A long time ago I started playing Guild Wars. Had lots of fun with the PvP, thought the PvE was decent. But then I made the decision to try and achieve the "God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals" achievement, not quite knowing what I was getting into at the time.  
 
For those not very familiar with the game, I'll put GWAMM in general terms. You need to achieve 30 titles. A title is awarded upon completion of a major task; completing all of a region's missions with 100% completion is enough for one title. Exploring literally every inch of the map in a region (of which there are 3) is another title. They range from rather short (can be completed in a few days of regular gaming) to extremely long (requiring accruing of vast amounts of wealth and/or completing long/hard tasks). GWAMM is the highest achievement in Guild Wars and overall, probably takes more than a thousand hours to achieve for the average player.  
 
Due to judicious planning to complete GWAMM titles synergistically and relatively high competence, I've managed to cut the time down to a fraction necessary. At the moment, I'm 97% done (29/30). 
 
Here's the problem though - I grossly miscalculated on the difficulty of one of the titles. I thought it would be easy when it's in fact, probably the hardest. The Wisdom title involves identifying 10,000 gold items. In Guild Wars, gold items are relatively rare and even if you were strictly farming them you'll get at most about 20-30 every hour. I originally thought that by the end of my adventures doing all of the other titles the amount of gold items left for me to identify would be nominal, but that is not the case - I still have thousands and thousands to go. Conservative estimates as to the time required to get the rest is about 200 hours of straight farming.  
 
Farming in any MMO is not very fun. Farming for several dozens of hours - even less so. Even spreading the 200 hours across the span of a year would be a task, since I don't really have time to play the game anymore (and 2011 will be jam-packed with quality titles).  
 
Now we arrive at the question that is met at some point by all MMO players - does spending the extra time justify the time already spent? If I spend the 200 hours (which could well be 300) finishing up the title, I can cite a major accomplishment in my gaming history (plus the title will follow me into Guild Wars 2) but it will also drain a substantial amount of my free time (and sanity) which I could spend on frankly more productive activities like jogging for an hour a day or playing games that I actually enjoy. But if I relinquish my quest to get the achievement, I'll have nothing to show for the significant amount of time and effort I've already put into the game. 
 
To some of you the answer may be obvious, "only play games if you enjoy it, duh", which is true, but I feel it's also a little more complicated than that. I'll certainly enjoy finally getting GWAMM, and I'll also certainly enjoy flaunting it around in Guild Wars 2. But I won't enjoy the hundreds of hours of monotonous activity required for me to finish up the last title to get it. It's just very hard for me to decide. 

A long time ago I started playing Guild Wars. Had lots of fun with the PvP, thought the PvE was decent. But then I made the decision to try and achieve the "God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals" achievement, not quite knowing what I was getting into at the time.  
 
For those not very familiar with the game, I'll put GWAMM in general terms. You need to achieve 30 titles. A title is awarded upon completion of a major task; completing all of a region's missions with 100% completion is enough for one title. Exploring literally every inch of the map in a region (of which there are 3) is another title. They range from rather short (can be completed in a few days of regular gaming) to extremely long (requiring accruing of vast amounts of wealth and/or completing long/hard tasks). GWAMM is the highest achievement in Guild Wars and overall, probably takes more than a thousand hours to achieve for the average player.  
 
Due to judicious planning to complete GWAMM titles synergistically and relatively high competence, I've managed to cut the time down to a fraction necessary. At the moment, I'm 97% done (29/30). 
 
Here's the problem though - I grossly miscalculated on the difficulty of one of the titles. I thought it would be easy when it's in fact, probably the hardest. The Wisdom title involves identifying 10,000 gold items. In Guild Wars, gold items are relatively rare and even if you were strictly farming them you'll get at most about 20-30 every hour. I originally thought that by the end of my adventures doing all of the other titles the amount of gold items left for me to identify would be nominal, but that is not the case - I still have thousands and thousands to go. Conservative estimates as to the time required to get the rest is about 200 hours of straight farming.  
 
Farming in any MMO is not very fun. Farming for several dozens of hours - even less so. Even spreading the 200 hours across the span of a year would be a task, since I don't really have time to play the game anymore (and 2011 will be jam-packed with quality titles).  
 
Now we arrive at the question that is met at some point by all MMO players - does spending the extra time justify the time already spent? If I spend the 200 hours (which could well be 300) finishing up the title, I can cite a major accomplishment in my gaming history (plus the title will follow me into Guild Wars 2) but it will also drain a substantial amount of my free time (and sanity) which I could spend on frankly more productive activities like jogging for an hour a day or playing games that I actually enjoy. But if I relinquish my quest to get the achievement, I'll have nothing to show for the significant amount of time and effort I've already put into the game. 
 
To some of you the answer may be obvious, "only play games if you enjoy it, duh", which is true, but I feel it's also a little more complicated than that. I'll certainly enjoy finally getting GWAMM, and I'll also certainly enjoy flaunting it around in Guild Wars 2. But I won't enjoy the hundreds of hours of monotonous activity required for me to finish up the last title to get it. It's just very hard for me to decide. 

Why what a wonderful and thought-provoking response, thank you.  "

Stupid question here, Geno, since I've never played the game, but is there any way to involve the community in this?  Maybe someone has a few hundred gold items here and there they could chip in? 

Ooooh.  I've only ever trial'd Guild Wars, but personally I would say go for it.  I mean, you said the title would follow you into GW2!  Yes, as Chav said it's possible it could turn you off to GW2, but I'd be willing to wager that would be temporary.  I also agree that it would be a waste to let the other time you put into the 29/30 go down the tube.

"

Stupid question here, Geno, since I've never played the game, but is there any way to involve the community in this?  Maybe someone has a few hundred gold items here and there they could chip in? 

"

"

Stupid question here, Geno, since I've never played the game, but is there any way to involve the community in this?  Maybe someone has a few hundred gold items here and there they could chip in? 

"

Most people would just sell golds if they werint actively using them, even then they are not the best items in the game. (White-Blue-Purple-Gold-Green and Red for PVP)

@Geno:

@Geno:

Bit of a rut your stuck in mate, any idea what the title will gain you in Guild Wars 2, asides just having the title? "

I have rank 9 in Guild Wars with the proper Tiger Summon, since I got it years ago...I alway sign back on once a week to say hi to the people who helped me.  The amount of times I spent in Hall of Heroes was absurd, an entire summer was wasted in there with the Guild Positive Zero.   
 
Too much time was put into GW, I have to go back and say hi...it's proof that I bleed and sweated for that game.

" @Jasta said:

@Geno:

Bit of a rut your stuck in mate, any idea what the title will gain you in Guild Wars 2, asides just having the title? "

Just bragging rights. Yes, I am that vain.  "

It is more complicated, this is actually operates along the lines of some of the research the psych department at my university is doing. The sunk cost, or rather concorde effect....at what point in time does the cost outweigh the benefits? In the case of the concorde jet, it never made it's money back, in fact billions of dollars were lost on the project, even half way through development they never knew they would get their money back, but kept on going. It's an irrational behavior in humans, and it has also been recreated in pigeons....I apologize for my rant, let's not talk about the pigeons. The mechanism at work here is contrast, or more specifically a form of cognitive dissonance. If you achieve this goal of yours, will it restore you to a balance state, that is will you no longer be irked by the amount of time lost? If so, go for it. However, if you already have feelings of wasting of time, irksome as it may be, the actual act of not completing it, of cutting your losses, may in fact relieve the dissonance more than the completing of the task. 
 
Anyhoo...that's the psychological approach. Either way, you've achieved more than most and will reap plenty of benefits even by not completing it.