.. there are already signs of that particular demographic of players that do not keep on top of every single detail of the changes that patch 2.0.1 is bringing, now asking questions about what this bind on account thing is, gold not being tradable, etc. And that noise is going to probably increase several fold once the new patch goes live.
Previously, I’ve been ambivalent about soul binding and its effect on trading (never took part in that aspect in order to get better gear in). The way I felt is that if it helped to make the overall game play experience better, then I’d have no issues with it. IMHO, while patch 2.0.1/Reaper of Souls is an improvement over 1.0.x vanilla Diablo III, soul binding does not address the root cause issues; it’s main purposes is to stop 3rd party trading, and to have players play the game for their loot.
Without more things to do though (challenge modes), the game is going to stagnate for many because there will be a point where one is only going to be grinding for better gear, in order to perform that grind a bit faster. Beyond that, there is nothing to do with this better gear; not even the ability to trade it away and/or giving such items away (this generally does away with philanthropy gear give aways that some of us enjoyed taking part of). Sure, there is the usual developer rhetoric they are looking at such end game systems. For myself though, I no longer trust this team has what it takes to deliver such designs/systems in a timely manner.
Even their implementation of soul binding (of legendary/sets), is lackluster. The way I would design such a system is that for any leg/set that you found on your account, that this item would have special powers that will only work for the finder of those items. Leg/set items would be slightly better than most every other item (but not way over powering on its own); where it shines though is when the finder actually uses them. Those special powers would be something like how special legendary affixes work; where it could either supplement that bonus, or provide some other utility bonuses. If the item is traded away though, then those cool/powerful bonuses go away permanently (this means the player has to think twice about trading away the leg/set items they found – but it doesn’t kill trading outright).
The way I look at soul binding right now is that once the patch and then expansion goes live, the clock starts ticking for this development team, to implement at least two challenge mode systems within 3 months after the release of Reaper of Souls. If not, soul binding is going to become a growing front and center complaint once the whole newness of the expansion, wears off on those who did not have a chance to take part in the closed beta.
