We need an AH

[Wolfie]

So if the game takes off and say we start getting 10-20K players per server, with each a possible 7 retainers, that gives us a maximum of 140K stalls....they can barely fit 140K retainers as is, I don't know what they're planning with player influx but I don't see it working as is today.

"Barely fit 140k retainers"?

The ward limits are 200 retainers. That's 700 *** different zones just to store these bazaars. I really wish people would realize how ridiculously expensive, complex, and impractical the retainers are.

Thank you moderators. PS: Please add an automatic profanity filter for stupids like me.

[Jinko]

I think the structure of the market wards makes the world feel more real.

If the technical issues and teleport times can be resolved, the market wards are an excellent way to facilitate player to player sales. The MW represent forward progress in game design, but a failure in implementation.

What part of the system is progressive ? the market system EQ2 had was more progressive than the MW.

I can't see how making a system that is slow, clunky and less accessible than an AH is moving forward.

Pretty much anything SE has done in this game has been badly implemented, so that goes without saying.

I think the market price history needs to come back online, and an AH should be added, with the exception that you can only perform 10 searches in 24 hours. Someone doing more than that is looking to squat the AH, not legitimately use it.

I think 10 is way way way too low.

[Peregrine]

It's probably time for a one-point procurement system. Two persistant flaws are that the best items up on the market don't show up in the searches because they're bumped by 20 NQ trash products of the same kind, and every time an item's market count goes to 0, we have to re-negotiate the item's market value between buyers and sellers all over again. At every old market crash, prices would literally triple then coast down over the next 3 days as people tried to take advantage of those 0-item supplies while they could. Scavenger "entrepeneurs" have taken to buying all the onions from producers in india before anyone else can get to them. Because onions are such a big part of indian cooking, people will pay high prices for the onions that these people are now essentially holding for ransom. It's gotten so bad that the middlemen are doing what online scrubs have been doing for years--buying produce and intentionally throwing it away just to create false demand in their high prices. Producers can't primarily raise prices to cut the middlemen out--the middlemen will still squat the produce and just charge even more, and they can't not sell to middlemen because they can't distinguish who is a real consumer and who just wants to jack the price of onions up.

So people pay for onions what we pay for gasoline. Some people will argue that "that is supply and demand" when no, it's not. That's anticapitalist obstruction of supply and demand.

The huge issue with an Auction house is how easy it is to bot, "play the market", and flip items for profit. Essentially to take a cut for obstructing what would have been someone else's direct-from-seller-to-buyer transaction. Middlmanning is a huge problem with one-point procurement systems because of the massive ease of obtaining dozens to hundreds of transactions in a short time. One needs only to look at the price of onions in india to realize how excessive middlemen hurts economies.

But there's really no way to not eventually have an AH here. I think the market price history needs to come back online, and an AH should be added, with the exception that you can only perform 10 searches in 24 hours. Someone doing more than that is looking to squat the AH, not legitimately use it.

[Leowilde]

People talk about wanting this game to be realistic and unique. Now, swapping the NPC market system for a single-window AH is not what I call neither realistic nor unique. The Market Wards makes the player part of the world. Having to walk among the retainers to find what you're looking for is part of the gameplay, part of the pretend. And in all honesty: if we can walk from Limsa to Coerthas, we can stroll for a couple of minutes to get our new gear.

However, there are improvements that need to be done, and both we and the developers know this. For one, it is essential to adjust the prizes of items already in the bazaar, without having to remove them and add again. And as already mentioned, linking the wards from each city state into one single ward would be beneficial. As it stands at the moment, Gridania's market is dry, and new adventurers starting out there will have to undertake a long journey early on if they want to upgrade their gear at all. A common market wards would solve that.

[Hubert]

However, there are improvements that need to be done, and both we and the developers know this. For one, it is essential to adjust the prizes of items already in the bazaar, without having to remove them and add again. And as already mentioned, linking the wards from each city state into one single ward would be beneficial. As it stands at the moment, Gridania's market is dry, and new adventurers starting out there will have to undertake a long journey early on if they want to upgrade their gear at all. A common market wards would solve that.

Most likely when Ishgard is released the majority of retainers will be parked in the Ishgard ward (assuming there is one). New players would find it extremely beneficial to visit all the cities early on to access additional leves anyhow, and now there are NPCs who sell low level weapons and armor within the wards themselves. Furthermore, linking the wards will bring about overcrowding and shouldn't be done without first restructuring the ward system.

[Leowilde]

Furthermore, linking the wards will bring about overcrowding and shouldn't be done without first restructuring the ward system.

That is a good point.

[Amsai]

People talk about wanting this game to be realistic and unique. Now, swapping the NPC market system for a single-window AH is not what I call neither realistic nor unique. The Market Wards makes the player part of the world. Having to walk among the retainers to find what you're looking for is part of the gameplay, part of the pretend. And in all honesty: if we can walk from Limsa to Coerthas, we can stroll for a couple of minutes to get our new gear.

You've never heard me ask for something so ridiculous. I want convenience not realism to this level and not something that only really pleases the tiny tiny RP minority. Besides, I thought this game was about making an MMO more casual friendly? Well they succeded with leves, and travel, and class changing. But they failed horribly with crafting and gathering in general, and the repair system, and the MW system.

Give me convenience, or Give me death!

[Leowilde]

I want convenience not realism to this level and not something that only really pleases the tiny tiny RP minority. Besides, I thought this game was about making an MMO more casual friendly?

Fair enough. But I am not talking about RP. I am talking about a system that, with more work and adjustments, is more unique and creative than the average AH system. By all means, it's not convenient yet, but come more updates to the MW and hopefully it will be.

[Kallera]

You've never heard me ask for something so ridiculous. I want convenience not realism to this level and not something that only really pleases the tiny tiny RP minority. Besides, I thought this game was about making an MMO more casual friendly? Well they succeded with leves, and travel, and class changing. But they failed horribly with crafting and gathering in general, and the repair system, and the MW system.

Give me convenience, or Give me death!

You want convenience over the actual home grown look of a marketing community? Go play Crystal Defenders. Not all of us want to stare blankly at a wall for hours.

[Amsai]

You want convenience over the actual home grown look of a marketing community? Go play Crystal Defenders. Not all of us want to stare blankly at a wall for hours.

Im sorry I offended that 1% of the community. I appologize.