7.3 Credit Economy Initiative: Updates and the GTN

[Ryukomaru]

It's the artificial scarcity created by removing items from the cartel market that drives a lot of the issues.  New players want a cool armor set, a lightsaber, etc.   They go to check GTN; not there.  They go the check Cartel market; not there.  So they finally ask trade chat, only to find out it costs billions of credits.   Now there is a "problem" because things are too expensive.   So why are they so expensive?  Because said cool item is no longer attainable outside of a low % drop cartel pack, or through resellers who mark up the price to absurd levels because they can.  

Real world examples would be the "hot toy" each Christmas, or maybe more recently the PS5 shortages, where resellers buy up the whole stock, and resell at steep markups.   The big difference between real world scarcity  resale, and swtor, is that the swtor scarcity is entirely created by bioware.  There is no physical parts or shortages, it is entirely manufactured.  If every item thats been released is in the cartel market or in a reasonable rotation, I am not saying it would magically save the games economy, but it would at least give a better avenue to newer players, and at least some form of competition to resellers.  Even new people to come in and undercut with fresh stock.

And to make a small point about the resellers in the game.  Some items like the Aikion for example, are so expensive they don't trade in credits for them, they are now being traded for $500 worth of hypercrates XD.  So what good is taxing credits, when they just move to that level of price hiking?

The Credit economy is bad, but only because it has been empowered to be.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Ryukomaru
Grammar

[VegaMist]

On 5/1/2023 at 8:44 AM, JoeStramaglia said:

• Secure Trade, Mail, and Collect on Deposit will now have an associated transaction fee based on the value of the transaction. The fee is aligned to the Galactic Trade Network Commission Fee at 8%.
• Some items will adjust the value of a transaction when transferred via Trade, Mail, and COD and will be subject to the same fee.

Could you please clarify how this will affect gifts? I have given both currency and items (including rare high-value ones) as gifts in the past - usually to friends, and occasionally to strangers (cough, Dantooine ransom, cough). Would I be taxed under the new rules?

[Lost-Savage-XIII]

1 hour ago, Toraak said:

I see 1 mistake that needs to be corrected. Step 2: Do not have any rare mats from rewards or from any source. If you give crafters the rare mat, your just shifting where the wealth goes. Make all mats easy to get, so everyone can easily craft Augments for themselves. 

 

Remember not every player crafts, including new players. So making all of the mats needed for augmenting easy to get, you may make more people wish to be self sufficient.

I see what you mean but I was talking about maybe it has to be an abundant mission or better to get one, and you can only get one per mission, and maybe a 25% drop rate. So if you send missions all day then you can get enough to craft. But I do agree not to rare

[LuisViana]

On 5/1/2023 at 12:44 PM, JoeStramaglia said:

Hello everyone! I’m Joe Stramaglia and I’m a Systems Designer on Star Wars: the Old Republic. Today I am bringing you some of our planned changes for the Credit Economy coming in 7.3 and giving you a hint at some of the changes in the pipeline. 

First off, I want to say thanks to everyone who provided constructive feedback to our initial changes we introduced in 7.2.1. We’re reading your feedback and looking at data for each phase of these releases as we want to be careful and considerate of each change’s effect. The changes we introduced in 7.2.1 were smaller scale than the ones we’ll be introducing in 7.3 and the upcoming patches, but no one change is looking to solve every problem. They each have a specific intention related to our goals that were shared in that previous post.

When we open up 7.3 content on the PTS, players will be able to see the following adjustments:

• We’re retiring the Tax Evasion Guild Perk, it will no longer be available in future rotations.
• Secure Trade, Mail, and Collect on Deposit will now have an associated transaction fee based on the value of the transaction. The fee is aligned to the Galactic Trade Network Commission Fee at 8%.
• Some items will adjust the value of a transaction when transferred via Trade, Mail, and COD and will be subject to the same fee.
• Many items will have adjusted Vendor sale values.

These changes are largely motivated around reducing GTN tax avoidance and adjusting credit inflow from item sales. However we’ve got a suite of changes that rely on these coming in our next phase, which I am going to reveal a little bit earlier as there will be further adjustments to these numbers as a result.

We’re actively exploring a complete overhaul of our Galactic Trade Network system! This will include a lot of things I cannot talk about yet as they will come after 7.3 but am very excited to reveal soon. Make sure you check out our livestream on May 3rd at 1pm CT / 6pm UTC and follow here on the forums for more information as we get closer.

When this overhaul happens we’re going to be converting the GTN Commission Fee to a Progressive Tax starting lower than our current fees but reaching a higher threshold than our current fees. The exact numbers will be released at a later time, but the Transaction Fees implemented in Secure Trade, Mail, and COD are a flat tax meant to mirror the highest bracket in the GTN to encourage using the network. Whenever Taxes are updated in the GTN those changes will be applied accordingly here as well.
 

We want the Galactic Trade Network to be the premier place for trade. Given we’re exploring the GTN as a place to improve the experience and make participating in our player market more enjoyable for everyone, we'd like to get your feedback on the current state of the GTN in terms of usability.

• What do you like about how the GTN currently functions?
• What do you dislike about how the GTN currently functions?
• Is there anything you wish you could do on the GTN that you cannot do currently?
• Are there any specific filters, searches, or ways of finding items you particularly like or that you wish existed?
• What kinds of information do you use to decide when to make a purchase? If you could have more information what would you want?

It’s important to note that the changes we’re currently planning are going to take place over multiple phases and releases so not all changes will come online at once. We look forward to sharing the current plans and taking your feedback into account!

May the Force be with you
 

For this to work properly you're gonna have to deal with the hypercrate Exchange.

What i'm about to say is gonna make a bunch of people mad, but the high currency trades, like PVE Sales and expensive itens, are already being trades by hipercrates or boxes. So, to fix this, you need to develop a new category of itens, the "Binds on Trade".

For example, you buy an Hyper Crate from the Cartel Market, it's alreadty bound for 36 hours, but then it's free to trade forever. Make it like this.

Player A buys Hypercrate, after 36 hours he can trade it.

Player B buys hypercrate from player A (or from the GTN) - Hypercrate becomes BOUND.
Player B opens the hypercrate, the individual boxes can be traded after 36 hours

Player C buys the boxes from player B or from the GTN - Bonex becomes BOUND
Player C opens the boxes, the individual itens can be traded after 36 hours

Player D buys the itens from player C - Itens becomes Bound

 

That's a lock on 4 trades for cartel hypercrates that would affect in nothing the players that want it for the itens but would keep people from using hypercrates as a way to skip the taxes.

[klizilii]

4 hours ago, thoughtfix said:

tl;dr: Raising the GTN cap and scaling the GTN cut for expensive items will not hurt regular players but will curb inflation when implemented with other solutions, like large credit sinks for wealthy players and moving some CC-only features to credits.

 

I'm just going to say you lack a lot of knowledge on this topic.  Many of your comments make no sense in terms of how the in game economy works and the basics of supply and demand.  Yes, there are people who manipulate parts of the market to drive up prices and make a profit... but there are also lots of other complex topics you seem to have no understanding of.

Also, I feel like it's a waste of breath to try and tell Bioware (owned by EA) to let us spend credits instead of CC on a game that relies on making money from CC purchases.  Yeah, I'd love to see ways to spend in game currency on stuff that currently requires real world money (sub time, CC, etc.) but it's not like they're gonna listen and cut into their profits.

[Cayerala]

The changes to the GTN that include implementing a tax on trades can be seen as a positive move to address the issue of people bypassing the GTN. However, there needs to be clarification on whether the 8% tax applies to one item or the full slots. This tax may also create difficulties for credit farmers, as they would need to cover the fees' costs on top of the billion credits, which is great! 

To further improve the economy, the GTN cap should be increased. However, it appears that Bioware may want to decrease the values of cartel market/high-end items, so players spend less than a billion on buying them. This strategy is not ideal, and instead, Bioware should target endgame players by increasing vendor prices and implementing changes such as amplifiers to drop values.

There are many ways to achieve this, such as increasing endgame PvE vendors' prices, such as making R-4 Purple Gear cost credits when purchased. They also need to make materials more farmable, specifically RPM-13 and OPEM-47. The recent exploit regarding infinite crafting mats is the only reason why these augments are currently at a low price.

Bioware needs to think carefully about where they want these changes to target specifically. The first changes did little to impact the economy and instead hurt new players entering the game. A GTN overhaul is not necessary, instead a crafting overhaul needs to be done or it needs to be updated. We are still using the same stims from last expansions, augments from last expansion etc. @JackieCao @JoeStramaglia

[thoughtfix]

9 minutes ago, klizilii said:

I'm just going to say you lack a lot of knowledge on this topic.  Many of your comments make no sense in terms of how the in game economy works and the basics of supply and demand.  Yes, there are people who manipulate parts of the market to drive up prices and make a profit... but there are also lots of other complex topics you seem to have no understanding of.

I'm willing to learn. Give me some specifics, preferably backed with data.

*edit* And regarding permitting some minor cartel purchases to be purchasable by credits, I think it's worth evaluating the potential for them to lose paying customers because the game has a broken economy.

Edited May 2, 2023 by thoughtfix
Added bit about cartel coins and credits

[JakRoanin]

On 5/1/2023 at 11:44 AM, JoeStramaglia said:

Hello everyone! I’m Joe Stramaglia and I’m a Systems Designer on Star Wars: the Old Republic. Today I am bringing you some of our planned changes for the Credit Economy coming in 7.3 and giving you a hint at some of the changes in the pipeline. 
 

We want the Galactic Trade Network to be the premier place for trade. Given we’re exploring the GTN as a place to improve the experience and make participating in our player market more enjoyable for everyone, we'd like to get your feedback on the current state of the GTN in terms of usability.

• What do you like about how the GTN currently functions?
• What do you dislike about how the GTN currently functions?
• Is there anything you wish you could do on the GTN that you cannot do currently?
• Are there any specific filters, searches, or ways of finding items you particularly like or that you wish existed?
• What kinds of information do you use to decide when to make a purchase? If you could have more information what would you want?

It’s important to note that the changes we’re currently planning are going to take place over multiple phases and releases so not all changes will come online at once. We look forward to sharing the current plans and taking your feedback into account!

May the Force be with you
 

How do you do, Mr. JoeStramaglia! Nice to meet you. I'm not sure any of my thoughts will matter if crafting isn't overhauled. But I don't consider myself too picky.

1. I like the click/shift function to fill the search bar. 

2. I seriously dislike the font of the numbers!  Maybe my eyes are just old, but I can't tell between 6, 8, 5, and 9.

3. Please, please, please, please, let us box crafted armor sets! I won't craft them to sell because it takes too long to post them.

4. The crafting schematics and the decorations could be better organized. For example, search for Artifice Schematics and then filter between crystals, sabers, dyes, relics, shields, and generators. With Decorations narrow down colors, locations represented, and themes.

5. I basically just check the lowest price, like most people.

[Stellarcrusade]

      A complete solution to the economy that would fix it now and forever - limit that a legacy can only transfer 10 million credits a day, and move the GTN maximum per item down from 1 billion to 10 million.  Gold sellers would be instantly out of business, gougers that want to sell things for too much will be unable.  It basically puts a ceiling on any 1 item to be 10 million.  If someone has 50 trillion credits they'd have the same buying power as someone with 100 million.

       Problem solved.  And before you panic because you realize you will only be able to sell your stuff for 10 million, keep in mind that'll be tied for the highest priced item in the game.  The ability to distinguish a super rare item and a kinda rare item is really not needed.  

[thoughtfix]

3 hours ago, klizilii said:

I'm just going to say you lack a lot of knowledge on this topic.  Many of your comments make no sense in terms of how the in game economy works and the basics of supply and demand.  Yes, there are people who manipulate parts of the market to drive up prices and make a profit... but there are also lots of other complex topics you seem to have no understanding of.

Hey I want to revisit this one and change tone a little from my last reply. Your comment above was interpreted as a condescending reply to someone who was respectfully disagreeing with you. HOWEVER, I am willing to admit that I am not steeped in SWTOR as deeply as you are. I decided to check out your YouTube channel and see how immersed you are in this. The answer is pretty damn immersed. You do a good job organizing your videos and vocally presenting your thoughts as well.  Therefore, I will also accept that you are likely a member of guilds, Discord channels, and social circles that are more involved in the discussions and economic movement of the game and have more history than I do in SWTOR.

From a returning player, it appears to me that we are suffering from high inflation because many long-term players have had time to amass a great deal of wealth over time. This devalues all credits, and makes it incredibly difficult for a new or returning player to participate in the economy. That's what I see from the outside. It may be flawed and, like you say, there may be additional forces at work. I am interested in knowing about them.

My comments (which you say make no sense in supply and demand) were based on the economic principle of contractionary monetary policy. I won't insult you by filling this text box with a full explanation, but the main goal is to reduce the amount of currency floating around in the economy. In non-game economic structures, that will reduce demand for high-priced items because people cannot afford them unless prices go down.  In SWTOR, the easiest way to reduce the amount of money in the economy is to tax all forms of trade.

There is another issue at play, though. The supply there is technically unlimited, as I am sure Bioware would gladly sell any given user 2,000 platinum color crystals or 10,000 hypercrates if the user was willing to buy them. Offline economies don't have situations where the supply for high-priced items is unlimited like that, so standard economic policies may not apply. I admit this is a complication in the proposals I have suggested. Like you said, EA would not likely allow Bioware to increase the supply (thus reduce the demand) of these items unless players pay offline cash for them.

So yes. I agree you're more immersed in SWTOR than I am and have dedicated a good deal of time and care into the game. It shows in your posts here and in your videos. I also agree that the application of economic policies that work for other models may not translate perfectly to SWTOR.  I still do not appreciate your condescending tone without examples or corrections, but I will assume you were busy and didn't have the time to write them out. As a newly returning, less-than-wealthy person who enjoys SWTOR to a more experienced, more immersed player, I hope we can find common ground and give Bioware several options on what they can attempt. In the meantime, I hope you see that my disagreements with you were from a different standpoint and not a criticism of you as a person.

Edited May 3, 2023 by thoughtfix
whoops, said "demand" when I meant "supply"

[GoblinCratos]

It seems to me that you are going the right way. If we talk about what I would like from the GTN system - a filter of items by rarity (silver, gold, platinum). I often look closely at new armor or weapons, but people can put up a bronze one at the maximum price. This is their wish, but I have to spend extra time searching among these items.

[kimiko_tomiyama]

Credit wise I think the quick travel costs are annoying, but I can live with them for now.  But for new players they can be brutal, especially in places where you HAVE to use it like Tatooine.  To be fairer to the non 80 characters Maybe set it at X value times a level calculation so a level 5 might use it free but a level 80 might pay 2400.

Also, making crafting actually worthwhile might reduce costs. Not just gear.  instead of having to get fabricators and what not make some stronghold decorations directly craft able... X banner needs some resources and maybe a few credits.

And lastly on money, Make something I want to spend them on.  That 15 million on Dantooine... it seemed too much at once.  The casino was less a money sink and more a time sink for rewards I have 12 of.  Maybe a temp vendor selling cosmetics like emotes, basic color dyes, titles, or gag gifts.  (drop a bomb and everyone turns purple.. like the glitter and snowflakes)  If nothing else how about a money tree for new players.  Characters under level 10 can go to a certain spot on the starter world and do something and get like 50,000 credits that someone donated.  I've thought about just going to Korriban or Tython and randomly trading credits to nnobies but I was afraid I'd get pegged and a gold spammer.

GTN wise It might have already been suggested but with the prices and lots of junk to wade through, I don't usually bother.  So having negative search filters would really help.  "blue -dye"  Having wildcards like the old * in windows functions would also help. "*decur" for example.  Having a widget that gives you information like Min price, Max price, Average price, and quantity for sale like I've seen for other games would make it more useful.  Having more categories to pare search results would help mitigate all of these.  I like the suggestions of reverse sales.  I post that I'm looking for X item and my offer and it either automatically completes the trade or at least has a searchable market (buy and sell tabs).  I also like the idea of being able to package armor sets so I don't have to search of every individual piece.

[Kazjan]

• What do you dislike about how the GTN currently functions?
  • You Can't relist things until it back in your mailbox. Process need to be fix. We should just be able to resell directly from the GTN instead of going to mail box and filling out inventory up to just resell.

 

• Is there anything you wish you could do on the GTN that you cannot do currently?
  • We should just be able to resell directly from the GTN instead of going to mail box and filling out inventory up to just resell.

 

 

• What kinds of information do you use to decide when to make a purchase? If you could have more information what would you want?
  • Who has the lowest price.

Okay, Let's talk about how we can fix the game.. First GTN Overhaul  (Good Idea)  It's hasn't change since early access.  However, What really ruining the game is the Cartel Market items.  There no reason to spend money in the game. Adding taxes not gonna hurt me in any way it will only punish the "LITTLE GUY" (New Player Base)

My Suggestion:

Overhaul Crafting Professions - Give us a reason to spend money on Mats or items in game that I can't buy with real money. 

• CTM Overhaul  - Give Schematic for cosmetic items instead of armor sets. Let's us craft the items and sell them. This will not only give crafters something to do but also give us a reason to spend money on Mats. 

Tax - 8% is too low need to be more between 10% -15 % per items. 

[AcharyaAlberon]

The new fees for travel are horrendous. I just returned from a long hiatus and do not have the billions of credits that other players do. I enjoy playing alt characters and now, my small nest egg is being obliterated by travel costs. I subscribed yesterday and immediately lost all will to play.

I have played this game for thousands of hours since launch. At every turn, the developers make the obviously wrong decisions to fix this game. It is has been such a shame.

[jedimasterjac]

5 minutes ago, AcharyaAlberon said:

The new fees for travel are horrendous. I just returned from a long hiatus and do not have the billions of credits that other players do. I enjoy playing alt characters and now, my small nest egg is being obliterated by travel costs. I subscribed yesterday and immediately lost all will to play.

I have played this game for thousands of hours since launch. At every turn, the developers make the obviously wrong decisions to fix this game. It is has been such a shame.

Are you on star forge? I'll send you a war chest.

[Gebrakstkasten]

On 5/1/2023 at 11:44 AM, JoeStramaglia said:

• What do you like about how the GTN currently functions?
• What do you dislike about how the GTN currently functions?
• Is there anything you wish you could do on the GTN that you cannot do currently?
• Are there any specific filters, searches, or ways of finding items you particularly like or that you wish existed?
• What kinds of information do you use to decide when to make a purchase? If you could have more information what would you want?

 

1 – Access to other players in a fair system.  I don't trust the randos selling stuff for over 1 billion.  

2 – Not intuitive at first.  Takes a while to learn.

3 – Saved custom searches or maybe a search history.  I typically look for the same stuff when Im in there.   

4 – I think some of the drop downs are old and no longer relevant and end up hindering item searches. 

5 – Price.  Price fluctuation like houses on Zillow.  An interface where I could watch the price of a particular item over time and  some type of reminder if an item went on sale at or below a particular price.

Other thoughts:  It would be nice if the GTN was more of an auction sort of like eBay where I could set a price and folks could purchase or make a lower bid.  For instance, if I asked $100k credits for an item and someone was willing to give me $75k than I would have the option to sell or try again once the 3 day timer ran out.  Most of the time I don’t really know what the items I sell should cost, but this way the market would decide the true value at the moment of sale. 

Raise the GTN limit to 10 billion. 

[black_pyros]

46 minutes ago, Gebrakstkasten said:

Raise the GTN limit to 10 billion.

That's 5 705 182 705 more than anyone can pay.

[sithBracer]

On 5/1/2023 at 11:44 AM, JoeStramaglia said:

When this overhaul happens we’re going to be converting the GTN Commission Fee to a Progressive Tax starting lower than our current fees but reaching a higher threshold than our current fees. The exact numbers will be released at a later time, but the Transaction Fees implemented in Secure Trade, Mail, and COD are a flat tax meant to mirror the highest bracket in the GTN to encourage using the network. Whenever Taxes are updated in the GTN those changes will be applied accordingly here as well.

 

If your goal is to get people to use GTN I would say don't implement the progressive tax as it will drive people to trade and pay in installments. So instead of gettin 1B credits in one trade, I would get it in 5 trades to avoid the progressive tax. I'm not a very smart person and if I can figure this out, I am sure the traders will as well.

On 5/1/2023 at 11:44 AM, JoeStramaglia said:

 

• What do you like about how the GTN currently functions?
• What do you dislike about how the GTN currently functions?
• Is there anything you wish you could do on the GTN that you cannot do currently?
• Are there any specific filters, searches, or ways of finding items you particularly like or that you wish existed?
• What kinds of information do you use to decide when to make a purchase? If you could have more information what would you want?

I like the availability and the search is pretty good too.

It is outdated. The filtering system is useless for adaptive cartel market items and doesn't even work for decorations. Can we at least filter decorations by if they are centerpiece, large, middle etc? Right now if I want an item I have to google the name and search that way.

One feature that I believe will truly help the economy is doing something about GTN sitters. These are people who sit on GTN all day buy stuff at a cheap price and then resell it for a more expensive price. If you can add a "bound from GTN" thing which stops them from selling it on GTN, or something that stops them from reselling/trading at least within the next few days/weeks it would really help get rid of them and force them to make money the correct way (which means more money for you from cartel market).

[black_pyros]

10 minutes ago, sithBracer said:

One feature that I believe will truly help the economy is doing something about GTN sitters. These are people who sit on GTN all day buy stuff at a cheap price and then resell it for a more expensive price. If you can add a "bound from GTN" thing which stops them from selling it on GTN, or something that stops them from reselling/trading at least within the next few days/weeks it would really help get rid of them and force them to make money the correct way (which means more money for you from cartel market).

This. But don't limit this to GTN only. Everything in this game should be tradable only once. After that, it should automatically become legacy bound, with the only exception of Czerka Crate-O-Matic.

[jedimasterjac]

8 minutes ago, black_pyros said:

Everything in this game should be tradable only once.

Other concerns aside, that just seems to make it exceptionally hard to give things to friends/guildies, and it essentially locks free to play players out of being able to access those valuable items in any way.

Like, what's the solution if I want to buy a friend a cool set of robes, for instance, and they're f2p?

Edited May 3, 2023 by jedimasterjac

[Char_Ell]

21 minutes ago, sithBracer said:

If your goal is to get people to use GTN I would say don't implement the progressive tax as it will drive people to trade and pay in installments. So instead of gettin 1B credits in one trade, I would get it in 5 trades to avoid the progressive tax. I'm not a very smart person and if I can figure this out, I am sure the traders will as well.

 

Which part of the this Joe Stramaglia statement you quoted "the Transaction Fees implemented in Secure Trade, Mail, and COD are a flat tax meant to mirror the highest bracket in the GTN to encourage using the network" made you think you could trade with players and get a lower tax rate?  Mr. Stramaglia specifically states Secure Trade, Mail, and COD will use the highest bracket on the GTN.  So it's not possible to get a lower tax rate than the GTN when trading between players.

[DrakoOnasi]

Sorry this is long and not positive but Bioware has a terrible track record when making these changes.

Most of this is garbage and most of these suggestions will just hurt Long time subs and players that have Grinded for years to make their money and bought items with Cartel coins or bought cartel coins to sell Items on the GTN.

This won't end well.

So when Guild members craft Items for other guild members and trade it or Mail it to them it is going to be taxed? When Someone Sends Money to a new character to help them or boost their new toon,

What about smaller Guilds that pay out rewards via mail for top 10 contest rewards? because they are trying to compete with the larger guilds?

BioWare better figure out a away so that Guild members and players  are not taxed for doing someone a favor. They better spell it out before releasing it because not everyone has time to add a second install to play on the test server.

All this is going to do is drive away the people that actually spend money on the game.  

Don't get me wrong I would love to see them fix the economy of the game but I don't see a way Bioware is not going to screw this up, sorry Bioware, but I am not sure how you run your sprints but it must be chaos. I am going by the way the last 5 updates have gone not the small let's fix a bug because we didn't test correctly stuff.

Just In 7.0 alone, You make changes to the gearing of the game specially end game, when NO ONE asked for it. It wasn't needed and your time could have been spent on what players asked for new Content. Gearing change is exactly what Players asked you not to do, all you did was make the grind longer and harder with Minimal Story impact. 

Players and the people that  pay the subscriptions asked for a few things but you couldn't even do that.  They asked for more Story Content what do they get this chapter release stuff, that that ends in a dead end and people have to wait. 

They asked for more PVP Maps they got one.

They asked for new Operations and the one you released was not possible to complete unless you grinded for the best gear in the game. 

Players have been asking for a new Class to play or Wookie since the game started, never happened.

What killed the game was the lack of limitations on FTP players, as long as they could spend money on cartel coins the change the appearance of an outfit they were happy. EA makes money cuts finding and we get crap content. 

FTP is how I got into the game I get the importance  but the lack of vision to the future and life of the game is what is killing it. 

If Bioware cared about the quality of the game there would be better content. not garbage fixes that make Subscribers leave the game and come back FTP once or twice a year to playe the new content.   

 

[black_pyros]

7 minutes ago, jedimasterjac said:

what's the solution if I want to buy a friend a cool set of robes, for instance, and they're f2p?

Buy it of CM. Then you can trade it with the f2p. I know it's not the same as buying with credits, but it's a small price to pay to combat resellers, that are of zero value to community and only parasite on economy while increasing prices of items. Plus it would boost CM sales.

[jedimasterjac]

2 minutes ago, black_pyros said:

but it's a small price to pay to combat resellers

Using actual, real life money to buy an item is not a "small price" to pay to combat people who possess a lot of fake money. It's an actual price!

Edited May 3, 2023 by jedimasterjac

[black_pyros]

1 minute ago, jedimasterjac said:

It's an actual price

It's a price that no one is forcing you to pay. You are the one that want to donate to friend, so either spend some real money or give them the aforementioned fake money they can use to buy what they want - after they subscribe, of course. The credit cap is there to promote subscription. BW runs no charity.