Any word on when we will get an Auction House?

[kukurumei]

This. We really don't need an auction house now, and the state of the game is in, this definitely should not be SE's priority.

How about the opposite, the ward is so much like the AH, why not take one more step, and take out the retainer system.

Then we can move them into a proper "moggle" house, and stop with the lag-a-ton from exchanging items to, running around the wards.

Really...AH = buy and sell
Retainers = move around a lot, with lots of unneeded tracking.

[Seirra_Lanzce]

i thought we already have a Icon marker o_O why so hard to track a retainer down?

[Xagen]

You incidentally mentioned a very important reason why price histories matter--we should not have to check third party sites just to know the market price for an item. In fact, the format those sites have make me think that they violate the ToS just by existing. Knowing the price history is not just relevant, but vital to the proper functioning of the economy. Without that, people can (and have) bought out all of a certain item and jacked up the price, and no one would be the wiser without the history.

Agree with everything you said there.

[OJtheLIONKing]

i thought we already have a Icon marker o_O why so hard to track a retainer down?

It may not make a huge difference to people with awesome gaming rigs, but for those of us just barely meeting the required specs it takes a while to zone. Why should I have to select the item in search, then wait for zone, then wait for the retainers to load, then go to his menu and wait a bit for his menu to load, but woops he doesn't have the +1 I was looking for, wasted time.

That kind of rambled on but you get my point, just being able to buy it straight from the search menu saves a lot of wasted time that I could be using actually playing the game. The various issues with having retainers handle the items instead of a central ephemeral auction house have already been delved into, as well.

[Abriael]

How about the opposite, the ward is so much like the AH, why not take one more step, and take out the retainer system.

because the retainer system is an unique and enjoyable part of the game?

"since you're at it, why don't you scrap all your work and buy the code directly from Blizzard?"

Come on...

[Alos]

I do not want an auction house, an auction house only encourages speculation Money.

[TheVedis]

There is already a building in Limsa Lominsa assigned to be an auction house. It still isn't open though, but you can see from the insignia on the door that it will be an auction house. If you want to see it, it is near the docks in Limsa Lominsa. I stumbled upon it yesterday.

Thats not an AH, its the "Judge" class (sorry had to say it)

[Yumi_Hibiki]

Seriously with the current state of the market wards a auction house is not needed anymore.
In some situations it already better then one, for example you can sell hundreds of items seperately (i have like 300 pieces of cloth on my retainer for sale) which wouldnt be possible with an AH. You can also sell full stacks if thats what you want.
I dont understand all the people complaining about the SHORT walk to fetch the item, i mean comeon it doesnt even take 2 minutes, do you guys all have your fridge next to your couch that you loath walking so much?

[Abraxai]

Without reading the previous pages of this post I'll give my two pennies...

For me personally, an Auction House isn't just a simpler means of buying and selling, it's also the things that tie in and link with that sort of system, such as a delivery box system, and a storage system, ala Mog Houses.. For us to send, recieve, collect and store our items and wares. While yes, the retainer wards have seen dramatic improvements since the launch of the game, after 500 updates it will never be as efficient or as user friendly on the members or the UI as simply integrating an Auction House would be, not to mention it would also pad out a lot of that blank spacing around the City Nations that we see..

Why would people objectify the implementation of such an easy, smooth and useful system?

Albeit it not being top priority, smoothness and user friendliness of the UI and related systems are pretty high on the agenda, surely the buying/selling process falls into that category?

Edit:

Something I would also like to add is the unattractiveness of the Market Wards as current. Ward after ward of blocked up NPC's and a zone line on the outside that is crammed full of people standing blankly at the item search feature.

While yes, an Auction House imposes the same sort of limitations, (people standing at the counter), this is at least warranted as if you are transacting something between you and the Auction House itself.. Rather than staring blankly at what looks to be another pathway / alleyway leading deeper into Ul'dah itself.

[ShinChuck]

It doesn't matter whether it's expensive or not, it is useless and that is what matters. It also matters what is given up in exchange for implementing this change (features that are actually useful to the game?). There has to be an exchange as long as they can not do everything they need to do. And this game has enough work for that requirement to be fulfilled.

So you've admitted Retainers could be useful even with an AH. You've admitted it'd wouldn't be necessarily expensive or hard to change. And you've yet to argue any one of the number one benefits myself and many others have listed to making that change, whereas myself and others have pointed out you could have ALL the benefits without losing a single useful feature.

Repeating "it's useless" without saying why all those benefits are useless does not make it true. Now, would you like to continue a serious debate? I'll gladly do so. But if you're going to simply repeat points, never use supporting evidence, and never deny any claims against you, then let's just move on.