Originally Posted by Theolaerynn
I really don't get what all this is about item decay and plot taxes and the like. I mean, I know that majority of the few people left in Horizons are crafters, but not everyone is. The kinds of things being discussed here are nothing more than a huge pain in the ****** for folks that don't like to craft, and only detract from the game.
If you want to craft, by all means, craft. But it should not be a requirement of the game, nor should non-crafters be at the mercy of crafters in the name of some misguided attempt at making an illusionary economy.
On top of not having nearly enough players to produce an economy, the folks that craft tend to master all the schools that they need, and thus become self-sufficient. This means the only practical source of an economy are those that have not mastered whatever craft that you wish to exploit. There will always be some minimal amount of folks that don't mind being exploited in this manner, but I know quite a few who do.
If you want Horizons to be succesful you will have to have more subscribers than the currently tiny amount. The problem is, there is a tiny subscription because folks and devs keep implementing poorly thought out ideas like this that only appeal to a small niche of people. I know that is why I and almost all of the people I know have left.
Let me illustrate with two examples:
EQ2 uses a decay system where every death harms your stuff. You head to the NPC blacksmith and spend X money to restore it. Ok, fine, whatever. Big PITA and provides zero enjoyment. It is just a money drain, there is no fun factor to it. On the other hand, at least they don't even try to pretend it is an economy boosting idea since no player crafters can repair items (although players can produce repair kits).
My second example is exactly what will happen in Horizons: Some small percentage of folks will pay to have items repaired, but the majority will either take the craft that will enable them to repair, or will ask a guildie to do it. No economy stimulation, no fun factor for anyone but a very small niche of players, and just a huge PITA for everyone else.
How is this a positive change? I mean, sure, fuel providers think it is a great idea to hike gas prices, but who else does?