drifting marlin
This is in regards to the recent blogpost on free-market trading. You say that your strategy is to keep prices low enough that players don't feel the need to bother selling their items for real money. But then, if prices are so low, what's incentivizing users to work to try and get that item anyway?
Just as important as the free trade pillar of the game, is skill specialization. The fact one person needs to put work into building their skill, so they can craft or acquire more exclusive goods to trade with other players.
You want to keep prices down so real-money trading isn't as big a deal. To keep prices down, as a developer, you open up a shop with low prices. Now here's what I'm worried about.
As an example, let's say I'm a builder for hire and I need 100 cut stone to do my job. I have two options. I could travel to the nearest player market and find a stonecutter selling their work, or I could open up the developer market and pay $0.99 for my stone. There's no guarantee a stonecutter will be there at all, as people have real jobs and other things to do. There's also no guarantee their prices (in-game currency or otherwise) will be to my liking. However, the one-click $0.99 purchase of 100 stone is always there.
The more people that decide to opt for the developer market, the less active and vibrant the player economy will be. And players who specialize in crafting a certain item won't feel motivated to pursue it if players can just buy the items they craft from the developer.
I don't like presenting problems without solutions, but it's a really difficult problem and I'm instead hoping to hear what you think, because I get the impression this is something you've at least considered. Will this side of the balance be talked about in the next blogpost?