Guild Wars 2 - Is It Time to Say Goodbye to Black Lion Chests (Lootboxes)? - MMORPG.com

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Guild Wars 2 - Is It Time to Say Goodbye to Black Lion Chests (Lootboxes)? - MMORPG.com

It is the age of the Loot Box. In their simplest form they are miniature RNG loot containers, but in their most devious form they are Pay to Play slot machines with deceiving rewards. Guild Wars 2 has implemented these loot boxes in the form of Black Lion Chests for a very long time, and with loot boxes under the microscope both by gamers and governments alike, is it time that we say goodbye to Black Lion Chests for good?

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Megilindir

I've been playing since beta and never seen the 4th box appear when opening a BLC. This 25 chest opening is crazy luck in my standards.

I never found the items in BLCs to be useful or appealing cosmetically. Never needed to open one and probably opened something like 20 chests or so since the beta. Got very lucky once getting the fire breathing quiver/ bow package in 3 keys.

I love my default springer.

Aeander

I've never cared about BLC's, given that it's usually much cheaper to buy their exclusive skins directly off the trading post. They only started to annoy me once they became seasonal with rare, non-tradeable skins. 

I would be happy whether they leave or not. They have no impact on my play experience.

Panther2103

Honestly I've never even had the urge to pay for anything in these chests. They don't really have much I care about in them, and you get plenty of keys to open them just doing the story quest. I forgot they even existed to be honest.

ScottJeslis

I've never had good luck with any loot boxes personally in any game, especially Neverwinter. I just try to stay away from them and live with the fact I'll never have some of that cool "stuff" lol.

Octagon7711

I've also been playing the game since beta and have probably opened 10 loot chests during that time.  They have been for the most part unobtrusive.

Reilath

i quit the game 2 weeks ago because of the Black lion chest, i opened 31 chest within a week and it constantly rotated to the same useless shit, out of 31 chest i got like 10 Large Crafting Bag and 10 Toy Miniature eggs??!! I lost it and quit the game.Nothing will bring me back into it again.Not a single freakin weapon/armor/mount skin..

verinta

Reilath said:

i quit the game 2 weeks ago because of the Black lion chest, i opened 31 chest within a week and it constantly rotated to the same useless shit, out of 31 chest i got like 10 Large Crafting Bag and 10 Toy Miniature eggs??!! I lost it and quit the game.Nothing will bring me back into it again.Not a single freakin weapon/armor/mount skin..

what..?

Theocritus

I draw the line at any lootboxes, especially if they are wanting RL cash to buy keys to open them...Biggest ripoff in gaming really.

APThug

I think the black lion chests are fine. I'd rather they focus on other parts of the game that need more attention.

Big.Daddy.Samedi

In GW2 defense you can farm the keys from what I am told... plus you can buy the gems in game to buy keys....

I still hate loot boxes.. .but GW2's are at least tolerable. I would love to see them go.
See the thing is that if I have to deal with a cash shop I at least want to know what I am paying for... I don't use boosters or shortcuts obtained from the chest.. they sit in my bank gathering dust.

slowz2secret

How people says this game is not pay to win? i mean, not for the lootboxes things, since if you enter the game and if you have money you can get the best gear in some days, them go to the wvw and destroy people's. you can even buy the legendaries with real money, buy gem then convert to gold, so if you have money you can be strong in some days and the people that has not money need to fkedup their life to get a legendary and all these shit lol

Aeander

slowz2secret said:

How people says this game is not pay to win? i mean, not for the lootboxes things, since if you enter the game and if you have money you can get the best gear in some days, them go to the wvw and destroy people's. you can even buy the legendaries with real money, buy gem then convert to gold, so if you have money you can be strong in some days and the people that has not money need to fkedup their life to get a legendary and all these shit lol

Because it's incredibly easy to earn that same level of power. 

A new account can level a character to max and have competitive exotic gear within 3-7 days. A full set of ascended gear (a roughly 5-10% boost in performance) can plausibly be earned within a month of starting the game.

Legendaries have no impact on performance.

Competitive PvP scales everyone to the same level and gear score so the entire concept of P2W doesn't exist in this format.

Minute differences in gear score are irrelevant in WvW and usually disregarded in PvE.

I don't see pay to win, because it isn't there. There isn't a single MMO on the market with a more level gear score.

bcbully

BCBully (2012) - “These are not items in the cash shop. This is buying a lotto ticket and hoping to win.”

https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/367855/black-lion-chests-event/p3

Back then they called me a troll. I even got a temp perma ban and had to beg to be let back on the site for saying stuff like this.

Octagon7711

The loot boxes I did open were never bought.  They were drops and so were the keys that were also given as bonuses.  Don't know if they still do it but just by creating a new character and doing the opening quest you got a chest and a key as a reward and some people were farming them that way.  But you didn't have to farm or buy them and when they dropped you could easily sell them on the auction house so as not to clutter your inventory.  It's a very fair system.

Octagon7711

Aeander said:

slowz2secret said:

How people says this game is not pay to win? i mean, not for the lootboxes things, since if you enter the game and if you have money you can get the best gear in some days, them go to the wvw and destroy people's. you can even buy the legendaries with real money, buy gem then convert to gold, so if you have money you can be strong in some days and the people that has not money need to fkedup their life to get a legendary and all these shit lol

Because it's incredibly easy to earn that same level of power. 

A new account can level a character to max and have competitive exotic gear within 3-7 days. A full set of ascended gear (a roughly 5-10% boost in performance) can plausibly be earned within a month of starting the game.

Legendaries have no impact on performance.

Competitive PvP scales everyone to the same level and gear score so the entire concept of P2W doesn't exist in this format.

Minute differences in gear score are irrelevant in WvW and usually disregarded in PvE.

I don't see pay to win, because it isn't there. There isn't a single MMO on the market with a more level gear score.

Plus with some expansions they throw in a character slot and an instant level 80 boost.  You can play around with the new level 80 in a zone all you wanted can can decide to make it permanent or just save it for another time.  I've got all kinds of boosts sitting around in my bank and could probably level a few toons to max in mins.  It's a good reward for leveling previous characters, you don't have to level again unless really you want to after the first few times.

rojoArcueid

Still my favorite mmo since it launched and i've never purchased a key with real money to open a BLC. I opened a few with dropped keys and got some cash shop loot i already had.

I never welcome them in my games.

Ikeda

No but it was one of the many reasons I walked away from GW2. Maybe I'll go back and play but it certainly didn't entertain me like GW1 + running those quests for my Monument did.

maskedweasel

Big.Daddy.Samedi said:

In GW2 defense you can farm the keys from what I am told... plus you can buy the gems in game to buy keys....

I still hate loot boxes.. .but GW2's are at least tolerable. I would love to see them go.
See the thing is that if I have to deal with a cash shop I at least want to know what I am paying for... I don't use boosters or shortcuts obtained from the chest.. they sit in my bank gathering dust.

Eh, "farm" in the sense that you can earn 1 per week through a story quest, get them on very rare drops, or earn them for map completions, which are random on map completion, there isn't a particular map where they are guaranteed to drop.  

You would have a better chance farming the gold to transfer to gems to get the chests which would largely be a waste of gold and gems.

maskedweasel

Octagon7711 said:

I've also been playing the game since beta and have probably opened 10 loot chests during that time.  They have been for the most part unobtrusive.

Unobtrusive to say the least, I think if the chests are pointless, rare keys, rare chance to get anything you actually want, most players not even considering them as options for monetary gain, then they should certainly consider making them more enticing or opening them up to a broader player base. 

I rarely get keys, and I've completed map completion 4 times, finishing up on my 5th soon, so I get keys probably more than most, and I have to say.... I'm unimpressed, but unfortunately they are the only worthwhile rewards in a map completion chest, so why make them scarce? Just make them guaranteed rewards for any map completed? Who are they hurting?

Octagon7711

The chests contain weapons skins and non-fighting pets, I believe.  Something that pet and skin collectors would be interested in but nothing to increase stats if I remember correctly.

SalmonMan

Teleports to friends are great for getting shitty alts to farm spots.

Scot

Lets say goodbye to gambling in gaming because that's what this is.

evolgrinz

Buying the keys is not worth it, but doing map completions for a chance at one and the weekly lvl 10 story mission for one is worth doing to get your hands on keys and just put the keys in your bank, until they offer something nice you want and then use them all.

Reverielle

Scot said:

Lets say goodbye to gambling in gaming because that's what this is.

You're exactly right, that is precisely what they are. It's actually fairly sad that gaming companies are doing this.

Asch126

If the BLC was removed and the items added to both the gem store and to the world for us to EARN, it would be a far better game.