Item Binding feels wrong..

Sorry to distract everyone from the ongoing battle between White knights and the world, but can someone explain the pros of item binding to me? I realize it's in other mmos, but it removes reselling gear from the game.

So for anyone who doesn't know when you equip a piece of gear and then go and use it, it "binds" to you and makes it unsellable.

From there your options of what to do with the gear once you've outgrown it are:

Sell to npc for low gil
Drop it
Store it
Convert to Materia

I know they want us to be making lots of materia or whatever, but not being able to re sell gear is gonna mean a lot of money wasted while leveling.

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Originally Posted by Sephrick

It's to help the economy.

Essentially every item becomes a consumable product.

In games where items are sellable after being worn, the profit potential for that item diminishes severely as used versions are relisted and the potential buyer base lessens due to people either out-leveling the item or already having one.

In the materia system, players are encouraged to acquire new versions of the same item, and since used versions can't be resold, only crafters can supply to meet the demand.

A good example is XI.

The economy in that game grew stagnant after a while. The only profitable gear was high-end HQ and exorbitantly so. This created a barrier to entry for crafting.

Much of the economy hinged on ninjutsu tools, ammunition, food and sneak oils and invisibility powders.

XIV's system allows for a wider array of potentially profitable items.

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So far this is the best logic, although I'm still skeptical if it'll work our as intended.

Another good point since they removed ammo from the game, but there still is food

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Originally Posted by Bondy

Probably to help circulate gear that crafters have made, into the market place. Rather than have all the gear from quests circulating in the market place, making crafting gear for gil, kinda obsolete.

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Quested gear would mess up the AH a lot, but you can still sell the gear if you never put it on.

Lotta good explanations thanks guys!

That's the point, it prevents a quick build up of gil from reselling the gear. Too much gil in the economy is bad.

I haven't spent a gil on gear for any of the jobs I've worked on currently. Get retainers and store your gear rather than throwing it away, at least if you plan on using it for other classes. It will save you money in the long run. I've got a huge stockpile of excess gear, but there's no reason to sell it at the moment so long as space isn't an issue. With the Armory chest and 2 retainers, you really shouldn't have space issues until very late in the game.

You wouldn't get much for your gear on the AH anyways. It's free to everyone through quests, and with the amount of players grinding quests right now, the AH would be flooded and prices would be low.

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Originally Posted by JerryBoyle

That's the point, it prevents a quick build up of gil from reselling the gear. Too much gil in the economy is bad.

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Actually, reselling gear to other players just moves the gil around already in circulation and actually removes gil if there are taxes.

IIRC there is binding on things to help crafters out since everyone can get gear from quests they can use which increases supply and lowers demand. Other than that, not sure.

It's to help the economy.

Essentially every item becomes a consumable product.

In games where items are sellable after being worn, the profit potential for that item diminishes severely as used versions are relisted and the potential buyer base lessens due to people either out-leveling the item or already having one.

In the materia system, players are encouraged to acquire new versions of the same item, and since used versions can't be resold, only crafters can supply to meet the demand.

A good example is XI.

The economy in that game grew stagnant after a while. The only profitable gear was high-end HQ and exorbitantly so. This created a barrier to entry for crafting.

Much of the economy hinged on ninjutsu tools, ammunition, food and sneak oils and invisibility powders.

XIV's system allows for a wider array of potentially profitable items.

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Originally Posted by JerryBoyle

That's the point, it prevents a quick build up of gil from reselling the gear. Too much gil in the economy is bad.

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However making almost no gil or even being able to pass off gear to a friend/family to help them out after you're done with it is bad. On some servers people thrive on undercutting and killing the market on items just because they're idiots lol.

Gil that goes from player > player doesn't increase the gil, gil fountains do - for example making a body piece that sells for 20k to NPC but takes only 200 gil to make = gil fountain. Player A selling Body piece to Player B only moves the gil from their hand to yours, it's the same gil in circulation.

Probably to help circulate gear that crafters have made, into the market place. Rather than have all the gear from quests circulating in the market place, making crafting gear for gil, kinda obsolete.

I haven't tried yet, but:

In 1.0, selling / trading a spiritbonded item would merely remove the spirit bond between you and the item. The only thing that would prevent you from selling / trading an item was it's condition. If it wasn't 100%, you couldn't get rid of it until you repaired it.

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Originally Posted by Rex

I haven't tried yet, but:

In 1.0, selling / trading a spiritbonded item would merely remove the spirit bond between you and the item. The only thing that would prevent you from selling / trading an item was it's condition. If it wasn't 100%, you couldn't get rid of it until you repaired it.

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I repaired the gear and it said specifically that i was because it was bound to me

I have to add something in here from a long time FFXI and other MMO player as well. When everything is resellable you not only have a barrier to new crafters but also new players. In a game where +1 to a stat meant a world of damage sometimes and really marked whether or not you were a competent player the demand was always very high for items. Because of this MANY people turned to RMT to keep up which further flooded the economy with money making inflation 10x worse. You received minimal gold from leveling in FFXI, it all came from grueling farming or simply playing the market so the whole system was a nightmare. Now we come to FFXIV where you actually receive decent gold from leveling. That would make the available monies that much higher (although it might deter RMT a bit).

If items could be resold they'd become worthless in time as more and more of the items were being created into the world, but never destroyed.

I think the real question isn't about binding, its why do i have to keep every piece of dungeon gear I ever get? It can be spiritbonded, but not converted to materia, or sold to an NPC. Its a permanent inventory slot taker upper lol. This makes no sense. The green dungeon gear that is.

Edit:

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Originally Posted by Keres

Pink and green (and blue) dungeon gear can be turned in for Grand Company seals.

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Thats awesome. Thanks for the info. How do you turn them in? I have a stash

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Originally Posted by JustinLovesIzzy

I think the real question isn't about binding, its why do i have to keep every piece of dungeon gear I ever get? It can be spiritbonded, but not converted to materia, or sold to an NPC. Its a permanent inventory slot taker upper lol. This makes no sense. The green dungeon gear that is.

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Pink and green (and blue) dungeon gear can be turned in for Grand Company seals.

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Originally Posted by Keres

Pink and green (and blue) dungeon gear can be turned in for Grand Company seals.

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Wow I forgot about this. Greed button spam it is.

I don't have a problem with gear bonding very quickly - as a crafter I make tons of stuff I'll never use, anyway - but this should be balanced out by SE stopping the practice of quests giving out armor and weapons constantly! Life would be a LOT better for us crafters if other players weren't spoon-fed gear throughout the entire first 25 levels of their job.

Guess it'll mostly come in handy for people leveling their third and fourth jobs... but even then, they get plenty of gear from the class quests.