[Smed]

Originally Posted by Trebla

I very seriously doubt Mr. Smedley is looking for anything other than "Great job, way to take the market away from IGE." But I doubt you'll get a solid majority that will say that (though I've been wrong before).



Quite possibly because of people like me who cancelled their accounts as soon as it was announced as a solid plan. It's not that I disagree that taking business from IGE is bad, but sanctioning it is essentially sending the message to the player base that if it's ok on one server, it's ok on all of them. So why go to a SExchange server when currency is cheaper through third parties on normal servers?

It's not like the impact on the game hasn't been discussed to death. You know you're compromising the actual game play experience by doing this. It's the pot argument, some people smoke it, some don't... but just because it's illegal. The instant you legitimize it it becomes more widespread. I doubt there are reliable numbers available from third party sites, but I'd love to see how sales on non-Exchange servers changed when the service was launched.

Anyway, I've said my piece. I know many disagree and I may even be in a pretty small minority, but that's how I feel. Design a game from the ground up with currency exchange in mind and it's a different story (I believe SoE announced one), suddenly allow it in a game where resource availability is now removed from designed gameplay mechanics and it's just trouble.

Totally agree with you.

Smed