I was thinking about the whole AH, market wards thing and i've come to the conclusion that yes, it can work and in a good way for the LS. Let me explain. You need to look at this in a real world sort of way, not our old way. In the real world to purchase items you look for places that you know can give you what you are looking for, we all have our favourite places to shop, so lets say CKD is one of the top LS's, best crafters, best loot etc.
In a very short time, people will recognize that "Hey, I need this item and I know the CKD members in the market wards have the shit I need!"
So in a sense the LS is the "store" people will go to for their stuff, in other words we would become the AH.
People really wont go around examaning every damn npc, they will be "shopping at the "store" that they know can fill their needs.
CKD members would all be at the same location and people will just walk up to us and purchase. Take Star Wars Galaxies for instance. They have a bazzar terminal and there you can scan and buy the items you want like any AH, but it can also link you to the location of members vendor NPC's loacted in the guild halls or shop's people have set up in their homes.
My wife is one of the top weaponsmiths on her server and she sells a lot of weapons, people know that she has the best weapons in the game and they go to her all the time. When I played and needed new armour, I would just head to Idena's house and get what I needed for she was the best armoursmith on the server.
Your thoughts on this?

I'm really conflicted about this issue.

Other mmos I played didn't feel as if they had cohesive communities in the game, and I'm all for mechanics that force players to work together in order to accomplish things. This applies from finding out where stuff is in town (thanks ket) to how good cock fletchings are for an early weaver craft (thanks corwin), and of course to battles (and leve quests). I know I could've played Warhammer Online 100% solo and not really missed out on anything. The little villages were small, everyone had big bold icons over there heads denoting who I should bother speaking with to get 'x' done. Now that I think about it I can't even remember anyone who really made an impact for me in that game beside the immediate irl friends I played with.

Then let's look at FFXI. I bought all my Marron Glace from Lalond. It's been so many years, but I know I relied on a person or two to get food most of the time.

That feels so much more rewarding for both parties, that instead of faceless names or RMTs from an AH, you can say you bought your shit from this crazy motherfucker who makes awesome things.

There is potential in this system for people to get recognized in a real big way, kinda like being your local crazy personality for a car dealership. I feel it has potential, but not having an auction house is skirting the edge of my comfort zone. It's a very non-casual request for casual players to invest themselves more time-wise and socially in to a game.

For people who don't want to interact with others or spend time perusing the market wards like you would your grocery store then this system will fail them. It's a time sink, its inconvenient, but I think it has the potential to be something cool--especially so if there are a core of reliable shops. And there are plenty of poopsockers out there so I think we'll be okay. Worst case scenario we always just rely on each other in the LS in order to get things done.

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Retired 8/21/06
Don't click this link.

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

bahahaha great episode great word

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

what worries me is the mats, It would be nice to be the people recognized the make the best weapons/armor but a lot of the crafts are complex stuff that need small tedious materials. I think an AH would be better suited for things like that. and don't forget the crystals the synth I'm doing currently for blacksmithing uses 8 crystals everytime. i takes me 30 min to and hour to farm 100 depending if i have competition.

Both of the ideas have ups and downs. just like we used to remember who was the first person who got a relic, or is a great tank. i think it will be fun to know hey Cad is one fisherman who always has the best stuff in stock for my cooking and that's where ill go.

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It's not like having an Auction House would suddenly immediately remove all bazaars from existance. The two can co-exist just like they do in FFXI.

The Auction House will be the day-to-day go-to place for your weapons and armor, or otherwise hard to find crafting materials that other people get as random drops while out adventuring. And act as a quick-stop shop when you want to browse for new equipment so you can be in and out in just a couple of minutes.

People who sell in bulk (whether it be drink, food, or crafting materials) will avoid the auction house, bazaaring their goods to get by the AH item limit, and people will learn these bazaars and they'll become the go-to people for things. This is exactly what those "stands" in the Market Wards are for.

This system has worked perfectly fine in FFXI for years, and only once RMT came along monopolizing and then price fixing things did it's only real flaw surface. Removing the Auction House entirely isn't the way to combat RMT. A better idea would have been to put limits on the price history or something. Or heck, make the Auction House work like the one in WoW where you can actually see individual items, who's selling them, and what their asking price is.

I'm not sure where people (including SE) are getting the idea that having an Auction House in the game will ruin the economy/community somehow...?

Exactly even a game like EQ had you setup bazaar in your house, but people could find out what you're selling by using an AH. There was a fee for buying from the AH, but you could avoid the fee with a little leg work ( i.e. going to their house).

And I agree with the main problem with FFXI's auction was the not showing individual items/sellers and their asking price. Sure it makes it less of an "auction" since many people will just use the "buy it now" functionality, but I didn't like "bidding" on an item with a subjective value without a minimum bid.

Without an auction house, it's going to be a lot more difficult to gauge the price of an item.

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

if they had something like, when u walk in the market wards there is a search function or a browse of all the people that are there, instead of having to walk to each individual. as long as ur npc is in there it well sell stuff.

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part of me is secretly excited with how F'd up Eorzea is...we're all in the same dilemma together so if i/we can make better use of the system we can get an advantage. kinda like UW said. and i dont really care if it scares people back to World of Lamecraft, so long as the game stays afloat.

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

I do think that AHs should exist, and the combination of AHs and bazaars would probably be the best thing for FFXIV. Like I said I'm conflicted. There are so many benefits to having an auction house. Window shopping alone, to see all the armor available in game, is worth having them.

If I might be so bold as to peer in the mind of an FFXIV dev ... I think they want more chaos in the economy, and they really want it hard for individuals or groups of players to control. It's a pretty bad gamble on their part, but on the bright side if shit really does hit the fan they probably will add auction houses, haha

Edit:


This is exactly how I feel too, haha

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Retired 8/21/06
Don't click this link.

It took me an hour to find 11 bloodworms yesterday in the market. I probably could have farmed them at a faster pace if I knew where to find them.

Probably 45 minutes of that hour was UI lag. ha

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when mining, i got about 20 bloodworms in about 10min

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

Awesome! I'll spend some time mining today. I tried it yesterday, but wasn't too successful. I did start crafting though, and I like it so far. My lala is so cute with her little pan. haha

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I wonder if there will be trade chat channel. There should be a way of like advertising to the community what you have to sell, and how do you know if the prices are good? On ffxi there was a history of the last purchases so you could kinda see if your getting soaked. I'm loving this game more and more, it's not WoW where you level up in a couple of weeks do a few instances and get the gear and your done. This game at least, makes you think and I like that

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They also look cute when they finish a craft lol.

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COBRA KAI DOJO NEVER DIES
RIP Shiloh