SSF/Trade Perception Conundrum

One of the more interesting topics I see people chattering about when providing feedback is the topic of SSF vs Trade. Some love the way that items have value in trade and how trade can enable one to skip mechanics they don't like by trading for the rewards they need. Some dislike the way that trade can reduce gameplay to divs/hour and offer skips in progression. These conversations generally end up being arguments about taste.

Often, given that both SSF and Trade have the same game balance, arguments around which mode the game is balanced around are broached. Perhaps items are kept rare deliberately in order to help them retain value. Perhaps currency items were always meant to be used the way SSF players do rather than traded. I'm not smart enough to offer an answer to these questions, but I do want to highlight the way a another ARPG has addressed this topic that seems to have been received well.

In the run up to the release of Last Epoch, they announced the Factions system. Partway through the game, the SSF vs Trade question is asked diegetically. Now, I bounced off of Last Epoch pretty bad, so I cannot say whether or not these systems were well balanced. What I can say, though, is that the community response to their attempt to address the SSF vs Trade question was a resounding "Hell yeah!".

My main point here is that people can see that SSF and Trade are very, very different experiences and at the very least feel like a single game cannot feasibly be balanced properly for both of these game modes. At minimum, some clear communication about these modes would be great. Arguably, some subtle shifts in balance between the modes would be even better. Either way, I find this topic quite interesting and worth discussing.

Yes, Last Epoch made an effort to suit both camps and that by itself is great.

People in trade mode still got way better gear, but the gap wasn't as large.