Market Ward concept has failed

[Zelas]

What truly annoys me is the lack of items in the Ward. It's as if people on Wutai didn't use it at all. '_' I want an AH. Please.

[Souljacker]

The wards are a mess - there is no denying it. I started a new character with this patch to experience the changes with a fresh perspective, but even with the additions to the wards like the search counter and the consolidation of types of floors it's still nothing more than a laggy mess.

Prices are all over the place, and I mean really outrageous prices like 9999999 for a piece of level 15 armor. There's almost nothing available for the new player, and there is no way for the market to stabilize itself using this system.

The market wards have to go.

[Kio]

... But still, why do they exist? ...

Quote snipped. The direct answer to this, I fear, is that SE's original plans was to motivate people into adding $1 per retainer per running subscription. Mind, we were only intended originally to have one freebee retainer. People were supposed to be motivated to buy additional retainers per ward per city they wanted to sell in. With the option of not, but losing out on game profits by high tax penalties or not being represented in a pocket market. To my knowledge this plan is still going forward after billing is reinstated.

We've been promised numerous times, that if the fan base wanted an auction house so will it be. However, its been a very long time that we've requested it and we still get the same response. I've become to fear that the promise of the auction house is an empty one.

If the reason why the wards are kept on life support is a financial one, I can't say I entirely blame SE for trying. the FF series mmo's have the unique and wonderful feature of centralizing around one character and one subscription. Unlike other MMO's on the market which gather a few extra bucks off people who have to pay to play as an alternative class. There's really was never a need for anyone to buy an extra character in FFXI unless...wait for it... you wanted extra spaces to sell stuff on the auction house. FFXIV is the same way, more or less, except switch out mules for future retainers.

I don't like any bit of it though.

I'm confused as to why people settle for the wards and don't better advocate for an auction system. Because they added a sort of search function and that's good enough? It's all lipstick on a pig to me. The only argument I ever see repeated is players don't want them to focus resources on making something different at a time when other things should be done. But if you look into the development schedule, they have more market ward stuff planned. If they're putting time on the plate for wards anyway, it could just as easily be diverted into an auction house.

[DoubleEcho]

The only issue I have with the market wards is the horrible undercutting going on. When you have a price war with someone or multiple people just to sell a shield, and end up selling it for less than a R15 shield, who ends up winning? The buyer, but not the seller. It makes crafters less motivated to actually craft something and sell it. I've heard of people getting into price wars purposely just to buy a competing retainers wares for cheap and then re-sell them at a higher price.

This may be a symptom of low server population, but it's just annoying.

[Shyd]

.........It's all lipstick on a pig to me.

Market Wards is one SEXY pig!

[Souljacker]

If the reason why the wards are kept on life support is a financial one, I can't say I entirely blame SE for trying. the FF series mmo's have the unique and wonderful feature of centralizing around one character and one subscription. Unlike other MMO's on the market which gather a few extra bucks off people who have to pay to play as an alternative class. There's really was never a need for anyone to buy an extra character in FFXI unless...wait for it... you wanted extra spaces to sell stuff on the auction house. FFXIV is the same way, more or less, except switch out mules for future retainers.

Well that's not entirely true. There's probably only a handful of lesser mmos that require you to pay for additional characters - mainstream games like WoW and Rift give you ten per realm, 50 realms total or something equally ridiculous. That's a lot of characters for your subscription, and it's actually a lot less limiting than FFXI and XIV if you really take the time to think about it. FFXI could argue a convenience factor with having everything centralized, but it should in no way affect the standard mmo base price and it always felt like a heavy-handed tactic.

If they continue with these plans, I can guarantee you their next reviews will be even worse than the last ones, because when the game is fixed to a point where they CAN charge for it, what they DO charge for it will be in the spotlight. No one is going to understand why SE seems to need to charge 3$ per extra character \ 1$ per retainer when WoW lets you have 50 with your subscription.

[Platinumstorm]

I'm enjoying the market wards.

[Rimmer]

If only the wards would go die in a fire...we'll get there eventually.

I think its going to be the single most destructive force in this game come PS3 release if it isnt removed, much like PC release, people are going to take one look at it and go "What the F@~!" and never look at the game again.

All of these features they are adding to the wards over the past few months, its begining to feel more like an AH, get rid of the tedious zone switching and running through each ward and what we got really is an auction house at the end of the day.

[tymora]

Keep it around as bazaar land...better than people crowding up the maps...

[Aeyis]

Well that's not entirely true. There's probably only a handful of lesser mmos that require you to pay for additional characters - mainstream games like WoW and Rift give you ten per realm, 50 realms total or something equally ridiculous. That's a lot of characters for your subscription, and it's actually a lot less limiting than FFXI and XIV if you really take the time to think about it.

As someone who had...8? Maxed level characters in wow during WotLK, i can tell you that its not quite as limitless as youd think.

Why? Because all of those chars i mentioned save 1 after all different classes. >.>
Those classes have also been almost every spec imagineable, even changing things like only a few points..which really hurts you monetary gain.

FFXIV may have little available in terms of quantity of chars, but you can do A LOT more with a single character then in any 'mainstream' mmos ive played.

Actually, most games beat WoW in that aspect, seeing as how wow doesnt even have character based customizable stats points.

So as far as ''taking a little time to think about it'', take a bit longer to think about it, and youll reach the same conclusion.