Suggestion for Overbloated AH Prices

[Vardak]

Nm

[Arlith]

If you haven't seen it, you haven't been playing the game.

Feb 05, 2008 16:02 EST Especially in-game currency or items bought for real money! This is a friendly reminder to our players that buying currency or items for real money is not only against the EULA, but can put your account at risk for hacking or banning. Buying currency or items causes game imbalance, damages the economy, and heavily contributes to the amount of spam in chat, tells, and mail. In extreme cases it's even been known to cause hair loss, global warming, and the extinction of at least 2 species of insects every day. Don't buy currency or items for real money!!

I would be MUCH more worried about the hair loss, global warming, and the extinction of 2 species of insects (at least) every day. I might worry about my account being hacked, or banned even. I would not worry about game imbalance, or damage to the economy.

I do not believe in buying plat or equipment with real money. I think those who buy plat/equip with real money should be banned from the game. I think those who sell plat/equip for real money should be banned from the game. I am sure there are some out there who buy plat or equip with real money. I do NOT believe it seriously harms the economy. Why? Because it is ridiculously easy to make plat in this game. I got spend crazy and spent **** near every copper I had. In the last 3 days I have managed to recoup 500K plat, and that is not being serious about it. Just running some stuff solo between guild runs.

The AH makes it all worse. The AH fuels money spending, which fuels players' desire for plat which fuels the market for sold plat, which puts more plat in the hands of too few players, which allows them to spend like drunken sailors on the AH, etc., etc., etc.

Eliminating the AH altogether would also do a lot to eliminate over-bloated AH prices.

Noooo...... It would do more than "do a lot to eliminate over-bloated AH prices". Eliminating the AH would eliminate ALL AH prices... not just the overbloated ones. But that is all it would do. Transactions would find a different avenue, be it on the DDO forums, the general chat, the user chat channels, or whatever. It would not fix anything, reduce prices, or make the desire for plat less. The ones who work for their plat will still work for it, those who buy it will still buy it, and those who do not will not have it. Who will you blame then??

Changes to the auction house will not fix the economy, and it will not stop plat farmers. It will not change prices for items.

There was a suggestion in another post about raising the posting fee and decreasing the sell fee. While not perfect, the idea has merit and warrants further thought.

[branmakmuffin]

Before the AH, people auctioned things on the forums.

Removing the AH moves all the auctions to the forums again. It's counterintuitive and lazy to not have an AH.

Wrong-o.

I would be MUCH more worried about the hair loss, global warming, and the extinction of 2 species of insects (at least) every day. I might worry about my account being hacked, or banned even. I would not worry about game imbalance, or damage to the economy [...] I do NOT believe it seriously harms the economy.

So "not a worry to Arlith" means "should not be a worry to Trubine." Gotcha.

[MissErres]

Wrong-o.


So "not a worry to Arlith" means "should not be a worry to Trubine." Gotcha.

Very insightful and witty comebacks. They will keep us thinking for years to come.

[Tanka]

Wrong-o.

No, the forums did in fact have auctions, and to this day they still do if the item is worth more than 2milpp.

If you're referring to not having an AH as being lazy, no, I'm not wrong. You're biased and thinking of this as a PnP replacement when it obviously isn't.

[Arlith]

So "not a worry to Arlith" means "should not be a worry to Trubine." Gotcha.

I usually do a very good job saying what I mean. While I appreciate you trying to help, I really do not need anyone putting words into my mouth, or my posts.

The post you quoted, while informative, was very lighthearted. I am almost positive that buying plat does not cause hair loss, or species of insects to go extinct (but if it does, I might buy some just to get rid of mosquitos). If they (Turbine) were as worried about game imbalance as you seem to think, would they really add in all the above stuff AND Global Warming? Last I heard Al Gore was NOT a dev, though he did invent the internet.

The auction houses are not a problem. People who buy/sell plat and equipment for real money are. Wanting to get rid of the AH to stop real money transactions is like banning vehicles to stop DUIs.

But you know what? More power to you. Ban them, get them removed from the game. It won't bother me at all. I will sell my high end items on the forums instead of the AH, and probably get better prices for them than I do on the AH. The rest are cannon fodder for the nearest bartender.

I am not really posting here because I care about the AH. Its just fun.

[boldarblood]

The AH makes it all worse. The AH fuels money spending, which fuels players' desire for plat which fuels the market for sold plat, which puts more plat in the hands of too few players, which allows them to spend like drunken sailors on the AH, etc., etc., etc.


There's no doubt that would help. Eliminating the AH altogether would also do a lot to eliminate over-bloated AH prices.

The only thing eliminating the AH would do would be to make the sellers trade in the forums instead of Plat. The everyday, non power grinder would have even less chance at getting some of the upper end equipment (albeit at sometimes higher prices). Becasue you would make plat useless. And the casual gamer will not have the gear that power gamers want/need in return trade. The items would not show up in broker house in D/K. At least the AH put value on plat and allows the upper items to be found. Getting rid of the AH would be a terrible mistake. And AH price have gone WAY down.

[branmakmuffin]

Very insightful and witty comebacks. They will keep us thinking for years to come.

I'm sure they will.

[MissErres]

[Vardak]

At some point in every thread it becomes apparent that the parties are simply not going to agree. We have reached this point. There is no reason to continue to provide reasoned, well thought out, logical arguments when they are going to be dismissed at hand. The facts are obvious and have not been disputed, furthermore the AH isn't going to be eliminated or even modified in a manner that most of us would find objectionable any time soon.

Game, Set, Match. No reason to respond further.

[Heffty_Smurf]

One way you could completely get rid of gold sellers and keep prices resonable would be to put some sort of cap on the prices of items being sold. Now for most MMO's this suggestion wouldn't work as items in most MMO's don't really have a listed market price. But for this game it would be very easy to implement. Just set cap of 2x the actual market price of the item. Gold would no longer need to be bought from gold sellers as prices would finally be reasonable and you would no longer see insane high prices on weapons that are effectively +3 or higher. There's really no reason anyone should have to pay 100k on a freaking +1 Holy Keen Adamantine weapon when it's market value is only around 9k.

The only people who would really complain about such a bold move would be the Gold Seller's as no one would need them anymore. Give gold back it's value and stop the recession.

before the ah was around items were being sold for similar amounts as the ah.if you wanted to lower the prices of items on the ah then turbine should stop collecting the ah fees. regardless of any cap placed on an tem it will still sell off the ah for the high price. whereas if you were actually pocketing the full amount you sold something for then prices would be lower. this isnt ebay turbine seriously

[Alcides]

The auction house needs some better search capability. Something along the lines of a keyword search and price range would go a long way to filter out these unwanted, overpriced items you are speaking of. It would force people to think twice about the item price they are posting and allow players to avoid the plat sellers.