A Message About the Mount Adoption License

[Kingkiller.9645]

@Mike O Brien.4613 said:

• We stand by the work our artists put into each skin

You know the biggest problem I have with this system?Skins aren't unique. The Savannah Monitor and Coastal spiketail are essentially the exact same skin with slightly different colours.We can dye our mounts, so the colour of the skin is irrelevant.This goes for most mount skins, to be honest. Unless they have an animation, the biggest change is maybe different horns for the raptor, one slightly floppy ear for the springer, or a larger tail for the skimmer.

[paragon.6543]

@Kingkiller.9645 said:

@Mike O Brien.4613 said:

• We stand by the work our artists put into each skin

You know the biggest problem I have with this system?Skins aren't unique. The Savannah Monitor and Coastal spiketail are essentially the exact same skin with slightly different colours.We can dye our mounts, so the colour of the skin is irrelevant.This goes for most mount skins, to be honest. Unless they have an animation, the biggest change is maybe different horns for the raptor, one slightly floppy ear for the springer, or a larger tail for the skimmer.

Honestly...They need to think about paying the artists better if they feel that way.That shouldn't be something the customer has to deal with.There are better ways to handle that.

Besides, even if this is the case, the whole point is to entice the majority of the customers.Make the artists make things that majority would enjoy.

[Matick.4132]

@Aerinndis.2730 said:

It would have been neat to have animals with these various skins (or call them different breeds) out there that you run across in the open world and you would get a hint that you had to find a particular breeder who is producing these animals. Once you found that person and let them know you were interested in that particular 'breed' they would have you accomplish some things for them in order to reserve an animal out of a litter. I would have no problem with doing things say over a week or two for a breeder so that he would let me buy that skin directly. (or give a voucher to take to a Black Lion Trader that would enable me to purchase the skin from the gem store) It would be a lot more fun and be more consistent with the world instead of blam! here are a bunch of flashy skins you can have this instant that have no relation to the story or Tyria. It would give even the plainer skins some meaning and and context and I think folk would find this a great incentive to collect all the skins.

HEAR, HEAR!

Now THAT is exactly what we're talking about. Making mount-skins available through gameplay, rather then real cash – and I stress that in most of my statements on that topic, as a normal person with a real life you just can't farm everyday and grind your gold, to then exchange it to gems, if you wanna also enjoy PLAYING the game!

Make it an achievement, that's hard to find in Tyria and be a reward because you've played hard, so you've earned hard. :)

btw: could you pls stop encouraging some management folks to up the ante on mount skin pricing. 800 - 1000 Gems or something around 10 - 15 €/$ is ridiculous for a piece of fancy code-coat!

[Battledoll.1803]

I don't see any problem with skin RNG box being sold. This is a business and people at Anet need to make their living. You can acquire them by exchanging in-game gold to gem, just by playing the game. Compared to other MMORPG, where there is no way to change in-game currency to store currency, GW2 is already extremely graceful.

[BunjiKugashira.9754]

@Battledoll.1803 said:I don't see any problem with skin RNG box being sold. This is a business and people at Anet need to make their living. You can acquire them by exchanging in-game gold to gem, just by playing the game. Compared to other MMORPG, where there is no way to change in-game currency to store currency, GW2 is already extremely graceful.

Anet, as any other good game developer, could very much make a living by selling items directly at a fair and affordable price. The RNG boxes are just extorting some extra money at the cost of consumer satisfaction.

While you can aquire gems by exchanging gold for them, this is only possible if someone else sold their gems for gold. Every gem in the game has been paid for and gems from the exchange have even been taxed, so ANet earns even more for them. Other games just don't sell their ingame currency for real money because hyperinflation made their ingame currency worthless in the first place.

Since you can't see the problem: There are actually 2 major problems.

1. The RNG box being in the gemstore ANet is basically telling you to gamble on them with real money. Sure, the gem conversion exists, but even those gems have a real money value and have been paid for by someone. Also exchanging gold is counter-intuitive. Most people will buy their gems with cash.
2. There is no way to avoid the RNG. If you want the skin, you are forced to gamble for it.

Before you start with BLCs, yes they've always partially fulfilled the first problem and yes since 2017 (the elemental sword) they also fulfill the second problem. In their current state they deserve the same amount of protest as mount tickets. But the degrading of BLCs was a gradual process and the elemental sword wasn't as highly anticipated as mount skins, so the protests weren't as focused and didn't get any momentum.

And no, not being able to unlock duplicates is not their saving grace. The chance for a specific skin will not go over 50% until the very last ticket. Subconsciously your brain tells you, that you already used x tickets so the desired skin has to come soon. This is sunk-cost-fallacy and is specifically designed to make you spend even more. This is not ANet being generous, it's the exact opposite. If duplicates were possible we would possibly be able to sell duplicates on the TP. This would remove the RNG factor for those who don't like RNG and would reduce the amount of RNG boxes sold.

[Battledoll.1803]

Since you can't see the problem: There are actually 2 major problems.

1. The RNG box being in the gemstore ANet is basically telling you to gamble on them with real money. Sure, the gem conversion exists, but even those gems have a real money value and have been paid for by someone. Also exchanging gold is counter-intuitive. Most people will buy their gems with cash.
2. There is no way to avoid the RNG. If you want the skin, you are forced to gamble for it.

1. That's the whole point of a business, to maximize profit. No problem for me. I encourage people to spend cash on Anet when you can so the game development can continue. For those who can't afford, earn in-game gold and convert to gem; it is a slower process but you will get there eventually.
2. Yes, that's the design. Since they guarantee no duplicate, you will also get your favorite skin eventually. Again, to maximize profit.

Of course, every business who want to max their profit risk pissing off customer. They have their right to do that, I have my right not to buy that. For me (and me alone), I don't have a problem, don't convince me otherwise.

[BunjiKugashira.9754]

@Battledoll.1803 said:

Since you can't see the problem: There are actually 2 major problems.

1. The RNG box being in the gemstore ANet is basically telling you to gamble on them with real money. Sure, the gem conversion exists, but even those gems have a real money value and have been paid for by someone. Also exchanging gold is counter-intuitive. Most people will buy their gems with cash.
2. There is no way to avoid the RNG. If you want the skin, you are forced to gamble for it.

1. That's the whole point of a business, to maximize profit. No problem for me. I encourage people to spend cash on Anet when you can so the game development can continue. For those who can't afford, earn in-game gold and convert to gem; it is a slower process but you will get there eventually.
2. Yes, that's the design. Since they guarantee no duplicate, you will also get your favorite skin eventually. Again, to maximize profit.

Of course, every business who want to max their profit risk pissing off customer. They have their right to do that, I have my right not to buy that. For me (and me alone), I don't have a problem, don't convince me otherwise.

@Battledoll.1803 said:

Since you can't see the problem: There are actually 2 major problems.

1. The RNG box being in the gemstore ANet is basically telling you to gamble on them with real money. Sure, the gem conversion exists, but even those gems have a real money value and have been paid for by someone. Also exchanging gold is counter-intuitive. Most people will buy their gems with cash.
2. There is no way to avoid the RNG. If you want the skin, you are forced to gamble for it.

1. That's the whole point of a business, to maximize profit. No problem for me. I encourage people to spend cash on Anet when you can so the game development can continue. For those who can't afford, earn in-game gold and convert to gem; it is a slower process but you will get there eventually.
2. Yes, that's the design. Since they guarantee no duplicate, you will also get your favorite skin eventually. Again, to maximize profit.

Of course, every business who want to max their profit risk pissing off customer. They have their right to do that, I have my right not to buy that. For me (and me alone), I don't have a problem, don't convince me otherwise.

Ah, the "ANet is a business" argument... I don't know if it's an American thing that every business must be maxing their profits, but there are actually companies that are content with paying their employees and making their customers happy. Success and revenue comes as a byproduct of happy customers.

It may not be a problem for you, but you should at least be able to see why it is a problem for other players. Only because a problem does not affect you does not mean it isn't there. And frankly, if this problem doesn't affect you it either means you're not interested in specific skins or you have enough resources so the price doesn't matter. It will become a problem for you if ANet continues pissing of customers and the game becomes empty, except if you don't care about the game. RNG boxes are a system that generates short term revenue at a long term cost. Mobile games can afford this because their player base is ever changing, but MMOs, especially 5 year old ones, can't afford to loose long term customers.

[Ayrilana.1396]

@BunjiKugashira.9754 said:

@Battledoll.1803 said:I don't see any problem with skin RNG box being sold. This is a business and people at Anet need to make their living. You can acquire them by exchanging in-game gold to gem, just by playing the game. Compared to other MMORPG, where there is no way to change in-game currency to store currency, GW2 is already extremely graceful.

Anet, as any other good game developer, could very much make a living by selling items directly at a fair and affordable price. The RNG boxes are just extorting some extra money at the cost of consumer satisfaction.

While you can aquire gems by exchanging gold for them, this is only possible if someone else sold their gems for gold. Every gem in the game has been paid for and gems from the exchange have even been taxed, so ANet earns even more for them. Other games just don't sell their ingame currency for real money because hyperinflation made their ingame currency worthless in the first place.

Since you can't see the problem: There are actually 2 major problems.

1. The RNG box being in the gemstore ANet is basically telling you to gamble on them with real money. Sure, the gem conversion exists, but even those gems have a real money value and have been paid for by someone. Also exchanging gold is counter-intuitive. Most people will buy their gems with cash.
2. There is no way to avoid the RNG. If you want the skin, you are forced to gamble for it.

Before you start with BLCs, yes they've always partially fulfilled the first problem and yes since 2017 (the elemental sword) they also fulfill the second problem. In their current state they deserve the same amount of protest as mount tickets. But the degrading of BLCs was a gradual process and the elemental sword wasn't as highly anticipated as mount skins, so the protests weren't as focused and didn't get any momentum.

And no, not being able to unlock duplicates is not their saving grace. The chance for a specific skin will not go over 50% until the very last ticket. Subconsciously your brain tells you, that you already used x tickets so the desired skin has to come soon. This is sunk-cost-fallacy and is specifically designed to make you spend even more. This is not ANet being generous, it's the exact opposite. If duplicates were possible we would possibly be able to sell duplicates on the TP. This would remove the RNG factor for those who don't like RNG and would reduce the amount of RNG boxes sold.

Based on what you said, BF2’s system was fine. The heroes could be earned by actually playing the game with the option to purchase those RNG loot boxes for a chance to bypass that.

[Turial.1293]

https://kotaku.com/meet-the-19-year-old-who-spent-over-10-000-on-microtra-1820854953

[Astralporing.1957]

@Battledoll.1803 said:I don't see any problem with skin RNG box being sold. This is a business and people at Anet need to make their living.

Somalian pirates are also running a business and need to make a living. For some reason other people do not seem to like their business model, though. Now, i'm not saying Anet's as bad as Somalian pirates, merely pointing out that how you make your money is also important - some methods just won't do.

[Taralom.9562]

my issue comes with the idea of the RNG covering all the different kinds of mounts, I used 3 of them and got 2 skimmer's and lastly a jackal, bought the gems with gold so no real wallet loss, but decided to stop there, because i hate skimmers, don't like the feel of them, and was very dissatisfied to see 2 of them pop up, i feel you would get more money (because that is literally all you cared about) in at least dividing the adoption licenses into the different mount kinds. I'm very discouraged and put off the idea of ever throwing my money at this kind of shady business practise when only one side of the transaction is guaranteed satisfaction. What kind of business is that, you should aspire to be like CD Projekt Red or at least be the mid point between EA Battlefront 2 and W3:TWH.

The fact that EVERY mount is highlighted by:ultimately, you dissapoint

ultimately, you dissapoint and lose more people than you gain from it.

i would have liked to have seen a couple mounts be aqquired from gameplay, seeing so many mounts when i recently came back to the game encouraged me for a few seconds. shame.

[Ronorra.1530]

@Mike O Brien.4613 said:

It’s been a challenging but wonderful goal to support live development and Living World purely through optional microtransactions, and it’s your support that’s made that possible. Thank you.

You might want to look the word micro up in a dictionary. And I have supported plenty by buying gliders and outfits but I feel incredibly stupid for even doing that now that you made it clear that was not enough and you rather go for those so called whales that bring in the big bucks. And I will never be a whale and spend my money rather on something else that is more worth it. I wished I knew all this before buying PoF. Was disappointed by Hot, now PoF...

[ananda.5946]

I like the new system much better than the black lion chest and dye kit systems. I’ve purchased two adoption licenses so far and will buy more eventually. I’ve never purchased a black lion key or a dye kit and, unless the way they work changes radically, I never will. So, big improvement on the new random system. .

[Turial.1293]

$100 loot boxes (but entirely optional) have been done, Anet were to slow to make this cash grab, oh well. Guess we will just have to stick with the fugly mounts for now.