Trying to understand player behavour with MB & MSQ dungeons

[Jojoya]

Hope this is the right place for this, but I'm trying to understand some players behavours regarding both marketboards as well as the lvl 50 MSQ duneons.

1. MSQ dungeons "skipping" cutscenes.

Not a point about whether they should or shouldn't be skippable, I know this is a touchy issue. Curious as to why some people do what they do to still skip cutscene's in the lvl 50 MSQ queue dungeon.

I'm curious, because I've timed it... and when it happens it shortens the run by 2-3 minutes generally (and this with groups that are clearing the fights fairly quickly). I honestly don't see the point in going to the length's they do to save 2-3 minutes.

2. Marketboard selling under merchant prices.

I can understand undercutting people (and no, I'm not asking this because I've been undercut lol), even extreme undercutting... heck, even the ppl who sell at the auto-price which is merchant price. What I don't understand is why ppl would sell a significant amount of stuff under the amount they'd make selling to a npc?

IE. Say an item sells to a npc merchant for 200 gill, they put it up on the MB for 100 gil. That's a complete loss... and I'm not talking about 1-2 items, I'm talking about lots of 20-99 in multiple batches.

Are these bots/ppl trying to kill the market for these items so they can then control them? ie majorly undercut, then when ppl stop selling because no profit... yank the price up to high level's... and hope the profit from doing this is greater than the profit if they'd just sold 'at market level'?

The real cutscene skippers are shaving off far more than a couple of minutes. One of my alts was in a Praetorium group with 3 players cutscene skipping and it took 12 minutes off the usual clear time for me as soneone who was watching the cutscenes. Those 3 players had killed Lahabrea before the second Ultima Weapon cutscene had even finished so for them it shaved probably close to 20 minutes off the instance. It was a miserable experience when the rest of the group was denied the chance to participate in the fighting.

Merchant prices are random prices picked by SE and have nothing to do with free market values which are influenced by many things. There are a considerable number of items I can make for fair less than the random price SE picked. By pricing under the merchant price, I can get you to buy that item from me instead of you going to the merchant to buy it. I'm still profiting from the sale.

If you don't like the price others are setting for an item, don't sell that item. Sell something else.

[Espritduo]

By pricing under the merchant price, I can get you to buy that item from me instead of you going to the merchant to buy it. I'm still profiting from the sale.

Except you're not really? You're losing profit by not selling the thing you crafted for below vendor price directly to an NPC. I understand charitable people that just want to help others by listing items below vendor price, but that is literally the only logical reason to do it. If you think you're somehow making more money by selling something below vendor price....I uh...got no words.

EDIT: Re-re-reading your post I think you are confusing the price the NPC is selling the item for the price we sell it back to them. That is what is being referred to here.

[Kamatsu]

Thank you for the replies.

1. I can see that if enough people are skipping it could take off quite a bit of time to kill the bosses fast. However that either relies on luck that enough people will do that, or you've queued in a big enough group to do that. When I come across someone doing whatever they do to skip cutscenes, I've only come across a max of 2 ppl doing so. Guess I've been unlucky/lucky depending on how you view it

2. I don't think it can be a 'lazy' choice to list items under the npc merchant price - isn't the default MB price set to the amount you'd get by selling to an npc merchant? Thus they would have to intentionally change the price to be lower than that... at which point they are making a loss.

I guess it could be "charity" selling - people willing to take a loss to try and get items at a cheaper price to people.

And I do sell or not sell items on MB depending on what the prices are - for those that are selling under npc merchant buying price, I've been holding on or just merchanting them.
Good suggestion to buy them... hadn't thought of that. Make a small profit on them. lol

[Arcadimas]

As a new player that just hit 50, the questline requires you to run these. Not wanting to be the low person that held everyone back, I was prepared to skip the scenes, if necessary. It was a relief when I saw that you couldn't skip them. There was some people in chat wishing the scenes could be skipped but the most geared person in the group spoke up and said it's unfair to new players. It left the impression that if I'm in that situation, I'll gladly watch them again so a new player can experience it.

[Alleo]

Just remember that skipping MSQ cutscenes is against the ToS and can be reported. The cutscenes are here to give people a chance to get the whole experience. For that you get a lot of exp and other stuff. Doing "magic" (as someone ones called it) to skip them and then end the dungeon faster is bad for those that dont because they will get cutscene after cutscene with no fights while the cheaters will get their higher rewards..

[LalaRu]

...an item sells to a npc merchant for 200 gill, they put it up on the MB for 100 gil. That's a complete loss...

Nope, that is assured more Gil for me buying from the board and selling to npc. Happens with higher priced items too, and I'm totally fine with it!

Especially with people that forgot to add one '0' at the end...

[Kamatsu]

Nope, that is assured more Gil for me buying from the board and selling to npc. Happens with higher priced items too, and I'm totally fine with it!
Especially with people that forgot to add one '0' at the end...

I'm talking about the seller - it's a complete loss for them, as they are selling it for less than they'd make selling to an npc merchant, as well as paying tax on the sale so even less!
Obviously for ppl who buy it and sell to an npc or relist it, it'll be profit for them.

As for Alleo's comment - indeed, it's why I've not done it. Considering the times I've come across it being done... hasn't generally speed things up, I just never saw the point (once cutscene's were unskippable) to doing so... risk your account being suspended to save a few minutes? Pffft.

[Silica-chan]

I'm talking about the seller - it's a complete loss for them, as they are selling it for less than they'd make selling to an npc merchant, as well as paying tax on the sale so even less!

Can only speak for me but if I don't need/want an item I just throw it out on the MB and yes I often do it below vendor price. To me gil is not something that matters all that much. I have ≈40milion gil and I haven't spent any (except on teleports) for almost a year now. I see it as a win-win situation. Yes I get less gil but on the other hand someone else might need that item and if that makes someone happy I'm perfectly fine with making a little less profit.Still better than deleting it if you ask me.

[Valorak]

Yeah I occasionally put stuff on the MB for really low prices. My intent is to give new/lower level players a chance to buy gear or mats on the cheap.

I'd probably do it more if I knew that new players (or at least someone that's going to use it) are the ones buying the gear instead of some MB capitalist that's just reselling it at a higher price.

[Fawkes]

1. It's like when you're driving down the road and somebody speeds past you, and then at the next stoplight you're right behind them. Some people just gotta go fast even when it's not actually that much more fast.

2. I have no idea why this happens, I can only assume it's new/uninformed players selling things.