Interesting. I wonder what would have happened if booster packs in CoH were tradeable.
Probably much as what happens in CO and STO. Those with no money to spend or no desire to spend it would buy them on the auction house off people with more money than sense or a pressing desire for ingame currency right now if not sooner.
And honestly, I think that's a good thing. Keeps the free players playing if they know that in time they can get all that expensive stuff on the store without actually paying for it. But at the same time, the developers don't lose out on money because for the item to exist someone had to pay for it somewhere. Personally I think the way CO/STO achieve this is good, they have two currencies. The cash shop points and an ingame currency that can be exchanged for each other. Some players sell cash shop points for ingame currency, and others sell ingame currency for cash shop points. As long as there's desirable uses for both currencies, there'll always be both on the exchange. (CO has essentially a second cash shop for their ingame stuff, while STO requires amounts of it for almost everything at higher levels. Of the two I think I prefer STO's method.)
