Guild Wars 2

Since playing my first MMO all those years ago, I have struggled to come to terms with the fact that seemingly all MMOs tend to dissolve into little more than farming for items.

When I play a single, or multiplayer game, the goals tend to revolve around the story. The story is what drives the player to continue playing. For example, in the Batman or Skyrim games the player had a clear goal, and the addition of gathering trophies, or loot was included to complement the story, and give additional depth.

In MMOs, it seems the focus is always put on the loot, and less on the story. For players, the quest becomes about what they can gather, how much of it, and with how much effort. This focus on loot means that it doesn’t really matter what the story is, as long as the task can be repeated over and over for loot.

With the addition of the dragon timers/API players can now event farm. Story takes a back seat, and players rush from map to map in an attempt to farm as many events as they can.

So what’s the problem?

Well, in my opinion, the more a game puts the focus on loot, the more players find themselves in an endless cycle of wasted time. What I mean is that if you actually sit down and think about it, running all over the map, in the hopes you’ll get a drop that will allow you to purchase more gear, so you can more efficiently farm more loot, it really a giant waste of time.

What should be the focus is the story. While the drive for better loot will motivate players for a while, a strong story will engross players and make them care. Take the Molten Facility for example. It is generally considered to be one of the most well liked dungeons in GW2. The reason I feel is because the gameplay was built around story, not around loot.

Sure, there were players that farmed that dungeon to death (myself included), for the chance at a rare jetpack, but I had fun for the most part. The only time players became annoyed it seems, is when the loot didn’t drop. Take the Southsun Cove as another example. The focus seems to be on how many RNG boxes are people getting, opposed to the story unfolding on the island.

Players skip content and blast around the island as fast as they can, hoping for that rare drop. Now, ANet has approved the use of overlays that allow players to more efficiently farm events, thus, focusing more and more on loot.

Anyway, the point is, I feel that unless ANet starts to shift the focus away from loot, and put it more on story, eventually players are going to get bored. Sure, here are days when we want to mindlessly farm Karka, but without something driving us, something to focus on, most of us will just fade away.

There are some changes I would make, and I’ll put those in part two.

Part 2: Shifting focus

So, how can ANet shift the focus away from loot, and back into story?

For me, the biggest and most obvious change is the RNG. Placing rare items in RNG boxes as a motivation to do content over and over is a very unsustainable way of getting players to experience content.

The focus immediately shifts to how fast the player can kill things, get through dungeons, or finish events. Players neglect the story, because time spent reading, is time not used for farming.

Put items on the trading post. Allow players to just buy what they want, so they can stop focusing on it. Allow them the freedom to explore your story, without the pressure of getting loot!

The concept of “rare” items is a bit ridiculous to start with. Most players will tend to personalize their toons regardless. Sure, you might put that mini out for a few days, but most will go back to what they like. This means that rare or not, most players will naturally try to make their toons different.

Secondly, shift the focus from gathering, to questing.

Legendaries are a perfect example. To obtain a legendary, most of the effort is on farming. Players need gold, and materials to throw into the RNG forge, and the only way to do that is to farm events, and bosses.

If obtaining a legendary was done through a quest line that took months of effort, searching, mystery, story, and such, people would spend more time immersed in story, and less time jumping from dragon to dragon.

Thirdly, eliminate weapon/armor drops from creatures.

Yes, I can hear you all scoffing, but hear me out.

The problem with having these items drop from creatures is that it puts the focus on loot. The chance to get something grand drives players to jump around farming events. If only thing that dropped from creatures was materials, not only would it created a market for armor/mats, but would motivate players to farm for a reason, opposed to farming for RNG.

In all cases the focus should be on the story. Driving players through loot means that no matter how much effort ANet puts into the living story, players will just focus on time vs. reward. Was the boss fun, and fit within the story, or was it annoying because it didnt drop an exotic?

Is the Karka threat something players need to work to solve, or are we just killing them for a chance at a sword with a blinking eye?

For me, story is what matters. Like a great movie, TV show or book, the reward and satisfaction of a well done story is more than enough. You wait for the next part with baited breath, and what happens to the characters actually matters.

I agree with you. I disagree with you completely. lol

I’m a story/lore guy. I love story and lore. You bring up single player games, but you don’t bring up the difference between single player games and MMOs, and in that difference is the reason for the farming issue.

Very VERY few single player games are designed to last more than a thousand hours. You might get a hundred hours out of a great single player game like Skyrim but a hundred hours in an MMO isn’t good enough. And by the time you get 100 hours out of Skyrim, the story is well and truly finished. Basically you’ve done it all.

The MMO is designed for thousands of hours of play. There is a story in Guild Wars 2, a personal story and there’s a story afterwards too, told through the living story. But just because you and I like story, doesn’t mean the bulk of the playerbase like story. We’re not the rule, we’re the exception.

The problem is, those who like story have always been in the minority. That’s why in most games most people skip quests and cut scenes instead of watching them. I could never do that, but I’ve seen it happen.

It’s impossible to write a story in game that lasts for thousands of hours. That’s why sand box games, and RPers can last for so long. Because people write their own stories. Their own content.

Expecting an MMO to give you more story than is already there is wishful thinking. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love it. I just don’t see it as feasible.

Once you get to the end of the story, you usually have to wait for an expansion to get more story. At least we have a bit of story in the living world.

Maybe it will get better. lol

I think the loot should be increased AND there given alternative routes, such as missions/events for obtaining a precursor.

Thing is, the only thing that expensive that’s making people farm and farm and farm is legendaries. T3 armour? Pff, 100g is still within reach of mere mortals that can get a couple of gold or more per day. Weapons like Volcanus? Its nothing compared to the 1000ish gold just needed for legendary ingredients (or the eqvivalent 5 billion hours).

Many of us dont really want to spend all this time farming, but are forced to. Anet cant even offer decent deals on gems

Legendaries: I’d rather do quests for a year, than farming for 3 months.

Im going to read the rest of your post, but I wanted to say that I agree with the OP. We are sheep being herded from event to event. To say that guild wars 2 is not a gear grinding game, is to say the sky isn’t blue. To say that the game is not evolving to be focused around gear, loot, and reward is to say that water is not wet. Lets be realistic and not naive, it is the direction of the game. Everything has a reward for your time and WE DEMAND IT. Why do anything that doesn’t reward, like reading the stories and dialogue.

I agree, I played Skyrim for the exploration, the story, the scenery. It is what I thought THIS mmo would be all about! I hardly cared about my gear. Sure, I kept up with it, but gear was the last kitten thing on my mind. It was all about being enthralled in the environment(story,audio,graphics,gameplay,purpose,landscape,etc). Shift to GW2, and we do things for a purpose. We grind dragons for chests for rares or precursors. We farm events for T6 mats.
I played the Mass Effect games, and loved every moment of it(still play multiplayer in ME3). The game was 90% driven by story and 10% gear. You cared what weapons you unlocked and but in the end, it was more about your skill and the choices you made. Again, a direction I thought/hoped GW2 would take.

Ive said this in MANY threads. GW2 is no unique snowflake. It is not about exploration, or the experience. Its just given you different ways, or at least the same methods masked different, to obtain BiS gear when compared to traditional cames such as WoW or Rift.

And I fully agree on a legendary story line for the legendaries. I would rather grind out some rediculously difficult and long story for months than farm 600 gold for my precursor. The fact is, it is easier to left precursor prices inflate than it is to create content/story for a legendary.

cesmode.4257:

Im going to read the rest of your post, but I wanted to say that I agree with the OP. We are sheep being herded from event to event. To say that guild wars 2 is not a gear grinding game, is to say the sky isn’t blue. To say that the game is not evolving to be focused around gear, loot, and reward is to say that water is not wet. Lets be realistic and not naive, it is the direction of the game. Everything has a reward for your time and WE DEMAND IT. Why do anything that doesn’t reward, like reading the stories and dialogue.

I agree, I played Skyrim for the exploration, the story, the scenery. It is what I thought THIS mmo would be all about! I hardly cared about my gear. Sure, I kept up with it, but gear was the last kitten thing on my mind. It was all about being enthralled in the environment(story,audio,graphics,gameplay,purpose,landscape,etc). Shift to GW2, and we do things for a purpose. We grind dragons for chests for rares or precursors. We farm events for T6 mats.
I played the Mass Effect games, and loved every moment of it(still play multiplayer in ME3). The game was 90% driven by story and 10% gear. You cared what weapons you unlocked and but in the end, it was more about your skill and the choices you made. Again, a direction I thought/hoped GW2 would take.

Ive said this in MANY threads. GW2 is no unique snowflake. It is not about exploration, or the experience. Its just given you different ways, or at least the same methods masked different, to obtain BiS gear when compared to traditional cames such as WoW or Rift.

And I fully agree on a legendary story line for the legendaries. I would rather grind out some rediculously difficult and long story for months than farm 600 gold for my precursor. The fact is, it is easier to left precursor prices inflate than it is to create content/story for a legendary.

Actually in this game, you CHOOSE how you play. I don’t get herded to events. Maybe once a day for a few minutes, I’ll do an event. The rest of the time, I do what I want and I enjoy myself.

I’m not sure why that’s so hard for you. The gear has always been here. The farming has always been here. You choose to participate or you play the game you want.

I mean I’ve seen farmers complain left and right this game is not for them. Now I’m seeing an explorer complaining this game isn’t for him. You can’t both be right. lol

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Im going to read the rest of your post, but I wanted to say that I agree with the OP. We are sheep being herded from event to event. To say that guild wars 2 is not a gear grinding game, is to say the sky isn’t blue. To say that the game is not evolving to be focused around gear, loot, and reward is to say that water is not wet. Lets be realistic and not naive, it is the direction of the game. Everything has a reward for your time and WE DEMAND IT. Why do anything that doesn’t reward, like reading the stories and dialogue.

I agree, I played Skyrim for the exploration, the story, the scenery. It is what I thought THIS mmo would be all about! I hardly cared about my gear. Sure, I kept up with it, but gear was the last kitten thing on my mind. It was all about being enthralled in the environment(story,audio,graphics,gameplay,purpose,landscape,etc). Shift to GW2, and we do things for a purpose. We grind dragons for chests for rares or precursors. We farm events for T6 mats.
I played the Mass Effect games, and loved every moment of it(still play multiplayer in ME3). The game was 90% driven by story and 10% gear. You cared what weapons you unlocked and but in the end, it was more about your skill and the choices you made. Again, a direction I thought/hoped GW2 would take.

Ive said this in MANY threads. GW2 is no unique snowflake. It is not about exploration, or the experience. Its just given you different ways, or at least the same methods masked different, to obtain BiS gear when compared to traditional cames such as WoW or Rift.

And I fully agree on a legendary story line for the legendaries. I would rather grind out some rediculously difficult and long story for months than farm 600 gold for my precursor. The fact is, it is easier to left precursor prices inflate than it is to create content/story for a legendary.

Actually in this game, you CHOOSE how you play. I don’t get herded to events. Maybe once a day for a few minutes, I’ll do an event. The rest of the time, I do what I want and I enjoy myself.

I’m not sure why that’s so hard for you. The gear has always been here. The farming has always been here. You choose to participate or you play the game you want.

I mean I’ve seen farmers complain left and right this game is not for them. Now I’m seeing an explorer complaining this game isn’t for him. You can’t both be right. lol

You and those like you are not most people, unfortunately. In game, take a look around at the level 80s. The majority are either sitting in Lion’s arch butt-scratching, playing the lobby game(waiting for queues and groups to form), or waiting for meta events to pop, OR they are at these meta events. Reality is, you see way, way, way, way more level 80 characters at these meta events and standing around in LA doing nothing but swinging their legendaries around than you see a level 80 in a mid level zone or low level zone just for the heck of it.

If I take my level 80s to other zones, its to complete dailys or map completion. We ARE being herded from purpose to purpose..whether it is a meta event or daily completion. It IS the way of the world and it DOES comprise the majority of max level characters.

Lucky for you, you are one of the rare few that are max level and go out into the game in any zone and have “fun”…enjoy the game. I envy you. But Id say 9/10 people are not like you.

Crazylegsmurphy.6430:

So what’s the problem?

You are being too naive.

MMOs became popular during the “pay to play” times. Then, it was in a developer’s best interest to build (with as little effort as possible) content that kept people playing (and thus paying monthly fees) for as long as possible. The solution? Grind.

Now, the catch is that it took MMO developers some time to get that people would actually accept grind. There’s an old interview from Blizzard developers in which they mention how they were surprised by how people played WoW: Blizzard had built a fun way to achieve something, but most players actually reached that goal by farming instead of by having fun.

MMO players themselves told game developers they don’t care about having fun – they want to grind. This is perfect for the MMO developers. They want as many people as possible to play as long as possible, and as such the reward system built into MMOs has been made to cater to the lowest denominator: it doesn’t reward skill (since not everyone is skilled), nor inteligence (since not everyone is inteligent), but rather time – and by telling players “No matter how weak, ugly or incompetent you are, if you give enough of your time you will get all rewards here”, MMO developers got people to waste months of their lives grinding through content even those players don’t think is fun, all the while paying monthly fees.

WoW followed this model. As WoW was most people’s first MMO (and everyone who says otherwise is just very bad at math), this kind of design soon became synonym with “MMORPG”.

Today, when you say a game is a MMORPG, the unspoken assumption is that it’s basically a grind-filled, farming-based time sink. And that’s what millions of players want. If a MMORPG were released following a different model, those players would complain and whine that it was not a true MMORPG.

This is why you get so many comments in this forum stating things such as:

“All MMOs have grind, that’s part of the genre.”

“You need to have farming in a MMO, otherwise it won’t be a true MMORPG.”

And so on. The most intellectually challenged among them will even say “What does it matter to you if there is farming in the game? Just don’t do it if you don’t want to”. Which is a pretty way of ignoring what goes into developing a game. Just take a look at Guild Wars 2: we slowly went from dungeons with a story mode to dungeons meant to be farmed over and over with no story at all (Fractals of the Mist), and from having a personal storyline to an island filled with repetitive events and incredibly bad storytelling, but with 200% magic find. All those additions to the game have been huge successes, and do you know why?

Because that’s what MMO players want. Grind, farming, and so on. Like addicts seeking one more fix, that’s the main concern here. Good storytelling, interesting dynamic events, challenging content? Who cares? Content that can easily be farmed is enough. And if that’s what players want, if they are so easily pleased, why would ArenaNet actually try to build fun and interesting content, only to have it going to waste as people just try to find where to farm?

MMORPGs are grinding and farming games, that’s all the current MMO players want them to be, and as such there is no reason for a MMO developer to add great stories or great gameplay or anything else to those games. Don’t expect the storyline to become any better in Guild Wars 2, or to see any successful MMO doing a better job at telling a story – that’s not what the target audience cares about.

killcannon.2576:

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Im going to read the rest of your post, but I wanted to say that I agree with the OP. We are sheep being herded from event to event. To say that guild wars 2 is not a gear grinding game, is to say the sky isn’t blue. To say that the game is not evolving to be focused around gear, loot, and reward is to say that water is not wet. Lets be realistic and not naive, it is the direction of the game. Everything has a reward for your time and WE DEMAND IT. Why do anything that doesn’t reward, like reading the stories and dialogue.

I agree, I played Skyrim for the exploration, the story, the scenery. It is what I thought THIS mmo would be all about! I hardly cared about my gear. Sure, I kept up with it, but gear was the last kitten thing on my mind. It was all about being enthralled in the environment(story,audio,graphics,gameplay,purpose,landscape,etc). Shift to GW2, and we do things for a purpose. We grind dragons for chests for rares or precursors. We farm events for T6 mats.
I played the Mass Effect games, and loved every moment of it(still play multiplayer in ME3). The game was 90% driven by story and 10% gear. You cared what weapons you unlocked and but in the end, it was more about your skill and the choices you made. Again, a direction I thought/hoped GW2 would take.

Ive said this in MANY threads. GW2 is no unique snowflake. It is not about exploration, or the experience. Its just given you different ways, or at least the same methods masked different, to obtain BiS gear when compared to traditional cames such as WoW or Rift.

And I fully agree on a legendary story line for the legendaries. I would rather grind out some rediculously difficult and long story for months than farm 600 gold for my precursor. The fact is, it is easier to left precursor prices inflate than it is to create content/story for a legendary.

Actually in this game, you CHOOSE how you play. I don’t get herded to events. Maybe once a day for a few minutes, I’ll do an event. The rest of the time, I do what I want and I enjoy myself.

I’m not sure why that’s so hard for you. The gear has always been here. The farming has always been here. You choose to participate or you play the game you want.

I mean I’ve seen farmers complain left and right this game is not for them. Now I’m seeing an explorer complaining this game isn’t for him. You can’t both be right. lol

Why not? The game lost it’s focus by trying to be all things to all gamers. It’s trying to be an end game, farming, loot centered, story driven, pve focused, pvp focused, journey centric, dungeon heavy, dungeon lite, rpg. It doesn’t know what it is anymore.

Why do you see this as a bad thing?

cesmode.4257:

Vayne.8563:

cesmode.4257:

Im going to read the rest of your post, but I wanted to say that I agree with the OP. We are sheep being herded from event to event. To say that guild wars 2 is not a gear grinding game, is to say the sky isn’t blue. To say that the game is not evolving to be focused around gear, loot, and reward is to say that water is not wet. Lets be realistic and not naive, it is the direction of the game. Everything has a reward for your time and WE DEMAND IT. Why do anything that doesn’t reward, like reading the stories and dialogue.

I agree, I played Skyrim for the exploration, the story, the scenery. It is what I thought THIS mmo would be all about! I hardly cared about my gear. Sure, I kept up with it, but gear was the last kitten thing on my mind. It was all about being enthralled in the environment(story,audio,graphics,gameplay,purpose,landscape,etc). Shift to GW2, and we do things for a purpose. We grind dragons for chests for rares or precursors. We farm events for T6 mats.
I played the Mass Effect games, and loved every moment of it(still play multiplayer in ME3). The game was 90% driven by story and 10% gear. You cared what weapons you unlocked and but in the end, it was more about your skill and the choices you made. Again, a direction I thought/hoped GW2 would take.

Ive said this in MANY threads. GW2 is no unique snowflake. It is not about exploration, or the experience. Its just given you different ways, or at least the same methods masked different, to obtain BiS gear when compared to traditional cames such as WoW or Rift.

And I fully agree on a legendary story line for the legendaries. I would rather grind out some rediculously difficult and long story for months than farm 600 gold for my precursor. The fact is, it is easier to left precursor prices inflate than it is to create content/story for a legendary.

Actually in this game, you CHOOSE how you play. I don’t get herded to events. Maybe once a day for a few minutes, I’ll do an event. The rest of the time, I do what I want and I enjoy myself.

I’m not sure why that’s so hard for you. The gear has always been here. The farming has always been here. You choose to participate or you play the game you want.

I mean I’ve seen farmers complain left and right this game is not for them. Now I’m seeing an explorer complaining this game isn’t for him. You can’t both be right. lol

You and those like you are not most people, unfortunately. In game, take a look around at the level 80s. The majority are either sitting in Lion’s arch butt-scratching, playing the lobby game(waiting for queues and groups to form), or waiting for meta events to pop, OR they are at these meta events. Reality is, you see way, way, way, way more level 80 characters at these meta events and standing around in LA doing nothing but swinging their legendaries around than you see a level 80 in a mid level zone or low level zone just for the heck of it.

If I take my level 80s to other zones, its to complete dailys or map completion. We ARE being herded from purpose to purpose..whether it is a meta event or daily completion. It IS the way of the world and it DOES comprise the majority of max level characters.

Lucky for you, you are one of the rare few that are max level and go out into the game in any zone and have “fun”…enjoy the game. I envy you. But Id say 9/10 people are not like you.

The problem is, we don’t really know how most people play the game. I’d almost wager most people don’t even know what a meta event is. The people you see at meta events are people that are obvious. You’re there and they’re there.

What if you had an equal number of people, same number that shows up to meta events, but they’re scattered all over the world. Some are in WvW (queues and zergs are still there), some are in SPvP (less than there once was, but I still find people when I go to play) and a whole bunch are just scattered among the 25 zones of the world. If you add up everyone at meta events, how do you really know there aren’t more people in other places. Fractals, dungeons, Southsun Cove, of course.

A lot of people do follow the meta event chains, but that doesn’t mean they’re the majority. They’re just easy to see because they’re out in the open.

I would beg to differ, Vayne. I look at the level 80s and they are doing the following:

1.Hanging out in LA either waiting for queues, being bored, waiting for events to pop up, or waiting for groups.

2.They are actually doing these “contents”…WvW, dungeon grinding, dailys, meta events, etc.

Go to a zone like Lorner’s Pass or Kessex hills. I doubt you’ll find a level 80 out in those zones that just want to be there just to be there..with no purpose. the level 80s in Queensdale are there for dailys because its quick to finish a lot of them there. They are also there waiting on shadow behemoth.

My point is, if people aren’t being herded from dungeon to dungeon, event to event, they sit around and do nothing. They are not out in the world just exploring and enjoying for the instrinsic value of it. If you see a level 80 in a mid level zone, he is most likely map completing.

Call it speculation, I call it a very solid guestimate.

I know we are a minority, at least here on the forums, but some of us DO just play the game to have fun, as it IS a game. I don’t hang out in LA, I don’t dungeon-run, and I don’t farm. I go wherever I feel like going, and just play the game. I have no burning need to work on a Legendary; lol, I don’t even have full exotics. I don’t buy things off the Trading Post, I just get what I get from drops. This is fun for me. I don’t know what to say, exactly, except we aren’t ALL doing the ‘gimme gimme loot as fast as possible’ thing. =)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I don’t know what to say, exactly, except we aren’t ALL doing the ‘gimme gimme loot as fast as possible’ thing. =)

And you will soon become irrelevant, since ArenaNet is making content to cater to the (farming, grind-addict) majority, so the minority actually trying to have fun will soon find itself ignored by the developers.

Unless they remove all the current content, I fail to see how I can be ‘ignored’. I play this game just as I played the one before, and I played that for several years. We just have different notions of what is fun, I believe. I like the Living Story model; I don’t feel it is put in place for farmers or grind-addicts. But, of course, you are entitled to experience the game as you see fit, and I wish you the very best. =)

Unlike WoW, which had tons of lore but did very little to provide me with a sense that my character was the protagonist in a story, GW2 has such a story. The Living Story continues to provide some sense of story, though to be honest it does not flow as well as the personal story did. This is not surprising, given the relative time put into making the two.

Fact is, writing a coherent story takes a lot of time. Time is one thing MMO developers don’t have. Players who are not kept engaged with something quickly become bored. Some of them play many hours every day. If they become bored, they move on, which is a loss for the developers.

The fact that Living Story exists at all is a nod to those who prefer story to progression pursuits. Normally, MMO’s don’t provide any more story than is needed to give a thin veneer of purpose to quests that amount to “kill ten rats.”

Shifting the emphasis to more story over more “typical MMO pursuits” has drawbacks. A lot of players don’t care, will ignore it and then complain about wasted developer effort because they have nothing to do.

Many players who do like story will be critical story because the constraints of writing a story that is cost effective to produce in a virtual setting often limit player choice. GW2 has been criticized for funneling players into the story, limiting the choices to which sub-story they do, not allowing them to interact in different ways. Even SPRPG’s — which exist for story — usually give 3 choices. Many of them are simplistic. Sometimes, you pick the choice that seems most like the character you envision, and then hear the character say something off the wall. In SWtOR, how did “I will get you that thing you want.” become, “Murder and mayhem await!”?

I’m afraid that asking an MMO to provide good, ongoing story that will engage a majority of players is like asking for a motorcycle to carry a 5-ton payload. It’s not the tool for the job.

Story is great, but in an MMO where people put in 1000+ hours it’s eventually going to become grind. There’s no way that any company will put enough time and money into story content to make a 1000 hour long story, it’s just not going to happen. If you want good story, pick up a single player game…or I hear Tarnished Coast is a big RP server where they make their own stories, that might be up your alley?

@killcannon:
I agree and disagree.

I disagree that GW2 makes its content irrelevant to its players. As much as I hate the hidden need to complete dailys, dailys push people into the world. World events, meta events, push people into the world. I think the world is more bustling now than in January.

I agree that GW2 uniqueness is becoming diluted with all the grind and “encouragement” by the devs to do certain pieces of content. In my opinion, the only things that are remotely unique about GW2 are the DEs while leveling and level scaling, even though other games are doing similar things too. Outside of that, its your generic MMO without raiding. Still a good game and I do enjoy it for an hour or two per night now(down from the 4-5 per night I was spending), but I won’t be fooled by devs or complete utter fanbois when they say this game is a snowflake.

I can guarantee you most MMO players don’t play for the story. I didn’t read all of your post, but from what Ive read, it seems you’re trying to force players to focus more on the story. The whole loot/reward system is what makes most MMO successful.

Clipbord.8726:

I can guarantee you most MMO players don’t play for the story. I didn’t read all of your post, but from what Ive read, it seems you’re trying to force players to focus more on the story. The whole loot/reward system is what makes most MMO successful.

There are a lot of players like Clipbord in MMO’s. I’ve highlighted in his post the reason why changing MMO focus to story would not work for them. They aren’t interested in story to that degree.

And no, I don’t have any problems with Clipbord or anyone else, it just struck me that that one phrase captured the gist of why the OP’s suggestion in not a viable one.