Let’s calm down a bit, this isn’t getting us far. Instead let me ask this.
Here are the assumptions that I’m operating under for this question:
1. You feel that PvE and TP have difference levels of gold earning
2. You feel that PvE and TP should have the same level of gold earning
I subscribe to those assumptions as well. Let me tell you a bit about myself. I’m an almost exclusively PvE player, who has been playing consistently since August 25. I enjoy not only dungeons, but also to go around the world exploring and finding new events and stuff.
For the last few months, I’ve been running CoF path 1 around three times each day (enough to go through an omnom bar), and that’s how I’ve earned most of the ~ 290g that I’ve been able to save. I’ve never made any extravagant purchases, but I’m thinking of buying cultural tier 3 armor for my beautiful female norn warrior.
Legendaries? Yes, I’d like very much to have 1 or 2 in the distant future. Juggernaut, for example, sure looks great, but the precursor alone costs double the entirety of my lifetime earnings. Maybe it’ll drop off a random spider somewhere eventually, but this doesn’t look like a reliable plan to obtain one. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to save enough to buy it from the TP through my usual playing habits either.
What would be your plan for implementing a reward system that would achieve what you desire, given the constraint that you may not get rid of the trading post?
John, quite frankly, I don’t know how to answer your question. I know little about game design or virtual economies, so I’m not going to try to argue with you about economics or reward systems. All I can do is to give you my perspective and tell you about what it feels like to play the game from my experience.
I loathe using the TP. Not only in GW2, but in any other game I’ve played that has an auction house. Sure, I’ll use it when needed, but I think that this game has a wonderful world that is a lot more interesting than the TP. I mean, I’m playing GW2 to do combat, exploring, socializing, rather than slave away at than the slow loading, clunky TP screen. Do you enjoy using the TP? Great, more power to you – but I don’t.
Still, I feel that the only (or vastly more efficient) way to acquire certain items is through the TP. I’m not talking only about precursors, but any other mats for legendaries. Tier 6 materials, lodestones, silver doubloons. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that it’s better to save gold and buy them from the TP than to go through the trouble of farming them yourself.
As other people have mentioned in this thread, for once we were able to actually farm through combat something efficiently – ectos – but it was shot down immediately. I find it frustrating to rely so much on the TP and to be left behind the inflation curve if you’re not some kind of TP wiz.
Anyway, John, as I said, this isn’t much of a plan for implementing a reward system. This is just my sincere feedback. I’m not sure if it’s important or what you can do with it, but this is all I can give you.
