Quote Originally Posted by Ferth View Post
From a game play standpoint they are independent. From a development standpoint they are a resource that needs to be maintained.

I completely agree with everything you say about the search function of the wards being exactly what an auction house would do. I don't think they need to scrap it or rebuild it or anything. I'm just saying we don't need rooms full of storage npcs.

And the biggest flaw from a gameplay standpoint is the capacity. If people can't easily get the retainer on the wards many of them won't bother. Molly's comment about linking all of the wards is one way they can alleviate that problem(and from an ease of use standpoint it should be done regardless.)

But that still allows for a bunch of really pointless rooms packed to bursting with creepy lifeless mannequins who serve no purpose beyond convoluting the process required to buy and sell items from other players.

If someone wants to argue that they enjoy the experience of actually going to the wards and searching through the retainers, bully for them. Though unless they are just really weird... they are probably lying.
I see where you're coming from but I'm not sure why you're getting so worked up about back-end issues... Are you overseeing any of the server clusters? I don't think so. lol

Who cares what they do on the back-end as long as it's efficient, bug-free, and functional.