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Aion Questions
Hello-
I have been following this game for a brief period of time and after doing a bit of research it definitely is on my radar. I do have a question however, that I was not able to find a concrete answer to on any faq or forum post.
How will the economy of Aion be? Will there be bind on equip items? How about an auction house? Will there be npc buyback? Equipment wear and tear?
Similar games such as L2 and FFXI have been hurt by ebayers exchanging RL $$$ for in-game $$$. As a result the mark up for high end is to much to bear for legit players. Have the Aion developers addressed this concern in anyway? It's a big challenge to deal with, but it appears that bind items have at least but a dent in the practice (not that I'm a huge fan of it, but it seems necessary).
Anyway, sorry for the loaded post. Thanks in advance for your replys, looking forward to this one.
Comments
I'm pretty much in the same boat as you. All I know is they mentioned some rare items will be bind on pick-up/equip and a hint about a possible auction house. I haven't seen anything regarding item durability, but I have a feeling it won't have them. Most of this information isn't official yet... and "subject to change".
I believe most MMORPGs, if not all, suffer from bad player driven economies. The main cause of this problem is directly related to availability of powerful items and the demand for them, as you've seen in L2 and FFXI, items in both games have enormous influence on playability. The more rare and difficult an item is to obtain, the more players will increase prices. Gold farmers and gold buyers add to this problem by introducing massive amounts of gold into circulation, thus lowering the value of gold and causing inflation.
From what I can tell, Aion devs are making most high-end and rare items accessible to all players equally, or make it possible for someone to never have to buy from another player forcefully. Hopefully this will keep item value low enough so most impatient idiots don't have to resort to real money trading.
"When you're born you're naked, when you die you're naked again, and in-between all we do is work, eat, and play MMOs." ~Forum Warrior #141
There are bind items, there is an auction house already in beta, can't really say about npc buyback cause I haven't asked to any beta tester, but ill try to do so, and I think there's no wear and tear gold sink.
About the ebaying issue, as I said there are bind items, you can't trade with the opposite race, which also will reduce the ammount of rmt, and the best equipment possible is only obtainable through abyss points (pvpve).
Too true, the downside of this of course is that there aren't as many high value items which impacts gameplay in its own way. In reality its a trade off one way or the other.
Ephimero, thanks for your insight. I am excited to hear that some high value items will be only obtainable through pvpve in 'the Abyss'. In addition thanks for the informative posts you have made thus far, I usually lurk these forums and have noticed you as one who posts a lot of meaningful content regarding this game, keep it up