The Pro's and Con's of Trading In-Game

Let's take a look at trading, it comes in many different forms, and can improve a game in many ways, but there are some cons to implementing such trading systems.

Pro's:

Players will find the game more enjoyable.

  Players love having things to achieve or items to gather, when they get a cool item they think is epic, they will usually freak out and tell their friends how awesome it is or how cool they are for having it.

Players will spend more time playing your game.

  Take TF2 for example, it would probably be dead right now if it weren't for their trading system that randomly dropped items to people who've played their game for a specific amount of time. People will have a reason to stay on longer if they get rewards just for being there.

Players will spend more MONEY on your game.

  Here's another place where TF2 shines, they have an in-game store where they charge money for VIRTUAL ITEMS. To become a premium player and have the ability to trade, they will have to buy something from the Mann-Co Store for REAL money. They can also buy more wealth in-game for REAL money in the Store as well. You can even trade games for TF2 items. So the only way to get far ahead of people in the game is to either unbox an unusual, scam people (isn't recommended), or BUY FROM MANN-CO STORE!!!!

Con's:

Third parties will sell items for money.

  Most people don't go near these people for the fear of getting scammed for actual money, and they easily could scam you, but believe it or not, people can sell items for real money, and it happens A LOT. You will basically be giving even more money to China's economy. Good Job, please congratulate yourself.

People will be unwilling to move to a sequel.

  Think about it, someone could have spent over a thousand dollars for a hat in TF2, and now it will be useless when they move to TF3, they will be PISSED OFF. When people move over, they will lose all their accumulated wealth and investments on their old accounts and they will hate you for it. Of course there will still be a majority of players who will move over and never care because they didn't spend more money than they needed on the game, but it will hurt your sales.