Vainglory Forums

Just wanted to give everybody a heads up to think two, three, four, or more times before investing real money in any of the offers listed within the game such as the Corsair Krul Rare Chest. While the description states that 1 in 20 purchases would result in acquisition of the skin, the reality is that this is simply a ploy to get their loyal fanbase to waste real money on purchasing Ice for this folly.

While I can appreciate the position of assumed risk when making these purchases, it reeks of corporate greed, without concern for their players, if the publisher happily allows people to spend more for a skin/hero/etc. through their promoted chests then they would pay via an outright purchase. As it stands, if you play through 20 (as in '1 in 20') of the Corsair Krul Rare Chests, you've spent 3,980 Ice for a skin that would only cost 3,599 as an outright purchase. Of course, if you buy more of those chests it would be even more costly.

The fair "gamble" would be that, but purchasing the Corsair Krul Rare Chests, you *might* get the skin for a little less than full price but you might wind up paying the entire 3,599 Ice. This would still get players to invest real cash for Ice to play (if they were so inclined) with out taking advantage of them.

Yes, I when through about 23 of the Corsair Krul Rare Chests since the skin would have been a nice addition to the hero I play most often. When it didn't pan out, I reached out to Vainglory support and was met with a canned response that essentially boils down to "Too bad. We're not going do anything to try and make it right."

Vainglory has been fun and I have supported Super Evil Megacorp with real money for most of my time playing the game. Following this experience, while I will likely continue to play the game, my financial support (via real money) will stop and I can no longer consider myself a fan of the game or its publisher.

I encourage you all to learn from my mistake and save your hard earned money for more worthwhile investments.

Hi there, TechDude64!

I can't currently update my Guide because of a Site Issue (which I posted about in Site Support), so I was happily browsing the Forums instead, when I came across this...

I won't say much too much, since I can see your frustration, but just raising a few points in case anyone gets the wrong message from your post:

(I apologise in advance for my tone.)

~ There would be no reason for SEMC to lie about the probability of a success (getting the Skin in a Chest). It's not as if they're using up stock every time they give away a skin - heck, they're probably gaining revenue*.

~ Now, here are some numbers. For reasons stated above, I can assume that the probably is definitely 1 in 20.
→ The price of the Skin is 3600 ICE (which is the same as 18 Chests).
→ The chance of getting the Skin in 18 Chests or fewer works out to be 60.3%.
In other words, from this Chest, the average player is getting the Skin for cheaper than the price it will be sold at later.
→ And to make this reply more intimate, here are some personalised numbers: I'm interpreting what you said as "I opened 23 Chests, didn't get the Skin in any of them, then stopped."
The probability of opening 23 Chests to no avail, is 30.7%. To put that in perspective, out of 10 people opening Chests until they get a Skin, around 3 people would be in a similar situation to you (23 Chests and no Skin yet).

With all that said, and all the numbers laid out for anyone who stumbles across this post, it's up to you whether or not you want to take the chance.. However, don't make the common mistake of thinking that anything with over 50% chance means it is guaranteed to happen.

~~~

Apologies for my patronising/sarcastic tone (not sure which one it is). If you (the creator of the Topic thread) or any Moderator deems it inappropriate or unacceptable, I'd be happy to remove this reply.

On a genuine note, take caution when gambling:
~ For the people who pull the Skin in your first few chests, do not assume it's "your lucky day!" and immediately run off to the casino or do something equally stupid.
~ And for the people who opened more than 18 Chests to get the Skin, or even worse, stopped before getting it, unfortunately there's nobody to blame except yourself.
~ But if you want a bright side, consider this: any money from ICE purchases you're making goes directly to SEMC, a company that genuinely really cares about its community, so even if you didn't get that Skin you really wanted, you're contributing to this game that we all play and love.

(might add some nice colours later if I have time)

Regards,
Me!

* since players get the Skin → Yay, happy! → they play the game for longer/more frequently → larger playerbase, more influence/advertising, more new players, more money. (Yeah, that might be obvious for some, but hey, I was bored, so I typed it out)

Here's the reality, which I had to accept, and the way someone phrased it to me. The rolls are the rolls.

I think a more fair way to state what these boxes are is for people to understand what you are getting into, and also understand the odds correctly. A 1 in 20 chance is 5%. Those aren't very good odds. To also understand the math correctly you have to understand that it's a 5% chance EVERY time you open the chest. That isn't a increasing chance of probability.

There isn't 20 chests sitting in front of you and one of them has the skin in there and you'll eventually open it. It's more like there are 20 chests sitting in front of you, one of them has the skin in it, when you open a chest if it isn't in there, they place a new set of chests in front of you and once again you have a 5% chance of finding it. Continue....

This isn't corporate greed. No one is forcing you to buy the chests. If anything it's an impatience penalty. You have a 100% chance of getting the skin for 3599 ICE on April 20th. I think we forget that we get the game for free. I think that we too often forget that making video games is a business. A quick search shows that Vainglory is the only game SEMC runs. So skins and other such item purchases through their game is the only way they earn any direct profit from their product. The rest being sponsorships and such.

I personally went through about 34 chests to find it. I felt bad afterwards, felt like an idiot for wasting so much ICE, it wasn't a good feeling, but a week from now, a month from now, or a couple years from now when I'm rocking that Krul skin I won't remember that feeling. I collect skins, I have 91 out of 97 -shrugs- that's my vice. Some people collect baseball cards, others collect cars, and some collect wine.

Skins are NOTHING but profit for the company. They don't make you any better of a player. So I don't understand why there are complaints about them trying to make money off of their product.

But here's how it happens in real life. For everyone like me who spent almost 7000 ICE to get this skin there is someone like my teammate who pulled it on the first try and got it for 199. You were just one who fell into my category.

Just because its a 1 in 20 chance doesn't mean that you will get it if you do it 20 times, it means you have a 5% chance to get it every time you do it