Why do you want an Auction House? (discussion)[dev1019]

I honestly think that much of the call for AHs stems simply from the fact that they're what people are used to.

WoW's system is always the one people seem to always think of, but in all honesty, City of Heroes/Villains is the only game I've played that actually did the auction system correctly.

I think there are several advantages to FFXIV's Market Wards compared to FFXI's Auction House.

1.) Can sell 10 items instead of 7.
2.) Don't forget that there's durability in this game and I think Market Wards coincides with that better than an AH.
3.) Can not only sell things, but can also seek/buy things with your retainer when logged off, FFXI couldn't do that.
4.) Could add content into the Market Wards/Retainer system to make things more fun. Such as quest, leveling up, etc.

My reasons are below!

- An AH could use a database solution to store items, sellers, prices, and histories. This would prevent all the data from being lost every time the servers go down (e.g. Marketwards)
- It could allow developers to connect the 3 cities together into 1 auction system which is more convenient for players
- It removes the need to go and find the individual NPC selling the item you want
- It adds a price history to allow prices to stabalize
- It adds context to players standing around 1 location (an auction counter) instead of just standing at an arbitrary zone line in Ul'dah
- It allows you to see normal items, +1, +2, etc... items as distinct items, unlike current market wards
- It is more familiar to new players (and honestly... we are going to need new players...)
- It could reduce the amount of data that has to be stored on servers (AH requires item, price, seller, and price history per item whereas market wards require retainer, price, item, seller, retainer location, retainer display settings, and probably more than I'm not thinking of)
- It provides a cleaner, more elegant solution to managing the economy as compared to a mass of random NPCs, staring blankly and selling a wide array of completely random items
- It would not have to replace the marketwards, as they could still be used to store retainers, I suppose

Overall I just think an AH system is the superior way to go.

There are some good back and forth reasons while some are just saying "I want an AH because I'm lazy." The same people are probably the ones saying how "hardcore"(mostly by adding time sink ideas) the game needs to be...

If they add price history to either feature(Ah or MW) than RMT will control the economy again just like XI... Which hurts most and helps few. Even crafters will complain when their item prices plummet. Then the adventurers will complain about item prices when they reach the sun(once RMT gets a full grip).
I hated this about XI but maybe I'm the only one that knew how RMT used the price history to their advantage. Who do you think started the disaster with NM farming for gil in XI? It wasn't players that said "Hmm instead of 300m gil I'll just take 1M for this 30 hr spawn(which was luck I still got the item)."

Also SE didn't ban as many RMT as some might think. They just adapted, grew smarter, and did things under the radar. They also were less bold about going all anon(with stupid names) and making an alliance killing everything.

Also if they add an AH completely what to do with retainers?
Just delete everyones retainer? Then I guess people will want a Mog House? People will complain about those load times too.

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Originally Posted by Sovereign

My reasons are below!

- An AH could use a database solution to store items, sellers, prices, and histories. This would prevent all the data from being lost every time the servers go down (e.g. Marketwards)
- It could allow developers to connect the 3 cities together into 1 auction system which is more convenient for players
- It removes the need to go and find the individual NPC selling the item you want
- It adds a price history to allow prices to stabalize
- It adds context to players standing around 1 location (an auction counter) instead of just standing at an arbitrary zone line in Ul'dah
- It allows you to see normal items, +1, +2, etc... items as distinct items, unlike current market wards
- It is more familiar to new players (and honestly... we are going to need new players...)
- It could reduce the amount of data that has to be stored on servers (AH requires item, price, seller, and price history per item whereas market wards require retainer, price, item, seller, retainer location, retainer display settings, and probably more than I'm not thinking of)
- It provides a cleaner, more elegant solution to managing the economy as compared to a mass of random NPCs, staring blankly and selling a wide array of completely random items
- It would not have to replace the marketwards, as they could still be used to store retainers, I suppose

Overall I just think an AH system is the superior way to go.

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Everything you've listed here could be implemented into market wards. There's no reason why you'd need to implement an AH to accomplish these.

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Originally Posted by Shneibel

the 34580358395834583530853th about AH, and pls dont talk like hunting down retainer is a paint in the ass when the ward already tell the retainer loc, retainer name + mark with a red star

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this=win


At game launch, the idea was neat, but very poorly presented. It needed a lot of work. As of right now, sure it could use a little tweaking, but overall, I'm happy with the wards.

like stated before, RMTs are smart and know their job pretty well. They are already there and they already start to control prices.
The MW isnt a great all new system that prevents rmt, its a broken AH. i dunno why ppl dont see that. The only reason there are not many rmt atm (at least i think there are not many atm), because there are so many other mmo where they can actually make money. thats not because the MW prevent them from doin so, its the tiny player base ffxiv currently has.

the funniest thing is... if the MW actually were something unique or all different to a good planned/structured AH, ppl wouldnt discuss so much about it. But they just are not.

With more players, even with the MW, RMT will start controlling the market as well. And perhaps its even harder to recognize them. Not to mention that with more ppl the MW will crash every minute i might think and you wont be able to target any retainer since it will be crowded there or well get a big menue with 40 different wards - YEY!!!

There are ways of tracking price history, and nobody can do it as good as rmt. so they might even have an advantage with the current MW system over the "normal" player. Since a normal player does more then "marketwarding" around.
RMT do only that. So they are the winners in that complex system.

Since the retainers are the only storage way atm (i do use them for storage only because the sell process takes to long imo, so i rather npc (dont need money anyways in this game so far)) theres no need to delete them if theres an AH.

And i think nobody wanting an AH because they are "lazy". Its just a time question. And having too many obvious time sinks in a game doesnt do any good or add fun in any way. And its no fun to look for things at the current MW (please dont say you having fun doin so, because that is really hard to believe).

for some reason i see more "defending" trolls in the forums now then i see offending trolls.
Ppl disliking the system (no matter what parts of FFXIV they dislike) usually had much more reason and good arguments then ppl who liked the current systems. but still calling ppl with constructive comments "trolls" and they getting offensive.
Ppl disliking something are tolls, lazy, they dont play the game... they are too stupid to play etc... thats just ridiculous.
I see these arguments all over the forums...

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Originally Posted by Evangela

- AH doesn't need physical market fields, slum-look retainers place

- Why I have to waste my time teleporting to the right ward, grab stuff from retainers, so pointless

- checking my retainers, how much gil I earned from last night~~~ OH NO!!!! where're my retainers? was the server down when I slept? NOOOO they can't sell anything! <<<< do you want to get rid of these moments?

- want some new gear, looking at the market..... no one selling it!!? because some retainers are not online... if we have an AH they'll sell everything 24/7 unless they're really out of market

- auction system allow you to sell rare item more expensive due to people demand and put more gil, try to win the auction

- if the market ward is better than AH, why SE is now considering about adding AH to the game?

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I agree put ah in the game please imo its better, keep the damn retainers for bazaaring items that need repair or for storage since there is no player(mog) housing if they add ah like i said then player housing and a mail system would need to follow which would be awesome for crap sake its hard to accept less from a company that has shown you what they can do. these ppl that like this game as is must have never played XI man that games systems were just all around better and more convient *shakes head*

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Originally Posted by MagicofGaia

this=win


At game launch, the idea was neat, but very poorly presented. It needed a lot of work. As of right now, sure it could use a little tweaking, but overall, I'm happy with the wards.

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there is no comparison dude moghouse with storage+AH&mail system beats out this damn retainer alley sh!T any day not saying that the retainers as they are atm are not functional just saying the combo i just listed is so freakin obviously better come on how could ppl even argue about the 2

Pros: It's totally easy to see what is selling and what is not and at what price with the market wards menu. Looking at the retainers modeling encourages trade. gives us TONS of extra storage space for items not for sale and 3 bazaars. can be called from any city (though it will close your store - that sux) and we can offload excess inventory and go back and play without timely transferring issues. ie: mailing stuff to mule, log out, login to mule, grab stuff, log out, login to main, dump more stuff to other mule, log out, login as other mule, grab stuff, log out, etc. And in between each step was a run from mog house to mailbox.

Cons: Only being able to mark 1 target at a time is irritating. logging in and out of the wards takes time, and dropping out during updates is irritating. The amount of server space required to maintain and upgrade the retainer system seems over the top.

The world according to MYSA