On the issue of trading in Path of Exile

Reading through general discussion, I find in every thread, a reference towards trading. And usually in a bad way. "Trading ruins the fun of the game", "I quit because trading was so bad", "Trading sucks", etc etc etc. I remember when I used to be one of those people. But at that time, I also used to try to manually link garbage in shop threads and put a manual b/o on them. After all that hard work, no one would buy my garbage. I joined the QQ band of trading whiners.

I have a vastly different outlook on trading now. Note, I spend about 20-30 hours playing the game each week (mostly on weekends), and I really, actually, enjoy trading. It's not like I have finally accepted that I have to trade to get anywhere (may or may not be true for some people), or that I don't really mind trading. I actually get excited when I get a PM that just says "hi" or something meaningless like that. Because I know it's a trade PM and I know that it's income I will be getting. I always love making a successful transaction, it's just a really gratifying experience in general. I make money, someone else gets an upgrade, and everyone is happy.

Trading isn't a chore anymore. Seriously, I bought some stash tabs and just use procurement like everyone else. I didn't make my own procurement thread, just (like everyone) copied RichJMoney's template. Even less work for me. How do I make sure everything works? I open procurement, press 2 buttons, and go back to playing. And get alot of trade PM's. There is no spamming in trade chat, or having to update shop threads, or having to put b/o's on items. Through watching some ZiggyD videos and just playing the game, I learned what is good and what is bad. If I don't know the price of an item? Easy, I just take 10 seconds to type it into poe.xyz.is and see the range of prices.

Sure, I get PM's like "hi" every once in a while, or "wtb your tri res ring" (actually, 90% of my trades start with a "hi", lel). I don't think this is an annoyance. But it's usually like this:

random_poe_guy:"hi"
me: <after 2 minutes> "hi"
him: wtb your pheonix knuckle diamond ring
me: find b/o in tabs and say "after map" or "what is b/o" or "What league"?
him: ok
me: <5 mins, map is done> "k my ho"
him:t4t
me: ty
Random_poe_guy has left the party

90% of my trades are like that. What's so toxic about that? Seriously, everything is automated now. You don't want to take 5 secs to respond to people saying "hi"? Well, your loss. Sometimes the trades are even better:

experienced_poe_player: "hi, wtb damnation oath agate amulet b/o 8 chaos torment league"
me: "2 mins after map"
me/him: "ty", "ty"

But even when they don't know basic trade etiquette, it's not anywhere NEAR as bad as it used to be or as people make it out to be. When I'm buying, it's largely like the interaction with the expereinced poe player. If dude is afk and I can't wait, I'll go buy from someone else. Rarely am I in a situation where I so desperately need something from someone that I have to wait for them to get online. When I am? Well, it's not a perfect system, but it's far from vomit inducing.

So what is so bad about trading that makes people QUIT the game? Or even to make a thread to complain about it? It really blows my mind.

Casuals don't like it, because it's a skill that takes some time learning and getting used too. They just want to play their Angry Birds ARPG and not have to worry about meta things besides killing monsters.


You will notice a huge variation in the quality of traders moving from standard>HC>Torment>BL, and I'm sure you can figure out which leagues has the smoothest trading.

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even when they don't know basic trade etiquette,

In many cultures it is considered extremely rude to go straight to business. You are expected to first be polite. In such cultures "Hi, I would like to buy X" would be rude. Just greeting and then waiting for the reply, and then state your business, would be the more proper way to engage.

There is no reason for why business outside of the game and business inside the game should follow different etiquette.

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BossOfThisGym wrote:

Casuals don't like it, because it's a skill that takes some time learning and getting used too. They just want to play their Angry Birds ARPG and not have to worry about meta things besides killing monsters.


You will notice a huge variation in the quality of traders moving from standard>HC>Torment>BL, and I'm sure you can figure out which leagues has the smoothest trading.

Yes, having traded plenty in Standard, Torment and Bloodlines. The most enjoyable trading experiences are by far in Torment. The rationale is simple: in standard, too many players are too rich to care. In Bloodlines, they get too many customers too often to care as much as they do in Torment.

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mazul wrote:

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even when they don't know basic trade etiquette,

In many cultures it is considered extremely rude to go straight to business. You are expected to first be polite. In such cultures "Hi, I would like to buy X" would be rude. Just greeting and then waiting for the reply, and then state your business, would be the more proper way to engage.

There is no reason for why business outside of the game and business inside the game should follow different etiquette.

PoE and gaming in general have their own sort of culture, where its rude not to get strait to business

Maybe in retrospective, the problem is not trading itself but rather the failure of GGG to implement these features as a core part of the game and the necessity to use 3rd party tools in order to enable streamlined trading. Just a thought.

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k1rage wrote:

PoE and gaming in general have their own sort of culture, where its rude not to get strait to business

If it is so rude, why do 90% (the numbers stated by the thread starter) just start with the "hi"? Either you assume that they are ignorant, that they are willingly assholes, or maybe just maybe you are wrong.

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mazul wrote:

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k1rage wrote:

PoE and gaming in general have their own sort of culture, where its rude not to get strait to business

If it is so rude, why do 90% (the numbers stated by the thread starter) just start with the "hi"? Either you assume that they are ignorant, that they are willingly assholes, or maybe just maybe you are wrong.

I never said saying hi is rude....

My only gripe with trade is that i have to link everything manually in my shop thread, since i refuse to use third party software for that (aka procurement).

Xyz i don't really have an issue with since it doesn't require account information as far as i know.

Lol just read your last message, so i will just +1 that.

Peace,

-Boem-

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k1rage wrote:

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mazul wrote:

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k1rage wrote:

PoE and gaming in general have their own sort of culture, where its rude not to get strait to business

If it is so rude, why do 90% (the numbers stated by the thread starter) just start with the "hi"? Either you assume that they are ignorant, that they are willingly assholes, or maybe just maybe you are wrong.

I never said saying hi is rude....

You said "where its rude not to get strait to business". If you start with just "hi" and wait for the reply of the other party, then you are not going straight to business.