Ah, Loot. The great bane and boon of players' existences. It lies there tantalizing us with its promise of l33tness yet it becomes a force for division among those who fought so bravely for it. In today's Guild Wars 2 column, we take a look at ways that the ArenaNet team is working to make sure that we all experience the thrill of "Loot Equality". Read on!

Axes and swords pierced through his armor. Our wounds were closed shut by our supportive priests. Fire and lightning rained down from the skies, hitting our foe with great force. As our barrage continued, the boss gave less and less fight until he fell to his knees. The enemy was defeated, but the fight was not over. Our party walked to the chest that held the treasures we had come for. After opening the chest, we all drew straws to see who would receive loot. The ten of us looked at each other, with only three pieces of precious treasure, with a great disgust. Though we all fought together as a team and took equal active roles in the fight, only a few were rewarded. The rest of us would have to return for another small chance at obtaining the prize.

Read more of David North's Guild Wars 2: Loot Equality.

Oh dah baby!

I personally think this is great!  I am a veteran of WoW myself (playing since launch) and I feel the writer's pain, running dungeons over and over and over again just for one piece of gear.  And its been made worse over the years in that dungeons in WoW are locked until you overall have a certain iLevel of gear to progress.  Hell, I've been reduced to just holidng pieces of gear that are higher iLevel in my bags that I can't even wear just to unlock a new dungeon.  The old ways are becoming very dated, and its a breath of fresh air to see what ArenaNet is doing!  I can't wait for this game and all the new polish that they are bringing to the genre!!  Kudos to them for taking the pains of MMOs these days and rethinking them.

Running dungeons over and over again is definitely a huge turn off for me. Reading this makes my hype meter go even farther up! I can't wait to have an awesome looking character thats unique to conquering a dungeon only a few times and not rolling a 14 out of 100 when it comes down to the sword i've been waiting for but by participating in the fights. GW2 is gunna be epicly fun :D

If they pull it off, I think we are looking at the future. Being an old school mmorpg gamer, I know as well as most that, while does not exactly kill the game the first time around, making an alt to do the dungeon another couple dozen times for a drop becomes even less appealing. Then you add raids into the mix and forget about it.

When it comes to loot and gear I care less about what drops I get as long as it doesnt stop me from doing other content. If I NEED a certian weapon or "gear score" to do "better" content, its more of a game killer than doing the same raid or dungeon a dozen or so times. Skill, level and at least lvl appropriate gear should be all I need to continue being part of the game. I have lost more joy playing a game having to wait or kill time until the next raid just to better my gear to even be condsidered for other content.

As for the differeing looks for similar lvl gear is the best thing ever! I have hated  nothing more in games than being "geared" and looking exactly like everyone else. I love custom gear or the ability to customize gear so while I may have achieved the same as others I dont have to look exactly like them.

I really hope they keep their promises, and make it all that we hope it will be.

Nice write up

Originally posted by nyxxis

...

When it comes to loot and gear I care less about what drops I get as long as it doesnt stop me from doing other content. If I NEED a certian weapon or "gear score" to do "better" content, its more of a game killer than doing the same raid or dungeon a dozen or so times. Skill, level and at least lvl appropriate gear should be all I need to continue being part of the game. I have lost more joy playing a game having to wait or kill time until the next raid just to better my gear to even be condsidered for other content.

...

 

+1

hahahah , suck it ninjas

What we already know is that GW2 will launch with 8 dungeons (3 of which being toned to players of max level), each with a unique set of weapons and gear. So the real challange for ArenaNet will be to add more dungeons shortly after launch, so that we'll see people running around with more than the 3 dungeon sets of gear. Well another good thing about GW2's gear system will be the transmutation stones, so at least that means people could wear whatever they want.

Obviously the "thrill" of the game should be the adventure and the fight... not the loot lotery. It should have been so since the beginning and never have become otherwise. So yes to any system that circumvents the cheap thrill of loot rolls.

and now we need a good news such as Beta Test date ;_;

I find it amusing that he thinks 19 times is a lot to run for a specific piece of gear. I remember Aion (pre the drop rate increase they now have in game) running one dungeion well over 70 times to get a shield. I earned an abyss (pvp) shield before i got it. 19 is nothing in some MMO's that is pretty good odds. That said I look forward to NCsofts/Anets new approach! 

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Originally posted by Master10K
What we already know is that GW2 will launch with 8 dungeons (3 of which being toned to players of max level), each with a unique set of weapons and gear. So the real challange for ArenaNet will be to add more dungeons shortly after launch, so that we'll see people running around with more than the 3 dungeon sets of gear. Well another good thing about GW2's gear system will be the transmutation stones, so at least that means people could wear whatever they want.

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Actually (if we look at GW), even from vanilla launch u should expect more than 3+5 sets of armor because there will definitely be racial/regional types of armors so that's +5 at least. Plus crafting will most likely provide a few more sets also. In addition, there is a good chance that prestige versions of the armor will return as an effective means for a goldsink so with that we can effectively double the amount of unique armor skins available. And I'm pretty sure I'm missing some other options here as well.

sounds great. 

Originally posted by Kuraphimaru

Originally posted by Master10K

What we already know is that GW2 will launch with 8 dungeons (3 of which being toned to players of max level), each with a unique set of weapons and gear. So the real challange for ArenaNet will be to add more dungeons shortly after launch, so that we'll see people running around with more than the 3 dungeon sets of gear. Well another good thing about GW2's gear system will be the transmutation stones, so at least that means people could wear whatever they want.

---

 

Actually (if we look at GW), even from vanilla launch u should expect more than 3+5 sets of armor because there will definitely be racial/regional types of armors so that's +5 at least. Plus crafting will most likely provide a few more sets also. In addition, there is a good chance that prestige versions of the armor will return as an effective means for a goldsink so with that we can effectively double the amount of unique armor skins available. And I'm pretty sure I'm missing some other options here as well.

I was talking specifically about the dungeon armour & weapon sets people get, for completing them and nothing else.

Originally posted by bladekaizer

and now we need a good news such as Beta Test date ;_;

 

^ +1

One of the best parts of the game, I think. I happen to love running dungeons, I do them repeatedly even after I've gotten everything I can for them. The difference is in running them because you enjoy it, and running it because you need to. One is entertainment, the other feels like a barrier of entry. I'm glad Anet is ditching that barrier, along with many others.

About time someone did.

To anyone curious about how sets are tailored to dungeons, here's an endgame dungeon set for medium tier:

http://huntersinsight.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/gw2_orrian.jpg

Pretty badass, me thinks.

Sorry to disagree with the writer, but instant satisfaction doesn't make a player want to keep playing either.  If everyone can get the same great set of armor on their first try, there is no barrier of entry.  Having to work for something increases your appreciation of the reward.  Having no to very little barrier to getting items isn't a good thing in the long run for a game.  Having a reason to keep players come back is good for the game, and if that reason doesn't exist, players don't come back.

This article takes an entirely short sighted and one sided view of the subject.

Originally posted by thegreatheed

Sorry to disagree with the writer, but instant satisfaction doesn't make a player want to keep playing either.  If everyone can get the same great set of armor on their first try, there is no barrier of entry.  Having to work for something increases your appreciation of the reward.  Having no to very little barrier to getting items isn't a good thing in the long run for a game.  Having a reason to keep players come back is good for the game, and if that reason doesn't exist, players don't come back.

This article takes an entirely short sighted and one sided view of the subject.

Getting through the dungeon is working for it. 

Leaving everything up to RNG and hoping that what you want drops and then hoping that you roll higher than everyone else and get it is not. That's just stupid and makes people grind dungeons for a single piece of gear. Leaving things up to RNG and chance is NOT working for anything.

You take an entirely short sighted and one sided view of the subject.

Developers still use simple mechanisms to extend the life of the end-game. The shift seems to be from the dice roll which determines how the loot is split to tokens which can be collected at a predictable rate and exchanged for items. 

There is a cost with the latter of these, and that is taking the gut-clenching thrill and fealty demanded by random number generator. I'd probably still prefer the latter method though.

THere really aren't many random elements to the course of a dungeon run. Sometimes the only randomization is in loot generation. So it's good to hear that dungeons in GW2 are supposed to have areas accessable by a dice roll. This to me is a much much better way of extending the life of the game than doling out loot piecemeal.