Detailed Proposal for an Auction House System

Plommon

Plommon

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2005

Sweden

Shiverpeaks Wolves

N/Mo

25 Jul 2005 at 13:00 - 81
Quote:
Originally Posted by Galatea
Many of us know that the current trading system we have in-game has lots of room for improvement. The auction house is a suggestion that has been covered quite a bit (see for yourself). Some simply suggest a need for it, others go into more depth.

First off, I want to thank ArenaNet for taking the time to read through Fansite Forums and taking our suggestions to heart. The addition of the Rune Traders in the most recent patch definitely shows that you guys listen to us. I hope that the current trader system is only a temporary fix, and that an Auction House will be implemented in the future. Right now, it is extremely difficult to trade/sell efficiently. Let's face it: the major trade spot of the game is Lion's Arch, District 1. District 2 and District 3 are often filled with trade spam as well, especially when District 1 is so full no one can enter. Ascalon City appears to be a big trade city as well, although if you really want something, someone in Lion's Arch almost definitely will have it.

However, even so, it is so difficult to find what you are looking for. Your "WTB" or "WTS" messages get lost between the 99347823748732 million other WTS/WTB messages being spammed over and over. Even harder to do is to guess the current going price. Upon asking, "How much does xxxx go for?", I can receive anything from no answers at all, or people trying to sell to me at obviously outrageous prices. There are also people who are willing to pay 500 gold for a rune, while others will tell you, "No way, that goes for no more than 100 gold." Also, the current system requires players to stay online for n amount of time in order to sell or buy, whether sucessful or not.

So without further ado, here is my detailed proposal for a trade system involving an auction house, with eye candy included:

-----
THE MAIN TRADE SOURCE: The Auction House

The Auction House should consist of anywhere between 3 and 5 NPCs, who will stand in/at an allocated Auction House building. There should be five Auction House buildings, each one located in the main cities (gold dots on the map): Ascalon, Lion's Arch, Henge of Denravi, Amnoon Oasis, and Droknar's Forge.

Auction Houses aren't really required in the mission cities or in the small towns, but that's really up to the devs/community if it deems necessary.

Districts should not affect the stock or prices of these auction houses. Players should only be able to sell n amount of items at a time, and each item should only stay on auction for a certain duration of time (if at the end of this time, the item is not sold, then the player can re-auction it, or take it back). Players do not need to be online to keep their items in the auction house. There is anonymity in that buyers do not know who the seller is.

Now, there are two options, each with their own pros/cons (which others are free to address, if not yet already mentioned):
a) One Single Institution
Under this option, the stock of the five auction houses is shared. This means that a player in Ascalon City can bid on the same items available to a player in Amnoon Oasis. This also means that if I place an item on sale in Lion's Arch, then anyone can buy it from any of the other auction houses.

Some pros:
- items are available across Tyria
- prices remain stable across Tyria
Some cons:
- overstock of items
- demand might not meet supply

b) Individual Institutions
Under this second option, each auction house will stand as its own. This means items on sale in Lion's Arch are only available in Lion's Arch.

Some pros:
- incentives to visit all of the five major cities
- items generally won't be overstocked
Some cons:
- players may decide to sell items like superior runes only in droknar's forge auction houses, making it nearly impossible to attain one until after ascension
- player may need 200 of a crafting material and might have to travel to 2+ auction houses to meet his demand

-----

The Structure of the Auction House

Two tabs - one for buying, one for selling.

Selling
Under the selling tab, player will select an item from their inventory and enter in a price. They can check the current prices by going into the BUY tab and selecting am "Auction Log" button for a certain item, which can show the past 10 winning bids on the item. Let's say a player wants to sell a Minor Rune of Vigor, and he sees that the past 10 winning bids were 250 gold. The player then will have an idea of how much to place theirs for sale.

Player A places his rune on sale for 250 gold.
If Player B places the same rune on sale for 200 gold, then player B's rune will sell more quickly, because his had a lower reserve price.
Player C decides to be greedy and places his on sale for 500 gold. His most likely will never sell, or will sell once the supply runs out and demand is still high.

Certain items should be stackable and stacks should be listed separately for bidding. Currently, we have stacks of 10, but perhaps introduce stacks of 50 for those that need a lot to craft armor.
Example:
- Bolt of Silk
- 10 Bolts of Silk
- 50 Bolts of Silk

Generally, buying in bulk will cost less than buying a single silk.

After an item is sold..
Since we currently don't have a delivery system, the seller can go to the Auctioneer to pick up his earnings.

Buying
Here's some eye-candy:

*I noticed I made a typo, and also forgot to include an "Auction Log" button as I mention below, but.. pretend those little mistakes aren't there, because I don't feel like making a new image. 0_x

Under the buying tab, players should have the ability to toggle on/off various categories (Weapons, Dyes, Runes, Salvage Items, Unidentified Items, Miscellaneous, etc...).

Listed underneath these categories should be the items, which players can choose to be organized in any fashion - by class, alphabetically, by rarity, etc..

The number in stock should show up next to the the item's name.

Player will select the item he/she wants. I forgot to include this in my image (^_^), but there should also be a button that says "Auction Log", so that players can see the 10 past winning bids on the item, and have an idea of what the going price is.

If player decides to purchase the item, he will then enter in the amount he'd like to purchase, and then select a BID button. Player will then enter in an amount he wants to bid. If he bids too low, he can continue increasing the amount of gold until he wins the item.

-----
THE TRADERS:
I don't feel that traders need to be removed. I feel that certain items, such as dye and runes, should still be available for purchase from a trader/merchant NPC, as well as drops from monsters. However, I feel that the Auction House will help regulate prices, allowing buyers the option to see what others buy/sell for, and avoid new players from getting scammed.

Prices will always continue to fluctuate. On one day, black dye might cost 5 platinum at the trader, and only 3K in the auction house. However, the trader might be buying them for 4K. The next day, it might be cheaper to just buy/sell at the Auction House, without the trader's assistance.

=====

Meh, there is of course, lots of room for development with this idea. I'd like to see what others think, and see what suggestions they too, have to offer. I have already written this out once, but somehow lost everything I wrote, so what you have just read is a re-written version, with some details missing because they've slipped my mind. ;_;

It'd be nice too, if we could have one official Auction House/Trade Center thread, so that the devs won't have to jump from thread to thread to see all the suggestions being made.
Consider it /signed :q

hahman14

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jul 2005

The Dark Faith

R/N

25 Jul 2005 at 14:47 - 82
bump, this is too important

Disciple

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2005

Legionaires of Tyria (LoT)

E/R

25 Jul 2005 at 14:51 - 83
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnnylange
are you going to apply for a job at ArenaNet or NCSoft?
Fixed.

Damon Windwalker

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Wandering Gits

25 Jul 2005 at 15:00 - 84
Suggestions (not sure if it has been covered):

1. All trades should be controlled by an in-game escrow.
a. Items put up for trade should be removed from the player's inventory, or locked to prevent salvage/trade/sale once the item has been put up for bid.
b. Bids placed should also be put in escrow to ensure that the money is actually there when the auction completes.

2. All item descriptions should be controlled by the game, showing the item's exact in-game description, stats, and requirements - to prevent any chances or/complaints about scamming

3. Once an auction duration is set, it is locked in. The item will remain at auction until time expires - at which point it will go to the highest bidder, or be returned to the seller. No pulling the auction because the price isn't high enough for your liking.
a. Set the minimum price for an item as the minimum price you will accept. If you don't set a minimum price, and I have the winning bid on that Gold Axe of Axewhuppin' at 1 gp - that's your bad for not setting up the auction correctly.
b. Include an optional "buy now" function to allow for an instant buyout at a desired price above the minimum bid - if the seller so chooses.

Galatea

Galatea

Core Guru

Join Date: Feb 2005

The Drifters [DRFT]

E/Me

25 Jul 2005 at 15:35 - 85
Definitely -- when a seller places an item on auction, the item should leave the player's inventory and is stored in the server's auction house for x amount of days, or until the item is sold. Once a player bids an amount that meets the asking price of the seller (let's say a stack of woodplanks is placed on sale for 49 gold, and a buyer bids 50 gold to purchase the them), then the item is automatically added to the inventory of the buyer, and the money is removed from his inventory and placed into the auction house - then available for pick-up by the original seller.

Items placed on auction can no longer be salvaged/traded/sold through player-to-player transactions, unless the seller removes it from the Auction House, and therefore cancelling the auction house sale.

And definitely, all item descriptions should show, so everyone knows what they're bidding on and a general idea of how much these things are worth.

---------

As for this 'minimum' price setup, this is how I have the Auction House configured in my head.

Seller has a Shadow Shield. It is max-defense, but it is common (white colored), and there's nothing special about it except that it's a Shadow Shield. He wants to sell it, because he has no use for it. He visits the Auctioneer and sees that other people have bought it for 1 platinum. Desperate to get rid of it, he places it on sale for 600 gold. There are two others on sale, but he has no idea what their reserve price is (but to give you guys an idea, these two have placed them up for exactly 1 platinum, because that's the going price in this hypothetical auction).

Here comes a buyer. "Ooh, a plain Shadow Shield! And there are 3 in stock!" If he bids 1 platinum exact (the price shown for previously won items), then the original seller (600) will have his sold because his had the lowest reserve price. This also means that if a buyer had bid exactly 600 gold, he would've won the auction. If someone tried to bid 500 gold, none of these items would be sold.

the bloodthirst

the bloodthirst

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

Wherever isnt gonna get me shot

Champions Horizon

Mo/W

27 Jul 2005 at 05:01 - 86
this is a very good idea. Nice job with the demonstration. im sure that anet would have already implemented this if this game was pay to play. But, something like this would likely take some money. hopefully we will see something like this in the expansion.

/signed

Galatea

Galatea

Core Guru

Join Date: Feb 2005

The Drifters [DRFT]

E/Me

29 Jul 2005 at 23:38 - 87
It's nice to know that aNet agrees.

http://www.gwnor.moo.no/fansite_friday_53.htm
Quote:
Fansite Friday #53
Square Pusher: “Why don't you have an Auction House? Or at least some kind of bazaar option? I find it hard to sell any of my stuff to other players. The only thing I can do is scream in the chat function what I'm selling and hope people see it. (This also creates spam for players that actually want to chat). I know there's already a trade chat function, but it's not good enough...”

You are correct – it’s not good enough. We need to implement more in support of player sales and trades. It’s on the to-do list, and we intend to investigate a lot of options in this area. We’re very aware that one of the things that keeps a game world lively, and that gives a game longevity, is the social opportunities offered by the game. And naturally, trading, selling, being the “village entrepreneur” or the “item speculator” would be part of that social setting.

Implementing an auction house, a bazaar or a other more-sophisticated means of trade is going to do a lot for Guild Wars. It will allow all of us to interact more meaningfully. If we want to trade, we’ll have a good way to do it. If we want to hang out in town and chat, we can do it without being interrupted by trade chatter, and without interrupting the reasonable business efforts of traders. And if we want to form a party, we can do so smoothly and easily. Right now we’re sort of “bumping into” one another – chatters and traders and party formers all mixing in a combination that can be exciting but is a little hectic, too!

The team is definitely going to find better means of making interaction more comfortable. I cannot give you a timeline on the implementation of an improved system, but I can say that such improvements are a definite objective for the not-too-distant future!

Bwsk8

Bwsk8

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

R/E

30 Jul 2005 at 01:31 - 88
Theank for posting that I have never seen that before. ^^^

Mavrik

Mavrik

Forge Runner

Join Date: May 2005

Alaska

30 Jul 2005 at 01:34 - 89
I hope they come up with this soon, I got stuff to sell!

Charrbane

Charrbane

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2005

Canada

W/E

30 Jul 2005 at 04:22 - 90
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mavrik
I hope they come up with this soon, I got stuff to sell!
Yeah same here and I don't like spam selling items by yellin WTS and whatever in the chat dealie. id rather be out killing stuff.

skull

skull

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

Out There...

E/Mo

01 Aug 2005 at 12:15 - 91
I think this is a great idea.

I, like many others here participating in this discussion, have tons of junk (albeit computer generated) that my build cannnot use. I just hang on to it hoping to sell at some time in the future.

Specific problems I have currently have with the Trading system include:

1) not knowing what a suitable asking price is for some items e.g. some Major runes (always 25g at Rune Trader) and Purple and Gold Weapons.

2) wasting time trying to peddle these items (or even finding a buyer) takes up an insane amout of online game time. Out of frustration, I have either salvaged or sold Gold and Purple Weapons for next to nothing, just to free up space in my storage.

3) I'm a terrible typist. While trying to sell these items I have to write a description about what I'm selling for each item. And then have to frequently change it when trying to sell something else. It would be nice if I could just put the item up for auction and let the in-game description say it all.

-------------------------------------------------------

Some things I'd like to clear up about any new Trading System:

1) I would hope this system does include at least one NPC in every location, as is currently done. Whilst questing I do find myself needing to dump off a lot of white items. If all Trading in the new model will be done on a island or only in a few specific locations, it would cause trouble to people questing in a group. i.e. the group has to break up when teleporting to the Trading locations.

2) For the Trading UI (user interface), maybe it would be a good idea to have the items be color coded as they are now. i.e. Purple Items have purple descriptions in the Auction / Trading House.

3) Customized items need to be easily identified (if they are even allowed to be placed for up for sale). You might be able to salvage an upgrade from them but I would hate to accidently buy a customized weapon because I didn't read the fine print.

That's all,

skull

Kazahana

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

SoCal

W/E

01 Aug 2005 at 12:51 - 92
Quote:
Originally Posted by skull
3) Customized items need to be easily identified. You might be able to salvage an upgrade from them but I would hate to accidently buy a customized weapon because I didn't read the fine print.

just make customized unsellable if you want to get a profit from it just salvage it and sell the upgrade sounds agreeable to me but theres prolly someone out there who disagrees with me and will whine loud enough about it

theVariable

theVariable

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2005

CA, USA

Knights of the Hokuten [KotH] (hokuten.org)

Mo/Me

03 Aug 2005 at 23:47 - 93
/signed

Krank

Krank

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2005

W/

04 Aug 2005 at 00:03 - 94
/signed, by the family

Myth Osis

Myth Osis

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

Christchurch, New Zealand

Red Order

Mo/R

04 Aug 2005 at 06:45 - 95
/Signed

Deinonychus

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jul 2005

SOLS

R/Mo

04 Aug 2005 at 19:29 - 96
/signed

Great work here. Here's a slightly different trade option that I came up with while chatting to a friend. use it as a supplement, or for further thought.

Take your work here as written, now I thought of my idea under the impression that escrow might be impossible to do correctly, so the problem would remain that if person A won an auction from person B, then A is out of luck if B is not around to trade with him. If he's on a mission or offline then no item for player A.

So here's what I was thinking: If we made the entering of items as easy as possible, then we could theoretically have trade be a "now only" setup. Bottom line is: you have to stay in town while selling, but it's fast and easy to do so. Bear with me...

If the 'system' cannot hold your axe of fortitude to hand to the buyer, then the buyer can face disappointment and wasted time. Arena/NC doesn't want everyone spending any more time with trade than they wish to, so let's call this "a bad thing". Now if we had a drag and drop interface for sale items, then the time for setup is very short. Have it look like the trade window now, and when I drop a purple staff with both upgrades and a minor power like % recharge then it's all noted right there, in purple text.

So as a seller, my process is to hit a town, call up a AH menu or use an NPC or storage icon(I prefer an anywhere option like an F key or from the Options menu), then I see a one-slot window (like trader NPCs do for dyes say) and you can drag one item (or stack of materials) onto the slot, which then reads the stats for it, then you are able to enter a price, then it's in (it knows your name). Repeat for any items you want to sell. As long as I am in the town (changing districts is fine), then my stuff stays up there. If I leave town, all items are removed from the AH immediately.

As a Buyer, I can call up the AH GUI and I see tabs for sorting, so I go to Weapons, then Swords, then Hilts, Pommels or Types (this is if you wanted a Brute Sword or Fiery Sword or Wingblade for the look). Now I see all the Hilts and can scroll around and look at them. I see two buttons in the menu, one says Cancel and the other says Buy. Cancelling drops me out of that auction, and back to the sorted list. I can see all upgrades and stats of items as I browse. Buy button locks me in and sends a whisper to the seller with something like "Duke Nukem has bought your Staff Wrapping of Defense +5 and is in District 5" (you could also add a button for "Contact Seller" and then could barter or ask if they sold Fibers as well as the listed linen, etc.) As a nice touch, it could add the buyer in the little chat dropdown where you add whom you wish to talk to.

Now recalling the point here, and that was a system without a holding bin that is still workable.

So, If they can do a system where the item is not dependent on the seller to hand the item to the buyer, then I like your system just fine, Galatea. I'm not a fan of Buy It Now or other Ebay options, but I'll take your system as written.

IF they cannot work out a system where the sale item is held independently of the seller, then we have delay issues and dissatisfaction. By making the interface quick and easy, then we can still have an AH using the current trade window with my idea. The limits built in to my thought can be beneficial since the seller can pick up and move to gameplay or another town (though if your AH idea is in then I like across all towns). The restriction of staying in a town means sellers are dissuaded from frivolous or hopeful sales, it removes all the chat and allows comparisons. I will steal your Auction Log as a button as well, that is a good thing! Auto-unlisting upon leaving town means never having to say you are sorry, or working at cleanup.

I really feel the trade system needs help, and I really like the AH concept. My thought is supplemental in case we cannot get a meta-trade holding bin and transfer function to get the item to the buyer.

Anyhow, hope this maybe stirs up new thoughts too.

-D

Galatea

Galatea

Core Guru

Join Date: Feb 2005

The Drifters [DRFT]

E/Me

04 Aug 2005 at 19:37 - 97
Oh, maybe I didn't clarify in my write-up, but items placed in the auction are removed from the seller's inventory and stored in the system's auction house. Upon 'winning' an item, the bidder automatically would receive the item, and the money would be deducted from the winning bidder and either placed a) at the Auction House for pick-up by the seller, b) sent to the player's storage vault, or c) some unsaid option.

The auction system I have planned out does not require player-to-player trading. However, it doesn't eliminate it, since it will most likely still be used for common items or crafting materials, collector items or customized items, etc.

stumpy

stumpy

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2005

Canucklehead BC, Canada

Advanced Necro Undead Society

04 Aug 2005 at 19:57 - 98
this auction house reflects the ffxi one to a T.

especially with adding in the last 5-10 purchase prices.

Nice work, well thought out, good descriptions ... now if you can get this information into the hands that feed us (Anet).

/signed ...

hell I'll sign it for my whole guild, I am sure they would appreciate a system like this

Deinonychus

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jul 2005

SOLS

R/Mo

04 Aug 2005 at 20:43 - 99
Quote:
Originally Posted by Galatea
Oh, maybe I didn't clarify in my write-up, but items placed in the auction are removed from the seller's inventory and stored in the system's auction house. Upon 'winning' an item, the bidder automatically would receive the item, and the money would be deducted from the winning bidder and either placed a) at the Auction House for pick-up by the seller, b) sent to the player's storage vault, or c) some unsaid option.

The auction system I have planned out does not require player-to-player trading. However, it doesn't eliminate it, since it will most likely still be used for common items or crafting materials, collector items or customized items, etc.
I got that, that is why I voted for yours first. However, since my thought wasn't as planned out as yours, I put it forth as a programmable alternative so if they can't create a 'holding bin' forn the item, we can still have a better system. Wouldn't want the idea trashed because of coding issues is all.

eveler890

eveler890

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Aug 2005

California

[Lisz],[Pain],[hgm]

Mo/

04 Aug 2005 at 21:15 - 100
/signed - i think it is a wonderful idea, with your system it takes away the ability of players to screw eachother over

Yellow_lid

Yellow_lid

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2005

Portland Or, USA

Swint Clan

N/R

04 Aug 2005 at 23:29 - 101
Quite honestly I was hoping that the 2 week wait for the update was them getting ready to implement a TH. Oh well.. maybe they will be nice enough to include it with the summer expansion.

My opinion on how the items should be auctioned:
VERY similar to the traders in towns. A specific NCP would be the guy to talk to if you wanted to trade/auction Bulk materials for example, then you'd have a seperate NCP for the runes, dyes, ect...

Irongate

Irongate

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

05 Aug 2005 at 02:29 - 102
I agree, an auction house is a good idea. I'm even happy with the current rune, material, and rare material traders. But an auction house for weapons is crucial.

In my view, the downside of overstocking of cross-town-stock-sharing, is fixed by filtering. There should be several layers of filters in the auction house window including:

gold/purple/blue/white;
elem/warrior/necro etc;
warrior - sword/axe/shield etc;
max damage/other;
elem - wand/off-hand/ etc;
$ - 10k+/20k+/30k+; and
any others?


That way I can look for a 'godly' sword by filtering a gold/warrior/sword/max dam/100K+ and see what's available.

Bwsk8

Bwsk8

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

R/E

05 Aug 2005 at 16:57 - 103
I agree that the aution house would not be effective unless you could filter and search through items.

Ex. Categories:
  1. Weapons
    1. Sword
    2. Axe
    3. Hammer
    4. Wand
    5. Staff
    6. Bows
    7. Ect
  2. Shileds
  3. Foci/Artifacts
  4. Runes
  5. Materials
  6. Weapon Upgrades
  7. Quest Items
  8. Ect

Maltare

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2005

The Last Horadrim

E/Me

07 Aug 2005 at 09:23 - 104
I strongly oppose anything that makes the pve environment of this game any more extensive than it already is.

ifuwerepbandj

ifuwerepbandj

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2005

Memphis

Embers of Glory [EoG]

R/E

08 Aug 2005 at 20:05 - 105
What is that supposed to mean? You don't want the PvE'ers to have fun or you in some way think this will create more grind? It sounds like you are prejudiced against the grind in the game and are taking it out on the PvE community. This in no way will adversly affect your PvP.

Yellow_lid

Yellow_lid

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jul 2005

Portland Or, USA

Swint Clan

N/R

08 Aug 2005 at 20:21 - 106
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maltare
I strongly oppose anything that makes the pve environment of this game any more extensive than it already is.
What are you afraid of? I love the complexity of this game. COMPLEX but simple to use.

Yen-lo-wang

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Jun 2005

Team Play First

08 Aug 2005 at 20:41 - 107
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maltare
I strongly oppose anything that makes the pve environment of this game any more extensive than it already is.
Mind giving us some reasoning behind this argument? Honestly, a well-set-up auction house, like the one detailed in the OP, would probably fix the economy on it's own...

Deinonychus

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jul 2005

SOLS

R/Mo

12 Aug 2005 at 16:30 - 108
I see today that they helped with the NPC trader pricing but I hope they are considering an auction house. I even made a character just to hold stuff so I don't have to put up with Trade spamming and ripoffs. I really want them to put in a trade system as suggested here.

benmanhaha

benmanhaha

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

nowhere!!!

N/Mo

12 Aug 2005 at 23:20 - 109
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bwsk8
I agree that the aution house would not be effective unless you could filter and search through items.

Ex. Categories:
  1. Weapons
    1. Sword
    2. Axe
    3. Hammer
    4. Wand
    5. Staff
    6. Bows
    7. Ect
  2. Shileds
  3. Foci/Artifacts
  4. Runes
  5. Materials
  6. Weapon Upgrades
  7. Quest Items
  8. Ect
I completely agree with you. I think that you should be able to auction off anything not just weapons because you would still get the selling balck dye and sup rune for blah blah blah in the trading chat.

I only have one problem with this system. You say that when you put something up for auction it should be removed from their inventory, well people could auction stuff for ridicoulilsy(sp?) high prices and just use the AH as a new storage device. I also firmly beleive in the buy it now button for a specified amount above the starting price. Whoever crosses that line first gets the item.

I love this idea and i think all the prices should be the same in all the cities.

consider it signed!

Galatea

Galatea

Core Guru

Join Date: Feb 2005

The Drifters [DRFT]

E/Me

13 Aug 2005 at 05:43 - 110
Quote:
Originally Posted by benmanhaha
well people could auction stuff for ridicoulilsy(sp?) high prices and just use the AH as a new storage device.
not necessarily. maybe some might try and use it as a temporary storage, but throughout the other posts, we've mentioned setting some sort of limit (24 hours? a few days? 1 week?) as to when the auction would expire. say the time runs up and no one has bid high enough, the item is then returned to the seller.

Lampshade

Lampshade

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

USA

Xen of Onslaught

13 Aug 2005 at 06:30 - 111
wow nice job! (I like the lil animation)
Very detailed and complete, hope its looked at buy someone higher up.
You should work a at ANet lol.

benmanhaha

benmanhaha

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Aug 2005

nowhere!!!

N/Mo

17 Aug 2005 at 21:43 - 112
Quote:
Originally Posted by Galatea
not necessarily. maybe some might try and use it as a temporary storage, but throughout the other posts, we've mentioned setting some sort of limit (24 hours? a few days? 1 week?) as to when the auction would expire. say the time runs up and no one has bid high enough, the item is then returned to the seller.

Ur right my bad.

Khazan

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Aug 2005

17 Aug 2005 at 22:08 - 113
Wow, very nice post. And having played games with AH's before(FFXI and WoW, though I much preferred FFXI's system), I'll definitely support this.

Agelaus

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Aug 2005

Frozen Defenders

W/Mo

18 Aug 2005 at 04:24 - 114
If you do the auction wont it get rid of the need for the traders?? I mean if I can go bid on dye and get it for cheap I will get it from auction not the Trader. I think that its a good idea. But to make it so that you can only put non trader items on there(weapons). Also dont forget that there is a website. guildwars.gameamp.com that has an auction link.

trelloskilos

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2005

Guitarring Adventurers Society

R/N

18 Aug 2005 at 16:34 - 115
Great original post!

I had been thinking of how Anet would implement the auction house into the game, then discovered this thread. Many ideas are superb, but if you'll alow me to play Devil's Advocate....

1. I'm not sure if an NPC within the district would be sufficient. You would initially see overcrowding as players constantly price-check. Maybe it would work better if it was an instanced area, maybe somewhere that all players could visit (like a guild hall), or a portal off Lion's Arch or any other major city. - Have the "Trade" button completely removed so that this area remains a strict "Auction-only" area and stops undercutting traders. In fact, it might be a good idea to cut off the chat messages with exception of guild members, team members or whispers. This means that Traders won't spam the public chat if they can't use the trade chat, and also means that the public chat window won't be filled with clutter like people greeting eachother etc. - Only relevant auction info is there, but you can still contact other players or guildies to inform them of anything of interest.

2. I think it would be a prudent idea to introduce a tarriff for each item put on auction, and also to allow the seller only a limited amount of items on auction at any one time (say 5 items, for instance). Otherwise, what's to stop everyone from just spamming the auction with every single weapon or item that they pick up from every single monster they encounter? They wouldn't even need their Xunlai Agent Storage. Charging the seller a percentage of the initial starting price will also stimulate a more interesting auction market, and encourage sellers to set a decent start price too, otherwise, all we'll see are listings of "Godly Max Damage Ya da da 100k", and it's unlikely anyone would bid. However, if there was, say, a 10% start-off charge, we might see those same "Godly" weapons start off cheap, and be bid on.

e.g - Player A has "Max Dmg gold item" - 100k start bid, player A is charged 10k to list
Player B has same "Max Dmg gold item" - 10k start bid, player B is charged 1k to list
Player C has same "Max Dmg gold Item" - 1k start bid, player C is charged 1k to list.

Player C is most likely to sell his item and will have paid least. However, if there is someone who wishes to place a bid on player A or player B's items, their respective investments, final sale prices and profit may be higher.

Having items on the auction in this way should also mean that if a player decides to withdraw their item from auction before the allotted time (due to lack of interest, a change of mind etc.), they may have to incur the penalties - this is typical of auction house trading.

3. Commission v. In-House

OK - this isn't a "Devil's advocate" moment, but an idea that kid of seeded before I read this post. Having an instanced area would also yield another advantage. Let's assume that Player A has placed an auction item on sale. Player B can view the item and its price at the auction house. Now, player B can, if they want, place a commission bid (Which will not be displayed or come into effect until the actual item is "Up" on auction). They can then leave, and be notified ingame if they have won the bid or not. - Each item in the auction house is held for a 30 second period, by which time, the price, with commission bids is revealed. Anyone wishing to place an "In-house" bid can simply hit a "Bid" button (Maybe the replaced "Trade" button) within that 30 seconds if they wish to register a bid.

(Yeah, I know - there would have to be a lot of coding and work on Anet's part to get my vision here implemented - too many awkward factors - how to shut off the messages, how to register commissions, etc., but if they can implement something like the Xunlai agents, and trigger flags based on environment and infusing armour etc., I'm pretty sure that the vision is not an excessive stretch....)

4. Finally, back to playing Devil's Advocate again. What could be done to prevent non-paying bidders or auction wreckers? How would item/money transferrence work? What about potential practices of guildies & colleagues trying to "Shill" the price? What if you had sufficient funds to place a commission earlier on in the week, but were not able to pay for the item later on? Would that mean there would be several playyers suddenly in debt?

(sorry - In real life, I work with auction houses and use Ebay a lot...)

Otherwise, a lot of what the OP said has a lot of potential! A good and well-implemented auction house will make it easier for the majority of the GW population who don't fancy standing in LA for hours shouting "WTS", while still making it perfectly feasable for traders to still do it if they wished. It would DEFINITELY discourage the "Outrageous" sellers from charging stupid amounts for lacklustre weapons just because the text is in purple or gold, but also offers potential buyers and sellers for all items (especially the purple & gold items) a reference point that is very badly needed for weapon trading!

Galatea

Galatea

Core Guru

Join Date: Feb 2005

The Drifters [DRFT]

E/Me

21 Aug 2005 at 19:15 - 116
trelloskilos:

Thanks

1. I agree, a single NPC per district would definitely not be enough because of crowding. It was just easy to illustrate by turning the merchant into an auctioneer, lol. I do like the idea of having an instanced area that players could visit (such as, one of the neighboring islands to the Guild Hall) that could be labeled as some sort of trading city. During the betas, before I even knew of the world outside Pre-Searing Ascalon, I had thought of Wizard's Folly as a trading city, because of the little tents and people gathering with their "WTT Purple Dye!" messages.

2. Definitely some sort of Listing Fee, as well as limit as to how many items. Anywhere between five and ten items listed at a time (and each listed for only a week or so before being returned to the seller), and a % fee to put it up -- paid at the time of listing, and non-refundable.

4. Item/Money Transfer would have to be taken care of by the system. The way I have the auction house pictured, is that Player A has an item and places it on sale. He pays a fee, lists it for 500 gold, and the item is automatically removed from his inventory and placed into the auction house for the remainder of the week (or until the item is purchased).

Player B comes along and goes "oh, goody! just what I've always wanted!" and bids the necessary 500 gold or so. Since he has bid high enough to win, the money is automatically deducted and held in the auction house, and the item is placed into his directory.

Player A logs on later one evening and checks the auction house. Instead of seeing his item listed as "On Auction" or some similar message, he'll see "Item Sold for 500 G!" and then can press maybe a "collect money" button which will then transfer the 500 gold that the auction house was holding for him into his account.

Of course, later when ANet implements a mailing system (as it has been suggested, and also mentioned in previous Fansite Friday interviews), the money can be delivered to the player via the mailing system, attached to a letter from the Auction House saying "Your Item xx sold for nn amount."

medikamen

medikamen

Academy Page

Join Date: Jul 2005

Lyon, FRANCE

Mo/Me

21 Aug 2005 at 22:11 - 117
A log of the events would be nice, just to know how things are going. This log of course would only store information about the items you have dropped in the auction house or items you have bid for (ex: player xxx proposed 5k for the obsidian shard 11:55 GMT+1; player yyy proposed 5.1k for obsidian shard at 15:00 GMT+1)

Armada Hunter

Armada Hunter

Academy Page

Join Date: Apr 2005

22 Aug 2005 at 00:33 - 118
Just put one in every main town. (Ascalon city, Lion's Arch, ect). All those citys are quite empty and could probably make room for another building.

Dwayna's Tears

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Aug 2005

25 Aug 2005 at 09:16 - 119
First of all hats off to Galatea and all those who contributed to this thread in detail. There are some amazing suggestions out there.

In general I don't like AH idea (highest bidder wins) and prefer the idea of a fixed priced system. Why? Simply because the number of items listed for auction would be a lot and I mean A LOT. Some people (a minority) play GW on a (heaven forbid) dial-up and others play with a capped broadband talking to the auction NPC would then mean that the player must connect to the auctioning system that collects items from all auction houses around Tyria, this might slow those poor souls to death before they even get the auction screen up. May I suggest a fixed price system to iron out this problem?

A fixed price system will allow items to sell fast thereby relieving potential buyers from having to scroll down the lists of available items up for sale. However the fixed item trade also has its flaws such as the buy-cheap-sell for more strategy. To preventing this form occurring a customizing like attribute should be implemented. Say person A buys a max damage sword for x amount of gold the item is then customized to the player's account meaning that only the player's characters may wield/use the bought item. If the above suggestion does not tickle your fancy then I still have a few ideas to help with fine tuning the AH.

From what I read I can still see the Auction House issue still raises problems about inflation and whatnot. There was a solution on commissions and paying a fee to have your items up for bidding. I agree that there must be some sort of way to take out the gold from the game’s economy and instead of NPC commissions I suggest that the gold that was supposed to be lost in the process of buying/selling be used for PVP purposes. Therefore lowering the amount of gold in a severely inflated economy. How? Well… Imagine an item of notable worth; say a perfect gold chaos axe with the best of mods goes on auction. The gold lost in the process should go towards newly implemented guild gold storage for the player’s guild. This gold can only be used in a new GVG event. The gold may for example hire uncontrollable mercenaries to help attack/defend the guild's guild hall. A new siege type GVG event is the basic idea. This is just a rough idea to deal with the loss of gold.

cheers!

pappayaponta

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2005

Europian Comando force

W/Mo

25 Aug 2005 at 17:35 - 120
Thats a really nice idea! if just someone like you could come with a good idea like this about a new class =D