Lack of spam = Bad for sales.

Disclamer: Im not saying I want local trade spam back in chat: (Now you can read the post)

I know this is gonna get flamed, but there's allready a bad side-effect from the lack of trade spam in local.. it's very hard to sell anything now.

I sell alot, I didn't spam, but I did use local to post my adds. alot of people did.. and alot of people used trade before.. but heres the problem, since people used to split their adds, 1 person would sell in local 1 person in trade it was easy to follow.. now.. all of the trade is in trade channel.. the combied people who are not using trade to the people who allready used trade is insane.. its so insane nobody even turns on trade anymore.. I was trying to sell 2 poplular items, and buy ectos in trade.. and I put the "WTB ectos" in the party search under trade.. I tried to post my adds trade channel and nobody could even see them and nobody responded (yes I was set to online) before I could sell a monk tome no time flat! I was really wondering about this trade thing so I droped the price of my elite monk tome to 1k just to see if anyone messaged me.. I posted that for atleat 6 minutes before I got 1 pm about it..

Point is.. nobody even reads trade chat.. and i'm finding it VERY hard to sell anything using it... and hardly anyone sees your messags in it.. I never even got a pm about ectos even though I was offering 5.4k for them.....

Not to mention when I try to buy something my WTB message never gets answer too... and I've never had this probem before, I used to sell over 50-60k worth of goods in about 30 minutes now I cant even get 7k for an elite monke tome without droping my price to 1k just to catch peoples attention.

The economy looks as if it's slowing down.. I've talked to a couple of people I know who sell alot of stuff ingame.. and they too are trying hard to sell items but people just dont seem to see the messages.. not sure if everyone has trade chat turned off or what.. guldie was trying to sell a a req 10 Inscribible zodiac sword for 40k and nobody answerd, I saw someone trying to buy any req strength zodiac shield for 50k this morning and his ad was up there as long as me, he even went to lions arch to try there (as I did) .. These kind of easy sales would be answerd almost instantly in the old days.. but now.. people cant find stuff they want, and people cant sell stuff they need to.

I will restate what I first said:
I'm not saying I want local trade spam back.. Im just saying.. we need something.. the trade channel alone doesnt seem to be working .. atleast for me and my circle of friends.

Yes, I can understand your point of view. To be honest, I also have a hard time selling items using the in-game trade channel. Personally, I would recommend using an auction site, such as the auction part on this site, or others such as gwshop.

Imho, there are two problems : first, few people look at the trade channel. And second (and maybe in connection with the first), you'll have a hard time finding someone interested in what you're selling, even if they do read the trade channel. The second part wasn't for general items, of course, such as tomes or ectoes.

With the exception of a different font color, what is the difference between the two channels? Stating that it "doesn't seem to be working" is nonsense.

If people want to buy and/or sell something, they go to the trade channel. Simple.

Maybe the font is the wrong color for putting people in the buying mood...?

Use the "P" window. I look there with the trade channel off. If I don't see it, you don't sell it. Simple.

Use the sell forums here on GWGuru or the GWGuru auctions!

having both the sellers/buyers name and messages in pink text makes it almost impossible to distinguish one persons message from another. the rate at which the trade channel gets spammed doesnt help matters either.

at least in all chat a persons name is in yellow text and their message appears in white text. having two separate color markers for one persons message makes it much easier to read. maybe they should do that for the trade channel as well.

Like the lack of a normal trade system wasn't annoying enough, Anet just made the current system even worse.

Yes, it was spam, but it was the only way to sell anything within this stupid system.

If I am interested in buying, selling, or trading I will go to the trade channel. As people learn to use the trade channel, then shoppers will go there.

If you were able to turn off commercials on your TV, would you? IMO, almost everyone would. If TV ads were only allowed on certain channels, shoppers would learn how to use them.

Now, if we had a "Services" channels, for runners, power levelers, and such.

Lol..this game gets better by the minute..

I expect they will do something about the text coloring. Gotta log in to see a spam free LA1

Edit: Still spam in LA1

I would have to agree with quite a few others with the idea that Anet probably should have entertained the idea of reviewing possible improvements to the chat system, if it's possible in the first place, before they started handing out temp bans. Just the very simple solution of changing the color of the font of the names in trade chat, which btw a lot of others have been suggesting for a while, would make a world of diference.

I can kind of see the OP's point.

I never never use all channel to sell. But sometimes I will buy something I hadn't planned for - a number of my minis were bought because I happened to see someone advertising a low price at the right time. Had they been only on the trade channel, I would not have seen it because I had trade off at that point.

But let's be blunt about the problem - the people to blame here are not the traders - they were simply doing their best to respond to a situation created by ANet itself.

ANet nerfed loot so that money was less easy for most people to come by - they claimed this dropped prices. I believe it was actually hard mode that did that, but the point is moot. Either way, in a buyer's market the seller has to try harder to get his product out there.

Then ANet increased the availability of items that are best sold to other players rather than merchants (golds, greens, and the mods and inscriptions that got salvaged from crappy golds). There is no effective in game trader for these items.

ANet provided a useless means to move these items - the search panel. It is not useless because people don't use it. People don't use it because it is useless. There is not enough room for describing your item. And it is not persistent when you move to another area or district. The only advantage it really has over chat is it reaches all the districts in the town you happen to be in at the moment - but that only amounts to one or 2 districts in most cases, except for Kamadan.

As a result, traders increased their use of Local for selling their goods. I don't like it, but I realize they were simply using the best and most effective means to do what they needed to do.

Now Anet is banning people for selling in local chat - but it was a problem of their own making.

OK, they could not provide an auction house. But surely there is a way to increase character limit in the search panel or make it persistent while you are actually logged on so that people in all major cities could see what was being sold by those logged on at the moment. Or they could have added traders for green weapons and mods. Or just increased the amount given for those items from the merchant. Most people would just sell theirs that way and leave trade chat for the truly rare and desirable items. There are ways to facilitate trade other than a full blown auction house.

More and more I'm starting to think ANet has its best people working on GW2, it's second best people working on GW:EN and its interns and new hires working on the present game. It's getting to the point where, when I play the game, I don't feel I am playing against the mobs, the bosses, or even other players. I'm starting feel I'm playing against the developers. Guild Wars, the first PvD game in history.

This is a joke, right?

spammers want the right to -spam-?

if people ain't buying...it's because they don't want the junk you have,
not because you can't spam Local with...WTS...WTS...WTS..WTS..WTS..WTS.

I disagree...whenever, as long as I have played, was looking to buy any item, I would either use guru or open the trade chat...wait a minute or two and then scroll through looking for something I was interested in. While doing, all other chat, sans guild, was off.
I did this then and I do this now.
I have not had many problems finding what I was looking for in the trade channel or selling for that matter.
Considering my past experiences, I am sure I am not the only one who does this and as more and more people realize that trade spam has been banned in the all chat channel, they will gravitate to the search function and trade channels.

You cannot blame the slowing economy on the recent spam enforcement, especially since its been in effect a grand whopping total one weekend.
The slowing economy is a different thread all in itself that likely has more factors than anyone would care to list.

First off, traders are now going to need to realize that spam does not make your sale. Spam is actually your problem now that trade is confined to the trade channel. If (I know this is a big IF) sellers would limit themselves to one send and everyone was doing this, then the people that want to purchase your items could better find what they are looking for.

Spam never did make your sales...it was having the right person come along at the right time to see what you were offering. With so many people abusing the chat with spam it was difficult at best to see what was offered let alone the poor soul that had a question to toss out that got lost in the flying trade spam.

We have been told there will not be an auction house, we have also been told that party search will not have the string length increased. Accept that as fact and move on...

Sellers and buyers are now left with the options available.

1. Sell in trade channel.
2. Briefly list your item in Party Search and hit all districts.
3. Use an offsite auction such as the one here at Guru.
4. Merch your items and get on with your game.

When sellers are forced to use the tools available to them they will figure out what will work for them. I guaranty that spam will not be your solution.

Well, if no one spammed in the trade channel to begin with then everyone's messages would be seen rather than them flying by with only seconds to read them.

No, lack of spam is not bad for sales. Wannabe merchants who don't know the first thing about being a salesman, however, are bad for sales.

The recent crackdown on advertising spam in the All channel is something I agree with, but that is not the only way to advertise what you're trying to sell. There are other ways, and more effective ways I might add, that let you run your own "commercial". Such as the sell forums or auction system on here, that Aera pointed out in post #5. Or word of mouth through your guild/alliance.

No potential customer wants to be spammed with repeated short commercials. That's one surefire way to turn potential customers away - why do you think that telemarketers get hung up on so often? Yes, you want to advertise your wares to as many potential customers as possible; but no customer wants it rammed down their throat.

The system does not need anything. Those who want to turn a good profit need to reconsider their advertising strategy and look for better methods than what they've been using.

i have days where all i do is sell... have done so for 2 years, i have never used any chat, other then trade and have never had a problem selling my wares... people who are interested in buying stuff do pay attention to the trade channel.


if you're haveing problems selling, then you are trying to sell items that are worthless, or don't have a very good sales pitch.

Absolutely. I'm not a power-trader by any stretch, but I've bought/sold enough to keep my chars/heroes very well equipped & have tidy pile o gold in the vault. My M.O. for trading has always been the same-turn of all chat, post a snippet in party search, post an ad in trade, re-send in 30 seconds or so. I've never had any problem selling with this approach. Hopefully a side effect of this much needed crackdown will be that people realize spamming, even in the trade channel, doesn't help anyone make a sale.

geez, its only been what, a day since this was announced....give it time!!!!


I think the only thing that has happened is the impulse buyer will need to change to the trade channel if they want to buy something---they may or maynot need....


but give it time....people are just getting used to the idea of using the trade channel and party search.

I disagree completely. It's mostly already been said, but spamming the local chat isn't going to make me, or anyone else want to buy the items. It only forced me to hide all of those windows, so that I didn't have to listen to it.

If you want to sell something you can say it once every so often in the trade window. Spamming it doesn't help anyone, if nobody wants it the first time, saying it seven times in a row wont change their mind.

Spamming ruins it for everyone else. If I see someone spamming like crazy for something I'm not interested in, I turn off whatever chat channel the spam is in, and by doing that, I eliminate the possibility of seeing something that I might be interested in, therefore, lack of spam = good for sales. And the more someone spams, the less inclined I am to buy their product.

Lack of spam = Bad for sales?

This is stupid.


Spamming does not promote sales. The constant spamming could rather cause people to turn off local completely.

And you do not sell crap nobody is interested in if you repeat it 10x in a row.


Travel around, shout what you are selling or stand in town and enter your offer in the P window. Everything else is counter-productive.

And for admitting to use local, to bother people who switched off trade, you should be publicly banned as showcase, how about that?

BS, I only used PS and trade to sell, even the most stupid stuff i can sell, just have to wait for potential clients somehow. They will not always be around.

EH...maybe if Anet made a decent trade system we wouldn't have this problem. Killing local chat is a joke...why not just make a better trade system instead of forcing people to use means that are worse than they already were.

I have NEVER bought anything from anyone advertising in local, even if I really wanted it because it was a good price. If I want something, I go to LA/Kamadan/Kaineng, turn off local and turn on trade, and pray I don't miss what I want to buy because of idiots that think "advertising" every 2 seconds is the way to sell.

Spammers in local only forced me to turn off local chat all the time. It's refreshing to see local chat as chat and not spam once again (something I haven't seen since beta/shortly after launch). Now if only something could be done about the naked dancers in Balthazar's temple...

If this change has hurt sales, I haven't seen it. I sold a bunch of items yesterday with no problems at all. I did what I usually did - use party search and put a message in trade chat every now and then. I didn't have to drop my prices at all. And in some cases I sold things within two messages advertising them.

And if you're having problems... maybe try READING the trade chat instead of lowering prices? If you're selling or buying a popular item such as ectos, there's usually someone else advertising that they want to buy or sell them too. Sometimes I think the problem is that everyone is too busy spamming and expecting others to read their messages.

But yeah, the colour in trade chat NEEDS to be changed.

So the problem isn't with the trade channel, its with the lack of interested customers? People know where to go if they want something. Give people a couple months and they will start slowly turning the trade channel back on, then you will sell your wares.

I welcome the fix. It seems like there are more real people playing GW now, rather than trade spamers.

ROFL, now even the spammers are whining.

Ahahaahahahahahaahahaahaahahaha!!!

hahahahaaha!

ha...

...what?

I love the change, good job Anet.

The argumen that no one seems to read the trade channel is maybe because people aren't interested in buying anything!

At least now EVERYONE will know where to look when they wanna trade.

Problem solved.

No spam = no sales??? I don't think so. I never had a problem selling things in the trade channel, and never spammed there, either. There are many reasons why people have a hard time selling things. The ones I can think of right off the top of my head are:
1. They've set their prices too high.
2. They're spamming. I know LOTS of people who will not do business with spammers.
3. They're using ALL CAPS. Another thing that will drive away customers.
4. The thing they're trying to sell is junk.
5. They're spamming. That'll get people turning off any chat channel.
6. They use vulgar language in their posts. (Rare, but it happens)

As for the Party Search feature - It needs to be used more. The excuse that "There's not enough space..." isn't a good one in many cases. Some of the many things that CAN fit in the window are:

1. S: ectos 5K
2. S: Victo's Axe - 12K
3. B: Deldrimore steel - 675g ea
4. S: Mini Gwen - 100K + 100 ectos
5. S: Elemental sword, PM for details.

When it comes to common type weapons, then use the trade chat. The one thing that no one has mentioned that gives party search an edge over the chat channels is that it doesn't scroll !!!

One trick I use is selling one thing in the Party search and another one or three in trade chat. The only, minor, drawback to this is when you get someone saying "Can I see it?" but asking "See what?" usually clears that up.

The last bit of advice I can give is: Be patient. The dymanics of the trade "system" has changed and it's going to take a week or two for eveyone to get accustomed to it.

loss of spam =why do i play this game

The only difference I see is that before, I had to mute local and trade whenever I entered town if I wanted to communicate with my guild or team. If this keeps up, I'll only have to mute trade.

The problem is that everyone thinks their sale is more important than everyone elses. It's a vicious cycle which makes people feel they "have" to spam because everyone else is spamming, causing the chat to move too fast.

I wouldn't mind different coloring for lines starting with WTS or WTB (though you'd still see people do "WT.S JADE ARMOR ______________________________________ ONLY 100K CHEAP ___________________", just to get that speshal third colour, I guess), but I definately think that moving all trade spam into (drumroll) trade channel is a good thing, even if it makes the trade channel move too fast. That is a separate problem that they'll have to deal with. Allowing people to trade in local channel is hardly a 'fix'.

You also have to realize that not every person playing the game goes to web sites like this one or goes to the main GW site to see the messages posted about changes. Some people don't even know there is a hard mode now.
ANet could do a better job about posting this stuff in game.
If you notice the only ones complaining about the change are the ones that would spam in local.

Yeah, I'm having a much harder time selling things now. The GW economy is just sick in so many ways.

Think we need a buying and selling tab for each instead of just trade if that hasn't been mentioned already.

Personally I hope more people move onto using the party search window. Whenever I zone into Kamadan, LA, etc.. I always take a quick peek at that window to see if anyone is selling anything I need. Best part being that it shows what is being sold in every district. Scroll at my leisure to see what is there, it's a great addition and hopefully with the enforcement on spam more people will see how useful that window is.

I wish more people used the party search tab as well. But really, it allows for only a couple dozen letters. That only covers a small fraction of what a lot of people want to sell, especially if you have to type things like "Forget me Not" which takes up half your space alone.

The tab is nowhere near sufficient.

I wish more people used the party search tab as well. But really, it allows for only a couple dozen letters. That only covers a small fraction of what a lot of people want to sell, especially if you have to type things like "Forget me Not" which takes up half your space alone.

The tab is nowhere near sufficient.

Just use Party Channel window.

This is an awesome change that A-net made

ok..first off...trade is supposed to be in trade channel..not spamming across other channels..plain and simple. I am sorry if this has resulted in a loss of sales for you but it the trade channel was used properly then there wouldnt be a problem. Spaming of any type regardless of what channel is annoying. There should be some sort of way to catch someone and silence them if they send too many messages in the trade channel within a certain time frame. I have seen it done in other games so I know it can be done...its a matter of if Anet wants to do it.

Local/General chat should be sales free..to allow players to look for groups, share info , and chat. Before the trade spammers took over the local channel i used to enjoy chatting with other players. But sadly i had to turn off the channel due to the ungodly amount of trade spam.

Trade spammers got so bad, I only conduct trades through guru's auctions or guild members cause I refuse to buy something from a player whom gives me headaches with their spam