Auction Houses vs. Market Wards

[Molly_Millions]

the market ward system works like this:

check price at market npc -> switch to an other market zone.. -> walk to your market ward -> transfer item and set price..

want to sell more than one item? do the same procedure again or write all prices down on a letter before going to your market ward.
wind crystal -> 60k
polearm -> 100k
cole -> 20k

not inefficient? ... well i would se its much inefficient and no fun at all to sell items via a second npc... instead of transfering it directly like with an auction house. who needs this? i want to sell stuff on my own.

why are you checking prices in a different ward that your retainer is in? It's seems like YOUR process is inefficient.

Here is a better way:

go the ward you retainer is in > dump all of your goods you are going to sell onto your retainer > check prices on all of the goods you want to sell > put them up for sale

in an AH you would

go the ah > check prices on all of the goods you want to sell > put them up for sale



So it increases efficiency by one step, while losing current and possible future functionality of the retainers, such as personalized stalls.

[Tonkra]

go the ward you retainer is in > dump all of your goods you are going to sell > check prices on all of the goods you want to sell > put them up for sale

thats the way i do it too.. but it really gets on my nerves and how do you do it when you sell about 10 items or more? (especially the raw materials like cole etc.)
i often sell it at the npc's because its too annoying to check the prices first for all materials.

i myself have to write these things on paper to remember it.. cole -> 5 k , wind crystal 35k etc. blabla.. as i said.
and thats not an efficient gamedesign if i have to write down things.

in FF11 it made fun to sell stuff.. check the price -> sell item... check the price -> sell item... there was no need for a second (and useless) instance (the market ward)


Market ward system:
Market Search npc -> Retainer -> sell item

Auction house:
Auction house -> sell item

what is better now? the first system is a (useless) backstep and nothing more. the search option we have right now is almost an auction house. but there is still the annoying and useless second instance.

plus retainers are standing around like zombies, eating server capacity and lead to lags, instable framerates and zone crashes.. woo* i really need it..

[Roaran]

Auction House functions are differen than those of a market. When debating between the two systems it is important to identify and clarify which respective aspects are necessary or unique.

In order to be an actual Auction, the actual price of the transaction must be something of an unknown. The idea is to give the sale to the highest bidder. The very nature of the prices being unknown is NOT something you want to have as a general rule. So by and large, Auctions are bad for all MMOs. To consider them as the basis for transactions is simply foolish.

That said, there is still a use for Auctions in general. Auctions are better suited for those rare items whose prices is not really determined by it's steady and continuous existence in the market itself. So, implementing an Auction House as a supplement would be a welcome addition, yet it is not a necessary one.

A "Market" is a place or system where goods are exchanged. The actual exchanges can be made directly for other goods or services or simply a form of money which is then always exchanged for other goods or services.

The Market is the most superior form of exchange. However, the implementation of the market itself will determine how effective it is.

This thread I made awhile ago is still the best solution yet.
Retainer Reference System

What you need in a market is - Freedom, Flexibility, and Access. Freedom to choose (from whatever you are capable of) anything you want to do to make gil. The flexibility to shift production to meet the needs of players. And being able to, without arbitrary hindrances, to provide a means with which production and needs are both in equilibrium.

The Retainer Reference System, for which I provided the link, can be implemented in many many different ways or degrees, but it needs a few things.

The Referencing of all items across the entire World (of all Servers would be even better) that are flagged available for sale by players. The ability to readily and effeciently compare and purchase items for known quantities of gil or some other item. And the ability to purchase items and place items for sale from a single terminal or menu.

[NoctisUmbra]

How about we wait for beta and see what system we get in ARR before we bring up this debate that is as old as the game itself?

I'm pretty sure what we're gonna get is a further enhanced MW system that essentially has the best of both worlds. They'll be adding all the things that either they couldn't or were much too difficult to implement for the MW in ARR so it functions more like a simple AH than it does even now.

[Hanabira]

I like the ward system combined with the search.. BUT you need to be able to see -all- of the item with the search. not just the first 20. its a pain in the butt when im trying to find a triple meld lightning brand and there are 87 NQ ones blocking it and i spend 2 hours searching pink search stars.

also, all 3 cities need to be built into 1 auctiontile house. making 3 auctiontile houses was a waste of time since now we have 2 easily accessible wards we still wont use. but i believe they said they would have one large searchable auction area like EQ did (giant arrow pointing you towards the gear you wanted)

but my favorite thing about the ward search is that i can skip over the "price is right" troll that undercut by 1gil

[Felis]

What have people against market ward 2.0 except that we don't have much info about it?

All what i read is people complain about market ward 1.0

[xXHalloweenTrixXx]

Down with the market wards! One of the many reasons people quit the game was because of its horrible design.

[Alhanelem]

Did we really need another one of these topics??

deadbeatenhorse.jpg ...

The "Market Wards" already have most 'auction house" features. Any remaining issues with the system can be addressed with improvements, adjustments and bug fixes. They don't need to "add an auction house," because we practically already have one. I could go into the specifics of what I think they need to do, but I've already done it so many times in other threads my head will asplode. So go read those other threads instead.

One of the many reasons people quit the game was because of its horrible design.

I don't know one person that quit the game "because" they didn't like the market wards. Anyone I know who quit the game because the whole game as a whole was terrible to them, or because it didn't appeal to them in the first place, or some combination of several reasons.

The fact is, they've done a lot to improve the system over the last year and it's getting close to where it needs to be. Certain frustrations in the process of listing an item for sale need to be addressed. Once that happens, everything will be fine. Again, for the specifics, see one of the other 2 billion threads on this topic.

[Shougun]

Retainers are useless. (Not saying this as some bold statement)

You can have the whole market system without retainers.

All they do is add server clutter and make the zone lag.

However - in 2.0 perhaps they will make the streets more lively or something. Read that the market wards will be a building or something that you can walk into, then they have added immersion.

Anyway AH have their pros, MW have their pros. You could technically use them both at the same time, but they should really streamline the MW before thinking of doing some sort of interesting hybrid.

[xXHalloweenTrixXx]

The fact is we don't need a retainer nor a market wards when we can simply have an auction house.

Why have them continue to make the wards more and more into an auction house... when they can simply just implement an auction house that requires no instancing? It makes no sense to me why people are defending the wards when they are needless... especially when we already have a feasible working system out there that can be implemented.

Why try to re-create the wheel again, why waste the time? When we already have a good working model out there known as a Auction House, which is found in most MMORPGs of today.