First and foremost, I love this game. I've been playing basically non-stop outside of work and have maxed out all three classes so props to Bungie. That being said, one of the things, among many, that are missing from a social aspect is trading. I've been playing FPS's since Doom (1993) and have been into MMORPGs since WoW: The Burning crusade and I can tell you that this game REALLY needs to implement some sort of trading. Here why: [b]#1: Because nothing feels better than being able to give away the gear you can't use to your friends.[/b] How many times have you been playing with your friends so far and you get something that isn't as good as what you're using but your friend can use only to be able to dismantle it for a minute amount of glimmer? Wouldn't it be nice to just be able to give it to you friends so they can use it on their character or one of their alts? In most MMOs there is an economy and you're able to sell that item somewhere and to someone but in Destiny you can't, so basically any really good drops are essentially useless to you, short of dismantling it, but could be considered an early Christmas to your buddy. [b]#2: Because grinding sucks[/b] I'm not sure how many of you have noticed but all of the Legendary/Exotic level 20 items have a ton of possible upgrades and a lot of them require more than just glimmer. Weapon parts, spinemetal, spahire wire, helium filaments and so on. A lot of times you wont have these items handy and you'll have to go grind PVE until you can find enough. Wouldn't it be nice if you can just barter for these items? I have 20 spinemetal leaves and you have 20 saphire wires. Problem solved. Who knows all the things you'll need to have to do everything later in this game but I can promise it can't just be done with glimmer. [b]#3: Because having the ability, and reason to potentially interact with anyone and everyone is what makes a true MMO.[/b] Right now this game is seriously lacking in the MMO/Social elements. No chat, limited voice, no trading, etc... The Tower is supposed to be "a social hub" as Bungie describes it but really all it is right now is a place to go to get your engrams decoded, pick up bounties and dance with 16 other people. Enabling trading, along with other things, would make this a TRUE social hub and not just a place with a bunch of forgetful faces running around. So how can trading be implemented without breaking the game? There are many good cases against having trading but all of them can be addressed with a little creativity and brainpower. [b]Problem: "Enabling trading will break the game like Diablo and Borderlands where people (chinese) farm glimmer and items and duplicates and blah blah..."[/b] [b]Solution: - No auction houses[/b] No explanation needed [b]-No exchange of glimmer[/b] This will make farm factories basically irrelevant. Only items can be traded for items, or given away in person. [b]-Legendary and Exotic Items are automatically bound to account regardless of how they are acquired[/b] (exceptions to this rule below) Again, this will making item farming and item selling in the real world (eBay, MMO account sales websites) impossible [b]-No mail - All trading must be done in person[/b] This is a big one and mainly for Bungie's sake. This will deter strangers, your brother, your pissed off roommate from accessing your account and sending all of your valueble items to other accounts which creates a customer service nightmare for Bungie. (this happens in WoW all the time) I think that should handle most of the abuse or game breaking arguments. Feel free to bring up more if you guys have any. Some features that I think would be cool along the lines of trading. [b]After Strike Trading[/b] It would be cool to be able to trade items with your fireteam immediately after a strike. (legendary and exotic items included) Once the strike end it brings up a scoreboard and shows all of the weapons/armor each person picked up and lets you 'Request' or 'Trade' for that item right then and there. At which point your friend or stranger can simply give the item to you or you can choose to trade for it from something they got in the Strike. Additionally, all the items you pick up from a strike can permanently be traded with your strike members. So for example: my friend and I run a strike and I pick up a legendary Helmet that isn't as good as mine but he doesnt need it right that moment, or whatever. Well that Helmet permanently lists the two people that I can still trade that helmet with down the line if I want to. Make sense? This would also apply to engrams and the items that are decoded from them. [b]In person trading[/b] So I need some weapons parts and I say that in chat (which hopefully will be added) so a person comes and finds me who has tons of parts. But what do they need? Instead of them asking if I have a dozen different items, it'd be awesome if you could grant them access to view whats in your inventory so they can just sort through and be like "Oh, I need some sapphire wire. I'll trade you for those" At which point you initiate a trade for the agreed upon transaction. Cool? [b]Up the player count in The Tower[/b] For this to work there has to be way more people on a tower server. Plain and simple. If Battlefield 4 can handle 24 players on a server I don't see why Bungie can't implement that many, plus more since were all just standing around. So that's my 2 cents. Bungie has created a great game here but I think it can be so much better with a few more social features added. What do you guys think?