Obtaining gold isn't fun, and this is a problem.

[Sylv.6514]

I have been playing on and off since the launch of this game. I have given quite a lot of thought to why i take these long breaks, and it all really comes down to one thing. There really aren't very many ways to make reliable gold in fun ways.

The general best way to make gold is to run around in zergs and farm content or grind the same dungeons/fractals over and over until your brain melts from boredom. This isn't fun. What about the people who enjoy roaming the world and gathering materials? Crafters? World explorers?

Add repeatable city crafting quests for crafters to farm gold with. Add repeatable zone quests where npc's request the gathering of specific materials in exchange for gold. Allow us to reset a maps completion to repeat it for rewards and give large bonuses for never using a mount to do so in vanilla areas, hell even give speedrun rewards without mount usage. Dramatically increase gold gain in pvp. I almost never pvp because of just how laughably low the rewards are. Why would anyone pvp for gold when pve is exponentially more rewarding? This game has a wonderful variety of activities, but almost none of them actually feel rewarding to complete or repeat. This is a HUGE problem for player retention. Running around a zone to gather mats and sell them for a pittance that gets taxed by the trading post feels like a giant slap in the face for the already small reward you just worked for. Most of the game feels like this, and it is a problem. I love this game, but i can only repeat so much of it when the rewards are so incredibly lacking. Playing literally all day to enjoy the activities i like then seeing i only made like 1g per hour is just sad. Especially considering how old this game is.

[Obtena.7952]

I'm going to put this out there: If your whole reason to play GW2 is to gather gold, then nothing will be fun. You're just going to look at playing GW2 as a means to an end.

[Parasite.5389]

@Sylv.6514 said:I have been playing on and off since the launch of this game. I have given quite a lot of thought to why i take these long breaks, and it all really comes down to one thing. There really aren't very many ways to make reliable gold in fun ways.If gold farming is your only goal, then take those breaks, try other games, there is honestly more to this game than goldWhat about the people who enjoy roaming the world and gathering materials? Crafters?it's called Refining, you take raw metals and woods, and convert then into Ingots and Planks for profitAdd repeatable zone quests where npc's request the gathering of specific materials in exchange for gold.so, Fetch quests? Bring me 20 Bear bottoms!Allow us to reset a maps completion to repeat it for rewardsand break legendary crafting in the process.give large bonuses for never using a mount to do so in vanilla areas, hell even give speedrun rewards without mount usage.how would you even track that? if you accidentally use a chair you'd fail.Why would anyone pvp for gold when pve is exponentially more rewarding?They don't(?)This is a HUGE problem for player retention.This complaint comes up often, with no sources to back up the claim.Running around a zone to gather mats and sell them for a pittance that gets taxed by the trading post feels like a giant slap in the face for the already small reward you just worked for.Again, refining materials is a good way to increase the profit from gathering.

[Seera.5916]

Funny, I seem to be having fun and my the amount of gold I have tends to increase until I spend it on either making something for a legendary or gearing up a new character/build.

So I fail to see how obtaining gold isn't fun.

People have different tolerances for farming and it seems you, like me, have a low tolerance for farming for something. That means that we will on average get less gold than someone who has a high tolerance for farming.

I have no problem with knowing that my rate of gold gain is no where near as high as it could be. It just means that goals for me take longer than they could if I haven't already got the gold for it.

[Ototo.3214]

I can kinda see where you're coming from, but maybe we're just different types of people. I actually really enjoy meta events, and if I can catch a meta event I always try to join. Doing one meta over and over again can get boring, but quite a few of the trains go from map to map and do a variety of different events, which is a lot more interesting and still rewarding. Idk, maybe I've just made enough of the big shiny things in the game that I don't feel a need to rush the next one I'm working on, but I feel like I get plenty of gold just from joining meta trains, doing my dailies, doing a few strikes, and refining materials that I can then use toward the next legendary I'm making so I don't have to spend gold in the first place.

And you can make decent money from gathering, you just have to know what's worth gathering. Prices have dropped a bit since Drizzlewood has made a lot of the lower tier mats more available but they're still worth a decent amount, I personally wouldn't call it a "pittance." And you don't need an NPC to trade the mats with, you can just sell them on the TP to other players. Some mats are even worth more refined, so you can make a bit of extra gold from crafting. Crafting in GW2 isn't very...engaging either, I don't think there are many people that are just so eager for crafting quests. I mean heck, I feel like most people hate the second tier of legendary precursor collections which are basically nothing but crafting quests.

I wouldn't be opposed to PvP and especially WvW getting better rewards though, I'll agree on that point. Though I don't think the people that play PvP are necessarily just playing for gold gains. I know I certainly don't. But it would still be nice to get more for the time spent.(I will also say that some of the recent reward tracks have been amazing though, and it's kinda a shame they aren't repeatable)

[Taril.8619]

Here's me, amassing gold as a byproduct of just doing my things...

Basically everything in the game throws loot at you and you can salvage/sell it and earn a decent amount of gold.

But honestly... There's not a whole lot to spend gold on in the first place. You can buy some shiny skins off the TP and... Uhh...?

From what I can tell, the most popular use of gold is buying stuff to chuck into the mystic toilet in order to obtain precursors to then sell for more gold to buy stuff to chuck into the mystic toilet...

[Solvar.7953]

I suppose it depends on why the OP wants gold in the first place. To buy gems to then buy other stuff? If so, increasing drop rate of gold doesn't help, because the exchange ratio is determined by number of people selling vs buying - if twice as much gold is now available, cost to buy gems for gold would probably become twice as much.I do tend to think that at some point, rewards in general at not very rewarding. Once you get to exotic level (which generally is not very costly), the only upgrade from there is ascended, which almost never drops - it just becomes a matter of gathering all the materials to craft it.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Crafting used to be profitable but Anet made sure that stopped. They've also been causing the prices on a lot of other things to drop recently making it more difficult to earn gold from some farms.

[Zohane.7208]

@"Sylv.6514" said:-snip-

The general best way to make gold is to run around in zergs and farm content or grind the same dungeons/fractals over and over until your brain melts from boredom. This isn't fun. What about the people who enjoy roaming the world and gathering materials? Crafters? World explorers?

-snip-

I have to question this part. There's no singular definition of "best" way as far as I know. There's multiple ways that are "better" in some respects and "worse" in other:

• If you're after fast gold, use your credit card. That's fastest by far. The drawback is of course that you're paying real-world money.
• If you're after getting gold without "working" for it, join a zerg and do RIBA or other farm. The drawback, as you noted, is that it bored the heck out of many people.
• If you're after "fun", then you can just play the game and let gold amass slowly, but surely. The drawback, obviously is that it takes quite some time to gain a significant amount of gold.

All of these methods - and quite possibly more - can be define as "best" way to gain gold, it just depends on your perspective.

[lare.5129]

Don't see any problem. Need gold but don't want obtain in in game process ? EASY. Buy gems, and change to gold.

[CashCow.9548]

Another OP who has absolutely no idea how MMORPGs work... I swear one pops up here every few days.

So we heard your complaint. Do you have any suggestions to make earning gold fun? And I am curious to know exactly what are those activities you're doing that only net 1g.

[Ronald McDonald.8165]

You can obtain gold in any way you want to play the game. No other MMORPG is like this. How is this a complaint?

[Arcaniaxs.4519]

Sooo OP... u say: fractals/raids/dungeons/meta events arent fun BUT crafting is hella fun right?Uhhh...lol? I dont even run pvp and these instanced content for the gold its all for the fun of it.If u enjoy crafting and gathering materials alot for a good reward minecraft is the game for u

[lare.5129]

so we already have fast and chill way get gold per gems if not like farm. Why person unhappy?

[Tiilimon.6094]

My goal is only to heal and support, gold just keeps piling up and I gotta come up with creative ways to spend it. In wow I had to run around picking flowers to fund my healing gameplay.

[kharmin.7683]

Maybe take a look at this thread? https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/112264/best-gold-farm-2020-in-guild-wars-2-30-gold-per-hour

[Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582]

1g per hour is impossibly low if you are actually doing something in this game.

[Jilora.9524]

Many ways to make gold. It's almost handed to you in DW SW DF PvP WvW Fracs gathering if you know what you are doing. Some much less then others but just play different modes and gold piles up. Obsessively watching your gold and hitting deposit all or not opening the unidentified stuff for mats to sell you make no progress. You even get handed 2g a day doing 3 simple dailies plus MC's for logging in and laurel's if you wanted convert to t6 bags. Gold is too easy honestly you find you buy or do expensive collections like BL weapons or Now I'm doing Jormag defense one for god only knows why

[Khisanth.2948]

@"Sylv.6514" said:The general best way to make gold is to run around in zergs and farm content or grind the same dungeons/fractals over and over until your brain melts from boredom. This isn't fun. What about the people who enjoy roaming the world and gathering materials? Crafters? World explorers?

There is a very good reason why that is the "general best" and probably most popular way. It is pretty much without risk and doesn't require any thinking.

Add repeatable city crafting quests for crafters to farm gold with.

That just doesn't work very well. Anything easily done but everyone will quickly become unprofitable.

Add repeatable zone quests where npc's request the gathering of specific materials in exchange for gold.

You can already gather things and exchange for gold. Making a vendor like that just causes inflation if you don't add sink for the gold at the same time.It also results in multiple vendor values for items.

I almost never pvp because of just how laughably low the rewards are. Why would anyone pvp for gold when pve is exponentially more rewarding? This game has a wonderful variety of activities, but almost none of them actually feel rewarding to complete or repeat.

That would require ANet to hire people to actually deal with bots and other issues in a timely manner. The gold is also irrelevant when people simply don't want to engage in any sort of PvP.

This is a HUGE problem for player retention. Running around a zone to gather mats and sell them for a pittance that gets taxed by the trading post feels like a giant slap in the face for the already small reward you just worked for. Most of the game feels like this, and it is a problem. I love this game, but i can only repeat so much of it when the rewards are so incredibly lacking. Playing literally all day to enjoy the activities i like then seeing i only made like 1g per hour is just sad. Especially considering how old this game is.

It is not surprising that just doing random things without actually putting much thought into would give suboptimal returns. Gathering requires knowing which things are worth selling and the best places for them because other people are doing that and if you don't then they can sell the same items for less but still make more gold than you from the efficiency. Even the "run around in zergs and farm" content requires more than just doing them to get the sort of g/h that you see thrown around.

It is not necessary to try to optimize everything but most of the people talking about their g/h probably are doing it to some degree or following the strategy of someone else who has already done the optimizing.

[zealex.9410]

@Obtena.7952 said:I'm going to put this out there: If your whole reason to play GW2 is to gather gold, then nothing will be fun. You're just going to look at playing GW2 as a means to an end.

True but alot of gw2 revolves around gold nowadays and always had. The loot chase is weaker because 1) gear grind doesnt exist and 2) things that are normally drops or achievement rewards in other mmos in gw2 are either in the cash shop or behind a gold wall ingame.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

From a gold making perspective they keep adding easy ways to get mats that players would farm and sell. Platinum is one of the recent ones that they killed the value on because it's so easy to get in the Drizzlewood Coast meta. There hasn't been any additional sinks for major sinks for many materials of late. Of course quartz is down in value because of the festival but that happens every year. There are ways to make gold but you do have to work harder at it. It is a bit of a grind.

[Tekoneiric.6817]

@"Obtena.7952" said:I'm going to put this out there: If your whole reason to play GW2 is to gather gold, then nothing will be fun. You're just going to look at playing GW2 as a means to an end.

People play GW2 for many reasons. It doesn't all have to be about conflict. I personally do a variety of things in the game but following a gathering routing helps fight off depression. Doing it without getting tagged by creatures is fun; sort of like the concept of 'counting coup'. I love getting creatures to fight while I'm gathering. I wish there was a 'counting coup' endless achievement that rewards for getting chests and farming around hostile creatures near some of the farms without taking damage.

Gathering is like shopping but in the time of covid 19 real world shopping isn't fun anymore. Also part of gathering is making gold to spend in the game. If someone wants to be a supplier of materials and they enjoy it then for them it's not a wrong way to play the game. Someone has to gather the materials people craft with. If it's someone that enjoys it then why say they are doing it wrong?

[Algreg.3629]

I agree with you in as much as I do not enjoy the scrounging aspect of GW2 a lot, but what really puzzles me... 1g/h? Surely that must be a gross exaggeration or your really have no idea what you are doing at all.

[sasya neko.1985]

@Algreg.3629 said:I agree with you in as much as I do not enjoy the scrounging aspect of GW2 a lot, but what really puzzles me... 1g/h? Surely that must be a gross exaggeration or your really have no idea what you are doing at all.

unless all you do is farming, 1G/h is quite allot.....

[Juan.6124]

@Sylv.6514 said:I almost never pvp because of just how laughably low the rewards are

Ironically PvP is one of the best sources of gold, especially because there is no cost like gear or food involved. Winning gives you more gold.

I love this game, but i can only repeat so much of it when the rewards are so incredibly lacking.

Don't lie to yourself. You don't love the game, you love rewards.