First of all, thanks to everyone for reading and commenting.

As to apostrophe-gate, my apologies. Editing is important and bad writing makes it hard to follow the writer's point. In this case, we clearly dropped the ball on one. That's an explanation, not a justification, the "leve's" statement needs to be corrected. If it was at EorzeaReborn, Aela or I would fix it immediately. I'll email Bill and see if we can get a quick edit-fix applied!

I'm pretty sure I have an it's/its disaster near the end of the most recent EorzeaReborn column (thirty days in the sun), but that just came off Google Docs today and I still need a bit of space away from the article before I can edit it sanely. It is hard to edit my own work right after writing (I still "hear" it the way I meant it).

On the Guild Wars 2 auction house. There are a couple of reasons for anonymity. First, it is probably necessary given their cross-server system and size of clientele at play. Second, since they post the quantity demand and value offered (e.g. 10 offers to buy at 24 copper vs. 200 offers to sell at 30 copper), user specific information is drowned out for the sake of data quality. The names in this case are less important than the numbers. You could probably still include user data in a drill-down format, though.

Personally, I like a good auction house. I liked the FFXI blind-model way back when. Given the few AH in the market at the time they made it, the FFXI AH was quite innovative. These days, I prefer the buy/sell variant (e.g. where you can list a buy order as well as a sell order) for simple efficiency sake. It's harder to manipulate the market when both buyers and sellers can enter positions.

I think the real challenge for good crafting is the quest hub. When you have to reward gear via quest, it takes away a market for the crafter/shopkeeper. While I concede the point that low levels tend to be craft barren after a few months, quest hubs run through end-game.