To be clear, this is to me as valid as being stuck in a wall. It is a broken concept leading to consistent discomfort while playing the game. It may be the case some items are heritage, but i just cannot see up front so year after year i talk myself out of getting the expansions. Granting greater, if not proper, freedom between my accounts is simple, and really can not be exploited or unfair given im talking entirely about claimed purchased items. Items in the collectors edition expansion versions really abandon a part of the term "collector", because they can never be traded. I understand 'no trade' from a role play perspective, having 1 character get 1 item that is more or less bound to their experiences. However in purchased items, really what is.. and I am asking for support here in really thinking and taking action about it; what is the harm in having items given 1 per account completely open to be traded? If someone says the reason is they do not want it being sold... a purchased item.. being sold... then they should have a trusted friend slap them a few times. Knowing I could give something to a friend later on really helps convince me it is worth buying. Knowing I am getting something that is restrictive and makes me feel like a sucker in a marketing scheme, does not convince me it is worth buying. The fact I cannot trade the items between my accounts or characters results in a lost sale to a customer who has 3 life time accounts and a 4th i just do a year on for fun. Where you could get me to buy 1 of the highest expansion level and 2 of the lesser.. I been only buying 1 expansion each year alternating between the accounts or not buying the expansion at all. It may sound silly, but it feels insulting to have no trade attached to items i have bought. Please fix this.
The collectors/premium items aren't transferable like most other Marketplace items, and I think that's consistent with just about every game I've seen with micro transactions or purchased content. I don't see the issue, especially in a microtransaction game. If people could trade items between accounts then DBG would likely lose money because people would give away mounts after their stat bonuses became obsolete, meaning fewer market place or expansion sales. Similarly, people leaving the game might give away illusions/familiars they bought meaning more lost sales. Worst, there's the whole "chargeback" scam sometimes seen w/ Krono where someone buys Kronos bulk, sells them for real cash less than DBG would, and then quickly contests the DBG credit card charge which gets them and everyone that bought the Kronos banned. It wouldn't be hard for someone to do the same with Marketplace/expansion items. In brief, DBG is following standard industry practice because developers in general wouldn't make money if micro transaction or content purchases were transferable.
Case and point for my first response post. If you lend purchases to friends, then each player account you lend that purchased item to someone is a lost sale. Developers would need to heavily increase prices to account for that to the point most people wouldn't bother (imagine the premium/collectors editions costing even more, or a $5 Marketplace purchase instead being $25...) Similarly, they would have to deal with tons of tickets from people who's items were stolen (i.e. borrowed & not returned) & tracking who originally bought/owned something wouldn't be feasible if people were trading the items in game. What your proposing would be cool, it's just a bad idea from a business perspective.
