Wow, no mention of Auction house / MW improvements

[drivendawn]

above to belial

[Amsai]

I agree with Drivendawn, your an a**hole Belial

[Reliquia]

I find the market wards to be much inferior to the AH system. I will however say that the market wards have improved a lot since they first came out, back then it was an absolute disaster. Right now I think that they are more user friendly, but still not as user friendly as I would like a market system to work.

However I don't like them, I don't like using them, I actually avoid them. I don't sell much or buy much because I don't like having to go there, I feel that it's clunky, troublesome and overly complicated. In FFXI I could spend hours on the AH in Jeuno while waiting for xp parties. I loved to browse, the AH was simple and quick. The AH was split in different organized section with categories, I didn't have to zone or look for a retainer. It was easy to compare gear, browse in an ascending level, take a look at the history and see how many items where on sale without having to move a muscle. I could sell things without having to summon a retainer too.

My hope is that Ishgard will work somewhat like that. However that would kill off the market wards in the three nations.

[Tsubarta]

There are many topics that could be brought up with the mention of the Market Ward. In truth, I found merit in every incarnation of the Market Ward.

1st: A complete mystery to the player, who now had the options of either braving a cluttered mass of wards for an hour trying to find what they wanted or seeking out people in the open. This ultimately lead to roadside bazaars and a very independent method of setting prices. It was pretty special to troll the Ul'dah strip, looking for the best value - you could nab something for 40k that everyone else was charging 110k for if you knew where to look and who was known to give the best prices. Very intriguing, but functionally dead on arrival: you can't sustain this in a post-WoW world where everyone expects accessibility and structure. Would have been amazing 9 years ago, though.

2nd: So they add names and designations to the wards instead of just calling them "Ward #". This makes the more cooperative people go in rank and file, but many didn't pay attention or had already built reputations as vendors along the sidewalks. It's still fairly impossible to find what you're looking for, as it did nothing to decrease the number of retainers to swim through.

3rd: They add item search, effectively making it an FFXI auction house in terms of finding product. This pretty much did away with sidewalk bazaars, and made purchasing items functional! However, selling on the retainer's side is a hassle. Being able to pinpoint the cheapest possible price is extremely convenient for buyer's, but a nightmare for sellers.

It's easy to spend money now, but it isn't easy to make for the average player. In WoW AND XI the average player could just pop their recent stacks of farmed items on the AH and expect a certain amount back in return so long as they played by the economy's rules. There is no rule in XIV, and almost all items worth purchasing are only attainable through leveling DoL classes or having a max level crafter - crafters do not rely on the average player for bulk materials, they can just make it on their own. Not to mention, the XIV market wards require a significantly larger amount of vigilance to maintain even basic sales of items as opposed to the click of a button from XI and WoW.

TL;DR

- We know you guys want the Market Ward to work, but it's never going to be what you wanted it to be. Count your losses, and get working on the Auction House that every other MMO has. Being a unique snowflake doesn't matter when you're melting.