I have an idea I would like to share, I doubt anybody so far has had an idea like this.

From my standpoint, I hate cash stores, they end up costing too much money. And I like subscription games because they are affordable considering how many hours we play each

month... you will never hear me complain about subscriptions.

I really didn't think freeplay is working well. I've seen quite a few of them purchase the game after trying it for a but.

But, I hear others complain about the subscription all the time. And then I remembered a system that was widely used in Diablo 2.

In Diablo 2, if you wanted to trade with someone.. you had to go find them and do it face to face, just like in Xsyon. Trading in Diablo 2 was arguable very bad. A website

emerged specifically to deal with Diablo 2 trading called D2JSP. For most people this website was the answer to Diablo 2 trading problems, because we all loved the game but

arranging a trade was difficult until this.

So I will describe some of the features the website used to make it popular and practical.

The forum had it's own currency that they made up called Forum Gold or FG for short. Players would post their trades on the forum and other players would respond. Once a deal

was met they could meet in the game to perform the trade and if any player cheats the other they were dealt with by the moderators.

The forum was the hub of trading. Players can easily outline exactly what they want, huge lists of items with detailed information about everything with prices and also

easily edited. If you wanted your topic to be bold or Red color to stand out from the rest you could pay money (or maybe the coins) to make your important post stand out!

You could also pimp graphics inside your post with some enlarged text or colors for a small amount, Very Fancy for a small price!

Most people made simple posts like for example: topic: WTB Master Pioneer Cart FT 200 fg description: Look at the topic.
Honestly this was the most common type of post it was simple, straight to the point and people would jump all over it trying to earn some FG for future trades. It says

"Topic: Want to buy Master Pioneer Cart, For trade I offer 200 forum gold"
Or another example topic: WTS Forager cart ISO fg. description: make offers. In this example the person is saying Want to sell Forager Handcart, I'm in search of fg.

I do not have experience in how this whole system 'STARTS' as in the introduction to these coins, perhaps a generous amount is given if player holds a membership. But I do

have a lot of experience as a user of a system like this. It worked very well and 99% of trades were honest and moderated themselves. Players got used to making screenshots

during the trades with time-stamps to prove any wrongdoing and submitted those things to the moderators who acted on those complaints. Or even easier using video screen

capure.

Xsyon already has almost everything you need and arguably a perfect environment for this system and please check out what I'm talking about because if done right it can be

fair, beneficial to all, create a solid competitive economy, etc. The only thing I can think to help improve Xsyon for this system of trading would be to implement items

dropping on to the ground similar to diablo for at least 10 minutes before they disappear to stop people instantly deststroying items and claiming they never got it for

example, but other then that I think it will work in Xsyon, we even have a good base of moderators in the game that could deal with when player specifically requests moderated

trade for big trades.

So let me talk a bit about different features the trade forum offered.

There was options to buy coins directly from the forum which then you could use to trade with.

Let's say you want to show your commitment to the game by having a donor star. You can do this, donate a certain amount of money to receive corresponding graphics to your

forum name. Fancy!

Let's say you have sold epic amounts of loot and are rich in forum gold without ever spending a nickle! Ok, let's say you also want to get a donor star without spending a

nickle. You can do this too! You offer your forum gold for a donation by another player. Another player accepts, getting obviously a better deal from the veteran trader on

forum gold then the website can offer otherwise player B buys directly from website. In the end player B has got more band for his buck to buy coins, which he gets from

player A, and player A receives the fancy graphic to his name without spending a dime! Very cool.

The point is that players can very easily jump into this, trade away all the stuff they don't need quickly and use their cumulative wealth in coins to buy something they need

without ever spending any real money. But also the people that want to pay to win can buy all the coins their hearts desire and then offer them to me for stuff cuz I would

gladly take them.

There is actually a lot of potential in this system for the players that never pay anything because they constantly trading little things they dont want to players that do and

eventually buy nice things.

My idea would change the way we think about trading, and the way we think about the forum, and it is essentially a new model for XSyon to make money. I hope I have explained

it well enough, I will edit if necessary later when I have more time. And I'm truely sorry if this comes too little, too late.

An different example of a game that is using a system slightly similar to this might be path of exile. Tho they do not let you buy with real money they do use forum to set up

trades. Path of Exile makes their money on exclusive graphics for ingame that you can buy from my understanding but they did take the guts of the forum trade model and even

set it up so you can access it ingame I think?.. from what they talked about a long time ago anyway...

And I would also mention that the system I am talking about was probably also the biggest influence of the Diablo 3 Real Money Auction House. I am paraphrasing but I remember

blizzard saying that people would no doubt use real money to buy items no matter what, so they wanted to be in control of it.

It's different and I will never complain about subbing games, but I had a lot of fun with this system too and I think if it generated enough cash for xsyon, who knows what

could happen ^ ^. Cheers!