Why do so many people farm gold?

[Vayne.8563]

I don't enjoy grinding and seldom grind. I have enough money to buy gems and sell them whenever I want, probably as many as I want....but to me that's not playing the game. I don't really care if it takes me a long time to get something I want, I'd rather do stuff I find fun, and get gold more slowly. It adds up.

 

I have other methods that have cost me real money though, like buying alt accounts. Alt accounts give me log in rewards, which give me mystic coins and laurels, both of which I need for legendary weapons. Well, laurels can be converted to T6 mats, which I need for legendary weapons.

 

I play the game on my terms. So far, I've made 19 legendary weapons. But if I had fewer accounts? I'd have fewer weapons and I wouldn't enjoy the game any less. I'd just still be working on the ones I don't have that I want, and it'll take longer.

 

I don't believe most people play this game for the most efficient way to do anything. I think that's a fairly small percentage of the playerbase. They're visible because they're all in Palawadan at the same time (or the Silverwastes, or AB) but that doesn't mean everyone that's there is doing it over and over.

 

Some people find it fun. Some people do it for the gold, but only once. Some people do it over and over. Some people just do it because it happens to be on when they're around doing other stuff. That would be the group I fall into.

 

In my opinion it would be a mistake to assume that most people in a Palawadan run are doing it over and over in the first place. It's different people coming on at different times and some people doing it over and over.

[Jaunty.6018]

> @"Dreamy Lu.3865" said:

> Well, it remains a personal choice how to handle with earning gold. My gold income, of about 15 - up to 30 - gold per day, is mainly done by selling expensive items to TP. This is sufficient for what I do on a daily basis. As I don't like to repeat the same activity in a row, earning gold via repeating the same meta again and again is not for me. Generally, I consider time as an important game contributor. If I want something expensive, I will not force myself to an activity at which I have no fun just to speed it up. I prefer to just take it easy, doing only things I like, even if it means that I need more time than most people to get what I want. Since i have close to zero competition mind, I don't care being last! :3

 

I kinda feel the same. I don't care to compete with strangers. So contrary to what a lot of people probably believe from reading my thread, I don't actually spend much money on this game. I just don't understand the reasoning behind farming brainlessly for hours and hours when a simple few dollars will get you what you need much faster. When I farm like that, I feel my life wasting away and it's often at that point when I stop gaming altogether for awhile. It's just not for me.

[Jaunty.6018]

> @"Scar.1793" said:

> I haven’t really touched the new maps but if you need around 60h to make 30g+ you’re either doing it correctly or it’s not an efficient way to farm.

>

> I remember by farming leather you could get way more than that in a few hours.

 

The 60 hour approximation was for 600 gold.

[Mahou.3924]

I'm probably also an odd one out here. I've never participated in a gold farm like Silverwaste etc as doing it over and over and over would get too boring too fast for me if I wouldn't lose interest after a few minutes already (that depends). Yet other repetitive stuff like unlocking core-Tyria's hero points is something I'd do on any character. To nobody's surprise that also leaves my permanent gold supply at around 70 or so gold lol. However, that's not saying there'd be nothing I'd like to have more gold for.

[Algreg.3629]

> @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> > @"Dreamy Lu.3865" said:

> > Well, it remains a personal choice how to handle with earning gold. My gold income, of about 15 - up to 30 - gold per day, is mainly done by selling expensive items to TP. This is sufficient for what I do on a daily basis. As I don't like to repeat the same activity in a row, earning gold via repeating the same meta again and again is not for me. Generally, I consider time as an important game contributor. If I want something expensive, I will not force myself to an activity at which I have no fun just to speed it up. I prefer to just take it easy, doing only things I like, even if it means that I need more time than most people to get what I want. Since i have close to zero competition mind, I don't care being last! :3

>

> I kinda feel the same. I don't care to compete with strangers. So contrary to what a lot of people probably believe from reading my thread, I don't actually spend much money on this game. I just don't understand the reasoning behind farming brainlessly for hours and hours when a simple few dollars will get you what you need much faster. When I farm like that, I feel my life wasting away and it's often at that point when I stop gaming altogether for awhile. It's just not for me.

 

Perhaps I am reading this the wrong way, but I have to say your tone moved away from innocent interest to being rather judgemental in the development of the thread. Maybe it is better to stop just here.

[reaVer.4056]

> @"Mea.5491" said:

> > I ran Istan for about 3 hours and got no more than 30 gold.

>

> You're doing something wrong. When I farm I only do a Pala - Akili - GH rotation once. The whole thing takes about 1 hour (waiting for Pala time included). I usually get around 20 Gold out of it (slightly depends on RNG) and I don't even open unid gear (I heard people who do get more Gold but I'm lazy to boost my MF). If I repeat my lazy rotation 3 times (3 hours total), I get around 60 Gold. The good thing is that I get an hour of downtime after GH because Pala starts every 2 hours so I can log off to work (I work at home).

 

Keep in mind that MF is a big factor in the amount of gold you can acquire from farming. There's going to be significant difference in a 300MF player and a 100MF player running the same events.

 

As for paying real life money for gold... I'm not paying ArenaNet a dime for reasons I cannot name because it would be a code of conduct violation, with the expect consequence that follows from that. Even if we were to ignore that, I would still not buy any gems since I've already paid for his game. I should not have to pay an additional fee to get access to the full game.

 

[Belorn.2659]

It is funny how people in other threads claim that Anet do not earn any money from people swiping and buying gold through gems. It is so clear in here that gold selling is a large part of their revenue.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

I'm poor and I want stuff. I spend too much time in this game, but that's because they update it regularly with content.

[Jaunty.6018]

> @"Algreg.3629" said:

> > @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> > > @"Dreamy Lu.3865" said:

> > > Well, it remains a personal choice how to handle with earning gold. My gold income, of about 15 - up to 30 - gold per day, is mainly done by selling expensive items to TP. This is sufficient for what I do on a daily basis. As I don't like to repeat the same activity in a row, earning gold via repeating the same meta again and again is not for me. Generally, I consider time as an important game contributor. If I want something expensive, I will not force myself to an activity at which I have no fun just to speed it up. I prefer to just take it easy, doing only things I like, even if it means that I need more time than most people to get what I want. Since i have close to zero competition mind, I don't care being last! :3

> >

> > I kinda feel the same. I don't care to compete with strangers. So contrary to what a lot of people probably believe from reading my thread, I don't actually spend much money on this game. I just don't understand the reasoning behind farming brainlessly for hours and hours when a simple few dollars will get you what you need much faster. When I farm like that, I feel my life wasting away and it's often at that point when I stop gaming altogether for awhile. It's just not for me.

>

> Perhaps I am reading this the wrong way, but I have to say your tone moved away from innocent interest to being rather judgemental in the development of the thread. Maybe it is better to stop just here.

 

Saying that I feel farming is a waste of my life and not for me is judgmental?

[Algreg.3629]

> @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> > @"Algreg.3629" said:

> > > @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> > > > @"Dreamy Lu.3865" said:

> > > > Well, it remains a personal choice how to handle with earning gold. My gold income, of about 15 - up to 30 - gold per day, is mainly done by selling expensive items to TP. This is sufficient for what I do on a daily basis. As I don't like to repeat the same activity in a row, earning gold via repeating the same meta again and again is not for me. Generally, I consider time as an important game contributor. If I want something expensive, I will not force myself to an activity at which I have no fun just to speed it up. I prefer to just take it easy, doing only things I like, even if it means that I need more time than most people to get what I want. Since i have close to zero competition mind, I don't care being last! :3

> > >

> > > I kinda feel the same. I don't care to compete with strangers. So contrary to what a lot of people probably believe from reading my thread, I don't actually spend much money on this game. I just don't understand the reasoning behind farming brainlessly for hours and hours when a simple few dollars will get you what you need much faster. When I farm like that, I feel my life wasting away and it's often at that point when I stop gaming altogether for awhile. It's just not for me.

> >

> > Perhaps I am reading this the wrong way, but I have to say your tone moved away from innocent interest to being rather judgemental in the development of the thread. Maybe it is better to stop just here.

>

> Saying that I feel farming is a waste of my life and not for me is judgmental?

 

no. And you knew that already. But for starters:

- lecturing people about their lifes' priorities

- "brainless farming is not for me, but you stupid morons do what's best for you" attitude, as much as you screen it with overbearing joviality

- thinking of it, even starting such a thread. You sure are interested in what other people do in game regarding an activity that is apparently not appealing to you. Are you really that interested why people farm? Really? Really? Or is it more about telling everyone how stupid you consider farming? "Hey, you people enjoy that stupid thing so much - I sure do not, suckers!"

[costepj.5120]

I think what the OP calls "farming gold" is simply what I call playing the game. I don't set out at the start of any session to earn a certain amount of gold, I just do what I feel like doing; be that a meta, some story, a fractal, or whatever. And this game just seems to throw gold at me regardless (probably helps I have an account bonus of 104% for gold find). I'm looking forward to the anniversary sales when I plan to spend some of my "hard earned" gems :)

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"reaVer.4056" said:

> > @"Mea.5491" said:

> > > I ran Istan for about 3 hours and got no more than 30 gold.

> >

> > You're doing something wrong. When I farm I only do a Pala - Akili - GH rotation once. The whole thing takes about 1 hour (waiting for Pala time included). I usually get around 20 Gold out of it (slightly depends on RNG) and I don't even open unid gear (I heard people who do get more Gold but I'm lazy to boost my MF). If I repeat my lazy rotation 3 times (3 hours total), I get around 60 Gold. The good thing is that I get an hour of downtime after GH because Pala starts every 2 hours so I can log off to work (I work at home).

>

> Keep in mind that MF is a big factor in the amount of gold you can acquire from farming. There's going to be significant difference in a 300MF player and a 100MF player running the same events.

>

> As for paying real life money for gold... I'm not paying ArenaNet a dime for reasons I cannot name because it would be a code of conduct violation, with the expect consequence that follows from that. Even if we were to ignore that, I would still not buy any gems since I've already paid for his game. I should not have to pay an additional fee to get access to the full game.

>

 

What additional money are you having to pay for access to the full game.. you have access to the full game when you bought it and the expacs.. the only thing you might have to stump up for aside from that is LS chapters if you didn't log in, in the appropriate timeframe when the chapter(s) went live.

Stuff from the gem store is nothing to do with access to game content. Nothing in the gemstore disadvantages you if you don't choose to buy it and absolutely does not block progress or gate you from content you have already paid for.

[GenghisKhan.7842]

Interesting question

I HATE repeating the same event (or dungeon, or boss) over and over to gather gold

On the other hand, I find it relaxing to run around the maps, gather stuff and perhaps do some random events - which in the end is still farming

 

As for OP question: I would never think about spending RL money just to get in-game gold

GW2 throws gold at you while playing normally: I've built two Gen1 Legendary weapons playing casually

Gold, mats and chest keep piling up in my bank - most likely I could do a clearance sale and buy a 3rd Legendary from TP

 

[Goettel.4389]

Most of my playtime is spent farming content I never can't seem to get enough of (HoT metas, pony farm, SW) and I actually spent the gold earned on buying gems. Those gems go towards convenience (mainly bag & shared slots), extra char slots (GW2 being the only MMO I enjoy alting in), a set of unbound magic gathering tools (with the UM going towards alt ascended trinkets), some outfits and of course too many awesome looking mount skins ;-) I sometimes (often monthly) add €10/€20 worth of gems both to treat myself and support the game. What makes farming fun for me is running in random groups chilling (and helping) out, which no other MMO I know of does as well as GW2.

[Dami.5046]

Is this just another go at Istan thread? If i want something I farm for it because I like the sense of achievement. I'm certain many people do use gems to gold, I could of done that with my Gems, but I'd rather play the game.

[Dami.5046]

Is this just another go at Istan thread? If i want something I farm for it because I like the sense of achievement. I'm certain many people do use gems to gold, I could of done that with my Gems, but I'd rather play the game.

[MithranArkanere.8957]

> @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> > @"MithranArkanere.8957" said:

> > $20 may seem like little to you, it's a lot for many people. That's why the only fair pricing of digital goods is pricing that goes down over the years, like many Steam games: Release at full price like $60, then over the years go down to $30, then have occasional sales 50, 75, 80 and eventually 90 off, so people can buy the game for $3.

> >

> > This way the company gets the most profit as possible, since everyone pays when they can afford to pay, and instead not getting any more sales once everyone who can afford the game at a higher price has bought it, they keep getting more sales until everyone who wants to buy the game can get it. 10000 times 2 is more than 100 times 100.

> >

> > This way everyone gets to play the games. Win/win.

>

> Your missing the point by a mile.

> Sure if they sell 10k at $2 a piece that's 20k in sales but how much do the company actually make in profit once all expenses are covered.. lets say they make 50% profit on that 20k sales.. so 10k profits. Sounds great right, until you think how much they can then make when they sell 100 at $100.

> You forget ANET are not in this for charity they have to turn a profit, a sufficient profit in order to keep everything going, everyone employed and the lights switched on. Selling a product for the sake of selling it is not always the soundest business strategy.

 

Of course you sell 100 at $100, but at some point not that many people will buy at $100, that's when you lower the price, and get the people who would pay less, then less, then less. In 5-10 years it gets low enough that people who could not pay at any other price can finally enjoy the stuff.

[Ayrilana.1396]

> @"Belorn.2659" said:

> It is funny how people in other threads claim that Anet do not earn any money from people swiping and buying gold through gems. It is so clear in here that gold selling is a large part of their revenue.

 

I don’t think I’ve see anyone actually arguing that buying gems with money to exchange for gold doesn’t generate revenue for Anet. Exchanging gold for gems, on the other hand...

 

> @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> I ran Istan for about 3 hours and got no more than 30 gold. I'm aware some people can make more, but it's still not much. Considering you can spend $20 on various sites and get 2,000 gems, which equate to around 600 gold, I see gold farming in this game as nothing more than pointless slave labor. Even if you have a low wage job why not just work 2-3 extra hours and get a gem card?

>

> At the rate I've experienced, it would take you _60 hours of farming_ to get 600 gold. 60 in-game hours vs. 2-3 hours of real work (or less if you're fortunate). It makes no sense. It's not as if gold farming is _super fun_ or anything. Hell, you can't even watch Netflix while you do it because the gameplay is too intense.

 

If you’re not earning around 15-20G per hour doing the Istan farm then you’re doing something wrong. Maybe you’re not tagging all of the mobs including the champs. Maybe you’re not opening all of the chests. Maybe you’re not exchanging VM for the most profitable items.

 

Not everyone has the luxury to be able to work an additional 2-3 hours. Farming is also a major part of every MMO so it’s to be expected.

[Biff.5312]

While I disagree that people should buy the gold, I don't know why they think they need it so much. People seem to assume that gold farming is sort of the whole point of the game. It's all most people do. Why, I have no idea. I've run some Istan events for fun, but I've never once 'gold farmed'. I have lots of gold. I THINK it's the result of new players thinking that after 3 weeks they should be fully equipped lvl 80 in legendary gear flying a griffon. If you just play the game, explore the content and relax about reaching the 'end game' (which there really isn't anyway), the gold comes in over time just fine.

[Shostie.6435]

> @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> Yes, farming gold in this game is slave labor and a waste of time.

> Never visited istan meta again after finishing the achievements because it is so boring

 

It's not slave labor. Slaves don't have a choice. Players do. Farming Istan isn't even difficult labor. It's just boring.

 

> @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> > @"stephaniehall.2631" said:

> > I sort of feel the exact opposite, why on earth would you pay for something you can get for free just by playing, when the whole point of a game is to play it.... even if I did have £20 to spare I would definitely use that to take my kid's for an ice cream. Don't get me wrong sometimes I wish I could get things faster but that's also my motivation to keep playing, if I already have everything by swiping and there's no challenge to the game... I don't know what would motivate me to continue playing.

>

> Well the point of the game is to enjoy it. If you're spending hours per day grinding for gold that could be so much more easily obtained by throwing a few bucks at the game, then I don't see that as very enjoyable personally. I feel I'm wasting my life when I grind needlessly. If there weren't an omnipresent cash shop in the game I wouldn't mind it as much. The farming would then be the most efficient way to get what I want from the game. But that's not the case.

 

I have plenty of disposable income and I don't spend any of it on in-game items because I know I would get zero fulfillment or sense of accomplishment from it. Buying a legendary with real money would make me feel like I used a cheat code and that would ruin any game for me.

[Loosmaster.8263]

> @"Jaunty.6018" said:

> > @"Lambent.6375" said:

> > Some of us want to earn our gold from playing the game.

> >

> > If we just bought everything, that wouldn't leave us with much to do. (Speaking of open world pve players)

>

> I guess that points out a pretty big flaw in Guild Wars 2 then, eh? The fact that you can buy so much of the cool stuff with real money. I personally wish the cash shop wasn't there at all, but since it IS there, it's always an option--and often the more logical one.

 

What is in the cash shop that is a " must have" to play this game? It's their source of income and it's all mostly cosmetic with the exception of the upgrades which is also not a requirement to have.

[Rhyse.8179]

Why I (occasionally) farm gold:

 

1. With very few exceptions (legendaries are all ugly as sin so I discount them - besides they need tons of gold themselves anyway), all of the endgame goals exist on the gem store.

2. Because of Anet's predatory business practices (rng boxes, false scarcity, arbitrary price increases on non-rng items), I refuse to spend real cash on the gem store. Ever.

3. Farming gold is thus the only option for obtaining skins.

4. What else am I going to do with my game time? Farming gold usually involves long chains of massive fights, which are kind of fun.

[Malediktus.9250]

> @"Shostie.6435" said:

> > @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> > Yes, farming gold in this game is slave labor and a waste of time.

> > Never visited istan meta again after finishing the achievements because it is so boring

>

> It's not slave labor. Slaves don't have a choice. Players do. Farming Istan isn't even difficult labor. It's just boring.

>

 

Choice is always an illusion. There is no scientific proof of free will or any idea how it even might work with the known laws of physics.

 

[SnowHawk.3615]

because it's one of the things that gives longevity to an MMO

 

 

[Deimos.4263]

I don't understand gold farmers. I do try to understand them but...I just don't. As far as I can tell, they simply value their time completely differently. (And that's ok.)

 

Gold farming is often described in work terms. People will say they're "earning" gold or doing "work". The best estimates for how much they reap for their efforts seem to top out at around 25g/hour, or 200g for a standard 8-hour day's "work". That's fine but...that also converts to about $12 USD per day.

 

It seems like they must get some sort of enjoyment or satisfaction from doing so, that I simply don't. If something truly feels like work...and to me this does...it is just not worth it. Besides, I want to have *fun* when I'm not at work, not take a massive pay cut and...do more work.

 

So I either play the game and have fun making little or no gold, or I shell out cash for some gold, but I don't grind for hours not having any fun just to get gold.