I am 100% behind you on this. Darkfall was awesome when they had localized banking. You had to actually group up and make a caravan to move gold to another city/bank. It would be similar to Moonglow bank not having what was at Britain Bank. It gave gold a significant purpose and made it both valuable and fun to collect. I think that making this game more "stream-lined" would destroy the charm of it. It has a "real world" feel. No one would actually be able to carry billions of gold around on them, you would restricted to weight.Like I said: I don't mind doing away with checks. I understand the problems they have caused. But I don't want gold around for decoration (but do understand that lots of people have used gold piles in their home decorations). What I'm specifically speaking about is that I like it that gold has weight and I Have to go to the bank to deposit it. Of all the games I have played, only the Ultimas, UO and Daggerfall made you actually go to the bank and deposit gold you have collected. It made it feel like gold had actual value, if that makes it any sense. It's not just decoration or a number on my paperdoll.
Most of us actually work hard for our gold. That should mean something besides a number I occasionally check on my paperdoll.
Like I said: maybe I'm a party of one but I for one will be saddened if that's the way they go and that sure seems how Mesanna said it would. She said she could be swayed by what she reads here so I thought I would at least let my voice be heard.
The real problem is how much gold is around. A gold sync has been suggested (perhaps tried?) but I don't see that working. A gold wipe would piss people off to no end. Imagine playing 15 years and having all that work and gold deleted over night. I do not have an idea for how to fix the gold issue. This is an issue that occurs in long term games like this that have a virtual economy. Not that long ago the Devs made changes to certain monsters and items without telling anyone in an effort to stop gold farming. It's a problem that has been around for awhile and I don't see a fix other then starting all over again. No one is going to want to do that tho and so we are stuck with these types of ideas and/or fixes. I don't want to see piles of gold go away, but at this point what else can you do? I know some people who have houses with nothing but mil checks locked down.