Offline auction house monitoring?

[Old_Skool]

I know there are myriad issues involved with full-on interaction with the AH from off-line players (that is, not in the game but on the internet) so that's not what I'm asking. But, what about one-way communication (from game to real world) or email alerts if you've been outbid or won something? I'm sure it's come up before but couldn't find a thread. MyDDO already updates things like equiped gear and quest completions, so it seems like it's possible for an in-game email from the AH to the character could trigger an update in MyDDO, too.

Has this come up before, and was it mercilously shot down?

[Flavilandile]

Probably shot down...

The main point is that it would have to use the MyDDO technology, and everybody here knows how reliable is MyDDO.

Furthermore, you can't monitor that in real time, web technology doesn't allow that. ( page refresh... a webpage is an instantaneous picture of something at a given time... )

so the easiest way is just to log in, and check the AH.

[Old_Skool]

Yeah, I just can't access DDO until I get home (secured network at the office). If I could get a notice - even if it's delayed 15 minutes - I'd know if I need to log on real quick right when I walk in the door or if I have time to help my kid with homework first. I know - I'm all grown up and junk so I have to sort my priorities.

[Barazon]

Yeah, I just can't access DDO until I get home (secured network at the office). If I could get a notice - even if it's delayed 15 minutes - I'd know if I need to log on real quick right when I walk in the door or if I have time to help my kid with homework first. I know - I'm all grown up and junk so I have to sort my priorities.

But this would just give you the chance that you might be in the middle of a meeting when your phone goes off, causing you to yell out "WHAT BASTARD JUST OUTBID ME ON THAT DRAGON SCALE?!"

[Old_Skool]

Oh, you're right - maybe I should just let sleeping dragons lie...

[Jay203]

how do you monitor online auction house without being online?

[LordMond63]

how do you monitor online auction house without being online?

In the early days of EQ, several web sites were devoted to reporting the selling prices for various in-game items. They tracked player-to-player transactions because there was no AH or player merchants in those days. Of course, there are many ways of manipulating such an honesty-based system (for instance, having straw buyers pay an inflated price for an item only to be reimbursed by the seller), but, as I think back, I can't recall many instances of that happening. Prices were pretty consistent across the servers and the odd inflated or deflated price could be written off as a fluke. It was, I'd guess, pretty labor- and time-intensive, but it did work.

[Jay203]

In the early days of EQ, several web sites were devoted to reporting the selling prices for various in-game items. They tracked player-to-player transactions because there was no AH or player merchants in those days. Of course, there are many ways of manipulating such an honesty-based system (for instance, having straw buyers pay an inflated price for an item only to be reimbursed by the seller), but, as I think back, I can't recall many instances of that happening. Prices were pretty consistent across the servers and the odd inflated or deflated price could be written off as a fluke. It was, I'd guess, pretty labor- and time-intensive, but it did work.

but you'd still have to go online

[LordMond63]

Jay-

Good point. I was thinking "online" as being "in game". Not the question you asked at all.

[GeneralDiomedes]

Furthermore, you can't monitor that in real time, web technology doesn't allow that. ( page refresh... a webpage is an instantaneous picture of something at a given time... )

That's too bad the web doesn't allow monitoring in real time, just think of the possibilities! Online auction sites .. online stock market trading ..

[sebastianosmith]

Furthermore, you can't monitor that in real time, web technology doesn't allow that.

Wah???

DDO already uses web services which are near real time. Adding an SMS or email facility based on the existing technology to report auction bid status would not be technically difficult but likely time-consuming given the extra UI and security work to collect and disseminate the necessary information.

The most probable cause of it having not been implemented already is developer time versus revenue return. We all know that as soon as we have a way to simply "check" bid status, we'll want a way to re-bid if out bid. And then we'll want a means of browsing auctions while not in-game. Then we'll want the whole game in a browser so we don't have to DL and install it. Where does it all end?

[Flavilandile]

Wah???

DDO already uses web services which are near real time.

Near real time is not real time. Trust me, there's a huge difference.

In the case of the auction house, being notified that you are outbid in near real time 1 minute before the end of the auction is not good enough, as even if you can log in it will take you more than the less than a minute left to log in and fix it.

[sebastianosmith]

Near real time is not real time. Trust me, there's a huge difference.

Well, if you are speaking of the less than a millisecond delay that would be required to control, say... a remote surgical instrument, sure I'd agree with you. This, however, is not a life or death situation so the few hundreds of milliseconds it takes for the query/response cycle is more than adequate for the task. Besides, I seriously doubt Turbine is running a RT/OS which would make such even possible. Not to mention the various routing delays between the server and client.

Even so, the cost to implement it currently outweighs the benefit - No matter the response time of the chosen architecture and transport mechanism.