Can we just remove shards from the game?

[NintenPyjak64]

Would be nice reintroducing the recipes for crystals shards and clusters for ALC. Even fish to shards would be nice to have back

[gornotck]

Sadly, very little will be done about that, either. I think I recall seeing that very idea flat out denied, but I do recall seeing a few things that show that there is a massive antipathy toward items and crafter/gatherers in general by certain parts of the development team.

I think they said that they wouldn't make it easier to get shards because... then RMT would sell more shards, or go after some other 'big ticket' item? More or less also why they don't let crafters make equipment equal to the highest item level available.

[seorin]

RMT would move to a different item if shards were removed, but nothing else will ever be as effective for them. A level 50 crafter does not suddenly use more iron than a level 30 crafter, however they do use significantly more shards.

Mathematically, shard demand is a function of a static gathering rate with an increasing consumption rate. Shard gathering increases by about 20% with level (from elemental abilities), but shard consumption increases by over 500% - a bronze haubergeon takes 11 shards to make from scratch, but a cobalt haubergeon takes 65 (!). No other item increases in consumption so drastically.

The battle against RMT is one of making their business more costly to operate and less profitable. Shards are an easy target for them to exploit. If removed, the cost of their business would increase significantly, reducing the number of RMT that can continue to compete.