[dev 1018] Markets and price history

[akisato]

No it doesn't. That only happens when the price list goes back a short time period so it's easy to manipulate. If the price history goes back 6 months to a year, it is impossible to artificially manipulate. (unless you wanna buy and sell to yourself for a year).

Names on the price list would also show you any attempts to try to manipulate the price list

really you mean to tell me if you saw an item sell for 600gil 6 months ago but is now selling for 25,000gil you would sell it for 600gil? also FF11 had names on the price history and it didnt stop anything.

[Rentahamster]

really you mean to tell me if you saw an item sell for 600gil 6 months ago but is now selling for 25,000gil you would sell it for 600gil? also FF11 had names on the price history and it didnt stop anything.

I "mean to tell you" that with a price history that spans a year, I can see whether or not if the 25,000 gil price really represents the fair market value of the item, or if it is an anomaly caused by someone trying to artificially manipulate the price. It would be especially obvious if the person whose name occurs on the abnormally high price is a known price manipulator or if it is that person whose name appears only on the unusually high prices.

With a price history that goes back a long time, it would be easy to spot the general trend line as well as pick out any abnormal price readings.

A price history just gives people an excuse to be abused or to use less than rational decisions, and, in the end, simply hurts rather than improves the economy.

Nope. EVE Online has a price history. It doesn't hurt them.

[Roaran]

Nope. EVE Online has a price history. It doesn't hurt them.

I haven't played Eve, so I can't comment specifically to that point. Whether or not there is a price history, I will form my decision based on the time it took me to gather and its scarcity. If I something is selling for 1,000gil per unit and there are none for sale, I will naturally raise this price. Will others do the same? Most likely. All the price history does is give a base line for players to go off of. It would be better to allow players to see, as they are selling items, the price of their competitors and the quantity available. This is available already.

The only use a price history offers is giving that base line when nothing is available to compare. This simply removes the decision the player has to make when guessing its relative value. It's not a hard decision and I can understand why players would want to skip this step, but it is more likely to create arbitrary prices than promote stable and accurate prices.

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I would admit that it's more important to implement convenient market mechanisms over realistic ones. I enjoy playing a game more than playing the market. But I don't see implementing a price history having enough benefits to displace how prices are currently established.