Thread: 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.

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.

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

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.

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!