Maybe consumables. But I dunno.

shadowwraith666 wrote: »

yes, Star trek online and neverwinter (i think) already allows selling items bought with premium currency for in-game common currency in the exchange/Auction house, so why not in ESO?

Because STO has downright comedic inflation. The game experiences somewhere around 400%-500% inflation every year. I can't speak for Neverwinter, but I seriously regret not converting all my EC into keys before I took that long break.

Sheezabeast wrote: »

People keep saying it would be pay to win but no one has actually explained how it would happen other than the impulse knee-jerk reaction to it. Could someone from the other side of this please actually explain /how/ a trade system which would have safe-guards, would equate to pay to win, with how incredibly inconvenient, clunky, and bass-awkward the scheme to trade something they payed for irl turning into in game gold is? How does that equate to pay to win, since they are cosmetic, and gold is just a monetary trade mechanism, which is the same as crown store items, a trade mechanism? How is this pay to win?

The problem is the instant you can swap crown bought items for gold. That is the exact moment things start coming off the rails.

There's two parts. (Well, three parts, and one is ethical.) The first one you know, it gives people cover to actually purchase gold. You buy a limited time mount, sit on it (in your inventory) until after the promo ends, then list it in a trader for 10m a week later, and that puppy will sell.

The ethical part is this. Right now you can legitimately point at the crown crates and say, "they're not gambling. There's no financial gain to be had." You get neat baubles, and consumables you'll probably scrap into gems, but there's no real financial incentive. If you can sell things from the crown crates, suddenly that's actual gambling. As in, you're putting money in, rolling the dice, and seeing what comes out. Those "neat" upper tier prizes stop being something you'd actually use, and become a commodity. To be bartered around.

Ironically, this is exactly how Japanese Pachinko parlors get around their nation's gambling laws. It's illegal to gamble, so they award tickets. Tickets are exchanged for prizes, and in the same building you'll find a pawn shop that is technically a legally distinct entity, which will take those prizes off your hands for cash.

At this point, all of the careful safeguards in the world wouldn't prevent the system from being used in this fashion. Even if you do tax both players a handful of crowns, that's all it would be, taxing them. Goldselling would have gone legit. It's something you see in a lot of F2P MMOs.

Third part is that it erodes the line between P2W and strictly cosmetic in the item shop. This doesn't automatically mean that the Crown Store would flip a switch and go instantly evil, but it would happen. The simple justification is, "if someone can buy it by grinding, then it's not a P2W advantage." Problem is, you can then start selling stuff that is more powerful, while still saying that the cash shop offers no direct advantage not open to non-paying players. Because they can always just pay through the nose to whales who want their gold.

You can call this far fetched, but I've watched multiple MMOs degenerate from the cash shop as strictly cosmetic to outright pay to win, with hard (and expensive) pay gates at higher levels, forcing you to either cough up or grind. It's a real consideration, and a very significant threat to the game.

There's a fourth consideration that ZOS values gold far more highly than cash. I mean, think about that. If you could turn a limited time mount that cost you 25 bucks into 10m gold, why would you ever spend 150 bucks on the three signature homes for the Count/Countess title? Crown store items that leak over into gold, or are already alternately available for gold are not priced to deal with the market coming apart at the seams the way this would.

The only thing I can say is if crown crates let you hold on to your duplicates, and trade them to other players with equivalent tier items. So an Epic for an Epic, or a Legendary for a Legendary. But, even then, ZOS wouldn't go for that, because the gem system is designed to work against you (slightly). So there's diminished value for a duplicate card. It's still a much better system than you'd find in most MMOs, where you need to either keep rolling the dice until you get lucky or spend hundreds of millions of the in game currency for the shiny bauble that everyone's chasing.

Yes, because I have friends that have almost 0 money, and if they want something I can just give it to them. Even better if I can delete, or at least hide Crown Crate items I don't want clogging up my collections. (screw that bloody cap BS)

if homes are more then 3 mil how much do you think a crown store mount would be etc xD only rich ppl in game what this let ppl waste there real money while i sit on my free reapers harvest one

I could envision it as a system for crates items only, wherein you trade an item for an item, in a trade window initiated by the players - so no listing for gold in traders or selling for gold in chat (you could still arrange to send gold outside this trade window, but there wouldn't be much incentive to send gold afterward if you already got what you wanted in the trade).

Basically, it would have to be equivalent tier items - legendary for legendary or perhaps two superior for a legendary (and the drop only items would be excluded). Then, there is a charge of half the gem cost to both parties. Basically, this would help to ensure that they are trading an unwanted item for something they do want, as they could just keep the current item and buy what they didn't get for the full gem price. But, they'd only have to pay half in addition to giving up the collectible item for the collectible they do want. Also, you could only trade these items AFTER the season has ended, to prevent people from trading an unwanted collectible, then getting another one to trade and so on. So, after the season ends, you can trade a collectible you don't want to someone else for one you do want and pay half the gem price in addition. I think consumables (yes, even the motifs) would have to be excluded from this, as it would mean someone could get multiples of the BA motif and then just trade them for collectibles they want at half the gem price.

This wouldn't solve my situation in which my husband did pop a BA motif in his free crates and really wants to be able to give it to me, since I really wanted it and didn't get it in my free ones. But, why would ZOS implement this system? That's what the gems are for - to exchange for what you do want. And, why would they care that I didn't get it in my free crates and my husband wants to give me his? They'd rather I purchase crates to get one myself.

I voted no, because while it sounds good on "paper" so to speak, I really would be concerned that this kind of thing would be open to exploitation.

I say yes mostly because I really, really, REALLY would like a Dro-m'Athra senche. I'd trade 9 of my 12 mounts and 20 of my 24 pets for that one.