Guild Wars 2

This is just hypothetically speaking, so please don’t think I’m trying to advocate for there to be no loot.

What if there was no loot? If you had access to every item available in the game what would you spend your time doing? What content would you choose to do if you weren’t concerned about rewards? How would this change your play style?

I would change my playstyle to a different game

I wouldn’t be playing, I’d probably finish the personal story, and then never log in again.

Which is how I played the first two Gw1 releases.

I wouldn’t be playing.

if there was no loot i’d be playing pvp forever

Blix.8021:

I would change my playstyle to a different game

This^

I’d be creative. I’d make the biggest Norn Warrior possible, gear him up in the largest spikey armor possible, dye it all black (maybe a hint of red), get the largest greatsword possible (maybe a Twilight), stand around in populated areas in Lions Arch and Divinitys Reach and spam my attack skills. Oh wait….. Make that biggest Charr possible Okay, never mind….. I give up.

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

Have you happen to have played any FPS’s before by any chance? I do believe those games have nothing to strive for. I have thousands of hours into TF2 and got nothing for it.

Archon.6481:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

Have you happen to have played any FPS’s before by any chance? I do believe those games have nothing to strive for. I have thousands of hours into TF2 and got nothing for it.

FPS’s have competitiveness to strive for. Being better than someone else, its basically what loot does in this game.

sirflamesword.3896:

Archon.6481:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

Have you happen to have played any FPS’s before by any chance? I do believe those games have nothing to strive for. I have thousands of hours into TF2 and got nothing for it.

FPS’s have competitiveness to strive for. Being better than someone else, its basically what loot does in this game.

Well why can’t there be competitiveness in an MMO? Skill exists in MMO’s just as much as it does in FPS’s.

Archon.6481:

sirflamesword.3896:

Archon.6481:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

Have you happen to have played any FPS’s before by any chance? I do believe those games have nothing to strive for. I have thousands of hours into TF2 and got nothing for it.

FPS’s have competitiveness to strive for. Being better than someone else, its basically what loot does in this game.

Well why can’t there be competitiveness in an MMO? Skill exists in MMO’s just as much as it does in FPS’s.

Not in GW2 it doesn’t, press auto attack to win

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

You touched on why I asked the question. I was curious as to what motivated people to play this game, other than the obvious answer of “loot”.

Clearly there are goals to achieve in GW2 other than finding loot, some of which are clearly laid out for us by ANet, and others that are not and that instead require someone to be creative in setting their own goals.

My background is mostly with console games going all the way back to the NES. There have been plenty of games I’ve played just for the enjoyment of playing the game, not because of any specific in-game loot. However, I do enjoy seeking out new loot in GW2 but its just one of many aspects of the game I enjoy. I will take the enjoyment of playing the game over grinding or farming for loot any day, but it appears some people may solely be driven by the quest for loot (which is a strange concept to me and why I’m curious about the behavior).

I play wvw because I enjoy the fights.

but I also pve for loot…

If there was a 1v1 arena that would probably be all I do, fighting for the glory.

No offense to anyone here, but I feel like there’s barely any loot as is, and when I actually do get loot, it’s grey, white, and blue garbage. If there was no loot at all, I would have no money, I wouldn’t have a few rares, and I would be one unhappy camper.

Archon.6481:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

Have you happen to have played any FPS’s before by any chance? I do believe those games have nothing to strive for. I have thousands of hours into TF2 and got nothing for it.

I don’t know what TF2 you play but you’re not playing Valve’s TF2 that has been lovingly called ‘Hat Fortress 2.’ There are tons of loot in that FPS. You get weapons, rng boxes or hats randomly, capped each week, and resting on Thursday nights. Prior to that they had weapons upgrades/sidegrades attached to achievements before they began to randomly drop. Also lately they are not releasing the craft recipes for the new weapons that drop during their class updates so they only way to get them is through… wait for it… loot drops! They even recently changed it so you couldn’t get loot without actively playing the game (no more idling). There’s a trade and an economy for TF2 that pushed the way for the Steam feature ‘Community Market’ to sell loots directly through Steam. That’s not even close to what Man vs Machine does… robot weapons ring a bell?

So yes… TF2 has loots… a crap ton of it that pushed people away from it thinking it’s nothing but a trading game.

But that’s not all that the FPS genre has… they have goals per game or are you just sitting in spawn doing nothing? Are you not helping your team cap a point? Grabbing the intel or helping push through the sentry nest? Are you not killing everyone so that you are the last man standing? Pushing little cart? What exactly are you doing in TF2 that you feel you have gotten nothing?

I have clocked currently 962 hours into TF2 and while I don’t always play MvM or for drops, I DO appreciate it. It’s part of the fun. So if GW2 didn’t have loots they would have other goals to achieve however MMORPGs are not FPSes and when they mix they. still. have. loots. source: Borderlands 1 and 2.

Personal Story.
Jumping Puzzles.
Map completion.
Various achievements.

If loot (and thus gold) wasn’t an issue, I’d probably also make a lot more alts just to experiment with different playstyles.

Stone.6751:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

You touched on why I asked the question. I was curious as to what motivated people to play this game, other than the obvious answer of “loot”.

Clearly there are goals to achieve in GW2 other than finding loot, some of which are clearly laid out for us by ANet, and others that are not and that instead require someone to be creative in setting their own goals.

My background is mostly with console games going all the way back to the NES. There have been plenty of games I’ve played just for the enjoyment of playing the game, not because of any specific in-game loot. However, I do enjoy seeking out new loot in GW2 but its just one of many aspects of the game I enjoy. I will take the enjoyment of playing the game over grinding or farming for loot any day, but it appears some people may solely be driven by the quest for loot (which is a strange concept to me and why I’m curious about the behavior).

GW2, unfortunately, doesn’t offer much in the other than loot imo. There are achievements but a great many of them are for killing thousands of the same creature. The achievements that DO provide some good challenge and offer stuff outside of the ‘kill x of x mob’ are the explorer ones. They force you to find the hidden spots around Tyra and to do the jumping puzzles which can be both frustrating and fun. Recently they have added the mini game rotations which I think is a fantastic way of giving the players a way to do something that is fun because it’s competitive. I do WvW for fun mainly but I do it with my own set goals and how well I can help my team succeed by playing better, thinking faster, not running into a zerg by accident, etc.. However WvW is just skilled based but also reliant on armor which brings in the loot aspect again if just to be competitive.

If I had everything like in sPvP, I think I could/would play more with builds. I like to look at others builds but since I play differently than most so I like customize it based on my playstyle. It would be nice to try out any build without the consequence of having to actually purchase it. It’s one of the few things keeping me from trying out other builds than I currently have because I can’t afford to do so.

But I do play it for fun. I’ve always advocated that any game should be about fun. However some things are un-fun because they are connected to the things that are fun.

I’d probably spend a lot more time in WvWvW.

I’d only play a game like that if there is a very good PVP system, you know, one that isn’t separate from PvE, like race vs race wars or something

Instead of spending all my playtime in pvp and wvw, I’d probably just spend all my playtime in pvp and wvw. Maybe I’d have more alts tho…

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

This wasn’t always the case. Remember FPS’s before they added XP? GoldenEye, Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike, or even the first Halo? None of those matches mattered in the least, except in the context of that match. Winning a game of UT didn’t mean anything past that round’s stat screen (unless your victory dance went on for a while). You won, you lost, you played another game, usually you had fun.

I don’t wanna sound a like a haggard old gamer, but remember when used to play videogames because they were fun?

Remember when video games used to be made for fun? I’m not ripping on Anet here, but we all know a few companies that have the “wrong” motivation when making games. There’s only going to be a growing divergence between those that play for fun and those that have to have “shinies” until those that play for fun no longer play and those that strive for loot are the sole remaining game players.

We no longer play to be entertained, but to be absorbed.

But even in the old OLD days when i came from you played for high score or what have you. You want to achieve something whether it’s gold or points or beating every build in PvP. That’s the competitive human nature!

The same thing I do now, WvW, with a little exploration on the side. I’m not saying I don’t like cool looking gear, but I played GW1 for years not caring about gear, so meh.

Stone.6751:

I will take the enjoyment of playing the game over grinding or farming for loot any day, but it appears some people may solely be driven by the quest for loot (which is a strange concept to me and why I’m curious about the behavior).

You and me both, man. I treat this game mostly as if loot is just a side. If I get something better, I equip it, if it’s junk I sell it, but I don’t actively hunt for it. It’s part of the process, not overriding the process in anyway.

Heck, if we didn’t have loot and money wasn’t a concern, I’d probably be playing the same way, but with the level cap equipment just so I wouldn’t have to think about it, and then I’d just roll through doing my thing. Exploring, observing, analyzing, speculating, and theorizing.

I play inefficiently, for the most part, partly because I’m just stupid that way, and then partly because it forces me to see the world differently. It’s kinda like looking at every route on a drawn maze, despite being able to easily see the solution.

I would continue to roleplay, explore, pvp with friends, and complete content for the sake of experiencing the story. I would repeat content chiefly to assist friends who hadn’t seen it yet, but unless I found a specific bit of content particularly entertaining, would not repeat it otherwise.

So… exactly how I play right now, but minus all those excruciating extra HotW runs to get my Elementalist’s look right, I suppose.

People who prioritize the reward over the experience in their recreational activities frankly baffle me, but that seems to be the majority of you.

I would go back to what I was doing before ArenaNet began the guantlet of reward systems in 2013. Assuming I could still reliably expect the same numbers of people to show up and play the game, I would be playing WvW as well as Keg Brawl. Ofcourse, there would need to be some amount of money made to keep the generation of siege and keep upgrades up, but for a very long time, this was unrewarding, but was far more fun then than it is to me now.

Just as well, I played Keg Brawl excessively, and that literally had no rewards for me for a very long time, but I played it anyway because it was fun. Now I get called a troll for joining matches because I got Kegmaster legitimately way back in November but still play today (well, before they took Keg Brawl away and put it on rotation for a really really stupid reason).

Furthermore, I’d occasionally go out and do the content I’ve enjoyed the most in open world PvE. Iron Marches event chain, the first time I experienced it, was the single greatest stretch of PvE I’ve ever experienced in my career playing MMORPG’s. As well as that, there’s other meta events I’d probably go get a group to hunt down, as well as mini dungeons I haven’t yet seen and would love to have that first experience.

While I will exhaust the PvE stuff, WvW and Keg Brawl offered next to zero rewards but I played them anyway because they were highly enjoyable to me. I spent much of my 3,000 hours in this game pretty much poor because of it but I liked it that way. Now ArenaNet’s reward systems have pretty much broken both of those. (Taken Keg Brawl away for long stretches of time and then incentivizing people to come in for a 30 game loot bad, daily achievement, or splendid chest everywin. | Dumbing down WvW with more and more mechanics and reward systems that do nothing but encourage zerging)

With the hypothetical situation of the playerbase still being here to enjoy those two things without rewards attached, I would be playing and enjoying them for the forseeable future.

Edit: Not gonna edit out the repetitive use of phrasing, just gonna point out that it’s there and I apologize. lol

Wait, they took out Keg Brawl outside from the daily rotation? So the only way you can play it is if KB is having its turn?

If so, that’s really dumb. I see no reason why we can’t have all of the activities available all of the time.

Zaxares.5419:

Wait, they took out Keg Brawl outside from the daily rotation? So the only way you can play it is if KB is having its turn?

If so, that’s really dumb. I see no reason why we can’t have all of the activities available all of the time.

Didn’t mean to derail the thread, if you want to discuss that, do so here

if there is no loot.. well achievements, PvP, WvW, dungeons, JPs, events for fun. : ))

i’ll admit there are times when i didn’t bother with certain events because there was no satisfaction in completing them adn the rewards don’t justify it. but even now, if i come across an event, i’ll still do it for the heck of it.

I’d play LoL instead.

I would be doing what im already doing, PVP!

I don’t focus on loot now, so I doubt I’d do much different. Hang out the guild, help in dungeons or fractal runs, when needed, level some alts, play around in the open world…and chase achievements which I did anyway, but not for loot.

I would be instantly disgusted with the game and quit. Literally uninstall.

MMO fight mechanics and imbalances really don’t make for good gameplay. If I wanted to just WvW all day for no rewards at all, I’d be playing a game that does it much much better like Planetside 2.

If I wanted to fight with these RPG-like mechanics I’d play an RPG.

If I wanted to play cooperatively with a handful of friends, there are many cooperative games designed completely around that one aspect of the experience.

If I wanted to play a fun game I’d probably be playing a shooter.

The largest point to an MMO is to better your character in comparison to other players through acquisition.

Chickenshoes.6250:

I would be instantly disgusted with the game and quit. Literally uninstall.

MMO fight mechanics and imbalances really don’t make for good gameplay. If I wanted to just WvW all day for no rewards at all, I’d be playing a game that does it much much better like Planetside 2.

If I wanted to fight with these RPG-like mechanics I’d play an RPG.

If I wanted to play cooperatively with a handful of friends, there are many cooperative games designed completely around that one aspect of the experience.

If I wanted to play a fun game I’d probably be playing a shooter.

The largest point to an MMO is to better your character in comparison to other players through acquisition.

lol… if you say so.

As upset as I was with ascended gear addition (I actually left the game for 7 months over this), I came to the conclusion that mmorpg do not work without loot, gearing up, farming – whatever you want to call the carrot. Most other games you play through once usually, maybe twice after some time has passed. If GW2 was a non-persistent single player game, it would be the story about fighting Zhaitan and the influence of other dragons in the area, mission accomplished, looking forward to Dark Souls II or whatever. I fear mmorpg simply need a form of grind, be it for stats or appearance.

Chickenshoes.6250:

I would be instantly disgusted with the game and quit. Literally uninstall.

MMO fight mechanics and imbalances really don’t make for good gameplay. If I wanted to just WvW all day for no rewards at all, I’d be playing a game that does it much much better like Planetside 2.

If I wanted to fight with these RPG-like mechanics I’d play an RPG.

If I wanted to play cooperatively with a handful of friends, there are many cooperative games designed completely around that one aspect of the experience.

If I wanted to play a fun game I’d probably be playing a shooter.

The largest point to an MMO is to better your character in comparison to other players through acquisition.

tl;dr I play Guild Wars 2 because it gives me stuff! Who wants to play a game that doesn’t give you stuff? Stuff!

I think the amount of loot/stuff I’ve managed to acquire is simply sign-posts or markers to remind me of the fun I had along the way.

“I remember when Fixer-Upper dropped. And I was an Engineer….Grr… LOL!” Etc…

So, there’s my two-bob. Enjoyment markers, with loot being the road between them.

I don’t care about loot as such but I do care about my character’s cosmetics as it shows me how far they have come.
If they replaced loot with unique skins for different accomplishments I am not sure I would even notice.
To me money is simply a means to that end

Well is it really hypothetical?? I mean: a lot of players are already full exotic… each piece of loot they get is obsolete. (except precursors, but I don’t know many who actually farm that).

I guess most of those players play WvW, enjoy the PvE world as it is (do completion/achievements etc.) or leave.

I’d have a thousand alts, for one thing.

I’d also spend more time checking out WvW and other areas of the game I tend to neglect because I’m trying to get loot elsewhere.

I would have no issues if there was less, but there has to be ‘some’ in order to run some sort of economy in the game.

I played GW1 for 7 and some years. Loot was never really ‘that great in it either, yet I enjoyed it none the less. If GW2 had a similar system, closer (much) than what it currently is, then I wouldn’t see an issue doing less in the line of loot here. However, since crafting materials and such cannot be obtained any other way than through some type of loot drop, this presents an issue. Not only this, but some armor skins are only gained through loot drops, although I suppose those could be moved to straight purchases…karma or gold. However, for the crafting, they would need to put in materials merchants, similar to GW1, and yet even these required feeding (to some extent) by the players in order to maintain their inventory.

No Loot!! oh im having a panic attack.
I always need a small goal to work towards like atm i’m trying to make celestial armour.
No loot i wouldn’t be here

I’d spend all my time in WvW.

What if…there was no loot?

I would be playing another game!

After the queen’s event I’ve come to realize how much I need that loot. How much I crave that loot. How thankful I am for destroyer’s existence. Without loot and chance of rare drop, there’s a lack of purpose and thrill of discovery. I feel like a cat chasing its prey, and that is life.

I’d do mostly PvP and WvW, maybe jumping puzzles here or there—or an occasional guild mission. I’d run each dungeon once and do the personal story. I wouldn’t be carving pumpkins, dancing at effigies, or mining piñata that’s for sure.

Stone.6751:

This is just hypothetically speaking, so please don’t think I’m trying to advocate for there to be no loot.

What if there was no loot? If you had access to every item available in the game what would you spend your time doing? What content would you choose to do if you weren’t concerned about rewards? How would this change your play style?

If there was no loot, JPs wouldn’t feel like a waste of time so much lol. I’d still do every single one for the achievements, as that is what keeps me going in GW2.

I’d actually be fine if there were no loot drops. I have a job irl and work for resources enough outside of games, I’m not interested in a second job.

Klawlyt.6507:

ozmaniandevil.6805:

Sorry, but regardless of whether you play mmorpg or any other video game, there is always a goal to reach … or there is no fun or sense of accomplishment. My hubby loves his xbox. He plays all the games he likes to unlock ACHIEVEMENTS. You might play a game for a few hours without some type of reward, but i dont’t think you would play for 500 hours. I love GW2, but part of what i like is having the chance for loot and achievements.

This wasn’t always the case. Remember FPS’s before they added XP? GoldenEye, Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike, or even the first Halo? None of those matches mattered in the least, except in the context of that match. Winning a game of UT didn’t mean anything past that round’s stat screen (unless your victory dance went on for a while). You won, you lost, you played another game, usually you had fun.

I don’t wanna sound a like a haggard old gamer, but remember when used to play videogames because they were fun?

I do

And I also remember a time when people would play games instead of coming to the forums to push their PC views especially when the issue at hand doesn’t affect them.

The loot issue is a stupid one because it shouldn’t be an issue. If you’re perfectly content to the play the game regardless of loot, more power to you. But you have no justifiably good reason to come to the forums and tell people who want a decent loot system that they are bad and should learn to play for fun.

If it doesn’t affect you and you’re still having fun, go play the game…