I work on an AAA game that has a player trading and currency system, and deals with this kind of problem. They showed us some numbers in a team-meeting the other week for what amount of in-game currency was earned legitimately vs. what was farmed and sold through third-parties. It wasn't pretty, and there's no easy solution available that doesn't impact legitimate players.

Oh I totally understand that (gold farming being a high paying job in WoW for example), but this isn't equivalent in a major way: in-game currency being purchased is guaranteed. Paying a CHANCE at a good weapon though, I just don't see it. Especially because there is so little guarantee that you'll get ANYTHING of value.

I work on an AAA game that has a player trading and currency system, and deals with this kind of problem. They showed us some numbers in a team-meeting the other week for what amount of in-game currency was earned legitimately vs. what was farmed and sold through third-parties. It wasn't pretty, and there's no easy solution available that doesn't impact legitimate players.

Your game sucks if people would rather pay to get something they could otherwise get by playing. Make a better game. Simple as that. Problem solved. :-D

Extorting money out of people is easier than you think.

I've been paid to help people get things that they want in games (all within the ToS, of course), and I've seen people offer money and codes in exchange for help. It would be ridiculously easy to take advantage of at least a few of the countless kids on XBL by asking for their login info, codes, or CC#s, and exploiting them.

Heck, go to the LFG sites, and you'll see people offering "pro" services in exchange for money.

If you fish in a lake with hundreds of thousands of hungry fish, you're bound to get a few bites.

Everyone is misinterpreting what I'm saying. I'm FULLY aware of people extorting people online. But the guarantees are always too good to be true kind of offers. "Guaranteed Gjallahorn! $30!" (obviously an exaggerated example) might cause people to thrown down money because they are desperate (and don't understand how impossible that is). But the specific example of "Your choice of 3 nightfall drops $5." I just don't see drawing people's attention. It's not a guarantee of anything, and even if you don't think they are trying to scam you, you still would 99% of the time come out with something you didn't want. I KNOW some people would pay for it, but not even close to the degree of the examples everyone on here is throwing around (especially buying gold in WoW, that's almost 100% guaranteed).

"I'll pay you $20 if you carry me through Trials"

First off, I can barely carry myself. Second, what am I going to do with your useless american money? $20 is worth like a pint and a packet of crisps.

But more importantly - I'm not even particularly good and people are asking ME (not the other way around) to get them game items for money. If you add in trading, it's gonna get much worse.

We're in the age of Microtransactions, where people pay $1 for three extra hearts in a puzzle game. $5 for a decent chance at an exotic in Destiny is an appealing prospect to many people.

You know what's even MORE appealing to those people? Not having to pay at all and just being able to trade for it with your fireteam!

What a wonderful world! Susnshine! Rainbows! No bad people on the internet! The end of taxes! Pokémon for all!

That actually is the scenario we're discussing - the theoretical trading here would be free, as far as the player-Bungie relationship goes. The discussion is about the players themselves charging other players to ride along on high-level activity for an extra chance at drops.

What I am questioning is why those players would choose to do that rather than ride along with a group that isn't charging. Some idiot somewhere would, but I have a hard time believing it would be more than a very tiny percentage of the population. Someone who can run into such an offer accidentally could just as easily run into groups who aren't charging.

There was a group that would shepherd you through levels - any levels - of Halo 3... for a price. I guess that's a 'guaranteed' result... but I'd imagine that anyone willing to pay for that service would be willing to gamble that 3 nightfall drops would give them better odds on something good than one.

::shrug:: Maybe I'm wrong.

Well, and that's something I've admitted, that it WOULD happen, but the implication people are implying is that it would be a reason to NOT introduce end of round trading because it would cause an issue. I personally think the amount of people that would be willing to pay for it (especially when you can probably find people that would be willing to trade at the end of rounds on LFG sites for free) would be very, very small.