Nomenclature is Important

[Isaaru]

Its not Armory, its Armoury

Armoury = A Collection of Weapons and Tools in a Central Location.

Armory and Armoury are the same exact thing.

[Cairdeas]

Armory and Armoury are the same exact thing.

Its proper spelling is Armoury. Armory while still correct spelling of the origin word. Armoury System is I believe trademarked or copyrighted by SE right now.

[Belial]

This is not a slam at SE. In actuality I applaud them for doing things differently. But FFXIV has proven one thing to me, Nomenclature is Important.

Right now a huge majority of the Fanbase for FFXIV who speak English as a first language do not understand the Nomenclatures being used. Or they confuse them with Nomenclature from other games. Or try and force Nomenclature from other games into FFXIV.

These practices just do not work.

I'll go through the biggest ones I have noticed that people confuse. I'll add more as I see fit.


1. Auction House Vs Market Ward

An Auction House is just that, A Place where an AUCTION happens. This either the presence of a Blind Bidding System (FFXI) or a Timed Bidding System (Some MMO's). If the feature does not have either of those two features it is NOT AN AUCTION HOUSE. It is simply a Market System.

In FFXIV We currently have the Market Wards. This is a collection of shops that NPC's operate for the player to sell and buy items for the player. The transactions are all exact, there is no bidding and no illusionary "Haggling" it is What You See Is What You Get.

The Major Complaint AGAINST the Market Ward is convenience. And the most Common requested fix is the ability to purchase a item directly from the Market Ward Search Interface. But implementing this feature does not make anything a Auction House. And as is there are a few ways to implement this feature.

The Direct Way - Just buy the item right off. This seems a bit unfair to the Retainers and Vendors. Because when you go and view a Retainers inventory for a specific item you might see they sell an item you might buy if the price is right. So instead of you just buying one item you buy 2. This benefits both players and I feel is lost with the Direct way.

The Taxed Delivery - Implement the Direct Way but include a Tax to get it delivered to either your Retainer or yourself personally. The tax would allow for players to get the item instantly if they are in a hurry, but if they have the time and want to save the money they can go pick the item up themselves. As a result there is still the invitation to a Player to impulse buy from the Retainer they visit when they go pick up their item.
You can include a system where the item is purchased but not delivered but marks the ward and retainer where you go and pick up the item.

Again neither of these fixes that would resolve the major complaints of the Market Wards, turn it into a Auction House.

Request of the Playerbase: Stop using the Blanket Term Auction House when all you are asking for is Convenience updates to the current Market System. As without Bidding Blind or Timed it is not an Auction. Even if everything is done from a central point and linked cross world.


2. Class Vs Job
I've made a major post about this back when the forums first started, I even got it posted as an Opinion Piece on the Eorzeapedia Fan Site. http://www.eorzeapedia.com/2011/04/0...ditional-jobs/

The term CLASS used for FFXIV is not the same as the term JOB used in Final Fantasy XI, or any of the past Final Fantasy's. It also is not the same as Class from other MMO's.

In those instances the term Class is used to refer to a specific archetype of character and the roles they can perform.

In other MMO's the term Hunter is often used for a ranged DD specialist. Thats their role to deal as much damage as possible from far away. They can use Bows, Crossbows, Guns, Throwing Weapons. They tend to have other mechanics like Traps, Pets, or other features.

In FFXIV an Archer uses a Bow. Thats the only classification Archer gives a character.

In Final Fantasy XIV Class as it is used is supposed to mean "Weapon Class" as in a grouping of similar weapons. A user of this class of weapon is simply a specialist for that weapon. Gladiator is a Sword User. That is all the nomenclature in XIV is used for. Gladiator is not a Role, It is not a Tank, a Subversive Fighter, or a Damage Dealer. But It can be, but in reality right now It is simply a Sword User.

SE have realized they had an issue with this and have proposed implementing the classic FF Job System in a new way ontop of the current Armoury (Weapon Class) System.

In Final Fantasy XIV the term Job will be used to help a character define a Specific Role.
Paladin - Tank
Thief/Ranger/Dark Knight - Subversive Fighter
Warrior/Fighter/Monk/Dragoon/ - DD
White Mage - Healer
Black Mage/Blue Mage/Ninja/ - Magic DD
Red Mage/Scholar - Hybrid Heal/Elemental
Bard/Gambler/Dancer - Buffs
Etc.

So in result the Job should define the role, the Weapon should defines how the role is Performed.
Paladin/Gladiator-Sentinel : Tanks through pure Defense
Paladin/Lancer : Tanks through maintaining hate through dealing damage.
Paladin/Thaumaturge: Tanks through self-healing damage taken.
Etc.

No choice should be locked from use, because you will never know what a potential combination might do for a specific fight. it might not be the best for casual play or playing in a group just to XP, but there might be a chance where any combination can be useful.

Request of the Playerbase: Please stop confusing Weapon Classes from FFXIV, Jobs from XI/XIV(When they get implemented), and Classes from other MMOs.

Although I don't always agree with you Cairdeas, this is a very good post and I fully support it.

[Firon]

Someone posted this already not sure where but, when you choose the item your looking for it would be cool if the game ported you next to the retainer you want to buy from. I think that would make the buying part a lot better.

[Jynx]

Gotta love the smell of necro posts in the morning.

[azura84]

Blind Bidding with a Price History allows RMT Manipulation. A group of 5 RMT's can completely decimate the economy of a game in less then a month if they try hard enough. Simply by buying all the stock of an item thats in demand but has low quantity and then force the price history up artificially by selling it to themselves over and over at a higher price then the item would naturally be worth.

They should do buyout only no price history only current listed prices like the wards. That is one thing I think the wards got right no history. I do like the wards but if I'm in a hurry it's too much of a hassle they should make it more time friendly I wouldn't mind paying extra tax and buying the item from the search feature.

The 'no history' doesn't make a difference, as Cairdeas said all it takes is a gil bank of enough gil to buy up the entire stock on the market, this can still happen (and probably does) without a history it just takes some crafty gamers to corner the market weather it be a history or a current price list. This is why SE developed the wards without any form of tracking to begin with. The problem was convenience, it just isn't plausible to ask every player to search the total amount of retainers (=every character x2, of which many players have multiple characters for larger selling abilities) to find what is the most generous offer. So where is the greatest balance? What if there was a system of a combined Blind Bidding system with the Market Wards. (I started this post about 2 hours before i found yours: http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/t...29-Suggestions) A way that you can see a larger history of the Auction House (>20 sales, maybe 30?) and a current pricing on retainers (>20/30?), obviously this too could be manipulated by RMT or clever stock-market player groups but it would give an edge to players and make things harder to manipulate. It's nearly 4 am so I am probably over looking something, there's always an imbalance somewhere. heh

Ultimately I gotta agree with Lobo, SE needs to develop a more real-time RMT force if they are serious

[Cairdeas]

im sure "Stereotype" would be more appropriate

Also I removed "WoW" from the first post. Happy?

[Duelle]

Also I removed "WoW" from the first post. Happy?

Not sure why it has to come to that. If you don't study the competition you don't learn much. It's like the guys that consider themselves authors but aren't well-read nor bother to read anything.

[Cairdeas]

Not sure why it has to come to that. If you don't study the competition you don't learn much. It's like the guys that consider themselves authors but aren't well-read nor bother to read anything.

I've been to busy to actually read novels and books lately.

But I do listen to audiobooks on audible when I drive and exercise.

Anyway.

I don't know why she made a stink about me using WoW as an example. Apparently over 12 million people play so at least one person would understand the example I was trying to make.