The debate over an auction house is a very popular topic. But be warned, the debates can get heated. That being said, there has been no word on any planned changes to the guild stores.

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/discussion/70211/auction-house-is-a-must/p1

While I understand that the mods have been clear, I will say this: I'm not going to stop asking for player housing, either. And during beta, devs were quite clear they had absolutely no plans.

I'm personally against an auction house, unless it comes with 'bind on pickup' looted gear, so that crafted gear remains important and a real tradeable commodity, and looted special gear sets (which are in many ways superior to crafted) remain extremely rare.

Both types of players need to be protected, not just the casual 'I've got gold to spend' buyer. Crafters, and those players who enjoy the reward of doing difficult content.

It is my belief (and apparently ZOS', if you check out the 'Ask Us Anything: 14' dev blog), that auction houses do more to harm the rarity of dropped items than help.

someuser wrote: »

seanolan wrote: »

Like it or not, the directors of this game decided, consciously, NOT to have an auction house, because it is on a megaserver.

The problem isn't that we have a "megaserver". Games like EvE Online have megaservers with economies that are not fragmented like ESO.

I actually agree with many of your points, @Someuser. But I had to point out a flaw here: EvE's economy is fragmented by region and system, according to how many days/hours/weeks of training you've put into place.

The diversity that made EvE's economy work so well, is partly because they have segmented and fragmented the world so well. Certain crafting materials you need, simply cannot be found in your area, and you HAVE to trade with other players (or try and do it yourself).

Trade between systems/regions has no bottom dollar, no set price amount. Price gouging occurs in nulsec/losec, while in hisec underbidding is very popular. There is no protection for the buyer, or the seller, and both abuse the economic system to their means.

And outside very rare (and costly) officer modules or some trade materials/skill books, EVERYTHING is crafted by the playerbase.

In contradiction would be the economic system of World of Warcraft, which most MMO players are more familiar with. Bottom dollar reigns. There is much to say for customer supports protection of players against scam and theft. There is more available items, at reasonable prices, and very little crafting requirement in the economy.

Many players will use EvE as an example, but want WoW instead.



All that said, the 'megaserver' isn't the argument against auction houses that everyone seems to think it is. It's not really the coding, as PWE shows us with NeverWinter Online and Star Trek Online, a megaserver can have an auction house.

But in a game with, as an example, one million players, an item with a 1% drop rate would still show up 10,000 times.

There's no real way to enforce rarity of loot, without either implementing strict 'bind-on' rules (which discourages player interaction), or reducing the capability of players to sell items in some way.

And loot is the biggest competitor to crafters, as there are far more adventurers in the world with 'of the Warlock' sets dropping off random mobs, than there are crafters producing 'Nightmothers Embrace' sets.

It's not purple that would need to be BOP. It's certain sets altogether. Due to the fact that improvements to armor can be made by any character, regardless of whether that character has training in crafting or not, regardless of the level of the item, and can be met at 100% efficiency with simply using more mats (which this AH would also provide), it then becomes necessary to block the drop of even standard, white and green and blue loot of that set.

So you apply BOP to dropped sets, and this defeats this argument. But this causes a hiccup in what many really are wanting when they claim a want for auction houses, and that's the ability to buy better sets of armor without trying to find a crafter, grinding the armor themselves, or finding a good trading guild.

Or, do what many crafters suggested in beta, and make item improvement limited to crafter skill investment and item level, thus making the whole system more robust and giving it a gateway. Thus, if a player wants purple or gold items, they need to invest in crafting themselves, or invest in getting to know a crafting player.

Don't make me Google it, cos i will

I want an AH.

Yes, everything should be changed for the sole purpose of giving you an auction house, because, when it all comes down to it, when all excuses are boiled down to their essence, you are too lazy to put effort into selling, yet you feel entitled to an easy method to obtain gold for your luck with a RNG. Nothing you can say, no reason you can give, will deny this. You want it easy and automated so you don't need to put in any effort in the process.

And the developers have categorically stated "no". How dare they? After all, you are entitled! You should definitely keep badgering them. I'm sure self important spoiled entitlement is a force for positive change. Never surrender.

Im finding the guilds hit and miss myself. Some weeks I sell a lot, some I sell nothing. With these trading guilds at 500 players, I wonder if an auction house would be any better. Another thought is that this is a mega server, maybe competition would be too tough and drive prices too far down to worth it.

I, personally, believe trading guilds are better, for this game only due to how it's setup, and you just need to ensure the members of the guild you belong too are diverse enough in levels so that whatever you try to sell as you level up has a good shot at being interesting to someone else.

Just my gut feeling, that an AH, would be a negative thing for ESO. Any other game I would be rallying for one. I'm far from any kind of MMO economic wiz though, just my 2 cents.

Auction House: fees and taxes like guild stores where at the beginning (or even higher)
Guild Stores: leave fees and taxes as they are.