Market Wards vs AH

[Warp]

You'd rather. I'd rather not, simply because I enjoy previewing the item I'm going to buy before actually paying. Also, as a seller, I'd rather have the possibility of getting people to buy something from my retainer just because they walked in front of her, saw something they liked, and bought it. It's called "impulse purchase", it's a very important part of any prosperous economy, and it's completely excluded in Auction Houses.

There's still some walking involved, also Auction houses normally involve scrolling between long lists of items which isn't less time consuming thanm "walking to someone with a star on his head".

Convenience is an absolute term. "I'd rather" is a completely different cup of tea.

You can't make an impulse purchase from a normal AH? You're also forgetting that 'long lists' of items can be sorted in a million different ways. You say it's not less time consuming, but you do know that there are a bunch of different wards, right? What happens when your item that you want is in a different ward?... you have to endure a load screen.

[Nephera]

I will admit that i was price gouging quite a bit (though i never sell things for more than you can get them from the vendor) till the price listings came up.

[Abriael]

You can't make an impulse purchase from a normal AH?

An impulse purchase is by definition something you weren't looking for, and that just appeared in front of your eyes and you bought.
An AH has no "windows shopping" system, so by-definition impulse purchases aren't part of the concept. You cannot just walk around an AH. You have to make an active search effort in order to have items offered to you.
That's not what an impulse purchase is.

you have to endure a load screen.

And you have to endure lists loading with an AH.

[Warp]

An impulse purchase is by definition something you weren't looking for, and that just appeared in front of your eyes and you bought.
An AH has no "windows shopping" system, so by-definition impulse purchases aren't part of the concept. You cannot just walk around an AH. You have to make an active search effort in order to have items offered to you.
That's not what an impulse purchase is.

And you have to endure lists loading with an AH.

You CAN make an impulse purchase from a list. Especially if it has a sort feature. You see something you haven't seen, you buy... how is this any different? Also, it's somewhat difficult making an impulse buy when retainers load up slowly.. or not at all.

As far as list loading taking longer than a computer loading up a zone... give me a break. You're totally incorrect with that one.

[Abriael]

You CAN make an impulse purchase from a list.

You need to make an active search action in order to bring up the list. No matter how you sort it. Again, that's not an impulse purchase. It's an aimed purchase.

Also, seeing an item on a list is much less conductive to an impulse purchase than seeing the actual item right in front of you, worn by a model.

basic marketing.

[Verecund]

The Retainer system and the standard AH system both have their benefits.

The AH employs a simple approach to selling, buying, shopping, etc., requiring a minimal amount of steps to perform mundane functions.

The Retainer system is more robust in that retainers can hold items (acting as a sort've Bank) as well as sell them on the Bazaar. Additional functionality can also be added in the future as well.

Ultimately, the Retainer system is not nearly as efficient as an economy driven by an AH system, simply because employing a retainer requires about 5 times as many steps. First, you have to give the retainer your items to hold, then jump into another menu and designate which of those items you want to sell (though I don't think this would be an issue if the UI wasn't still.....so......laggy...). Lastly (and most important), in order to buy from retainers you have to actually be right next to them, whereas in an AH system you can purchase from any major city as long as its economy is connected to the other cities.

And herein lies the true MAJOR flaw of the retainer system: The Retainer system is inherently a collection of closed economies. Because of this fact, the heart of the economy will now slowly start to favor one city over another. Although this sandbox possibility sounds good on paper, it is absolutely awful for both players and the developpers because it ultimately results in alot of content being thrown away.

This effect is easily seen when you examine the progression of the city-state populations in the game, and how they have evolved over time. When I started playing (around December), I began in Gridania, the zone which seemed the most interesting to me. At the time, it wasn't exactly a bustling metropolis, but you could still find maybe 20-40 people hanging out in the city at the same time. However, over time this number became almost 0 as players began flocking to Uld'ah... Why? Because Uld'ah had become the extreme center of the world's economy, since it had the easiest leveling content (Coblyns) as well as the most ideal position of the three city-states. Consequently, there is now really no reason, outside of filling out guildleves or picking up guild quests, to even go to Gridania. Over time I have also began to see this happen to Limsa Lominsa as well (on a slightly less accelerated scale).