So we got trading unlocked for basically everything that is not modified. It allows players to get into Diablo 4 quicker in order to join the late game party. And you can share good finds with good friends or make loads of money of unknown origin.
But it also kind of questions Diablo 4 as a game itself. Is the loot hunt so uninteresting that we need a comfortable way to skip it? Gold/Item sellers and bots benefit a lot from the looser restrictions. Tradable items have become more attractive, therefore gold/item sellers are now more visible and their offers are pushing the game into pay to win territory. Naturally more players will risk their accounts as a result. (6)
I suggest to have trading limited to guild members only. This means that any item can only be traded with players who were member of the same guild at the time the item was dropped.
How can it work?
Hidden: The game marks an item with the guild ID and the time it dropped. At this point the game simply compares them with a tracked timeline of a players guild history to determine if he/she is eligible for the item.
What are the advantages?
Often requested, this finally gives guilds (much) more meaning to be a member of. Guild trading can increase social interaction between members and emphasise the identity of labeled guilds (new players, by class, endgame) with the items that members can share. And most important, it solves the dilemma of allowing players to trade, but keeping it almost entirely in-game and transparent. In short: You and your friends can trade without restrictions.
What are some “downsides”?
Gold sellers are basically screwed because they cannot trade anything to players that are not in their guild. They cannot get around this by inviting players after making an offer, because the hidden mark tracked when an item was found and excludes any potential buyer. Poor gold sellers.
A real downside is that choice of available items will be drastically go down in comparison to now. Account limit of guilds and therefore your trading partners is 150.
Why are there trade restrictions in general?
The developers want to control what you can trade because of (duplication) exploits. This is one of the reasons why we still cant trade modified items. Another is to keep the balance between rewarding and motivating players to stay active in the game and farm items rather than buying a complete build and then only playing for a short period of time each season. The last point is more important because, as mentioned above, trading is mainly for players to join the rest and not give up early in the leveling process.