I think @Lyya has hit the nail on the head. There’s little upside for them (not necessary to keep the game running) and tons of downside (lower revenue and possible fraud).
On top of all of that it would require a ton of dev work to create all the UI, art, etc. and they’d have to re-engineer existing systems (e.g., once you get a Mythic Sheggra, all subsequent copies are also Mythic, so unless the selling player has to start over at Legendary, which would mean reworking the current implementation, then it would horribly inflate the current economy with the injection of cheap Mythic Sheggras).
Why go through all of that trouble for something that would mean less money for them? Bear in mind it’s a very small team too, so we’d have to set aside Guild update, Guild Wars, new mini-games, new kingdoms, and all of the other stuff they’ve got planned out for the rest of the year and push it all out by 2+ months. I’d much rather have that other stuff if we’re ranking priorities, regardless of what trading would do to the economy.
I have one very good reason why I never hope to see trading in this game. Account hacking/stealing.
If someone stole my account right now, they would get nothing from it. They’d merely have access to my account, and anything negative they did to it would be for purely vindictive purposes, to spite me.
If trading is implemented, they now get something for their negative behavior. I could be left with nothing because someone got everything from me. There’s actual purpose in their actions, to gain more.
I’d rather someone spite me enough to dump all my goods, rather than someone desire what I have enough to steal it. Greed is a much more powerful motivator than wrath, as wrath is directed towards a source, and greed only requires an individual acting on their wishes.
Everyone has made very good points. I will confess several of them are things I would not have thought of because it is not in my nature to cheat, steal, etc. And, although the trading may never be a possibility, I still have faith that with the right parameters a Guild Inventory would be extremely beneficial and hard to exploit.
We already donate gold regularly for tasks to benefit the others in our guild.
Perhaps it could work along the lines of a donation, ie if a Guild Member donates x number of stones, then all Guild Members receive 2 of that stone.
This would mean that the benefactor would have to grind and have the stones in store, then elect to sacrifice them for the good of the Guild at a significant personal loss. Lets just say I am donating Minor fire I choose to make a donation of 20 minor fire stones, if the conversion rate were 10:1 then I would lose those 20, but every other Guild Member receives a mail containing 2 minor firestones.
If it would be easier to email ALL guild members the reward then change the conversion to 11:1, donate 22 get 2 back for a net effect of 10:1.
Final Thought about Trading: (somewhat off-topic)
Isn’t it a little sad that a really great feature can’t be considered because of the inability of humanity to NOT cheat? Granted, there are other factors, ie the potential loss of revenue, though simple restrictions like not being able to trade multiples, and not being able to receive a troop that is already in your roster would assist with the power game element, the fact that hacking/alt spamming, etc even enters the conversation is unfortunate. I just hate when the good are denied because of the bad actions of others. For clarity, after the comments here, I do not believe it should be included either and I do not blame or fault the devs in any way. Just disappointed in my fellow man.
It is sad, really sad that devs have to constantly guard against fraud and hacking. You’d think that it wouldn’t even be an issue in a casual game like GoW where you can’t even exchange game goods for actual real life currency. But, you always have people in the game that want to surpass others bad enough that they’ll cheat to do it. That being said, I think most people in the game are honest and just want to enjoy their progress while smashing stuff. So, I prefer to focus on that positive thought.
Taking this out of context, or rather considering it within the context of a game, what would make something like this a “really great feature”? Beneficial for the player, certainly, but that isn’t necessarily good for the game, or even for the player’s long-term enjoyment. Games are deliberate, artificial problems. We create them so that we can enjoy solving them. Making them quicker or easier to solve can be contrary to the very reason they exist in the first place. Slower or harder aren’t necessarily better either, but it’s important to consider whether a problem impedes enjoyment, or is the source of the enjoyment in the first place.
What if the guild inventory held an item we do not yet have? For a thing that is not yet in game? Also what if the only way to access it was to be high enough in rank in your guild? Would it therefore still be exploitable and if so how?
@spherix Interesting point. As games are enjoyed by individuals it is also important to understand that each individual’s opinion determines the value of enjoyment. I play games primarily for the stories they tell, as the campaign for this game is relatively short, it has to offer something else to maintain my attention. For me that is the enjoyment of troop/deck building. I will continue playing because I enjoy trying out all variety of variations. Having a feature that will help me to achieve access to all of those troops without allowing me or other players to BREAK the system would not hurt my experience in the slightest. The other thing that GoW provides, surprisingly well, is community. A feature that allows me to further assist my Guild Mates is very welcome for the purpose of improved community relations.
Well, taking the extreme approach, couldn’t I just create a guild and invite 29 of my dummy accounts? If task rewards could be traded, every guild task would have a huge payout for my main account.
Yes this is true but do to the nerf of gem-cycling a guild with 30 active players would pay out more than a play with 29 alt accounts. Even if you traded for items the rewards would not equal the investment needed to keep-up with top guilds.
I may be in the minority here, but trading, of any sort, I’m completely against.
Zelfore brings one good reason to the table:
But I would leave the game if this was implemented, like I left the last similar game that turned into a trading card fiasco through account generation farming.
Edit: Let’s say you can create an account on every device you have, merge them all into a guild, then have one account spend gold to give 12 Glory keys. Multiply that by the number of accounts for a larger chance at legendary cards/Traitstones, then send them all to your main account, rinse then repeat… Yeah no thanks.
I’m truly hoping that keeping the game as it stands is in the best interests of the developers, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself otherwise… Like go into the sun and such…!
It’s worth noting that the devs have said that both 2.1 and 2.2 will be focused around guilds, so we’ll probably see more ways to spend tokens in those patches.
If I were to take a shot in the dark, I would imagine it had to do with traitstones. To much conversation on forums about it to not address it somewhere.
I would expect one or both of the following:
New Guild Tasks that reward stones.
Random stones bought with tokens that award a random draw of stones to the guild. 25 tokens for a single stone with scaled percentages, for example
So, I prefer to focus on that positive thought.
