Would you still raid if raids didnt drop gear?

[Augusta138]

Would you go to work if you didn't get paid?

Work is something you have to do in order to live your life.
Or you are filthy rich or figured out the stock market and are living of money making money.

Raiding is a part of the game you can participate in. It isnt a requirement in anyway to play WoW.
Work however is part of life for most of us in order to pay our bills and live our lifes.

[Beefhammer]

I raided for the fun and the challenge of beating bosses with my wife and guildmates. Gear was just a bonus. But then, I come from a time when accomplishing the goal was the incentive. We didn't need shinies other than the satisfaction of beating a game, or in this case a raid boss or whole raid.

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I'd do it once, but I wouldn't farm it. I don't think think low skill or low playtime players would bother with it anymore though, which is most of the playerbase. Devs wouldn't be able to justify creating the raids anymore.

They justified making them for 10% or less of the player base for nearly 8 years. Even with LFR, participation is only around 50%, and closer to 10-15% when your remove those that only do LFR. Most aspects outside of leveling and probably WQ/faction reps are done by a fraction of the player base. A minority does PvP, a minority does pet battles, a minority does RP(yet they maintain RP servers), and so on.

[hynx]

Title. For those of you who raid, would you still do it if didnt award any loot what-so-ever? No equipment, mounts, transmog, toys etc nada.

who would do that when there isnt a carrot at the end of a stick. MMO's are time vampires, and if there isnt a return for your effort, or at least the possibility of a return for your efforts, then why bother?

[schwarzkopf]

So - you mean nothing changes ?

Yeah - I gear up to raid, not raid to gear up.

I stopped raiding due to lack of raiders, not lack of rewards - because I always outgeared the raid anyway.

[Aldo Hawk]

Title. For those of you who raid, would you still do it if didnt award any loot what-so-ever? No equipment, mounts, transmog, toys etc nada.

Yes.

Why?

Because they would have to put something else on there, and gear being attached to raids has made other systems too lackluster.

[Relapses]

That's a problem with many players. They see raiding as work (in a negative way) and not as a game to have fun. It's just anorher chore that you "have to do"

What if you enjoy work (raiding in this example)? I should be perfectly happy not getting paid (gear in this example) because other happy little snowflakes are negatively impacted by my personal motivations?

[Huntingbear_grimbatol]

I raid for the satisfaction of completing something hard, that's the reward for me. Gear is just a tool you use to progress...

[Mad_Murdock]

who would do that when there isnt a carrot at the end of a stick. MMO's are time vampires, and if there isnt a return for your effort, or at least the possibility of a return for your efforts, then why bother?

All games are time vampires. it took several years of WoW to match my number of Hours playing the original Counter-Strike, in which there was no rewards at all. You played because it was fun. I think one of the things that has ruined games like Battlefield and CS was adding all the achievements and skins. I get why they had to from a business model. BUt the glory of the gaming days is when you played for hours, just to say "I'm the best"

And we can look at Classic and see there is still a market for that. As it's not can you clear MC, but how fast. Sure gear will help with the numbers, but very quickly everyone in those raids will be at BiS. I'm really curious what the scene is going to be like in a year from now when Naxx is cleared 50 times.

[Sughs]

Yes. I raid because of the encounters and the raid environment, not for some shit that gets replaced every few months.

[Isilrien]

I would raid until I saw all the encounters. So, neither yes nor no.

[Palisis]

Nope......

Why would I. And don't tell me for the fun or challenge. I mean...the way high difficulty raids are tuned you still need to do an activity that rewards the gear to overcome them and progress. Where else would that gear come from? Mythic 5 mans? And why would mythics reward gear and not raids?

Basically close to noone would raid any more.

It appears you were incorrect in your assessment.

It strictly asks if gear didn't drop, so I'm going to assume you still get rewards. Id still do achieves, get power upgrades, mats for other gear, mounts.

[Hinastorm]

Yes. I play for the story.

So you raid till you clear it, then you've lost all interest? May I suggest a different genre of games.

[Echeyakee]

Depends. If there were no rewards at all in wow, then no. Short term goals and becoming stronger is the reason why I play RPGs and MMOs specifically. I wouldn't stop raiding, I would simply stop playing.

If raiding would become a side activity (which I don't believe it will ever be, but let's just pretend for argument sake), with no rewards except knowing that you did it and story, I would probably still raid, but a lot less. Once per difficulty, and probably not all of them. Maybe even only one clear on heroic, skipping the easier and harder difficulties I would not be able to do in a reasonable time frame. And it would also be a wasteland a month after release, once most people got their kills. That, or I would also quit the game, cause I don't really find other activities that engaging or enjoyable.

And in a more realistic scenario, where raids rewards are purely cosmetic and non combat, it's a toss up again. If there is still gear requirements, and they are not easily achievable within a couple of weeks from hitting max level, I would not play the game, unless they introduce something amazing that would keep me playing. But if there is no gear requirement for raids (i.e. raiding templates), and they are purely skill based, I would probably do it, but my overall subscription time will be much lower. Basically a month after new raid release and that's about it.

[Phantombeard]

Depends on how the rest of the game was balanced and structured. If gear wasn't used to increase your characters power level to progress against raid bosses then how would blizzard balance raids to begin with. Its like asking would you still drive your car if it didn't have wheels.

[Akasha64]

Yes, I would, but probably not much beyond the first kill. I think though that having gear makes the game more like an RPG. If they remove that element, then it would be just like a standard action game (or much closer to that). On the other hand, I've kind of had it with the gear treadmill over the years. I didn't complain about this back in the early WoW days, but nowadays my gear has been made obsolete so many times by an expansion launch or a new patch, I kind of lost interest. I became cynical of even getting gear, cause well, in a patch or two or, worse, an expansion, it's not going to mean much anymore. The gear will be completely replaced.

TL;DR: Yes, but not beyond first kill. Having gear makes it more like an RPG in a way, but </3 those same gear treadmills these MMOs have put on us over the years.

[Logwyn]

I would do LFR once for the story. Kinda like I do now due to RL things.

[munkeyinorbit]

Yes, half of mythic progress i don't get anything from drops anyway.

But the other half you do. Not really a relevant comparison then.

If the whole game had no loot then I would. But if raiding gave no loot but you got it elsewhere then I would quit. I don't like a lot of the other content so I don't do it.

[rogoth]

i voted yes but only if i could raid with the guys and gals i raided with back in wrath when we got our highest world ranking and were having a total blast.

[hulkgor]

Title. For those of you who raid, would you still do it if didnt award any loot what-so-ever? No equipment, mounts, transmog, toys etc nada.

That would make no sense.

Part of raiding is the player power increase over time. If no loot dropped, no player power would be attained, and there would literally be no difficulty curve on a raid, which would defeat the purpose entirely.

I do think we get way too much loot on retail nowadays. It's a fucking fiesta with dozens upon dozens of items showering on you. Classic is too 'harsh' with the 2-4 items per boss \ raid of 40, but the current mode is overly generous.

[smityx]

Yes. I play for the story.

LFR is your easy ticket to that then.