Curse

Traveller · Feb 09, 2008, 11:20 AM // 11:20

Like many others, I gave away numerous mini pigs last year, and that was fine, there were several campaigns to do so and spread the holiday spirit. I don't regret it, since it was a fun event, but I still kinda feel that this year ANet rewarded those who kept the pigs for themselves rather than giving them around. I had two pigs lying around and I didn't feel like buying the extra, so I did the same than last year and gave mine away to someone who was missing two.

Although the celestial rat makes up for my lack of pig.

Numa Pompilius · Feb 09, 2008, 11:32 AM // 11:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gli

The world can't help but wonder how much MPP stock Dick Cheney and friends still have stashed away.

That's exactly it, and Gailes answer doesn't adress it: WHY on earth would ANet care what the price of minipigs was? Yes it was a commodity, a commodity solely being traded between players and without any other effect on in-game economy.

Minipig price was none of ANets business. By stepping in and artificially fixing the price of minipgs, ANet corrupted the game economy. Worse; as the only reason to raise the price of minipigs is to enrich people with lots of minipigs, that invites speculation that ANet acted on the behalf of some player or group of players with a lot of minipigs.

The people who say that ANet stepped in because they wanted to adjust minipig price to "what they intended" are missing the entire point: this is a functioning in-game market. It's not ANets place to determine the price of individual commodities. Even the people who say they've been punished for being nice are partly missing the point - prices fluctuate and you knew that when you gave away your minipigs, the problem here isn't the change in price but that "the government", ANet, stepped in to change it.

And that, that ANet intervenes to change the price of a single commodity for no apparent reason, stinks of corruption.

I said it before I'll say it again: I'm convinced whoever convinced ANet that this was a problem which needed fixing, made millions on this.

JeniM · Feb 09, 2008, 11:40 AM // 11:40

I agree, would an ingame item that can be pass from new or broke player to new or broke player be that bad a thing?

Gli · Feb 09, 2008, 11:50 AM // 11:50

Let's for a minute assume that there actually IS a good reason to implement a way to remove mini pigs from the game. Why do it by offering something impossible to attain by any other means?

If giving people something of value is an unavoidable consequence of some obscure need to cut back on the amount of mini piggies circulating, surely it didn't have to be something exclusive?

fRag_Doll · Feb 09, 2008, 11:55 AM // 11:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

The Miniature Pigs: There are just too many of these "out there" in the overall scope of things. Too many people got them in too many final events last year and they have (or at least had) a rather pitiable value. The fact that too many received them last year is the reason that minis are not the end-event gift this year. Changing that will make things more meaningful on several levels.

No it ****ing won't, it will just piss off all the people that did the right thing and gave them away to people that missed out.
And what is wrong with a mini having a "pitiable value"? Why can't there be some minis that are common as dirt? What the hell is wrong with that?
I still have 2 pigs from last year, I gave away several to friends, guildies, and even strangers during the year. Before this BS started I was planning on giving away (Yes, giving away for free) my last spare pig to someone at the finalie who missed out last year. Now I'll have to wait untill this ****ing collector is removed to ensure it won't be taken under false pretences.

Quote:

The large number of minis is why the designers came up with a nice (and agreeable) means to balance the Miniature Pigs while rewarding players who did have them and did choose to keep them. For if you think about it, the most dedicated miniature collectors are probably the ones for whom a trade-in will mean something, and they are the ones who may still have them, or will be incented to trade for them.

This method is neither "nice" or "agreeable", surely the communities response is a clear indicator of that.
So, let me see if I get this straight. Because I don't hoard multiples of each minature, I'm not a "most dedicated minature collector"? Despite the fact that I still have every minature I've ever gotten barring the pigs I gave away for free?

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A lot of the dissent about the exchange offer seems to center on elements other than the core factor, and that core factor is this: Players have the ability to acquire a new item, which is something that players request all the time.

Some players! Some players have the ability to acquire a new item!
If this was a magazine promotion, or a bloody softdrink promo, I wouldn't have any complaints. But it's not.
This is an in-game event and it is discriminating against players who, for whatever reason, do not have access to an item that is no longer available, and untill recently had next to no value.

Every other minature that is available by in-game means has an equal opportunity basis.(Excluding the new Celestial Rat, and I'm not ****ing happy about that either. This thing is gained purely through luck, if you don't get one before you run out of '08 Luna Fortunes you're SoL.)

Miniature Mallyx from a Coffer of Whispers in the Domain of Anguish.
Miniature Ghostly Hero from the Hall of Heroes victory chest.
Minature Black Moa Chick via a cross-campaign scavenger hunt.
Minature Polar Bear from the chest at the end of the quest The Strength of Snow.
Miniature Greased Lightning for placing in the Top 100 in Rollerbeetle Racing.

Some require huge amounts of luck but everyone, EVERYONE, has a chance to recieve these minis as long as they own the relevent campaigns.
I suck at RBR, and I'm OK with the fact that I'll probably never own that mini. But at least I have the option to try.

My "dissent", is the idiotic restrictions that have been placed on obtaining the new celestial minis.

Redfeather1975 · Feb 09, 2008, 12:06 PM // 12:06

fRag_Doll, the celestial pig is supposed to be rare.
Not everyone is walking around with all the minis. Kanaxai sells for what now?
And people only gave away mini pigs because selling them was impossible and everyone knew last year that something that everyone had access to was literally only worth giving away.

Numa Pompilius · Feb 09, 2008, 12:22 PM // 12:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gli

Let's for a minute assume that there actually IS a good reason to implement a way to remove mini pigs from the game. Why do it by offering something impossible to attain by any other means?

If giving people something of value is an unavoidable consequence of some obscure need to cut back on the amount of mini piggies circulating, surely it didn't have to be something exclusive?

Indeed; one could for instance speculate there's a problem with all-pig HoM's. One obvious way of handling that would have been a collector who accepted MINIPETS, any minipets. 5 minipets for one celestial pig.

As the minipig is cheapest that would have mainly drained the market of minipigs, but also of other (presumably unacceptably) cheap minis like the devourer, and probably even a few expensive ones.

But that's not what they did, they specifically chose to increase the price of one particular, easily hoardable but no longer available, minipet.
Inviting, nay *begging* speculation that they're acting on the behalf of some player or group of players who've got access to ANets ear.
That, the suspicion that there's a player or group of players who can get ANet to intervene in the market to benefit them, is much, much, worse than ANet simply not realizing that most people had given away/sold/trashed excess pigs.

If someone happens to get into a thread with Gaile, please ask here WHY.
WHY was the low price of minipig a problem to ANet?

Navaros · Feb 09, 2008, 12:26 PM // 12:26

The problem with Gaile's analogy is that the price of mini pigs didn't change due to natural factors like "a fluctuation in the economy". They changed by factors akin to "divine intervention" by the devs directly interferring with the value of the item in ways that are not usually ever done. Gaile's analogy would need some divine intervention/hand of God interferrence to be comparable to the mini pig situation.

Also, Amber and Jade have had a pitiable value for a couple of years or so, why isn't divine intervention by the devs done to fix that too? How come mini pigs get special treatment of divine intervention but other items of the game that also have pitiable value detracting their worth do not get equal treatment?

fRag_Doll · Feb 09, 2008, 12:27 PM // 12:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redfeather1975

fRag_Doll, the celestial pig is supposed to be rare.
Not everyone is walking around with all the minis. Kanaxai sells for what now?
And people only gave away mini pigs because selling them was impossible and everyone knew last year that something that everyone had access to was literally only worth giving away.

Last year ANet was happy to give away thousands of minis to players that were simply present in a district that got 100% on the meals.
WTF has changed over the last year? If this is indicitive of what we can expect from ANet, as far as I'm concerned GW2 can go get ****ed.

And BTW, I never said the new pig should be common, just that everyone should have an equal chance of getting one.

Redfeather1975 · Feb 09, 2008, 12:38 PM // 12:38

Honestly threats to not buy GW2 are pointless.
You wouldn't be here swearing if you weren't hopelessly addicted.
If you really are that upset over this to say such things then you should do yourself a favour and uninstall your game and throw it out.

Phoenix Tears · Feb 09, 2008, 12:40 PM // 12:40

they should just give us a repeatable quest, with minipet pigs as reward -.-

It totally sucks, that players are unable to WORK for their celestial pigs, who the **** cares about, when there are too much given out normal minipigs in the game ?
This was anyhow others, with the other magazien promotion pets, like the Asura or the Grey Giant....they also are in huge amounts in the game and had a similar price, like the minipig (~3k Gold)

Anyone about that complaining ? I at least absolutely not, I don't care about that...all minipets should be imo so common like minipigs, so that all collectors, which want to collect all, have at least the chance to do so...without powerselling, powerfarming ect.

I want to work for my celestial pig.. and not pay a ridiculous amount of money foor something, that should be like 20p worth and not more.

Or Anet should put after the event the celestial pig as rare drop into the Zaishen-Chest...

Anet should stop feeding the masses with minipets, which will leed to 100platin + xxx ectos/armbraces sellings...with these stuff they feed only the gold sellers >.> Implement super rare stuff, that has nothing to do with the Hall of Monuments..instead of minipets which count towards a Monument.

like more of those everlasting items or so...thery are much more funny and useful, than minipets at all

but thats only my opinion about all this ...

Those events with new minipets make ever out of Guild Wars > Antisocially Wars whihc only goes about making huge amounts of money..or not ...

events, which are only all about fun for the whole community look different.
All the canthan event is about only are these 2 new minipets and thats sad imo

Numa Pompilius · Feb 09, 2008, 12:59 PM // 12:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shuuda

All this over some crappy lil' Mini Pets, did anyone else get the feeling somewhere along the line that people were overreacting. There just mini pets and just rewards that don't really do anything that great. Is it worth this thread?

Is it worth this thread that ANet intervenes in the economy at the request of some player or players, in order to get financial benefits to that player or players?

You bet your ass it is.

It doesn't matter what the asset is, what matters is that ANet appears to be corrupted, scratching the backs of their in-game pals. What's next? That player or players hoards jade shards and gets ANet to introduce a new kickass armor which requires shards?

Tyla · Feb 09, 2008, 01:02 PM // 13:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

Ok, now this makes me angry...

ANET gave away tons of mini pigs. Some of us were really nice and gave away our mini pigs to those that didn't have any. Now there is a collector for them, and those that gave away their mini pigs to others that were not at the event or who had losing districts are here without mini pigs because we were kind. All those people we gave them to are selling them for...get this... 100k! 100K! WTF? Nice people finish last. Not only do we lose out on any money (which is fine, that was why we gave them away), but now we can't get the new mini using the pig. I call BS on this one, big stinky piles of BS.

Agreed...just got alot of time to myself and read the post - again - BS!

Redfeather1975 · Feb 09, 2008, 01:04 PM // 13:04

If Anet is honestly corrupt Numa, nothing said here will change that.
They'll just cover their tracks better. So it's best to quit playing if you think the people who make this game are bastards.

And tyla salanari, I think Rahja is fooling himself. We didn't give away our mini pigs last year because we were saints. We gave them away because nobody would buy them and it was a waste to either trash them or take up space. There was no divine incentive in giving something worthless away.
Now they can be traded for a shinier version and people are pissed that they missed out on a shiny as a result. It's that simple and that trivial.

freekedoutfish · Feb 09, 2008, 01:12 PM // 13:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

Ok, now this makes me angry...

ANET gave away tons of mini pigs. Some of us were really nice and gave away our mini pigs to those that didn't have any. Now there is a collector for them, and those that gave away their mini pigs to others that were not at the event or who had losing districts are here without mini pigs because we were kind. All those people we gave them to are selling them for...get this... 100k! 100K! WTF? Nice people finish last. Not only do we lose out on any money (which is fine, that was why we gave them away), but now we can't get the new mini using the pig. I call BS on this one, big stinky piles of BS.

If your daft enough to buy a mini pig for 100k, I say go let them!

Anyone who has 100k in storage has to be an experienced player who has been around long enough to know better. Let them be complete idiots!

reetkever · Feb 09, 2008, 01:32 PM // 13:32

Wow everytime I think A-Net can't mess up the prices of things more, they surprise me once again...

Who the hell kept his FIVE mini pigs for an entire year?!?

Nobody in their right minds would stash mini pigs since they were worth nothing. I bet most people had only 1, maybe 2 if they couldn't get rid of it...

And now we need 5 to get this celestial thing? If there were too many mini pigs in the economy, at least STATE THIS when you find out.

Don't wait for an ENTIRE YEAR and THEN say we need 5 pigs...

crazybanshee · Feb 09, 2008, 01:43 PM // 13:43

Yeah I was really annoyed at the way they handled this. I gave away a ton of mini pigs to noobs who didn't even know what a mini pet was. Now I needed 5, and I only had 1. Managed to buy 1 for 3k the day before it started, was hoping 2 or 3 was all I'd need. Then anet said 5, which really sucks. Cause the price ballooned to 30-100k each. Managed to get the last 3 I needed for 20k each, which is good I guess but still way more. They should have at least announced a month or so ago that they were thinking of doing something with the mini pigs. That would have given us some warning.

gone · Feb 09, 2008, 02:15 PM // 14:15

what I'm hoping for is that the community pulls together, if there is another fiasco like this, and puts their [collective] middle finger up and out to anet/whomever thinks this is what needed to be done, for a -single- item.

it woulda been capital to see anerf scratching their heads and saying 'wtf...they aren't biting'

the more I think about it the more I like the idea of not selling out to someone's whim to add value to a gift. that was meant to be free.

I hope some read this and think the same, I really do.

Antithesis · Feb 09, 2008, 02:19 PM // 14:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redfeather1975

We didn't give away our mini pigs last year because we were saints. We gave them away because nobody would buy them and it was a waste to either trash them or take up space. There was no divine incentive in giving something worthless away.
Now they can be traded for a shinier version and people are pissed that they missed out on a shiny as a result. It's that simple and that trivial.

This is the most sensible summary of the situation in this entire whinefest.

You people seem to be forgetting the outcry from the masses when piggies rained from the heavens at the end of last year's festival after many of us forked out 25K+ for the ugly litle oinker. A gold mini was supposed to be worth something and we almost couldn't give them away. If they were worth something at that time, would you have been so generous?

The answer from the responses in this thread is "Hell no! Not that they're actually worth something now!!!" or "I wasn't around last year, gimme my pig!" Your motivations are not philanthropic, they're driven by greed under the guise of 'fair play'. If you had truly given, expecting nothing in return, this debate would not be taking place.

Conspiracies theories about feathering the nests of Anet's mates is completely baseless if not ludicrous. They are simply correcting the mistake they made last year by making a gold pet rare. The old mini-pig will now be rarer than the celestial, so it's killing two birds with one stone.

At the end of the day it's a shiny pig that'll do little more than gather dust on a mule. If you really want one, give it a couple of weeks and pick one up for 10K.

fRag_Doll · Feb 09, 2008, 02:22 PM // 14:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redfeather1975

Honestly threats to not buy GW2 are pointless.

I didn't threaten anything, I stated a fact. ANet's philosophy on what makes a good game seems to be dieing quietly in a forgotten corner on the floor somewhere. If that's the way things are going then the GW I enjoyed is dead.

Quote:

You wouldn't be here swearing if you weren't hopelessly addicted.

I haven't played since Wintersday, and before that I hadn't played since Halloween.
I play when I want to play, not because a personality defect compels me to.

Quote:

If you really are that upset over this to say such things then you should do yourself a favour and uninstall your game and throw it out.

And if someone beats up one of my family and turns them into a vegetable, should I stick them in a nursing home and pretend they never existed?

I'm passionate about things I care for.
I am a son of Tyria, born April 25th, 2005!