DDO is a game with multiple forms of currency—too many, in fact. The roots, dating back to beta, by Turbine, included copper, silver, gold, and platinum pieces, borrowed from the pen-and-paper game. In the early days, when things cost copper, silver, and gold, platinum was mainly used as an investment coin. Today, almost 20 years later, the only one of these coins relevant due to inflation is platinum. Even then, transactions between players usually involve sums greater than the maximum cap of each character.
DDO coins, originally Turbine Points (?), represented the free-to-play model—a bound-to-account pay coin. Then came Astral Diamonds, which dropped in chests, and could be bought, that later became shards, another bound-to-account pay coin.
These of course go alongside all the other in-game currencies, such as the Night Revels materials used to buy items, materials from quests, raids, events, etc., many have unique mats. One need only mention the original Temple of Elemental Evil mushrooms. A good example of how developers often try to create a balanced and enjoyable game but end up making it a complex mess by adding too many currencies.
So why then doesn't SSG change us over to a simpler, single-universal currency to provide a more streamlined and enjoyable experience for players?
We still have a need for currency, clearly. One of the first times a new player will encounter this need is to purchase a hireling (which are still priced very reasonably in platinum but insanely expensive in Astral Shards) or in repairing gear (again, very cheap with platinum, very expensive relatively in Astral Shards).
While playing the game, the player quickly learns that it is very easy to spend vast sums of real-world money on shards to do things that, if one used in-game platinum, would be much cheaper.
So what, if anything, can be done about it? And would SSG ever want to do anything about it if the system favors players spending real money?
The Free-to-Play micro-transaction model was introduced for use many years ago in Module 9. However, the game is much different now than it was then. Astral Diamonds were introduced as ultra-rare drops and sold in the store until Update 16 when replaced with shards. Bound to account, shards are also bound to the server one is playing on, unlike platinum or other materials, which can be moved from one server to the next.
The main problem with the multiple currencies is that there is no way to fix an exchange rate. Items on one server sell for different prices on another; this is expected, but the mechanisms of valuation are clouded in convoluted behind-the-scenes math. Do you know how much one Astral Shard costs compared to one platinum piece and one DDO store point? What if we try to convert any of them into materials from Night Revels? Or Giant Hold? Or Isle of Dread?
This extremely difficult exchange sets up what is called arbitrage, where one currency is utilized to exploit differences in markets of another. This leads to an unfair advantage for certain individuals who benefit from disrupting that particular exchange.
And so we have currency devaluation, difficulties in price setting, confusions in value, and market volatility in the game. They are not fun for new players.
All of this has led to something called fragmentation, where large sections of the economy no longer use many of the currencies, and as a result they lose most of their value. We see this in the mats of Gianthold which sell cheaply because that armor is no longer relevant.
This, of course, leads to confusion, angst, and eventually, the giving up of new players who, testing the waters, are encouraged not to play and earn platinum, but to buy with real money coins for the in-game economy.
DDO has too many currencies. The game should be simplified into one 'universal currency' that can be earned in-game and used to buy anything, even a monthly subscription. These universal coins should be freely tradable and allow for movement across servers. Such a change, encompassing every currency from every quest, every raid, every transaction, would make the game vastly easier to understand. However, I fear the resources to do such a change would not be allocated, even if they could.
After all, DDO is a candy machine. All they need to do is refresh the old candy with new candy and players will buy, and the confusion and uncertainty about the in-game economy will continue, and numerous currencies will go largely unused, relics of the game's roots and a nod to its pen and paper origins.