Market Wards vs AH

[Demacia]

This isn't very practical. Adding a separate AH would bring up one of the many flaws of FFXI's economy and that's fragmentation.

On the other hand, adding all the features of an AH (with or without usage fees) to the market wards keeps the economy focused in one place and one overall database, without forcing people to check two separate systems to find the best prices.

As long as I'm not forced to use something as clunky as market wards and I can search for what I want and then buy it swiftly and hassle-free though the UI, I don't really care. I just don't want to have to search for my item, enter a separate zone with a loading screen, and physically walk to an NPC to buy a single item. It's extremely tedious, especially when looking for several items.

[Abriael]

As long as I'm not forced to use something as clunky as market wards and I can search for what I want and then buy it swiftly and hassle-free though the UI, I don't really care. I just don't want to have to search for my item, enter a separate zone with a loading screen, and physically walk to an NPC to buy a single item. It's extremely tedious, especially when looking for several items.

That's the whole point. Giving people the option to use the system they enjoy the most (or both) without having to waste development resources to scrap a system and make a new one from scratch.

[Malakhim]

Hey guys, there's this really awesome forum feature that I recently discovered called a "search function".

With it, I was able to pull up a thread that has been active for some time on a relevant topic(namely this one), without having to create another thread about it and thus taking up extra forum space(the other 10 new ones). Technology's awesome.

Seriously though, I have an idea that may seem a bit outlandish, but hear me out.

As I mentioned in an earlier post regarding the MW, I appreciate the idea, however upon further thought, I've come to the conclusion that the MW as I envisioned them were very much dependent on the implementation of companies, and without said companies, the MW idea kind of fizzled out for me.

What I thought of was that once the devs implement companies, they could allocate the Market Wards zones(after some visual sprucing up I mentioned before) to be designated zones for company housing. Each company would be able to promote themselves and their own wares in game using a variety of methods, and within or outside of a company's housing, they would have "company retainers" open up shop to sell whatever items the company deigns to create.

This of course could be supplemented by an external AH that might be open only to certain types of items(for example no crafting materials) that would behave like actual auction houses.

I think this would serve to create a huge sense of community and competition, as well as really give crafters(which I am not) an even bigger role in the game.