Why I don't care about no trading...

[DrakeWurrum]

I'm seeing so many people complain about this and I want to share my thoughts on the fact that GW2 does not have item trading like in a standard MMO, and perhaps get some discussion going.

Consider this: Do you “trade” IRL as well? What, did you give ANet a dozen apple pies when you bought GW2? :P
No? Everything you obtain or get rid of IRL is done through currency. When you want to buy a cheeseburger, you give somebody money. Money which you may have earned by working at, for example, JC Penny's selling clothes. Instead of trading clothes to somebody in return for a hot meal, you traded around currency, which is universally important to everybody.

Because of this, I hope a trade system never happens. Then gold is actually an important currency that everybody will use for everything. Even in WoW gold is slowly becoming a proper commodity, instead of people trading items - by this I mean that, more often than not, you're going to be offering gold for something you want. Have you ever heard of GDKP runs?
I very much look forward to player economy being controlled by REAL supply and demand.

Consider this scenario: You want the axe that your guildie has. You offer him gold for it, and it’s enough gold that he’s like “Sure, that sounds fair” and he CODs it to you in the mail.
Later that same night he decides he wants your Shield, and you COD it to him for a similar price. Or maybe instead of going to YOU for that Shield, he takes that gold to the marketplace. Or maybe a non-guilded buddy offers him a Shield for a lower cost than what you gave him for the axe. Or maybe in a dungeon with random people later, somebody links a kick-ass helmet that he offers gold for. Or maybe he doesn’t use that gold for gear at all, but ends up using it to buy cash shop currency from somebody else so that he can buy another character slot.

See what I’m getting it? Trading is a thing of the past. There’s a reason everybody does things for money IRL, and it's currently my hope that ANet does not implement a trading system. I honestly think they're doing this intentionally so that gold is actually used as a currency.

[d0e1ow]

Dude... you don't even know how many Pokemon cards I had to trade just for 1 Charizard back in the day.

I guess I see what you're getting it although I'm not sure I entirely agree. Trading at the very least is convenient. It's easier to just pass off something to someone really fast who is in your group via trade than it is to go through the trouble of finding a mailbox to send it to them.

[Tatsurei]

Dude... you don't even know how many Pokemon cards I had to trade just for 1 Charizard back in the day.

I guess I see what you're getting it although I'm not sure I entirely agree. Trading at the very least is convenient. It's easier to just pass off something to someone really fast who is in your group via trade than it is to go through the trouble of finding a mailbox to send it to them.

Unless it changes for launch, you don't have to "find a mailbox" you can mail an item from anywhere.

[Fencers]

Wait, how is this a problem? There is anywhere mail, trading posts and shared bank. I don't understand.

Isn't it a bigger pain in the ass to have too meet someone to trade an item?

[Minimoose]

Wait, how is this a problem? There is anywhere mail, trading posts and shared bank. I don't understand.

Isn't it a bigger pain in the ass to have too meet someone to trade an item?

This is basically how I saw it. If you want to give your questing buddy an item, poof! Mail from anywhere! Even faster and more efficient than opening a trade imo. What are the complaints about?

[Valeron]

I haven't really seen any complaints about it, at least from this weekend. Maybe I didn't search hard enough for them.

[PonyCannon]

Honestly I think it is a familiarity thing. People are used to it so they want it. Hell, I was upset about the lack of trading until I understood them mail system.

[AggroCrag32]

Unless it changes for launch, you don't have to "find a mailbox" you can mail an item from anywhere.

and that's the thing I don't know if most people know about or get. If you think about it it's essentially the same thing, the only difference would be the UI which if done well enough shouldn't matter anyway. There IS trading in the game, just not in the sense that most people think (WoW).

[jackofwind]

I will literally be standing next to my friend and instead of handing him a shiny axe I will write him a letter and attach the axe, then mail it to him 5 feet away.

It's just weird to try and build a persistent and realistic world and not have a feature where players directly give each other items.

Yes, it is fine from a gameplay perspective - you probably won't even notice a difference. But it still seems odd in terms of immersion.

[Deleted]

I really wish there was a trading thing in the game i was playing with a friend who sent me 2 lvl 10 bronze axes or something like that and they didnt arrive untill like 12 hours later or something when i had better stuff so that was kind of annoying

[Valeron]

Honestly I think it is a familiarity thing. People are used to it so they want it. Hell, I was upset about the lack of trading until I understood them mail system.

One thing that I definitely could see the game doing better is introducing all of the features available. Unless you researched it on a website you would never know about how the mailing system works except by trial and error. I imagine they have some sort of helpful tooltips but just not in the game yet.

---------- Post added 2012-05-01 at 11:01 AM ----------

I really wish there was a trading thing in the game i was playing with a friend who sent me 2 lvl 10 bronze axes or something like that and they didnt arrive untill like 12 hours later or something when i had better stuff so that was kind of annoying

mailing is instant

[Delias]

I really wish there was a trading thing in the game i was playing with a friend who sent me 2 lvl 10 bronze axes or something like that and they didnt arrive untill like 12 hours later or something when i had better stuff so that was kind of annoying

The mail is instant.
It occasionally does not tell you that you have new mail until you get more new mail, but if you had opened your mail you likely would have seen that it was there waiting for you that whole 10hours.

I was sent mail that I thought didn't appear, as there was no red '1' on my mailbox, but when I opened my mail it was sitting there.


Anyways, I agree. The mail system is fine for trading with anyone you trust, and buying from anyone you don't trust would be better done in the trading post anyways, no reason to buy from someone you don't trust with such an amazing trading post.

[Drakhar]

Yep, this isn't Diablo II, there's no need to trade when the mail system works the way it does.

My only gripe is you can't mail stuff to another character on your account... bullshit, and kinda looks like a way to encourage you to buy that bank portal item.

[DrakeWurrum]

Dude... you don't even know how many Pokemon cards I had to trade just for 1 Charizard back in the day.

I guess I see what you're getting it although I'm not sure I entirely agree. Trading at the very least is convenient. It's easier to just pass off something to someone really fast who is in your group via trade than it is to go through the trouble of finding a mailbox to send it to them.

Yeah, I see what you mean, but the stuff we're trading are very different from Pokemon cards. :P
It's also fair to note that "trading" was a common concept in Pokemon that Nintendo pushed at the players anyways.

---------- Post added 2012-05-01 at 12:59 PM ----------

Wait, how is this a problem? There is anywhere mail, trading posts and shared bank. I don't understand.

Oh, it's not a problem (and i'm pointing out why it's not a problem), and I haven't seen too many people complaining about it over here on MMOC since most people seem to be fairly level-headed, but I'm seeing a LOT of posts complaining about this over on the official GW2 forums, so I wanted to bring this up before the infection could spread.

[Delias]

Yep, this isn't Diablo II, there's no need to trade when the mail system works the way it does.

My only gripe is you can't mail stuff to another character on your account... bullshit, and kinda looks like a way to encourage you to buy that bank portal item.

I know right? You have to walk ALL THE WAY to town to.. oh right, waypoints. :P
If you're logging over to another character anyways.. why are you unwilling to go to town(which takes 2 seconds)?
It's a way to encourage you to have SOME REASON to go to town.
You can already enter items into the trading post from outside of town, and send crafting mats to your bank.. do you really need to be able to mail yourself to?

[Zeek Daniels]

Yep, this isn't Diablo II, there's no need to trade when the mail system works the way it does.

My only gripe is you can't mail stuff to another character on your account... bullshit, and kinda looks like a way to encourage you to buy that bank portal item.

dont need the bank portal item when you can just open your map pan over to Divinitys reach and theirs a waypoint their that is right next to a bank vendor.

[Herecius]

With mail accessible from anywhere, trading is a pretty big non-issue. I sent a silver to somebody so they could have enough gold for teleports when they asked, and it was instant. A friend sent me a rifle he'd found that was pretty good, and that was instant, even though he was a world away. Non-issue!

[DrakeWurrum]

With mail accessible from anywhere, trading is a pretty big non-issue. I sent a silver to somebody so they could have enough gold for teleports when they asked, and it was instant. A friend sent me a rifle he'd found that was pretty good, and that was instant, even though he was a world away. Non-issue!

Indeed! If people want to trade goods directly, that's what the marketplace trading post thing is for, amirite?
You give gold to get what you want, and take gold to give others what they want.

[Drakhar]

I know right? You have to walk ALL THE WAY to town to.. oh right, waypoints. :P
If you're logging over to another character anyways.. why are you unwilling to go to town(which takes 2 seconds)?
It's a way to encourage you to have SOME REASON to go to town.
You can already enter items into the trading post from outside of town, and send crafting mats to your bank.. do you really need to be able to mail yourself to?

Sshhh, im trying to exploit limited inventory space.

Plus that costs me a whole 20 copper.

I'm OCD about certain things, I like having a lot of free inventory space. I'm out doing DEs and I pick up light armor I can't wear, I'd like to be able to send it to my alt. Sure it won't be an issue later when I have more than 30 bag slots, but it's a pain when my inventory is constantly full. Dunno bout you, but my inventory was full of a LOT of crap that looked like "I can't use this, but it's probably useful... I'll hold on to it." Not talking about grey items obviously. I want to mail it precisely because I'm not logging on another alt - I'm too busy being the hero of the Norn to head back to town.

[Herecius]

Sshhh, im trying to exploit limited inventory space.

Plus that costs me a whole 20 copper.

I'm OCD about certain things, I like having a lot of free inventory space. I'm out doing DEs and I pick up light armor I can't wear, I'd like to be able to send it to my alt. Sure it won't be an issue later when I have more than 30 bag slots, but it's a pain when my inventory is constantly full. Dunno bout you, but my inventory was full of a LOT of crap that looked like "I can't use this, but it's probably useful... I'll hold on to it." Not talking about grey items obviously. I want to mail it precisely because I'm not logging on another alt - I'm too busy being the hero of the Norn to head back to town.

Hmmmm, full inventory, you sure about that? Did it happen to be full of crafting items? Did you know you can right click on any crafting item, and it will be sent straight to your bank's special super-organized crafting item tab, which has a spot for every crafting item in the game?

A bank that, at least for the Charr's Black Citadel, is rrrrrrrrright next to all of the crafting stations?