tldr: GW2’s loot system is excessive in quantity and poor in quality. It needs to change before it drives me away from the game again. I want to enjoy GW2, but poorly implemented systems like this make it difficult.
I have been playing GW2 since launch, but over the recent few months I have hardly played at all (I just log in for the login rewards then log straight back out again). The game just doesn’t hold my attention any more. I don’t know fully why that is, I think it is a combination of many minor things that get on my nerves. These issues individually are hardly anything on their own, but collectively they all add up and make the game more frustrating than entertaining. That said, I recently pinpointed one of the bigger issues that is really annoying me and I wanted to express my views on it.
I have started playing again recently, mainly to do the new living story stuff (which I am enjoy… loving Canach!), but one thing really hit me yesterday, something that is really starting to get on my nerves now and I think it is one of the contributing factors that is putting me off the game. And that something is the excessive amount of worthless loot you get. This has always kind of been present in GW2, from the start, but it seems to have been getting a lot worse since HoT.
The problem is you get sooo much crap these days and even though they are trying to make it better, by stacking some of it in bags, your inventory still fills up way too quickly and with stuff that is 99% worthless. I have two major issues with this setup:
1) It breaks the flow of the gameplay far too frequently. I start enjoying the meta events and other activities around the map, but it is not long before I have to stop and clear my inventory, which, thanks to all the loot bags, takes a fair amount of time to process. So by the time I have finished clearing my inventory the event I was in has ended or I have missed out on some other events in the area that started while I was cleaning up the crap. It can take a good 20+ minutes clearing your inventory sometimes, which is not what I call entertaining, when all I want to do is go from event to event having fun. My game time is limited these days and the last thing I want to play is Inventory Manager 2016.
2) Almost all loot is worthless. At the end of the day most of it just amounts to extra gold, and to be honest I would rather just get the gold direct, rather than having to spend time processing it (while adventuring) before I can spend it. The ‘rewards’ are not rewarding, they are frustrating. And even if you didn’t have to clean out your inventory that often, the rewards you get just aren’t enjoyable, at all. Why, at max level and in full ascended gear, would I want to get 50 blue weapons and armour pieces?! If you want to give me materials or money, just give me it directly, don’t force me to perform the tedious task of salvaging and selling huge quantities of junk. It’s just a complete waste of inventory space and a frustrating activity that I do not want to have to do.
Looking at it the other way, the good rewards are so infrequent in GW2 you just don’t FEEL like you are getting rewarded. You know, those rewards that give you a moment of surprise and joy when you receive them, like an exotic or ascended item. I could play GW2 for months on end and get nothing of worth. I’m not asking for an exotic drop every 5 minutes, but you should feel like a few hours of play are rewarding and currently they are not.
To be continued…
(edited by Rin.1046)