Any word on when we will get an Auction House?

[Caimon]

The retainers have a level, and I am pretty sure eventually they will have things to do that increase these levels. So, they must have something beyond a simple storage bag planned for these contraptions. I am willing to see where they go with this idea.

[HayaHime]

We don't really need an auction house, the market wards do everything an AH does except that you have to pick up your item(s).

What does an AH do that you can't do in the wards?

Yes, we don't NEED AH!

I love Market wards system and i'm sure Yoshi-P and his crew will make it even better in the future.

[OJtheLIONKing]

I'll be satisfied when I have something that functions like an AH. To this point, that's not what we have.

This. And as you can see from posts and (more importantly) the poll results, we are NOT in agreement that the system is fine as it is, and most players do want an AH where they can simply buy what they search for instead of having to manually walk there. A price history is also needed, as it is I either need to hope there's a few items so I know what to list sale prices are, or check a site like ffxivpro, and when I need to check a third party site for a basic economic transaction something has gone wrong.

The wards are just one example of the many extraneous time sinks of this game that keep people on a limited schedule from maximizing their time enjoying the content. Thankfully, the producer seems to recognize this and hopefully an AH will arrive soon that will cut out the flab and let me actually play the game as opposed to waste time with busywork.

[ShinChuck]

"Wards" are the AH. When people say they look forward to extra functions of wards, it's the same as saying they look forward to extra functions of an AH. Although as mentioned "the wards" are not just the AH, as they offer features that are not available in a traditional AH. Which is why calling the system "an AH" is not correct. An AH doesn't store items for you.

Yes, Wards are the AH - exactly what I said earlier in this topic long before you posted. My issue was simply that people were not acknowledging that as such.

What features do AHs offer that traditional AHs don't? You're mixing two systems - the Market Wards do not store items for you. Retainers do. And, as stated by myself and many others throughout the history of XIV, there's no reason Retainers couldn't be accessed from elsewhere.

[ShinChuck]

Yes, we don't NEED AH!

I love Market wards system and i'm sure Yoshi-P and his crew will make it even better in the future.

I agree, the crew will make the basic Auction House we currently have better in the future, since they ditched the Wards system by definition as soon as they added a search function.

[Betelgeuzah]

Yes, Wards are the AH - exactly what I said earlier in this topic long before you posted. My issue was simply that people were not acknowledging that as such.

Yes, they are. The only people not acknowledging it are those who want a separate AH instead of improving the Marketplace.

What features do AHs offer that traditional AHs don't? You're mixing two systems - the Market Wards do not store items for you. Retainers do.

And you do not use the Market Wards to sell or buy items for you- you use the Retainers.

The two systems are so closely integrated that it is silly to think that they should be kept separate. Without Retainers the Marketplace wouldn't function. They are as crucial part of the system as the item search screen is. Even more so in-fact. Should the item search function be kept separate from the Marketplace too?

[ShinChuck]

Yes, they are. The only people not acknowledging it are those who want a separate AH instead of improving the Marketplace.

You're being entirely too literal. The Marketplace *is* a basic AH. The people asking for an AH would be quite content to have the Wards improved to match a traditional AH's offerings. And yet, the entire topic is full of people saying they *don't* want an AH, they like the *wards* better - when at this point they're referring to a rose by different names. And a rose is still a rose by any other name.

And you do not use the Market Wards to sell or buy items for you- you use the Retainers.

The two systems are so closely integrated that it is silly to think that they should be kept separate. Without Retainers the Marketplace wouldn't function. They are as crucial part of the system as the item search screen is. Even more so in-fact. Should the item search function be kept separate from the Marketplace too?

Er, why not? As someone else posted, Retainers have a level - it would be an easy transition to Adventuring Fellow/mule. They are not a crucial part, at all. They are simply random stand-ins that don't need to be there, an arbitrary location to go to to receive an item. There's really no reason not to do it all from a menu at this point. The concept of Retainers as sellers is a relic of the *dead* original concept behind Wards.

[Jojo]

I understand both people's sides on this debate but I do have to chime in here in favor of an auction house. Why? This is the process I go through in order to find armor for myself:

1. I go to zam and do a search for the optimal armor for my level and class. (I actually like to wear armor that benefits me and isn't the highest level)
2. I go to the market ward and hope someone is selling what I need.
3. No one is selling what I need so I go back to zam and find something else I might could use.
4. Rinse repeat.

Sure once I know what I want I can just go and search for it but it would really be nice to go to the wards and just browse... and not have to go to any external site to find out info about what armor I'd need for my rank. Ideally I'd like an AH that let's you search for items/armor by rank and class and that only shows you items that are actually there. (Maybe this has changed but last I checked it would show an item even if it had 0 there.)

In other games one of my favorite things to do is go and just browse the auction house and see what is on there. I can spend forever just looking through things and making plans for how much money I need to gather etc etc.

For me it isn't a "OMG DO THIS NOW." type of thing because the one that is out there now is workable... but it sure would be nice for those of us who like to window shop to be able to do so and not have to rely on fansites to help us make those decisions every time.

[trinta]

And you do not use the Market Wards to sell or buy items for you- you use the Retainers.

I do, however, use the Market Wards to search for the items I am going to buy (or to help price the ones I'm going to sell)--these are not retainer-based functions, they are AH functions.

The two systems are so closely integrated that it is silly to think that they should be kept separate.

They are separate, as noted above.

Without Retainers the Marketplace wouldn't function.

But an AH would function just fine without retainer involvement. Why do you want to make things harder than they have to be?

My two retainers hold specific categories of items. If I'm in Gridania and my bags are full of logs, but my carpentry retainer is selling Ul'dah, I have to have him quit selling in order to manage my inventory. An AH does not present this difficulty.

AH please.

[Nataku]

This has been discussed so much in other forums and I still have yet to hear one good reason why we should keep the wards and not have an AH.

1. I would bet that 95% of people go on websites like YG to look for items and price history ANYWAYS, so why not just have an AH??

2.How do you people know how much to buy and sell without a decent price history??

3. Why do you like to go through extra steps to buy stuff??

4. Whydo you like the fact that you can't even see what you just sold??

5. Don't you think the economy will move faster when things are less of a hassle to buy and sell?