If you want a robust economy, personal loot is essential.
Personal Loot Promote Economy by the Numbers
Mathematically, we can interrogate how personal drops versus global drops affect a game economy where trading is permitted.
Loot Economy Simplified (and ignores the probability distribution and assumes average probability is maintained):
10% of all drops have personal value
10% of all drops do not have value to self but to another
80% drops have no value
Game with 8 players and 80 total drops.
A. Personal loot scenario
All players receive one item of personal value and 1 item of value to someone else. As such, everyone can partake in the economy if they choose as they have an item to offer someone else for another’s item in exchange. Therefore, all 8 players can participate in the trade economy if they choose.
B. Global loot scenario (that leads to unequal distribution of drops). For simplicity. I will assume one player gets 50 percent of drops called player 1.
Player 1 has 4 items of personal value and 4 items of value for someone else. The other 7 players will in total have 4 items of personal value and 4 items of value to others. As such, players 2-8 will have roughly half that have nothing of personal value while the other will only have something of value to someone else. In this case, only 4 (or 5) players of the initial 8 can partake in the economy (player 1, and half of player 2-8).
Overarching Conclusion
Therefore, personal loot promotes a robust economy in comparison to global drops.