Quote Originally Posted by Abriael View Post
The functionality is pretty much the same, with added functions like window shopping and actual visualization of what you're buying on a character.

the time lost by moving into a ward and buying the item (which you already know is the cheapest) from an NPC (that you definitely don't need to "chase down" as it's clearly visible, marked, and rezzes before all the others (but yay for the use of hyperbolic terms to try and make things look worse), is negligible. So yeah, It's basically an AH, and it's laughable to see some screaming bloody murder about it because it's not called "Auction House".
An auction house lets a player place bids on an item, not simply buy it. Also, auction houses typically aren't separated into dozens of rooms, filled with multiple people (retainers) through which you much search to find the items you've 'won'. There is something wrong with this in regards to flavor - it's a market ward, and not a functional auction house. If functionality was the same, so many people wouldn't be so quick to point out that they are, in fact, quite different.

Something feels off about it to a lot of players (as vocalized on the forums multiple times), so it's probably not yet correct to call it an AH. We'll know when this changes because, when it does, people will stop complaining that there is no AH, and instead start complaining about how much the AH sucks. ^^