My opinion on auctionhouses

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oort wrote:

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To add an auction house would be giving items to people who have not earned them in any way, shape or form.

People will have items (they haven't earned) which you don't need... so what? They will use those items to win some T-shirts as contest awards... so what? Auction house as an EXCHANGE place will fill people with unearned gear... so what? Voila, problems solved, no trade skills required. I really don't understand why nobody can't grasp the idea of leaving in public place some items player don't need, but someone else else might find them useful. Community, you know.

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MosesXIII wrote:

Original title that was too long: Been hearing a lot of bitching in game RE: "plz add auctionhouse GGG". Here's my take on the subject.


Some observations, combined with what to me are logical conclusions about the trade system:

-- The average player will find enough "decent" gear to cover several different characters, more than enough for their own characters. This is an important part of making the loot system feel rewarding. If you find nothing worthy of showing off (which falls into two categories: "Hey look what I found and can now use" and "Hey look what I found and can now sell" largely ), then it feels like the RNG is screwing you over (or is poorly designed).

-- The above results in a surplus of items. I'm purely talking about equipment here, the non-consumable stuff. Consumability solves the surplus problem for currency (to an extent). Anyway this surplus means that despite the high demand, there are actually more Alpha's Howls (just an example as a "currently in high demand FotM enabler" item) in circulation than their expensive price would make one think.

The above results in the availability of items being (roughly) just right. More accessibility would mean you have nothing to work for. Too little and drops are never exciting.

An auctionhouse IMO destroys that balance. It makes items available for purchase all the time, in a format easily searchable by price from within the game. The forums make them available for viewing without being searchable by price. Indexers make them searchable with listed buyouts. This convenience is NOT a good thing for the economy. People being willing to pay extra for the convenience of a quick purchase is what keeps prices up at reasonable levels. With indexers, you cannot sell for a higher price than the lowest listed buyout or you will NOT sell to anyone who knows how to check the indexers. If you want your item to stick out in the sea of the cheapest listed buyouts, you have to sell for slightly cheaper than the cheapest. Now you are the cheapest, and the next guy who has to sell cheaper than the cheapest must sell cheaper than you.

There is currently one exception to this. To sell your items, you have to be online. You cannot sell things while away from your keyboard. An auctionhouse would remove this requirement. This would cause prices to fall even further, even faster. You would open an auctionhouse, search an item, sort by price (if the game doesn't automatically do that for you) and buy your item. There's no skill required for that.

I know many people say that trading requires no skill either, but I cannot understand how you could possibly believe that. I can only guess that you are either so bad at trading that you see no way you could improve or that you are so good that you make amazing profits both quickly and effortlessly.

However, trading is definitely a skill. You must find someone who has what you want and convince him that he needs what you have more than he needs what he has. You must be persuasive, knowledgable and generally have good people skills. Trading, like most everything in Path of Exile, currently rewards people who are skilled at it and punishes those who are not. It provides an alternative "skill check" to those who are feeling that the RNG is not on their side. To add an auction house would be giving items to people who have not earned them in any way, shape or form.

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b15h09 wrote:

Yeah... no. Trading is a skill, yes, but not so much in PoE. It's a matter of 3rd party programs and websites, as well as free time. This game HAS an ah for all intents and purposes, it's just a really shoddy one.

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DirkAustin wrote:

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bunnyxian90 wrote:

No auction house ever, please GGG, never implement it.

They wont.