Market Wards vs AH

[Ciden]

The market wards are charming at best, time consuming and disengaging at worst. Our transactions should all be in one large Marketplace, dissolving the instanced wards. But instead of retainers, each type of goods/ward should be embodied by an NPC auctioneer. This would create the buzz of a real life marketplace and give the players time to all share each others' presences doing our shopping together instead of in a room full of NPC's. The loading and the magic porting aren't doing it for me each time I need an item in a different ward that looks exactly the same as the last.
The retainers could me more purposed than they are by taking the items you want them to sell and setting the auction up with the corresponding auctioneer. Maybe they could make deliveries like goods and letters to other players.(ala Earthbound). Retainer gets mugged en route? Time to rescue them until they get stronger and wiser to make longer trips.

[Vangelis]

I think the market wards are extremely tedious compared to standard AH in MMOs like WoW and LOTRO. You need to constantly run between your retainers and the item counter to check price and set prices in your bazaar. Checking prices is also a multi step process, you have to first locate what category it should be under, than scroll to find your item (no filter or search), and that's not even enough, you have to click to list the prices in another window.

I'd much rather have a centralized interface where I can click one of my items, list matching items already on sale and then set my price accordingly.

Browsing is a little confusing for beginners too. When all I care is upgrading gear for an ARC, it's not obvious where I should look. I'd rather just be able to look up items by their names, or stats or class.

[Abriael]

I think the market wards are extremely tedious compared to standard AH in MMOs like WoW and LOTRO. You need to constantly run between your retainers and the item counter to check price and set prices in your bazaar.

if you do it like that, either you're exaggerating for effect, or you're doing it wrong. Try pen and paper. I know many don't know the usage of those arcane items (as a more modern alternative, the Notepad works too), but I assure you they work.

Searching all prices and writing them down and then setting up all the items for sale will be STILL faster/more convenient than looking up one item at a time in any average AH UI and then setting it for sale. Over and over.

This, of course, without mentioning that the sole existance/possibility of impulse purchases (that does not exist with a classic AH) will help you sell more items faster.

[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.

[Reika]

Now that they are making retainers pretty easy to use, and the market wards easy to browse, there really is not a need for a auction house. Current system is fine IMO.

[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.

[Amsai]

I don't hate the market wards. They are actually not as bad now a days. However, anything that makes my buying/selling experience faster is always a plus. An AH is the logical conclusion. I am a typical male, and just like in RL, I don't go shopping, I go on a mission. My goal is to get in and out of the grocery store as fast as humanly possible. Which is why I make a list and shop at odd hours to avoid the crowds.

[Abriael]

I don't hate the market wards. They are actually not as bad now a days. However, anything that makes my buying/selling experience faster is always a plus. An AH is the logical conclusion. I am a typical male, and just like in RL, I don't go shopping, I go on a mission. My goal is to get in and out of the grocery store as fast as humanly possible. Which is why I make a list and shop at odd hours to avoid the crowds.

Market Ward: Pick Ward -> Pick item/compare price -> Walk to item -> Buy item

Real world: Pick shop -> Pick item/compare price -> Walk to item -> Buy item

Just like in RL you can easily "go on a mission" with Market Wards.

[Cornyboob]

Please add Auction house and get rid of wards they are useless and anoying and we need a mailbox really really bad anyways its long overdue.