I really hope we can get physical markets someday

[Enkidoh]

Like how we used to have them?
Where there wasn't a market board but instead a sea of retainers and you had to click each one to see what it is selling and there wasn't a way to search for a specific item?

Or do you mean more like the markets people make in their housing since we can set up NPCs in our houses and yards and people can buy directly from their inventories? So people set them up with a theme and load this retainer down with lumber, that one with fashionable clothes, that one with raid food, etc.

OP I'm not entirely sure what you're asking for when you just say "physical markets." Can you elaborate?

There was in FFXIV version 1.0, the actual Market Wards in each city, and they were... quite frankly, AWFUL. There wasn't even a search function available for a good length of time, so you had to physically run around the entire damn Market trying to find a retainer selling what you were after (a search function was only belatedly added towards the end of 1.0's life after Yoshi took over as producer and director).

Add in the horribly cheesy elevator muzac (Nobuo Uematsu's infuriatingly cheery Supply and Demand) which just grated on the nerves after 10 seconds and made me want to start strangling the retainers, and yeah, it was just a horrible experience to have to deal with - a good idea that unfortunately did not work in practice on it's own, and was made worse by being terribly executed, like most of 1.0, frankly.

Hence why we have the Market Board in ARR, it's streamlining the Market Wards' search function into a simple, single point you can easily (by comparison) access and browse. No laggy Market Ward area, no dull retainers standing around like Sims waiting for instructions, no awful piped shopping centre muzac, just the Market Board and simplicity.

Lore-wise the Market Wards still exist, as they're where theoretically your retainers are sent when you put something up for sale, with the Market Board serving as the front end for transactions, but gameplay wise the Market Ward is replaced by the Market Board. It's clear the Market Wards will not be coming back.

[Sqwall]

There was in FFXIV version 1.0, the actual Market Wards in each city, and they were... quite frankly, AWFUL. There wasn't even a search function available for a good length of time, so you had to physically run around the entire damn Market trying to find a retainer selling what you were after (a search function was only belatedly added towards the end of 1.0's life after Yoshi took over as producer and director).

Add in the horribly cheesy elevator muzac (Nobuo Uematsu's infuriatingly cheery Supply and Demand) which just grated on the nerves after 10 seconds and made me want to start strangling the retainers, and yeah, it was just a horrible experience to have to deal with - a good idea that unfortunately did not work in practice on it's own, and was made worse by being terribly executed, like most of 1.0, frankly.

Hence why we have the Market Board in ARR, it's streamlining the Market Wards' search function into a simple, single point you can easily (by comparison) access and browse. No laggy Market Ward area, no dull retainers standing around like Sims waiting for instructions, no awful piped shopping centre muzac, just the Market Board and simplicity.

Lore-wise the Market Wards still exist, as they're where theoretically your retainers are sent when you put something up for sale, with the Market Board serving as the front end for transactions, but gameplay wise the Market Ward is replaced by the Market Board. It's clear the Market Wards will not be coming back.

I remember the retainers in 1.0 and how F*$)$@* HORRIBLE they were!
1. Go to the retainer board look for item you want/need.
2. Retainer Board tells you retainers name and Ward to visit to get that item. (write down the name)
3. Go to Market Ward zone instance
4. Select the #ward you need to visit
5. Teleport to that ward
6. Arrive in a "market" room....literally a room with....4 walls....floor ceiling. That's it.
7. Try to find the retainer through 2,000 other retainers in that room. Literally cycling through EVERY retainer until that one retainers name pops up.
8. Search the retainers wares....find that the item you wanted was sold 2 min ago.
9. Uninstall the game for the 3rd time.

That was 1.0 FFXIV market board interaction in a nutshell.....Be VERY happy with what we have now.