Short version

We all were noobs at one point and had different goals then we do now. The goals changed when we became better and now we want more. We need to set our own values on items we want. This means set your personal standered on how much you willing to spend in ether time or money. When it comes to your standered on being better then others, how important is it? How far are you willing to go? Then when you look at the value you spend on trying to be richer, what does it do for you? Looking at what it takes to do both, and is it worth it? The real values in the game is having fun and having friends.

I am blogging this in frustration. I was commenting on this video about a guy that was burning tons of checks, to fix the economy. This got me thinking about how my reasoning for playing. Anyone that knows me, know that I have been playing for years now. To me it was feels like only months ago from the time I started playing the game. I started playing to take off the pressure of my problems I had. I still remember going to ciar the first time. I died like the little noob that I was. Over and over again I tried to finish, but each time I failed. This never got to me to the point that I would quit. I eventually took a "break." During that time I trained at Alby or longa dungeon and made friends along the way. Later on we tried ciar again. When we got to the golem, we all got knocked out several times. Again, I did not let this get to me. I trained some more and with a team of friends we completed ciar dungeon. This is nothing compared to what I can do now, but still I had a feeling of self-accomplishment.

I have come a long way from those days and so have the game. Today is all about being better then the next guy. Our self-accomplishments lost its way. Now it is all about who can do more damage and have more money. Basically our goals are no longer to better ourselves, but rather to be better than others. We blame them for being better when they did nothing wrong. Here we forget the fact that not 2 persons are alike. Some just want to spend more time and energy in the game. We blame the system of our economy for the difference. What I mean by this is that we all contribute our own values on items and methods to get them. I would like to say sometimes we don't agree but it is more like all the time. When it comes down to it, some of us are willing to cheat each other to get what we want. To make this point clear there is no true value that a market other than what you are willing to buy it for.

When we get all wrapped up in becoming better then each other we forget the original reason why we started playing. For me, I have no time to become better than anyone. It is likely that most members in the guild that could be considered "weaker" then me, will become better. Eventually, I could be considered a noob once again. So, my point is that it is impossible to become the best forever. Even when I had plenty of time, I was never able to be the best in the game. It would have seemed that I was always going to be in competition with players that were ether just better than me or had more time and energy. After I thought about the burning checks video I realized that being better was never important.

The money in the game has little value in the game. This does not mean that I am going to just willingly though it away. By observing the "main usage" that I need it for, I came up with: feeding ego, getting decent gear, enchants for gear, repairs, supplies such as feathers, and for some people potions. A question, what if I had a one billion in checks? I most likely spend most of it getting rank 1 synthesis to prevent the checks from wasting space. Afterwards, I likely just use it to become lazy. I would not have to worry about any of the main usage of money again. What I would do is have fun. With no more worries about having enough cash I can do what is really important: spend time with friends and enjoy the game. To summarize my points I wanted to make: money come and go and working to be better than others is almost impossible. We can't blame others for being different and we can always make money back. The overall point I am making is that this is a game and it should be enjoyed with friends.