RNG, The Gemstore, and You.

[Alaris]

RNG = Random number generator. That is, gambling. An atrocious practice when it comes to real money changing hands if you ask me. If you pay real money, you should be guaranteed to at least get your monies worth.

It's only bad imo because there is no good "for sure" alternative. I think it would be fine if you could either (a) buy random at a discount, which is good when when starting out collections of e.g. minis or dyes, and (b) buy specific ones at a slightly more expensive price, which is good when you are missing a few or you want a specific one.

it's more than cool to educate others.

100% agreed.

It's common practice in science to spell out acronyms the first time you use them, even fairly common ones. I like that.

[Raye]

I edited the OP to have the acronym spelled out on first occurrence (aside from the title itself)

Also Dom, I didn't mean to say you should have known better, I was just answering your question and trying to excuse as to why shawn didn't spell it out.

[Domitilde]

Thanks, Raye. Old farts like me don't always keep up with tech terms.

And I found Shawn's post fascinating. I have been torn with wanting to support ArenaNet but just have felt that my money is not well-spent in the Gem store and Black Lion thingy. I have bought gems, but felt bad return on my investment and am glad to know I am not alone in that thinking.

[Смерть]

Yay, finally Profane went on sale - *nab*

[shawn]

Yay, finally Profane went on sale - *nab*

/look of disapproval

What did I just say!? I didn't slave over a hot keyboard for an hour for you to dismiss it all!

[Fae]

I was sort of expecting a town clothing wardrobe at Wintersday, especially with the new outfits. I'd like to think we'd get one at some point in the near future, and yes, the HoM would be great for this. I'd love to be able to clean out my HoM, get rid of the messy bricks and debris, give it a good dusting and put my new shinies on display >_>

I try not to buy into the RNG content, but goddamnit I always get suckered in with the shinies. Especially when Quaggans are involved. Thankfully I got my Quaggan quite early on.

At least I've stopped buying Black lion keys but still go squee when I get the odd drop or one from a Personal Story.

[Lady Rhonwyn]

I will buy one set of the specialty town clothing (not the hats, the full sets) and maybe a mini. Not the "general" town clothing and normal mini packs. I also won't buy a set of minis so I might maybe be able to get another one from the forge. I will also buy those rare transmutation stones.

I must know what I buy, I won't gamble on what I'll get (that's why I won't ever buy those chests or keys or even mini or dye packs).

And no idea how to get that quaggan mini thing. I'd have loved to have one, but I couldn't find it in the store.

[nkuvu]

And no idea how to get that quaggan mini thing. I'd have loved to have one, but I couldn't find it in the store.

According to the wiki there are two ways you could have gotten it:

* Via the Mystic Forge: combine any three Wintersday miniatures from the Wintersday Mystery Box with 50 Wads of Enchanted Stuffing. (The applicable minis are Mini Festive Golem, Mini Snowman, or Mini Infinirarium; you can use duplicates.)

* Wintersday Mystery Box (extremely low chance)

I don't know the chance at getting a minipet from the mystery boxes, but I know it wasn't high. It was a horrid implementation.

(more in general response to the thread:)
I'm happy that I got my character slots early. I spent in game coin for those, with prices for gems being somewhat low.

I also bought two sets of Krytan armor for medium armor (yay no long coats) but I'm not thrilled with how much inventory space they take up. Particularly since I don't want to really use all the parts, but for those I paid real money for -- not excited about just throwing them away.

With in game coin I've picked up enough gems to get a few town clothes as well. The pirate captain set looks much better on my warrior than the default dress, and I thought I'd like the witch's outfit for my necromancer (turns out that I really don't, but the broom is fun for my asura, so not a total loss). But again, I have pieces left over that I'm not using that just take up space.

I'm happy with the makeover kits, but really that's about it.

Though I can see a use for revive orbs if you're into jumping puzzles -- I did the Hidden Garden one in Mount Maelstrom, for example, and it was a long run back when I missed a jump. Plus killing a veteran (again) to get back in there. The orbs would be convenient to have, but still not enough to make me want to spend real money on them.

In the end, I doubt I'll be buying gems in the future. Whether it's in game coin or real world money. There's just not anything interesting in the gem store, and the things that are have poor implementations. Just like shawn already pointed out.

[shawn]

According to the wiki there are two ways you could have gotten it:

I don't know the chance at getting a minipet from the mystery boxes, but I know it wasn't high. It was a horrid implementation.

According to drop rate research, it was about 2% to get a normal mini, and probably 0.5% or less to get a Festivoo, as none of the researchers got one. One person opened up 165 boxes and got 5 minis - that's 80 dollars worth of boxes. For what it's worth, the breakdown was:
45 festive golem tonics
53 reindeer tonics
29 snowman tonics
16 wintersday dye packs
15 festive mortars
1 festive golem
2 snowmen
2 infinirariums
1 weapon claim ticket
1 festive hat

Now I'm willing to bet those were probably purchased with in game gold, but does that make it right? What if someone actually spent 80 dollars and wound up with items that worked out to be less than half that value?

Surely there's a better implementation.

[satenia]

Personally I do not mind paying a monthly subscription if a game is good. From that point of view, I was expecting to spend something like a monthly subscription worth of cash on the gemstore over time, with the advantage that I can choose to take longer breaks at any time without financial consequences. The current implementation of the gemstore leaves me with mixed feelings though.

On one side Anet did a fairly decent job with the game and account-wide things like char slots and bank tabs is something I have happily payed for. Then there is the annoying stuff like char-bound inv-size and armor skins I will eventually have to re-purchase. And well... there is the drops lottery from both festival- and BL chests where I feel close to being cheated and this ruins the overall experience.

I think there was an improvement from Halloween to Wintersday though, so my hopes for a better gemstore are not yet lost... it's true though that using the current one might give Anet the impression that they can get away with it.