What is the logic behind not having a central AH?

je25ffb14_ESO
je25ffb14_ESO
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I'd be curious to hear from the community, and perhaps EOS, what the logic is behind having separate auction houses.

I suppose the answer will be that it will stop gold farmers but, in the end, the more supply, the less the cost. Secondly, gold selling and such should be the responsibility of EOS to weed out. The response of, 'it makes people interact' is proving to be the reverse, actually. Having 5 guilds makes it incredibly difficult to get to know anyone, ESPECIALLY, when you have to shop guilds to shop for items.

Please add a central auction house!
Edited by je25ffb14_ESO on August 6, 2014 5:59PM
  • andre.roques.3b14_ESO
    I think the biggest concern is the use of mega servers rather than smaller population servers that many MMOs used previously. The logic is that if you have 1/2 million people playing on a mega server, a single AH would be a bit of a nightmare.
    NA MegaServer
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  • rbenkepub19_ESO
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    That ^
  • Sharp
    Sharp
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    I mostly agree with the decision to omit a server wide AH/Market as it leaves it up to the players to create their own economy/trade which can be a good thing. Crafted sets are definitely contenders with dropped sets. But, Guild Stores are good in theory but you get the trade guilds that get inactive GMs and aren't managed that die and it's not so great. When you have a server wide AH with 1/2 million people, markets would quickly become overran massive undercutters and noone would profit.
    Edited by Sharp on August 6, 2014 6:15PM
    Halfheart - VR 12 Altmer Sorcerer
  • Alphashado
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    I think the biggest concern is the use of mega servers rather than smaller population servers that many MMOs used previously. The logic is that if you have 1/2 million people playing on a mega server, a single AH would be a bit of a nightmare.

    This for the most part. The only style auction house that would work with the "mega server" set up is like the one in GW2. Essentially every single person playing the game would be using the same auction house and that is not what the developers want. There are several interviews available you can find with a gogle search.

    The topic has been debated endlessly since beta.

  • Pretext
    Pretext
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    Its a design principle, AH is not the best way. Without going into it all here, you can promote a community with players selling rather than a AH selling. Currently that's not been achieved and its still very guild based. Trading guilds have been a step in the right direction though.

    AH is easier, a mistake in gaming is 'if it is easier it is better', and that's so ingrained in the gaming industry now that players buy into it totally.
  • Clunan
    Clunan
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    A decentralized market increases the viability of merchants, people can actually buy low and sell in this game. In other games with an AH, that ceases to exist due to price stabilization. This system is VERY seller friendly. As I typically sell more stuff than I buy, I enjoy it. Now as a buyer, you will have an often hard time finding what you need when you need it, but that can be mitigated almost entirely by joining a main guild, and four trading guilds. If you havent joined a trading guild or two or three or four, you haven't begun to try to understand this system. Which would sum up most of the complaints. This games economy is extremely volatile and reactive/proactive and that is a good thing. It makes the game more enjoyable for those that aren't mouthbreathers. People(Especially adolescents and children) fear/hate what they don't understand. QQ the dead horse is dead, quit beating it... For MONTHS.
  • Surliman
    Surliman
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    I'm not opposed to a central auction house. It is something I am used to. But, I find the idea of regional auction houses appealing. What you are missing with a central auction house is regional variation. What may be in demand in one part of the world isn't going to be in demand in another. As a seller I will move my goods to where I can get the best price. As a buyer, I want the lowest price I can get. Could be some real differences in these prices.

    This gives the game a more robust population. Moving from one area to another. Making it more alive. Much better, in my opinion, than one location with 300,000 players all crowding into the same room. Believe me, I am familiar with that scenario.

    If the implementation is one auction house per dominion, then it's a bust. As this is, in effect, a central auction house.

  • Nox_Aeterna
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    There are good and bad things about a server AH.

    The one issue that many see in different lights is the offer and price of items.

    Since there are tons of players selling everything , the prices go down fast and most stuff becomes worthless , since everyone will be selling it.

    To me that is a good thing since i can then get anything i want to use without a problem , to others who like the buy/sell thing , it is annoying and so on ...

    There is also the idea of few controlling the market , which still happens anyway in ESO , but it is harder and more limited than it would be with a server wide AH.

    Personally i dont trade with other players directly , that annoy me , so any and all AHs they add are a good thing to me , will be checking these new ones.
    Edited by Nox_Aeterna on August 6, 2014 6:22PM
    "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."
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  • audabon2013
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    People make up all kinds of fantastic lies about how an AH would ruin an economy, but anyone with a brain knows it will increase trade dramatically. Many proponents of the current system want to jack their prices up so they can artificially inflate their bank.

    The current system does a poor job connecting buyers and sellers. It's not even a truly novel system as some people think. The "micro-AH" system and chat spam trading systems are not known to be endearing to gamers, yet is what eso is stuck with.

    Instead of converting to a fully functional AH ZOS is just going to expand the micro-AH system slightly. This most likely will not fix much since it will still not fully display the entire supply of possible trade goods. Nothing could ever fully show all drops as supply because there we will always be junk that's just plain not gonna get posted.

    In the new system people will likely still view it as limited and will still resort to chat spam. Also due to this people will still post less for sale.

    It won't take long for players to complain about goin to several of these new npc traders and either seeing ridiculous prices for what they would have bought or not even finding the low-cost much-needed item they want (since other players still won't list items perceived as junk).

    no system is perfect. The AH is more reflective of a real economy. After they run out of bad reasons against the AH, you get the immersion argument. Oh well.
  • k9mouse
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    With the lack of an AH, people are "encourage" to interact with each more; thus make more friendships. I really enjoy the lack of AH in ESO,
  • audabon2013
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    k9mouse wrote: »
    With the lack of an AH, people are "encourage" to interact with each more; thus make more friendships. I really enjoy the lack of AH in ESO,

    Lol. Immersion argument.
  • Clunan
    Clunan
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    k9mouse wrote: »
    With the lack of an AH, people are "encourage" to interact with each more; thus make more friendships. I really enjoy the lack of AH in ESO,

    Lol. Immersion argument.

    Technically, it's the social argument. He's saying that without an AH he has to be more social with business dealings, and that he enjoys it. As do I.
  • apostate9
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    I'd be curious to hear from the community, and perhaps EOS, what the logic is behind having separate auction houses.

    I suppose the answer will be that it will stop gold farmers but, in the end, the more supply, the less the cost. Secondly, gold selling and such should be the responsibility of EOS to weed out. The response of, 'it makes people interact' is proving to be the reverse, actually. Having 5 guilds makes it incredibly difficult to get to know anyone, ESPECIALLY, when you have to shop guilds to shop for items.

    Please add a central auction house!

    May I suggest google? Asked and answered about 150,000 times.

    No AH now or probably ever.

    Edited by apostate9 on August 6, 2014 6:34PM
  • MornaBaine
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    I hate that of my 5 guild slots I have to devote 3 of them to trade guilds....most of which never have what I want and then go inactive or have a bunch of idiots who try to sell every INDIVIDUAL thing they ever find in a sack or crate so searching is a nightmare when I want to buy! I understand the reasoning behind not having the standard AH...but what they've come up with sucks. There HAS to be a better way.

    What I'd love to see (but am not sure how they would implement it admittedly) is added shops in the town trading areas. There would be one that just sold consumables, one that just sold gear, one that just sold mats, etc. Each store would only sell level appropriate goods for the level area it was in. As a seller, you would have to go to that store and select "sell" for your goods. Then, of course, there would be a markup and you would receive your gold when your item sold, pretty much how it works now...but you don't have to be in a guild to do it. I'm just trying to figure out how they would instance them so that you don't essentially have an AH. But say you sell an item at the shop in Wayrest.... no one looking in Daggerfall or the equivalent Ebonhart zone is going to see your item or be able to purchase it. So at least that makes goods regional. Of course if you have an alt in EP and you put his items in your bank and then your DC character pulls them out in DC to sell as rare merchandise from far away I think that would be pretty cool....and possibly expensive! Either that or they REALLY need to figure out a way fix Trade Guilds and make them both viable and competitive with each other. Because the way it is now just...sucks.
    PAWS (Positively Against Wrip-off Stuff) - Say No to Crown Crates!

  • AlnilamE
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    I'm curious to see how the hireable traders and the guild stores accessible via a resource held by a guild to anyone in their campaign/faction will change things.
    The Moot Councillor
  • Sindala
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    The only thing I could ever think of is that there aint that much in game that you actually need to buy.
    If you think that the AH would supply all your raw mat needs to level your char to 50 in all craft skills, which is actually quite easy to do.
    After that then.....erm? Craft yourself that set of Warlock armour and some special food and that's about it. Job done.
    About a week? Then everyone will be complaining their is no point to the AH and to nerf it.
    Being First is not the prize, it just mean's everyone can stab you in the back.
  • daneyulebub17_ESO
    daneyulebub17_ESO
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    I'm fine with no AH--I agree with pretty much all that's said above in favor of not having one. Less mega-server strain, more regional variation, more potential for social interaction and one-to-one trading, and a general less I-can-just-buy-anything-at-anytime feel to the game that a server-wide AH engenders.

    Edited by daneyulebub17_ESO on August 6, 2014 6:52PM
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  • EQBallzz
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    I think the biggest concern is the use of mega servers rather than smaller population servers that many MMOs used previously. The logic is that if you have 1/2 million people playing on a mega server, a single AH would be a bit of a nightmare.

    I believe this is pretty much the stated reason. Due to the mega-server structure an AH would allow a select few to control the entire economy (including gold sellers).

    I don't necessarily disagree with their position but I also don't agree with their solution entirely. The new market traders are going to be fine for wealthy guilds or established trading guilds but these will not help small guilds or guildless players who can't outbid those with greater resources.

    I think in addition to the system they have now they need to go old school and add regional "market boards" in select cities across the game world. Then individual players or small guilds would have an avenue for selling items and I don't think it would adversely affect the economy any more than the current system. People would have to be in that city to view the boards so that should alleviate any AH type concerns and players would have options to focus on selling in different cities depending on their wares.
  • audabon2013
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    Still the same old arguments.

    1. Doomsday lies about how a megaserver AH woul destroy the universe as we know it.

    2. Immersion (aka social). trade spam isnt very social/immersive, sadly people like this fallback argument due to its subjective basis.
  • GnatB
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    The problem with having an actual server wide market (whether it's auction based, or not) is it would lead to a decent economy. People would actually be able to buy good stuff at good prices. ZoS doesn't want that. They *explicitely* said they don't want that. I say they're nuts.

    About the only sane argument I can think of in favor of the current intended system is that it strongly supports arbitrage. i.e. being able to buy low in one guild and sell high in chat/different guild.

    Now, personally, I feel arbitrage, in an MMO, is more scamming/taking advantage of the ignorant (and thus a bad thing) than providing a useful service like it occasionally is in real life (where there may transportation issues/customs/etc.), so I tend to see it as yet another bad thing.

    Personally, I played EQ from release to the planes. I've had my fill of MMO gaming sans auction house. I don't really need to revisit the east commonlands tunnel. (though, admittedly, I spent pretty much all my time in Kelethin selling bows) Having a broker is far more immersive than people spamming chat. If you really want to be immersed, feel free to stand next to the other merchants somewhere and stand around waiting for somebody to walk up and ask to buy something from you.... without spamming /zone.
    Achievements Suck
  • Clunan
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    Still the same old arguments.

    1. Doomsday lies about how a megaserver AH woul destroy the universe as we know it.

    2. Immersion (aka social). trade spam isnt very social/immersive, sadly people like this fallback argument due to its subjective basis.

    I could care less about either of our opinions on a global AH, as it's a done and done topic. What irks me is the fact you still don't understand the difference between an immersion argument and a social one. You could have used "2. Immersion/Social" and it would have been correct as you could use either/or for your argument... But using also known as..? No lol

    EDIT: Spelling
    Edited by Clunan on August 6, 2014 7:20PM
  • Nestor
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    Sindala wrote: »
    The only thing I could ever think of is that there aint that much in game that you actually need to buy.

    I have never bought any:
    Armor
    Weapons
    Foods/Drinks
    Ingredients
    Re-agents
    Solvents
    Runes

    The only thing I ever buy are:
    Glyphs and that will end if I can ever grind Enchanting up and find aspect runes
    Soul Gems (just because I don't find any as loot, or maybe I do and don't notice when it happens)
    Horse Upgrades
    Bag and Bank Upgrades.

    So, of the 4 things I do buy, two of them will go away soon (soul gems are more common as loot in VR from what I understand)

    I can't see how an auction house will help anyone

    Enjoy the game, life is what you really want to be worried about.

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  • MercyKilling
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    I just want an easily accessible place where I can go WITHOUT BEING A MEMBER OF ANY GUILDS and peruse/buy things other players have to sell.

    If this turns out to be an auction house, so be it.
    If Zenimax can keep it from becoming an auction house, kudos to them.
    I am not spending a single penny on the game until changes are made to the game that I want to see.
    1) Remove having to be in a guild to sell items to other players at a kiosk.
    2) Cosmetic modding for armor and clothing.
    3) Difficulty slider.
    4) Fully customizable player housing that isn't tied to anything in the game other than having the correct resources and enough gold to build. Don't tie it to PvP, guild membership, or anything at all. Oh, make it instanced so as not to take up world map space, too. Zeni screwed this one up already.
    Any /one/ of these things implemented would get me spending again, maybe even subbing.
  • je25ffb14_ESO
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    Why not, then, offer an NPC in capital cities that you can search guild stores without being in them?
    I just want an easily accessible place where I can go WITHOUT BEING A MEMBER OF ANY GUILDS and peruse/buy things other players have to sell.

    If this turns out to be an auction house, so be it.
    If Zenimax can keep it from becoming an auction house, kudos to them.

    Excellent point +1

  • dietlime
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    It stops price fixing, and re-sellers from totally dominating the economy (by refusing to establish one consistent economy in favor of a barter system) - which ruins the experience of casual players.
  • audabon2013
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    Clunan wrote: »
    Still the same old arguments.

    1. Doomsday lies about how a meged daserver AH woul destroy the universe as we know it.

    2. Immersion (aka social). trade spam isnt very social/immersive, sadly people like this fallback argument due to its subjective basis.

    I could care less about either of our opinions on a global AH, as it's a done and done topic. What irks me is the fact you still don't understand the difference between an immersion argument and a social one. You could have used "2. Immersion/Social" and it would have been correct as you could use either/or for your argument... But using also known as..? No lol

    EDIT: Spelling

    What should irk you is immersion/social is the same subjective argument and you don't know that. People feel immersed through many aspects of game play. This includes social interaction; not just your narrow scope of the definition.

    Ty for adding your rudeness to the discussion though.
  • dietlime
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    Still the same old arguments.

    1. Doomsday lies about how a megaserver AH woul destroy the universe as we know it.

    2. Immersion (aka social). trade spam isnt very social/immersive, sadly people like this fallback argument due to its subjective basis.

    In Diablo 3 I was a part of a small,organized group which conspired to buy all of certain legendary items any time they were posted and re-list them for a much higher price. We used macros to make this much easier, so our AH interfaces would be automatically refreshing and we would instant-buyout these items unless.

    The arbitrary price we set for those items generally held, and now Blizzard is removing that system from the game completely. Among other reasons, it gave a select minority of the players exclusive control over the experience.

  • SgtPepperUK
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    From what I've gathered from previous threads on this topic the alleged advantages of no AH are:

    1) Trade spam in zone chat is "social interaction"; That moment of "I'll buy that, COD it to me" "Sure, sent" is the basis of lifelong friendships that will magically last beyond the five minutes it takes for you to forget the name of the person you just bought from/sold to.

    2) Related to 1, spamming zone chat with items you want to sell moves you beyond the role of mere adventure into a bona fide medieval-style market merchant, cheerily calling out to customers passing by their market stall.

    3) Further "social interaction" in the form of several guilds whose chat you'll ignore by removing them from the main chat window.

    4) Because adding an AH would make ESO a carbon copy of WoW because, as everyone knows, WoW was the first MMO ever and, therefore, had the first AH in any game...apparently. Putting an AH in ESO would lead to the graphics reverting to a mid-2000s cartoon aesthetic, all our races would change to things like Pandarens, Worgens and so on and we'd lose the three factions, which would be replaced by two, Alliance and Horde.
  • je25ffb14_ESO
    je25ffb14_ESO
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    'Price fixing' is a red herring. It simply doesn't exist. It's called a free market, when we are talking about something as simply as an MMO, that is. This isn't a zero sum game, materials and products are constantly produced...
    Edited by je25ffb14_ESO on August 6, 2014 8:05PM
  • BBSooner
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    I prefer market fluctuation, I've made a decent chunk of my wealth from buying low in one market and selling high in another.
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