RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Skye · **09-30-2010, 03:57 AM**

Rain Wrote:
DAISHI Wrote:At which point they should just make it an AH.

Depends, really.

Technically, they could add a search function that would simply show you what ward the item is in, but not the pricing or the specific vendor. That's what it seems like they're hinting at. Not showing prices would be a key point. If the aren't prices listed, people will have to either do their research to undercut prices, or just put a price on their item based on what they feel it's worth.

Where as with the auction house, prices become set in place, and they usually fluctuate between a high and low point. If there were no price listings, crafters would be free to charge prices fitting to their tastes, as people who are either lazy or in a hurry might just purchase their goods, regardless of whether or not they cost a little bit more than a competitor.

Plus, no direct auction house means no RMT attempting to control it.

Actually, the way the Auction House worked in FFXI, was that it didn't show prices.
You'd just have to guess your bid, if it was too low, you wouldn't get the item, if too high, well you just lost some extra gil.

Therese · **09-30-2010, 06:45 AM**

Skye Wrote:Actually, the way the Auction House worked in FFXI, was that it didn't show prices.
You'd just have to guess your bid, if it was too low, you wouldn't get the item, if too high, well you just lost some extra gil.

Well... it wasn't quite that uncertain, since you could also pull up bidding history and try to make an educated guess where the few remaining stuffs on the AH was being priced at. ...and yell at that one guy who put the only Centurion's Sword and is charging 10k over the previous asking price and grumble grumble...

Asytra · **09-30-2010, 11:12 AM**

It's a step in the right direction but...

Did SE REALLY have to separate everything down so distinctly? I mean seriously... just... ARMOR would have sufficed....

Leave it to SE to simplify something by adding more complexity... *sigh*

Merri · **09-30-2010, 01:20 PM**

Skye Wrote:Actually, the way the Auction House worked in FFXI, was that it didn't show prices.
You'd just have to guess your bid, if it was too low, you wouldn't get the item, if too high, well you just lost some extra gil.

Yeah. I played FFXI for about seven years. XD

But prices were shown in FFXI, and it only aided the RMT in their conquest early on in the game. It showed how much people recently paid, and that served to create a median point for most items. Sure there was the occasional item that sold extremely low, or really high, but it all usually evened out around a price range. Plus, since it was a single auction house, it was a single tool that every player used, and gave RMT the ability to attempt to take control, what with their constant camping of NMs (Up until SE finally made changes to most major NM drops.) to monopolize the selling of major items. They ended up assisting in the inflation of several important items.

There would be no "single" tool for the RMT to control if there were no auction house in FFXIV. They would be hard pressed to hold monopoly over several dozen individual vendors. The search function i'm talking about would just allow players to know the item is out there, and in what ward. Not which individual person is selling it, or the price.

Chveya · **09-30-2010, 01:21 PM**

I don't think a Search would make it an AH at all. It still allows for distinct vendors, BUT:

-- It allows buyers to see if the item they want is even available; and
-- It allows sellers to see what the market is like.

As someone who wants to sell materials, I'd really like to be able to find out what other people are selling them for, so I don't drastically undercut or overshoot the mark.

That can all be done without centralizing it into an AH style system.

DAISHI · **09-30-2010, 01:27 PM**

Chveya Wrote:I don't think a Search would make it an AH at all. It still allows for distinct vendors, BUT:

-- It allows buyers to see if the item they want is even available; and
-- It allows sellers to see what the market is like.

As someone who wants to sell materials, I'd really like to be able to find out what other people are selling them for, so I don't drastically undercut or overshoot the mark.

That can all be done without centralizing it into an AH style system.

I just don't see why NOT centralize it. Centralizing is good for efficiency. Streamlining. Capitalism baby.

Tadir · **09-30-2010, 01:32 PM**

I hate to always go back to Galaxies, but just switch 100% to that system.

Bryg Bluebeard · **09-30-2010, 01:36 PM**

@Asytra: Actually, if you ask me, they separated things rather well. Sure, certain wards could maybe be combined here and there, but keep in mind that this is an MMO, which means as time goes on there's going to be a whole lot of new equipment and materials to be added, and the level gaps between players (and therefore what they sell) will likewise widen. The game only just officially released today for non-CE PC folks, so for now it probably feels like this is too much separation because there's just not a whole lot out there right now. Give it time though, and each ward will fill up enough to warrant existing as its own entity. So while it may involve a bit of a learning curve while trying to remember which ward sells what, it actually helps streamline it because the wards are separated logically rather than just having everything in one big disorganized mess. It makes it more akin to an actual physical AH (as opposed to a menu-based one), just without the price-fixing aspects.

As for the search function, I sorta agree with Chveya on this one. I actually think that listing prices would do more good than harm AS LONG AS the prices are arranged from lowest to highest in the list. It's not like the list would show how much things have sold for in the past, it would only show what people are trying to sell it for right now. Furthermore, because nobody in their right mind would sell something for less than it took to craft it, it would set a floor value for people wanting to keep their prices competitive, which would all but ensure that the most reasonably-priced items would get the most attention by being at the top of the search list while the people trying to cheat you would be further down the list than anybody would care to check. Of course, some risk would be involved regarding the pricing of raw materials given that there is no specific floor value in that case, but you'd still be guaranteed to find the best prices easier if they were all at the top of the list.

As for getting more free retainers... Given the separation of wards that they're looking to implement, I'm hoping that they're going to let us have at least 3 retainers each, by default. And not just so I can have a harem of hot elezen women selling stuff for me. Tongue

Chveya · **09-30-2010, 01:39 PM**

DAISHI Wrote:I just don't see why NOT centralize it. Centralizing is good for efficiency. Streamlining. Capitalism baby.

Cause they said they didn't want to. *shrug* I got nothin' on that one; except that the idea is probably to keep the market more in the players hands and do something about the RMT crap.

I don't understand economics, so I don't know if it'll help or not. Or maybe SE is just being stubborn and they want to do it this way because they want to. Who knows?

There's nothin' wrong with a bazaar system, as long as we can FIND what we want.

DAISHI · **09-30-2010, 02:02 PM**

Well the price will be what the price will be. Price in open market economy is what the public is willing to pay. Price too high and eventually nobody can buy it, so the price falls to a medium that most people are willing to pay.

HOWEVER a key component of the open market is viable alternative. For this reason, I propose an Auction House or Market Ward or whatever, in which the average selling price is listed (as reference for merchants) while alternative prices are also listed (for buyers). Think of it like Amazon, where you can see what something is going for, but can also go into the details of what each seller is selling that product for.

This would force merchants to compete for sellers' attention and drop the price, but only so far, as they still have to exceed the costs of their materials.

Chveya · **09-30-2010, 02:07 PM**

That's gettin' awful complicated, for a company that hasn't even given us a search function yet. Tongue

Just a simple search ability would take care of all of it, really. Why would they make selling things any easier than any other part of the game so far? Laugh

DAISHI · **09-30-2010, 02:08 PM**

Chveya Wrote:That's gettin' awful complicated, for a company that hasn't even given us a search function yet.

Just a simple search ability would take care of all of it, really. Why would they make selling things any easier than any other part of the game so far?

If they had a search button so I could scan through every individual seller of a particular item, I'd be in heaven.

Chveya · **09-30-2010, 02:16 PM**

DAISHI Wrote:If they had a search button so I could scan through every individual seller of a particular item, I'd be in heaven.

That would be the idea, yes. Tongue

TeeBeeDee · **09-30-2010, 02:50 PM**

Well at least there's some sort of system now as oppossed to the cluster-fun of just throwing everything in the main pot. (Really? Who thought that was a good idea?) I think of the market wards as a flea market, those things work quite well, except for one major difference, you need to have stalls, and you need to have a sign describing what you are selling. Having random NPCs standing in packed groups selling god-knows-what is just....well it just seems lazy to me.

As for the RMT arguement, dont cut off your nose to spite your face. These guys are in it for REAL MONEY, which means whatever design SE creates they will find a way to exploit. There is nothing stopping them from using seed money to buy up every item in a ward and resell at their chosen price with or without a search feature or tax incentive. You can fight them, but remember that you still have to serve the customers who arent breaking the rules.

My solution, simple. Every sellable item has an inherent value (cause the vendors know to buy it at a certain price) Players, when selling that item apply a markup or markdown percentage to the base price. Want to move 12 copper ores fast, put it at half price by attaching a 100% markdown, Are you the only source of wind shards in all of Ul'dah? 200% mark up baby!

Sound familiar? its how the real world works.

And also, you think they figured out yet that having food without a description of what it does is a bad idea yet? Frustrated

Doktor_Ljubavi · **09-30-2010, 03:06 PM**

TeeBeeDee Wrote:And also, you think they figured out yet that having food without a description of what it does is a bad idea yet?

Hmm, I wonder how this pear tastes like, and what benefits it will bring me? *Nom* Oh by the twelve! *dies*

« Next Oldest \| Next Newest »
Pages (2): « Previous 1 2

Market wards changes incomming!

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes