Galenus_of_Pergamon wrote: »

Danksta wrote: »

Always have to vote for the opposite poll option in biased polls that the OP wanted. Especially in this case since you have no evidence to back your claim.

Providing evidence is tricky because revealing guild and player names may be a violation of terms of service.

I'll read the terms of service fully to verify this.

What is wrong with having a bias for justice?

Do you have a bias towards injustice? Are you violating terms of service? Are you knowingly in one of these trading guilds that have formed a cabal?

I never claimed to employ a non-biased poll. That is the job of a scientist - not that of a whistleblower who is seeking truth and justice for the masses.

It's a fact that this is happening on the PS4 NA service. It's also a fact that this is a violation of terms of service (says ZoS) because it exploits a game mechanic in a way other than intended.

Will you choose to listen to logic or to bathe in a tub of ignorance? Your call.

"bias for justice". Now there is a pre supposition to start with. Anyway, it is capitalism, albeit a strange version, at work, as opposed to a millenial stomp ones foot and make the gummint fix it approach.

Winning guild that disbands goes to the next highest bidder. That would force real bids. And prevent some of the shady practices.

Karm1cOne wrote: »

Winning guild that disbands goes to the next highest bidder. That would force real bids. And prevent some of the shady practices.

But what if that guild already got a trader (because they lost the bid but found a free one)? Do they get the option o replace the trader mid-week? Does it go to the third bidder? What if there is none?

NeillMcAttack wrote: »

Not saying it doesn't happen. It certainly does, anyone that frequents traders knows it happens. But what I don't understand is why these guilds don't just lump all of thier bids onto the one, more desired trader to help insure they get their top spot.

Hard to insure the top spot. Some large trading guilds might work together but some also have grudges with other large trading guilds. Has happened a few times where one large guild will over bid on a trader a rival guild normally gets just to screw that guild over for a week. Not in any way condoning shadow guilds holding a trader just in case the big trader doesn't come through. Just pointing out not all the top traders are friends working together. Some go out of their way to cause as much grief to other guilds as they can.

puffytheslayer wrote: »

disintegr8 wrote: »

puffytheslayer wrote: »

just get rid of traders already - im sorry but if i wanted to play with money id play monopoly!

Why not get rid of PVP - because I might only want to play PVE, or vice-versa, or get rid of vMA, because I have no interest in it so it shouldn't exist.

The game contains things you are and are not interested in, just ignore the traders and trading if you don't like them and leave others to use them if they choose.

if it were just the trading system ie, i have stuff i dont want, so i sell it to buy stuff i do want i would be fine with it

but people are playing the 'trading game' they log on for 1 reason & 1 reason only to make money. and im sorry but i dont understand that, what is the end game objective?

because as i see it people make money so they can use that money to make more money, therfore giving them more money to invest in items they can flip in order to aquire even more money..... why? what is the ultimate goal?

Some people only enjoy PVP, they log in for 1 thing and 1 thing only. Some people only do daily undaunted pledges - on 8 or more characters every day - they log in for 1 thing and 1 thing only. Why is it wrong for someone to purely log on to sell things in guild traders if it is not wrong for others to log on only to do what they enjoy?

Making money is an aspect of the game that you can choose to participate in if you want, just like PVP, getting XP/AP, completing quests, etc. And while gold is a commodity in the game, it has to provide you with a means to make it.

I spent 5 minutes on Tuesday listing some items in my guild and logged on 24 hours later with 200k in profit. Why do people sell stuff - because people want things and are prepared to pay for them rather than go and get them themselves.

In reality, everything for sale in the game (or 99.9% at least) can be obtained by any player without paying for it. Why should they stop doing what they want to do to get it themselves if it is quicker and easier to buy it.

Nearly everything I sell has been collected or made by me, rather than bought. I don't 'flip' very often, only occasionally will I see something that is being sold dirt cheap and will buy it to sell for more.

I don't sell because I need the gold - I sell because I gather more stuff than I will ever use and enjoy the trading aspect of the game.

@Galenus_of_Pergamon

It seems that the basis for the argument which you make in favor of your "poll" is that it is too difficult, perhaps even impossible, for a guild or guildmaster with the ambition to develop a major "trading guild" to succeed. That is, the current system favors those who have already obtained a Guild Trader at one of the best locations and, of course, want to keep that Trader from week-to-week. FWIW, that is not just the desire of a guildmaster and of its officers, but also of the guild's members too.

Whether the "cabal" that you describe exists, I can't say. However, the problem is that there is a virtually unlimited demand (guilds) for a definitely finite supply (traders). That is, some traders are at locations where there is a higher volume of players looking for something to buy, while other traders have hardly any inquiries at all, let alone buyers.

For better or for worse, though, a guild is limited to 500 members (whether that actually matters in practice). Instead of developing a competing trade guild, you all might be better off to join one or more of the existing major ones. There is always a certain amount of turn-over in the membership even among such guilds.

Oddly enough, for a game created by a subsidiary of an Internet marketing firm, there is no practical way for any guild to proactively market ("advertise"), in-game, the goods which they have for sale. If guilds could do that effectively, then the significance of their Trader's location would be diminished.

Currently, the best method is for guild masters or members to use the Tamriel Trade Centre add-on with one of their characters, to upload the data pertaining to items currently for sale at their Guild Store to the TTC web-site (TamrielTradeCentre.com ). Players use their browser to access the web-site, where they can search for whatever they want to buy, find the guild traders which have them for sale, and see the price at which each item has been offered. The TTC is not a perfect solution, in my experience, but a reasonable one. It is also subject to some abuse by greedy arbitrageurs, because of the way that ZOS does some things.

Arguably, the best way to resolve these "problems" is to replace the current Guild Store / Guild Trader system entirely with something else instead. Albeit, we should expect that any system of commerce will have both benefits and flaws. ZOS has previously stated that they've been considering an alternative. But that was over a year ago and, at the time, allegedly stated that it would take at least two years to develop an alternative. That said, I have no idea whether ZOS currently has any plans to replace the current system, and/or has begun developing a significant modification of it, if not a replacement for it.