Loot Penalty? (repeating zones)

Is there a loot penalty for repeating the same zone over and over again?

If so, what are the mechanics for it? For example, how many times do you have to repeat a zone before the loot penalty comes into play? Will logging out and back in reset it? How much time must pass for it to reset? How do players get around it while farming? Does the loot penalty just reduce the frequency of drops or the rarity? Or both? Is the loot penalty additive so that the more you successively repeat the zone the less and less loot you will get? Or is there a cap on how much you can be penalized?

Thanks for your time.

I believe this was the case a long time ago, but not anymore.

There is no penalty for repeatedly farming the same area. Some players believe there is, no matter how many times ANet says "not anymore". It is simply your luck. Items to drop are randomly generated upon entry to an area, then assigned upon death of foe.

Here are links to wiki pages on Farming and Loot Scaling and to the discussion of the update that changed how drops are handled.

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Farming
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Loot_scaling
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Arena..._20_April_2007

I was actually testing this "rezoning=loot penalty" idea one day 2 weeks ago for fun to see what would happen.

Area Tested=ToPK

Control=Farm and rezone back to ToPK continuously until 1 hour was amassed farming.

Variable1=Farm ToPK area rezoning back to ToPK until ecto/s drop upon which i logged off and logged back in and then proceeded to farm again. This continued until 1 hour of farming was amassed.

Variable2=Farm ToPK area then rezone back to another outpost other than ToPK after having an ecto drop. Then map back to ToPK to continue farming. This was done until 1 hour was amassed farming.

After spending an hour farming [3 hours total] using the different rezone methods i listed i actually found that nothing really made the loot dropped any better or any worse. Im convinced its all luck.

so what were your findings?

Everyone who believes in this theory states that it takes more than a zone to clear your antifarm.

Anyway this is still a contested issue, I don't think it can be resolved here in Q&A.

His findings are right there.

@FoxBat - before the 2007 change, you did need to zone twice to clear your flags. The anti-farming system was an attempt to prevent bot farming. You would be surprised (or maybe not) to learn how many players are completely unaware of the change brought about by the update.