6months and no AH?!

[Leknaat]

I'd like an Auction house if the same one was accessable by all three cities.

The retainer system reveals Square's really bad/shortsighted plan of 'funneling' everyone towards Ul'dah with the mainline quests. Now Gridania and Limsa wards are severely denuded of retainers/items. I went to Gridania the other day and found 0 retainers in the crystalier ward. In shock I jumped to battlecraft wards and found just 1 retainer there. Later I went to Limsa. It turned out to be a little healthier but still severely lacking.

An AH shared by all 3 cities would solve the unhealthy market wards of the other 2 cities.

And I have to agree RMT are the problem and SE keeps trying to find in game methods of inconveniencing/thawarting them without realizing or conceding that RMT do EXACTLY what regular players do except on a larger scale. When they try to stop the RMT they end up hurting the players as much if not more. They need to police the game more not rely on their gimmicky anti-RMT bot scripts. By the same token... (not to say I love them... I just don't think there's any way to get rid of them) Whey RMT is 'controlled' rather than 'out of control' it's not bad. I mean shards/crystals would probably still be 300+/3000+ gil if it wasn't for them.

[SydeBeheln]

The market ward is pretty much the same thing as an AH, but with functions that prevent/slow the process of RMT. It's actually new and refreshing compared to the copy&paste AH we see in every single MMORPG. People complain because they have to walk to the retainer selling the item, but that's just being lazy. People seem to think that just because the system had a rough start out it's all the sudden a "failed feature, or not fixable" yet that's obviously NOT the case. Look at how far the system has gone, and look at how many less people talk about this subject. Keep in mind, that the original market ward system, was not a finished product, and even now still has room for improvement. Regardless, the MW's are better and more interesting.

[GreyWolf]

The market ward is pretty much the same thing as an AH, but with functions that prevent/slow the process of RMT. It's actually new and refreshing compared to the copy&paste AH we see in every single MMORPG. People complain because they have to walk to the retainer selling the item, but that's just being lazy. People seem to think that just because the system had a rough start out it's all the sudden a "failed feature, or not fixable" yet that's obviously NOT the case. Look at how far the system has gone, and look at how many less people talk about this subject. Keep in mind, that the original market ward system, was not a finished product, and even now still has room for improvement. Regardless, the MW's are better and more interesting.

Less people talk/complain about not having an AH or market system that is enjoyable because they quit long ago >.>;

[Reika]

The market ward is pretty much the same thing as an AH, but with functions that prevent/slow the process of RMT. It's actually new and refreshing compared to the copy&paste AH we see in every single MMORPG. People complain because they have to walk to the retainer selling the item, but that's just being lazy. People seem to think that just because the system had a rough start out it's all the sudden a "failed feature, or not fixable" yet that's obviously NOT the case. Look at how far the system has gone, and look at how many less people talk about this subject. Keep in mind, that the original market ward system, was not a finished product, and even now still has room for improvement. Regardless, the MW's are better and more interesting.

People like copy/paste tho. New is bad.

[zaviermhigo]

I'd be okay with the wards if I didn't have to travel to Uldah to get everything (unless its a new shield LL has those), the way they released the class quests and made Gridania and LL almost deserted is wrong, I wonder how they did not know everyone would want one COMMUNAL place on a server like Jeuno, we don't have ishgard so everyones in Uldah. If Ishgard was out we'd have everyone be in Ishgard that is over a certain level and lowbies would be in starting three cities.

[AngryNixon]

If you build it, they will come.

[Wolfie]

I still don't know why everyone is defending the retainer system.

Everything the devs will do with this system to make it more user friendly or intuitive will turn out to be extremely roundabout or awkward, because the base design of "NPCs selling your stuff in a separate zone like bazaars" is a bad design. There is nothing that this system does, that a system without retainers couldn't do better, easier, and for cheaper in terms of development costs.

Just because you can work with a system doesn't mean it's a GOOD one. SE pretty much spent extra effort to make a system that's WORSE than systems already available on other MMOs (including their own).

[AngryNixon]

I still don't know why everyone is defending the retainer system.

Everything the devs will do with this system to make it more user friendly or intuitive will turn out to be extremely roundabout or awkward, because the base design of "NPCs selling your stuff in a separate zone like bazaars" is a bad design. There is nothing that this system does, that a system without retainers couldn't do better, easier, and for cheaper in terms of development costs.

Just because you can work with a system doesn't mean it's a GOOD one. SE pretty much spent extra effort to make a system that's WORSE than systems already available on other MMOs (including their own).

Ok let me see if I can summarize the main complaints against AHs. If I miss any let me know.

1) An AH will have price histories and price histories will bring about the robot unicorn apocalypse.

2) The system we have now is PERFECT because we can now search for items, and any argument to the contrary automatically implies you are lazy.

3) AHs, because they are so simple and efficient, allow RMTs to thrive because when RMTs are confronted with a retainer ward (seeing as they aren't as intelligent as the next 10 year old that can figure out an MMO market system) they burst into flames of confusion, since they cannot possibly find out how to effectively thrive in a market ward system, and are forced back to the nether-dimension they came from.

4) AHs hurt my immersion? a.k.a. alienating me from my fantasy land with the horrors of quick, straightforward, efficient, informative and competitive global commerce. I don't know if that's even a real one but I figured it might be on Besaid.

5) Hmmm... ran out. Any other perfectly valid suggestions as to why the AH is the devil himself reincarnated as a fuzzy bunny reincarnated as a post office box ?

[GreyWolf]

Ok let me see if I can summarize the main complaints against AHs. If I miss any let me know.

1) An AH will have price histories and price histories will bring about the robot unicorn apocalypse.

2) The system we have now is PERFECT because we can now search for items, and any argument to the contrary automatically implies you are lazy.

3) AHs, because they are so simple and efficient, allow RMTs to thrive because when RMTs are confronted with a retainer ward (seeing as they aren't as intelligent as the next 10 year old that can figure out an MMO market system) they burst into flames of confusion, since they cannot possibly find out how to effectively thrive in a market ward system, and are forced back to the nether-dimension they came from.

4) AHs hurt my immersion? a.k.a. alienating me from my fantasy land with the horrors of quick, straightforward, efficient, informative and competitive global commerce. I don't know if that's even a real one but I figured it might be on Besaid.

5) Hmmm... ran out. Any other perfectly valid suggestions as to why the AH is the devil himself reincarnated as a fuzzy bunny reincarnated as a post office box ?

I'd have to say these 5 points are arguable and hardly valid,

1 Price histories does not determine what an item is going for, that's determined by anyone who wants to sell. perhaps you should do some research on economics/supply and demand. Like the price others are selling for? buy the item. Don't like the price others are selling for? don't buy it at the price. it's easy. if you don't want to spend the gil go farm yourself you like to be immersed right?

2 System is not perfect, if it was perfect not so many people would have complained/left the game for it. not to mention all the crashes >.>; I think the system is getting overloaded with too many retainers and processes having to deal with each and every retainer/player/item. This game was also meant for the "Casual" player who doesn't have time to go run around looking for stuff remember?

3 You'll have RMT no matter what system... you just don't notice it as much in this system yet because there's a lack of people playing to make any real profit, not to mention there's just so much gil you can get just from doing the guildleves. No players no RMT >.>;

4 as far as your immersion goes that's just your opinion and how it affects you... but not others. others may feel differently and if you didn't notice there were many who complained which meant that it affected them enough... and as you can see a lack of population its also affecting the game, i'm sure they left for other reasons too but i'm sure many left for this one. but hey if it works for you i'm happy for you. sure it puts in a bit of realism as far as real shopping and deal hunting but keep in mind we are here to roleplay and play in a fantasy world... >.>; if I wanted the frustation, didn't feel like being lazy and had all the time in the world to shop then this would be ok. Not everyone has the extra time they want to spend running around.

5 if SE wants this game to succeed they will have to put in some sort of one counter market system, not retainers. it doesn't have to be an Auction house, just a trading post withouth having to search for retainers, load retainers, and other time consuming issues. SE has already lost a lot of players they really can't afford to lose any more. They've already delayed other games and resources. Try to come up with a more valid reason eh.

I don't think the main reason people left this game due to the the market system but I bet it was one of the top reasons.