Improving the Game Economically

[Roaran]

Thanks Amineri for you input .

I am glad we basically agree on what the problems are. I think that as long as we can agree on the problem a solution is inevitable, and the more we discuss it, the best solution can be found.

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Honestly I had not put much thought into the the bazaar seeking, as I rarely if ever see it being used. Though this is most likely, as you point out, because it is extremely unreliable. And from a seeker's perpsective, your solution would quite easily allow players to base themselves in another region, yet still participate in foreign markets. You would obviously still require a search feature to find what items are be sought after. However, outside of this very limited use, I think this may turn into being a very unintuitive feature.

To explain, suppose a rank 30 player, based in Limsa Lominsa, wishes to participate in the Gridania marketplace. Under the proposed system, our retainer would be able to help us. First, let us again suppose the adventurer is seeking an item that is in shorty supply in Limsa, yet is plentiful in Gridania. Through this system, the adventurer can place his retainer all the way in Gridania and start seeking for the item. But, after placing his retainer, the adventurer must wait or either move on to something else before he/she can recieve the wanted items. Even though there may be plenty of items in the bazaars, there is no independent interaction between bazaars; and, in order for the Limsa-based player to get the items they seek, it will require Gridania players to personally sell these items directly to the bazaar which may or may not require the players to first take items out of their bazaars find the seekers bazaar and then finally make the transaction.

A solution to this may be, to allow bazaars to have automatic transactions. Under certain circumstances bazaars would handle trades and transactions themselves. For example, if a bazaar is currently selling an item and another seeking the item; they would then be able to handle the transaction. But it would also require prices either matching, or implementing a new mechanic that allows players to seek items for a certain price range, and I do not see a mechanic like this ever being implemented.

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The Probelm with a single dominant Market in FFXIV

Before moving on, I would remind everyone, the particular problem we are dealing with here, is how best to spread the population out into the various regions. This particular problem has two roots: first the weak overall population encourages players to seek a common hub, and the second, markets are completely inaccessible from different regions. The former can only be solved with increased popularity, and an overall improvement in the game itself. The latter, however, can be fixed through a myriad of methods. Although, it may be said, that the latter may influence the former if done properly.

Also, in the future, Ishguard may become they new hub of popularity for players. This would mean a desertion of Ul'dah and the other regions completely, as the market would then move to Ishguard (assuming there is a market ward there).

This particular problem affects two groups of players in particular. Newer players and players playing in other regions. Newer players are the most uniformed player, and it is highly likely, in the current situation, that they will not choose Ul'dah as their starting location. Secondly, if the market place moves entirely away from the starting cities to Ishguard, a new player would most likely not be able to participate in a viable marketplace for a very long time. While newer players are unknowingly placing themselves at a disadvantage, there are some players who do so knowingly. These players like to play in the Black Shroud & La Noscea for the most part, and rarely make the long journey to Ul'dah for supplies. Aside from limiting their economic participation, it also places a unnecessary burden on these players. In addition, I don't believe Square-Enix developed equal amounts of content in each zone, just for only one zone to become so dominant. The coalescing of players also places severe pressure on server stability as well. Thus, from a developer and player stand point, it is better to fix this problem.

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I am concerned about your suggestion to link all of the market areas into one, however. Such a step, once done, cannot effectively be undone. I have seen many, many games that have been severely diminished by 'globalization' of the world.

I do agree with you on this one. Once done, a linking of the market wards would probably never ever be undone, as its convenience would be too hard to part with. For a very long time I shared your exact sentiments. I see the FFXIV economy being one of the most interesting of all online games right now, and it at least has very good potential. I also believed that linking the market wards should not be done or even considered until major means of transportation have been implemented. I still do hold this sentiment to a degree, I am not necessarily in a rush to link the wards. If there were no means of transportation coming, however, it would be almost required for the markets to be linked.

Yet, I have now come to the conclusion that an eventual linking of the markets should take place. I do not come to this conclusion lightly, as I hope you can see I have put a great amount of thought into this subject. By linking the market wards, certain aspects of a dynamic ecnonomy would be eliminated. Although most of these aspects in mind would arguably be more profound with better transportation, they currently are not being employed to any great degree. But, the main point is this: The economy and market system must serve the game, not vice versa, and that linking the market wards would, by helping to alleviate the problems I outlined above, would help lead to a better game.

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Finding the best method to improve the Markets.

I don't assume to have the best ideas, far from it in fact. I am just looking at the most visible problems, and giving suggestions. I believe that while linking the market wards is important, it may be more important to improve the Market Wards system first. I'll outline what we have as major problems so far:

• Placing Retainers
• Moving to each Retainer to Buy
• Unable to see what items are being sought after.
• Market Crashes

These are structural problems within the ward system itself. As I look at these, the best idea that comes to mind is the one I had suggested. Maybe the exact implementation is not best. But a single point to reference all bazaars for items would eliminate the need for players to place retainers in specific wards, and would remove the need for players to move to each retainer to buy the items. A mechanic to search for seeker's items would still need to be implemented. But the bazaar reference system would still be able to handle this. But the most important reason for my suggestion is this: as the game popularity increases. It becomes obvious how bad the market crashes might become. Already there are caps on certain market locations that prevent some retainers from being used effectively. If there is a 30% increase in population, there is no chance for the market wards to hold these retainers. Thus this problem only serves to show how unsustainable the market wards are in the future. It will always be a thorn in the side of the developers that must be continually addressed. This very problem may eventually force the developers to link the market wards, just to distribute the retainers more evenly across the other markets as well. Thus a system that is capable of only referencing the Retainers would be far more effecient, and cause far fewer technicaly problems for the developers.