Proposal For An Alternative Auction System

Many people have posted about Auction Houses and so forth and all seem to have the same basic idea, a place people can goto bid on items for sale. This post is about an alternative way of doing this which is more practical and less prone to abuse. (the important stuff is at the bottom)


Now, while I personally prefer a user interface solution, many users want an actual location for the trading, especially the role players. Most suggestions for this so far have been 1 house accessible from the city in each region on the map. I believe this is flawed for several reasons:

1. Who is to say all cites will be near the start of all regions? Henge Of Denravi is a great example, and in the future I expect others as well.
2. What about regions without cites at all such as the Underworld and Fissue Of Woe?

Instead I suggest a system where by a trading location is available to that user when they enter the region (given conditions which I shall explain below). Once a user has access to this location they can venture there via the map or perhaps as a one way teleport from the first house be it city or otherwise.


Each region could have its own, and rather than each offering the same goods, each could offer a set of good related to that region based on drops, lvls or anything else the developers may wish to assign. For example, the Ascalon Trading Post might only offer things such as Charr hides, and low lvl weapons. As each trading location is unlocked the player then has access to more and more items and of higher lvls so they don't need to goto the ascalon post for Charr hides and the Maguuma post for Spider Legs etc.


While this is all well and good, it can be abused and so the developers could impose a access requirement on each house such as lvl, regions visited or even ascension in the case of droknars. I have already heard rumors of the developers considering this for other NPCs.


Now, for the good stuff <---------


At each house there could be a group of NPCs spread out (for the role players) which allow access to the trading system, once in the selling player follows these steps:

1. Item
2. Amount to trade
3. Maximum and Minimum price range
4. Urgency Of Sale

Once in the system, the items are removed from the players inventory and the process begins. First the items are added to the que for sales due in the next 10minutes. I suggest 1 round of sales happen every 5min, so a gap of 2 sale periods should be enough for most tho if the player has suggested a high urgency this can be reduced. (tho all this is of course a suggestion)


On the buyers side, they check what is for sale. This could be done buy a simple search engine where the player matches item type, quantity, dmg/defense numbers etc. Once they have found something they wish to buy they sign up to the auction and wait till it starts.


Now, this is the heavily alternative bit. While the average joe is familiar with the auction system used to sell paintings and other art work, there is another auction system used every day to sell everything from carrots to horses. Here is how the system would apply in game: When the auction starts the price of the item starts at the highest price (Min and Max prices were supplied when putting the item into the system) and then slowly drops down to the lowest price. First person to bid, wins the item at the current price its dropped to. Thats it. No bidding wars, it comes down to sheer demand. And thats a very good thing as:

1. Items are purchased by demand, not simply by the rich.
2. There is next to no chance to abuse the system. In the traditional system other players can hike the price by false bidding, or crowd out another user by imposing a buying force.

So, lets say no-one buys the item and it hit the minimum price. Well depending on how urgent the sale was set to, it could simply restart again in several minutes, or restart with a lower top price until its sold.


I'm sure by now you're either asleep or thinking of other ways this can be tweaked or used, so tell us... or stop snoring


So, comments?

Ever play Everquest 1? It sounds like the buying of "The Bazaar" paraphrased with more cool features added.

/Signed!

--The Shim

/signed

Actualy I did play EQ1 for a few weeks, but didnt see whatever the thing you're refering to is. I first saw this type of auction system used almost 5 years ago and since then its always annoyed me seeing the old fashioned way of doing it in games, especialy as the old way si so easy to mess up, thought I should at least say my bit before the dev release their stuff just for the public record

although auction houses are a big part of FFXI, i'd have to say it does poorly in the long run. in the perfectly competitive market, there is a line in which people buy things for, and that line affects the prices other people set. For example: a 20oz soda where im from is like $1.25, few go higher, and there are still many that go under to try and sell quick. in my experiences with auction houses, there is always someone who will sell it for less than you. Plus there's always people who have nothing better to do all day than to hawk the auction house and leech it for all its worth. If you want a good economy, take out monsters dropping gold, and take out the trader npcs, and throw in consumable goods (as in not exp scrolls silly ANET). RO economy pwns all.

HOWEVER, i see where you're going with this whole auction idea. i remember a while back for Ragnarok Online, some people created an online auction house right in their own forums. It was java based, and in a way was kinda like a chat room. People would filter their searches until they get what they want, and then the bid timer is turned on. After such and such a time, the auctioner could come back and look at the results without all the mess. This would essentially reduce the spam in the trade forums as well as in game. Want something real quick? Search for the item, and its remaining buy time. There you go, fixes all the people who want stuff NOW, and people who like to bid long term.

The whole idea is about reducing the time and fraud for the users, while providing a simple system for the developers which has the added benefit of providing them (and in theory us) the real worth of items.

I haven't really had much experience with auction houses, but I'm pretty familiar with RO. When I first started playing GW, I never got why the economy was so messed up. In RO, it pretty much balances itself for the amount of players playing. Things keep a steady value, until there is a game change, and something drops more often, or less, etc. The economy was very well thought through in that game.

As far as the OPs suggestion, I'd just wait till it hit minimum. Then when it restarted, bid as it hit near rock bottom. With as many players as there are in gw, I don't think it'd be that hard pull off.

That would only happen if demand was low enuff, and if thats the case you're not cheating the system but benefiting from a low demand.

I suppose, but you have to remember there's a lot of people in gw.. I can see it happening more often than not.
Unless you had more than one auction house. Which you do. I think. Nevermind, I'm retarded.

I dont think you 'get' it, but thats okay its something a lot of people will need to adjust to.

I loved the eq1 system. Easy to use, kept most of the trading there, had fair prices, etc. I'd actually prefer this type of system over the auction house personally....

/signed

Acolyte Devathi

like it in general. I really want some kinda auction house, any would do.

one thing though. limiting the level. The problem with doing that is you'd get people in Ascalon still spamming WTS GREEN... because they'll see the opportunity to gain the market where a newb can't buy a green simply coz you'd have to be at x city to get access to it. I'd say simply let them view all things for auction. Unless its a 2nd/3rd/4th char, they dont have the money to buy the item anyway (unless someone is giving it away).

I imagine once a auction system is in the devs will frown on the WTS idiots, however people are free to trade as they see fit, they just wont get a fair deal so its upt them if they wish to throw away cash.

Dont forget many wont be able to use highlvl items untill they're quite a bit of the way through anyway, they need Atts ya know

When you hit level 8, you can have 5 in an attribute. Add a superior rune and the proper headgear, and you can weild max damage weapons as soon as you hit post searing.

anything to get the god dam trade spamm out of the local channel for god sakes i have no idea y it is so hard to understand trade goes in the chat channel named trade

Haha, agreed, I think any system is better than none. Guildwars will be a lot friendlier of an environment with all the WTS/WTB junk gone. I hope it's a bannable offense after the new trading system, whatever they decide on, is put in.

oh hell i wish it was a bannable offense right now it's annoying !!!!!!!!!!

Keep on topic, and rate this up top if ya like the idea. Help others learn of it and perhaps enhance it which is the important thing (but I wouldnt stop you posting in my other threads either )

*Bump*

*bump* (Since trading is coming to a critical mass and we need a good solution)