Guild Wars 2

bhagwad.4281:

A lot of threads recently in both the Queen’s speech update as well as the gauntlet update have been complaints about farmers. Basically:

1. Farmers spoil the fun for others!
2. Farmers spoil the economy!
3. You should play for fun not gold! (As if getting gold isn’t fun)
4. Farmers force others to farm since they’ll be left out
5. Insert favorite complaints here….

What people don’t seem to understand is that for a lot of us, getting gold, gearing up, getting minipets, buying skins and armor to show off etc is fun. It’s why we play the game. For some people fun can be running around with friends. Others (like me) don’t care about friends and exploring etc, but just want to get better gear, weapons and show off.

Different ways to play the game.

Also, asking farmers to forbear from farming because it “spoils the economy” is absurd. That’s like the government offering you a tax break which you deliberately don’t take advantage of because “it’s not good for the economy”. Please understand that a basic premise in economics is that everyone acts in their own self interest. It’s ridiculous to exhort others to hold off getting easy gold (like in the gauntlet). As long as it’s not an exploit that the developers didn’t intend.

Finally, farming is not an exploit. To take the latest example, Anet was fully aware of gauntlet farming and took their own sweet time in making changes. It’s not like a programming bug or something that was clearly not intended by the developers.

Farming is a logical respectable activity. It’s fully as important as the righteous people running around claiming that they play “just for fun”. Good for you. And some people play to farm.

Thank you.

I can’t speak for everyone and I surely don’t begrudge others from having more gold than me but here’s the problem I see.

As these living story updates get pushed out (at break-neck speed) the people who can play daily get in on the new content and farm the heck out of the new content. Problems are found by ArenaNet in that people are able to make hundreds of gold in a very short time and that wasn’t intended. ArenaNet adjusts things but doesn’t take back any of that earned gold (and they shouldn’t), but by the time most casual players are able to participate in the events their earnings are very pedestrian. Prices go up and the gulf between the have’s and have-not’s widens.

It can be a bit frustrating. I basically play for fun and resign myself to knowing there are some things I will just never be able to afford.

bhagwad.4281:

Are the beneficiaries supposed to just throw their hands up and say “I won’t make use of this awesome benefit because it’s not good for the country”?

In economics, every person acts for their own benefit. Not the “greater good”. Expecting otherwise is just setting yourself up for failure and it’s stupid.

See… this is why people equate “Farmers” as bad people. Because, what you just wrote is completely self centered and selfish. To put oneself before all else is frowned upon by many cultures and religions. How you are unaware of this, I have no idea. Also, there are MANY theories of economics which would not agree with your point of view too.

It’s pretty simple, if ten people were hungry and one person horded the food, you can be certain that one person would end up learning the value in sharing the hard way.

For me, I would not accept a “special” privilege if it would harm others. Heck, I can’t even get one of the farming circuits to slow down for 3 seconds for everyone to catch up to the pin. Even when we’re perfectly aware that we’ll all end up wait for the next target anyway. It’s just plain selfish behavior.

bhagwad.4281:

What people don’t seem to understand is that for a lot of us, getting gold, gearing up, getting minipets, buying skins and armor to show off etc is fun. It’s why we play the game. For some people fun can be running around with friends. Others (like me) don’t care about friends and exploring etc, but just want to get better gear, weapons and show off.

And that’s the problem. Farmers spoil it for others. Not so much with the economy, but rather because they want event to fail or don’t care if events succeed. And make it even impossible for events to succeed.

Take the invasions, for example. You need to do several events, all at the same time. But people will form one or two big groups because that way more champions will form and the event will fail.