Goblin Squad Member
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While reading todays blog i came across this line, "Parties could also be a caravan, with some members moving large quantities of goods from place to place, and some acting as guards to protect the group from hazards and brigands." Does this mean the standard AH is not going to be implemented? Maybe a local AH instead of the global, so items obtained in one place could be sold for more in another area. While convenient, the AH of WoW and others takes the satisfaction out of crafting an awesome weapon. I know some will say that getting rid of an auction house is a step backwards, but i would like to see what everyone's opinions are.
Are you in favor of a standard Ah or a more player based wandering merchant type of system? The hiring of players to protect your shipment and the flip side, playing a group of highwaymen.
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Goblin Squad Member
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While reading todays blog i came across this line, "Parties could also be a caravan, with some members moving large quantities of goods from place to place, and some acting as guards to protect the group from hazards and brigands." Does this mean the standard AH is not going to be implemented? Maybe a local AH instead of the global, so items obtained in one place could be sold for more in another area. While convenient, the AH of WoW and others takes the satisfaction out of crafting an awesome weapon. I know some will say that getting rid of an auction house is a step backwards, but i would like to see what everyone's opinions are.
Are you in favor of a standard Ah or a more player based wandering merchant type of system? The hiring of players to protect your shipment and the flip side, playing a group of highwaymen.
For a sandbox MMO I would say the idea of a standard auction house should not apply, concepts of travel, protection, localized economies etc... Local stores, shops etc... that can sell while offline seems far more logical for the genre of game this is intended to be. Auction houses are good for games where time in the city is intended to be meaningless. PFO does not seem to me as one of those types of games.
Anything bought, sold or traded, should state clearly who made it (if player crafted), and who sells it. If they differ, too bad. Players should be able to find out who the resellers are so they can adjust.
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Goblin Squad Member
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For a sandbox MMO I would say the idea of a standard auction house should not apply,The STANDARD auction house system has two key properties:
1-instant global flow of *information*. All AH access the same market.
2-instant global flow of *items*. Ok, this is technically the mail system and not the AH, but highly relevant for the discussion.
The goal: have local economies, trade caravans, etc.
There are essentially 3 options:1- No global info, but standard mail system.
You can only see what's for sale in the shop you are in, but players can ship goods risk free. Problem: There are other global info channels, so chat channels get filled with trade spam. Unless shipping costs are significant, merchant players will use mass marketing and mail order, and there will be no real localized economy.2- No global info, and no/restricted/expensive item mailing.
This seems to be what many players ask for. Merchant players could thrive, and there is a role for item couriers, but mainstream players may find it cumbersome to spend so much effort on shopping. Trade most likely to be centralised to one or two trade hubs except for consumables.3- Global info, but no/restricted/expensive item mailing.
My favourite system and the best feature of Pirate of the Burning Sea.
Essentially the AH lets you see what is for sale elsewhere and buy it, but it is stored in the warehouse there until you actually pick it up. (You can post for sale anything in a warehouse without going there though). Like in PotBS, the range of operation could depend on skills (ie high merchant skill lets you buy and sell globally, while no skill restricts you to the same hex). Lots of roles for merchant players and trade caravans, especially if resources are distributed uneven on the map (Miners sell locally, merchants haul it to trade hubs).For options 2 and 3, 'teleportation via bank' and fast travel are the potential issues. Essentially, if transportation is risk-free (items are in the bank) and near effortless, then of course the economy becomes flat anyway.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm sorry, but what purpose would this serve? I don't understand.Anything bought, sold or traded, should state clearly who made it (if player crafted), and who sells it. If they differ, too bad. Players should be able to find out who the resellers are so they can adjust.
I remember in Vanguard there was a guy who liked making bags and wanted to be able to sell them fairly cheap on the AH, so that newer players, etc. could purchase them without breaking their bank. I remember he was constantly complaining that other players would buy his products at the low price and turn around and resell them on the AH for a significantly higher price. My best guess is that this request is somehow related to that market-playing behavior, but I really don't see how it would solve anything.
I am especially confused by why Scholar-at-Arms said "If they differ, too bad."
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm sorry, but what purpose would this serve? I don't understand.
Anything bought, sold or traded, should state clearly who made it (if player crafted), and who sells it. If they differ, too bad. Players should be able to find out who the resellers are so they can adjust.
I can see who made it... as certain crafters can become semi famous if recipes aren't given away they way they are in WoW. I remember in everquest 1 there were hundreds of people trying to figure out a use for Cinnamon sticks for over a year before the recipe for pixie covered cinnamon sticks was discovered.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I can see who made it... as certain crafters can become semi famous...I'm sorry, but what purpose would this serve? I don't understand.
Anything bought, sold or traded, should state clearly who made it (if player crafted), and who sells it. If they differ, too bad. Players should be able to find out who the resellers are so they can adjust.
That's a great reason to see who made the item, but I think what Scholar was asking is what purpose is served by also showing who sold it.
Knowing who crafted an item and if that differs from the seller is the first step in knowing how to circumvent middle men. Every market has that option. If I don't like the price that one guy charges, I can go to a competitor, unless they strip the item of any identifying markers to prevent me from researching this. In MMO's, this is normally what is done. People have no idea that the person selling that item is not necessarily the person making it. You could then try to contact the crafter directly, and maybe save a ton of coin.
Middle men are useless parasites who simply inflate prices to no good effect, and are one of the causes of inflationary spiral. I see no problem with charging for shipping, but shipping AND marking up aren't really acceptable to me. Workers are routinely asked for wage cuts, but you never see those savings passed on to consumers, it just goes into the manufacturers wallets, or more to the point, the CEOs. I see no reason at all to have that sort of baloney in a game unless the point of the game is to play the market.
Plus, it would allow people to know if an item is a generic item bought cheaply at an NPC vendor. Some players in LOTRO and other games routinely purchases vendor items and then mark them up to attempt to take advantage of the ignorant. It's predatory. And unconscionable. People should be able to easily see the difference between a crafted player item and a generic drop or vendor item. This sort of thing can turn people off a game if they know players are trying to con them intentionally.
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I intentionally ratted out people like you as I found them in LOTRO. It made my day to have some scum sucker rant at me in a chat channel about how I'm affecting their bottom line. Thanks for making my life have meaning.
Also, it's not a true free market, even the one we have to deal with in RL. In RL people can do research and look for alternatives. They can easily find out who makes what where. But it's all controlled, and people really don't have choices, they have the illusion of choices, carefully controlled and scripted to prevent them from becoming aware of the puppet show. Or can you honestly explain to me why they can pay manufacturers peanuts in third world countries to make a pair of shoes for a buck, then bring it over here and charge 80 dollars? That's not honest, no matter how you look at it.
The minute someone tries to point out how wrong it is to take advantage of people, they get called commies. Well, I can wear that label proudly for what it means in that context.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Middle men are useless parasites who simply inflate prices to no good effect, and are one of the causes of inflationary spiral. I see no problem with charging for shipping, but shipping AND marking up aren't really acceptable to me. Workers are routinely asked for wage cuts, but you never see those savings passed on to consumers, it just goes into the manufacturers wallets, or more to the point, the CEOs. I see no reason at all to have that sort of baloney in a game unless the point of the game is to play the market.
If people are willing to pay the new price, then the middle men are just putting it at the appropriate price it should have been to begin with, helping the next sellers along the line. IMO it in general helps the people who focus on actually gaining and adding to the value in games.
Back when I played Ragnarok I was actually thanked by several different people when they discovered I had doubled and tripled the market prices on certain items. Anyways the practice has more or less already been condoned and encoraged by goblinworks themselves in the last blog
Some solo players won't even leave town. They'll become masters of crafting and market warfare, using their canny ability to time swings in prices and to identify opportunities for arbitrage to make their fortune. These spreadsheet warriors will be ready to pounce on the pricing mistakes of their less focused competitors, and can be the secret to success for the forces engaged in territorial warfare. (Or their downfall—a canny merchant never forgets a previous slight or betrayal.)
These people can easily be beaten by people who dedicate themselves to flushing the market with cheaper alternatives, even if it's just to force them to lose profit. Nothing says people can't go out of their way to ruin you. I did it in LOTRO. Even if those people bought my stuff, I just reposted more. It's hard to turn a profit on something you can't store if someone else keeps flooding the market, and all you do is make them wealthy at your own expense.
Oh yeah, I know how to play that game, I just think it's a pretty stinky game to play, which is why I save it for market privateers. I'll be nice to nice people, bad people get my Mr. Hyde.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Resellers help the market reach proper price equilibrium. It's the basic economics of retail trade. The "markup" that resellers charge is the price of making the product available to the general marketplace at the location and in the form that the end consumer wants. That's how retail works.
If there's a lower price being offered somewhere else, the consumer can either expend the time and effort to seek it out, or else they can pay the higher price for the convenience of not expending that effort. Either way, it's their decision to make.
That said, I think your suggestion that items should list the maker and the seller would be fine, and would not inherently distort the market. It just gives consumers a greater amount of information upon which to base their buying decisions.
If a buyer wishes to only buy items from their original creators, that's their choice. They will likely pay more in opportunity cost than what they would pay on the open market, however, since they're purchasing from a restricted supply. Either way, there's nothing unjust or unfair about charging consumers a price which they are willing to pay.
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Goblin Squad Member
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These people can easily be beaten by people who dedicate themselves to flushing the market with cheaper alternatives, even if it's just to force them to lose profit. Nothing says people can't go out of their way to ruin you. I did it in LOTRO. Even if those people bought my stuff, I just reposted more. It's hard to turn a profit on something you can't store if someone else keeps flooding the market, and all you do is make them wealthy at your own expense.
Oh yeah, I know how to play that game, I just think it's a pretty stinky game to play, which is why I save it for market privateers. I'll be nice to nice people, bad people get my Mr. Hyde.
Indeed, it is a fun challange between eachother, actually had a few enemies like that in Ragnarok. Battles of wallets essentially, and a calculation of what people can afford and gather to flood. I won about 80% of them in those days basically as the price raiser, if you can buy out the flood and stash away the excess, it turns into a huge profit over the long haul if you can drive the price back up and have a huge supply of still inflated priced goods to release slowly back for a high price. If you fail, you could bankrupt yourself trying and be unable to purchase out the flood, and instead be left with nothing but a warehouse full of goods that have their prices shot down. It's a risk reward game that becomes a subgame within itself.
I still don't see why it is a stinky game, either side winning or losing helps some and hurts others. It helps those who harvest and collect the increased price item, as now they make more money for the same work they were doing before, it hurts those who bought it. If the price lowering team wins, the opposite happens, the harvesters suffer, the consumers win. It's basic economics supply/demand, just like in the real world, right now if debeers's diamond supply were all released at once, the price of diamonds would drop by about 75%, but they would never do that, as that hurts their total value.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I assume the money the middle men make pays for the transport and storefront costs...and I am paying for the convenience of not having to travel to the actual crafter. At least this is how it is in RL.
I only hope crafters are able to leave a custom signature on their crafts. Other than that, I suppose the middle men could craft boxes...and place items they are selling into those boxes. This would, allow them to add their custom signature to the box. I do not see the RP or practical rationale of making every transaction that has ever occurred to an item, available.
Oh, back on task...please no global AH. I can see a local store buying and selling a variety of goods, which could amount to a local AH. But this should be entirely player run. I take that back...if some player group wanted to figure out how to make and run a global AH...completely player run...then I have no qualms with it (although this would necessarily exemplify my dislike of instant travel and telepathy (non-spatial chats)).
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Goblin Squad Member
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Are you in favor of a standard Ah or a more player based wandering merchant type of system? The hiring of players to protect your shipment and the flip side, playing a group of highwaymen.
I'm not in favor of a standard auction house. I am in favor of localized markets, shops, and trade caravans and posts. Now, if they want to implement a system where you can see all items globally, but have to pick the item locally, I am fine with this. There is nothing better than having the satisfaction of owning my own storefront in a city. Or, owning a series of traveling caravans. On the topic of crafted goods, I pray they allow us to sign or claim ownership of the item (Crafted by, Smelted by, Skinned by, etc.).
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Goblin Squad Member
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yes that is what i would like to see also, local shops and craftmen. the idea of traveling to a far off city to find the smith that can make a certain sword appeals to me. the idea of purchasing a product on a global market but having to pick it up or being able to pay someone to pick it up for you is great too. i hope they use something close to these ideas
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Goblin Squad Member
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Most of my social mechanic ideas involve magically interlinked message boards. So here is another!
Take the Pre-CU SWG market system and add a little.
1. Inferior goods are sold city to city SWG/EVE style, you have to be in the city to pick them up, but you can put a reserve on them from a distance(yeay magic message boards!) Like SWG, a price cap would be good for this market.(lore reason: the npc merchants don't want to be accountable for the items)
2. Everything else must be sold from player created shops. Ideally you would have one or a few shop owners that buy and sell goods from crafters and re-distribute and advertise(see #3). If a single crafter starts making enough of a profit, they could start their own shop and make a little more money. But starting crafters would be wise to start by selling to shops.
3. Advertising, an additional part of the magic message boards would be advertising for player run shops. There should be general listing, like in a yellow book, or some players could pay a little extra for google style banner adds that appear when people are searching for something you've selected.
As for how the board looks: think magical ink on a huge sheet of parchment. Or you could organize them into terminals, or even allow players to purchase portable scroll versions. I don't think the portable versions would hurt the game too much, after all you have to go to the items location to pick it up. If it making market watching too easy, you can force it to within a certain distance of one of the main boards.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I would also like to point out that, if Ambar of Kotu is coming around to my shop, and buying Widgets in bulk from me at a price that allows him to resell them to Probitas for 5 gold each, it's really not in my best interest to turn around and sell a Widget directly to Probitas for less than 5 gold. I might make a marginally better profit on that single Widget, but I'm also likely to lose the sustained business I've been doing with Probitas.
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Goblin Squad Member
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If it is reasonable and worthwhile for you to sell your goods directly to market, then of course it is in your interest to do so. Middlemen will exist where it is cumbersome for you to do so.
This is a little off. It's not so much a question of how cumbersome, in absolute terms, it is for you to take your own goods to market. Rather, it's a question of whether the benefit of having the middleman do it outweighs the cost of doing it yourself. Ultimately, if it's more profitable for you to let him take care of it, then that's the rational thing to do.
In practice, it is almost always more profitable to let middlemen take your goods to market, because they reap the economies of scale.
Goblinworks Executive Founder
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I would also like to point out that, if Ambar of Kotu is coming around to my shop, and buying Widgets in bulk from me at a price that allows him to resell them to Probitas for 5 gold each, it's really not in my best interest to turn around and sell a Widget directly to Probitas for less than 5 gold. I might make a marginally better profit on that single Widget, but I'm also likely to lose the sustained business I've been doing with Probitas.
I wouldn't look at it as 'selling 100 widgets at about 3 gold each'. I'd look at it as 'selling 100 widgets of total material cost 100 GP and time cost 105 minutes for 310GP, or 2 GP profit per minute.' and compare that to 'selling 1 widget of material cost 1 GP and time cost 6 minutes for 13GP, or 2 GP profit per minute.' (Assuming that a widget takes 1 GP to make, and a sale takes 5 minutes total time- a rather extreme example used to make a point.)
If the merchant can take those 100 widgets and get them to his store and ready for sale in an hour, and sell them all for 5 GP in a month with prorated retail expenses of 70GP, he is making exactly as much as the creator. (60 minutes of labor, 380GP costs, 500GP income, for 2 gp/minute). The creator can't do his own retail, because the shop sells more than just widgets, and the fixed costs of running the shop are prorated among all the goods sold. The market for widgets isn't big enough for one store that sells thousands of widgets each month, owned by a co-op of widget makers.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Bumping this as I find it to be rather valid, but let's look at the Auction Houses in WoW, where you have individuals buying up all the stock and relisting it at ridiculously high prices, effectively blocking new or time-strapped players from the 'fun'.
I'm not going to pay $20 a month in the real world to play in a Sweeatshop.
Here's some ideas that might fly in the face of some stated goals, but I believe they are necessary to avoid the 'conglomerate' sitting on the Auction Houses and causing no end of frustration and grief to other players just trying to get their crafting materials.
1) THE REVERSE AUCTION HOUSE.
As I'm sure this has been mentioned, being able to post up something you want, and then put in the price range you're looking for. You can even add a 'negotiation' flag to the buy-order, or maybe even, rather than gold, offer to barter for it.
I'm quite fond of the Barter system as it prevents a fixation on the pixelated coinage and more upon what you can craft, find or steal to make the Barter.
People who are listing stupidly high prices for items simply won't have their orders filled, and people looking to sell directly can set up 'stalls' to sell their produce/items/services within markets or clear areas of a settlement or nearby field.
2) NPC MERCHANTS.
I know, I KNOW, that it has been stated that "What PCs can do, ONLY PCs can do!" by Mr Darcy several times, but in this I disagree vehemently. NPC Merchants should be more expensive than PC ones, for obvious reasons, but they also create a form of ceiling on the profit to be made from the 'AH Campers', as they provide a somewhat painful but reliable form of purchasing crafting materials from, thereby preventing the cost of specific items from climbing to ridiculously high levels and pricing out all but the 'elite' of the game.
This also means that gold funneled into the NPCs is in turn spread through-out the Hex gradually, raising the 'wealth' of the Hex and encouraging other NPCs to migrate, but at the same point, this is currency that is NOT being accessed by the Players, who may or may not be dealing with the AH Campers in their own ways (PvP, Assassination Contract, leaning on the suppliers to stop feeding them goods etc).
3) BARTER MART.
Settlements or NPC 'Capitols' should theoretically have markets available, where Merchants can lay down a rug and sell their items at first, upgrading from that to a table and a couple of crate in a small tent, and then finally to an actual wooden stall with a secure storage area behind them.
Barter works on the premise that player crafted items are needed based on 'Item Decay', and a great deal of inter-dependence between the various crafting schools, which may cause havoc if certain crafting professions are too painful to level due to difficulty in accessing patterns or 'hideously expensive' materials in contrast to the more easily leveled crafting professions.
The Barter Mart also works quite well with the Reverse Auction House method, as it enables players to fill an Order for an item or crafting material they want, but lack the necessary items to trade for it.
It also works well on it's own, and makes a great premise to take your produce into town or out of the workshop to either trade for more crafting materials to gain another step towards your next badge or to trade for items that might be useful for a Chapter-mate's next crafting job.
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Goblin Squad Member
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@HalfOrc
I will play a merchant and I will be happy as long as there is a way to buy and sell goods. Having said that, this is how I feel about your proposals.
1) THE REVERSE AUCTION HOUSE
I think that this idea could work better in conjunction with a regular AH. Your way would make the items that a PC is looking for harder to find. And the seller with the "stall" would have a smaller "window" for people to see what he has to sell. I would not cry if there was a reverse AH option along side a regular AH.
2) NPC MERCHANTS
They would place a ceiling that can easily be manipulated. Their prices are higher for goods but do they offer unlimited amounts? What would that do to gatherers and refiners? Do they offer limited amounts? They would be bought out and it would be back to the AH or private sale at the merchant's terms. Do they sell unlimited amounts and the price goes up as more product is in demand? Merchants will run the NPC price up and again sell high privately or AH. Limited amounts and the price rising as their stock dwindles? Same problems.
3) BARTER MART
Again the problem of finding what you want. Also gatherers, refiners, crafters, merchants, heck everyone needs coin to train skills. Money for goods also simplifies transactions and kind of stabilizes values of goods. Money was a technological improvement of convenience.
Bottom line is I will be happy as long as I can buy and sell. As long as I am not too inconvenienced when I do my buying and when I do my selling. As long as the changes proposed do not alter the planned system so much that redesign pushes the final project back.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I'm not really the economic type, but transporting goods will probably be a big part of PFO. Also I don't see why it shouldn't read in the item who made the item and who is selling it when it is sold. I support localized auction houses. If someone is scamming the market in some way, the settlement leaders have to act by prohibiting those people from entering the settlement ie. I think these should all be valid playable game mechanics.
All I can say is the eve market works extremely well. Nearly everything sold on it is put up for sale by a player (skill books and blueprints being exceptions in some cases).
Nearly all the buy orders are placed there as well by players. The npc buyers in eve are vanishingly small and buy the "flavour" products such as dairy products.
People can make money in eve and do so by crafting
People can make money in eve and do so by harvesting
People can make money in eve and do so by hauling
People can make money in eve being a merchant,buying in one place and taking it to another market
People can make money in eve by buying in bulk from those wanting quick coin and selling the stock at a slower pace but for more profit
Surely this provides all the opportunities a player could possibly want? For those not familiar with the eve system there is a free trial so you can try it out.
I would hope in PfO that almost anything that is made or drops from a mob is either useful to someone or can be reprocessed for materials and that npc merchants are few and sell an equally limited stock.
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Goblin Squad Member
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The EVE market would not translate whatsoever to the PFO market. EVE has technology and I do not expect anything remotely similar in PFO (unless we incorporate Numeria, which is a bizarroland of technology, laser guns, flying saucers and metal mountains...so no).
Otherwise, from the GM Fiat interview it sounds like a settlemt only AH is a possibility, which may make sense. I really am leaning against a consolidated AH and would prefer each harvester, refiner and crafter (and a normal reseller/arbitrageur) to sell their wares from their own storefront. If an enterprising entrepreneur wants to open a Settlement auction house, a player can stock the inventory and make their own auction. It happens in the real world every day in estate sales, abandoned vehicle yards, storage rooms, vacant houses, you name it! Let the players figure out how to sell the goods of the world!
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Goblin Squad Member
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The EVE market would not translate whatsoever to the PFO market. EVE has technology and I do not expect anything remotely similar in PFO (unless we incorporate Numeria, which is a bizarroland of technology, laser guns, flying saucers and metal mountains...so no).
Otherwise, from the GM Fiat interview it sounds like a settlemt only AH is a possibility, which may make sense. I really am leaning against a consolidated AH and would prefer each harvester, refiner and crafter (and a normal reseller/arbitrageur) to sell their wares from their own storefront. If an enterprising entrepreneur wants to open a Settlement auction house, a player can stock the inventory and make their own auction. It happens in the real world every day in estate sales, abandoned vehicle yards, storage rooms, vacant houses, you name it! Let the players figure out how to sell the goods of the world!
I just remember how fun it was in UO to have to look at many houses, each with many vendors, trying to find what I wanted. Not really fun.
If I am going to have to pay taxes on what I sell, either way,(not sure if this is solid) I would like the convenience of at least a local AH.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Local AH's sound fine, and somewhat reasonable. Maybe make them look more like a marketplace, but eh.
Having your own shops would still be awesome, though.
I am against server-wide AH, that ruins the need to transport goods. You want something good or cheap from another settlement? You head over there, or hire someone to do so.
I am not sure why you think Eve's market system wouldn't be translatable to Pfo from what I read it seems what they have planned is pretty similar.
Care to explain why?
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Goblin Squad Member
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There is no advanced technology in PFO that would make sense to link a global Auction House....it just doesn't seem to me to be a viable concept. The local AH (read Settlement only) makes much more sense, as the settlement would have the product in local supply, the taxes charged would drop directly into the settlement treasury, and all the participants within that settlement could post their buys and sells directly into the AH listings. That makes a bit more sense. As do individual vendors for your personally harvested, refined and/or crafted items.
Even WoW had to create a strong third party to run the AH and postal system in the Goblins of Stranglethorn (and later other competing goblin factions). There needs to be a viable story for the global mechanics to work.
Additionally, why should GW put in a tool that takes away from the possibility of a player run AH? Let the players do it if it is to be done!
Hardin Eve is not a global auction house.
Each space station has a separate market place if you want to buy something in a distant station you had to go fetch it. Perhaps before stating it wont work you should find out what the system actually was
EVE has
separate market place in each station
the ability to place buy and sell orders
No shipping of goods you either fetch it if you want to buy in a distant place or pay someone to get it
if you have the skills trained you could place remote buy orders in nearby stations. You still needed to fetch what you bought though. The eve system is widely praised in fact as an example of a functional player market system
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Goblin Squad Member
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Magic would make a certain sort of sense to a 'regional' Auction House, and inevitably there would be a Hex based 'Market Day', in which everyone would post their items all at once or over the course of three days, to ensure that we were all working on the same page if there is no such thing as a 'unified' Auction House.
Again, this is where NPC Auctioneers or Vendors come into play, people who might not be able to make the sales on the times they are online might decide to take a small hit to their profits and use and NPC to sell their items while they are offline.
The NPC might only take a 5% 'cut' for basic crafting materials, a 10% cut for 'green-named' items and rarer materials, and a 15% cut for more exotic or volatile items and materials.
The Leaders of a Hex might also levy a tithe on top of certain items in the interest of keeping their market fair and equitable and preventing conglomerates from taking over. They may also label certain items or materials illegal, either just because, due to roleplay, or the items in question being used to create poisons, raise the Undead or other dangerous uses.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Well that's just numbers I've thrown off the top of my head, but it would encourage players to sell directly to each other, rather than rely upon a faceless function, given that GW has stated that they want to maximise Player Interaction.
An obvious work-around would be a well known and respected Player to act as an Auctioneer while you're offline, who might be willing to work for a much reduced cut of the final cost, thus begins biddings for rarer items which nets both parties a much higher profit than selling under an artificial ceiling might grant them normally.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Hardin Eve is not a global auction house.
Each space station has a separate market place if you want to buy something in a distant station you had to go fetch it. Perhaps before stating it wont work you should find out what the system actually was
EVE has
separate market place in each station
the ability to place buy and sell orders
No shipping of goods you either fetch it if you want to buy in a distant place or pay someone to get it
if you have the skills trained you could place remote buy orders in nearby stations. You still needed to fetch what you bought though. The eve system is widely praised in fact as an example of a functional player market system
I know. I am just now dropping my 4 EVE accounts. Not fun anymore. But whether it is regional or global is of no matter. Settlement only. If you want to buy or sell you need to make an arrangement. That's where a real commodities broker would come into play here. They would eventually make enough coin to buy up all the crops, arrange to have them transported from the farm to the settlement (or directly from the crafter in town) and sell them at the player run AH...hey if the player or players are not logged in, look somewhere else, or go buy direct. Or go to another settlement. I just want as much stuff as possible run by players. If a group of players starts to monopolize goods, that will incentivize a competing group of players to open up their own AH. That broker could even set up a barter house and leave coin out of it altogether.
Hmm well forgive me for assuming, it was sort of natural when you started going on about global ah.
Sorry while a nice idea I would personally say that your idea will not work. The reason is simple Player Time Zones.
Having kept abreast of the where are you in meatspace thread it appears the preponderance of players are being drawn from the US
I draw your attention therefore to your quote "hey if the player or players are not logged in, look somewhere else"
Well those of us in non american timezones are going to be a bit left out in the cold with this, the australians in particular always have problems in games.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Zen, there were almost 9,000 backers for the KS, and only maybe 100 of us here on the boards. We should have a plenty of peeps to work transactions as EE rols around to get the commodities markets right. And I am pretty sure if EE starts without a working system in place the howls from the crowd will get one pretty quick. Just seems EVE type markets don't make sense in a PFO fantasy setting. I understand your concern though.