Title says it all… Diablo is highly known for its trading economy in D2/D2:LOD/D2R/D3 launch pre-trade/loot changes.
Here we are in D4 with absolutely no trading economy. You can trade rare/sacred rare/ancestral rares… but that’s it…and for what? Gold? it does have a need but only for a limited time.
Not being able to trade Uniques and Legendaries is very a very awkward. So what if d2jsp or other 3rd party trading sites becomes a thing. There’s more people that opt to not use those options than those that do.
Many people play this style of game for the trading economy that comes along with end-game to have that sense of “becoming rich” by finding those godly items, or currencies. That Dopamine effect that hits you when you find that godly item whether or not you can use it or not, you just got rich and can make a mega trade.
Just like people that play for the race/leaderboard, a lot of people play for the economy and a fresh economy every season and the feeling of getting rich time and time again and this aspect of the game is missing greatly.
How to add an economy to d4??
Well the 1st step is to make legendary items, unique items, and aspects tradeable. While also keeping the GG or Godly uniques very rare drops.
The 2nd step, is to create and add something to the game that would essentially be the currency or a highly sought after commodity to support a trade economy. Gold can be a minor currency but its not the answer. Obviously rune words aren’t in the game, but an example of a currency is runewords in d2, or SoJ’s to summon a secret boss or secret level or something that would be highly highly sought after. Or like the Divine Orbs and chaos Orbs in Path of Exile as an example.
I always thought the trading economy in PoE was a blessing and a curse. It is both convenient and cumbersome at the same time.
I don’t play these kinds of games for the economy. However, I wouldn’t mind being able to trade legendaries/uniques - simply because it would be nice to share with my buddies.
in my opinion : it’s a good thing that legendary and unique aren’t tradeable.
it’s already bad enough that gold and gems and yellow are tradeable there is already tons of website about buying thing for FG and euros/dollars… i really don’t know why they made them tradeable in the first place.
i don’t want D4 to become a bot wasteland like D2 and D2R became
both me and my friends wouldn’t play for long if that was the case.
there should be items you are forced to play to get , and so does the devs think so too as they talked about it in a previous interview along the lines of “unique and legendary should only be droppable by playing the game and killing demons”
it also cripples replayability for some…I know I am not everyone but I used the level20 and below sets in d2 to stomp through the early game…I would find a complete set for a barb for example and that would make me want to create a barb. I had one of every toon…usually in a arg by the time im working on the paragon system on one toon i have a second and a third im leveling for variety…but im 5 days in level 60 and I have one toon because I cant give my other toons any gear. Also I rarely get gear thats not for my class not sure why by gear seems to be influenced by the toon you play.
(I spent over a thousand hours in d1 and another thousand at least in d2…13 hours in d3 60 in d4, so far d4 is better than d3 but has a lot of reasons it wont keep me around like d2 did trading is one of my biggest issues with d4)
Why would there be a trade economy this early into the game? Everyone is still leveling up and with how fast you upgrade items during the normal level grind, it would be pointless to trade items…
From what I can tell, trading will happen once people are at the end of their leveling grind and are looking for Rare Items with the perfect affixes for what they need.
It’s called a negative externality. Trading opens up a competitive edge to people who want to use real money to get ahead. Which is against the spirit of the game. Games are meant to be played. If you want to win play the game. Don’t use your credit card.
You do realize that just as many people play ARPGS for the economy as the people that play for leaderboards. You are just completely alienating one of the niche population of players.
Ill be honest, I get a LOT of people love playing ARPG merchant tycoon. For me, trading is the worst part of any ARPG that has it. Even in POE where your farming orbs for currency (effectively the same as farming drops) it just feels so much worse to buy an item vs picking up from a dead monster.
I play these games to kill stuff and pick up their loot, anything that has me getting loot outside of that content loop detracts from the game for me.
Basically im glad no trading, and was so happy when they dumped the RMAH in D3 and we could go back to finding things on the ground vs $$