Corrupt guilds, junk trader slots and game-wrecking tactics

davey1107 · February 2016

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom

Increasingly, wealthy guilds are using their excess gold to buy up all of the trader slots in the game, then hand them off to shell secondary guilds. In Rawl'kha today, there is a stall with THREE ITEMS for sale in total, and another with less than a hundred. This is now persistent in all popular buying zones...actually all zones everywhere. I'm not talking about a large guild maintaining a spot - I'm talking about that guild maintaining a spot then passing gold around to win several spots around them and filling those with junk stores to maintain monopolies and high prices. This negatively impacts the game on multiple levels:

1. It is no longer fun or productive to go shopping in the economy for the casual player, since even common items are widely unavailable due to this behavior.

2. Players are increasingly agitated at their inability to purchase necessary supplies/materials/gear.

3. Newer guilds, even with rosters of very active players, can't compete or win trading spots when bidding against seasoned guilds with tens of million in gold hoarded.

4. Junk guild stalls are preventing the sale of collected goods, which means a large portion of the economy is stalking out since players can't offload items they don't need and generate gold to buy items they do.

5. I went shopping for monstrous teeth today. This process was utterly not fun due to your awful guild system a year ago, but now with the trader slots wrecked by this behavior it has become unbearably horrible to participate in the game economy.

Has there been any dialogue internally on addressing the challenges with the in-game economy, the manner that players can buy/sell goods and the rise of the mega-guilds? Is there any guidance on which future update might revise some of these systems?

MMRPGs may have dragons and demons, but they're really just economic simulators. You can address this issue now and figure out a way where active, vibrant guilds can compete in the economy, or the entire economy will crash. I'd call the status of today's economy in game "Russia." In another eight weeks we're looking at Bolivia or Greece.

whiteshadow711jppreub18_ESO · February 2016

I cant wait for Text chat on Consoles, man I am gonna get on Rawl'kha Rock (in Rawl'kha in Reapers March) and Kotaro is gonna sell his wares, that's right.... no guild fee's just link it in chat and sell to the people in the whole zone, this one can set low prices and will be able to reach so many people in the game..

On a serious note, when Text chat comes to consoles the rich guild traders wont have a strangle hold on the economy anymore..its gonna be NICE..

RAGUNAnoOne · February 2016

Also to add to that look here: http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/248291/guild-traders-being-sold-for-real-money-zenimax-can-we-do-something-about-this#latest

RatedChaotic · February 2016

Sh*t happens. Tho I uncut all those guilds and still bank gold.

harrlockk616 · February 2016

I feel for you all on console the u all have to deal with these so call mega guild's that do this to the player base. But I;m also glad that you all r getting TEXT CHATafter almost a yr without it.

davey1107 · February 2016

Kotaro is gonna sell his wares

That's a good looking khajiit! Bet he constantly has lizard blood under his claws.

Thevampirenight · February 2016

Well, what they could do is basically if they have a guild trader they can't have any other guild trader. I thought that was a thing though. But I don't really use them because one, no search bar, second most likely your not going to find what your looking for. But I play on pc, so yeah not sure how it is on consoles I assume so much worse.

EnemyOfDaState · February 2016

Wish there was a way for you guys to get master merchant. I can just imagine how crazy the console prices are.

AJ_1988 · February 2016

Thevampirenight wrote: »

Well, what they could do is basically if they have a guild trader they can't have any other guild trader. I thought that was a thing though. But I don't really use them because one, no search bar, second most likely your not going to find what your looking for. But I play on pc, so yeah not sure how it is on consoles I assume so much worse.

You can have 5 guilds but only one trader per guild at a time so they can still buy 5 traders under different guild names

AOECAPS · February 2016

EnemyOfDaState wrote: »

Wish there was a way for you guys to get master merchant. I can just imagine how crazy the console prices are.

Ehrn I look prices generally aren't to bad but there is a cpl of guilds and people in those guilds that try and price fix everything by buying up material and then attempting reselling for a 200% increase

Artjuh90 · February 2016

AOECAPS wrote: »

EnemyOfDaState wrote: »

Wish there was a way for you guys to get master merchant. I can just imagine how crazy the console prices are.

Ehrn I look prices generally aren't to bad but there is a cpl of guilds and people in those guilds that try and price fix everything by buying up material and then attempting reselling for a 200% increase

i make money of these guys, so i can't complain to mutch but in the long run it's destroying the economy and they will end up hurting themselfs. but it has a negative effect on the community and might be a reason for people to leave the game which is never a good thing

Guambodian · February 2016

Or, some of those spots were scooped up on transition day. Sometimes a guild moves and leaves a spot, and they weren't bid against before they moved. Anybody can grab an empty spot for 100 gold. It happens all the time.

Greiver · February 2016

Saw it happen in wayrest last week. Bogus guild wins trader, then holds a gold/real money auction for the trader. Zos you really need to fix this. It's disturbing they actually haven't done anything about it. Same with gold for real money being talked about and arranged in psn communities.

RAGUNAnoOne · February 2016

Greiver wrote: »

Saw it happen in wayrest last week. Bogus guild wins trader, then holds a gold/real money auction for the trader. Zos you really need to fix this. It's disturbing they actually haven't done anything about it. Same with gold for real money being talked about and arranged in psn communities.

The real money thing is the reason we need to get rid of monopolies the guild trader system is only making this easy to do and allowing players to restrict others from selling until they pay the cash. @ZOS_GinaBruno you really should plant someone in said PSN trade communities to watch for that if they do it remove the GM and delete all the guilds they control no questions asked.

Xendyn · February 2016

Gotta say, console is very creative with their scams. I've learned all kinds of new things since you all came in.

RatedChaotic · February 2016

RAGUNAnoOne wrote: »

Greiver wrote: »

Saw it happen in wayrest last week. Bogus guild wins trader, then holds a gold/real money auction for the trader. Zos you really need to fix this. It's disturbing they actually haven't done anything about it. Same with gold for real money being talked about and arranged in psn communities.

The real money thing is the reason we need to get rid of monopolies the guild trader system is only making this easy to do and allowing players to restrict others from selling until they pay the cash. @ZOS_GinaBruno you really should plant someone in said PSN trade communities to watch for that if they do it remove the GM and delete all the guilds they control no questions asked.

Too bad that will never happen.

AFrostWolf · February 2016

Welcome to Elder Cartels Online. Where ZOS doesn't give a *** or else we would have had an Auction House months ago.

revonine · February 2016

whiteshadow711jppreub18_ESO wrote: »

I cant wait for Text chat on Consoles, man I am gonna get on Rawl'kha Rock (in Rawl'kha in Reapers March) and Kotaro is gonna sell his wares, that's right.... no guild fee's just link it in chat and sell to the people in the whole zone, this one can set low prices and will be able to reach so many people in the game..

On a serious note, when Text chat comes to consoles the rich guild traders wont have a strangle hold on the economy anymore..its gonna be NICE..

I'm with you on this one. I'm also sick of getting messages from random pissy people annoyed that I undercut them. "We sell our glyphs for X Gold". We have an agreed price on Kuta's". OMG get lost I'll sell for as much as I want making a profit I deem fair.

darkashley1 · February 2016

My guild has a trader in Rawl'ka this week and hoping next week if no one guild spy's my bid we have 86 members and only 20 are active so its harder for small guilds to get 1 mil gold to bid on them.

Daedgaming · February 2016

Thevampirenight wrote: »

Well, what they could do is basically if they have a guild trader they can't have any other guild trader. I thought that was a thing though. But I don't really use them because one, no search bar, second most likely your not going to find what your looking for. But I play on pc, so yeah not sure how it is on consoles I assume so much worse.

Then all you have to do is get one of the guildies who own another guild to make the bid for you. That is what most of them are doing now.

Ra'Shtar · February 2016

I knew about the wars between guilds and the feud held between several factions that have many guilds under their control but...wow...

Thevampirenight · February 2016

What they could do is basically make it require like 400 people to gain a guild trader, and also a good amount of items in that guild store. As well as make it where a one faction guild can't place bid on another factions guild trader slot, if your on an another faction character. It would stop some troll from another faction from blocking another factions guild trading slot.

Turelus · February 2016

Thevampirenight wrote: »

What they could do is basically make it require like 400 people to gain a guild trader, and also a good amount of items in that guild store. As well as make it where a one faction guild can't place bid on another factions guild trader slot, if your on an another faction character. It would stop some troll from another faction from blocking another factions guild trading slot.

This just goes to harm new guilds even more though.

Now new guilds have to recruit 400 people, 399 having to be patient enough to wait until #400 joins, then they need to list enough items, which can easily be circumvented by just having 10 members list 30 stacks of 1 trait stone.

I still have no issue with the current system. I have only once had to shop all around the world for an item I needed, that was a level 28 armour item which had no use at end game thus most people trashed while levelling. Anything important I need, mats, tempers, consumables are all available in Craglorn from the big guilds.

Nova Sky · February 2016

Hmm. Maybe add a 1-month waiting period for new guilds before they're allowed to bid?

Turelus · February 2016

Nova Sky wrote: »

Hmm. Maybe add a 1-month waiting period for new guilds before they're allowed to bid?

Again, you're only saying new guilds are not welcome in this area of the game.

I honestly can't imagine what the OP is describing is common practice happening on every server and maintained on a weekly basis. Guilds are going to be losing too much money this way.

Also if you're having trouble bidding for prime locations for these tactics then start buying in other locations and advertising your guilds stand. "Tired of 3 item only stores in Rawl'kha? Come to Mornhold and see <insert guild name> for all your shopping needs!"

Once your guild has a good reputation for selling in demand items at reasonable prices people will shop there more often, once your guild has strong income move to a higher spot or start competing with the guilds trying to form a monopoly.

Cherryblossom · February 2016

AOECAPS wrote: »

EnemyOfDaState wrote: »

Wish there was a way for you guys to get master merchant. I can just imagine how crazy the console prices are.

Ehrn I look prices generally aren't to bad but there is a cpl of guilds and people in those guilds that try and price fix everything by buying up material and then attempting reselling for a 200% increase

You can't say that, that can only happen with Auction Houses, have you not heard!

Thevampirenight · February 2016

Turelus wrote: »

Thevampirenight wrote: »

What they could do is basically make it require like 400 people to gain a guild trader, and also a good amount of items in that guild store. As well as make it where a one faction guild can't place bid on another factions guild trader slot, if your on an another faction character. It would stop some troll from another faction from blocking another factions guild trading slot.

This just goes to harm new guilds even more though.

Now new guilds have to recruit 400 people, 399 having to be patient enough to wait until #400 joins, then they need to list enough items, which can easily be circumvented by just having 10 members list 30 stacks of 1 trait stone.

I still have no issue with the current system. I have only once had to shop all around the world for an item I needed, that was a level 28 armour item which had no use at end game thus most people trashed while levelling. Anything important I need, mats, tempers, consumables are all available in Craglorn from the big guilds.

Well by putting these requirments on them would make them at least where they can't just put a troll trader up, they would have to have some type of store, if they are small guild that took the slot, and then they don't sell items yet they post one up and several others do the same to make it harder for people to find stuff they need then the one solution is making it where the guild has to be worth something maybe 200 people, or three hundred people required, but at least a guild big enough to sell lots of stuff.

Kozer · February 2016

On xbox NA There were 2 traders near grahtwood that were named like

XXX guild
XXX2 guild

This system is one of the worst I have seen in an mmo.

I don't want to join a guild where I need to make a weekly donation for 10k gold just to be able to use the trader or even the store.

If you wont put in an AH.
Make a trader in each zone that anyone can dump items into.
Let it take a bigger cut of whatever is listed or something.

Duiwel · February 2016

Kinda sucks pc can't have voice chat in game though.

If people don't want voice chat for pc - settings, gameplay - Voice chat - enabled/disabled

bam those of us who want it can, those of us who don't won't.

I would love to be able to communicate with pugs via voice chat instead of explaining things via text.

As for the topic OP, I hope they do something about it for you

Bossdonut · February 2016

I'm honestly not seeing this happen. Mega guilds are fighting each other for spots and needing heavy sales and donations every week to keep them. They post junk on the stall they'll lose it.

Kippesnikke · February 2016

Duiwel wrote: »

Kinda sucks pc can't have voice chat in game though.

If people don't want voice chat for pc - settings, gameplay - Voice chat - enabled/disabled

bam those of us who want it can, those of us who don't won't.

I would love to be able to communicate with pugs via voice chat instead of explaining things via text.

As for the topic OP, I hope they do something about it for you

Honestly. would help alot for helping people and friendly chat. but i think it will turn to toxic very fast:/