The Case against a Trade Economy

[Pyksel]

@miffy

In any case, you need to look at the core gameplay loop, and how the availability of trade affects that. The easier it is to convert anything that drops into value, and the easier it is to bypass raw drops as well as crafting to progress, the shorter the actual gameplay loop becomes, and the harder it is to maintain a healthy balance in loot/crafting/RNG/progression.

This goes for any RNG based loot system and we are in agreement that neither of us want the core gameplay loop shortened. I just don’t agree that because you’ve added a new mechanic such as player trading that it inherently will shorten it. Yes, Player B may have what Player A wants and Player B may have spent less time attaining said item(s) but what about the item(s) in return that Player B wants that Player A had to go after not to mention the time Player A already spent trying to get said item(s), if any? This is a bi-directional effort and trust me, I do understand the impact of twinking and low level character acquisition of high level gear.

@miffy

In LE, I can essentially say “I want to try this skill now, and build differently”. I gamble some appropriate bases, or set my filter accordingly, slap on my glyphs/runes, and craft the gear i’ve theorized within minutes to a functional level. You’re naturelly enticed to engage with the crafting system and your filter to progress, and rare (as in, Uniques or Exalts) drops entice you to try new things because it is so easy to respec, change things around. There is a very low opportunity cost, and it makes loot feel quite rewarding, intuitive, and motivating far beyond what it would be, if Trade were a major factor.

Agreed on the crafting piece but I don’t necessarily agree that it’s “motivating far beyond what it would be, if Trade were…” and I purposely left off this last piece because no one said “major” factor but I’ll say ANY factor.

@miffy

The Bazaar is by definition not an economy. Since you cannot refresh player shops, cannot search them, or access the entire supply of items up for trade at any point, on top of restrictions to what can be traded, it is essentially just checking another ingame vendor, only the chance for “good” items will be higher. Since you cannot plan for any returns from such an exchange, it cannot fulfil the function an economy would have on drop tuning, for instance. Drops/crafting would still be your primary means of progressing, with the Bazaar probably being a fun little sideshow.

I 'm sure you’ve read it but the dev blog post clearly states it as “THE ECONOMY” and “Player economy”, despite your definition.