14 replies to this topic

[eminus]

not sure if this was asked before

can we trade mechs that are just gathering dust but someone is interested?

we could pay cbills for transaction cost

[LordNothing]

im not entirely sure there was a plan to make a game.

[Internal Obedience XIII-omega]

Then no one would buy mechs for cbills anymore from the ingame store. You would see a flood of WTB/WTS. If this happens, ALL chassis' are fixed cbills so there is no inflation on the cbill itself and seller will incur a % fee

PGI could remove the cbill mechs from the market too if they were to implement this system.

[El Bandito]

Nah the whole idea is counter intuitive to the F2P model.

[MTier Slayed Up]

You mean P2W. Duh.

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[Sjorpha]

El Bandito, on 19 June 2018 - 11:29 PM, said:

Nah the whole idea is counter intuitive to the F2P model.

Not true, some of the most successful f2p games have trading like TF2 for example. Valve has also said that trading increases the in game purchases as the secondary market boosts their value. Pgi are just behind the times.

[Wil McCullough]

This would open up mwo to real world currency "underground" markets.

Pay me $X-5 and i'll trade you the mech you want where $X is the price of the mech.

You'll get bots filling ingame chats with ads.

[Moochachoo]

Wil McCullough, on 20 June 2018 - 04:32 AM, said:

This would open up mwo to real world currency "underground" markets.

Pay me $X-5 and i'll trade you the mech you want where $X is the price of the mech.

You'll get bots filling ingame chats with ads.

But you can already by every mech with real money.

[Haipyng]

Moochachoo, on 20 June 2018 - 04:35 AM, said:

But you can already by every mech with real money.

It's different when the game publisher sells the items versus a game where a hundred or so vendors are clamoring to sell their wares. The nightmare of the game publisher to balance the in game market under those conditions too. Wild fluctuations in pricing and values, squabbles over transactions... no thank you.

[El Bandito]

Sjorpha, on 20 June 2018 - 03:10 AM, said:

Not true, some of the most successful f2p games have trading like TF2 for example. Valve has also said that trading increases the in game purchases as the secondary market boosts their value. Pgi are just behind the times.

Except trading is can be exploited, especially among unit members. Pretty soon even the poorest member of the unit will have all the expensive meta mechs they need without having to play and spend huge amount of C-Bills for it.

[Wil McCullough]

Moochachoo, on 20 June 2018 - 04:35 AM, said:

But you can already by every mech with real money.

But if you buy it from me i can sell it cheaper cos i can buy it with my oodles of cbills.

Or i buy mech packs and piece them out

There are a lot of ways to monetize this without pgi seeing a cent unfortunately

[Khobai]

PGI should have an MC only black market

that would monetize it for PGI since all transactions would use MC. people would have to buy MC to use the market. Or sell stuff to people with MC in order to get MC.

But it should use MC not cbills, since that would benefit PGI.

Edited by Khobai, 20 June 2018 - 05:59 AM.

[Sjorpha]

El Bandito, on 20 June 2018 - 04:55 AM, said:

Except trading is can be exploited, especially among unit members. Pretty soon even the poorest member of the unit will have all the expensive meta mechs they need without having to play and spend huge amount of C-Bills for it.

It's a simple fact that f2p and trading can work well together, since much more successful f2p games than mwo does it.

The thing that studies of this issue shows is that trading increases the total perceived value of game content and that drives up sales in the end.

It doesn't matter if some players finds a way to profit from it or share resources, because in the end all content needs to be bought or grinded by someone in the first place. The self organization of a market and the way it distributes resources through demand leads to increased revenue. Some people finds ways to profit in that system but that's not a bad thing, in fact it's one of the reasons trading works well.

What you call exploits would simply be possibilities, a way for wealthy players to share or a way for f2p player to access premium content. In a game with tradable resources those are not exploits, they are simply successful trades. The fallacy is to think this would cost pgi anything when in fact it would be good for business.

[Bud Crue]

Random thoughts regarding this topic.

Um, so, people around here are always telling noobs “never sell a mech” since we all know PGI can revive a crap mech on a whim. But now we want to trade them? OK.

Is this desire for a “trade” function an indication that we have finally accepted that buffing under performers is a thing of the past? We have embraced a reality wherein we all have accepted that some mechs truly do suck and we may as well find some mark to pawn them off on? If that is the case, isn’t the whole idea of trading just another recipie for dumping on new players?
I mean think about it? Who else is going to trade you something decent for your crap? “Hey there friend, I heard you say in chat that you “just can’t make the Annihilator work.” Tell ya what, I’ll trade ya your Anni for a Spider and a Grasshopper 5J. How about it? Two for one is a good deal.” Seems kind of cruel.

And if you want to trade something decent for something else that is decent, then isn’t that a recipie for a each of us just holding on to a few favorites long term and trading the rest among ourselves to “try something new”? Won’t that sort of wreck PGI’s economy?

If you could trade, would tradeable mechs come with skills tree nodes intact? Seems unlikely. Hey there is a thought: Maybe allow a temporary trading of mechs to allow us to try out mechs as a replacement for the trial mech system. Maybe make all trades temporary with a 2 week time limit or something, then ownership reverts.

Also. Screw trading mechs. Let us trade cockpit items for a market fee of a few MC per transaction.

[Khobai]

Quote

Except trading is can be exploited, especially among unit members. Pretty soon even the poorest member of the unit will have all the expensive meta mechs they need without having to play and spend huge amount of C-Bills for it.

hows that exploitation?

the cbills were earned. if you want to give them away to someone else you should be able to.

nobody likes grinding out cbills, its one of the least fun aspects of the game.


if its really a problem, you could also put a cap on how many free cbills/mechs someone can receive. like each account can receive upto 25 million free cbills or something. enough to buy a few starter mechs.


and if PGI did an MC-only black market, it would be a way for PGI to monetize the whole trading system. Because not everyone is gonna give stuff away for free.

Edited by Khobai, 20 June 2018 - 07:37 AM.