Market Wards, enough is enough

[Gracious]

3) these are the NA forums...so of course we speak english!
geeze did you really just make a point out of that

I'm saying that many players that post are not from a English as a primary language country.

[polyhedral]

So go to the other boards, if NA suck so bad. Hell, I think most of us are tired of reading your NA bashing anyway.

To assume we're all _____ and you're _____. Screw the labels already, let's get right down to the root of the problem.

[Cairdeas]

3) these are the NA forums...so of course we speak english!
geeze did you really just make a point out of that

actually its english. not region.

[Gracious]

actually its english. not region.

I'm not the one that brought up another country. If you read above. And I don't understand why players that speak English as a primary language can not have a forum. I don't go on other language forums. It leads to misinterpretation.

[Amineri]

I think another issue with the market wards crashing is because SE isn't charging for extra characters, or for accounts at all. Each "power-seller" (and here I am not referring to RMT specifically) essentially becomes kind of like them.

Specifically : one player, buys two accounts. Each account has the full eight characters, and each character has the two retainers. That's 32 retainers, from one player. Any more questions as to why the market wards are so crowded, when there are so few players?

This set-up is viable because there is no cost associated with having so many characters / retainers. Other than the up-front cost of buying the retail box, the monthly charge is currently ZERO. Based on the original pricing structure 8 characters would cost $24, and the extra retainer on each an additional $8. On top of the $10 base cost, a maxed out account would be costing $42 a month. Two such accounts would be $84 a month. Currently players are getting this for free.

So, when the "PS3 relaunch" comes, how many players will keep paying $84 a month to keep all of these excess retainers? A few, but likely not the majority.

All that said, the markets do need to address an additional influx of players.

edit: A possible solution is for SE to drop the $1 a month charge for retainers, and charge a weekly in-game fee for each retainer past the first. This creates a new gil sink, and provides a benefit / cost associated with additional retainers. They could even implement an increasing cost to each further retainer (e.g. first retainer free, second retainer 16k gil a month, third retainer 256k gil a month, fourth retainer 4M gil a month, or something like that).

[Yves]

The amount of clicks required to search and buy an item in xi ah is identical to xiv (tested and factual). The only difference is the time required to go to the NPC.

Less QQ more pew-pew please.

[Amineri]

In terms of convenience, even Tanaka, back in November, had mentioned a delivery system to be implemented in the first patch of 2011.

Further adjustments to retainers
An increase in retainer inventory capacity
An increase in the number of items that can be placed in a retainer's bazaar
A fix assuring that retainers do not leave their bazaar locations after server maintenance
The addition of a sale/purchase history
Functionality changes to the "buying" feature
The addition of a delivery service

Bolding added by me for emphasis. Some sort of delivery system makes sense. The details .... I don't know.

[Leeloo]

The amount of clicks required to search and buy an item in xi ah is identical to xiv (tested and factual). The only difference is the time required to go to the NPC.

Less QQ more pew-pew please.

Running back n forth from mog house to AH vs. calling retainer up right there also -shrugs-

[Kiote]

Seeing as this is such a ridiculously volatile argument I think it is only reasonable to ask Square to do another new survey. I think the community is pretty split down the middle. The numbers from the last survey are completely unreliable as they did not specifically ask about this. They instead asked where this issue was prioritized in the community. If they want to preserve their player base this question must be answered.

Personally I am of the opinion that this argument is unnecessary. If you want to satisfy both sides of the argument you need only add and AH with taxes on it to create a gil sink and simultaneously remove the taxes from the market wards. The market wards will then become their intended purpose of a Rollenmart deterrent.

[Alhanelem]

I personally feel that the market wards are well-featured enough now to not really need the auction house. But I guess the systems can coexist if there is a limit on the number of things you can sell on the AH.