On ARPG economies from a game design perspective

Soulbound Items
[From chat: Soulbound / Bind on Pickup items, like the Account-Bound crafted items]
Travis: Soulbound is a touchy topic. I will say years and years and years of working on WoW, we kind of took it for granted, like it's just a foregone conclusion, that this is part of the game. Working on Diablo, seeing all the problems we have to deal with that's different from WoW -- because obviously they're different games but there's parallels to draw. I will say there's value in soulbound. I think it helps contribute to the sense of ownership that you earned something, because obviously you didn't buy it from some dude in China for $2. But there's degrees, and I think it's a possibility that soulbound could find it's way into the game in a larger sense than it has already. We've got some, we put in new crafted recipes that took soulbound reagents and created soulbound items. That was partly because we wanted to give players a reason to farm creatures in the game again, instead of expecting to buy everything off the Auction House. And it worked, it totally did everything we wanted it to do. I would say it worked because everything you found was soulbound and the product you made was soulbound. It's got it's strengths.

[2:09:50]
Do you think one of the bigger disadvantages is it eliminates trading, or at least diminishes it?
Travis: I think that is a legitimate concern. I think what you lose in the inability to trade things, is more than overshadowed by what you gain. I'm not saying that soulbound is always obviously the right choice. But I am saying I think the crafted recipes were only -- they got people just playing the game again, because there was something to do, and I couldn't just pay my way to victory. I have to go farm these Demonic Essences, I have to craft these items myself, and I can't just buy the end result off the Auction House. It got people farming Demonic Essences, and it got people crafting their items, and it got them showing their buddies "Look at this awesome thing I made, isn't that cool?", instead of saying "Look at what I bought for 2 billion gold on the Auction House." So it certainly has value, but you do lose out on the trading. Trading comes up all the time, any time we're talking about items or anytime we're talking about those crafting recipes, or legendary items, whatever the case is. When soulbound comes up as an idea, immediately someone is like, "But trading, trading is important!" And it's like, here's the thing: Is it important to be able to trade everything always, or is it more important to be able to feel a sense of pride in the things you're wearing? Because if you're allowed to buy everything you're wearing, and that's the best gear in the game, that's cool. But that's also a world where nobody cares about items on the ground because they bought it off an Auction House, or they traded it from their buddy, or whatever the case is.

The fantasy of trading, and the fun idea of trading, is like: I found items, I traded with my buddy, or maybe this guy and I bartered out a deal. But the difference between that, and what actually ends up happening with the Auction House or just any system where there's a completely fluid economy - it fights against the idea that your time is valuable. And it fights against the idea that the things you find are valuable, because they're not going to be. The fact that everything is tradeable, it kind of puts under a spotlight for a lot of people (and this isn't player psychology as much as general psychology) the more we make you realize you're not special, the less special you feel, right? Everyone will feel like they are smart and they make good decisions in their own right, and a lot of people do. But there are more people who are part of the general populace than part of the cream of the crop, the exception to the rule. And as soon as everything is tradeable, or as soon as your time can be directly valued against someone else's time, you realize your time has little value, and it's a crappy feeling. The trade-off is: do I want to be able to trade things, or do I want to actually find something that is good for me and I'm happy with.