The arguement against auto trading is what, exactly?...

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LazelimGiros wrote:

There is none. GGG can place a good AH and ban the bots.
But pushing buggy content,lootboxes and mtx is more profitable it seems.

You can never get rid of bots in a popular online game.

For me, the drawbacks of the current system outweigh any dawbacks of a *manual UI interaction only* auction house.

I'll take a *manual only* auction house around yesterday, please. No bots, no scanners.

Chris thinks it's more engaging to suffer through trading ; supposedly makes you appreciate your items more or something.

hell if it was just for him, we'd be stuck trading using tradechat only still.

it also inflates played hours if you take some time to trade, in the long run.
investors must like this.

"Lack of community engagement" may have been their initial reasons but that was a long time ago. Today, for some reason, Chris and company seem afraid (almost paralyzed) to change trade chat. Why that is so I don't fully comprehend but GGG thinks that if they put the "easy to find an item" of pc-PoE together with the "easy to trade for an item" of console-PoE that it would be the end of PoE for them. Somehow they are convinced that if we could get the items we need for builds that we'd all have finished builds fast, lose interest, and quit playing forever. There may be a few no-lifer players that would consume all PoE content, get bored and quit, but the vast majority of players are casual and will never get through all of PoE in their playing lifetime even if items were easily trade-able and all we would need is to grind out enough currency. But don't take me at face value, you can watch it right here (complete with a Chris face-palm):

Baeclast podcast #41: Trade discussion

Another GGG saying "it's complicated"... not really. "Rough edges that we need to improve on" is a massive understatement. I get that GGG never ever wants to make the mistakes that Blizzard did. That would surely be the end of GGG. I get that GGG is wanting the PoE ship to be in full sail (financially very healthy) for another decade plus and if players acquired gear "too easily" they could go though many more builds quickly, lose interest, and quit. I understand that for the free-to-play business model to work GGG needs to keep as many players addicted (PoE junkies) by producing new content every 13 weeks (their next PoE fix) to keep the mtx buying booming. I get it that with over 125 employees that GGG is a multi-million dollar business and making payroll each week depends on many 1000s of mtx purchases weekly. I get all that. But staying in paralysis mode and never improving trade-chat is costing them 1000s of players every week too. Chris' Baeclast comments were predictable and as expected there will not be any easier way to connect with a seller (my solution is an instant message app for smart phones to alert the seller of a WTB) and certainly never an auction house . But GGG had better do something soon (PoE 4.0) or risk a larger exodus of disgruntled players over trade failure (all my whispers went unanswered... fuck this shit I QUIT!).

It is really simple. Because PoE is so called "free do pay" game, developers must somehow force players to pay. Numerous studies show that the more and longer a player plays, the more often he pays. But the concept of "playing" does not necessarily mean "slaying monsters". It is enough, when this player simply "spends time in the game" and nothing extends spending time in the game then nightmarish trading system.

In addition, this trading system already exists, they do not have to invent anything and bother with content and optimization. It is and extends the time spent in the game. If AH were introduced, it would have to be done in such a way that the attractiveness of the game would compensate for the time spent on trading for that time. Therefore, there will never be AH:)

The current trade is only a problem for those who need to have everything instantly.
The rest of us can try again a bit later or even the next day if it comes to that.

As a longtime "filthy casual player" I'm not logged in often enough to be a seller (I'd be AFK most of the time further contributing to the problem) thus with a world of casual players it's no surprise that most WTB whispers fall on deaf ears. And for that part I proposed and put up a post in the Feedback forum stating that GGG should grab the lead in using 21st century technology and create a PoE smart phone app so all sellers can be instant messaged when there is a buyer and not have to be logged in (chained to our gaming rig) to get notified and be able to conduct the sale right from our phone wherever we are (but no buying, just selling). That would go a long way toward minimizing the number of unanswered WTBs. I posted that idea back after Blizzard had announced that their next Diablo was going to be for smartphone only. GGG could have stolen a ton more of Blizzard players who permanently bailed on Diablo if they had announced their plans to revolutionize the way trading is handled in their arpg. But the standard troll response is that trading would be "too easy". So from "we don't want trading to be too easy" we just get worse conditions as many more casual players come to play PoE and put up their items for sale and amplify the whole seller is AFK problem.

GGG has done nothing and today all we get from Chris is a face-palm and a "I heard trading is much better in hardcore" to try and sidestep the question from TarkeCat. GGG has really failed us on trading (even though the PoE manifesto states trading in PoE is of fundamental importance). GGG is bizarrely being bi-polar on trade and a better solution (trade function) short of a full blown auction house needs to be coded... and very soon. Please get with the 21st century and modernize PoE trade and make it work for us instead of against us. The future success of GGG depends on it.

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Johny_Snow wrote:

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Nephalim wrote:

It's never going to happen, just let the devs have their last remaining design choice.

Suppose they had a choice between letting their game go to ruin or improving trade. Are they going to stick with their ideals then?

Of course not, but they believe implementing AH would ruin their game.

What if your item listings only show up on a search when you are online?
This *might* reduce the non-responders.
I wager it would not be easy to configure, just a thought.

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srogi_kotek wrote:

It is really simple. Because PoE is so called "free do pay" game, developers must somehow force players to pay. Numerous studies show that the more and longer a player plays, the more often he pays.

There are plenty of mechanics present in this game that directly contradict this philosophy, the death penalty being probably the biggest one of them. I know it ruins the game for me, because once I reach 88-90 the fun starts to become a chore and when one, stupid death wipes out a whole day of playing, it surly puts a wombat on my spending.