General Discussion

In any game where the gear a persion can buy is a lot better then what he can get solo or in a small group within reasonable time. People are forced to either buy gold or use a unreasonable amount of time in order to catch up with the crowd.

I think that if the MMO companies worked better on implenting quests and encounters that enabled alts and people coming back to the game to gear up to a level where they could participate in whatever they wanted too. There would be no point in buying gold.

If the best gear enables you to do 1500 DPS, the average gamer should be able to get up to 1350-1400 DPS in a mather of days.

I know it is probably hard to get anything out of my rambling but anyhow, anyone have any thoughts on this?

or devs could create a system in which itemization is not king

or people could just enjoy the ride to the top instead of being consumed by having the best stuff

You have a good point. People only grind and real world trade because there's so much to get, and it's so hard to get. But to be honest I think the only kinds of game your idea would work in is a skill-based game with no levels. The PvP in GW (the PvP with PvP-only chars.) kinda pulled this off (intentionally or not) as everyone starts at max level; and the currency with which to get more skills and better gear, isn't tradable, it must be earned by playing PvP.

It's a good idea but I don't see it working in a normal MMORPG scenario.

OP please entertain me and explain how exactly they are forcing you to buy anything. In fact, how exactly they are forcing you to play <insert game> in the first place.

There are some valid reasons one could employ to justify cheating (both yourself of the experience and others of the normal game progress). You can use the services. Noone is forcing you.

I think we're long past the phase where some people play to entertain themselves it seems.

You don't have to wear the best gear, so you don't have to buy money. Stupid wowers Oo

thw whole point of having top end gear is to work hard for it...meh...

Originally posted by Qaze

You have a good point. People only grind and real world trade because there's so much to get, and it's so hard to get. But to be honest I think the only kinds of game your idea would work in is a skill-based game with no levels. The PvP in GW (the PvP with PvP-only chars.) kinda pulled this off (intentionally or not) as everyone starts at max level; and the currency with which to get more skills and better gear, isn't tradable, it must be earned by playing PvP.

It's a good idea but I don't see it working in a normal MMORPG scenario.

I don't see why it shouldn't work in a "normal" MMORPG setting...  You can have a persistent world with PvE without linear progression and associated grind. I can see GW-style "you begin at max level" progression work perfectly in a MMO.

In fact, in a multiplayer game this model would work much much better than linear progression which is inherited from single-player rpgs and which is, frankly, not suited to a multiplayer environment at all.

EVE is another step in the right direction - a new player can become competetive raher quickly if he concentrates on one set of skills. Older players have more breadth regarding the ships and roles they can use but the sharply exponential cost of raising higher skill levels effectively ensures that even the relative noobs can be useful if they play smart.

   I've probably played a dozen MMOs now, and I've never felt the slightest impulse to buy in game money. I think it's a bit too far saying that people are forced to do it.  Especially in WoW, where gold is soo easy to aquire, and there isn't really anything to spend it on anyway. Most of the best gear is bop. And besides, you can get by easily enough without that. You don't have to have the uber gear for anything other than the high-end raids anyway, and if you are doing those, you should already have the gear from other raids.

  FFXI on the other hand, you are pretty much required to have certain gear at certain levels, and if you don't have it, people will get upset with you. I still never bought any money in that game either, I'd just put the time into making it, like the game was intended.

  Things that are expensive are expensive for a reason. If you can't afford it, you should put the effort in to getting it. It's way more rewarding that way anyway. Buying money takes some of the challenge out of the game, so you end up missing out.

  If you don't want to have to "try" to get things, then I think you are in the wrong genre. you shouldn't  just get everything for free.  

That's the problem with games were the only thing to do is loot and level.  Especially when loot is random.  DDO does this a lot better in that items have a cap on stats and everytime you do a dungeon you're guarenteed to get something at least half-way decent.

No one is 'forced' to go to EBAY or the like...it's a choice each individual makes.

Thinking otherwise is another example of today's "self entitlement" social morals that have developed in the last couple of decades.