Why further enhancements to market wards?

[Draco]

So with the most recent letter from the producer, came anouncement of further improvements to the market wards. I still do not understand why it is necessary to improve a failing system and a system that ( according to industry standards ) noon wants. Why not take that manpower and create an AH system that is linked between all the cities so that we can finally scrap the market ward system. I understand that some players have grown accustomed to the wards and have learned to go about day to day business as usual with that in place. However, if this game ever plans to release on PS3 and plans to increase its numbers, market wards are only going to continue to be an issue due to the rapid increase in population. I also read the entire list and saw that there was no mention of a Mailbox or Mog House anywhere on the list. I am truly enjoying the recent and upcomming changes to the game, but still am not seeing any of the "big things" that made up the great FFXI infrastructure, comming to life in FFXIV. I know battle systems and armory systems take priority, but I wish that the dev's would announce plans for Mog House, Mailbox, and AH for the future. Alot of players have given up asking for these things, but I have played many MMO's and I do not ever see FFXIV growing to any form of population that can bring in decent revenue without them.

This is the current process of purchasing and equipping an entire set of gear using the FFXIV Market Ward system

Walk up to Wards
Select Item Search Counter
Select desired ward
Select desired catergory
Find Item
Select Item
Hit "Yes" button at bottom to track item
Select Market Wards
Select desired ward
Wait for loading screen
Run to desired retainer and select
Purchase desired item from retainer
Run back to the Market Ward window

Rinse and repeat about 5-10 times until you have a complete set of gear

[Felis]

Because nobody want an AH. They want a Broker house, which the market ward is in some way.

[Seif]

AH would at least get some people who have left give this game another chance. Nobody is going to return when they know that the MW system that they hated has been slightly tweaked. Also no amount of fixing the MW will ever make them as handy as XI's AH.

Seems like SE's priorities are still all over the place with bikinis and leve tweaks when the real big issues that they have known since the first player poll are yet to be addressed.

I agree with the OP that even telling about plans for these basic features to be added would give a lot of players more faith in this game's future.

I saw a very old article on IGN today "what MMO should you play" and even though the content is ages old I think this one quote sums up XIV's development and public perception of SE's actions really well:

Version/latest additions: Final Fantasy XIV was released with a load of bugs, so most of the recent and future patches are simply going to address those. Most of the patch notes still address minor bugs while major issues (such as the broken Bazaar system) remain problematic.

[PrettyPrincess]

Seems like SE's priorities are still all over the place with bikinis and leve tweaks

Comments like this are annoying as hell. There are separate teams for these kinds of things. Battle Team isn't doing Season Events Teams job. vice versa

[syntaxlies]

Comments like this are annoying as hell. There are separate teams for these kinds of things. Battle Team isn't doing Season Events Teams job. vice versa

i think you took it a little to literal. What i think he meant was the seasonal events are all fine and dandy but please lets fix the game.

market wards still suck.

[PrettyPrincess]

They are fixing the game. Just because Events team releases a seasonal event doesn't mean the other teams stop what they're doing

[Stockapotapoulos]

So with the most recent letter from the producer, came anouncement of further improvements to the market wards. I still do not understand why it is necessary to improve a failing system and a system that ( according to industry standards ) noon wants.

Speak for yourself, cousin! I want the Market Wards in! It needs some more tweaking with the UI, but I wouldn't call it a failing system.

One little thing I wish they had in the Wards is when you search for an item, it would also display the retainer's "owner." That way, I can ask him or her directly if I need an item ordered.

[PrettyPrincess]

One little thing I wish they had in the Wards is when you search for an item, it would also display the retainer's "owner." That way, I can ask him or her directly if I need an item ordered.

This would be amazingly chaotic. We'd finally know who all those damn undercutters are

[Stockapotapoulos]

This would be amazingly chaotic. We'd finally know who all those damn undercutters are

Hmm... that's probably why they didn't include the retainer's owner then! :P

Really, my reason was more naive.

"Hey, man! I see you be slangin' them Leather Tool Belts. Can I place an order from you directly for Dodoskin Boots?"

[Abriael]

So with the most recent letter from the producer, came anouncement of further improvements to the market wards. I still do not understand why it is necessary to improve a failing system and a system that ( according to industry standards ) noon wants.

Let me give you a small lesson in life.

You =/= Everyone. The fact that you don't want something doesn't mean that "no one" (I think this is the expression you're looking for) wants it.

Anyone with a sufficent amount of gray matter would understand that improving a system that's already in place takes less resources and development time than scrapping it and creating a completely new one.

Wanting the second option makes even less sense and is even more unreasonable considering that the market wards are almost an equivalent to an auction house at the moment. The difference is so minimal that it's irrelevant.

AH would at least get some people who have left give this game another chance.

It takes an amazingly small brain to have the presence or absence of an AH system (when the game already has something that's basically an equivalent) as a deciding point on playing a game or not.

Not one bit surprised that you'd quite IGN though, everyone knows that you can't spell IGNorant without IGN.