>>529342592
there has definitely been more than once where I found items fairly out of date in some scalper's shop at prices I could actually accept as not insane so I agree they keep supply for some items afloat. anecdotal as well but I knew a handful of scalpers in base game that were fairly generous with prices to friends or just handing stuff out in gift boxes too so I don't think they're all bad in that regard either. I have contempt for people who hoard and keep stationary high prices but that's a skill issue on my part for not being able to afford when clearly others can.
binding items was about stopping scalping and I agree it will discourage people from whaling/lower the perceived value of items across the board because of their ready supply but at the same time I can play another side and say in a world where the game had more players in the first place then the demand might be met for more items. or maybe it would be like jp economy if we had a similar amount of players and the problem wouldn't even need to be addressed?
it is a lot of what ifs and it goes down a different topic entirely about what even caused people to stop playing/how to retain players/how to create new players coming to the game. does the current economy turn people away from the game? find a way to make people engage in it. is it the aesthetics? refine them and create an identity for the franchise. the gameplay? (bring back successors fags). the issues ngs had on launch or word of mouth due to those issues among others? the lack of aim for what sega wants the game to be is lackluster and the playerbases reflect that (global issue). there is more than one solution here for the initial problem and the fact we're ignoring sega's lack of insight into what makes this a phantasy star online game is distressing to me at least. we have, together, put far more thought into this already than sega has or ever will. it is a lot of crying I'm producing here though so that's what I'll end on