CREDD, PLEX, Bonds: Are these a good idea?

     For those of you not familiar with these terms, CREDD, PLEX, and Bonds are a special method of paying for subscription based games. This is how they work: say you want to play Wildstar when it launches, but only feel comfortable paying the retail price. Wildstar plans to use a subscription, but the developers (Carbine Studios) will be implementing CREDD. CREDD is something you can buy with money equal to the subscription fee, but can be traded in game for currency. CREDD is a usable item that grants a month's worth of a subscription. Players who do not want to pay for a subscription can grind in game currency to trade for this CREDD. Other players can pay for their subscription and buy CREDD, then sell it in game for a tidy profit. 

 

      One way to look at it is “Legally trading for gold.” Most games do not allow players to buy in game currency from third party dealers as those are a bit shady. No guarantees you will be getting your money's worth. This way, players can pay money for gold traded between other players. No extra gold is generated by this CREDD. Some argue this is pay to win. I see that only in one game so far. That game is Runescape.

      Runescape use something similar to CREDD called Bonds. Players pay in game coins for one Bond that grants them 30 days of membership. I played Runescape for years and if I know anything, it's that money is quite literally power. I have made my fair share of gold and am sitting comfortably on a stack of 36M in coins. That is pocket change compared to the rest of the economy! I met players running around with hundreds of millions of gold. Gold gets you the best gear and items.

If a player grinds long enough, they can use their gold to buy Bonds from other players and extend their membership. At the same time, if a player buys lots of Bonds, they can trade those for in game gold. Bonds are well over 20M at the moment (last I checked), so if Player 1 buys 5 Bonds and trades them to Player 2, they will have earned 100M. That is $40.00 USD! It makes sense that Runescape's Bonds are arguably pay to win.

      Not only that, players who purchase CREDD or PLEX have a bit more leverage than the guy who doesn't buy those items. Player 1 has 1 CREDD up for sale. They offer, say, 5000 gold (assuming that might be high around Wildstar's launch), Player 2 has only one day to renew their subscription after their first month of freedom from debt. Player 2 can either fork over $15, grind that last bit of gold before the day is up, or cancel their subscription. Player 1 could lower the price, but if Player 2 wants to play bad enough, they will do anything to get that CREDD.

      On the plus side, CREDD, PLEX, and Bonds offer alternative means to people who want to play a subscription based game and have lots of free time to grind, but do not want to pay additional money. On the minus side, players with these items have the power. They can effectively manipulate the economy to their advantage and this could potentially turn into a pay to win scenario. I kind of like the idea, but it does need a lot of work to make it fair to both the seller and the buyer. Any thoughts on this method of payment?