Guild Wars 2

Is there any real purpose to soul binding armor and weapons to one specific character? I can see some items like Legendary and Ascended gear, but besides that it all seems to be abit of a waste to me.

To sink items. If stuff didn’t bing, items would become worthless fast.

The alternative is the diablo2 system where items have random stats, leading to even more RNG outcries (although I liked the d2 system better)

Its a gold sink to prevent inflation and total collapse of economy.

http://shoryuken.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/gems1.jpg

Paul.4081:

http://shoryuken.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/gems1.jpg

Off-topic much?

marnick.4305:

Paul.4081:

http://shoryuken.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/gems1.jpg

Off-topic much?

Actually he’s spot on.

marnick.4305:

Paul.4081:

http://shoryuken.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/gems1.jpg

Off-topic much?

Not really.

Items like the motlen pick-axe (etc.) are soulbound so if you want to used them on another character, you have to buy another. Makes sense, somehow.

It does irk me that some of the soulbound items are unique (as in you can’t buy another because they were special event rewards) and some are limited time only (as in, you couldn’t buy the molten pickaxe for your brand-new lava-loving character even if you tried).

Pretty much to bolster the economy. If you had 3 light armored toons for example, you could buy one set of armor and one set of weapons for all three to share instead of buying a set for each. Since quite a number of people have alts (I have 8 level 80s for example) this would really affect the economy.

Astral Projections.7320:

Pretty much to bolster the economy. If you had 3 light armored toons for example, you could buy one set of armor and one set of weapons for all three to share instead of buying a set for each. Since quite a number of people have alts (I have 8 level 80s for example) this would really affect the economy.

Yes, but then I think that items that can’t be bought (i.e. event rewards) should forever remain account bound. There is no money to sink, it’s strictly one per player.

BuD.7851:

marnick.4305:

Paul.4081:

http://shoryuken.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/gems1.jpg

Off-topic much?

Actually he’s spot on.

It’s a picture that has nothing to do with the thread on a website that has nothing to do with Guild Wars. If it’s even tangentially related, feel free to elaborate.

@marnick

We’ll walk you through it slow, shall we?

Its a picture of gems.
GW2 has a gem store.
The continued existence of GW2 is dependent solely on gem sales.
The primary reason for making some items soulbound is to force players into buying more than one, thereby increasing Anet’s profit.

That wasn’t so hard was it?

Naginto.4597:

@marnick

We’ll walk you through it slow, shall we?

Its a picture of gems.
GW2 has a gem store.
The continued existence of GW2 is dependent solely on gem sales.
The primary reason for making some items soulbound is to force players into buying more than one, thereby increasing Anet’s profit.

That wasn’t so hard was it?

What do gems have to do with soulbound items in general? Some, like the pickaxe, yes but armor/weapons certainly no. Nobody is “forced” to use the gem store to buy essential items, like armor and weapons. The reason gear is soulbound is not to make them worthless, they are already cheap, if they weren’t bound all items would cost next to nothing – not good.

Naginto.4597:

@marnick

We’ll walk you through it slow, shall we?

Its a picture of gems.
GW2 has a gem store.
The continued existence of GW2 is dependent solely on gem sales.
The primary reason for making some items soulbound is to force players into buying more than one, thereby increasing Anet’s profit.

That wasn’t so hard was it?

Except it has nothing to do with gems. Soulbound items stabilize the economy which is required in any MMO, regardless of whether that game has a gem store, sub fee, pay2win or entirely free open source.

But you’re right, not having soulbound items would crash the entire economy including gold, legendaries, crafting materials and, of course, gems as collateral damage. Still doesn’t make gems part of the discussion.

Is that too hard for you or would a sub fee change your mind? I knew what he was going for, but since it has no relevance, that’s what I said. The picture was off-topic.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Astral Projections.7320:

Pretty much to bolster the economy. If you had 3 light armored toons for example, you could buy one set of armor and one set of weapons for all three to share instead of buying a set for each. Since quite a number of people have alts (I have 8 level 80s for example) this would really affect the economy.

Yes, but then I think that items that can’t be bought (i.e. event rewards) should forever remain account bound. There is no money to sink, it’s strictly one per player.

Yeah I won’t argue with that. I don’t like that those tyes of items are soul bound. The only reasons I can think of soulbinding event rewards are to increase their exclusitivity. And because they want some items to be soulbound because it reflects what that particular toon did. The same reason that karma earned by a toon is for that toon only and is not pooled like gold is.

Naginto.4597:

@marnick

We’ll walk you through it slow, shall we?

Its a picture of gems.
GW2 has a gem store.
The continued existence of GW2 is dependent solely on gem sales.
The primary reason for making some items soulbound is to force players into buying more than one, thereby increasing Anet’s profit.

That wasn’t so hard was it?

Yes, we need gems to get more of those dungeon tokens that my char used to wear because I want to give that armor to another char of mine.

Astral Projections.7320:

And because they want some items to be soulbound because it reflects what that particular toon did. The same reason that karma earned by a toon is for that toon only and is not pooled like gold is.

But that’s onl partly true; sure, when I do an event, then the karma goes to the character I did it on – but karma rewards for dailies, monthlies, map completion, and story completion (including personal (!) story iirc) are account bound. It is common practice to do the activities on the character you’re leveling and down the jugs of karma (under the influence of bonus banners) on the character that you want the legendary for or buy Orrian jewellery boxes with (or whatever).

Equally, you can do 99.9% of the dailies on one character and then do the last revive on a low level character and gt the daily/monthly reward.

And the same for the living story events – the character who gets the reward item is not the one who did all the activities, only the one who did the last activity.

So I sincerely doubt that that is the reason for anything…

I see what the OP is saying actually. We need a BoA system.

See here’s the problem, a BtC system is a very old system that prevents the use of items between alts and it was put in place to prevent economies from colapsing and to inflate the amount of time it took on subscription model games to keep players subscribed per toon.

It’s no longer needed.

They could still protect the economy by making everything BoA so that if a player had already bought karma gear for healing for example and wanted to use that gear on an alt, they’d still have to work to level their alt however they could just use that karma gear they already had on that alt and the economy would be fine because it’s karma gear. See what I mean?

Karma and Laurel gear don’t directly affect the economy of the game and the daily already limits the laurel system so why not make all karma/laurel gear in the game automatically BoA?

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Astral Projections.7320:

And because they want some items to be soulbound because it reflects what that particular toon did. The same reason that karma earned by a toon is for that toon only and is not pooled like gold is.

But that’s onl partly true; sure, when I do an event, then the karma goes to the character I did it on – but karma rewards for dailies, monthlies, map completion, and story completion (including personal (!) story iirc) are account bound. It is common practice to do the activities on the character you’re leveling and down the jugs of karma (under the influence of bonus banners) on the character that you want the legendary for or buy Orrian jewellery boxes with (or whatever).

Equally, you can do 99.9% of the dailies on one character and then do the last revive on a low level character and gt the daily/monthly reward.

And the same for the living story events – the character who gets the reward item is not the one who did all the activities, only the one who did the last activity.

So I sincerely doubt that that is the reason for anything…

You have to remember that what is true now was not true when the game started. That the game is in a process of change and part of it may be from strict soul bound items to less strict account bound items. When the game started there was only karma that your toon earned by doing events. That karma was not shared across any other alts. The reason why it was your toons reputation. The karma jugs came along later, after the dailies and then monthly were brought in. Them being account bound is a loosening of the stricker soulbound karma rule. As for the event rewards being account bound, again there were no event rewards of that type when the game started. When the first one came, it fell under the more relaxed account bound rule. Since the game seems to be in a process of change, it makes the rules for binding a bit schizophrenic as sometimes one set of rules are applied and sometimes another.

That’s my take on it.

As to account bound karma being rewarded for map completion or story completion, I don’t recall getting this. If it does, the question is, did they do this from the beginning or after they relaxed the rules some?

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Astral Projections.7320:

Pretty much to bolster the economy. If you had 3 light armored toons for example, you could buy one set of armor and one set of weapons for all three to share instead of buying a set for each. Since quite a number of people have alts (I have 8 level 80s for example) this would really affect the economy.

Yes, but then I think that items that can’t be bought (i.e. event rewards) should forever remain account bound. There is no money to sink, it’s strictly one per player.

they solved this problem in GW1 with the festival hat/costume maker. You go to them and buy one of the special event only items for any of your new characters. I could see it working for things like event only cosmetic items but anything that enhances play (like the ancient karka shell box, or the molten pick) would be impossible. I’m holding out hope for a mechanic similar to the festival hat maker but I’m not going to plan on it.