ZOS: The Guild Store / Bank System is Terrible and needs Reconsideration

FearlessOne_2014

Taysa wrote: »

I have yet to hear a valid argument against a centralized auction house.

Don't worry you never will. There is a reason ESO is like the only MMO with such a terrible trading system. That no game has nor will ever emulate in the future. But again remember a Global Auction will never happen here so here's a gif for you.

Cpt_Teemo

kargen27 wrote: »

Dawnblade wrote: »

LOL at the scare-mongers that come running with the 'a global trade system would let one player corner the market on everything and jack prices up so no one could afford anything' nonsense every time someone mentions 'AH'.

If that were the case, I wouldn't be able to buy anything without getting ripped off in WoW or going bankrupt - and I have no problem buying goods at market rates nor selling my goods at the same (and other than very low volume items, prices are stable with little variance - higher when content is new, trending lower as it ages).

Of course it helps that I only play on high pop servers (low pop servers can have pricing issues due to lack of supply) - but I'd hope each megaserver in ESO is large enough to supply a functional marketplace (and if it isn't, the game has bigger issues).

It also helps that the AH in WoW is open to all, with no restrictions on the number of items listed - unlike the limits (30 items per player / 500 players per store) on guild stores, which only serves to constrain supply in ESO.

But again, while I'd love to see a global marketplace - I just don't think the game / servers can support one - not that ZOS has done some serious studying of the issues and believes the store system is better (it is only better in minimizing the database load on the servers and adding a giant time sink to the game).

But I do think they owe it to the player base (especially those stuck on consoles without add-ons) to provide simple functionality such as text search and basic sort and filter options - as well as they need to look at increasing the listing limits (given the ridiculous number of items in ESO, 30 slots is really low).

Last time someone mentioned WoW as an example I hopped over to a forum dedicated to WoW and first page had several complaints about people taking advantage of the auction house to corner the market on whatever it was the people wanted. With a central auction house three people could easily grab any perfect roe (as example) listed and jack the price to whatever they wanted.

They could but the population has the choice of not purchasing them at the time and then in turn they sit forever till they fall off like they do in WoW most of the time.

Cpt_Teemo

FearlessOne_2014 wrote: »

Taysa wrote: »

I have yet to hear a valid argument against a centralized auction house.

Don't worry you never will. There is a reason ESO is like the only MMO with such a terrible trading system. That no game has nor will ever emulate in the future. But again remember a Global Auction will never happen here so here's a gif for you.

Wouldn't be to sure about that, anything can change at any time to without anyone's knowledge

Elsonso

Dawnblade wrote: »

LOL at the scare-mongers that come running with the 'a global trade system would let one player corner the market on everything and jack prices up so no one could afford anything' nonsense every time someone mentions 'AH'.

If that were the case, I wouldn't be able to buy anything without getting ripped off in WoW or going bankrupt - and I have no problem buying goods at market rates nor selling my goods at the same (and other than very low volume items, prices are stable with little variance - higher when content is new, trending lower as it ages).

On Scarlet Crusade, Feathermoon, and one other that I played on back when I played WoW... you could have been buying from those people and you could have been getting ripped off. I am sure that most people were completely oblivious that this was happening. I call this the Auction House Game. When played by dedicated players, it is essentially economic PVP using the Auction House.

One minor correction, though. The intent is not to sell at a price that no one can afford. The intent is to sell at a price that people can afford, but not as low as it could be. When you see insanely high prices, there are other factors involved.

Dawnblade wrote: »

It also helps that the AH in WoW is open to all, with no restrictions on the number of items listed - unlike the limits (30 items per player / 500 players per store) on guild stores, which only serves to constrain supply in ESO.

That actually works in our favor here in ESO. A single account can have only 150 items for sale, and that is a significant constraint for people playing economic games. The counter to that is to have multiple accounts, or some friends, or be in guilds that share a common somewhat coordinated goal. Each of these workarounds have limitations, and that also helps. Certain add-ons can help overcome these limitations, but on Console, they have to do it the hard way.

Dawnblade wrote: »

But I do think they owe it to the player base (especially those stuck on consoles without add-ons) to provide simple functionality such as text search and basic sort and filter options - as well as they need to look at increasing the listing limits (given the ridiculous number of items in ESO, 30 slots is really low).

While I don't agree with the increase in limit, I do agree that UI QoL changes are required. I am hoping that the upcoming "QoL update" includes significant progress here. It is deplorable that consoles have gone this long without the basic guild store support that is available on PC via add-ons.

dodgehopper_ESO

FearlessOne_2014 wrote: »

Lol another thread on this subject. Quite honestly if the guild traders system in ESO is a deal breaker for you. Then go play a different MMO where you don't have to put up with it.

My recommendations are BDO, and Eve Online. Outside of ESO those two are the last decent MMOs with PvP in them that is supported by their dev teams.

As others have stated If you are on PC then use TTC, MM, Awesome Guild Store, and all of the Advance Filters addons to deal with in my opinion is a awful Trader system that don't add anything to the gameplay. And just makes buyers frustrated, and rich players that no life the system even more rich.

The traders system is one of the worst I've seen in my 16 years of PC MMO gaming. However this trading system is here to stay and no ZOS will not even bother refining it. Instead ZOS will make players rely on Addons, if you are on PC. If you are on console, well tough luck go buy a PC.

I'm not really sure who you are talking to - surely this is not in response to the topic. All of your suggestions I already use. The problem is the system lag and bad systems in general. The problem seems to be predominately with guild stores and guild banks. They need to speed up that server power... or something. I'm not a mmo network manager but I know they can do better, I've seen other MMO's manage sales data better. Again I reiterate: The game should not idle out for long periods of time while you are pulling up the guild bank or guild store.

kargen27

ookami007 wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

DoctorESO wrote: »

Despite what some may say or believe, the ever growing popularity of Tamriel Trade Centre lends even more support for the playerbase's desire for a global trading/auction house.

The two are not even in the least bit related. You might have a case in stating the popularity supports the desire for a more intuitive search feature within the current system. Beyond that you have nothing.

Your invalidation of his argument is invalid in itself. TTC is basically a global trading/auction house. Yes, you still have to go to the location and it has the limitations inherent in a 3rd party add-on, but it demonstrates that people want a single place they can go to find items scattered throughout the world.... it is not, as you state, "a more intuitive search feature". That description doesn't do TTC justice, nor does it do the wants of the community justice.

No it doesn't at all. It provides a search function. That is it and nothing more. You are assuming everyone who uses TTC wants a central auction house and then calling your assumption a fact.

I know these threads are not a reliable indication of how the majority of players in the game think, but almost every time this is mentioned here the players speaking against a global auction house outnumber those who support the idea.

kargen27

DoctorESO wrote: »

The two main arguments I hear in opposition of a global auction house are

1. Undercutting the competition, leading to a race to the bottom in terms of pricing

2. Cornering the market, leading to price gouging

The two arguments are sometimes made by the same person, ironically.

A global auction house allows supply and demand to take their natural course and lead to an equilibrium of price.

Cornering the market is tough, even with add-ons. This is because the volume of items is so high and every single person in the game has the ability to sell items, resulting in a very large and constant supply - one that can easily outweigh the demand, making it unprofitable to buy every single quantity available. Even with low-volume items and attempts to price gouge, there will come a point where people decide the higher price is not worth it and either forgo the item or farm it on their own, or they will get it off-market. Either way, the price gouging sellers do not make the sale, and no profit results, forcing them to lower the price to the point where it sells at the desired volume (in a way that maximizes total sales dollars).

And then there is undercutting the competition, leading to a race to the bottom in terms of pricing. So this means that within a month of the global auction house going live, every item will be selling for one gold? Of course not. Just as there is a price ceiling set by the buyers, there is a price floor set by the sellers - at some point, they will decide it's not worth selling an item for a lower price. If this were not the case, then every item would be available for one gold.

The two main arguments are unrelated so no irony. First concern is about low end items dropping in price as people try to undercut the market to get rid of common items just taking up space. The second concern is about rare high end items being snatched up and hoarded until they can be sold at higher prices. Two separate concerns that could easily happen at the same time.

notimetocare

Taysa wrote: »

I have yet to hear a valid argument against a centralized auction house.

WoW.
A small number of players able to control the entire market of the most important items. Sad that alloy is 8k each? Get ready for 15k+

Hate bots? Wait for more to come because they will be able to mass sell far easier to those who control the market.

Dawnblade

kargen27 wrote: »

DoctorESO wrote: »

The two main arguments I hear in opposition of a global auction house are

1. Undercutting the competition, leading to a race to the bottom in terms of pricing

2. Cornering the market, leading to price gouging

The two arguments are sometimes made by the same person, ironically.

A global auction house allows supply and demand to take their natural course and lead to an equilibrium of price.

Cornering the market is tough, even with add-ons. This is because the volume of items is so high and every single person in the game has the ability to sell items, resulting in a very large and constant supply - one that can easily outweigh the demand, making it unprofitable to buy every single quantity available. Even with low-volume items and attempts to price gouge, there will come a point where people decide the higher price is not worth it and either forgo the item or farm it on their own, or they will get it off-market. Either way, the price gouging sellers do not make the sale, and no profit results, forcing them to lower the price to the point where it sells at the desired volume (in a way that maximizes total sales dollars).

And then there is undercutting the competition, leading to a race to the bottom in terms of pricing. So this means that within a month of the global auction house going live, every item will be selling for one gold? Of course not. Just as there is a price ceiling set by the buyers, there is a price floor set by the sellers - at some point, they will decide it's not worth selling an item for a lower price. If this were not the case, then every item would be available for one gold.

The two main arguments are unrelated so no irony. First concern is about low end items dropping in price as people try to undercut the market to get rid of common items just taking up space. The second concern is about rare high end items being snatched up and hoarded until they can be sold at higher prices. Two separate concerns that could easily happen at the same time.

Low end items should drop in price - they are artificially higher today because of how cumbersome the current system is for players to utilize, along with the tight limitations on number of items that can be listed by a single player.

I starting using my old bank alt account for extra trade guilds, and dump junk that isn't worth using up the limited slots I have on my main account - and just dumping the junk through that account generates a not insignificant amount of gold every week just for logging on once a day and posting items.

Given how cheap a game license is, I could see active traders running multiple accounts to bypass the listing limit.

High end items though might see an increase - but there are already people using TTC to scan for items all day, and when a low volume (rare) item shows up under-priced, travel out to the trader, buy it, then resell it on their trader at a higher price (now or hold).

There are some that even do the buy up and relist higher for basic trade goods, and not just on PC - there are plenty of Youtube videos on how to make money on consoles without add-ons that tell players to ride around to out of the way traders to buy trade goods below market value.

Apache_Kid

This game doesn't need an auction house it needs a ****** search function. Although I would take an auction house system, this seems like infinitely more work for ZoS compared to adding a search bar so why would 1 happen before the other?

I'm not opposed to an auction house system. People who are arguing against it do not understand capitalism.

Don't @ me commies

Taysa

notimetocare wrote: »

Taysa wrote: »

I have yet to hear a valid argument against a centralized auction house.

WoW.
A small number of players able to control the entire market of the most important items. Sad that alloy is 8k each? Get ready for 15k+

Hate bots? Wait for more to come because they will be able to mass sell far easier to those who control the market.

I play WoW, and using WoW as an excuse against a centralized auction house is tired because said "argument" is often blown way out of proportion.

Show actual evidence, not just your butt hurt anecdotes because you had to farm for money to get the item you wanted.

anadandy

Apache_Kid wrote: »

Imza wrote: »

Apache_Kid wrote: »

While we're at it can we fix our item deconstruction lists from jumping around everytime we deconstruct an item?

just use the "alphabetic order" ie: click "NAME" not the arrow on the left.....

EDIT: and don't click the magnifying glass..... which I believe is the default sort order now...

I was at my tables last night trying to do this as I didn't even know you could sort the decon list and I couldn't find a way to change the order. Maybe I can't do it on console? Or I'm just dumb and missed it.

Not dumb. You can't do it in the gamepad UI on PC, so I'm assuming you can't do it on console.

That said - a search function is really all I ask for. Sure, you can sort by type but when you're looking for say a blue furnishing recipe and you have to scroll through 3-4 pages of "Daedric bench, ashen" - just shoot me.

AlnilamE

Dawnblade wrote: »

Low end items should drop in price - they are artificially higher today because of how cumbersome the current system is for players to utilize, along with the tight limitations on number of items that can be listed by a single player.

Low end items are frequently listed below vendoring value already.

I wish every item in ESO had a vendoring value of at least 1g.

FearlessOne_2014 wrote: »

My recommendations are BDO, and Eve Online. Outside of ESO those two are the last decent MMOs with PvP in them that is supported by their dev teams.

Oh yes! Please go play BDO and then go cry on their forums that certain materials are not available because they are rarely listed and get sniped by bots!

Also, be prepared to camp the marketplace for several hours if you want sought after items. At least in ESO, if you are going from trader to trader, you get a change of scenery.

DoctorESO

-

Zulur

This current guild store system is terrible. It brings pretty much worst of people. The lengths they are willing to go to run their trade empires with 1% rule the world and dictate everything and have best (very limited) trading spots, and rest a driven middle of the woods or no trading spots at all. How can a just starting small or medium side guilds compete against these goliaths who have been there from the star and have billions, multiple ‘good brother’ guilds and so can make sure they always have the best spots by outbidding the small guys? Well they cant. Funny and worrisome how many people we have liking this mentality.

This has created a system where selling goods has become a full time job. I’ve been part of at least 30 trading guilds and all of those have x number of sales/week or kick, x amount of days online or kick, x amount of sales within few first days or kick. Pretty much all guild, even those which start as no requirements for sales turn into this because they have to face the harsh reality of no trading post=bad sales. I’ve been part of “trade guilds” with no trading post (can’t afford or outbid) and your sales go down significantly. Guilds are constantly looking for new players because they are constantly kicking players who don’t meet they requirements/demands. I feel sorry for the new players, casuals etc. who are constantly kicked from guilds. Heck, I’m one of those people because I quite often take over week off from this game because that’s the kind of player I am.

In most other mmo's I can be casual and still enjoy selling my stuff when it suits me and the effort I put determine how much money I make – but I can do it on my terms and my schedule, when it suits me instead of being constantly pressured by these standards that have become a norm in this pro big corporations game. I don’t understand the people who don’t choose former rather than later.

The last guild that was asking people to join was called ...empire, surprise! I decided to give it a go. I was asked that how much sales/week I’m making (good luck with that new players) and depending of my answer I’m directed to appropriate ‘good brother’ guild of theirs which is part of their empire. It wasn’t a surprise to me that it was just like all the others.

The real sad part is that there are better alternatives to this current system. Example. Every town has auction house to which all trading guilds are registered to. From there you can see all goods sold by every trade guild. Then player doesn’t have to run all over the place when they are trying to find the items they need. Or rely on quite performance heavy add-ons so they can see what the average prize is etc. OMG how terrible, right!? Guilds can spend money on advertising which gives their goods/guild more visibility. Or at least put some effort to this low effort system and make global search where people can look for items and see what guilds and where are selling those (even though that still leaves many guilds with no trading spot).

Yes I know that in real world not every shop can have equally good location but at least they can advertise themselves and sell stuff from the location of their choosing (or can afford), or mail those items to people. But this game takes that away from the guilds which doesn’t have any of the (limited) locations to sell their good to all players. What a great system right! Just the kind of system that these 1% pro monopolies, anti free market big corporations want to create. I know many people who run business from their home and do well but I don't know any which nobody knows about that do well.

This is the main reason that puts me so off this game that I’m most likely going to quit – again, and this time for good. This is not the kind of game I want to support on any level – it is too close of the nightmarish ‘few corporations rule the world’ which might be our future and I want no part of.
Is it really a surprise to you or so hard to imagine that this system in this game is for a reason? Conditioning works people. Movies, games etc. are effective tools for this as we have beginning to see (again) more and more when political correctness, sjw agendas are becoming part of video games at increasing rate.

SmellyUnlimited

kargen27 wrote: »

One_ofMany wrote: »

We need a Cental broker with way better search options. We can reserve/pay for the item then go to the Guild Vender to pick it up.

The bank sucks. Needs more tabs. Sort by type, sort by slot, sort by set etc..

The last thing we need is a central broker. Okay, maybe not the last, more lag would probably be last but central broker is near last.

With a central broker three people could manipulate prices on any rare item they wished. Do you not realize how easy (as example) it would be to monopolize items like perfect roe just by sitting on the central broker and... well you know the rest.

That isn’t all how markets work. The congruity between all stores would, if anything, standardize pricing on the most desired items. A market thrives with competition, and while people will inevitably try and undercut each other, ultimately it’ll reach homeostasis where buying/selling becomes less a chore and time-sink, and a more user-friendly side-aspect of a game that’s meant to be PLAYED. High-end trading guilds have the markets cornered in the major cities; how great would it be to see equanimity amongst the crowd, and removing the necessity to pay millions of gold to....hmm...well to no one for the opportunity to have a stall.

Then the question becomes...what do guilds do with all that money now? Well, players can stop paying “weekly dues,” which isn another absurd aspect of a video game.

TL DR - We need a centralized auction house and search function. Less time sunk into an archaic encumberance, and more time playing the game. And if you consider spending hours at guild traders “playing,” then I actually can’t fathom what you find even emhoyable so it’s a moot point.

DoctorESO

.

Vivecc

Taysa
✭✭✭✭
I have yet to hear a valid argument against a centralized auction house.

it breaks the lore

Cpt_Teemo

Vivecc wrote: »

Taysa
✭✭✭✭
I have yet to hear a valid argument against a centralized auction house.

it breaks the lore

If this was lore, someone wouldn't need to buy anything they could just walk right up and steal something if a vendor had 1500 items on display.

Vivecc

so you propose to lower the amount of items a player can put to sale to.... one ?
i agree that would be much more realistic

Elsonso

@Zulur You don't say what platform you are on, and in this conversation, that matters. Not only are the consoles crippled by ZOS usability decisions, there is a different mentality that has taken hold of the game, especially on PS4. I figure that the two are related.

I can speak for my experiences on PC/NA.

First, my main account is in a good trading guild that has a good location. This account has millions of gold and it goes back to PC launch. This will immediately get certain labels applied to me, but I can say that maintaining my spot in this guild is not a full time job. It isn't even a part time job. There is no weekly "tithe" to the God Emperor GM. There are no sales quotas, either in number of sales or value of sales. They have a voluntary weekly raffle, and I buy tickets every week, which is to help pay for the trader. This guild does weekly sales in the high tens of millions.

I also have another account, which I use for add-on testing, and it is my "new player" account. This is an independent account that does not share resources from my main account, other than a shared private guild and my main account provisioner provides food and drink. I play it about 1/10th as much as I play my main account. This account has around 50k banked and I have managed to find a trade guild for this account to help build that number. It also has no weekly fees, and no sales requirements. This guild does about 2 million in weekly sales and has a kiosk most weeks, usually "middle of the woods".

So, I get a wide range of experience here. Not the widest, but pretty wide. I get to see how a major trade guild runs and can partake in all that this offers. I also get to see how a "new player" with almost no resources works with a trade guild, and this experience is very similar to where I was when I started this game in 2014.

• I am part of no "trade cartel" (my term) that I am aware of
• No required fees and no sales quotas. I refuse to be in such a guild.
• All of my trade guilds are taking new members, although, one does have a waiting list.
• Trading is not a job. I could make it one, but I choose not to.
• I have never been kicked from a trade guild for not performing to sales expectations
• I have never been asked how much I do in sales, by anyone. (Honestly, I don't know)

Zulur wrote: »

This current guild store system is terrible. It brings pretty much worst of people. The lengths they are willing to go to run their trade empires with 1% rule the world and dictate everything and have best (very limited) trading spots, and rest a driven middle of the woods or no trading spots at all. How can a just starting small or medium side guilds compete against these goliaths who have been there from the star and have billions, multiple ‘good brother’ guilds and so can make sure they always have the best spots by outbidding the small guys? Well they cant. Funny and worrisome how many people we have liking this mentality.

Honestly, pretty much any monetary system where players can exchange in-game money is going to bring out the worst of people. Greed is universal.

ESO's trading system is built on a larger scale social system (guilds), which means that the "worst in people" will take that into account. It is also distributed, which means that it takes a social system to collect market intelligence and execute plans based on that. This has resulted in social networks, like trade cartels, and certain social add-ons, in order to better game the system.

Other trading systems have different ways to bring out the "worst", depending on what barriers are available. My experience with global trading is that it is much more open to solo and small groups, so the strategies are different and can be executed by fewer people. Where social networks might dominate ESO, automation dominates global systems.

This is one reason why I prefer the system in ESO, and why I am not in favor of global searches in this game. While this might be convenient for players looking for stuff, it is a lot more easily abused than a crowd-sourced add-on.

idk

I have yet to have an issue moving anything to and from my bank and I have been here since the game with live in April 2014.

I do not have to wait 5 minutes for a guild trader to load either.

Maybe OP is on console or something as I cannot speak for them.

The only change I would suggest is a better search system. One that is worthy of a AAA game vs some F2P game. Heck, I have seen a F2P game with better search menu options.

Maybe OP can actually say something about his concerns instead of being extremely general/non specific.

DoctorESO

.

preevious

I fail to see any issue with the system we have now.
I think it's actually the best trading system I ever saw in a MMO.
The multiples trade stores are a trader / crafter's delight, adding to immersion and allowing players to sometime find a exceptionnaly good deal.
Please, ZOS. Never implement a global AH.

There are 2 types of buyers that I can think of:

1. people that look for a specific item. Yes, the current system makes it hard and cumbersome. But we have tamriel trade center that easily keeps this covered.
2. people looking for generally good deals, to make a little profit by reselling in another location. The current system in perfect for that.

So, everyone should be able to get what they want with the system.


However, we certainly do need better search filters.

Yamenstein

dodgehopper_ESO wrote: »

Years ago when this game first crawled out of the primordial ooze we had a banking system, and items could be moved to and fro with little difficulty. A strange anomaly cropped up allowing people to duplicate items and so ZoS ruined Banking and later Guild stores. Years later we have a frustrating system where you travel from town to town to buy what you want and have to wait five minutes sometimes for the guild store to open up and reveal what goodies are inside. I'm tired of spending all this time staring at a guild store. This is infuriating. If ZoS can't fix this they really should release a global auction house and give up on this. Its just too painful jumping store to store when the Store itself just won't reveal what is inside. I've wasted an afternoon on this and its not fun. PLEASE FIX!

One of these threads again aye.
No thanks. I actually like the system that ESO has. Maybe if they give better search functions when searching a guild store.

FredoForce

Amazing... after years and there is still no global auction house. I'm not a huge fun of wasting my time so not going to play or buy anything from ESO.

I just think the whole concept of this game is broken. I mean ... you waste so many time because of no global auction house, limited inventory space (in your house). It's just a poor design. All those kiddos (and there cant be that many) who are pro traders guilds are just defending there own little scam paradigm.

Just saying auction house doesn't fit ESO ... its a lame excuse. If that's true you just have to make it work. ESO is a game and wasting time is a NO GO!

Jedi1josh

preevious wrote: »

I fail to see any issue with the system we have now.
I think it's actually the best trading system I ever saw in a MMO.
The multiples trade stores are a trader / crafter's delight, adding to immersion and allowing players to sometime find a exceptionnaly good deal.
Please, ZOS. Never implement a global AH.

There are 2 types of buyers that I can think of:

1. people that look for a specific item. Yes, the current system makes it hard and cumbersome. But we have tamriel trade center that easily keeps this covered.
2. people looking for generally good deals, to make a little profit by reselling in another location. The current system in perfect for that.

So, everyone should be able to get what they want with the system.


However, we certainly do need better search filters.

We the tamriel trade center always turns up a "no trade matches" for me, so having a in game search function would be what I want. I couldn't care less how this affects the sellers.

RobbieRocket

Apache_Kid wrote: »

Search function long overdue and needed. Even a simple check-box to filter out known motifs, recipes, and furnishing plans.

While we're at it can we fix our item deconstruction lists from jumping around everytime we deconstruct an item?

Wow, this IS ridiculous yes. I sit there playing my own invented mini-game of steadily/rhythmically deconstructing items watching them jump and seeing if I can stop before I break that "Hmm, I may want to look closer at that" item.

knaveofengland

i just dislike having to go from guild store and teleporting to other places just to find what i need , if you look on eve online trillions upon trillions are traded every day .

perhaps eso should look at eve online that works very well for just about everyone , it does not matter what a player trys to sell items for large amounts of gold , its only worth what players are willing to pay for .

overall the system we have now does take time thats never good , i think what eso should do is have buy orders , you put in a order to buy like 1k jute for say 1k gold if the player who selling likes the price then its sold .

so you have players selling in guild store and now you also have buy orders

Peekachu99

kargen27 wrote: »

ookami007 wrote: »

kargen27 wrote: »

DoctorESO wrote: »

Despite what some may say or believe, the ever growing popularity of Tamriel Trade Centre lends even more support for the playerbase's desire for a global trading/auction house.

The two are not even in the least bit related. You might have a case in stating the popularity supports the desire for a more intuitive search feature within the current system. Beyond that you have nothing.

Your invalidation of his argument is invalid in itself. TTC is basically a global trading/auction house. Yes, you still have to go to the location and it has the limitations inherent in a 3rd party add-on, but it demonstrates that people want a single place they can go to find items scattered throughout the world.... it is not, as you state, "a more intuitive search feature". That description doesn't do TTC justice, nor does it do the wants of the community justice.

No it doesn't at all. It provides a search function. That is it and nothing more. You are assuming everyone who uses TTC wants a central auction house and then calling your assumption a fact.

I know these threads are not a reliable indication of how the majority of players in the game think, but almost every time this is mentioned here the players speaking against a global auction house outnumber those who support the idea.

People use TTC because they want to know exactly where the item they want is for the cheapest price, then to match/ undercut/ buy. That’s why I use it. And it’s exactly the same behaviour as a global trader with search functionality. Unless you can provide a logical counter-explanation for TTC’s prevalence and uses, I’m not sure what your argument is.