Crossworld Market Boards?

[Ariegh]

With both CW/DC travel in the game now, I feel like having the MB include the entire Data Center would just make sense. Instead of using 3rd party tools to search for the cheapest price for any given item, traveling to said server, and then buying it from the MB. Why not just include the entire Data Center in the MB so to not waste time searching for the best deal? However, i am aware that the current meta is to simply undercut your competition, and making such a change would drastically effect the economy. I would like to hear your guys thoughts on this. Would this be convenient or a total economic nightmare?

[dspguy]

Keep the current system in place. It allows for there to be a server economy. Most players don't DC/CW travel for competition unless it hits a threshold suitable to their needs (maybe saving 1M gil on a mount is worth traveling to another server). But for many items like crafting materials, potions, food, gear - I bet the average player checks their server and if the prices "feel reasonable" - they just pull the trigger anyway.

Can you imagine the undercutting-fest there would be if there was one unified MB? And how often you'd go to buy the top item and it would already be gone since a thousand other players are trying to buy the same item off the MB?

[Jojoya]

With both CW/DC travel in the game now, I feel like having the MB include the entire Data Center would just make sense. Instead of using 3rd party tools to search for the cheapest price for any given item, traveling to said server, and then buying it from the MB. Why not just include the entire Data Center in the MB so to not waste time searching for the best deal? However, i am aware that the current meta is to simply undercut your competition, and making such a change would drastically effect the economy. I would like to hear your guys thoughts on this. Would this be convenient or a total economic nightmare?

That was SE's original intent when they created world visit/data center travel.

Unfortunately, they ran into technical difficulties they couldn't resolve at the time.

Whether it is something they still intend to implement and are working on, only they know. Nothing has been mentioned since.

Heavy sellers that like accumulating wealth would definitely be against it. Seller competition would reduce prices more than the increased demand would raise them in most cases.

Buyers may or may not favor the changes depending on their current local market conditions and what they tend to buy.

The one thing that would be a drawback is that the botting rings would have an easier time getting a wider market share. They would be able to branch out into more areas since they wouldn't have to dedicate characters on each world to sell the same item.

Can you imagine the undercutting-fest there would be if there was one unified MB? And how often you'd go to buy the top item and it would already be gone since a thousand other players are trying to buy the same item off the MB?

The undercutting wouldn't bother me at all. I don't overreact to market changes like many sellers do.

I think you're exaggerating slightly how many players would be going after the same item the exact same second. Top item might be gone but the next item would likely still be there.

A lot of times the item doesn't disappear because someone bought it. It disappears because the seller is checking their retainer and it will be showing again 30 seconds later.

If SE were to refresh listings "live" instead of forcing players to resubmit their search, the inconvenience would be very minimal. I don't know if that's technologically possible for them though.

[Rueby]

As a sprout I was ripped off massively by a glam item, I bought it for 400k while it was going for 200k, and back then it was all I got so I was broke for a long time. I got told about server hopping and I started to personally enjoy the idea of shopping for a cheaper deal either on the same DC or off of it, something feels oddly satisfying about it? I don't want to deal with even more people who mindlessly undercut by 1 constantly. I only have 2 retainers, there's only so much I can list before I have to throw stuff out because Timmy and his friends with 10 retainers and 69 alts constantly flooding the market with listing so my only choice if I want anything to sell is to camp the bell and undercut- to me that's not fun.

I casually craft and I don't flood the market with listings in order to preserve an item's value and not crash the market but I don't think many think of that. Things while slow going usually sell unless you're up against a bell-no-lifer or an actual bot...if so, good luck..

[Raenra]

Please yes.
I'm on the Oceanic data-center where only 3 of the 5 worlds are substantially active.
Anyone on the other 2 pretty much Has to world hop if they want to buy anything.
Was very close to rolling on one of those two, and feel so sad for them.
Their Limsa's may be empty, but at the very least couldn't we fill their market boards?

Plus honestly world-hopping around, searching for a cheaper price (or a listing at all) is such pointless tedium.


To the argument that supply would become in excess. Remember that the demand would be equally increasing. Things would sell so much faster in general.
Plus, when something is heavily in supply, this gives incentive to list something else.
There's so many housing items (etc) out there horrendously overpriced due to limited listings.

[Jojoya]

To the argument that supply would become in excess. Remember that the demand would be equally increasing. Things would sell so much faster in general.

Not everything would see a demand increase proportional to the increase in the amount being sold. Demand versus supply is not the same on every world and data center. It varies on local content interest.

I personally don't have a problem with a more global approach to the marketboard. Smart sellers will adjust. Naive or uninformed sellers will lose out.

But the effects may not be what you expect if you're relying on demand increasing more than supply will. I agree it will benefit a data center like Materia overall when it comes to access to buying items but sellers there may have a harder time.

[vetch]

I personally don't have a problem with a more global approach to the marketboard. Smart sellers will adjust. Naive or uninformed sellers will lose out.

It would be fine in a game like WoW, where you pay a listing fee and forfeit it if you need to update the price, so you need to strategize over your list price.

But in FF14 updating the asking price is free, so 'adjusting' as a seller will mean checking your retainer every five minutes to counter the entire world's undercutters, many of whom are running bots. It will be absolutely miserable.

[Jojoya]

It would be fine in a game like WoW, where you pay a listing fee and forfeit it if you need to update the price, so you need to strategize over your list price.

But in FF14 updating the asking price is free, so 'adjusting' as a seller will mean checking your retainer every five minutes to counter the entire world's undercutters, many of whom are running bots. It will be absolutely miserable.

You don't need to adjust every 5 minutes as a seller. There are players that prefer not to buy from obvious 1 gil undercutters/bots just as some players don't care who they buy from.

When you obsess over undercutting, you are also making the undercutting game worse.

Allow yourself to play the rest of the game. Check back the next day instead of every 5 minutes. Learn what sells regardless of undercutters, and learn the pattern of undercutting if you're not selling so you can use it to your advantage. Or better yet, learn which items have the heaviest competition for the existing demand so you know what is worth continuing to sell and what should be avoided.

If the marketboard is the only thing you care about, then go for it the 5 minute checks. Personally, I list then ignore until the next day so I can have fun doing other things. My items still sell more often than not despite undercutters. It's rare that I have to go to the marketboard history to see why my item didn't sell.