What can Blizzard change about WoW’s Trading Post to encourage players to still complete activities after capping out for the month?

Today is the Hatching of the Hippogryphs micro-holiday, a cute little event that only comes around one day a year and thus gets missed by most players. This year, though, we have the Trading Post to encourage us to partake in the holiday, as there are two seasonal activities that reward points today: getting a Hatchling to perch on you, and obtaining a Spectral Feather to extend the interval that the Hatchling remains perched. Making activities such as this relevant for the Trading Post is a great way to encourage players to revisit places and events they may not have attended in several years.

Of course, it’d be even more encouraging if most players hadn’t already maxed out their Trading Post rewards three weeks ago.

It’s a fundamental issue with the Trading Post: Once you’ve gotten all the points you need for the final reward, there’s no reason to pay attention to it anymore. Even the Love is in the Air holiday — which started less than a week after its arrival — likely benefited little. It seems like the only point to including seasonal activities is for those who resub during the middle of the month. Similarly, activities that would encourage positive group behavior such as “resurrect players” and “use the buddy system while climbing” are never bothered with once completed, undermining this month’s designation of “sharing and caring.”

They could let players earn additional Trading Tenders by completing more criteria, but that would likely frustrate players that miss single-day events like the Hatching or feel like they have to do every single activity listed. Another alternative would be to reward something else for completing a Trading Post activity after maxing out on Tenders — but what could they reward that didn’t feel compulsory to farm? Gold is likely too boring a reward, and we really don’t need another currency.

A good reward could be the latest expansion’s “supplies.” Four out of the last five expansions have had a resource or supply currency that while desirable for unlocks weren’t something that players frequently went out of their way to farm. “Useful but not required” is a potent combo for optional activity rewards, and a moderate amount of Dragon Isles Supplies might result in more characters journeying to Feralas today.

What do you think? Should the Trading Post try to encourage goal completion all month long? If it did, are supplies a good reward or would you want something else? Or are you happier just to get it done and not have to worry about it the rest of the month?