Once you realize that the "trade system" is geared towards the no-lifers, it all makes more sense.

@GuyNamedSean

Maybe you should consider changing your thread title then, because as it is, it's very appealing to anyone who dislikes the trade system as a whole and likes to discuss it.

I think this thread has been fairly civil so far... and I don't think that threatening people is a nice way to thank them for participating to your topic. Actually that comes across as not very civil.

@F7sus4

Buyers on console are not aware of what they need ? Because they're newer to the game than PC players ? I'm not sure I understand this one. Does it imply that people see something listed in a guild store that they don't know of, and just buy it for the sake of trying it ? I personally don't buy anything unless I know its purpose, how it's farmed in the game, and decided for myself that I need it AND that I prefer to buy it rather than farm it myself. Maybe I'm naive or self-centered but I don't see any player acting differently...

GuyNamedSean wrote: »

An example being Ebonheart Trading Corp. They have five guilds right now (had ten, but took all the money out and cut half their members so they could more easily afford traders) and two of their traders were side by side in Mournhold last week.

Am I the only one thinking that being able to designate your guild being EP, AD, or DC instead of them being across all would be helpful? It would knock a blow in large trading guilds and provide a massive increase in available traders. If I wanted to buy a trader in Dune, being an EP player means that would be outstandingly cheap, though difficult to make an income on. As it is now I'm not just competing with my faction, but the entire game as a whole. I get that it would also make some restrictions on guild play, but your guild already designates a faction, you just have to change the trader format.

Would you please explain how the fact that some different guilds are actually run by the same people in some "joint venture franchise" impacts the actual prices of goods ? Because in order to do that, these people would have :
1/ to flip most items on the market (buy all goods that's cheaper than they intend it to be and resell at intended price)
2/ force high prices onto guild members.

While the first aspect is very doable for someone who has had A LOT of gold from the start due to PC transfers, it is not related to the "joint venture" issue imho.

As to the second aspect, that would be related but I don't see how a guild leader could impose prices onto guild members. I know some guilds have tried it on PC and failed, people would leave in masses.

Or you're running a trading guild yourself and want to access those kiosks and can't because those guilds hold on to them ? I understand this as a frustrating issue, but that's due to PC transfers and what's done is done. Nothing lasts forever though, guilds can die because of bad management, bad atmosphere or internal power struggle and conflicts. Furthermore, since the bidding system for kiosks is blind, even the wealthiest guilds can miss it eventually and smaller guilds get the spot for a week. We've seen both happening on PC : giant guilds with excellent reputation getting disbanded for internal reasons, leaving space for others, and smaller guilds repeatedly and intelligently bidding on AAA spots and eventually making their place in the sun mre durably there.

GuyNamedSean wrote: »

And people who think this thread is for a fight over whether the system of Guild Traders is a good idea or not, can you *** off to a thread that's about that instead of about monopolisation by Trading Guilds (notice the word order)?

Seriously though, I'm just gonna start reporting people as off-topic if you're discussing the system of Traders in a thread that's about the business of guilds.

You started the opening paragraph of your initial post:-

"Anyone else notice that over time a smaller and smaller group of massive trading guilds is taking over the map and keeping prices inflated? Smaller guilds have no chance of holding traders even out in the sticks and if you want a fair price you absolutely must go trade in person."

That in itself set the scene for a debate about the merits of the trading system. It's a system based around trading guilds, and you can't sensibly expect to criticise the nature of those trading guilds and the way they operate without opening up a discussion about the merits of a guild-based trading system.

Sorry, but I haven't seen a single post here that was off-topic given both the headline and your own opening comments to the topic. You want to discuss the way trading guilds operate and how to resolve the problems they create? Fine, but you need to accept that for some people the way to resolve those problems is to have a different system.

Incidentally, the issue of dominant trading guilds owned or controlled by a small number of very wealthy players cornering the market in both kiosks and prices and keeping everyone else out is not restricted to the console servers, it's something people have been talking about in relation to the PC servers for quite a while, the transfers simply enabled the problem to be exported to the console servers where it was immediately much more noticeable because of the greater disparity in wealth there between those who transferred and those who started fresh. It's an inevitable consequence of the system that as a few trading guilds reach a certain level of wealth they will out-price everyone else. That's why you cannot really discuss remedies without looking at the very system that creates the problem in the first place. Let's face it, no-one has yet come up with any way of resolving what is very clearly a major problem without changing the system.