SE, developers, reps, can we please breathe some life into the other two markets? Whether if it is tax relief, an incentive to work in other cities, or anything to bring some economy to the other two cities. It would be much appreciated. It is like watching a depression occur in the other two cities, and no one (meaning the officials in charge) is doing anything about it.

Right now, there is really no benefit for the player to place their retainer in the other two cities beside just avoiding the headache of trying to shove your retainer in Ul'dah. They are not achieving a large market audience, nor are there even specialized crafters in the other cities to demand specialized wares. You would think Limsa would be the place to sell your ores and metals, but yet the market there is empty.

On the flip side, instead of giving incentive to market wares in the other two markets, why not punish players more for listing wares in the incorrect wards? Simply 3% tax increase is no threat to the merchant as you can see most of the wares in Ul'dah are listed all over the place. Most merchants aren't even abiding to the threat because it is isn't hurting their profit margins enough. If the taxes were absurdly higher, it will force merchants to think twice before listing their wares in the incorrect ward, as well as branching out to other markets to avoid the taxes.

Here is a small example;
During the last Halloween Event I was gathering Pumpkin Cookies and selling them by a few ways.
  1. Selling them on retainers at Ul'dah at a higher price
  2. Selling them on retainers at other cities at a lower price (30% cheaper)
  3. Selling them on my bazaar at Ul'dah the lowest price (40% cheaper)
The price would fluctuate, and I adjusted to daily values accordingly to the average market price, but the differences in prices I kept between my sales were the same.
My bazaar sold the most.
Ul'dah sold the second most, at a rate twice as fast as the other cities.

Even although I was overpricing my wares, and the event could have been done with pretty much the same efforts in any city. Ul'dah still sold the most mainly because of it's population density. By no means is this solid studies, but at least provides a glance at how thriving the markets are.

There has to be something to boost the economy of the other two cities, or else they will be forever in depression until 2.0 rolls around.

Granted, that the design plans is to just merge everything into one large markets in 2.0, we the players can not just simply wait for that to happen and ignore the current issue at hand.
Quote Originally Posted by Rukkirii View Post
We are planning on linking all three market wards together in 2.0! The reason behind not being able to link them earlier than that is due to the current system limitations.
Lastly, remember this?;
[dev1114] The maximum number of retainers dispatchable into a single market area has been increased.
This is just nursing Ul'dah. This is just telling the players, "hey, shove more stuff into Ul'dah" This is not helping the current issue.