WoW has a similar concept with their WoW tokens. You get game time on the token for yourself or you can auction it for a set amount of gold (determined by Blizzard) that you'll get when someone buys your token. So I approve of this concept

Thinking about NW's system makes me cringe.

I liked the gold to crystals conversion in Guild Wars 2 (crystals are the real-money currency in GW2). I think it was well done and it rewarded players who have a ton of time, but not money in real life for playing thier game. Even the players who don't spend any money on the game do add some value to it by being available to group with, help out in pvp, help drive the economy, etc. So it's a good idea to incentivize free players to stick around too.

Even WoW now offers a way for players to buy game time tokens for real money and sell them to players for in game gold.

Not gonna happen. It opens up the possibility of gold farmers selling gold/crowns for real money. There have been gold sellers in ESO before, and there might still be some, but there's really not that much you can do with in-game gold. If you could trade it for crowns though, it'd be a farm/scam-fest. I've seen it in other games and it invariably ruined the economy.

It wouldn't work as suggested, but I don't know why anyone would say Neverwinter's didn't work. I have never spent a penny on that game, and haven't played it much when I hit a wall as far as my character's combat ability, but I have been able to buy many mounts, character race unlocks, inventory space, VIP time (similar to Plus), etc.....and even though I think the gameplay of ESO beats NW hands down, I have played NW a TON more because they offered me the opportunity to earn everything I wanted in game, while ESO always seems so limiting even as they demand cash for things (haircuts) that don't seem like they should cost. It really is a shame, because I think this game is so much better in crafting and combat, but the fun of the events and ability to earn things in NW have snowballed into me already having an advanced character there. I really want ESO to succeed, and hope that player housing and further revamping of character customization will give me the impetus to cut the cord on NW and start playing this game that I have actually spent money on.

I can't believe people actually ask for RMT through cash shop like all the other cheap, no integrity MMORPGs have these days.

You want to be good at chess? Put in the time. Should be the same for any game.

I've been here for 2+ years because ESO doesn't have that kind of sleazy set-up and has a very carefully thought out crown store... and I'll be gone the second they compromise it that way.

Take a good hard look at Black Desert right now to see what this kind of scheme does to games.