There has been a proliferation of currencies in WoW over the last three or four expansions. Often tied to quite niche activities. Some of these have been quite frustating. But Trader Tenders is a good example of how these currencies can work and should be adopted by more currencies, although there should be fewer currencies in game.
They are Account Wide. This is as Alt Friendly as it gets.
They are in the Currency Tab of the Char Sheet. Surprising how many currencies aren’t in the Currency Tab and are taking up valuable bag space (something I’m always low on).
You can earn it through a wide range of activities both solo and group. You can earn this with Pet Battles, soloing old raids, doing simple questing. You can also earn it by doing dungeons and pvp. It is not tied to a niche activity such as Island Expeditions or Torghast.
It has a reasonable cap. There is no infinite farm to keep you on the hook.
There is no RNG. This isn’t in some reward box with an RNG chance to earn some. No waiting for rares to spawn in the hopes of getting some. Do the clearly outlined activities and you earn it.
This is how a currency really should work most of the time.
Thats because its an account reward, not a character specific reward.
Other currencies are Character locked because they’re for Character rewards (yes even if the reward is transmog).
the is no need for currencies to take up bag space.
Dragonfight has been absolutely terrible for this.
Once again, this an Account Activity. It’s not a character activity, and it’s not a player power.
Think of it like a new type of Battle Pass type thing.
I actually disagree with it being a reasonable Cap.
Although I haven’t spent all of it this month, I think the cap should be higher, maybe 2k per month, rather than 1k.
They actually said in a interview recently, they are open to increasing cap or reducing cost of item in the future. They want people to feel like they can get what they want.
Once again, because this is a Battle Pass alternative type thing.
It is simply a reward for staying Subscribed. Nothing more than that.
What has Account Activity got to do with how a currency is earned?
I think most currencies should have more than one niche activity to earn them. I think Dubloon earned in Island Expeditions was not a good model for how a currency should work.
I’m fine with having separate PVP currencies but the PVE ones should have a range of activites. The Dragon Supplies in DF is a good example, you earn these doing all sorts of things. Motes of Harmony in MOP was similar. It encouraged you to go out and do things but didn’t limit them to one thing.
We should have fewer currencies earned by more activities rather than lots of currencies each earnt through one specific activity.
The alternative is to have more ways to earn them. Warfronts could have rewarded them. LFR could have. WQs could have given them. Mission Table could have add Dubloons as rewards.
Why was there only one way to earn that currency?
I agree Mission tables would have been good way to earn currencies.
But you shouldn’t be able to earn rewards for Island Expeditions by doing alternative content like LFR. That defeats the idea of having a separate Game Mode and its rewards.
It’s not a PVE reward, its an Island Expedition reward.
I am not sure you are using the best example here to argue your point. There are definitely examples you could use and make a strong Argument. But this one isn’t.
Why should Island Expeditions have their own set of rewards? They were mostly just transmogs, pets and mounts so not exactly unique in the game.
An open world rpg type game should give you options in how you want to play the game.
The same happened with Torghast, it was the only way to earn the currency for your Legendary. Why only this one way?
And one of those options was a game mode called Island Expeditions. There are a chance to earn drops at the end of each Island. But you’re guaranteed some currency which you can spend on Loot Boxes for a further chance of getting the items you need.
So it has become its own self-sufficient economy.
There is no need to have earnt Dubloons from other content.
In Season 1 it was. But I didn’t step foot into Torghast again after KSM S1. Every legendary upgrade from that point onwards was earnt through whatever other means were possible.
Torghast is a much better example to argue your point. And it was also something that Blizzard changed as the expansion progressed.
I’m not saying every currency needs to be 100% like Tenders. I just saying that Tenders is a good example of how a currency can work. I know they can’t all be Account Wide but more of them probably cna be. I know they can’t all be earnt through various methods but more currencies could be.
I hope this is a sign of things to come that Blizzard are moving in a direction that is less directing the players how to play.