Linking Market Wards to all 3 Cities

[syntaxlies]

i had said this before too. i also said to buy from item search counter and pay a fee for delivery since the items would e coming from "airship". well they added a couple of things,lol.

[syntaxlies]

Problem is that SE are consistantly putting new NPC only in Uldah or the surrounding area's.

Materia Goblin, Ifrit/Moogle Loot NPC, it seems they aren't interested in spreading the population into other cities.

ifrit has been there since main story line so cant help it. they have you go to grid to activate the quest each time. and grid has moogle.Also i never go the materia NPC so that wouldn't anchor me to a location.

[Conradus]

ifrit has been there since main story line so cant help it. they have you go to grid to activate the quest each time. and grid has moogle.Also i never go the materia NPC so that wouldn't anchor me to a location.

True enough, except when you need materia removed from an item (which isn't often at all), you don't go there more than three, maybe four times--in order to learn making materia, gathering catalysts, melding materia, and melding multiple materia.

[syntaxlies]

True enough, except when you need materia removed from an item (which isn't often at all), you don't go there more than three, maybe four times--in order to learn making materia, gathering catalysts, melding materia, and melding multiple materia.

i personally would never try to remove the materia, id rather go for a double meld and risk losing the gear since im gonna lose the materia anyway. but thats me.

people are anchored to uldah cause no one wants to be the first to put their retainers in wards no one goes in. i could say screw it im gonna go to LL and list my items in LL to break this trend, but id probably be doing it alone.

[Roaran]

I'd like to hop in and just say something.

Having markets linked is a good thing for players in all situations if you looks specifically at economics. However, if you looks at 'immersion' or 'realism' linking the markets may not be desireable.

In the absence of linked markets, usually people would act as merchants, buying products from one market transporting them to where the demand is. The problem is... you can't make much gil as a merchant when you're limited to 20 or so slots to sell. The point is... players acting as merchants would solve the separate market problem on its own ... if such an environment were to be encouraged.

This is essentially the ideal solution that satisfies all conditions. It allows players access to all supplies of eorzea wherever demand is created, and sacrifices no 'realism' or 'immersion.'

Why this is important is... the only real arguments against having linked markets are immersion and realism ( I understand that hardly anyone, even those interested in economic activity may find the amount of immersion and realism tepid at most), but the fact that there is no real sacrifice in either immersion or realism and the enhancement of the availablity of supply, which is the desired end in linking the market wards, is still achieved; I just can't see a better solution I guess.

If you open up many more slots for people to sell things, you could have an entire merchant class of players. This actually enhances the 'immersion/realism' and enhances the availability of supply.

[AngryNixon]

I'd like to hop in and just say something.

Having markets linked is a good thing for players in all situations if you looks specifically at economics. However, if you looks at 'immersion' or 'realism' linking the markets may not be desireable.

Let's not 'looks' at these nonsense "define these in whatever way best suits your argument against whatever the hell you're railing against" terms anymore and do something that makes sense and makes interaction with the economy in this game more convenient and efficient for everyone involved. More slots will not have the outcome you predict. So long as the system remains a series of isolated pockets, people will congregate at the geographic centre because it is convenient and efficient and I promise you they will stay there. A larger amount of slots will lead to one thing, a higher volume of trade in Ul'Dah.

Linking the wards may not undo all of the reality that people will congregate but it does remove a portion of the reason people have for being in one place. If that diverts even 20-30% of people to a different city (the one they want to hang out in as opposed to the one they hang out in because that's the rational choice), then linking the wards is a good idea in my humble estimation.

[...] If you open up many more slots for people to sell things, you could have an entire merchant class of players. This actually enhances the 'immersion/realism' and enhances the availability of supply.

This should be done regardless. A low limit on what you can list is pointless and hamstrings the overall volume of transactions in the markets and the availability/variety of goods players can buy from other players. Add to this the fact that listing items for repair, or listing your desire to buy something requires two slots (hopefully something that will no longer be the case in 2.0), the addition of slots makes a great deal of practical sense. I wager, however, that this is another one of those "cannot because of poor architecture" topics.

[Katella_Avenlea]

Yes Please! This would be great!

[syntaxlies]

some people say this would ruin immersion. there is an ath gate right near the wards so paying the tax for "delivery" would cover that.

[Roaran]

My point was that the only arguments (I happen to think they are very weak ones) against linking the markets are realism and immersion.

Opening more slots, preferably a lot more like 100-200, or the retainer's whole inventory for transactions would absolutely have the effect of creating merchants.

It would be incredibly proftiable moving goods between markets, and those who see that fact would benefit greatly from those who do not understand it. This is exactly what happens in real life, wherever there is a demand, the supply follows if it can. There is no denying that.

If there is not enough demand, as I believe you suggest people would still congregate around a single market, then the need to link the markets themselves is diminished even more.

So while in my post I stated at the very beginning, having a linked market wards is 100% beneficial in the pure economic sense, as it allows supplies to meet demand much easier, simply linking the market wards is not the only option, and it may not be the best option for the devs to consider.

There is also another issue to consider, the limiting of the transaction slots is not merely an arbitrary limit on the flow of goods. It also forces players to make opportunity costs when they are selling things. If they have 10 slots, they will make sure the items with the highest value in proportion to the time it takes to sell them are actually for sale. This also has the added effect of preventing items obtained randomly or by accident/chance from being sold on the markets; this tends to promote specialization as well.

So, even though my position is that opening transaction slots is favorable to the market as a whole, it is not such a clear cut decision.

Edit: Although there used to be very good reasons, outside the economic ones, to congregate in Ul'dah, they simply do not exist today. There is a search party feature that cross all regions, most chat is done through Linkpearls, and experience is balanced throughout the regions. Eliminating economic reason would allow players to spread out if they wish to do so.

[Rukkirii]

We are planning on linking all three market wards together in 2.0! The reason behind not being able to link them earlier than that is due to the current system limitations.