ezaire
Could the model I suggested be considered underhanded? Definitely. However when I was thinking about this idea I was trying consider it from Gaia's perspective, and not the users.
You ask why shouldn't they just make it cost more cash to make the item? If the only involvement of Cash is in the cost of making the item, then the item is directly comparable to a Monthly Collectible or the random Cash Shop item like the current Forlorn Opera Singer. At this point Gaia then has to ask: why bother devoting artists to making zOMG cash items when it requires extra work for no gain when we could just release it into the Cash shop? Adding the requirement of powerups allows Gaia to have an income that wouldn't be possible without zOMG.
As far as a better re-implementation of Null Fragments, I think that could be a step in the right direction. Special item drops, however, could force you to farm different enemies depending on what special item you need, as they would be enemy dependent. This could help encourage people to play in areas and in instances that are rarely touched anymore. Over time new special item drops could be released and old ones retired. Getting a new special item you haven't gotten before rather then being stuck with Null Fragments could spark a 'hey something new' feeling, as insignificant as it might be.
As far as soulbinding goes, I think that soulbinding the special ingredients probably wouldn't be desirable in the long run (since you are wasting cash for them), but for the recipes themselves it would encourage people to actually play zOMG or have to spend money on the completed items themselves. For people not interested in the recipes, they can just sell them for whatever the sellback value for the recipe is. For a further incentive, they could even have achievements like alchemy has to encourage achievement whores to play zOMG so they can get the recipes and the achievements (soulbinding would be beneficial in this case).
You ask why shouldn't they just make it cost more cash to make the item? If the only involvement of Cash is in the cost of making the item, then the item is directly comparable to a Monthly Collectible or the random Cash Shop item like the current Forlorn Opera Singer. At this point Gaia then has to ask: why bother devoting artists to making zOMG cash items when it requires extra work for no gain when we could just release it into the Cash shop? Adding the requirement of powerups allows Gaia to have an income that wouldn't be possible without zOMG.
As far as a better re-implementation of Null Fragments, I think that could be a step in the right direction. Special item drops, however, could force you to farm different enemies depending on what special item you need, as they would be enemy dependent. This could help encourage people to play in areas and in instances that are rarely touched anymore. Over time new special item drops could be released and old ones retired. Getting a new special item you haven't gotten before rather then being stuck with Null Fragments could spark a 'hey something new' feeling, as insignificant as it might be.
As far as soulbinding goes, I think that soulbinding the special ingredients probably wouldn't be desirable in the long run (since you are wasting cash for them), but for the recipes themselves it would encourage people to actually play zOMG or have to spend money on the completed items themselves. For people not interested in the recipes, they can just sell them for whatever the sellback value for the recipe is. For a further incentive, they could even have achievements like alchemy has to encourage achievement whores to play zOMG so they can get the recipes and the achievements (soulbinding would be beneficial in this case).
Well, I don't believe Gaia has any more desire for it to appear underhanded than the users do - again, they get more than enough accusations of trying to 'cheat' their users, without a system that seems to trick them into paying twice. If people are going to be willing to invest in a system, it's only responsible to make that system as straightforward as possible.
So, to ask the natural follow-up: if you don't think that charging Cash for crafting the Recipe is doing its job, how well would the system work without it? If you remove the Null Fragments, and allow the Cash to come exclusively from your 'special item' Powerups, does the system continue to function? Does that make for a better system, than Null Fragments alone?
It's important to realise that there is no such system that makes zOMG! necessary - as far as producing items is concerned, zOMG! is just an elaborate, weighted Random Item Generator. Thus, any solution that uses zOMG! to produce items could be similarly (and more simply) handled by a RIG (or several RIGs). By its very nature, zOMG! will never be the simplest option for offering items, and it will never offer items or profits that were otherwise impossible. Continued use of the Recipe system will not be because Recipes are essential to Gaia - it will be because Recipes are essential to zOMG!, and because zOMG! will (hopefully) be important to Gaia.
I agree with you that your 'special items' system would be much more effective in decentralising gameplay in specific locations than Null Fragments, and would almost certainly generate more feeling of novelty - but while those are both admirable goals, they're not really the main focus of the system in question. It's always nice to solve multiple problems with one suggestion, but it's never ideal to accept a suboptimal solution to your main issue, simply because the system offers peripheral benefits. That's not to say the suggestion necessarily is suboptimal, but simply that - in context - these can't really be considered significant points in its favour.
Comparing it to the alternatives, however, I find that the Null Fragment solution is much simpler, and more intuitive - the assertion that Null Fragments equate to Cash is very easy to understand, as opposed to memorising lists of 'special items' which would be extremely daunting to players hoping to utilise the system. Null Fragments are much more straightforward, being that the items would have an obvious and predictable price, as opposed to the inherently unpredictable nature of farmed components. That's not to say that unpredictability is always bad, but that players are less willing to buy into something (and more liable to be frustrated by it) with the less certainty they have, of the final cost.
As for the concept of soulbinding in general, I'd oppose it without good reason; if the goal is getting people to play, I'd like to do so by making the game appealing to them, rather than by holding things they want for ransom. Any time we talk about 'forcing' people to play, or trying to trick them into doing so, that's largely indicative that the game is not appealing to that group sufficiently on its own - and there are almost always better solutions to that than a ransom. sweatdrop
Additionally, Pan's noted that Achievements have not obviously driven the use of features in the past - that users normally use features to gain the Achievements, and move on. Having investment-intensive (especially Cash-investment) Achievements would, then, presumably have a rather small potential audience, and would likely draw genuine interest from an even smaller subset thereof. I won't begin to assert that Achievements for the game wouldn't be of any use, but the goal of those should be introducing players to features they do enjoy, not forcing them to invest in ones they don't... whee
