This may be unpopular, but an easy Skyscale mount?

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

4 hours ago, Astewart.8415 said:

You are playing with semantics. At it's core, it takes advantage of the same dark psychology traits that underpin gambling. There is no other reason to do it this way.
The psychology traits this takes advantage of are
Uncertainty and dopamine : the uncertainty of receiving a desired item creates anticipation, releasing dopamine and gives players a small high of anticipation. The same high they experience when gambling. 
Chasing losses - Not getting the egg in the first nest can also trigger dopamine, as the player then drives quickly with more anticipation to the next Nest, and the next nest .. this builds up a little feedback loop for this part of the game that keeps the player engaged and moves them forward to the next collection step. The fact that they know they will get the Egg eventually actually feeds into this, it doesn't remove the dark psychology from this activity as you stated in your response. 
The illusion of control - Players think that the next Nest will be THE nest, or believe they can select the right Nest and strategize around that. So you build engagement there as well. 

It's the same dark psychology traits as gambling, is the point. It doesn't need to be exactly like a slot machine for those traits to apply.  To go back to my initial post, I'd like to break out of that loop and just buy the mount in the Gem store, or go through a narrative driven quest to get it. 

Look, for mobile games there are experts that study this, and who run A/B tests to get just the right mix of reward vs time spent to exploit the maximum number of players. This is a field of study, don't act as though it isn't part of our Free to Play games and that it doesn't factor heavily into our game mechanics. 10 Potential Careers in Video Games for Psychologists | Indeed.com

Gambling is not knowing the result, not knowing whether you'll win or lose, whether you'll leave with more money than you came or no money at all. It's not knowing what you will win. The skyscale egg achievement step has none of that. You do know the result: you'll find the egg. You lose nothing but time and you're personal time is only of value to yourself, not to others.

It's funny that you say I'm playing with semantics, since you are the one trying to corrupt the definition of gambling. Maybe it's because you are susceptible to these tactics so you are hyper aware of them. You've seem to put a great a deal of thought into it, at least. Like I said in my reply to another user, finding the skyscale egg is more akin to a game of hide and seek than it is to gambling. There are only so many places one can hide and eventually the seeker will have checked them all. The only unknown factor is the time it takes to find what you're looking for, but you are guaranteed to find it. There is no such guarantee in gambling. Even if you play a dozen rounds of blackjack and win once, you could still have lost more in the other 11 rounds than you won in that 1 round. That's gambling. Finding the egg is not. Especially not since you have a second option to get a skyscale without RNG involved. I don't see a casino with a blackjack table where everything is up for grabs and one where you're guaranteed to win. That's simply not how gambling works. Besides, with what you're describing you should have a problem with all forms of RNG, so the skyscale egg should be the least of your problems with GW2.

[DeathPanel.8362]

On 6/4/2024 at 3:28 PM, Astewart.8415 said:

This may be unpopular, but what I really want in the expansion is a way to get the Skyscale mount without  a week of grinding. I'd even pay gems or something, but to be honest what has kept me from coming back to the game is looking at the grind for these now almost mandatory mounts on Youtube. 

It's never been easier to get the skyscale.  It's also not on theme for Janthir expansion.

[corwin.8356]

It's the Legendary equivalent for mounts; it should be hard. I hate how easy it was for SotO. But since WoW co-oped the design they felt they had to make it accessible. Plus the SotO maps almost require it.

[Bladestrom.6425]

15 hours ago, Astewart.8415 said:

My guy, it is gambling. It is the exact Dark Psychology elements that are applied to mobile gaming. 
Sunk Cost Fallacy, Fear of missing out
Addictive Mechanics - addictive loops such as daily rewards, timed events. 
Going to each Nest hoping to find the egg, and not finding the egg...or sometimes finding the egg, is manipulating chance and gambling psychology to hook the player. That's the only reason you don't find the egg every time. The long collection loops are also exploiting dark psychology traits and addictive mechanics. 

So that's why the Skyscale is designed the way it is, rather than a series of scripted, narrative questing that grants you the Skyscale at the end. OR a simple purchase in the store.  

 

My issue here is  poor comprehension of the word gambling and conflating it with a gripe about collections that involve items with low drop rates.  There is nothing wrong with low drop rates, low drop rates do indeed hook the player and that does not mean its bad as it makes it rewarding as long as its not overused, and in GW2 its hardly used. 

More importantly rolling a dice with no material risk IS NOT gambling.  The reason bad gambling in games  such as cynical  pay-to-win and bad Loot boxes survive is that there is so much ignorant woke noise by people who don't understand the difference between gambling (bad risk v reward) and chance mechanics that it muddies the waters and protects those who cynically apply Psychology elements in a Dark manner.  There is also an element of the modern  'I want it just when i decide i want it' culture going on here.

And again as per above, Rolling a dice at each nest to get an egg is not gambling as there is no risk.

Edited June 13 by Bladestrom.6425

[KindredPhoenyx.8976]

Not willing to put in the effort, you don't deserve it.

I hate this mentality of people needing instant gratification for everything they do these days. Doing SOTO for the Skyscale is not that hard: toughen up and go do it, or don't play this game and find something more befitting to you instead of spending your days whining on the forums about no insta-dragon (or any other mounts for that matter).

Someone might think I'm gatekeeping, and sure, I am what you say I am, but its the way of life.

Edited June 14 by KindredPhoenyx.8976

[SuavePuppy.2809]

On 6/12/2024 at 10:53 AM, Astewart.8415 said:

So that's why the Skyscale is designed the way it is, rather than a series of scripted, narrative questing that grants you the Skyscale at the end. OR a simple purchase in the store.  

So you're saying they are using the same tactics as mobile games, while complaining that they didn't go all the way and do exactly what mobile games do, which is sell you the solution with real money

[Teknomancer.4895]

If you want the mount, do one of the two acquisition methods.

If you don't want to do those things, then forget about the mount.

It really is that simple, and complaining about it here will change nothing.

[Ashantara.8731]

On 6/6/2024 at 9:53 PM, Astewart.8415 said:

If this is true, then those youtube videos I've been looking at are very, very misleading! Also people in this thread have said it took them weeks to get their Skyscale.

It took me two days via SotO on my alt account. 🤷‍♀️