Why isn't housing a normal auction process?

[Gyson]

2) This only means that people will camp it at the last minute: Imagine this. You put in a bid of 3 mil on day 1. 6 days later, you're excited - no one's outbid you! Your house seems almost reassured. Bound to you. YOURS.
Except SavvyMcUnderstandsHowAuctionsWorks waits until the last minute and puts in a bid of 3.1mil. He wins the auction, and you lose.

While I disagree with the auction suggestion, snipe bidding only works when people are attempting to be cheap.

If you bid the maximum amount you're willing to pay you'll never lose because a bid was "sniped". And by "lose" I mean this: if the maximum you're willing to pay is 1000 gil, and someone bids 1001 gil at the last second, then you didn't lose because of *how* they bid, but rather because they were simply willing to pay more than you were. Whether they bid 1001 gil a second before the auction ended or weeks before it ended would be irrelevant if you're not willing to go over 1000 gil - you lost because they were willing to pay more, not because of timing. And if you were willing to pay 1002, that's what you should have bid to start off with (particularly if the auctions uses a smart bid system (like ebay)).

[Eidolon]

Snip

the ONLY way this system works, is when you can anonymously put up the maximum amount and not have it be represented. If it's seen that you bid 1002 gil, then it's a faulted system for the same reasons I said so (And honestly you're just shooting yourself in the foot if you overbid on an item.)

[Colorful]

While I disagree with the auction suggestion, snipe bidding only works when people are attempting to be cheap.

If you bid the maximum amount you're willing to pay you'll never lose because a bid was "sniped". And by "lose" I mean this: if the maximum you're willing to pay is 1000 gil, and someone bids 1001 gil at the last second, then you didn't lose because of *how* they bid, but rather because they were simply willing to pay more than you were. Whether they bid 1001 gil a second before the auction ended or weeks before it ended would be irrelevant if you're not willing to go over 1000 gil - you lost because they were willing to pay more, not because of timing. And if you were willing to pay 1002, that's what you should have bid to start off with (particularly if the auctions uses a smart bid system (like ebay)).

If someone is willing to bid 4 million gil, they're willing to bid 4 million and 1 gil. Auction sniping is a real issue no matter how you spin it, the only solution is to have it so you have to outbid someone by a certain percentage, say 20%. Regardless of that, I think the auction idea is awful, saved gil for over a year doing things you enjoyed for a small house when they eventually become available? That's too bad, as a crafter with hundreds of millions gil will outbid you with more than you can make in 5 years of casual play (not taking into account gil inflation). Just seems like a suggestion that favours one kind of player over the other "That player bought the house first, that's unfair, it should have been a bid system so I could have outbid them with my immense wealth". Both are awful systems due to the limited demand, but one puts all players on equal footing while the other favours the richer players.

[Gyson]

If someone is willing to bid 4 million gil, they're willing to bid 4 million and 1 gil. Auction sniping is a real issue no matter how you spin it, the only solution is to have it so you have to outbid someone by a certain percentage, say 20%.

Then make your initial bid 4,000,001 gil if that's what you were willing to bid. You also have it within your power to set your max bid at 4 million + 20%. If you were willing to pay more than that, then obviously you're not placing your maximum bid and making yourself vulnerable to snipe bidding. That's why I said "bid the maximum amount you're willing to pay".. "maximum" meaning just what it means.

At a certain point there's a number where you're going to be saying "I'm already paying far more than I wanted to and refuse to pay even a penny more", and then if someone outbids you that's how the cookie crumbles (regardless of when it happens). Be honest with yourself (particularly when a smart-bid system is in place) and snipe bidding becomes meaningless.

Not gonna argue. Reevaluate your statement after you actually buy a house

Congratulations to you if you were fortunate enough to buy real estate in real life without entering a bidding war with other interested parties. Suggesting it doesn't happen is incorrect, though.

[Colorful]

At a certain point there's a number where you're going to be saying "I'm already paying far more than I wanted to and refuse to pay even a penny more", and then if someone outbids you that's how the cookie crumbles (regardless of when it happens). Be honest with yourself (particularly when a smart-bid system is in place) and snipe bidding becomes meaningless.

Then we have two different mindsets, if I think that 6 million is the most I'd ever be willing to pay, I'm going to go the extra mile and pay a few gil extra. I'm willing to pay 6,000,230 gil, but now 6,500,000 gil. A dungeon run gets me what, a few thousand gil?That's the ability to have a sniping war for quite a lengthy amount of time depending on how soon they snipe. All it really results in salty players and however places the last bid by some lucky miracle. Disregarding the sniping argument, there's still the situation where only rich players have access to even small housing. Are you honestly telling me those who play the game all day crafting and making hundreds of millions should be the only ones allowed to own a house? In what way is that a better system than what we have now? It's an alternative, in no way is it better.

[Gyson]

Q:

Are you honestly telling me those who play the game all day crafting and making hundreds of millions should be the only ones allowed to own a house? In what way is that a better system than what we have now? It's an alternative, in no way is it better.

A:

While I disagree with the auction suggestion, snipe bidding only works when people are attempting to be cheap.

/10char

[Colorful]

Q:



A:



/10char

My bad, I should have read it over. .-. Well glad to see you agree then, I don't see how the OP finds any benefit to this system. If you're already rolling in gil you might as well buy the house from another player.

[Gamer3427]

While I disagree with the auction suggestion, snipe bidding only works when people are attempting to be cheap.

If you bid the maximum amount you're willing to pay you'll never lose because a bid was "sniped". And by "lose" I mean this: if the maximum you're willing to pay is 1000 gil, and someone bids 1001 gil at the last second, then you didn't lose because of *how* they bid, but rather because they were simply willing to pay more than you were. Whether they bid 1001 gil a second before the auction ended or weeks before it ended would be irrelevant if you're not willing to go over 1000 gil - you lost because they were willing to pay more, not because of timing. And if you were willing to pay 1002, that's what you should have bid to start off with (particularly if the auctions uses a smart bid system (like ebay)).

The purpose of an auction isn't to bid your maximum amount at first. That would simply be stupid because you could very well end up overpaying. When you bid at an auction, you bid the minimum amount required to beat the other bidders, then you offer more money if someone else outbids you. In the end, it is whoever is willing to pay the most over all, but the goal isn't to hit that cap immediately because other potential buyer's caps may be far lower and you're wasting your money if you pay your maximum immediately. This is why snipe bidding works, because the "sniper" is willing to pay a large amount of money to get the product, but they're smart enough to realize that they don't HAVE to if they wait and bid just slightly higher than the previous bidder at the last second. You say it only works when "people are attempting to be cheap", but that is indeed the primary point of an auction. Otherwise you'd have people paying a ludicrous amount of money for these things right off the bat, (for example in this case 500mil gil), because they didn't care about saving money. Auctions are designed to be so that whoever is willing to pay the most for an item, pays the least they could conceivably have to pay for it.....

As for the topic in question, I don't support this at all. The housing market is already controlled by a relatively small group of people who sit and watch for plots to open and buy them immediately. Sometimes though, other people can get them because they're a little bit faster. With an auction system though, the people with massive quantities of gil, (let's be honest, most of which are gil sellers), wouldn't have to watch for when plots of land open up. They'd just have to see when the last days of an auction are, and focus on outbidding people then. There would be no chance at all for houses to slip past them UNLESS someone Sniped them, which is highly unlikely to occur.....