Market Wards fixes: A definitive list and petition

[Mahayana]

After reading the 9/1 Letter from the producer and reading countless market forums, I felt like making my own XD. But in this thread, I don’t want to just have a debate over whether the wards are a good idea or not. I wanted to list what most people would like to see come in to fix the wards and make a petition out of it. I will list out what I feel is the perfect solutions for the wards and any posters that want to sign this petition may also leave a recommendation for another fix and if it gets a lot of thumbs or I feel it is appropriate, I will include it in and give you credit.

Firstly, if you feel that the market wards is perfectly fine the way it is, I respectively wish that you decline to comment with “the wards are fine the way they are”. It’s very obvious from polls that the majority of the game population feels there is a problem with this market system. If this is to become a petition, I don’t want to have posters get side tracked trying to reply to the “wards are fine” comments.
So let’s get down to it! I want to organize these fixes into 3 main categories; Appearance, UI, and Buying & Selling.

• Appearance
  
• Place a building inside every city to access the wards instead of a zone we port into. It completely takes you out of the emersion having to teleport to a zone that is supposed to be just a few steps away.
  
• Have the Wards clearly marked on the map so that new players clearly identify it as a place to sell their stuff
  
• Keep the name Market Wards. I am completely comfortable leaving the name. I don’t feel an Auction House is a good idea because I believe marked pricing is better than bidding.
  
  
• User Interface
  
• Remove the retainer rooms and have all actions dealt through a window. This feature creates so many headaches for new and old players alike. When I help explain the wards to new players, I explain that you have to zone in and buy from a retainer and it is always the same response, “….Wait… What? You’re joking right?”
  
• Better Menu Categories so people can find their items quicker. I still cannot understand why the categories are labeled in sometimes cryptic (I.E. Chirugeons) Categories. What they should label them under is their class name so instead of clothiers it would be weavers and tanners would be leather workers.
  
• Search Index via text input needs to be implemented as well for people to easily find items they still just cannot find it would also make it much easier to find armor of all the same material. Like if you needed full cotton garb searching cotton would list all your gear you could buy.
  
• Option to search for HQ will help people selling HQ items reach their buyers.
  
• Unify all wards so that there is no bias market and people will be more spread out between cities.
  
  
• Buying & Selling
  
• Selling History is important for sellers to find out what the last item sold for instead of what the Item is posted for by others. The way the system is right now leads to unstable prices because the sellers are all trying to undercut each other or when there is only one seller the price skyrockets.
  
• List buyer and seller names in the Selling history so collaboration can take effect. This is beneficial to everyone because buyers can band together in certain markets and sellers can collaborate in others.
  
• Buying should still be conducted through the top 20 list. In this window however, you can just click the listing select how much and then buy the items.

Roaran also has a great idea for handling that market. It can be found here.
http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...e-Market-Wards

I look forward to everyone’s additions. When I feel enough people have signed ill see if I can email it to an according place.

This is the list of people who have signed or at least feel something needs to be done about the wards if you would like to be on this list put signed somewhere in your post.

1. Mahayana
2. Captainpicard
3. Ilean
4. Viridiana
5. Zetonegi
6. Roaran
7. Amsai
8. Kirith
9. Weeble
10. Arcell
11. Verecund
12. Enma
13. DoctorMog
14. Akisato
15. Celtodeno
16. Ilean
17. Isaveron
18. RickJames
19. Davorok
20. AreeyaJaidee

[captainpicard]

After reading the 9/1 Letter from the producer and reading countless market forums, I felt like making my own XD. But in this thread, I don’t want to just have a debate over whether the wards are a good idea or not. I wanted to list what most people would like to see come in to fix the wards and make a petition out of it. I will list out what I feel is the perfect solutions for the wards and any posters that want to sign this petition may also leave a recommendation for another fix and if it gets a lot of thumbs or I feel it is appropriate, I will include it in and give you credit.

Firstly, if you feel that the market wards is perfectly fine the way it is, I respectively wish that you decline to comment with “the wards are fine the way they are”. It’s very obvious from polls that the majority of the game population feels there is a problem with this market system. If this is to become a petition, I don’t want to have posters get side tracked trying to reply to the “wards are fine” comments.
So let’s get down to it! I want to organize these fixes into 3 main categories; Appearance, UI, and Buying & Selling.

• Appearance
  
• Place a building inside every city to access the wards instead of a zone we port into. It completely takes you out of the emersion having to teleport to a zone that is supposed to be just a few steps away.
  
• Have the Wards clearly marked on the map so that new players clearly identify it as a place to sell their stuff
  
• Keep the name Market Wards. I am completely comfortable leaving the name. I don’t feel an Auction House is a good idea because I believe marked pricing is better than bidding.
  
  
• User Interface
  
• Remove the retainer rooms and have all actions dealt through a window. This feature creates so many headaches for new and old players alike. When I help explain the wards to new players, I explain that you have to zone in and buy from a retainer and it is always the same response, “….Wait… What? You’re joking right?”
  
• Better Menu Categories so people can find their items quicker. I still cannot understand why the categories are labeled in sometimes cryptic (I.E. Chirugeons) Categories. What they should label them under is their class name so instead of clothiers it would be weavers and tanners would be leather workers.
  
• Search Index via text input needs to be implemented as well for people to easily find items they still just cannot find it would also make it much easier to find armor of all the same material. Like if you needed full cotton garb searching cotton would list all your gear you could buy.
  
• Option to search for HQ will help people selling HQ items reach their buyers.
  
• Unify all wards so that there is no bias market and people will be more spread out between cities.
  
  
• Buying & Selling
  
• Selling History is important for sellers to find out what the last item sold for instead of what the Item is posted for by others. The way the system is right now leads to unstable prices because the sellers are all trying to undercut each other or when there is only one seller the price skyrockets.
  
• List buyer and seller names in the Selling history so collaboration can take effect. This is beneficial to everyone because buyers can band together in certain markets and sellers can collaborate in others.
  
• Buying should still be conducted through the top 20 list. In this window however, you can just click the listing select how much and then buy the items.

I look forward to everyone’s additions. When I feel enough people have signed ill see if I can email it to an according place.

I think you have put together a great list here that would make the wards more functional.

I think to implement this, would require as much work as building an auction house (maybe more, since they could model AH code after code from FF11, which is production tested for years)

In short, I suggest just implementing all of these features into a standard auction house.

[Ilean]

I think you have put together a great list here that would make the wards more functional.

I think to implement this, would require as much work as building an auction house (maybe more, since they could model AH code after code from FF11, which is production tested for years)

In short, I suggest just implementing all of these features into a standard auction house.

No auction style sales though. Straight pricing is the best, makes harder to manipulate the market.

[Verecund]

I'm personally in favor of abolishing the whole idea of having city wards (or at least radically redefining their function) in favor of a more sandbox-type system.

For instance, I think that if city wards were open to the top successful merchants/crafters (determined monthly and gives a small perk), it could help better define crafters as an actual class by giving them competitive goals and systems to work in.

A major benefit of redefining wards in this way is that it helps spread out the population a bit more, in addition to actually accomplishing the original goals of the Retainer merchant system in a more natural way.

[Seif]

No thanks. Nowhere near as handy as an XI like AH. Why ask for sub-par systems when you can ask for the best one that has proven itself to be a working system. MW has proven that it's a design mess that'll only work when the physical wards are scrapped and price histories and faster selling buying is implemented. meaning that when it's an AH it'll work.

Even then I have my doubts because compared to XI the population of this game is way too low to uphold 3 different AH markets so they all should be combined into one pool of AH items.

[Rydin]

Why ask for sub-par systems when you can ask for the best one that has proven itself to be a working system.

I don't agree or disagree with you...
I would just like to point out that you took a very subjective idea and tried to pass it off as objectivity....
I personally don't care if a system is new... old.... fresh, recycled...
as long as it works....
Your pursuit of what you are most comfortable with will only limit your potential....
remember that

[Kailea_Nagisa]

"Place a building inside every city to access the wards instead of a zone we port into. It completely takes you out of the emersion having to teleport to a zone that is supposed to be just a few steps away."

any way you look at it, you would still need to zone into the wards, SE did it the way it is for a reason. Besides "breaks emersion"? Really? when you zone into the wards from the entrance, you are entering the road/hallway/corridor that takes you to the wards, it looks/is fine the way it is visually.

[Viridiana]

"Place a building inside every city to access the wards instead of a zone we port into. It completely takes you out of the emersion having to teleport to a zone that is supposed to be just a few steps away."

any way you look at it, you would still need to zone into the wards, SE did it the way it is for a reason. Besides "breaks emersion"? Really? when you zone into the wards from the entrance, you are entering the road/hallway/corridor that takes you to the wards, it looks/is fine the way it is visually.

Stop physically rendering the retainers, and you remove the need to zone anywhere. Problem solved.

[RickJames]

Dear SE

A small portion of your remaining player base and future player base(PS3) would not like you to add an ebay style auction house. A large portion of your current player base and future player base(PS3) would like you to add an Ebay style auction house. Please let a mod tell us which section of the player base you plan to alienate.

Hugs and kisses
Random FFXIV player

[Rydin]

Dear SE

A small portion of your remaining player base and future player base(PS3) would not like you to add an ebay style auction house. A large portion of your current player base and future player base(PS3) would like you to add an Ebay style auction house. Please let a mod tell us which section of the player base you plan to alienate.

Hugs and kisses
Random FFXIV player

really? of the 500,000 people who bought the game... how many did you interview?
Of the, let's say, 4.5 million people who bought FFXIII for PS3 who could be potential customers, how many did you speak with?
(I know 4.5 million people will not be buying this game on PS3, I am just recognizing that each of them is a POTENTIAL customer)

I personally don't want to bid on anything... and I have talked to a lot of people who don't want to bid, and quite a few who were indifferent about it....
The real truth is... neither of us knows what most players want and to assume so is pretentious and obnoxious

in fact bidding is a rider on a bill.... the real issue is people who favor an AH want menu based purchasing and you're trying to sneak in "ebay style bidding" as a rider on that particular legislation....

The market ward vs AH argument has been heated and split for a long time....
You can't even be sure the larger part of the player base wants an auction house... let alone a bidding....
I am personally indifferent towards market wards or menu based purchasing..
I could care less either way
What I am against is having to bid on anything...
Give me a price... I pay that price... I get the item....
Ebay is lame.... as an aside... I hate when people say "I won this on Ebay"
You didn't win it if you paid for it, idiot....

tl;dr at the end of the day all you can speak for is yourself....