My Dream of an Improved Market Ward System (No AH necessary)

[Denmo]

You mean just like how FFXI has all the AH's linked?

That must be a recent change, because when I played, Bastok, Windy, and Sandy all had seperate AH's from Jeuno/Whitegate. And I never heard any big complaints.

[Jinko]

It wouldn't make sense for every city-state to share the same market. It's an argument of player immersion vs player convenience, and in this case I think player immersion takes precedence. It was never a big issue in FFXI. Each city state had its own seperate AH and micro-economies. Everyone migrated to Jeuno/Whitegate, and that became the overall market.

Right now we're all in Uldah. I'd imagine we'll be in Ishgard when it comes out. The market goes where the players go.

It was a massive inconvience in FF11 and they eventually linked them anyway, it needs to happen in FF14 aswell mainly to solve the issue with Ul'dah becoming the centralised hub, although I think it could be a bit late for that now.

[AmyRae]

I don't believe adding more coats of paint to the market wards, or using new ideas that further its convolution, are really going to make them a suitable replacement for an auction house.

Frankly, the auction house concept was a fantastic, original idea when introduced in FFXI, and an idea that's often been copied by its competitors since. It's heartbreaking that SE would turn their backs on such a fine legacy and replace it with an economic system more suited to MMOs of the 90s. There's no sense in furthering a failed system.

[Fear]

FFXI had all of its AH's linked in an update about 2-3 months ago, sharing all the market wards in 1 area would be helpful to everyone, mainly people wouldn't need to go to ul'dah to buy stuff

[Denmo]

the auction house concept was a fantastic, original idea

I could be seriously wrong, but I don't think XI was the first to implement an AH.

As for AH, you could still have it and market wards with my idea. You could even overlay AH onto it, and have a "Buy it Now" feature for an added fee, thus making bidding cheaper and more viable. I'm not arguing for/against AH here. I just think that the wards could be an awesome thing if they did it right.

It's not "adding more coats of paint". It's doing away with whats wrong (crowded NPCs standing in a ward) and reshaping it into something that makes sense.

[AmyRae]

I could be seriously wrong, but I don't think XI was the first to implement an AH.

As for AH, you could still have it and market wards with my idea. You could even overlay AH onto it, and have a "Buy it Now" feature for an added fee, thus making bidding cheaper and more viable. I'm not arguing for/against AH here. I just think that the wards could be an awesome thing if they did it right.

It's not "adding more coats of paint". It's doing away with whats wrong (crowded NPCs standing in a ward) and reshaping it into something that makes sense.

Yes, they came up with the auction house, first.

And yes, your idea is just more coats of paint (no offense). The problems with the Market Wards are that they aren't an auction house with no need to set up and use NPC vendors whatsoever. So rather than slowly morphing it into an AH (which is a silly idea), why not simply create an auction house properly from the ground up?

Besides, the market wards can stay. It has some use as an offline bazaar for those who really want such a thing. It just can't ever be anything that approaches the functionality of an auction house without fundamentally being turned into one.

[Denmo]

Yes, they came up with the auction house, first.

Link? I'm googling it all over and can't find any wiki or article saying XI did it first.

And yes, your idea is just more coats of paint (no offense). The problems with the Market Wards are that they aren't an auction house with no need to set up and use NPC vendors whatsoever. So rather than slowly morphing it into an AH (which is a silly idea), why not simply create an auction house properly from the ground up?

Besides, the market wards can stay. It has some use as an offline bazaar for those who really want such a thing. It just can't ever be anything that approaches the functionality of an auction house without fundamentally being turned into one.

The problem with market wards is that they aren't Auction houses? What kind of argument is that?

My solution would be dressing them up like AH's, yes. It would also find an easy solution for SE, one that's cost effective and doesn't require them to rewrite the system from the ground up. They would only have to redo the instanced areas and add housing, which they already planned on doing eventually. The only inconvenience to you would be hiring a retainer still. Can you tell me what other inconvenience my idea would be vs what an AH could do?

FFXI had all of its AH's linked in an update about 2-3 months ago, sharing all the market wards in 1 area would be helpful to everyone, mainly people wouldn't need to go to ul'dah to buy stuff

I suppose with my system you could also have your retainer set to have access to the markets of other city states, like say your retainer's well-traveled. That way someone in Gridania could call up the retainer of someone from Uldah, or whatever, and the markets would be linked simply by retainers on an individual basis.

If I could draw a picture of this I would lol.

[AmyRae]

The problem with market wards is that they aren't Auction houses? What kind of argument is that?

It really helps to read the whole sentence, not just stop halfway. Context is a bitch.

[Denmo]

I did, and you should to. We want the same thing - Easy access to buying/selling items from a centralized location. You just want the label of Auction House, and to remove all ties from the current Market Wards system. I want to remove all the negative aspects of the wards and turn it into something functional that makes sense in the FFXIV world, without removing it as a whole. And I think that having your retainer as your interface to the markets is the way to go.

I don't think it's silly or a pipe dream. It's taking what's there and using it to give everyone what they want. Why is everyone so hung up on Auction Houses only?

[Nakiamiie]

Well, what I would like to see are open world retainer counters in addition to the market wards. More counters for lease in each ward of the market wards. Bigger wards and force other player's retainer to be a minimum distance from your retainers (but, your own retainers can be as close as you want to from each other).

I see it like this:
you seamlessly enter a lobby area of the market wards. The lobby is equipped with a big counter with NPCs behind to help search for items. When you search for an item, you can then pay an additional fee to have it directly delivered in your pockets rather than going to look for the retainer. If you don't want to pay that additional fee, you proceed to the elevator in the lobby (or passage or whatever) and choose which area of the market wards you'd like move to (as usual). Once you arrive in the desired ward, the area is bigger, with more counters for lease. The place is less cluttered with retainers because it is bigger, there are more counters available, a minimum distance between each retainer is applied and there is a limit on how many retainers can be in a single ward. Since, there are still retainers standing and retainers behind counters, it still looks lively, but less chaotic. It also looks like it is really part of the city-state rather than just a game zone separated from the main city.

Also, in the lobby search counter, you get the option to look for retainers looking to buy things, not just selling. If the price is right for you, you either pay a fee to have it delivered to the retainer or go see it in person as usual.