The main issue: players want to farm
I like to farm. Why? because I need the gold.
I need gold to buy gems for bank slots, character slots, gem store items that I would want. Cosmetic items etc and of course gear for my characters. although I’m wondering why Anet doesnt like their players to farm.
Just give us people who like to farm a way for us to farm our gold. I dont like running dungeon repeatedly or do all the heart quest to level a character to 80. I have already done that and I dont want to repeat it again.
Nah, I wouldn’t say the majority farms, at least not a great majority. Everybody devotes some time to farming something or another, but I’m not speaking of huge zergs. I’d say that the minority zerg, or zerg at any real rate. The majority level characters, even slot expansions have become a popular item. But the zergs, you see, they are all over chat and sometimes in the wrong places doing things that disrupt events (even as visitors), so you see them a lot, especially since those players often keep going and going hours on end. Not everyone is standing around the LA bank popping of 30 skill points at a time.
well, ode to the early days of SWG pre-cu GCW (faction wars), with player bases and player-run faction cities to defend and attack at all hours. It’s certainly an nice alternative to zerg grinding for loot, but I guess requires a sandbox more or less. Although WvW is active here, and I hope/wish it would stay clear of any real type of farming beyond self-sufficiency.
(edited by Daywolf.2630)
The hardcore farming community is a small fraction of the entire player base. At the ember farms I would see the same people over and over. Despite what people said there weren’t that many players doing it relative to the total population. There was a dev post that stated that the typical player only made about 3 gold from the patch at that time of the post.
You should thank the farmers tbh… most of them farm items thus making items less expensive (easier for casuals to get with less work) without causing inflation (caused by the introduction of more currency).
Tarnished Coast
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa
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You should thank them tbh… most of them farm items thus making items less expensive (easier for casuals to get with less work) without causing inflation (caused by the introduction of more currency).
Nope. Not only a lot of them farm gold (one of the farmers mentioned how he got rich due to the gold that comes from the Champion boxes, not from the very eventual items that appear from those), thus adding inflation and etc, but they also concentrate wealth and so increase prices even when not farming specifically for gold.
Farmers are one of the worst thing in the game. Not only they have a very direct negative impact, but also very negative indirect impacts as well – they are pleased by boring and easy content as long as they get shiny rewards or gold for it, allowing ArenaNet to focus on poor content instead of being forced into making fun content in order to not lose players.
“I think that players are starting to mature past the point of wanting to be on that
treadmill, of being in that obvious pattern of every time I catch up you are going to
put another carrot in front of me” – Mike O’Brien right before Ascended weapons
treadmill, of being in that obvious pattern of every time I catch up you are going to
put another carrot in front of me” – Mike O’Brien right before Ascended weapons
The purpose needs to be the adventure again.
I don’t think this can be forced, because there are different types of players.
The Bartle Types are perhaps not the best way of distinguishing player styles (Bartle improved upon his original idea himself), but it’s close enough for jazz.
You have the dev-created Environment, and you have other Players.
Some Players are more interested in the dev-created Environment, some Players are more interested in interaction with other Players.
Of those who are interested in Environment interaction, some have a competitive attitude to it (get something out of it, exploit it for reward), others have a more passive attitude to it (take it in, enjoy it, the lore, etc., – “smell the roses”).
Of those who are interested in Player interaction, some have an aggressive attitude to other Players (combative, competitive), others have a passive attitude to other Players (chatting, socializing).
Thus you have Achievers ( + PvE attitude), Explorers ( – PvE attitude), Player Killers ( + PvP attitude) and Socializers ( – PvP attitude).
(Bear in mind that of course every actual player is some mixture of these types, but usually with any given player, they will be predominantly of one type. I myself am mostly Explorer, but I have some Socializer and Player Killer in me, but very little Achiever.)
What Bartle said, from his long experience of designing and playing MUDs and other text-based precursors to MMORPGs, was that for a healthy community, you actually need a decent mix of all types. There’s a necessary tension between these types of players that keeps things lively (e.g. each type has its natural “enemy” in another, and natural “ally” in another, and that social friction is actually good). If any one type has their way, the game dies.
But of course designing a game that pleases all 4 types and keeps them playing is incredibly hard. For example, both Achievers and Explorers tend to be “locusts” – once they’ve “done” content, they tend not to stick around. You can only experience a bit of story for the first time (and it be genuinely interesting) once; you can only get an achievement once, and when they run out … On the other hand, players who are more interested in player-on-player interaction, whether of the aggressive or friendly type, do tend to stick around. On the other hand, a game world designed around them can easily turn into a mere chat lobby, and loses its virtual world quality, so it doesn’t attract Achievers or Explorers at all, thus cutting down on the potential number of warm bodies in the game.
This is long-established lore in the gaming industry (as I said, there are refinements and slightly different takes, but the general idea still holds), so I’m sure Anet are very well aware of the need to cater to many different types of players and many different types of preferences. But it’s a plate-juggling exercise for them. Sometimes they’ll please one crowd more than another, and it seems like the sky is falling for the other crowd, and vice-versa.
TL;DR I counsel patience. The game’s not going anywhere, it’s going to be around for a long time. If you have an overall liking for the game, but don’t like something that’s happening in it now, give it a rest and come back later. It’s very well designed for picking up from where you left off. And it’s also not designed around retaining a core pool of subscribers, but utilizes the natural “churn” rate to its advantage.
I loved the game to bits first time round, got bored, came back, didn’t like it, came back later, kind of liked it again, came back later, am currently loving it to bits again. I may stop playing again some time soon. So what? It’s still going to be here, it’s still going to be just as easy to pick up my main again, or roll an alt.
And with Living World content, it’s going to be a bit different and a bit fresh next time I come back. What’s not to like?
Nope. Not only a lot of them farm gold (one of the farmers mentioned how he got rich due to the gold that comes from the Champion boxes, not from the very eventual items that appear from those), thus adding inflation and etc, but they also concentrate wealth and so increase prices even when not farming specifically for gold.
Farmers are one of the worst thing in the game. Not only they have a very direct negative impact, but also very negative indirect impacts as well – they are pleased by boring and easy content as long as they get shiny rewards or gold for it, allowing ArenaNet to focus on poor content instead of being forced into making fun content in order to not lose players.
I think the most negative impact, beyond like that embers farming temple-lockout, is that lower level gear has really gone down a lot since the champ chests hit. Basically forcing newbies to zerg farm to make fair coin. Not so much the rare items lately (not since it did drop some time ago), but everything under has dropped to nearly 1c over cost.
My last character, easily self-sufficient during leveling up, selling lots of stuff at the TP, bought rares often. Latest slot I’m definitely pumping in coin to fund leveling, and nearly nothing worth selling on the TP, not even masterwork. Rares from boss chests maybe, but that means grinding those rather than doing hearts or whatnot, and not until mid levels. Yes, there are karma vendors, but it’s often better to spend coin for the right stats. Just an observation.