First Wave of Trade Improvements

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Joleco wrote:

This is most dishonorable thing I ever seen from a game company.

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MaliceSong wrote:

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This great game is F2P, don't be so cheap and just buy premium tabs, the devs deserve your money.

I may not have bought as much as some people, but I still spent more on PoE than on any other game. The main reason for that isn't even that the game is so awesome (and it is), but the studio's stance on transactions. I know that stash tabs are a bit of a grey area, but generally the majority of purchasable items are cosmetic. I never felt like I was nudged towards the cash shop by the game, but rather treated as a respected player no matter what I did or didn't do with my money. It felt like donating to a great studio and getting a sweet MTX was just a nice "thank you!" as added bonus. I feel like that is utterly outstanding and the gold standard I'd wish every developer would adopt, hence I gladly spent a little more money on this game than I might have otherwise.

Considering that, I think it should be fairly easy to see how turning a basic gameplay element into a paid feature does invite at least some scepticism. But hey, according to this thread, if I have concerns I must be a pathetic, entitled little kid who never spent a dime on this game and should just quit whining and get a job already.

Just to address the next "argument": all my stash tabs are premium. That is besides the point. Things don't magically become acceptable, just because I personally benefit from them. Seriously, get some fucking empathy.

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But you can just use 3rd party tools like you've always done!

So let me get this straight, say a company releases a buggy game and modders make an unofficial patch. Now it's totally fine for the company to charge for patches, since no one's forcing me to buy them and I can just keep on using the unofficial patch? Because this is pretty close to the situation at hand. People wanted better trading, because the de facto system was shit. The mere existence and importance of those 3rd party tools are proof, that the systems in place for trading are just not good enough and show why people have been asking for a better system for quite a while.

And now that we might see a better system for some people, the old system all off a sudden is totally fine and acceptable, because it offered that functionality all along with 3rd party software.

I'm sorry, but that is madness.

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But it's not pay2win, it's pay2convenience!

The funny thing about that term is that it almost always shows up as a term that's used to deflect pay2win accusations and its definition is so all encompassing that it is factually useless. You can find the most ridiculous pay2win stuff being defended as pay2convenience, because you can technically get it by grinding for 2 years. I'm not even exaggerating, that is how people who are passionate about their game of choice defend pretty much anything about it. Curiously enough, that never enters the discussion when it comes to cosmetic items. Food for thought.

But in the end, you can call it what you want, it's gameplay functionality behind a paywall and no amount of sugar coating will change that. It's up to the individual to decide if that is inherently bad, but some people have supported GGG the way they did because GGG has tried their best to stay away from stuff like that. That's the main issue here, but sure, "entitled kids want everything for free!" works as a retort just as well, I guess.


Now it's awesome that GGG are doing something about trading. And they're calling it a first wave, we should probably keep that in mind and treat this as a preview more than anything else. And as that it is awesome. Maybe that functionality will be available to everyone in the future, even those disgusting leeches who bought several supporter packs and never spent points on premium tabs. I personally hope so, because this is something that should be in the game as basic functionality and it is a bit exciting to see how the devs are going to implement it.

However, the concern that in-game trading might stay a premium exclusive is a valid one and it would be nice if the people arguing against those concerns would do so without the ad hominems and the utterly ridiculous arguments that would border on insanity in any other context. Please stop strawmanning the frankly laughable notion into your replies, that everyone not extatic about these news clearly must never have supported GGG in a monetary fashion. Please don't imply that the masses should be grateful to still use 3rd party tools, as if that was in fact anything more than a bandaid for the issue. Really, you're better than that. I hope so, at least.


Of course, since I know how these things work, that's never going to happen, so let me go ahead and save you the effort:

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Well, obviously you're fine with supporting GGG, clearly you'd have no problem with buying premium tabs!

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But you don't understand, acquisition is awesome, it will never ever go away and technically we're still all equal, like seriously, have you tried setting up acquisition, it's so easy, it's really no big deal if more trading functionality never came to the game.

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Your analogy is shit because blaarblbballwarg.

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tl;dr lol

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furycury82 wrote:

I'm borderline ashamed to be apart of this community. POE has proven to NOT be p2w. Which is also one of the reason's I love the game and don't mind donating $$ for stash space and cosmetics.

NO $60 price tag, no $30 every 6 months for a new expansion or DLC, no $15 monthly subscription. Yet GGG still has to be bombarded with negative and immature accusations concerning the way they make $$.

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Schn1tt3r wrote:

oh look! "first wave trade" after 70% of the players lost interest in the game... Also, welcome to pay to win.

I don't care because I have several tabs, but it might be good idea to give everyone one free premium tab at least so the game can be said to still be "free to play"