Retainer Markets vs Auction House

[Cairdeas]

The reason they dont want an AH is because the only two features that are specific to a AH is Timed and Blind Auctions. Which I hope they do not ever intended to implement.

I'd rather they take the time to build a market system that works and doesn't use Blind or Timed Bidding. They both are easily manipulated by RMT's.

[zzapp]

Did I say that? Stop putting words in my mouth. It was an example on how stupid the market system is.

Oh, and by the way. It's my backup, I use Verdant, and i'd rather have the 2.5m.

Um, you're reading this totally wrong. I'm AGREEING with you here, and using your example as the main example of why this isn't working. The HQ statement following your quote was directed at Doc, not you.

[Seif]

AH was voted by the players in the official poll. It's important that players remind SE that we haven't forgotten about that.

A proper AH would boost MANY features of the game. Broken economy hurts everyone.

[Azurymber]

Economically speaking the more information available the better off the average person will be and the better off the economy will be.

So if an auction house has a HISTORY, its better than the current ward system. If they create a ward system with open bidding or implement history than that could match the benefits of an AH.

The only real point to think about in this debate (mathematically proven) is that the more information consumers and producers have, the faster price equilibrium will be reached and the more efficient the market will be. This isn't a debate or a contested theory. Its the foundation of capitalism (the system used in pretty well all of the western world and this game)

[Seif]

Economically speaking the more information available the better off the average person will be and the better off the economy will be.

So if an auction house has a HISTORY, its better than the current ward system. If they create a ward system with open bidding or implement history than that could match the benefits of an AH.

The only real point to think about in this debate (mathematically proven) is that the more information consumers and producers have, the faster price equilibrium will be reached and the more efficient the market will be. This isn't a debate or a contested theory. Its the foundation of capitalism (the system used in pretty well all of the western world and this game)

That still leaves the trouble of zoning into the wards. They're going to redesign the look of the wards which I consider a lot of dev time utterly wasted. No matter how many birds and rainbows they attatch to the wards that's only going to make the load times longer. All people really want is not to zone and to know the price histories of items.

[Visch]

http://images.wikia.com/ffxi/images/d/dd/Ah.png

[Azurymber]

That still leaves the trouble of zoning into the wards. They're going to redesign the look of the wards which I consider a lot of dev time utterly wasted. No matter how many birds and rainbows they attatch to the wards that's only going to make the load times longer. All people really want is not to zone and to know the price histories of items.

but at the same time wards double as mog houses. if they make it so ppl can only have 1 retainer selling things per city then they would reduce lag a lot. But yeah it really depends on the programming for that part.

[Verecund]

Here is why the current Retainer system SUCKS:

(1) It severely partitions the economy
(2) Its current implementation consists of X million* cow NPCs sitting in an instance (*capped, not that it matters or fixes a problem)
(3) It is an entirely unique system that has, unfortunately, been implemented as if it would be an AH (thus resulting in the above two problems)

This results in everyone sitting in the exact same city, which in turn essentially equates to content being thrown into a trash can. Also, SE has had to set aside development time just to deal with the outright unbearable issues that the system, in it's current unbalanced form, presented upon release (massive NPC load times, subsequent crashes of clients/servers, having to develop a search feature to accommodate a system whose particular implementation has actually defeated its purpose, etc.)

It's a pretty foul dead horse to be sure, but who leaves a dead animal sitting on their front doorstep for an entire year....

(This given, I don't particularly want them to just install an AH. I want them to fix their own unique system and give at least one new innovative thing to the fairly-stale modern MMO scene in doing so.)

[Azurymber]

Im assuming the original system was a mercantilist model instead of a capitalistic one. Basically you would have people trading goods between cities to make profits, people developing reputations for their retainers selling certain goods, etc.

In essence if the game would have been designed better it would have worked. You would have been able to lvl up your retainer (yes they have/had levels) and would have been able to buy unique gear that made it stand out. The best mercantilists could sell their goods via the stalls for a rent-fee.

This would have made the game -very- unique. too bad the game failed and they failed to implement it properly

[Forbin]

i also very much dislike being able to see prices.. Give us Blind Auction and show the last SOLD for prices like FFXI!