Why all the changes?

Is it me, or are the the GW staff devoted to making the game harder for people? I mean, so many things are being nerfed its left me, and I imagine others, looking around bewildered at whats possible anymore.
Running has been made significantly harder in several places, duo running has had to take off because of it. The result? Less money or profit for people.
Then the keys were introduced so now people have to buy keys for chests, I'd say 8/10 times the drop is worth less than the key. I'm not sure if theres a technical issue that means keys are so much better, but it seems they introduced keys for a sole reason - Less money for people.
Now I hear drops like the IDS have been reduced, whats the deal behind that? I mean, if people are good enough to use skills to their advantage and solo, then why make it so that it isn't worth their time? Less money for people.
There are countless issues which all seem to be making money earning so much harder. Am I completely wrong on this, I guess I'm relatively in the dark on this so this isn't a complete flaming post, just stating what is apparent to me.
Thanks for any input.

i guess, their thinking might be something like this,

the harder it is to get to get money = the more satisfying and rewarding it is when you get some

So you would be happier earing say 10k in about a month of constant missions than you would earning similar amounts helping other players by running them to places they couln't reach on their own?
To some extent yes they needed to nerf the game, such as keys. However you can go too far with nerfing.

I think you're missing the spirit of the game's design: it wasn't intended to be about grind, or having the best and coolest armors and weapons ... 1.5k apiece will get you the "best" armor in the game, and you can get max collector's weapons.

Want something different? 15k armor? FoW armor? Great, but that's your choice ... it's statistically the same.

Expect alot of hard work if you want the higher-end stuff.

The runs being more difficult hasn't really had much of an impact on them. I'm no runner, but I've gotten a run from a solo runner since the last run changes that I'm aware of. When it comes to a thing like running, that a lot of people do because its a fun challenge, making it harder isn't much of a set-back... it makes it more fun.

As to keys, my understanding is that they were implemented because chests weren't doing what they were meant to. Chests were apparently meant as a means for new folks to get guaranteed decent drops. Not in terms of money to be made from the items, but in terms of mods or other such things on the weapons which could be for personal use, unlocks, etc. Keys are meant to be an investment: you can trade a little bit of gold so that you can be assured to get a drop that might have your next new item mod, or will at least have an item mod in general. You won't make a profit off of chests anymore (as a general rule, though we all know how gambling works), but that's not a problem. Chests are helping the lower rung of players get better weapons, not the upper rung make more money.

Chests used to be heavily bot-farmed. Keys eliminated that. If the item you get 99% of the time is worth less than the cost of the key, you can't profit from chestbotting. Blame or thank the ebayers for that one, depending upon your perspective.

Would you prefer IDS's drop like they used to? So you could get 5 or 10 a day? Sure, why not? Then when you try to sell them, you'll only get 2k apiece for them if you're lucky. So you can sell 1 for 20k or 10 for 2k each. Their rarity is what has held their value over the last 5 months.

As was said, you can get the best armor in the game for 1.5k * 5 plus materials, and you can get the best weapons for absolutely free (collectors). Anything above and beyond that is vanity, not necessity.

i love the changes. keep the game fresh.

here my thought...

Ya i use to play D2 LOD so it's my only example or comparason. But after no/long updates (1.09 to 1.10 the last one i playied) it was boring. get soj's and what-not. Gold was a joke in that game. but the only updates were to armor and weapons, but no monsatar or areas. I mean a slight change add that world event thing.. blah.. give me a break. don't even get me started on the lvl 99 ... but the cow level was fun... oh ya things drop when your level xx or higher....

But in GW the way you can change skills for each area or use different builds makes it 5000% better. you can dye armor and weapons, get FOW armor, and gold have a REAL value... so many other things....

well's that's just my view of it... above all the the free online server (well blizzard has that to -)...

I'm not against the changes for the most part. I recognize what you've all said about keeping the game fresh and challenging. My only gripe is when a nerf only affects some of the players. Why are there still old weapons with no current equivalent (aka 15^50 weapons with no req or negative, etc.) Recently they nerfed the bugged axe that held two hafts. They removed every instance of the axe and made everyone equal. It sucked for me, but it was fair.

All the complaining about nerfing seems a bit over the top to me. The game hasn't become unmanageable and you can still make plenty of money without a heck of bother. Some areas even seem easier than I remember at the moment.

It might just be luck, but I went on a Drok run last night just to keep my hand in (hadn't done one for weeks and thought I might be getting rusty) and it was much easier than I remembered.

In particular, at first glance the spawn in Lornars looked heinous, especially when all the ablative armour, I mean clients, died before the first wurm, which then got extra friendly and came early. Despite that, it suddenly seemed very easy to get though.

Is it just luck, or is there a version of the anti-farm code that gives you a friendlier spawn when you haven't been there for a while? Either way, it still doesn't look to me as though you need dual runners everywhere- just that with all the wannabes around the average standard is pretty abyssmal.

I see everyones point of view on this and I agree with the most, it just seems to affect some more than others, which isn't entirely fair.
Don't get me wrong I love this game as it was and as it is. To be honest though, I would never spend so much on armour as the 15k or FoW, as far as I know its just the same as Droks, only it looks better. For 13.5k a piece + materials more than a droks set, I think I'll pass on that.
I agree with keys being introduced too, bots annoy the hell outta me, however it is possible to make a profit from FoW chests, so they haven't completely nerfed that yet.