It's not all about the rewards you you know..

I've seen so many people saying things like "I'm not doing that quest, it's just experience anyway." or something like that. But it's not all about the rewards you know.. I play Missions/Bonuses/Quests for fun, not for the reward, who cares about the rewards, at least I have fun. I mean, you don't get a reward for getting a Fissure of Woe Armor set either, now do you? Isn't that almost the same then..?

Could anyone explain me why people buy this game just to be special? Isn't it just for then fun.. Or am I the only one playing this game simply to play the game?

Bear in mind some people have done those quests with their other characters and they do not consider repeated contents exciting after the first time. If you already know the story, and find that part of the game boring, why force yourself through them?

Maybe they can't really get anymore enjoyment out of the quest after having done it three times before on their own characters already, and helping guildies with it on five different occasions, knowing the entire quest inside-out to the point where they're basically just acting out a script? 250 experience for spending half an hour running and 15 minutes killing things that barely offer experience and offer no threat or challenge, where they can get the same amount within a minute of playtime lateron killing things that do offer experience and challenge?

Most quests aren't very enjoyable anyways, aside from the SF/GF and Titan quests. They're so repetitive after a while.

Well, I actually started this quest because of the people that don't care about the Titan quests because it's just experience..

i did all the quests i could find with my first char but failed 2 c the point in doing them again with the other chars. with games like BG2 and KOTOR1 i finnished the game with more then 10 chars cuz most quests there were different based upon ur race, if u were good/evil, proffession or party members and making everything fun 2 do again.
imo its not "fun" 2 do them again in GW.

it might not be the same reward as more skill points or spells, but there is a major reward. bragging rights, the ability to show off, and the like. FoW armor is for all the people out there who bought crystal swords not to use, but to say "hey, i have a crystal sword, i must be better then you."

What are you talking about? The 50 or so 500 exp quests that take hours each? Or, the 1,000+ exp quests in Sorrows Furnace and Greneth's Fotprint?

I don't do the piddely exp quests, but I will not go to SF, GF, UW, or FoW unless the group is doing quests.

If I want money or drops, I go solo some area for a while and make 8 times what I would if I had a group.

Maybe if ArenaNet could rotate the enemies in the areas every week or even more than that, the areas/quests would be more fun the second time round.

Doing the titan quest was like a whole new experience. The new creatures made mineral spring more interesting instead of expecting avicara on my rear end.

I like playing through the game with people. That's a big draw. Sometimes I'll put off trying to get a quest/mission done if a group is preparing to do one I've already completed just for fun. I'll at least get some gold, items, or a chance to test a build. I like stories in my games. Because of that I don't get bored playing it over again. I hope that they rewrite parts of PvE because in the desert, it seems like the missions are an overview of PvP rather than fitting into the storyline. The official endgame is PvP, but that's no excuse.

It gets boring after a while, some quests are just too similiar. Go to place A and kill B, go to C and kill D. Wow, what variety. And for 1st, you get 500xp and useless staff, for second you get 500 and useless bow. Yay, wasted time for something that sells for 50 gold and exp I could get killing couple monsters while, say, going for greens.

Some quests, yes, I will not do because:
1) I had "bad" experiances with them previously or,
2) It "IS" just XP.

Others, lke "The Final Assult" in Sorrows is quite enjoyable, and I repeat it often with my monk

I do them, though only to laugh at the funny quest reward I got with the wierdest combination of mods. Or if I need to get a certain amount of XP to get a skill point, so I find a few quests I haven't done and quick do them and then go buy my skill.

Gamers who play for rewards are pretty much the norm in MMORPGs - and enough have migrated to make up a signifigant portion of the Guild Wars population.

It is never a gaming philosophy I have understand. I play the game because it is fun - that usually means helping guildies out, joining a party for PvP, or doing some mission I happened to find fun.

I had a build that could solo-farm parts of the Underworld months before the invinci-monk saw the light of day. I did it exactly once, mainly to prove I could, then went back to playing with guildies. Farming for loot is pretty boring for me alone: it's the human interaction that makes the game non-repetitive. I never know exactly how a given mission is going to turn out when running with inexperienced guildies or pick-up groups, and that in itself makes the missions interesting.

Likewise - my standard guild groups became bored with the UW and FoW once we could handle do it pretty consistently. The Fissure and UW were much more interesting areas for us when we were always on the verge of death and had to carefully consider each move.

I'm not knocking people who play the game for rewards. They're welcome to their playstyle (though its my experience that most of them lose interest in the rewards once they actually have them), but it isn't mine.

Good luck finding groups in general!

I still haven't done Villany of Galrath... I'm planning on it, though. After going through the game twice now and getting futher with a third character, I'm just now going back to my original because of the titan quests and I noticed I still had five quests left. Two in ascalon, two in the north shiverpeaks(and I had never visited the Ice Tooth Caves) and finally Villany of Galrath.... After this, I'll only have the sorrow's furnace quest left up...

Definately for the fun, and also to share any tips I can give a group of people. Playing with my guildmates got boring fast because I knew what they were all bringing to the party, save a few times when we'd get some random person to tag along.

I still do the FoW quests constantly simply for the challenge and fun. If I wanted EXP, I'd solo elsewhere because it is much more rewarding.

1. Unlocking. Thanks to Anet, playing for rewards is the way to go. If your at least mildy interested in pvp, you need everything, and doing some useless quests will set you back.

2. 95% of the quests are not only a total waste mechanically, but also are so boring and meaningless it hurts. Some quests are fun, but compare that to most other RPGs, and you end up being medicore (with lots of goodwill). Ascalon Settlement had a fun dialogue - chasing the pig was a change, most of SF is nice the first time - but why do they give so little xp?

3. Only because it has a quest marker does not need to mean that its content. n00b rushing NPCs and gimnick quests are the only real content - too bad the other 95% are seek and destroy / fetch.

PvE gets painfully boring after awhile...granted it's a long while for a lot of people. Most Missions/Quests offer a challenge the first time through....after that it's painfully repetative

the quests are part fun/part unlock

unlock the game for fun, and introduce noobies to new places. they can be fun too, but it gets old after a while

I disagree with this.

You need the skills for the build you want to run. Nothing more, nothing less. Obviously, when you change your build, you need the skills for the new build.

However, this in no way implies that you need every skill for every class unlocked beforehand.

I play a mix of PvP and PvE. I earn skillpoints now and then and stash away a certain amount of gold.

When I come up with a new build for my guild to run, I buy the skills I need from traders or faction, cap any elites I need, and tell my guildies to do the same after giving them some advance notice on the build.

I have most skills unlocked for 3 classes so far, and when I play another PvE through the game I'll probably have more. However, I've never felt my skills particularly limiting - if I need to play another class I'll switch my secondary and go buy the necessary skills, but it doesn't mean I need every skill from every single class to play the game or compete in PvP.

So many players, so many opinions

I do quests until my chr. is level 20. For the exp. I skip as many missions as I can because lots of them seem to have a build in last minute failure allgorithm. Also because the first time you do them its trial and error until you find exactly the one and only way to victory. Its too repetative. Maybe this is also caused by the lack of variation in fighting:
Its 90%: waiting, waiting, waiting... Yes! Now pull that group of enemies... Nooo, too late, back, back I said! Wait... wait... Now!
Can someone explain to me whats the fun of that??

So, as for me, I would like less missions and more explorable areas like SF. And sure, gimme a reward for ridding the country of all those nasties

It does not matter what you think / need. There is a fact: unlocking pvp options takes time. The estimates range from 300h to 3000h (and more), depending on your style of play, your ability to gankfarm faction and wether you were lucky enough to farm before the recent farming nerfs or not.

There is another semifact: you cant really predict the buff/nerf metagame. Some genius might have predicted the metagame, but when unreasonable human decisions (like nerfing peace and harmony - one of the most useless elites ever) are added in, only gods can predict the future. Since you cant be sure that XXX is total junk / suboptimal (cleave), you must have it aviable.

While you dont care about your unlock speed, many others do. 10h spend on doing stupid quests are 10h you have not been practicing. Your PVP skills are indirectly related to your ability to skip junkPVE. The faster you unlock, the more time you have to practice / adapt. And "content" never was the fastest way to unlock stuff. Not even close. Actually i consider stuff like Galrath / Ashes to be insulting. 4k XP for this??? Come on.

I play this game for fun, but I don't play PvE

While some quests are dull after repeated completion of them, I still don't find that quite as dull as going to the Underworld to find the group just wants to piss about with smite crawlers again....

Some of the quests I do find boring to do even the first time around so I really hesitate even more when it comes time to repeat them again with another character. For example the Yak's Bend missions involving helping the dwarves. You go off and talk to a dwarf who has you go into the next area part ways, find his friend and bring him back. So... then you have to leave the area to talk to him again and whats he do? Sends you BACK in for secret weapons plans. (Which on my first and last attempt with my warrior netted NO plans what so ever... unless it was a henchie drop but it said I have completed it) Anyway... so you have to go BACK and talk to him. Then you have to RE-ZONE BACK into the area AGAIN (mind you its now been reset 3 times) and go even further into the area and destroy 3 sets of levers. And of course when thats done? You got it, walk ALL the way back, zone and talk to him. For the experience, and items... I find myself trying hard to convince... myself thats its all worth it. I play this game for PvE. But there are some missions I just don't like doing and put off as long as possible.

So why are you doing PvE rather that practicing, bearing in mind that 'practicing' in Guild Wars inevitably unlocks items for you?

To practice for PvP in Guild Wars, you do PvP - be that HoH, Competition/Team Arenas, or whatever else your guild is interested in.

Each of those arenas gives varying amounts of faction, and most people can go win a few CA or TA victories and get 1000 faction without any great degree of difficulty.

Under the old unlock rates I would tend to agree with you; faction gain was simply not high enough to support build-creating on its own. Under the new unlock rates with over 100 faction for a win in CA/TA battles, you should be able to unlock at a decent rate simply by playing the game in a manner you enjoy.

If you play PvP frequently then you should be gaining faction frequently. That's what it's there for.

Because you need THE FASTEST way, and thats still farming / rushing. Faction is great for getting the missing runes and weapon upgrades, but skill point farming is still faster. Of course, im not one of the top 100 gank farmers who made 300k faction on PVPx. You also have to keep in mind that i unlocked most of my stuff back when it was easier - but less reliable (aka before faction increase / farming nerfs).

The point here is not another pvp whine, but the poor quality of the pve game "content". Its so poor that people will keep their "reward / time" thinking despite the fact that they no longer need rewards.
The OP "wondered" why people dont bother with 1k boni, quests etc and many told him. Exploring is more rewarding then those boring quests, because the visuals of GW are still good. Been to the smites last weekend for the first time (Europe - casual player) and was impressed. Loot? 300g including items. Come on. For 90mins. Thats half a griffon run. But quests? I laughed about Killroy till i found out about Orozar... how ironic