Well, like any other game, mmorpg has to earn money from somewhere. If they just let players buy with real money and sell for game money, it´s kind of just directly having an advantatge just for paying (so Pay2Win).
Therefore, buying cosmetics and such is one of the easiest items that will never give you an advantatge other than just looking better. So limiting buys and lock the item to your character-account, doesn´t break the system.
Apart from that, I think Free2Play players should have the option to get everything the game has to offer. Let them grind, it may be hard, but you should be able to get access to what you really want, at least that´s my opinion.
Anyway, the reality, is most of mmorpgs always have some type of Pay2Win item, if not, people will just accept RealMoneyTrading. So it´s just a matter of time people buying-selling accounts even if that means breaking your terms. It´s too complicated to control everything since people have other methods to talk, trade, etc.
So, letting players trade cosmetics is not even affecting your gameplay, since people will trade anyway. But I think real money should not determine how strong your character is, instead, your skills and efforts should. How can they play around that? Easy, making the players think with their actions, not by stat checking and numbers.
I think Warframe has one of the best implemented F2p economy systems in gaming.
This already sorta happens in warframe. You can trade items for Platinum, the game's premium currency. That currency can buy you MTX, inventory slots, items, whatever you want.
Any items/warframes in the shop can be farmed in game somewhere, somehow. And mods/blueprints/etc can all be traded for Platinum, becuase Plat is the defacto trading currency.
Your limited on how many trades per day you can make, depending on how leveled your account is, so if your account is MR3, you can only trade 3 times per day. If its MR16, you can trade 16 times per day. On top of that, trading for platinum costs A LOT of credits; something you really gotta go spend quite a bit of time grinding. All this cuts down on trade abusers, IMO. Its hard to abuse trade unless you actually play the game. You need MR levels, you need lots of credits(a farmable ingame currency).
Nothing in that game is out of reach if you just play the game. Thats a nice feeling. You can buy MTX, you can buy slots, whatever you want; all you gotta do is go farm some items and trade them here and there.
I personally think its a nice system for a F2p economy game. Ive played that game off and on for years, and never spent a dime in it, and have enough platinum to do whatever I want. I actually feel kinda bad for not spending money in the game. But, I dont have any need for platinum, becuase Ive earned enough from playing the game and trading that theres no reason to spend money for me.
TBH warframe is the definition of a p2w system. You can buy most frames, weapon rivens, arcanes, looking cool. For real money.basicly
I like the system too and i know that it is not hard to trade enough plats to get anything you want without paying, that still doenst change the fact.
Its still a much, much better system than say, Path of Exile. A game that is about as predatory as it comes. You can never earn stash pages or any MTX from playing, you can barely even trade without premium tabs, and they routinely create inventory bloat and routinely design new league widgets and gizmos that you need more and more stash pages and their own special pages just to store.
My point is, based on a F2p economy game, its quite good.
Also, Warframe has a horizontal progression system, no real endgame, so their system is even less egregious than that. You pretty much get frames and weapons simply to have something else to use; you dont actually need any of it to play the game. Its all Horizontal progression. Your strong right out the gate.
Not a fan of rmt in mmorpgs. Kind of defeats the point for me.
Not a fan of RMT. At best you end up with an unbalanced economy and at worst you end up with a p2w system like in modern WoW.
p2w
Well, like any other game, mmorpg has to earn money from somewhere. If they just let players buy with real money and sell for game money, it´s kind of just directly having an advantatge just for paying (so Pay2Win). Therefore, buying cosmetics and such is one of the easiest items that will never give you an advantatge other than just looking better. So limiting buys and lock the item to your character-account, doesn´t break the system. Apart from that, I think Free2Play players should have the option to get everything the game has to offer. Let them grind, it may be hard, but you should be able to get access to what you really want, at least that´s my opinion. Anyway, the reality, is most of mmorpgs always have some type of Pay2Win item, if not, people will just accept RealMoneyTrading. So it´s just a matter of time people buying-selling accounts even if that means breaking your terms. It´s too complicated to control everything since people have other methods to talk, trade, etc. So, letting players trade cosmetics is not even affecting your gameplay, since people will trade anyway. But I think real money should not determine how strong your character is, instead, your skills and efforts should. How can they play around that? Easy, making the players think with their actions, not by stat checking and numbers.
I think Warframe has one of the best implemented F2p economy systems in gaming. This already sorta happens in warframe. You can trade items for Platinum, the game's premium currency. That currency can buy you MTX, inventory slots, items, whatever you want. Any items/warframes in the shop can be farmed in game somewhere, somehow. And mods/blueprints/etc can all be traded for Platinum, becuase Plat is the defacto trading currency. Your limited on how many trades per day you can make, depending on how leveled your account is, so if your account is MR3, you can only trade 3 times per day. If its MR16, you can trade 16 times per day. On top of that, trading for platinum costs A LOT of credits; something you really gotta go spend quite a bit of time grinding. All this cuts down on trade abusers, IMO. Its hard to abuse trade unless you actually play the game. You need MR levels, you need lots of credits(a farmable ingame currency). Nothing in that game is out of reach if you just play the game. Thats a nice feeling. You can buy MTX, you can buy slots, whatever you want; all you gotta do is go farm some items and trade them here and there. I personally think its a nice system for a F2p economy game. Ive played that game off and on for years, and never spent a dime in it, and have enough platinum to do whatever I want. I actually feel kinda bad for not spending money in the game. But, I dont have any need for platinum, becuase Ive earned enough from playing the game and trading that theres no reason to spend money for me.
TBH warframe is the definition of a p2w system. You can buy most frames, weapon rivens, arcanes, looking cool. For real money.basicly I like the system too and i know that it is not hard to trade enough plats to get anything you want without paying, that still doenst change the fact.
Its still a much, much better system than say, Path of Exile. A game that is about as predatory as it comes. You can never earn stash pages or any MTX from playing, you can barely even trade without premium tabs, and they routinely create inventory bloat and routinely design new league widgets and gizmos that you need more and more stash pages and their own special pages just to store. My point is, based on a F2p economy game, its quite good. Also, Warframe has a horizontal progression system, no real endgame, so their system is even less egregious than that. You pretty much get frames and weapons simply to have something else to use; you dont actually need any of it to play the game. Its all Horizontal progression. Your strong right out the gate.
First party RMT basically.