Positive things i see using async trade

To start off, i forgot it was a thing. wanted to buy some unique ring. messaged a guy or two. no response. then i remembered async trade exists. i switched the trade filters. found a guy selling what i wanted. went in. bought it. END.

so quick and simple.

oh cherry on top is one of the guys i messaged earlier finally added me to party after all that was over. i dont blame him for the delay, there are 1001 different things in poe that force you to finish it before you can leave. in fact i apologized and explained that i bought it from someone else.

from just that quick single trade i managed to see so many positives:

1. No need to WAIT for players to respond
2. Sellers do not need to QUIT any activity they are currently engaged in NOR do buyers need to wait for sellers to be free.
3. Sellers actually market their other wares at the same time. Personally i ended up looking at what other stuff the player had to sell. really brings me back to how i used to play mmorpgs like ragnarok online.
4. I feel encouraged to put more stuff up for sale now, as there is more visibility and i no longer need to be bothered by having to quit content to trade.

as for player interaction, that is an unfortunate downside. you definitely will have less interaction. but it really depends on the level of interaction. in most of my trades in 10 years. its basically, i want to buy x. do the trade. t4t. end.

that said, what players actually want is MEANINGFUL interaction. and the meaningful ones i had previously is when either one of us starts talking. sometimes we compliment a persons hideout. or ask about the build. sometimes a conversation can start "good luck getting it linked" "oh god i spent xxxxx fusings and it wont link!" stuff like that. i can forsee we will get LESS conversation starters, but i will say its very possible for people to still start conversations regardless. now we can even ask or comment about other stuff they have on sale.

we lose something we gain something. overall i only see positives.

EDIT: want to add one more negative that i saw on a different tab

for async trade to work you need to dedicate an entire tab for it. this tab doesnt allow mixing async/non async items to be listed.

to me i find it as an acceptable loss. i tend to have 1-2 tabs for trade anyway. and in anycase. i think ggg deserves money. support the devs.

EDIT EDIT: Async trade is accessible to all players who are BUYERS.

if you want to sell you need MERCHANT TABS. which is something totally new.

some people are not happy as it may require them to purchase a new tab.

just a heads up, for older tabs, GGG is actually letting us convert them in to merchant tabs.

https://www.pathofexile.com/my-account/merchants-tabs