I should let it be very clear that if Innogames introduces this feature, in any manner, I will be calling my Grepo career quits. Unfortunately, the simple fact that my post has not been "approved" on the DevBlog indicates that Inno will implement this feature whether we like it or not. No matter how many controls they put in place ,the reason for my departure is for the simple fact that Inno ignored their loyal fans and customers completely by implementing this in the first place.
I will, however, put my 2 cents in on how to balance this. Hopefully my input will help to soften the blow for any of my fellow warriors that decide to continue on the hunt after this is implemented.
In Game Economy
This is the biggest issue that I see. By implementing this feature, in any capacity, you will be creating an in game economy. An economy that, at it's most basic level, converts real money to in game resources and from player to player. There will need to be strict regulations around this or things will go bonkers. We could either wind up with players obtaining mass amounts of gold for minimal resources or vise-versa.
I would recommend one of two solutions for this:
- Establish a set ratio range at which players can trade gold for resources (and vise-versa). This is not a number that I can come up with since a ratio like this will never please anyone in every situation (as BT alluded to above). This will need to be established along with a per diem cap on trades, per player.
- Eliminate the player to player aspect. Introduce a once-daily merchant (such as the existing one) that will offer you certain deals that would function similar to the trading idea that is proposed. This merchant would not be able to be re-summoned. This would also eliminate the bully/extortion issue that several of you have expressed concern over.
World Hopping
Many of you have expressed concern over players entering worlds, making mass profit, accumulating said profit, and then joining one world to spend all of aforementioned profit. This is a very real concern of mine as well. It would create a severe disadvantage to players who did not take advantage of this tactic.
My solution for this one is simple - create a new currency. Make it silver or something like that. Any gold earned through this feature would be converted to silver and cannot be used on other worlds. This would also make players think twice about trading via this method and make trades more meaningful by making a player have some lvel of commitment to the current world.
Early World Advantages
If player to player trading is implemented, even if they restrict the currency to the world it was earned on, we will have the issue of several players joining the world with "friends" that will help boost their gold (silver) amount and/or resource amount.
Another simple solution - do not allow this type of trading for a certain period of time after a world starts. Even better, make it a minimum player points in order to participate in this type of trade. My suggestion would be 25K points.
Anyway, those are some of the main issues with my proposed solutions. I should also point out that even if all of my "solutions: are implemented, Inno will have an influx of bots and cheaters which will cause a tough decision (a) increase moderation/security costs or (b) let them run wild.
What I do not understand is that there are so many other ways to increase players with gold available, revenue, etc.... that I really just don't understand the logic behind implementing this controversial idea. I have made a couple of suggestions in my previous posts so I will not reiterate them again.
In my closing statement, I would implore Inno to do some research on games that implement features like this in order to increase revenues (cannot see why Inno would do this otherwise). A good example would be when Blizzard implemented the Auction House on Diablo 3 so that they could try and make more money on a game that already made them millions. They wound up deleting the feature in order to preserve the integrity of their game.
Anyway, off to go kill things in Nysa.....good luck with the petition.
~Saint/ED
P.S. - I should also add that all this talk about being the "vocal minority" is hogwash for the simple fact that there is no other medium of communication on this. It has not been expressed or announced in game. This is the only place that we can communicate. Therefore, based on the sample size, we are it......
