Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ltomato.8649

Ltomato.8649

Other than not being fun, there are 2 main reasons why zerg farming is bad:
1: Inaccurate data feedback
2: Community erosion

Inaccurate Data Feedback:

This is my main concern. The result of all this farming means that people who do not participate will not be receiving the largest in-game income. With all of the looming future updates such as ascended gear and new legendaries, there is high pressure on many players to farm these events, even if the events themselves are not enjoyable.

This results in a large portion of the community participating in the events, despite not finding it fun in the slightest. If Arena Net only looks at the player data, then it could be incorrectly assumed that so many players are participating because they enjoy the content, resulting in more, similar content in the future.

So many guildmates and friends have completely burnt out on the zerg farming. It’s the least interactive of content, but currently the most profitable. Cries of “I’m bored” ring out all the time now, and “I’ll just hit an event and afk for end credit” is abundant.

This sort of mindless zombie farming is not fun. It’s repetitive and slow, and any individual skill means little to nothing. You’re “forced” to stay for the entire event to receive your shiny loot bags, and all you do is run/waypoint around maps and kill masses of enemies.

It was fun the first couple of times- we all thought that completing the invasion was such a big deal, and the old Aetherblade scaling made it actually difficult to complete a couple of times. There was some strategy needed, and people couldn’t just abuse scaling to farm champions.

Now, with the reduced scaling, it’s a pure farmfest. There’s no major incentive to complete the entire invasion after your daily scarlet kill, so massive groups of players running around and steamrolling champions is commonplace. This leads to the second reason why this sort of massive zerg farm is bad.

Community Erosion:

Back in the earlier days of GW2, you’d always be revived when you got downed. It was common courtesy, and it was reinforced with exp. These days, however, it’s been many a time that I’ve seen massive zergs trample over a downed player to get to the next champion with not a single person stopping. It’s really pathetic.

Arguments in map chat are rampant over whether to farm the Aetherblade events or to try to defeat Scarlet. It’s frustrating. The influx of new commanders (from the large amount of gold added) is sizable, and arguments and drama often breaks out between them. Sure, it’s humorous to watch sometimes, but things do get ugly.

The zerg farms lead to gold being the single most important thing to players, over fun, over courtesy, and over community. This is ridiculous.

Content like the Zephyr Sanctum was amazing. There was a whole new map to explore, some pvp games for people who are into that sort of thing, and incentives to do jumping puzzles or mini dungeons that you might not normally do.

This content is the complete opposite. No exploration, no alternatives, no fun.

Am I the only one who thinks that this is a problem? Am I the only one tired of zerg farming being by far the most profitable method of playing? Am I the only one who wants to actually have fun again?

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Sylv.5324

Sylv.5324

I like zerg farming. I considered quitting, and so did my roomie, despite us being long-time devotees of the GW franchise, because the only real way to make gold was to run dungeons.

We can’t run dungeons very often. So for us, being able to work on legendaries and such ground to a halt. Now, we can get back to work on things. If others want, they can go do dungeons, invasions, or whatever they like— and we can farm. When we do, it’s usually early in the morning when the ‘zerg’ is 5-10 people and the champs take a while to die.

GW1 did not require you to farm dungeons to make money. Being straight-jacketed into dungeons, especially cof, was NOT fun and NOT feasible for us.

Ardeth, Sylvari Mesmer
Tarnished Coast

(edited by Sylv.5324)

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ltomato.8649

Ltomato.8649

I like zerg farming. I considered quitting, and so did my roomie, despite us being long-time devotees of the GW franchise, because the only real way to make gold was to run dungeons.

We can’t run dungeons very often. So for us, being able to work on legendaries and such ground to a halt. Now, we can get back to work on things. If others want, they can go do dungeons, invasions, or whatever they like— and we can farm. When we do, it’s usually early in the morning when the ‘zerg’ is 5-10 people and the champs take a while to die.

See, that IS fun. 5-10 people isn’t the massive scale I’m talking about here. I’m saying where there are so many people that the enemies are culled out and there’s no challenge at all, no feeling of accomplishment. Just another loot bag.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Junkkis.5137

Junkkis.5137

yeah did some WvWvW moment ago. followed zerg and suddently i was attacked by 1 rogue, as low level i was not able kill him, he just killed me next to our zerg, there was over 10 player near me like 5 meter a way and NO ONE dint helped me, they all just moved point B.

WvWvW is totally messed up.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Sylv.5324

Sylv.5324

Taking those champs or nerfing that will nerf that morning run, and we’ll be back to pondering how to progress.

Re: the new influx of money— apparently they’re planning a lot of gold sinks.

The big big moneymakers of this patch weren’t zerg farming anyway, it was the ember farm and deadeye.

Ardeth, Sylvari Mesmer
Tarnished Coast

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Grumwulf.9602

Grumwulf.9602

I don’t like this recent farming craziness. It reminds me of that time in WoW during the Catalsysm expansion when everyone was farming the trash in Firelands and not bothering with the bosses. LFM Trash Run was all over map chat. I really hated that. It was like a big hoover sucking out all the epicness. Sometimes I think GW2 pve is just one big Trash Run (with a Scooby-doo storyline).

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ltomato.8649

Ltomato.8649

Taking those champs or nerfing that will nerf that morning run, and we’ll be back to pondering how to progress.

Re: the new influx of money— apparently they’re planning a lot of gold sinks.

The big big moneymakers of this patch weren’t zerg farming anyway, it was the ember farm and deadeye.

I’m more talking about the invasion farmers. Things like the Frostgorge Sound loop are okay. There’s enough variety and group cohesion that the playing is bearable. It’s not just the same massive group of mobs over and over and over.

Also- consider a dungeon path or two. The upgraded rewards for daily runs make it pretty profitable to run a few quick paths once per day. Unfortunately, a lot of people are being drawn to invasion farming instead.

On the other hand, I do know that there are people who enjoy this sort of mass scale farming. I just want alternatives.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Fenrir.3609

Fenrir.3609

You don’t find it “fun” so it has to stop? How about you just do something else yourself and let others get on with what they want to do.

Quite a lot of players don’t rez in the Queens Trials either, being a kitten is not restricted to people running about in a zerg.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: ArchonWing.9480

ArchonWing.9480

If a large portion of the community chooses to pick unfun content with only the reward in mind, then they only have themselves to blame. You cannot force people to do the proper things.

And I like these events. They require groups to be spread more, and gasp require some degree of organization. And it might actually be a little hard. I don’t know what you’ve been playing, but there’s a good chance these events might fail— when does that ever happen in open world outside of temples?

Also, if you get killed, reviving might caused others to get downed too. Go run back, kitten . :/

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Junkkis.5137

Junkkis.5137

dont matter anymore. game dies. too much focused pve and cometic.
WvWvW is messed up.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ltomato.8649

Ltomato.8649

If a large portion of the community chooses to pick unfun content with only the reward in mind, then they only have themselves to blame. You cannot force people to do the proper things.

And I like these events. They require groups to be spread more, and gasp require some degree of organization. And it might actually be a little hard. I don’t know what you’ve been playing, but there’s a good chance these events might fail— when does that ever happen in open world outside of temples?

Also, if you get killed, reviving might caused others to get downed too. Go run back, kitten . :/

Failing has no consequence. You lose one loot bag, gain 40 more. People don’t care. They make more profit out of failing.

And of course if you get killed, run back. If you’re downed though, There’s no excuse for people not to try. Especially if you’re not near any threats.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: ArchonWing.9480

ArchonWing.9480

If a large portion of the community chooses to pick unfun content with only the reward in mind, then they only have themselves to blame. You cannot force people to do the proper things.

And I like these events. They require groups to be spread more, and gasp require some degree of organization. And it might actually be a little hard. I don’t know what you’ve been playing, but there’s a good chance these events might fail— when does that ever happen in open world outside of temples?

Also, if you get killed, reviving might caused others to get downed too. Go run back, kitten . :/

Failing has no consequence. You lose one loot bag, gain 40 more. People don’t care. They make more profit out of failing.

And of course if you get killed, run back. If you’re downed though, There’s no excuse for people not to try. Especially if you’re not near any threats.

If failing provides the bigger reward, then that’s the real problem. I was just pointing out that most events of the game aren’t even possible to fail unless you try.

And if downed, I guess that makes more sense. But sometimes it’s pointless to revive when you’ll get downed yourself.**

  • And then people clamour on why zerker gear is the only armor to wear.
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards,
for there you have been and there you will long to return.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Rainweaver.7302

Rainweaver.7302

I definitely dislike this whole zerg farming. It’s a mess, it’s hard to understand what’s going on (as in enemy animations etc), there isn’t much to do other then mindlessly spamming buttoms and there is little room for true interaction with other players since they’re usually too busy trying to tag kill enemies and move on to the next spot.

Personally, I wish the living story team would focus more on small scaled contents. Something designed for like 5-10 players that doesn’t involve just killing hordes of enemies. In my opinion, a single, well designed and creative boss (such as the Mad King) is much more entertaning than several repetitive waves of mobs.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Hawk.3574

Hawk.3574

Scaling just needs to be worked on in general to handle these huge zergs. Instead of spawning more champs when more people show up they should upgrade the current spawns to the next level with more abilities or make them enrage giving them anti zerg aoe skills or have make them flee in different directions to build mortars/items to focus on stopping or be killed.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aberrant.6749

Aberrant.6749

My summery of what goes on…

HEY, YOU GUYS OVER THERE FARMING… STOP! WE NEED TO DO THE EVENT, SPLIT UP!

Dude we need gold n stuff.

YOU’RE MAKING PEOPLE ANGRY

Dude there are small groups of people over there doing what you want.

NO, PLAY HOW I TELL YOU TO PLAY, OR YOU 30+ PPL MOVE OUT OF MY WAY!
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The community erosion is being cause by attitudes like this. I have never seen a clockwork champ farmer demand that they join the larger group. Not once. I have seen time and again some non-farmer spew verbal abuse at the farmers though…

I have never seen a farmer complain about not being ressed as well. If you’re in a party with others they’ll probably res you if the WP is far away. If it’s near, just WP and run back. In some situations if I was to try to res, I would get killed for trying. It’s your fault you died, so just deal with the 1s wp fee.

We know we’ll need gold and mats soon for 500 craftings. This event is giving us both of these things. This is a GOOD thing to prep you (the player) and the economy for what’s coming next.

Farming CAN be fun. I personally found ember farming to be the most fun I’ve ever had in PvE. Hands down. It was competitive and to get the most loot you needed to take some risks to go and tag the champs first so you would get credit.

Oh look! They didn’t notice those 3 champs over there… let me go tag them and bring them back to the group so they can kill them. OH GOD IT BURNS!!! I didn’t notice that wizard champ in there either… omg I got pulled back to them! Aaaaahhhhhhhhh! Runs away like a little girl while spamming defensive skills That was so… much… fun.

If you didn’t have some one in your party doing this you wouldn’t get the 30+ boxes a run. You would get something like 15 and complain that you did 30k dmg (or whatever) and didn’t get any loot. I wish they had more content where there really is a a competitive element and a good risk to reward ratio like that.

TLDR: Just let others play how they choose.

Tarnished Coast
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa

(edited by Aberrant.6749)

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: SirMoogie.9263

SirMoogie.9263

Am I the only one who thinks that this is a problem? Am I the only one tired of zerg farming being by far the most profitable method of playing? Am I the only one who wants to actually have fun again?

No. This patch really hit home for me the idea that the open world is not to be the living breathing world they described in the manifesto, but a farmer’s playground. Scarlet’s Invasion is just so disconnected from the zones it occurs in it makes me feel sad playing it, but some genius decided they’d hide story progression behind 5 of these things so I just plan on doing a little bit of it and then doing the real dynamic events in the zones to pass the time.

By disconnected I mean there is no lead up to the event in the zone in question it just happens. It’s almost as if we got a quest telling us where to go and the horrible mobs were just sitting there not attacking anything despite the quest saying they were 1. When completing the event there is no change tot he world, succeed or fail.

1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35BPhT-KI1E#t=1m55s

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: ShadowPuppet.3746

ShadowPuppet.3746

I definitely dislike this whole zerg farming. It’s a mess, it’s hard to understand what’s going on (as in enemy animations etc), there isn’t much to do other then mindlessly spamming buttoms and there is little room for true interaction with other players since they’re usually too busy trying to tag kill enemies and move on to the next spot.

Personally, I wish the living story team would focus more on small scaled contents. Something designed for like 5-10 players that doesn’t involve just killing hordes of enemies. In my opinion, a single, well designed and creative boss (such as the Mad King) is much more entertaning than several repetitive waves of mobs.

Couldn’t agree more with this, some of us actually want to be able to feel the impact of our actions. I realize we have dungeons and I prefer to run them but this farm stuff is just so disproportionately profitable it literally doesn’t make sense to not join in while it’s going on. I want to feel some connection to what is going on around me, be the hero Tyria needs not just faceless autoattacker #132.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Jski.6180

Jski.6180

What do you mean people don’t find it fun?

When I ask in guild chat, or ask my friends, “Hey, anyone want to do a dungeon?”, and they say, “I’d love to, but I need to farm”, or “I’m too burnt out on farming”, that’s what I mean.

When people that I’ve met who’ve been enjoying themselves since day one suddenly start saying “I’m so bored”, that’s what I mean.

Then you want to farm more then you want to play with your friends your just unwilling to deal with your own chooses. We all make benefit chooses if something is too painful we chooses something else or we take the chose that we feel is best its up to YOU to make this chose not Anet. In a way your choosing to not play with your friends i guess they are not that “good” of friends to you.

Main : Jski Imaginary ELE (Necromancer)
Guild : OBEY (The Legacy) I call it Obay , TLC (WvW) , UNIV (other)
Server : FA

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Knote.2904

Knote.2904

If they just made it so everything in this game is equally as rewarding this wouldn’t be an issue, because then you can do whatever you find fun and keep up with the inflation.

But no, if you don’t grind this thing every hour you’ll fall behind.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Jski.6180

Jski.6180

If they just made it so everything in this game is equally as rewarding this wouldn’t be an issue, because then you can do whatever you find fun and keep up with the inflation.

But no, if you don’t grind this thing every hour you’ll fall behind.

First of all fall behind what? Does grinding give you more + to your gear and weapons? If not then there behind any thing your just making it up.

Also it “wouldn’t be an issue” if you could get over your ego to have every item as fast as you can and you know play a game not work a game.

Main : Jski Imaginary ELE (Necromancer)
Guild : OBEY (The Legacy) I call it Obay , TLC (WvW) , UNIV (other)
Server : FA

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Chase.8415

Chase.8415

I find farming in a massive zerg much more fun than farming alone. You guys need to keep in mind that if the gold inflates, so will the crafting materials. All you got to do is invest and your problems are solved.

Or you can just buy gold with gems, $1o gives you like 30 gold. You could spend 1 hour ingame to farm 5-7g or with $10, get 30 gold instantly.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Sylv.5324

Sylv.5324

Also- consider a dungeon path or two. The upgraded rewards for daily runs make it pretty profitable to run a few quick paths once per day. Unfortunately, a lot of people are being drawn to invasion farming instead..

I am ill and my roomie is my and my quad sweetie’s aide. Being able to block out a few hours of nonstop playing, without breaks, is very difficult. With open world farming, I can drop out for ten, fifteen, rest my head, puke, whatever, then jump back in no problem. That’s not really doable in a dungeon run.

(That’s not to say I haven’t run some, but people need to be very understanding and doing that daily would deffo grate on people. Obviously this is not everyone’s issue, but people have their own reasons for blowing off dungeons.)

Ardeth, Sylvari Mesmer
Tarnished Coast

(edited by Sylv.5324)

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aberrant.6749

Aberrant.6749

If they just made it so everything in this game is equally as rewarding this wouldn’t be an issue, because then you can do whatever you find fun and keep up with the inflation.

But no, if you don’t grind this thing every hour you’ll fall behind.

More currency being introduced is what causes inflation, not the addition of more goods. These events reward mostly just items (small amount of coin from opening the boxes not even as much as you would get from running a dungeon).

Tarnished Coast
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Knote.2904

Knote.2904

If they just made it so everything in this game is equally as rewarding this wouldn’t be an issue, because then you can do whatever you find fun and keep up with the inflation.

But no, if you don’t grind this thing every hour you’ll fall behind.

First of all fall behind what? Does grinding give you more + to your gear and weapons? If not then there behind any thing your just making it up.

Also it “wouldn’t be an issue” if you could get over your ego to have every item as fast as you can and you know play a game not work a game.

Player A takes a break from the game with 200 gold he worked his kitten off to get.

Player B keeps playing and farming.

Gold inflates, Player A comes back and his 200g is now worth half of what it was before.

When something this profitable like the zerg farming in clockwork is happening constantly, people farming it nonstop will devalue the stuff people not farming it as much have.

If the value of gold didn’t change much at all, that Player A would still have 200g that was still worth the same, sure Player B might have 500g now since he kept going, but if gold didn’t inflate then Player A’s 200 would still be worth the same 200g it was when he played.

(edited by Knote.2904)

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Castaliea.3156

Castaliea.3156

Lets all get into really organized groups of ~5 people to take down every champion, on every map. That’ll get rid of the zergs. Better yet, lets make all the maps instanced and only available via solo or group play. That will really show all those people zerging it up to take down a foe how to properly play a game. I hate those guys after all. I think they’re below me, it’s pretty obvious though.

Guild Leader
Sempai Said I Was A [QTpi]
Apply @ | http://sempaisaid.enjin.com |

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Insignya.8625

Insignya.8625

It’s always been a problem. It won’t go away. Wanna know why? Because it’s the only profitable activity in the game. If Arena.NET doesn’t make challenging, hardcore content with actual good rewards in the end, people will continue to do this. And it’s so mind-numbing easy.

It’s the developer’s fault zerg farming exists. Players do what earns them the biggest reward the fastest, it’s been like that forEVER. Going blindly against gamers’ mentality without a replacement system was stupid and the outcome was predictable.

Fixing the zerg should immediately be followed up by hard content that discourages it (PBAoE, tons of AoE that instantly wipes everyone standing in the circle). So long as Arena.NET continue their cult zeal to appease the casual masses who literally cannot be bothered to play the game and just leave their character afk on auto-attack, none of this will be changed.

Oh, sure, champion farming will get nerfed… and then people will move on to the next profitable area. This cycle will continue until:

1) Major design decisions are made and released.
2) An actual competitor comes and steals most of the playerbase.

And rightfully so.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Jski.6180

Jski.6180

If they just made it so everything in this game is equally as rewarding this wouldn’t be an issue, because then you can do whatever you find fun and keep up with the inflation.

But no, if you don’t grind this thing every hour you’ll fall behind.

First of all fall behind what? Does grinding give you more + to your gear and weapons? If not then there behind any thing your just making it up.

Also it “wouldn’t be an issue” if you could get over your ego to have every item as fast as you can and you know play a game not work a game.

Player A takes a break from the game with 200 gold he worked his kitten off to get.

Player B keeps playing and farming.

Gold inflates, Player A comes back and his 200g is now worth half of what it was before.

When something this profitable like the zerg farming in clockwork is happening constantly, people farming it nonstop will devalue the stuff people not farming it as much have.

You can still play at the same level as player A your talking about power to flip the TP and most players do not do this. The truth is most players where doing this zerg farming some time ago during bugs and when Anet removed them ppl hated on Anet for doing such things. Gold in GW2 means nothing it never realty has but the players put this worth on the gold and you seem to put a lot more on it to the point that it some how is a vertical progression.

Main : Jski Imaginary ELE (Necromancer)
Guild : OBEY (The Legacy) I call it Obay , TLC (WvW) , UNIV (other)
Server : FA

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aberrant.6749

Aberrant.6749

If they just made it so everything in this game is equally as rewarding this wouldn’t be an issue, because then you can do whatever you find fun and keep up with the inflation.

But no, if you don’t grind this thing every hour you’ll fall behind.

First of all fall behind what? Does grinding give you more + to your gear and weapons? If not then there behind any thing your just making it up.

Also it “wouldn’t be an issue” if you could get over your ego to have every item as fast as you can and you know play a game not work a game.

Player A takes a break from the game with 200 gold he worked his kitten off to get.

Player B keeps playing and farming.

Gold inflates, Player A comes back and his 200g is now worth half of what it was before.

When something this profitable like the zerg farming in clockwork is happening constantly, people farming it nonstop will devalue the stuff people not farming it as much have.

If there has been a lot of currency added then yes (this isn’t currently the case).

If not a lot of currency has been added, this then makes catching up far easier. You can go farm the things that aren’t being farmed and are now worth more or run a dung and get paid in str8 up gold (fixed). Your gold which could only buy you say 5 t5 mats before can now buy you 10 (just an example).

Tarnished Coast
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Sylv.5324

Sylv.5324

Lets all get into really organized groups of ~5 people to take down every champion, on every map. That’ll get rid of the zergs. Better yet, lets make all the maps instanced and only available via solo or group play. That will really show all those people zerging it up to take down a foe how to properly play a game. I hate those guys after all. I think they’re below me, it’s pretty obvious though.

A lot of zerg farmers play other areas of the game, too, and are good. I don’t get why folks insist on this sharp delineation between things to do; even farmers get bored and go dungeon or WvW or whatever eventually.

Ardeth, Sylvari Mesmer
Tarnished Coast

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: ShadowPuppet.3746

ShadowPuppet.3746

If they just made it so everything in this game is equally as rewarding this wouldn’t be an issue, because then you can do whatever you find fun and keep up with the inflation.

But no, if you don’t grind this thing every hour you’ll fall behind.

It’s pretty much why I feel they need to get rid of rng to ever give themselves a chance to balance it out. As long as rng is tied to getting profitable materials it will always favor waves of mobs over other options. As I have seen posted elsewhere, it is largely the community that has themselves to blame, whenever Anet tried to curtail mindless repetition in times past with things like DR there was so much outrage over not being able to farm, it’s no wonder Anet has come up with the type of content they have.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Jski.6180

Jski.6180

If they just made it so everything in this game is equally as rewarding this wouldn’t be an issue, because then you can do whatever you find fun and keep up with the inflation.

But no, if you don’t grind this thing every hour you’ll fall behind.

It’s pretty much why I feel they need to get rid of rng to ever give themselves a chance to balance it out. As long as rng is tied to getting profitable materials it will always favor waves of mobs over other options. As I have seen posted elsewhere, it is largely the community that has themselves to blame, whenever Anet tried to curtail mindless repetition in times past with things like DR there was so much outrage over not being able to farm, it’s no wonder Anet has come up with the type of content they have.

If you removed RNG then you would have more drops to the point where gold would truly become worthless. RNG is part of if a mob drops something or nothing at all its in all mmorpgs its even in rpgs.

Main : Jski Imaginary ELE (Necromancer)
Guild : OBEY (The Legacy) I call it Obay , TLC (WvW) , UNIV (other)
Server : FA

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Sylv.5324

Sylv.5324

They should not have set up legendaries in a way that promoted this, then. Right now, to get one, you have to play the market, shell out real money, or you have to farm. Almost all of the goals require you to farm, just because it’s 250 boar butts, 100 qqstones, 500 arglebargles, etc, etc. Not to mention the cost of a precursor.

Ardeth, Sylvari Mesmer
Tarnished Coast

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Daywolf.2630

Daywolf.2630

Community Erosion:

I’ll second that. There is a big difference between temple assaults in CS and zerg farming. Temple assaults players go out of their way to revive other players (apart from mid way through grenth risen priest where you really do need to WP). Zerg farming I see a lot of dead people, simply most players there want to hit the champ as much as they can and have no time for a downed player (or even a player trying to get back up).

I also saw this a lot yesterday during the new LW events, even though you only need to do a little damage to the champ to get the drop I noticed. But at temples, dragons or what have you, you often see three people reviving a downed player. But LW wasn’t as bad as like that embers farming group, I nearly felt ashamed for being on my server, downed players everywhere and no one lifting a finger. But I was there to do the full chain, wanted no part of that group or what they were doing (exploiting), just wrong.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Erasculio.2914

Erasculio.2914

TLDR: Just let others play how they choose.

That’s rather naive. You are not in a bubble. The way others play the game change how you play the game, whether you want it or not.

The invasions: maps are going into multiple overflows. Which means, the maps are full. Which means, whenever a farmer stops trying to do the event just to farm, it’s not just one less person doing the event; it’s someone taking the place in that map of someone who could be doing the event instead of farming. When you have a high enough number of slots taken by farmers, instead of by players who want to play the game as intended, actually winning the invasion becomes impossible.

The Anchorage event in Orr: someone posted how he/she got even death threats by finishing the event. I think I don’t have to explain how that disincouraged people who actually wanted to do the Arah meta-event from going anywhere close to it.

Not to mention the side effects in the game as a whole. If ArenaNet notices there is a large number of players who are happy with mindless and simple content as long as they get a shiny reward in the end, why would they bother making content for the other players – the ones who actually want quality content, such as something challenging, or a good storyline, or something nice to explore – when the latter group is far harder to please than the former?

This kind of thing is the reason why MMORPGs are so bad games. They don’t even try to be fun – all they (think they) need to be a success is to become big addictive Skinner rat boxes. Farmers are to blame for lowering themselves to the level of Skinner rats, but game developers – including ArenaNet – are also to blame for allowing this behavior.

“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

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Erasculio.2914

Erasculio.2914

If there has been a lot of currency added then yes (this isn’t currently the case).

From the mouth of your buddy:

rewards are crap. boxes give me liquid karma and kittenty greens.

Sure, ignore the +7s per box.

Plus, there are other ways farmers hurt the game. Even when they get materials and sell them, they are concentrating gold in their hands. This concentrates wealth and allows the farmers to increase prices, even ignoring the supply of raw gold they add to the game.

“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

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Knote.2904

Knote.2904

Community Erosion:

I’ll second that. There is a big difference between temple assaults in CS and zerg farming. Temple assaults players go out of their way to revive other players (apart from mid way through grenth risen priest where you really do need to WP). Zerg farming I see a lot of dead people, simply most players there want to hit the champ as much as they can and have no time for a downed player (or even a player trying to get back up).

I also saw this a lot yesterday during the new LW events, even though you only need to do a little damage to the champ to get the drop I noticed. But at temples, dragons or what have you, you often see three people reviving a downed player. But LW wasn’t as bad as like that embers farming group, I nearly felt ashamed for being on my server, downed players everywhere and no one lifting a finger. But I was there to do the full chain, wanted no part of that group or what they were doing (exploiting), just wrong.

Exactly, the game SINCE release and up even to this day rewards selfishness, I still don’t understand what they’re thinking.

The rewards need to be from victory, not “OH I TAGGED ENOUGH MOBS HUE”.

Kill 60% of the loot from mobs and put it in beating an event or dungeon or boss or w/e.

Imagine if the game actually punished you for sitting there in zerker gear spamming 1 ignoring other players and instead rewarded you for playing as a team.

Now imagine if everything in the game was fairly rewarding, feel like running around doing events with a couple friends in Queensdale at lvl 80? Decent rewards. Feel like exploring or doing puzzles? Good rewards. Feel like taking on difficult and well designed bosses with a group of people? Good rewards, and all of it from winning and not from mob drops. Feel like being lazy and zerging and easy chain of events? Decent rewards, nothing special but hey it’s laid back farming.

Then take the stuff that’s really difficult or takes more coordination like temple events, or really tough dungeons/bosses, and give them the MOST rewards (by rewards I mean just the basic stuff, gold/loot/mats/etc as well as any unique fluff items.

That would be awesome.

The easiest and laziest stuff in game should NOT be the most rewarding, it should be the least rewarding outside of dailies.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: arjeidi.2690

arjeidi.2690

My 2 cents…

I’m ok with zerg farming as long as it doesn’t run contrary to the stated and obvious objectives in game. If you’re part of a group that intentionally lets an event fail just to spawn more champs so you can get more loot, then you are a problem. If you’re a Commander using your tag to rally people to farm Aetherblade champs well after the event has moved on to wave 3 minions & Molten Alliance? You are the problem.

But the zerg trains in Queensdale and Frostgorge? I’m ok with those. I can’t bear to do more than 15 minutes of either in a sitting, but it is nice to pop onto the map, kill about a dozen champs. Neither of those zergs cause any events to intentionally fail or even get in the way of others who are just playing through the map “naturally”.

Its not the activity of zerg farming that is the root of the problem, it is the attitudes and motivations of those farming, and unfortunately ANet can’t patch out selfishness or greed. And any attempt to limit the benefits gotten by those people will affect all of us, and as a solo player who today reached his highest amount of Gold at one time (45gold, ef yeah \o/ ), I really don’t need more obstacles to get in the way of enjoying this game, and I don’t think any of us do.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: arjeidi.2690

arjeidi.2690

Community Erosion:

I’ll second that. There is a big difference between temple assaults in CS and zerg farming. Temple assaults players go out of their way to revive other players (apart from mid way through grenth risen priest where you really do need to WP). Zerg farming I see a lot of dead people, simply most players there want to hit the champ as much as they can and have no time for a downed player (or even a player trying to get back up).

I also saw this a lot yesterday during the new LW events, even though you only need to do a little damage to the champ to get the drop I noticed. But at temples, dragons or what have you, you often see three people reviving a downed player. But LW wasn’t as bad as like that embers farming group, I nearly felt ashamed for being on my server, downed players everywhere and no one lifting a finger. But I was there to do the full chain, wanted no part of that group or what they were doing (exploiting), just wrong.

Exactly, the game SINCE release and up even to this day rewards selfishness, I still don’t understand what they’re thinking.

The rewards need to be from victory, not “OH I TAGGED ENOUGH MOBS HUE”.

Kill 60% of the loot from mobs and put it in beating an event or dungeon or boss or w/e.

Imagine if the game actually punished you for sitting there in zerker gear spamming 1 ignoring other players and instead rewarded you for playing as a team.

Now imagine if everything in the game was fairly rewarding, feel like running around doing events with a couple friends in Queensdale at lvl 80? Decent rewards. Feel like exploring or doing puzzles? Good rewards. Feel like taking on difficult and well designed bosses with a group of people? Good rewards, and all of it from winning and not from mob drops. Feel like being lazy and zerging and easy chain of events? Decent rewards, nothing special but hey it’s laid back farming.

Then take the stuff that’s really difficult or takes more coordination like temple events, or really tough dungeons/bosses, and give them the MOST rewards (by rewards I mean just the basic stuff, gold/loot/mats/etc as well as any unique fluff items.

That would be awesome.

The easiest and laziest stuff in game should NOT be the most rewarding, it should be the least rewarding outside of dailies.

I like this post, especially since there’s no mention of ‘difficult’/‘challenging’ events giving unique rewards, but rather more of the same rewards less difficult events/activities/things give. You get more for more effort but there’s no exclusion. I genuinely like that.

Problem I see with it is, ANet will make it once-per-day-per-account.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: projectcedric.6951

projectcedric.6951

I like zerg farming the way it is right now.

Thing is, there is always some kind of balance to be struck between farming and doing non-farm content, regardless of which one any player finds fun doing. Farming does have its pros, one of them being able to get some kind of comfort level of attaining something without much of a challenge. Always doing content which do not give rewards efficiently (non-farm content) can just be as detrimental as farming all the time.

That being said, compared to the previous versions of farming, i.e. CS shelter-penitent, COF p1, and even the new champ trains, at least the Invasion farming forces farmers to move around the world map, and is relatively better.

Baseline is you can’t really stop farming. People will find the best, most efficient way possible to farm no matter how much effort you put in trying to cut down farming. It’s just human nature. The better move is to design better farming system, so that the efficient way of farming will trick players to simultaneously do the rest of content. That will be the challenge for Anet.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: ShadowPuppet.3746

ShadowPuppet.3746

If they just made it so everything in this game is equally as rewarding this wouldn’t be an issue, because then you can do whatever you find fun and keep up with the inflation.

But no, if you don’t grind this thing every hour you’ll fall behind.

It’s pretty much why I feel they need to get rid of rng to ever give themselves a chance to balance it out. As long as rng is tied to getting profitable materials it will always favor waves of mobs over other options. As I have seen posted elsewhere, it is largely the community that has themselves to blame, whenever Anet tried to curtail mindless repetition in times past with things like DR there was so much outrage over not being able to farm, it’s no wonder Anet has come up with the type of content they have.

If you removed RNG then you would have more drops to the point where gold would truly become worthless. RNG is part of if a mob drops something or nothing at all its in all mmorpgs its even in rpgs.

I should have been more clear, my apologies…..I mean get rid of the drops on mobs…Put the rng rewards in the event completion. Change the way crafting materials are gathered or change the crafting system to accommodate for such a change or both. It’s just artificial gating and nothing more in the current system, I realize all MMORPG’s do this it’s a tried and true method but it isn’t exactly groundbreaking. I think there are very many options that could be explored to change the way rewards are doled out, but this basic farm/grind is just as boring as it could possibly be and is not even remotely engaging. If people accept mediocrity then that is what we will continue to get.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Grounder.7381

Grounder.7381

you’d be surprise to see how many people find that the most FUN thing to do is getting those sweet sweet loot. seeing some orange items gained over and over again.. opening boxes that gain them gold in hope of a rare chance to get the winning lottery.. even with all the repetition thats going on within the activity!
well sure.. some people like challenge and hard fights, but as much as how many of these people that like hard content, there are equal or more people that like ease content..
not all people think like you and your thought doesn’t represent all.
what you’re saying is just..
I find champ zerging / CoFarm / [insert next farm here] boring, and I dont want to see everybody else gain materials/ gold from them, thus the perfect thing to do is nerfing them!!!

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aberrant.6749

Aberrant.6749

If there has been a lot of currency added then yes (this isn’t currently the case).

From the mouth of your buddy:

rewards are crap. boxes give me liquid karma and kittenty greens.

Sure, ignore the +7s per box.

Plus, there are other ways farmers hurt the game. Even when they get materials and sell them, they are concentrating gold in their hands. This concentrates wealth and allows the farmers to increase prices, even ignoring the supply of raw gold they add to the game.

Or you can look @ the dev post where he said that not a lot of new currency was added into the game from the story >.> If you want to tin foil hat it and think the dev was lying or incorrect, that’s up to you. I’ll stick with a dev’s statement over a player’s statement personally.

His statements sync well with the overall TP economy though. Some items have gone down in price, others have gone up. It’s a pretty kitten good balance between these two. If there was high inflation you wouldn’t see that.

The farming community is a small one when you compare it to the overall population. The overall econ is just fine.

If you’re worried about people trying to manipulate the market, yes it happens, but they take risks when doing so. I know people that have lost hundreds of gold trying to do this. It’s also VERY hard to manipulate certain markets. These are generally the things that players need like highly used crafting materials. They are hard to manipulate because the supply is so high that the new price will return to normal very quickly (and the manipulator will lose gold).

Tarnished Coast
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa

(edited by Aberrant.6749)

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aberrant.6749

Aberrant.6749

TLDR: Just let others play how they choose.

That’s rather naive. You are not in a bubble. The way others play the game change how you play the game, whether you want it or not.

The invasions: maps are going into multiple overflows. Which means, the maps are full. Which means, whenever a farmer stops trying to do the event just to farm, it’s not just one less person doing the event; it’s someone taking the place in that map of someone who could be doing the event instead of farming. When you have a high enough number of slots taken by farmers, instead of by players who want to play the game as intended, actually winning the invasion becomes impossible.

The Anchorage event in Orr: someone posted how he/she got even death threats by finishing the event. I think I don’t have to explain how that disincouraged people who actually wanted to do the Arah meta-event from going anywhere close to it.

Not to mention the side effects in the game as a whole. If ArenaNet notices there is a large number of players who are happy with mindless and simple content as long as they get a shiny reward in the end, why would they bother making content for the other players – the ones who actually want quality content, such as something challenging, or a good storyline, or something nice to explore – when the latter group is far harder to please than the former?

This kind of thing is the reason why MMORPGs are so bad games. They don’t even try to be fun – all they (think they) need to be a success is to become big addictive Skinner rat boxes. Farmers are to blame for lowering themselves to the level of Skinner rats, but game developers – including ArenaNet – are also to blame for allowing this behavior.

If you read my other posts on this subject… I’ve seen 30+ farm and still get the event done. This is normal. This is the same experience of everyone I’ve talked to in my guild. It’s not a one or the other type of thing. However if you just don’t like it or see too many farming and it’s not going to finish (I have yet to see this and have done at least 20) then it’s up to you to change vs ask 30+ other people to change.

I just got sick of having to repeat the same thing over and over in every single one of these threads. Hope that clears things up for you.

what you’re saying is just..
I find champ zerging / CoFarm / [insert next farm here] boring, and I dont want to see everybody else gain materials/ gold from them, thus the perfect thing to do is nerfing them!!!

I agree this is the main reason behind the vast majority of the players complaints.

Tarnished Coast
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa

(edited by Aberrant.6749)

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Gufuu.6384

Gufuu.6384

Maybe if it wasn’t 100% Zerg farming all the time it MIGHT be interesting.
You guys go ahead and enjoy your Zerg farm, I don’t plan on participating in it.
100% WvW for me until they make some changes to that farming junk.

Ranger
Playing since headstart.

(edited by Gufuu.6384)

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: ShadowPuppet.3746

ShadowPuppet.3746

you’d be surprise to see how many people find that the most FUN thing to do is getting those sweet sweet loot. seeing some orange items gained over and over again.. opening boxes that gain them gold in hope of a rare chance to get the winning lottery.. even with all the repetition thats going on within the activity!
well sure.. some people like challenge and hard fights, but as much as how many of these people that like hard content, there are equal or more people that like ease content..
not all people think like you and your thought doesn’t represent all.
what you’re saying is just..
I find champ zerging / CoFarm / [insert next farm here] boring, and I dont want to see everybody else gain materials/ gold from them, thus the perfect thing to do is nerfing them!!!

I agree to an extent with your sentiment, if people want to do this kind of content and find it fun that’s fine people should be able to find something enjoyable, but they certainly are not entitled to disproportionate rewards for it. I am not sure why people feel that they should be able to do the most simple task and also receive the best rewards at the same time. It’s quite frankly depressing to think that this is what so many people seem to want.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aberrant.6749

Aberrant.6749

Maybe if it wasn’t 100% Zerg farming all the time it MIGHT be interesting.
You guys go ahead and enjoy your Zerg farm, I don’t plan on participating in it.
100% WvW for me until they make some changes to that farming junk.

I have never seen 100% of the people on these events just zerg. The average large group size seems to be about 25-30. This is a perfect example of grossly exaggerating the “problem” to try to get your way.

you’d be surprise to see how many people find that the most FUN thing to do is getting those sweet sweet loot. seeing some orange items gained over and over again.. opening boxes that gain them gold in hope of a rare chance to get the winning lottery.. even with all the repetition thats going on within the activity!
well sure.. some people like challenge and hard fights, but as much as how many of these people that like hard content, there are equal or more people that like ease content..
not all people think like you and your thought doesn’t represent all.
what you’re saying is just..
I find champ zerging / CoFarm / [insert next farm here] boring, and I dont want to see everybody else gain materials/ gold from them, thus the perfect thing to do is nerfing them!!!

I agree to an extent with your sentiment, if people want to do this kind of content and find it fun that’s fine people should be able to find something enjoyable, but they certainly are not entitled to disproportionate rewards for it. I am not sure why people feel that they should be able to do the most simple task and also receive the best rewards at the same time. It’s quite frankly depressing to think that this is what so many people seem to want.

The best farm as of late was the ember farm. It was hardly the most simple thing to do well. TONS of people didn’t have a clue about how to do it properly and were constantly complaining that they didn’t get credit for the loot. No one spread this knowledge because it would reduce their own loot. You had to figure it out on your own. Most people never seemed to catch on. So it took knowledge (without the game telling you directly) and skill (not to get killed while being the first to tag 4-5 champs + vets + trash mobs to ensure loot). It was also competitive. If you didn’t get the tag in early, you got nothing regardless of how much damage you dealt.

Compare this do an average dung. You will always get the loot as long as you kill. You will not be facing this many strong mobs at any given time. You are given a certainty of obtaining exotic weapons with multiple stat choices
through tokens. You are given a certainty of getting a chest to loot plus one from any champs. You are given a certainty of a gold reward.

You gave up certainty for the chance at higher rewards with higher risk involved.

Tarnished Coast
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa

(edited by Aberrant.6749)

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: MrRuin.9740

MrRuin.9740

Yeah…..I’ve been a fan of gw2 since I started playing and had enjoyed the living story content get better and better. Sanctum was great, with a new map, challenges, mini-games.
This is just bleh now. I have no interest in zerging the same mobs for hours. When they said some form of raiding content was coming, I had the unrealistic hope of something that took more effort or organization and cooperation. This zerging is stupid. How much coordination does it take to have 50 ppl "press1’ a mob to death then swarm to the next one? If people want to do this for hours on end for coin, power to them. Money is pointless in this game as it is, I have 200 gold sitting in my wallet I have no use for atm :P
Anyway, like Aberrant said, you can’t change the way people play or if they enjoy it or not. Let them be. And you can’t change the world with a little topic here. There’s too many people for it and the numbers of people doing it speak for itself. If you don’t like it, you have to either play the aspects of the game you do like or don’t play at all. Personally, this trends not for me. I’ll login and do my dailies and something fun if it arises….but if they keep going with this zerg-everything trend, might be time to see whats on the horizon for new MMO’s. Just gonna wait and see if they keep this trend going or not.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: projectcedric.6951

projectcedric.6951

Money is pointless in this game as it is, I have 200 gold sitting in my wallet I have no use for atm :P

Of course you have no use for 200 gold.

99.99% of the game requires 50 gold or less.

0.01%, which is a Legendary, requires at least 800 gold.

Your gold is sitting in the middle.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: xephire.8324

xephire.8324

Ok after this post what Anet is going to do is theyll nerf champions loot again.So what will they do next?Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm……….Theyll drop gold over the skies of tyria and all over the map to stop farming.

Zerg Farming: Needs to be stopped.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Aberrant.6749

Aberrant.6749

Money is pointless in this game as it is, I have 200 gold sitting in my wallet I have no use for atm :P

Of course you have no use for 200 gold.

99.99% of the game requires 50 gold or less.

0.01%, which is a Legendary, requires at least 800 gold.

Your gold is sitting in the middle.

TBH if he wanted to invest that gold he could use it to make more gold to get him to that legendary area. That would involve knowledge and contains risk though. It’s far easier to make more gold once you have extra gold that you don’t need for the day to day stuffs.

Tarnished Coast
Salvage 4 Profit + MF Guide – http://tinyurl.com/l8ff6pa