I think that limited trade is the best way forward but it is currently in its infancy and we are looking at an unoptimized implementation. To understand what a perfect system might look like, let’s establish the key elements:
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Addressing bots and farmers. There may be other ways to tackle these but for now, this is one of the big benefits of limiting trade.
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Keeping people playing the game and not spending all their time trading.
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Allowing people to trade with their close friends.
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Keeping players from decking out their noob friends and robbing their experience.
Our current system addresses 1, 2, and 4. But I think 4 is much less important than 3. Having a group of friends that you can share the game with is great and being able to tell someone that you found something for them makes memories and builds community.
With this in mind, I would like to propose an alternative system. Each player can select a small group of friends with whom they can share loot that drops. Items are then “soulbound” when they drop; not to that person but to all of those accounts. It becomes a feature of the item which cannot be changed.
This still limits the ability of bots and farmers as well as excessive trade. It also allows you to trade within your group of friends and not have the “feelbad” of finding something great for a bro but they just logged out.