Post: #30

Not to go too OT but my personal thoughts are as follows. The point of the game is to be a fun and balanced simulation. Whether or not you allow donation items, any successful shard will have gold farmers. Therefore whether you like it or not, money == game power. This really isn't so bad since time == money, players with more time can grind and players with more money can buy.

So to my mind donation items are just a way for a server to ensure it's got a share of the "gold farming" market, which is reasonable. The issue is if those items are noticeably better than other items and/or they can't be introduced in to the game economy. The quality reasoning should be obvious, even if players can trade for the donation stuff in game, it's going to break the balance if those are the best items in game. Further regardless of quality those donation items should be tradable into the normal game economy, letting grinders have a chance to get them. If there are any uniquely donation items there should be some uniquely grindable items that are just as desirable to encourage trade.

In the end any gains from money seem trivial compared to the issue of unattended macroing. Players who buy things are supporting the server, either directly or by giving money to players. Players who have a machine grind for them while they add nothing to the game experience (since they aren't interactive) and consume bandwidth seem far more problematic.