Guild Wars 2

tl;dr – How do I deal with grind? I don’t.

I’ve often told those complaining about the grind that it’s voluntary. I tell them if they’re not having fun doing X, then stop doing X. If they enjoyed doing Y on their way to level 80, and now they’re not having any fun because they’re spending all their time working towards X then they should go back to doing Y. Video games are supposed to be fun; and if X isn’t fun, stop doing X.

It’s time to practice what I’ve preached. I’ve been working towards an undetermined Legendary weapon (either Kudzu for my ranger or Flameseeker Prophecies for my guardian) for a few weeks now. I’ve parked characters at ori nodes, I’ve done the world boss hop, and I’ve grinded some of the T6 mats for the various Gifts.

I’ve calculated how long it’s going to take me to get the Badges from WvW, something I don’t particularly care for. And I’ve been squirreling away all my gold for the Icy Runestones, Gift recipes, etc. And all of this is for naught if I never get lucky enough to land a precursor.

This morning I logged on to do my ori sweeps, one character at a time. It was then I realized how little fun I’ve had since I started working towards the Legendary. All these characters I’ve left parked at ori nodes are going to waste. I didn’t create, level, and gear these characters to be used as laborers mining ore and chopping lumber. I created these characters to play with them.

I realized the grind to get a Legendary wasn’t going to be enjoyable. I knew this goping in, but I thought the nice weapon skins would make it worthwhile. I can suffer through a bit of grind to get something I want. But with the logistics involved in getting all the stuff I need for a Legendary, that’s a lot of time I’d have to spend doing stuff I don’t enjoy.

And so, just like that, I scrapped my goal of getting a Legendary weapon. I’m a journey kind of guy, not a destination guy. When it comes to video games I don’t care how nice the destination is if the journey bores me. I get enough grind out of real life, I don’t need it in my games too.

While I love the way Kudzu and Flameseeker Prophecies look, at the end of the day they are just cosmetic skins. And I’d rather spend all the weeks and months it would take to get them actually enjoying the game. So I dealt the grind by choosing not to participate. Luckily the content I enjoy isn’t gated behind gear grinds. This leaves me free to enjoy the stuff I enjoy and avoid the stuff I don’t.

PS – I understand my philosophy is not shared by all, and I understand there are those of you who are driven to achieve whatever in-game goals you’ve set yourself. For those of you who choose to press through the grind, godspeed. Just remember, you can opt out of the grind anytime you wish.

PPS – I now find myself sitting on a pile of gold, a heap of orichalcum, and a cache of T6 mats. I think it’s time to splurge; I’ve earned it.

By not grinding I got lucky a few times, each giving me about 40g. Another few times and I’ll have my precursor. Nothing to worry about. Money comes easy if you don’t grind … especially if you don’t grind.

It’s definitely time to splurge

I promised myself that I wouldn’t work towards the legendary/grind until a precursor falls in my lap – either from a drop or from the rare loot drop offerings I give Zommoros. It will be a loooong time.
Now I almost hope I don’t get one because even after all this time (August-Now) I don’t have nearly enough mat’s or anything else to start making a legendary.
I’d probably just have to sell it if I did get one; after I raise the gold to list it ofc. :P

I pretty much share your philosophy, which is why I love the game- I only play for fun.
I am almost allergic to grind- I tried farming once and stooped after 5 min because it felt like 5 years.
I love Kudzu myself but not that much

Great post OP, glad you realized what a complete time waster legendaries are and unneeded, yes the skins appeal to some but honestly really not worth such time and effort for such an unremarkable item.

I’m sure your time can be better served doing other things.

I got a precursor too, but i just use it as my weapon, i’ll never make a legendary from it.

I’m working towards a second legendary and I’ve never done much grinding. Every few days I’ll join a guildie on some CoF farming, but that’s almost relaxing for me. /shrug
I love dungeons, so I run dungeons and make gold and mats from doing that. Just because you hate farming doesn’t mean you need to give up on your legendary goals.
My philosophy is similar to yours, in that, if I don’t enjoy doing it, why am I doing it? CS Farming and T6 farming drives me insane within about 5 minutes, so I don’t do those. Is money coming a bit slower than it would if that was all I did? Yeah, but I’m definitely enjoying my time in game more than I would if I was farming.

marnick.4305:

By not grinding I got lucky a few times, each giving me about 40g. Another few times and I’ll have my precursor. Nothing to worry about. Money comes easy if you don’t grind … especially if you don’t grind.

I originally had the notion that I’d get the stuff I need for a Legendary over the natural course of playing the game the way I enjoyed, but I’m at the stage where that is no longer possible. There’s no way to get Badges of Honor through the “natural course of play” for those who don’t particularly enjoy WvW. And it’’s not so much a case that I hate WvW, I just enjoy PvE so much more.

darkace.8925:

tl;dr – How do I deal with grind? I don’t.

Your point is incredibly naive.

Saying basically “If you don’t like the grind, just don’t grind, it doesn’t make any difference to you if other people do” is simply, well, wrong. People don’t exist in a vacuum. And ArenaNet doesn’t have enough resources to make content in the game for everyone.

If you don’t like to grind… Sorry, but a lot of people do, and ArenaNet is not going to make content for everyone. It’s far easier to make content for grinders and farmers (since it’s mindless, easy and basically mediocre content) than for real people, so there’s already a tendency to make more grind instead of anything else.

It’s logical, then, that ArenaNet would focus more on adding more grind to the game than adding fun content. Which means, for those who would rather have fun than pretend they’re Skinner rats… Well, soon they may find they are not ArenaNet’s target audience, and so no new content in the game are not going to be aimed at them.

Southsun is the perfect example of this. Interesting storyline? No. Decent storytelling? No. New, improved dynamic events? No. New world boss with unique mechanics? No. But 200% Magic Find with two identical events repeating over and over and giving a chest after completition? YES.

That is content for grinders. Easy, mindless, easy to build – aka mediocre. And that’s what most of the GW2 community wants, based on ArenaNet’s action. If you don’t like it, pretending the fact that people do wouldn’t change the game for you is not the answer.

Erasculio.2914:

darkace.8925:

tl;dr – How do I deal with grind? I don’t.

Your point is incredibly naive.

Saying basically “If you don’t like the grind, just don’t grind, it doesn’t make any difference to you if other people do” is simply, well, wrong. People don’t exist in a vacuum. And ArenaNet doesn’t have enough resources to make content in the game for everyone.

If you don’t like to grind… Sorry, but a lot of people do, and ArenaNet is not going to make content for everyone. It’s far easier to make content for grinders and farmers (since it’s mindless, easy and basically mediocre content) than for real people, so there’s already a tendency to make more grind instead of anything else.

It’s logical, then, that ArenaNet would focus more on adding more grind to the game than adding fun content. Which means, for those who would rather have fun than pretend they’re Skinner rats… Well, soon they may find they are not ArenaNet’s target audience, and so no new content in the game are not going to be aimed at them.

Southsun is the perfect example of this. Interesting storyline? No. Decent storytelling? No. New, improved dynamic events? No. New world boss with unique mechanics? No. But 200% Magic Find with two identical events repeating over and over and giving a chest after completition? YES.

That is content for grinders. Easy, mindless, easy to build – aka mediocre. And that’s what most of the GW2 community wants, based on ArenaNet’s action. If you don’t like it, pretending the fact that people do wouldn’t change the game for you is not the answer.

I’m not sure how best to address your post, because I can’t help but feel you’re attempting to troll me. How, exactly, is the principle “don’t grind if you don’t enjoy grinding” naive?

wow, that’s exactly how I feel about the game, I usually just do arah or fractals and not really in it for the gold, but gold seems to find it’s way to me, though a legendary is still a goal of mine, but not in the top 10, I just want the legendary before 2014, I’ve been playing since prelaunch

Erasculio.2914:

darkace.8925:

tl;dr – How do I deal with grind? I don’t.

Your point is incredibly naive.

Saying basically “If you don’t like the grind, just don’t grind, it doesn’t make any difference to you if other people do” is simply, well, wrong. People don’t exist in a vacuum. And ArenaNet doesn’t have enough resources to make content in the game for everyone.

If you don’t like to grind… Sorry, but a lot of people do, and ArenaNet is not going to make content for everyone. It’s far easier to make content for grinders and farmers (since it’s mindless, easy and basically mediocre content) than for real people, so there’s already a tendency to make more grind instead of anything else.

It’s logical, then, that ArenaNet would focus more on adding more grind to the game than adding fun content. Which means, for those who would rather have fun than pretend they’re Skinner rats… Well, soon they may find they are not ArenaNet’s target audience, and so no new content in the game are not going to be aimed at them.

Southsun is the perfect example of this. Interesting storyline? No. Decent storytelling? No. New, improved dynamic events? No. New world boss with unique mechanics? No. But 200% Magic Find with two identical events repeating over and over and giving a chest after completition? YES.

That is content for grinders. Easy, mindless, easy to build – aka mediocre. And that’s what most of the GW2 community wants, based on ArenaNet’s action. If you don’t like it, pretending the fact that people do wouldn’t change the game for you is not the answer.

It’s actually logical for anet to focus on fun content. But fun content doesn’t mean it’ll be finished 5min after logging in. They CAN make fun content that is protracted. They tried appeasing the farmers with the 200% SSC stuff, and after that, it’s the dragon bash event + aetherpirates. From the looks of it, Anet is trying to appease different player groups by shuffling different types of events and content. Especially wrt the update every 2 weeks thing, they’ll have more opportunities to address this.

Week 1: Farmers
Week 3: Story-people
Week 5: mini-game people
Week 7: scavenger hunters
Week 10: Grinders
etc.

Also, your post is misleading. You’re saying because Anet is focusing on grindy content, you’re not having fun. The opposite is actually the case. You’re not having fun (for whatever legit reason), so you’re trying to justify it by saying anet is making grindy and un-fun content. Realize that one’s perspective plays a huge role in one’s enjoyment of a game. And that’s the point the OP is trying to make.

If the rewards for killing stuff were greater, would that change anything?!

Mister Higgles.6095:

If the rewards for killing stuff were greater, would that change anything?!

I honestly thing not. People would be happy for a week or so, but then go back to complaining about how rewards =/= loot again.

darkace.8925:

I originally had the notion that I’d get the stuff I need for a Legendary over the natural course of playing the game the way I enjoyed, but I’m at the stage where that is no longer possible. There’s no way to get Badges of Honor through the “natural course of play” for those who don’t particularly enjoy WvW. And it’’s not so much a case that I hate WvW, I just enjoy PvE so much more.

By design the path to crafting a Legendary Weapon requires going out of your comfort zone and at least briefly visiting most areas of the game.

Mister Higgles.6095:

If the rewards for killing stuff were greater, would that change anything?!

Short answer: no.

Long answer: no.

So, no.

I work and buy gems now. After 2 months of hardcore farming and nothing else (had no life for those 2 months, ill admit it.), I can’t grind anymore. I’d rather spend my hard earned money than spend hours upon hours to earn what I can buy in 2 seconds on the gem store/convert to gold option.

Viking Jorun.5413:

I work and buy gems now. After 2 months of hardcore farming and nothing else (had no life for those 2 months, ill admit it.), I can’t grind anymore. I’d rather spend my hard earned money than spend hours upon hours to earn what I can buy in 2 seconds on the gem store/convert to gold option.

That’s cool… I log off when I stop having fun. Grinding… I’d log off in about 20 min.