Earning mount skins in game

[RadiantWolf.2058]

...Is not likely to happen but join me on this thought experiment.

 

Mount skins acquired in game could from all sorts of content:

1.  Fractals
2.  Raids
3.  Dungeons
4. Collections
5.  World bosses
6.  Crafting
7.  Fishing
8.  Random treasure chests

 

They could be very, very rare drops. It would keep people doing this sort of content, making it more likely for newer players to find groups. Mount skins keep content evergreen.

 

I can see the mounts earned in game usually having interesting shapes and lore appropriate themes that fit them into the world. Particularly flashy and highly detailed skins would be from very hard content and the shop (even in this hypothetical GW2 is still a non-sub game and needs flashy things in the gem store). Multiple dye channels could help people customize even the less flashy mounts. Getting the start of a mount collection like this would make many people more likely to spend on mount skins in the gem store later. When they are shop only they don't feel like a fully integrated part of the game and people will ignore them... Not all people, but some.

 

Is this something you would like to see? If this happened (it very likely will not) what sorts of mounts would you enjoy seeing that would fit in with game lore? Where would they drop?

 

 

[Scalacious.4139]

You can literally earn mount skins within the game right now by collecting gold and exchanging it for gems.

[Sarius.9285]

yea, having actual mounts drop and not just gold/materials would be amazing

[costepj.5120]

As per the previous reply, I have many mount skins all earned by playing the game then exchanging the gold earned for gems. That way I can choose exactly which skins I want to go for rather than relying on drops.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

Yeah, missed opportunity. Loved to do quests or boss farming in other games to get a special mount skin. Here is one single earnable mount skin (the guild warclaw). It's ridiculous and greedy.

[Danikat.8537]

1 hour ago, RadiantWolf.2058 said:

They could be very, very rare drops. It would keep people doing this sort of content, making it more likely for newer players to find groups. Mount skins keep content evergreen.

At this point you lost my interest. My other MMO tried the old fashioned "very, very rare drops will keep people logging in and playing indefinitely" and what happens is you get people who are so sick of an area they never want to see it again but fall into the sunk cost fallacy where they feel like they have to keep trying because maybe if they get it the time they've already wasted will be justified. When (if) they get the drop they're not celebrating that they got the cool thing they wanted but that they never have to go into that part of the game ever again.

It's also not a good experience for new players, because what you get is someone so fed up with doing the same dungeon or whatever that they just want to get it over with as fast as possible. They'll race through everything, possibly berating the rest of the group for not keeping up and otherwise not talking because what is there to talk about? They've seen it 50 times already, and anyway, typing or speaking is just a distraction from getting this over with for another day.

That MMO has been gradually toning it down, adding systems to guarantee you'll get the drops you need or other ways to get the same items to mitigate the original system, and that actually seems to be making people feel more positive about doing dungeons and more inclined to try them.

I think GW2 made absolutely the right choice by going with a token system from the start, where instead of praying that you finally get the rare drop you've been hoping for you get tokens each time you do a dungeon, raid, Fractal etc. so you can gradually save up for the things you want, knowing you'll be able to get it after a certain number of runs.

Admittedly that's not massively different to the system we've already got where you earn gold and exchange it for mount skins (and if you want some element of randomness you can buy an RNG licence), but I think it could work to have mounts specific to different areas of the game which fit the theme of that area and are purchased with the appropriate currency, like we already do with weapons and armour skins. 

[ProtoGunner.4953]

Just now, Danikat.8537 said:

At this point you lost my interest. My other MMO tried the old fashioned "very, very rare drops will keep people logging in and playing indefinitely" and what happens is you get people who are so sick of an area they never want to see it again but fall into the sunk cost fallacy where they feel like they have to keep trying because maybe if they get it the time they've already wasted will be justified. When (if) they get the drop they're not celebrating that they got the cool thing they wanted but that they never have to go into that part of the game ever again.

It's also not a good experience for new players, because what you get is someone so fed up with doing the same dungeon or whatever that they just want to get it over with as fast as possible. They'll race through everything, possibly berating the rest of the group for not keeping up and otherwise not talking because what is there to talk about? They've seen it 50 times already, and anyway, typing or speaking is just a distraction from getting this over with for another day.

That MMO has been gradually toning it down, adding systems to guarantee you'll get the drops you need or other ways to get the same items to mitigate the original system, and that actually seems to be making people feel more positive about doing dungeons and more inclined to try them.

I think GW2 made absolutely the right choice by going with a token system from the start, where instead of praying that you finally get the rare drop you've been hoping for you get tokens each time you do a dungeon, raid, Fractal etc. so you can gradually save up for the things you want, knowing you'll be able to get it after a certain number of runs.

Admittedly that's not massively different to the system we've already got where you earn gold and exchange it for mount skins (and if you want some element of randomness you can buy an RNG licence), but I think it could work to have mounts specific to different areas of the game which fit the theme of that area and are purchased with the appropriate currency, like we already do with weapons and armour skins. 

No, it's not the same if you have a questline (similar to the Skyscale for example) to earn a mount in game. By your standards you would be fine to earn Legendary stuff just with Gems.

[Danikat.8537]

Just now, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

No, it's not the same if you have a questline (similar to the Skyscale for example) to earn a mount in game. By your standards you would be fine to earn Legendary stuff just with Gems.

Not the same as what? I went through a few different scenarios in that post.

(Also we can get legendary weapons with gems, by converting them to gold.)

[ProtoGunner.4953]

3 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Not the same as what? I went through a few different scenarios in that post.

(Also we can get legendary weapons with gems, by converting them to gold.)

Crap you're right.

Regarding mounts. True the low drop dungeon boss acquisition may be not the best idea, although it's a great sensation when you get it. But in other MMOs there are quest lines and after a few days or weeks you get your mount and I would love to have that.

[Scalacious.4139]

44 minutes ago, ProtoGunner.4953 said:

Crap you're right.

Regarding mounts. True the low drop dungeon boss acquisition may be not the best idea, although it's a great sensation when you get it. But in other MMOs there are quest lines and after a few days or weeks you get your mount and I would love to have that.

Why don't you just play the content you enjoy and use the gold generated to buy mount skins? You could even come up with a quest to role-play and legitimise how you got that skin. Being able to buy virtually any skin through gold is perfect to give every player the opportunity to get the skins in their own individual way of playing.

[ProtoGunner.4953]

35 minutes ago, Scalacious.4139 said:

Why don't you just play the content you enjoy and use the gold generated to buy mount skins? You could even come up with a quest to role-play and legitimise how you got that skin. Being able to buy virtually any skin through gold is perfect to give every player the opportunity to get the skins in their own individual way of playing.

It's different and I buy the mounts be cause I can easily afford it and I need the gold for other stuff. Don't you get it? Where does the majority of the players come from or are you valiantly defending the game? It reminds me of the lack of mounts before 2017 when the majority of forum writers always told the pro-mount faction how redundant and not necessary it is. 

I am not against skins in the shop, but we have 300 mount skins and one single skin is available via quest (besides the basic skins). Quests and other ways to get at least SOME skins would be a win-win (longer playing hours aka more revenue - yes).

[Sarius.9285]

I honestly think we should have more mount skins tied to achievements and "side quests" similar to the skyscale, it just feels very different unlocking something through a well made quest, then just farming the same content over and over to simply purchase it in a shop

[Scalacious.4139]

9 minutes ago, Sarius.9285 said:

I honestly think we should have more mount skins tied to achievements and "side quests" similar to the skyscale, it just feels very different unlocking something through a well made quest, then just farming the same content over and over to simply purchase it in a shop

Create your own quests! If you want to have a mount skin that looks like the Exalted, for example, visit different places in Tarir and in the jungle in general. Defeat the Octovine a few times and do other quests and metas in the area. Over a few days and week you should have enough gold to buy the skin and have some story reason why you just got that skin (even if you bought it in the shop). It's still a role-playing game and you don't do much different with the one I described than with your "official" quest. In the Skyscale, you also just travelled from place to place and did a few quests.

[god fragment.5716]

I believe that rare infusions cover the endgame grind in the same way mount skins do in other games.

 

Mount and other skins are gem store exclusive are there so people buy them with real money and keep the game financially going. 

[Danikat.8537]

To simplify my earlier post: I'm not opposed to the idea of earning mount skins in-game. I'm opposed to the idea of adding very, very rare drops to repetitive content and especially the idea that it's a good incentive for players to repeat it. There's nothing fun about being stuck grinding the same thing over and over with no guarantee it will ever pay off.

At least with gold there's multiple ways to get it so if you're bored with one you can do something else instead. I think that's part of why they simplified the dungeon tokens, everything I want or need from dungeons always seems to come from Honor of the Waves or Twilight Arbor so when I found myself faced with doing multiple runs of the same 4 paths again I decided to find something else to use instead, even though I was guaranteed to get tokens. Now I can do any dungeons and get the items I need or want, which is a lot nicer.

A collection or whatever for mount skins would be ok if it was a guaranteed reward. Or buying them with the various currencies tied to specific areas of the game. Not hoping for a random drop.

[Ashantara.8731]

I have no need of further mount skins, I already own enough IMO, so this wouldn't attract me more towards specific contents.

... unless it's a horse skin, of course!😄

[Gibson.4036]

I agree that the extremely rare drop design is not fun and promotes unhealthy gameplay. It’s the kind of thing that made me want a different kind of MMO.

Extremely rare drops often get sold because they’re worth a lot and the people who want them just buy them. So you’re back to farming gold anyway.

It would be nice to have a few mount skins for each mount than can be gained with story or achievements.

I don’t know why ArenaNet hasn’t done this. It’s easier to resist buying gem store skins if you have just stuck to the standard models. Just having received the free one yesterday, I can feel a change in how I view mount skins.

Once the giveaway is over, it’d be good marketing to provide a way for every player to encounter mount skins. Having to make a choice from a limited selection would get us looking at the rest of the skins that have been offered and thinking we might want to pick up a few more.

[yoni.7015]

Mount skins should stay in the gem store. Now you can play the content you like to get gold to buy the skin you like and you are not forced to play specific content in order to get the skin.

[Borked.6824]

I do the currency build+spend in real life.  I'd rather do something immersive and authentic for my rewards here.  The "just use your gold" argument is a lazy excuse for a lazy system.  

[Scalacious.4139]

6 minutes ago, Borked.6824 said:

I do the currency build+spend in real life.  I'd rather do something immersive and authentic for my rewards here.  The "just use your gold" argument is a lazy excuse for a lazy system.  

You get gold for almost everything you do in this game, so by all means, farm you gold in an authentic and immersive way.

[soul.9651]

2 minutes ago, Scalacious.4139 said:

You get gold for almost everything you do in this game, so by all means, farm you gold in an authentic and immersive way.

How about 0 gold mount skins but instead u buy those with magnetite shards and ufe or dungeon currency, or get it from achivements something similar like free legendary amulet. Why people on this forum embracing mtx so much too, only few buys mount skins with gold nowadays, everyone swipes their cards either to buy gems directly or buy hundrends of accounts for multiboxing for gold

[Scalacious.4139]

2 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

I have no need of further mount skins, I already own enough IMO, so this wouldn't attract me more towards specific contents.

... unless it's a horse skin, of course!😄

Now that I think of it, it is kind of weird that you can't ride a horse, since they are like the animal to ride on. 🤔
Maybe as a Warclaw or Jackal skin someday.

[Dawdler.8521]

14 minutes ago, Borked.6824 said:

I do the currency build+spend in real life.  I'd rather do something immersive and authentic for my rewards here.  The "just use your gold" argument is a lazy excuse for a lazy system.  

Then everything is lazy?

There's no difference between doing WvW for WvW currency so you can WvW stuff, dungeons for dungeon currencies so you can buy dungeon stuff, raid for raid currencies so you can buy raid stuff, fractals for fractal currencies so you can buy fractal stuff and.. well literally buy anything for the common currency - gold. 

[Scalacious.4139]

1 minute ago, soul.9651 said:

How about 0 gold mount skins but instead u buy those with magnetite shards and ufe or dungeon currency, or get it from achivements something similar like free legendary amulet. Why people on this forum embracing mtx so much too, only few buys mount skins with gold nowadays, everyone swipes their cards either to buy gems directly or buy hundrends of accounts for multiboxing for gold

Because gold is the perfect currency, as it is universally earned. If you lock mount skins behind raid currency, only raiders will get them and you get complains from all other players. But everybody can earn gold.
The only thing that would somewhat be fair is that if all modes, like sPvP, WvW, PvE and OW get their own set of mount skins, so almost everybody as some way or another to get them.

[Asum.4960]

I don't agree with the super rare drop concept - at that point it's just luck, which imo is almost as bad as just store bought when it comes to "pride and accomplishment" (thanks EA for making that a meme..) of earning something. 

I do think Anet missed an opportunity there though, same with Glider skins in HoT, but even Weapon, Armor, Back skins in general. 

 

Just earning gold and then carrying that gold to the store might be more convenient for the player, but convenience always comes at a very real cost to game integrity. 

 

Working in an office all day to earn money to be able to go to a store to buy a painting of a beautiful mountain scene, just isn't the same as setting out on an adventure to travel there yourself to paint it. 

It's just much easier, sure, but equally less satisfying and memorable. 

 

There is a very real difference to seeing someone with a prestige item ingame and knowing exactly what they did to earn it, where in the game world they earned it, what content it's tied to, etc., and just seeing a fancy store skin.

 

There is definitely room for and merit in both, but I agree it's a shame that GW2 is so lacking in Prestige Items that feel rooted within the game world and are connected to specific accomplishments, areas and content. 

 

As so often with convenience features, it's imo something many players think they want, but not really (basically the immersive, engaging and breathing world that is sometimes annoying vs. the superficial, vapid and dull world that's always convenient). Then again, it's an easy position to justify considering everything nice that isn't store bound generally is a massively boring, convoluted achievement system grind.

But there is definitely a part of the loot/reward experience missing in GW2, of fun and valuable loot drops and just straight forward but challenging reward journeys, with even their own merit beyond the reward.

 

Edited August 31, 2022 by Asum.4960