Farmapalooza

So here's a heretical thought for a gameplay cycle:

Provide some fun and cool epic loot on mobs that can be easily killed whether solo or grouped.

Let people farm themselves to death and upgrade everyone they care about (alts, guildies, what-not). Let them sell to whoever cares to buy it rather than waste their time farming for it.

Let economic principles take over and have the loot drop in price as supply rises and demand drops.

Then what the heck, add more epic loot that has 5% improvement of stats, on slightly more difficult to kill mobs and let the cycle begin all over again.

What's the harm?

All you need to make sure about is that your code isn't using a 255 int value sort of thing, and can expand to ridiculous lengths of numbers.

Some people are naturally going to drop out when they feel this endless treadmill pursuit of virtual goods no longer has meaning for them.

But for others, they are enjoying the process of gaining the item and the fight involved, etc.

Is that any different or more pointless than going around and around on a race track to "win" a race, or fighting an endless stream of opponents in a fighting game, or playing repeated cycles of the same map in a multiplayer FPS?

Oddly enough, MMOs are the only games to attempt to mask this repetition by throwing in timesinks and time-wasters, be they alternate activities or tiered gated content in an effort to pretend that you're not really doing the same thing over and over.

Heaven forbid that you're actually doing something fun and achieving something you find meaningful in a short amount of time.

After all, that means a faster cancellation when you get bored! Oh noes!