Is it more fun to.....

..... buy things or get them on your own? For example, if you like the stats and skin on a particular green weapon, do find it to be more fun to get it as a drop or buy it from someone else?

....kill huge numbers of monsters to get coin or a fewer number, given your purchasing power stays the same? For example, would it be more fun to kill 1000 monsters to buy something for 10K or kill 500 monsters to buy the same thing for 20K?

....to have a title because you earned it or because most other players don't have it?

....farm solo or in a party, given that the drops are equal. For example, if a solo build or a party (heros, henches, and/or other players) had the same killing effectiveness plus the number/quality of drops were the same, is solo or party more fun?

In my opinion, these are the kinds of questions that Anet should be asking on the fan site forums before making gameplay decisions. As it stands now, I feel that Anet thinks it's more fun to buy the items you want than get them as drops, kill more monsters for the same purchasing power, have titles because others don't have them, and farm solo to get decent coins or items.

Somehow it just doesn't seem to me as though the game started out that way, but evolved during attempts to "balance the economy". For those of you that find it "more" fun that way, congrats. For me, I'd like to see the game balance shift a bit more toward playable and less "hardcore".

I tend to stray away from buying weapons,mods i don't mind.I'll just try farm them when i'm in mood.

farming nowadays i find tedious,but if i need something,i'll try the farm that grants most profit in shortest amount of time.

Well the titles are just something to work toward for GW2.They also show your achievements,even if some are grind and money sinks.

Nowadays,i guess the only thing that would keep me playing(atleast till GWEN comes out) would be to do some vanquishing or HM mission with friends.I find heros/hench boring.

As for a fun-factor, I'd rather find an item I've never seen before, that's truly unique. This is only possible the way the game currently is if I didn't have access (or chose not to access) to resources such as the wiki, and I happen across a random boss, and get the drop. The only other way it could happen is by coming across a green for the first time, before it has been documented. This actually happened to me, as I was the first person (at least to document it on Guru) to find the Ice Breaker green. Now that is fun!

Otherwise, you're technically shopping for it, and either way isn't terribly fun. You either have to work for the money to afford it, or you have to work by constantly farming the boss till it drops. I'd rather the accidental happening, much more rewarding, IMO.

Honestly it really doesn't matter to me. To me, money isn't fun. Money automatically implies work to me. I'd rather just experience the game, have fun, and when I notice that I happen to have saved up enough for some fancy set of threads or an item I think looks good, but is rare, I'll spend it. The only time I really care about how much money I'm sitting on is before the release of a new game (like GWEN coming up... saving mah money!), or when I would like to start buying more skills for changing up my builds. Otherwise, I couldn't care less.

Eh, the titles don't mean much to me. I don't really strive for any unless I'm terribly bored (and simultaneously have the time to waste), the title has actual usefulness (sunspear/lightbringer), or I want it for Role-Play reasons (like sweet tooth on my warrior, who has a background of loving candy). The "work" involved to reach a title doesn't interest me, and neither does the inherent elitism of high-end or multitude of titles.

Not sure why the drops affect the amount of fun - not following that line of thinking. If I'm in the mood to play as a team, I play in a team. If I'm in the mood to try and feel like an indestructible god that can take on mobs by itself, I play solo. Either way can be fun if I'm in the mood. Drops mean nothing except a means of income to support things like skills and stuff. There's nothing fun about that at all, IMO.

I think a balance in economy is a sensible idea. I mean, unless you support a terribly off-balance economy. Though I'm not sure why you would want that back, unless of course it favored you at the time.

Well there are things that are just impossible to ever farm in an effective manner, but i think it fells good to farm somthing ^^.

I do feel good when 2 boss in a row drop green for me .
Also stuffs from Kanaxai chest are rewarding.And I keep them.

I buy things simply because this game hates me. I've been playing since Prophecies, and the best non-green I recall getting is a r9 15^50 Deadbow farming hardmode Kryta. After buying one. I'm that guy in the party that gets a r13 purple bonestaff from a chest in DoA when everyone else gets r9 golds (yes, that happened). So, I buy things. I simply do not get good drops.

Meh... there is always means to earn money without excessive farming of hundreds of mobs. So you can complain or make money on other ways. As for titles, I don't give a flying fu*k. They are there only for you, if they make you feel better. If not, don't get them... And I need to buy all I want cus, like Loki said, this game doesn't favor me much. But that only makes me more mad, and then I eventualy buy everything I want, and say: In your face, Guild Wars! >:]

It's more fun to get it as a drop - it's quite thrilling to see it finally drop for you, especially if you've been trying for it over and over and over for several days.

That said, I once spent 10 solid days farming the Furnace with my nec, all because I'd decided I wanted a Tarnoc's Recurve. I ended up with a boatload of greens (including a Bortak's Claw & 2 Drago's Flats, along with 3 Sup Vigors) but Tarnoc never dropped for me. Once I remembered that he drops 3 different bows, and that if and when he did drop it might just as easily be one I didn't want, I went ahead and bought the darn thing. And the really funny thing is that I've never really used it.

Given what you wrote about not caring whether you make money, I wouldn't think you'd have much concern over the balance of the enconomy. Whether the ecomony is "balanced" or "terrible off-balance" is purely speculation at this point. Personally, I could care less about the economy. My interests are more with the overall gameplay.

i think its more fun getting something in a drop, i have never bought anything though i have swapped a mini, and sold the odd item that i didnt need.

I don;t enjoy farming though as its rather tedious for me, to do the same thing hour after hour.

Some things though have changed, I don't like pugs so tend to play witha few known individuals, unless in AB, and have gone off playign in guilds as some bad treatment in a few has left a sour taste.

Anet does ask questions of the community though, and unfortunatley the community tends to answer in a very divided way, for example over the question of the 2nd birthday presents.

A good company should do as they think best rather than constantly askign the community what it wants, maybe on rare occassions or major changes yes.

It's more fun to get your own green weapons, you know where it will drop, just the matter of time. But it's PITA trying to get a gold weapon with skin of your choice, since there is wide range of weapons dropping, depending on your luck.

None, they all suck imo.

Question:

Why is it that loot is so important to you when the economy isn't? Would you rather have no trading system at all, and get anything you ever wanted with little effort?

Personally, I could do without either loot or the economy. However, both are a part of this game, and both contribute to many people's fun in the game.

There is no "fun" in buying stuff, you find someone selling something you give him money he gives you the item and your done, i don't see where there is a chance to have fun in this.

Now about buying or getting it as drop, getting it as drop is usually fun, but then again there are the ones that can be really annoying,lets take Urgoz for example, you have to fight thru hundreds of enemies for 1 - 4 hours and then eventually get to him and hope your group knows what to do and then you kill him and he doesn't drop the bow you want for you, you repeat this 5 times and still no bow, in this way it can get very frustrated.

Hmm tricky one, for me its more fun to just go thru the 1000 enemies, i mean you always have the chance of getting even more nice drops in that second 500 group and who knows maybe you overaggro too many at one point and then you manage to kill them and survive and it feels good after managing to do that after you thought you almost surely was gonna die.

Both, having a title because i earned it would be earning one i really wanted ( like how i want max Chest collector and Wisdom title ) But having something most people don't have is also cool cause that on it own makes it special ( most of the time) and who doesn't like having something that is special?


If it is farming and only farming then alone or with 1 or 2 other people is the only way to really enjoy it I think, it is much easier to coordinate 2 people then it is to coordinate 7 people, you have more chance of someone messing up and screwing it up for everyone in a group of 8 then you have of it happening if you are just with one more person.

Ummm, who said loot was so important to me? I also didn't say anything about the trading system. And, I said absolutely nothing about getting things with little effort. I did say that my interest is in overall gameplay.

It is true that I don't really care about the economy from the standpoint of player trading, just because I don't trade. That also means I don't really care about having huge amount of gold, other than to get the needed armor, weapons, and skills. The only thing I really like about loot is getting a nicely skinned weapon with good stats occasionally while simply out killing monsters. Not by doing chest runs, solo farming in HM, or buying one.

Finally, I don't really care about the economy in terms of have's and have not's. Now that's only because I've been playing for 2 years and have everything in the way of basic necessities (armor, weapons, skills). I feel sorry for a lot of players that are just starting out and are having a difficult time getting the basics, but they'll have to take that up with Anet.

That would be cool. Imagine how it would be if you could just change your look every now and then completely, work on skills without having to grind al the time, and just buy something nice every now and then?

I don't get that.
When I started the game, I was in full teams all the time.
I expect most new players to do the same.
Things have not changed for them.

Oh, I forget, when I started playing the game, runes were expensive, as were some crafting materials.
Seems new players are better of than I was back then.

Can you please explain why new players are having more problems now than 'earlier'?

I've sure bought my share of items. I've played more than 2 years. But lately, even though I still have an adequate amount of gold, I've been equipping my characters using dropped items. It's just a way to change the rules for myself and make the game fresh again. Even items that I would have taken to the merchant before seem great when they drop and I need them. I'm glad I bought weapons, shields and caster items when I started the game - it seemed fun then and made the game easier. But when drops started feeling meaningless to me, my new system made things fun again.

I doubt that there's any one right answer here. It just depends on what seems fun since, uh, it is a game and that's the idea. So what works for me won't necessarily be the right answer for others.

I do help out other players alot but I do think I am quite envious of the harder to obtain titles and when I get them I will display them to show off allthough I never talk about them I just enjoy the comments of people whispering 'how did you get that one' and things like that. But I guess most people display titles for the same reason - human nature maybe?

I'd feel MUCH better if I found the things I wanted. That hasn't happened in two years of playing though, so I've had to buy everything I wanted. Whine, exaggerate, whatever you may say, the fact remains that my luck for drops sucks. Therefore i've had to take matters into my own hands to achieve my goals. But it sure would feel good if something I wanted would just drop for me during my adventures...