Idea: Purchasable item to allow one-time transfer of account-bound stuff

My daughter plays with me a lot (for her, that is). I help her out by sending her materials and such. But, I can't send her account-bound stuff, because ... it's account-bound. So I thought, "I wish I could send her a few things, to give her a little jump-start."

Now, I don't know if this is a good idea, or a lame-brained one: sell us a gem-store item that will allow us to transfer a limited selection of account-bound goodies to friends.

Now, I can see how this could be fraught with issues, since there are usually good reasons stuff is account-bound. Hence, the need to make the list of things transferable smaller than the whole list of account-bound items. The amounts allowed would have to also be limited.

Additionally, this could be used by RMTs. But, that's why I would make it a gem-store item: so ANet knows about the transaction. Shining a light on one's RMTs would not be a good idea.

I envision you double-clicking the item, and be presented with a list of things allowed to be sent. You would be allowed to check the boxes next to (say) four of them. Each item would also have numerical limits on the number allowed to be sent (many of them would allow only one to be transferred).

There probably should be a tight limit on how many of these gem-store items you could purchase in a period of time.

Thoughts?

I can't see it ever happening, bound stuff is bound for a reason. What are you envisioning with this? Gear? Materials? Wallet currencies? Wouldn't just sending the gold be a big boost?

It sounds as if the OP isn't accepting the concept of account binding in the first place. If it's good for the game to bind items at all, how is it good for the game to remove that binding for love or money? (And if it's not good for the game, wouldn't the "better" solution be to remove the binding altogether, rather than create an entirely new mechanic?)

I ended up with two mini liadri, because of how the gauntlet was brought back into the game. Is the OP seriously thinking that I should be allowed to gift that to anyone, regardless of how much money I spent?

And if not, how much time/energy do they think it would take ANet to distinguish "transferable account bound" from "non transferable account bound" items? And do they think that would or wouldn't be confusing for the community?

And of course, there's also the expense of creating the mechanic and UI to make this possible.

Which account bound items do you think should be transferable? Crafting materials? Equipment? Mini pets, skins etc. (cosmetic items). Only certain items from each category? e.g. maybe you could share account bound equipment up to exotics, but not ascended or legendary.

Also you mentioned it should be one-time only, but then also said it should be a gem store item so Anet can monitor use. If each person can only buy it once how are they supposed to interpret that data? How would they know what's a legitimate use and what isn't?

And if it's crafting materials you can send almost all of them. The once daily things can be made into their final version and sent that way, ie spiritwood planks, deldrimor ingots, elonian leather squares.

Anything else account bound such as actual ascended items, should, in my opinion anyway, STAY account bound. Both my daughters play so I feel you, but this way she HAS to level her crafting which is good for her in the long run.

@DeanBB.4268 said:I can't see it ever happening, bound stuff is bound for a reason. What are you envisioning with this? Gear? Materials? Wallet currencies? Wouldn't just sending the gold be a big boost?

Map currencies (that are items), time-gated stuff. It's open-ended.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:It sounds as if the OP isn't accepting the concept of account binding in the first place.

More like I'm envisioning a middle ground. Currently, there is an infinite gap between account-bound and not. The question is, more or less, are there any items for which the decision to make them account-bound wasn't cut-and-dried.

The expense of creating the code for it is secondary. First, it has to be determined if it's even a good idea.

@Danikat.8537 said:Which account bound items do you think should be transferable? Crafting materials? Equipment? Mini pets, skins etc. (cosmetic items). Only certain items from each category? e.g. maybe you could share account bound equipment up to exotics, but not ascended or legendary.

Also you mentioned it should be one-time only, but then also said it should be a gem store item so Anet can monitor use. If each person can only buy it once how are they supposed to interpret that data? How would they know what's a legitimate use and what isn't?

I'm not sure what would be allowed. It seems time-gated items would be on the list. Not minis or skins. Things you need to advance playing, not cosmetic stuff.

@"Etria.3642" said:And if it's crafting materials you can send almost all of them. The once daily things can be made into their final version and sent that way, ie spiritwood planks, deldrimor ingots, elonian leather squares.

Anything else account bound such as actual ascended items, should, in my opinion anyway, STAY account bound. Both my daughters play so I feel you, but this way she HAS to level her crafting which is good for her in the long run.

I hadn't thought of the finished products (spiritwood) vs. stepping stones (residue). I forgot you can already transfer those.

Obsidian shards and clovers might be a thing to transfer, but only in small quantities (like, 5 or 10). Gem store items that could have been gifted while purchasing. (That one is questionable.)

Something else I thought of was that it should only be allowed to friends and possibly guildies. And, woe is me if I unfriend someone right after dumping stuff on them.

By "one time", I meant you could only use one per friend. However, allowing more to other friends might open up the item to more abuse by RMTs. Maybe a lifetime cap would be appropriate to cover that? Or, a time-gated cap.

Oh, and charged quartz crystals. That's where the idea came from. I had hundreds, but she couldn't move through the skyscale stuff for many days, because she had hardly any.

Assembled aetherkeys (like, 1-2). For people trying to take a friend through that dungeon path.

@Daddicus.6128 said:Oh, and charged quartz crystals. That's where the idea came from. I had hundreds, but she couldn't move through the skyscale stuff for many days, because she had hardly any.

This..i agree with..

I have 124 of them and no use for them whatsoever, id -love- to give them to guildies working through the skyscale collection.

@Dante.1763 said:

@"Daddicus.6128" said:Oh, and charged quartz crystals. That's where the idea came from. I had hundreds, but she couldn't move through the skyscale stuff for many days, because she had hardly any.

Craft the items they need to make and send those to them.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Extra-Pungent_Skyscale_Treathttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Piece_of_Skyscale_Foodhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grow_Lamp

@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@Dante.1763 said:

@Daddicus.6128 said:Oh, and charged quartz crystals. That's where the idea came from. I had hundreds, but she couldn't move through the skyscale stuff for many days, because she had hardly any.

Works if one has the mats to do so(which i dont, for the grow lamp curse those lumps). Frankly id prefer just being able to get rid of the crystals(why are they account bound in the first place)

You'd have to be very careful with stuff like this. There are people like me out there with multiple accounts who accumulate things on those alt accounts that they will never ever use, like mystic clovers or obsidian shards. So if those items could be transferred to the main, it would be of great benefit. I'm sure others out there make more use of their alt accounts so it wouldn't matter.

@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@Dante.1763 said:

@"Daddicus.6128" said:Oh, and charged quartz crystals. That's where the idea came from. I had hundreds, but she couldn't move through the skyscale stuff for many days, because she had hardly any.

Those are REALLY expensive, whereas the crystals are nearly worthless.

@DeanBB.4268 said:You'd have to be very careful with stuff like this. There are people like me out there with multiple accounts who accumulate things on those alt accounts that they will never ever use, like mystic clovers or obsidian shards. So if those items could be transferred to the main, it would be of great benefit. I'm sure others out there make more use of their alt accounts so it wouldn't matter.

I hadn't thought of this. This is a hard knock against the idea, I think.

@Daddicus.6128 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@Dante.1763 said:

@Daddicus.6128 said:Oh, and charged quartz crystals. That's where the idea came from. I had hundreds, but she couldn't move through the skyscale stuff for many days, because she had hardly any.

How is that expensive she will have to craft them anyway make her buy the materials and send them to you.

@Daddicus.6128 said:Oh, and charged quartz crystals. That's where the idea came from. I had hundreds, but she couldn't move through the skyscale stuff for many days, because she had hardly any.

But again, like the time gated ascended you could make the final product and send that. Grow lamp, skyscale food, treats. People made a ton on the tp selling them.

@Daddicus.6128 said:

@DeanBB.4268 said:You'd have to be very careful with stuff like this. There are people like me out there with multiple accounts who accumulate things on those alt accounts that they will never ever use, like mystic clovers or obsidian shards. So if those items could be transferred to the main, it would be of great benefit. I'm sure others out there make more use of their alt accounts so it wouldn't matter.

Yeah. Charged Quartz should have its account-bound status revoked (or have the daily limit removed) and there were some other items I've heard suggested in the past but can't recall, but the main reason to have certain items tied to an account is to control the market flow. There's always going to be some people sitting on more AB items than they can deal with and others who are forever running out of AB items, but that's a way to encourage certain aspects of gameplay or discourage constant farming.

And people with multiple accounts would have the advantage by far. Even if you limited it to 5-10 items per account and were to, say, require being mutual friends and/or in the same guild, people can easily do that with their accounts. And just for example, I have a second account I got from a Humble Bundle. It's a year and a half old and I haven't really done much with it aside from log-in bonuses (not religiously) and random stuff here and there. I have more than enough AB mats to make a legendary on it, plus others that would be valuable on my main account but on a basic Heroic account are just trash I can't sell and have no use for. And that's just one lightly used account.

There are people who have a dozen or more accounts. Even with a trade limit, they could send as much as they could to their main account, then Account A, Account B, etc. and just consolidate their AB materials as much as possible. You limit Clovers, for example, to just 10 and that's still 110 new Clovers with no removal of gold and/or items out of circulation. Just the monthly added income from gold, laurels, and Coins from an alt account would be enough to buy enough gems to buy a transfer tool on the gemstore, unless said item is priced high enough to mitigate that. Though in that case it would probably be too expensive for most people to buy with real money.

If you want to help your daughter get AB items, you could look into ways to help her get things she needs to get them. You can't send Clovers but you can send Mystic Coins. You can't send Charged Quartz but you can send regular quartz, Trick-or-Treat bags, Wintersday Gifts, or raw materials to buy Zephyrite Supply Boxes (the bags don't always drop Charged Quartz but they do sometimes drop them). If she needs obsidian and has karma, you could help her and other people free Balthazar's Temple in Straits of Devastation since the karma merchant there sells Obsidian Shards for karma (alternatively you could help her do events in HoT maps for keys/map currency as the vendors there sell Obsidian Shards for a combo of map currency and karma, or spending time in LW3/4 maps to get UB/VM to buy Obsidian there).

It's not as easy as straight up sending items, but there are things you can do to minimize the amount of time she has to spend on farming certain items.

@Daddicus.6128 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@Dante.1763 said:

@Daddicus.6128 said:Oh, and charged quartz crystals. That's where the idea came from. I had hundreds, but she couldn't move through the skyscale stuff for many days, because she had hardly any.

First: the crystals have market worth since, just like daily crafted items, the items crafted with crystals which are tradeable have a mark up for the daily lockout.

Second: I thought you said you are helping your daughter out with sending her materials. How is a gem purchaseable, certainly costly and way more expensive consumable item, the better alternative over buying her the tradeable items?

Third: she needs to craft the items anyway so any cost related to materials will have to be invested either way. You are basically saying you are unwilling to spend the mark up for the charged crystals (which you declared worthless by the way).

I'm not seeing how any of this would be solved or imporved on with purchasable consumables which makes account bound items tradeable. Account bound limitations are put in place for specific reasons. You might want to address why you think it is good to circumvent those first when making such a suggestion.

I would use it, once.Because i once found a rare weapon skin in a BLC on an alt account that was immediately accountbound.I asked anet by ticket if i could move it to my main account but no.

That said, it should probably not be a common thing.With some heavy restrictions, and time limitations, i can see it happen. But would have to be cosmetic use only, and nothing that is deemed 'unique' or a trophy from the past

I'll double down: I still feel that the OP hasn't acknowledged the reasons that binding might be good for the game or why gaming studios use it as a tool in the first place.

I don't think any player enjoys the limitations of binding, so of course removing binding might be popular. The point is, however, that there are downstream benefits that binding provides and I would want to understand them better before proposing that they can be removed or bypassed.

In particular, if there's a problem, it would make more sense to adjust or remove the binding of items that are inappropriately bound, e.g. the original reasons no longer apply (charged quartz?), the binding is too severe (soul-binding of 28-slot bags, instead of account?), or was a mistake in the first place (various foods that are bound-on-acquire?).

some detailed responses to comments made by the OP>!

! > > @Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:! > > It sounds as if the OP isn't accepting the concept of account binding in the first place.! > >! >! > @"Daddicus.6128" said:! > More like I'm envisioning a middle ground.! You haven't established what it's a middle ground between. To do that, your argument would include a statement of the utility of binding for video games, such as economic aspects (increasing the scarcity and therefore value), player retention (giving people a reason to return to certain content), artificial scarcity (making certain things harder to get intrinsically), artificial variety (by making it seem as if different content offers different mechanics for obtaining items), and exclusivity (items that can only be obtained by certain things).!! Your follow-up posts ignore all of those aspects and focus just on the one thing you care about: being able to repurpose stuff that is of little value to you.!! > Currently, there is an infinite gap between account-bound and not.! The very definition of "binding" means a permanent change in the status of the item. It's not meant to be shades of gray; it's meant to be clear line. In any case, you contradict that with the following question:!! > The question is, more or less, are there any items for which the decision to make them account-bound wasn't cut-and-dried.! Which is exactly like what I said: if the decision to bind was a bad one, why not just unbind entirely? And if the decision to bind was appropriate, why should there be a way to bypass that binding?!! > First, it has to be determined if it's even a good idea.! It would be helpful if you explained why removing binding would make the overall game better, and not just better for those, such as yourself, who find no value in bound items.!! ****!! Someone posted that there's little reason to send charged quartz because you can gift the finished products that are made with c-quartz. The OP replied, "Those are REALLY expensive, whereas the crystals are nearly worthless." That implies that the OP hasn't fully accept one of the reasons for the binding (and gating) which is that it increases the market value of those finished items.! (Not necessarily the best example, because it's one of the few items that is both gated by binding and time.)

OK, so overall, this doesn't seem like a good idea. There MIGHT be some small use for it, but it wouldn't generally be good for the game, and would require too many resources to implement.

Thanks, guys!