jdmThor.3806 said:Because one is guaranteed a unique skin for every purchase, I'm completely fine with this. People want to have everything they want too easily. Anet is not even forcing anyone to spend any real money to get all the skins if they don't want to.

Not at all?If out of 30 skins I like only one, it will be possibile that due to RNG I'ìll have to spend almost 10k gems instead of 400 to get the one that I want after unlocking the rest.Is that normal for you?

Sure, it's just a skin and not required at all. If you want it, then do what it takes to get it. Pay real money or farm gold in game. Again, you get a unique skin for every purchase. This is already way more generous than a lot of RNG things in other mmos which goes even for things that are needed for gameplay. 10k gems isn't really a lot to complete a collection of 30 mount skins.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

@"Ben K.6238" said:I don't expect everyone else to love mystery mounts, but personally I quite enjoy this implementation. Went for the 10-pack myself and ended up with a skin for every mount, with the exception of the Springer which is the one mount I want to chop up and stick on the barbeque.

To some extent I got lucky, but mostly I'm just happy to finally see mount skins and a random gemstore purchase that always gives a new skin and never gives you useless garbage you didn't want (read: Black Lion chests).

I disagree. about 24 out of the 30 skins are "useless garbage I don't want".

[Yadovid.5863]

400 for a re-skin is fair price, rng isn't. For completly changed mounts 800 is fair price, not freaking 2000...

[rwolf.9571]

@jdmThor.3806 said:

@Kronos.3695 said:

@jdmThor.3806 said:Because one is guaranteed a unique skin for every purchase, I'm completely fine with this. People want to have everything they want too easily. Anet is not even forcing anyone to spend any real money to get all the skins if they don't want to.

Not at all?If out of 30 skins I like only one, it will be possibile that due to RNG I'ìll have to spend almost 10k gems instead of 400 to get the one that I want after unlocking the rest.Is that normal for you?

Sure, it's just a skin and not required at all. If you want it, then do what it takes to get it. Pay real money or farm gold in game. Again, you get a unique skin for every purchase. This is already way more generous than a lot of RNG things in other mmos which goes even for things that are needed for gameplay. 10k gems isn't really a lot to complete a collection of 30 mount skins.

Maybe generous compared to other MMO's. But do you really want Anet to head down this path and mimic those systems? Do you want them to be just as bad as Bethesda's horse dlc? (actually it's worse. I looked it up and that only costed $2 instead of $5)

Also 10k may not be alot to ppl who enjoy every single skin. But like this thread shows. People are only interested in a handful of them.

[jdmThor.3806]

@rwolf.9571 said:

@jdmThor.3806 said:

@Kronos.3695 said:

@jdmThor.3806 said:Because one is guaranteed a unique skin for every purchase, I'm completely fine with this. People want to have everything they want too easily. Anet is not even forcing anyone to spend any real money to get all the skins if they don't want to.

Not at all?If out of 30 skins I like only one, it will be possibile that due to RNG I'ìll have to spend almost 10k gems instead of 400 to get the one that I want after unlocking the rest.Is that normal for you?

Sure, it's just a skin and not required at all. If you want it, then do what it takes to get it. Pay real money or farm gold in game. Again, you get a unique skin for every purchase. This is already way more generous than a lot of RNG things in other mmos which goes even for things that are needed for gameplay. 10k gems isn't really a lot to complete a collection of 30 mount skins.

Maybe generous compared to other MMO's. But do you really want Anet to head down this path and mimic those systems? Do you want them to be just as bad as Bethesda's horse dlc? (actually it's worse. I looked it up and that only costed $2 instead of $5)

Also 10k may not be alot to ppl who enjoy every single skin. But like this thread shows. People are only interested in a handful of them.

I am not against Anet making money from their game. As long as they are reasonable about it, which in this case, in my opinion, they are.

[Zeivu.3615]

People buy blindboxes all the time in real life: sometimes the item's value is over five bucks each and you can get duplicates. But when it's pixels with duplicate damage control protection it becomes gambling and corrupt? If you have a gambling problem, please seek help from a professional. There are more pixel sites out there who are insanely, openly more insidious with their irl purchases who don't even prevent duplicates and their odds so low that you have better chances of getting hit by lighting, in the shower, during the lunar eclipse on, a Saturday evening, while the earth gets plummeted by failing toilets from aircraft.

[Drudo.2497]

Each mount has 6 skins with 2 being remodel/particle effects, 2 remodel, and 2 reskins. If you were to get all 6 at 400 gems that is 2400 gems total for one mount. Now obviously the mounts with particle effects are a bit more prestige than just the reskined mounts. So to keep it at the same total of 2400 gems I would be fine with buying them individually at 600 gems for particle mounts, 400 for remodels, and 200 for reskins. This all adds up to the same and would allow us to buy the ones we want.

[MrWubzy.3587]

I believe that the RNG is fine as is. You're guaranteed (at least eventually) to get the skin you want if you keep going. However I do believe the price should be lowered, possible in the 200-250 gem range per license instead of 400.