Market Wards, enough is enough

[Dreamer]

the equivalent of why you like AH applied to the rest of the game would turn it into go to an npc counter, select your enemy from a list of all available enemies, choose level, and click to kill it. Its fast, its effecient, its also a pretty empty system. The reason you prefer it is because you dont like those aspects of gameplay and want to diminish it. This is fine, but some people actually like merchanting/selling etc, many people want to see it grow even more, with shop customization, bigger more complex wards, player owned shops, advertising, etc. The perfect AH that you want kills any possibility of this stuff mattering.

So its really just your opinion, on which type of game you would prefer to see created, and the level of immersion you want for that aspect of the game, maybe people share your opinion, maybe they dont.

A concise explanation of exactly why I don't want an AH. Well said.

[Kilta_Firelotus]

Actually in WoW or Aion you didn't rely on the AH for gear. You killed "always" up rare mobs, did quests, crafted all your gear you rarely had to BUY it. Only people who did infact BUY stuff are the ones who had money, and wanted the extra special shirt items or high end bags. Aion same thing you get 99% of your gear from quests. ffxi was the only mmo i played were players relied on the AH to get gear. And it was still a 50/50 chance of said gear from being up. When I was forced to quit ffxi gear from lvl50 down was nearly non existant on the AH. any one of them. Also I bought stuff via the MW and so far it takes me no more then 5 min to buy 7 items. Pretty much MW / ffxi AH are the same minus the walking. But the walking = the time it takes to place a bid and see if it goes through. Sometimes it can take 10 min to buy something on ffxi AH cuz of a too low bid. (and this was starting at last bought price or most used)
So really wtf is the issue? the ffxi AH was no more or less convient then the MW we got

[Tiraelina]

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Market_guide

Explains it better than I can myself.

[Shai]

http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Market_guide

Explains it better than I can myself.

I will ... read it if it isn't abysmally written after I finish a re-read of the Gamastutra article.

Also I agree with Kilta. 1 post out of 2,824 ain't bad.
The time spent walking is often the time spent bidding in XI. Good call.

[Rentahamster]

So really wtf is the issue? the ffxi AH was no more or less convient then the MW we got

Ideally, what would be best for the economy, and for the future success of the game, in my opinion, would be The market ward system, minus the NPCs, plus a quick and easy menu interface, plus buy orders, plus a comprehensive price history, minus FF11 style AH (placing bids, etc)

[Shai]

Ideally, what would be best for the economy, and for the future success of the game, in my opinion, would be The market ward system, minus the NPCs, plus a quick and easy menu interface, plus buy orders, plus a comprehensive price history, minus FF11 style AH (placing bids, etc)

What is the Market Ward without NPCs?
I'm having trouble visualizing this and not calling it the "common" AH.

[Poipori]

What is the Market Ward without NPCs?
I'm having trouble visualizing this and not calling it the "common" AH.

That is the whole point. Scrap that whole buggy, troublesome, good for nothing Market Ward concept.
Give us something more practical, easy to use and doesn't freakin crash every few days.

[Rentahamster]

What is the Market Ward without NPCs?
I'm having trouble visualizing this and not calling it the "common" AH.

That's the point. Currently, the MW's reliance on NPC retainers is more of a liability than a benefit. Fixing it requires much more overhauls to game engine efficiency and server optimization. If I were in charge, this is what I would do;

Temporarily remove the ward aspect of the market ward system, but keep the retainers as storage and bazaar.

Have all buying and selling be done through the item search interface menu. (this should not take long since they don't have to deal with NPC overcrowding anymore)

Fix the underlying game engine and server problems so that the game can sustain a single area full of NPC retainers.

Reintroduce the "ward" concept and reintroduce retainer bazaars along with features such as custom stalls, advertising, etc.

Side note: you may want to read my market stall suggestions in my gil sink thread for more insight.

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/11434-DevTalk-GIL-SINKS!-Ideas-to-Stabilize-the-Economy-and-Curb-Inflation

[Kilta_Firelotus]

Ideally, what would be best for the economy, and for the future success of the game, in my opinion, would be The market ward system, minus the NPCs, plus a quick and easy menu interface, plus buy orders, plus a comprehensive price history, minus FF11 style AH (placing bids, etc)

I find what we have now easyu. And i take interactive content vs a menue any day. Much like I perfer fable 3s sacurarry over oblivions menu system. Yes i need to walk to each option, but i'm keeping active and interacting as my character. To me it seems you want npc shops. But with little to no traveling to them. Since anything player driven will at somepoint be an inconvienence as no matter how "fast" you get the item via a menu there is still the chance of the gear you want even being there. This was a flaw in ffxi. XD. And is a flaw here too even with crafting classes. Considering a few things...

[Kilta_Firelotus]

features such as custom stalls you can customize the stalls. Just with a few limiting but well made options. color and type which are set in food, random, the empty look, and armor. You also can have the npc model a peice of gear your selling.
Personally speaking imo the only reason the wards crash is too many ppl put their retainers in to the same ward in uldah. When people put too many retainers in the same place and do not check them it tends to fill up the wards. Players can spread out their retainers a bit and sell stuff slowly per say. Like put everything you want to sell on your retainer, then say put up just your feathers in said proper ward. Once those sell of move to the next item and ward.
It isn't that hard to do. And is what I'm currently doing. If it don't sell I go to a different item. Then go back to that item at a lil lower price. I'm pretty much moving my retainers to different wards 2-3 times a day/week. I also sell stuff to npc if I feel like it.