6months and no AH?!

[Seif]

Seriously make it happen already. I haven't bought new gear in 3 months just because I don't want to deal with that instance copy paste room hell. The search made things a bit easier but it's just a band aid over a completely non functional system. Most items aren't for sale because most people have given up on it ever functioning.

AH needs to be quick, require no loading to another zone and it needs price histories to make selling and buying things more convenient. Currently there is no economy to speak of.

[Nilheim]

Honestly I was the first one to ask for an AH about 4 months ago, now I don't mind the retainer system. I'd rather have an AH sure, but the retainers aren't that bad, it just takes a tiny bit of running. Seems to me you're just being lazy and stubborn if you haven't bought gear in 3 months.

[Reika]

An AH wont suddenly create an economy.

[Chronic]

An auction house isn't needed, the retainer system is pretty good now, and an auction house definitely will not save XIV

[Seif]

Just went back to see if it has gotten any better. There weren't a single weapon nor piece of gear on sale that fits my character rank. If this is healthy economy and working shopping system then I just have to think that we have really different standard for quality. It took me 40+ seconds to warp to my retainer and head back to city.

[VydarrTyr]

1) What's your character rank? If it's 20 or under, then there's an NPC in the market wards that sells stuff specifically for the low levels. Did you check there?

2) What city did you check? Most of the players -- and their retainers -- have migrated to Uldah. So that's where most of the stuff being sold is actually being sold. Might want to check Uldah.

[Jinko]

For evey person who wants an AH 10 don't, not because they think its not needed but because they have becomes so used to the crappy wards they convinced themselves otherwise.

An AH wont suddenly create an economy.

Depends how it is implemented, a good one will definitely solidify the economy.

I agree that the MW is much better than it was and does actually work fairly well now, but I still think an AH would be better alternative.

[Platinumstorm]

An AH system actually has some negative aspects in such a complex economy.

With the interdependence of crafters in the game, the retainer system allows people to leave items on their retainer without having to constantly repost them, or manage an insane log of auctions.

One problem with an auction house system is that many of the items will simply never be posted, similar to how in other games you see plenty of low level items, no mid range items, and then level cap items on AH's.

A better solution than an AH is to increase the number of items retainers can post to 1,000, give each player 4 or 5 total retainers (because crafters need retainers for all sorts of wards), and add a text search feature to the item search.

It would also be nice to clean up the wards to make them more organized, and to remove the price search feature, since too many items are greatly undervalued in the current game due to gil wars, or players offloading items onto the market.

[LazyKz]

I would be very excited if there was an improvement. It's either log on and level something, or log on and play the market wards....

Seems a big hassel to wiggle your way around current selling prices & finding some items that are not gear related.

I liked how FFXI was set up. The problem was Gil Farmers, not the setup. My guess is we dont hear about Gil Farmers now because no one needs the extra Gil... At least I dont. Heck, I have more Gil than what I know what to do with because there's realy nothing to shop for.

Plus the multiple city wards thing is very old school. At least put in travels (chocobo, air ship, ect) before going that route.

[Jinko]

An AH system actually has some negative aspects in such a complex economy.

With the interdependence of crafters in the game, the retainer system allows people to leave items on their retainer without having to constantly repost them, or manage an insane log of auctions.

And why do you think that just because you call something an Auction House it has to work like every other Auction House out there, you could quite easily have an AH system that allows you to set an item and leave it until it sells or you wish to remove it, the fee would be taken from the sale of the item much in the same way when an item is sold using the marketward.

One problem with an auction house system is that many of the items will simply never be posted, similar to how in other games you see plenty of low level items, no mid range items, and then level cap items on AH's.

Item with no value are generally sold to NPC's anyways so this is a moot point.

A better solution than an AH is to increase the number of items retainers can post to 1,000, give each player 4 or 5 total retainers (because crafters need retainers for all sorts of wards), and add a text search feature to the item search.

How would saturating an already over-saturated economy benefit anyone ?

It would also be nice to clean up the wards to make them more organized, and to remove the price search feature, since too many items are greatly undervalued in the current game due to gil wars, or players offloading items onto the market.

Agree that it would be nice to clean up the wards if they stay and organise them a bit better, removal of the price search is a terrible terrible idea, its there for a very good reason so we don't spend hours looking for the best priced item amongst a sea of NPC's.

A completive economy is by no means a bad thing.

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.

Couldn't agree more.

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.

The only reason the MW now work is because they have basically rewritten it to act like an AH with NPC's.

There is little reason at this stage why they shouldn't go the whole hog and replace it with a complete AH.

Just because something is new and different doesn't make better either.