Auction.

See,PsychoRomeo, my whole problem with your idea of this skillful trade system where one isn't even allowed to advertise in a basic trade channel is that it limits the potential of both marketing and consumer base. What I mean by that is people would have to resort to bartering with those they either know (friends, family or clan members) or happen upon prospective buyers while traveling; leaving both a very limited amount of people to trade with as well as a narrow understanding of what the universal value of each item may be. Furthermore, it'd alienate newer players who won't necessarily be familiar with the game's economy straight away, nor would they be as adept as veterans to PoE.

How are we to have a successful game economy without trade's most fundamental component: communication. I think players would simply end up resorting to exterior sources, such as a wiki or forum for the essential information needed to get the best deal; making trade highly impersonal, which I gather you're against from your previous objections to a world AH.

I'd strongly advise GGG to avoid excluding vital mechanics that would lead to third party program usage (intended to compensate for everyday game play) whenever possible. A basic trade channel (even our beloved Diablo 2 had this), or even a central trade hub for routine commerce is as vital as player-to-player trade itself--one cannot thrive without the other.

Call me old (cos I am 41) but I like bartering. Face to face item for item or the upgrades GGG has in the game.

Hello,

I think either face to face or auction are nice way to trades. Both been successful in the past.

The only problem i see sometimes with face to face trade could be the spams in certain place in the game or on the channels.

A good trading system is one that fosters communication.

An auction house is not communication. In fact, it is the exact opposite. It's automation. It is exactly the same as buying items from NPCs.

Foster communication with some of the other ideas suggested.

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Bee wrote:

Hello,

I think either face to face or auction are nice way to trades. Both been successful in the past.

The only problem i see sometimes with face to face trade could be the spams in certain place in the game or on the channels.

Well, there is nothing wrong with "face to face" but other options is also good to have, for example: if you got some stuff you really want to sell while your doing other things an auction house is a very good thing to have too.

I mean, let's say, you got like a "platemail" you want to sell, and in a trade-channel chat and you are yelling to advertising you item, and then after some effort and a great deal of time and repititions you hook someone up and then transfer your item for another item of iterest or money, thats one thing.

But it will be lots of more waiting and effort for sey like 20-30 items you want to sell.

Do you still like to do it "face to face" if that is the case? I sure would not like to if you ask me.

"

Taurus1979 wrote:

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szoltomi wrote:

After reading through the previous suggestions, I'll add my points as well.

I don't believe a WoW-like auction system can be implemented properly, because of the lack of a general currency.
If it uses the currency items, the problem is people value currency items differently, and it leaves out the bartering feel of trading, which was mentioned officialy somewhere before.

If we only have the trade chat and forums, it will just end up being an autospammed textflow, which is neither very seller, nor buyer-friendly.

I would propose an "advertisement" system instead. Traders could list their items, and fill out a field what they are looking for in turn. At the simplest, the latter could be a textfield, but to ease filtering, a keyword system would be better.

Someone looking for items could query items and filter this database with (key)words, and once he picked something, he could contact the seller, either in whisper, or mail (If the game will have that).

The trading itself could be arranged in a meet, or a distance-trading option can be made as well, if the devs want to do so.

One extra step would be a free bidding system, where people could list their bids as any item(s). Then it's the seller's choice to pick from the bids. This way, it doesn't need both players online to finish the trade.

I think your idea is good, but confusing... the most people that plays online games and such is commonly known by Auction houses and NPCs, the solution you came up with is not bad at all, but IS new to the people, and people are very easily confused these days.

But that is up to the dev-team to deside.
All Suggestions are good so keep them stacking up.

I think you're quite wrong, the system described is not too "new" and won't confuse the players. In fact that exact system is used and have been used with Magic Online. You just post a little test with your offers and waht you're looking for and via a search keyword engine you could easily find whatever you want and compare the prices. I don't see any flow in that system, I think the devs should give it a shot.

An auction house would definitely make this game much more MMO-esque so I would agree in making an auction house in each city something to look into.

But the game specifically states that it is not an MMO...

The game does not need to be an MMO to have an auction house.

I think it is a smart way of gaining some money while away and a easier way to find wanted items if you are lucky enough.

Another good element is that people does not need to create a new game/session just for trading as many does today in games with "battlenet" style of multiplayer sessions, and creating a "new session" uses alot of computer/server capacity, which is not good at all due to lower ping and more bandwidth load, but there will be an huge improvement if they implement an auction house to reduce number of gamse sessions.

Lesser bandwidth load = lesser expenses and better ping which is better for everybody.

Don't you all agree to that?

I agree with many. An auction house does not make POE a mmorpg however it does raise some interesting points. I really hope trading does not becoming like D2 where rampant trade hacking and exploits existed. A wow type of auction house does make a lot sense where the player only interacts with a npc and the items you win is delivered to your in-game storage.