Now that we have that out of the way lets talk about these mechanics.
Item Drop DR
Drop caps are carried over from Guild Wars 1. In Guild Wars 2 they operate in a similar manner, but seem to affect nearly all loot. In Guid Wars 1 where dyes, rare materials, etc were unaffected. Don’t expect to see this changed or removed. This code worked wonders in Guild Wars 1 for reducing the attractiveness of botting and Arenanet has little incentive to remove something that has been so effective.
Many players complain that that this anti-botting code unjustly prevents them from doing whatever they like. Farming a single mob for hours and hours is not actually a problem for the economy, so why do they stop it? It is when this activity can easily be executed by a program that problems occur. The reason for the lack of information on how the anti-botting counter measures work is because if Arenanet clearly defines how the system works, then it becomes simple to write bots that avoid the code. It is difficult to write a bot that can move from area to area, use different skills and tactics, and can handle the many problems that can occur (being downed/dead/getting knocked off course). However these activities are easy for a human. All arenanet is forcing players to do is use their reasoning and skills to get around their code. Think of it as captcha, but implemented in an unobtrusive way that encourages variety.
Dynamic Event Reward DR
The purpose of this code is different from the drop DR. The drop DR is difficult to be affected by if you are not farming mats. Dynamic Event DR is in the game to prevent exploitation of DEs that are very close together on the map that happen to occur near the same time. The problem is there are some quest chains that happen in quick enough succession that this code can be triggered. This is obviously a stop gap measure while Arenanet fixes the game to prevent players from exploiting any Dynamic Events that they have yet to properly time out and balance. This code may stay in the game for the long run, but expect it to be tuned down as Arenanet gets closer to properly tuning all of Tyria’s dynamic events.
Dungeon Reward DR
This new anti-farming counter measure is the catalyst for recent discussion of these mechanics and for my writing of this article. Lets look at player and developer motives to try to come to an understanding on this issue.
Arenanet wants you to play their content. They spent years creating it and it would be an absolute shame for 66% of their dungeon content to be completly ignored.
Players want dungeon armor. They want it as quickly as the game allows them to get it.
So here is the problem, how do you get players to experience your content if one explorable path is clearly more efficient than the others?
The answer is that you make each path equally appealing and efficient for the player. Then, it is only a matter of preference as to which path the players take. This is a no brainer, but to acutally reach this balance is a true challenge. So while Arenanet tries to solve the problem properly they have implemented some changes that will force variety until they can balance content. It is important that there is variety or else players who want to do inefficient paths with never find willing parties outside of friends and guildmates.
In summary, story mode was never meant to be a cash farm, players are being forced to play different explorable paths until Arenanet can properly tune them, and players who do figure our ways to do dungeons in under thirty minutes are being discouraged until Arenanet can find and fix the exploits that allow this to happen.
Players are never forced to be inactive by these mechanics. If you experience drop DR, then switch to a different enemy type that drops the same material. If you experience DE DR, then do anything in the game other than events for a few minutes. Take solace in the fact that Arenanet will eventually tune up events, so you can adventure as you please. And now it should be obvious to you how to completely avoid Dungeon DR. Alternate between two or more explorable paths and don’t use exploits that trivialize the content.
It is important that these counter measures are put in place in the meantime to prevent inflation in the markets. If one small group of players finds a technique to become super rich, then the rest of the player base must use that techinque or be unable to afford anything on the market. That is bad.
I hope this article helps those who lacked understanding of these issues, and calms those of you who are afraid that Dungeon DR and DE DR are here to stay in their current form. Dungeons will be tuned. DEs will be tuned.
TLDR; Many of the new mechanics meant to affect player behavior are stop gaps until better systems can be found. Please be patient while Arenanet solves these difficult issues.
