I answered the second option but there really is a lot of difference between 1 and 2. No guild can every guarantee a guild trader every week. Even if they have had one every single week so far, any given week can end the streak. Although I have 2 guilds that bid on traders weekly and they very rarely lose (I've never had a week with no guild trader between them), I can't say that they will always have one.

Avalon wrote: »

Still need to understand that the polls on here only represent the portion of the playerbase that is serious and hardcore enough about the game to come spend time on the forums. Need to understand that the vast majority of players are casual, and never visit any forums at all.

You can actually argue that the other way round and say that the players who are serious and hardcore about the game stick to playing it and don't waste half their time on the forums !

I dare say there's a bit of truth in both arguments. Certainly it's right, however, that for whatever reason it's only a very small portion of the playerbase that ever visits forums.

My Guildmaster does the best he can. We're not super rich so sometimes he can land the trader in Shor's Stone or the one outside the Hollow City in Coldharbour. But most of the time he's still outbid by someone else. Can't imagine who would want crappy traders like that so badly to outbid others...

Avalon wrote: »

Should also ask whether their traders are in prime locations, or elsewise. I mean, yeah, sure, Guild X ALWAYS has a guild trader... he's that guy in that one outpost in Cyrodiil... or, Glorgzorgo...

That's a good point. I should make an effort to shop at the out of the way traders more often. It's been my experience in the past that players who sell out in the middle of nowhere tend to list items at a higher price than players in major cities. I think if those players listed their items at a lower price, more of a bargain, it would encourage more players to travel out of their way to buy. So even though they might lose some profit on the individual sale, they could actually end up selling more items and making more money by undercutting the major hub markets.

redspecter23 wrote: »

I answered the second option but there really is a lot of difference between 1 and 2. No guild can every guarantee a guild trader every week. Even if they have had one every single week so far, any given week can end the streak. Although I have 2 guilds that bid on traders weekly and they very rarely lose (I've never had a week with no guild trader between them), I can't say that they will always have one.

Is in two guilds who is trade guilds, one always have an trader in Rawl'kwa with one exception, second tend to have trader half the time in places like Orsinium, not in because of trader but because they are nice for dungeons and normal trial farming.

Why is the poll private?

I don't like paying a guild to be able to sell stuff so I just don't worry about it. I'm not against the system, I just don't want to deal with it.

Everyone has access.

idk wrote: »

Everyone has the opportunity for access. Some choose to not have access which is a personal decision.

Outside of that the poll and it's results are entertainment value and Zos understands that forum polls are for entertainment value. They are not statistically relevant due to their nature.

You do realize that guilds have a cap of 500 members, and most members have more than one account in the same guilds, there are millions of players and only what 180 vendors in game?

180+500 = 90,000

3.5 million - 90,000 = 3.41 million without a trader, and even less if the guilds have multiple accounts by the same people.

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

Cpt_Teemo wrote: »

idk wrote: »

Everyone has the opportunity for access. Some choose to not have access which is a personal decision.

Outside of that the poll and it's results are entertainment value and Zos understands that forum polls are for entertainment value. They are not statistically relevant due to their nature.

You do realize that guilds have a cap of 500 members, and most members have more than one account in the same guilds, there are millions of players and only what 180 vendors in game?

180+500 = 90,000

3.5 million - 90,000 = 3.41 million without a trader, and even less if the guilds have multiple accounts by the same people.

I have had multiple traders at different times in Rawl'kha (x2), Mournhold (x2), Belkarth (x3), Elden Root (x2), and Vivec City (x1).

Whenever a guild I'm in goes under I just type in zone chat of trader I want "LF X trade guild. Can do X amount of sales per week". 5 minutes later, I have an invite. You can also use your current guilds to gain access to other ones. A ton of my invites came from people I met in my current guilds. Every guild you're in will have multiple members that are in top trading guilds too.

If you don't put in the effort to find a trading guild, then you won't ever find one and you have only yourself to blame.

I don't blame anyone but the system they created, its failed since day 1.

A couple complications to the numbers guessing going on:

1- People can be in 5 guilds, means that there are a lot of people in multiple trade guilds = less slots for others
2- We cannot just count actives, because there are a lot of guilds out there that never seem to boot inactives, which hold slots

As for just putting in a little bit of effort? That might pass on PC, because when I was on there, just like every other MMO out there, the chat was zooming by constantly! PC players use their keyboards and are no strangers to typing...

Console? Not the same story. I have sat in Stormhaven, near the wayshrine, during busy hours, and watched new messages creep by... sometimes not even a new message for minutes. People pop in, pop out, run by, etc. Now, the Area Voice Chat, though? Constantly people talking. However, VC has a very short range, and with people running by constantly, etc? May as well be that odd guy on the corner spouting out how the end is coming... people will pay about as much attention.

What the game needs is a "Find a Guild" interface. Something that will help fill out those guilds who are at 300-400, and have great positions. Unfortunately, I do feel it may have a further problem, though. Because of weekly dues for most of those guilds (still talking console, PC players have a completely different reality), we end up with people who want to be able to sell their stuff, so they need those prime locations/guilds, but are casuals, so might not be able to keep up the 10K a week, or don't know how to play the 'game'.

This is why the universal AH works better, is because it caters to the casuals. They simply look up their item, find the price, and put theirs up for that price, or slightly under, and done. No learning curve needed. In ESO, the trade system is its own game inside the game. Players need to check out other vendors, read through the guild history to see what stuff is selling for, whether there are increases or decreases, decide how much to sell in each stack, which guild to sell it in (because location might make a huge difference), etc etc...

The game is made up of a majority casuals, and a vast minority hardcores. The casuals just want to sell their crap, they don't want to spend hours that they don't have trying to learn how to play the 'game'. They want to throw their stuff on the AH, and get back to playing. Anyone that only has an hour to play each day is not looking to spend most of that hour trying to do the research needed to properly price and place each item. Yet again, console, not PC, so when we go to find prices on stuff, that can be a REAL chore! We don't have add-ons that make it a quick and relatively painless process. It can take 10 minutes just to find a single item for pricing, more if it is in demand and hard to find... insanely more if it is a motif =/

This is why I keep saying it is an issue of selfishness to say no to the AH, either you are saying it because you benefit from the way it is and wouldn't from the AH (because you got in at the right time, or lucky, or spend 8 hours a day playing, whatever); or, because you are on PC and cannot grasp how hard it is for Non-PC players without add-ons; or, several other options, but it always boils down to "I like it just fine! All those others who are the majority in the game can go away!"

And, yes, they are the majority, because casuals are ALWAYS the majority. I used to fight that concept tooth and nail, because I love hardcore games like old Everquest (death penalties rock!), but casuals hate that stuff. Well, after several games, I came to finally accept, casuals are the majority, in every game. And, they do not like anything hardcore just about. Might find a rare one that likes one or two hardcore concepts, but they are rare. Most just want to hop in game, check their mail, go play for an hour or two, throw stuff on the AH, log back out. If they need something, they check the AH, buy it, and move on.

Almost 100% of casuals hate this system, because it requires them to spend entirely too much time in the trader system, instead of playing the actual game. So, they end up doing 1 of 2 things: Quit the game, or ignore the trader system entirely. And if they are required to use it, because they cannot find what they want elsewise, they *** about it nonstop on the mic while in groups. I've been in entirely too many of those groups, with hundreds of players over the 3+ years on console, I've lost count, and I can remember names of the people who liked the system... that's how rare it is to find. I can name the ones who like it. There were THREE that I grouped with... in over 3 years... THREE. All the others ranged from did not like it, to cursing its existence.

As I said, though, PC players might feel differently, because they have add-ons. They change the entire perspective. We had to deal with no buffs, no debuffs, no mini-map, no DPS calculators, etc. We barely had a UI for a while at the start. We had to fight with all our might to get buffs/debuffs with Morrowind (IIRC). If it wasn't for console, that wouldn't have happened, because you guys have add-ons that do it, but finally we got through and convinced people that we need it IN the game, or else we don't have it. The same needs done with the traders. For us, it is an absolute horror if you are a casual.

I used to have 3 trade guilds I could fill with items, but my play has become sporadic and its difficult to meet quotas so I basically gave that whole portion of the game up. Its a shame really, because farming and trading were my favorite parts of the game when I was subbed. Thankfully other games have more streamlined and accessible trade systems.

It just requires a tiny bit of effort.

Its not the amount of effort, it’s the consistency of the effort that has caused me issues. The system is very exclusionary toward casual players, imo