Should MMOs eliminate ‘soulbound’ mechanics?

This morning’s Daily Grind arrives from Kickstarter donor jackfrost, who phrases his question in the form of a rant:

Why do almost all rewards in current gen MMOs have to be some form of soulbound? I hate it.

Me too, frankly. I suppose it got started back in EverQuest with the advent of “no-drop” items, but over the years, themeparks especially (but some sandboxes too) have adopted the mechanic as a way to stifle player trading and keep us returning to the well better known as the dungeon-and-loot-drop-grind (and in recent years, to the well known as the cash shop). It makes the economy easier to manage for the developers, but it also makes it far less fulfilling for the players. Plus it makes no sense! Not being able to pass down old gear to alts and newbies is beyond irritating.

What do you think? Do “soulbound” items and mechanics annoy you too? Should MMOs dump them post haste and return to more engaging and realistic ways of churning old gear out of MMO economies?

TH

Only very very very rare items should be soulbound. I'd also include a soulbind if you craft something for someone so that exclusivity remains with the crafter (i.e. no reselling hard to obtain crafts). I'd never limit it to the GW2 way with ascended gear/weapons. That's just stupid farming not everyone has time/will for.

i think they do that soulbound crap to eliminate item selling on websites and for real moneys since obviously the game company would be losing out.

in diablo 2 tho they still sell items online which is cool.