Posted by ReDDoT in Blue Milk & Cereal | 20 Comments
Blue Milk & Cereal: Should We Have Access To The Auction House From Anywhere?
No day would be complete without the breakfast of Jedi: Blue Milk & Cereal. Every morning, the team at Ask A Jedi will get Force-induced thoughts coursing through your head with delicious issues from around the galaxy! Join in the discussion below to make your voice heard!
We already know that we will be able to do most, if not all of our crafting onboard our ship. And we currently know that items craft from, and drop to your inventory, not your ship’s cargo hold. So, should you be able to sell these items from your ship also?
First of course, there is the convenience argument. Quickly log in, check all of your bids and sales from the comfort of your starship and move on. Then of course, even though Star Wars takes place a long, long time ago, its still the future. Shouldn’t we be able to communicate and conduct commerce anywhere with any kind of a network link? And you would think wi-fi would be pretty robust in the Star Wars galaxy ;)
On the other hand, having players come to a central place to access the terminal will generate more player interactions (critical for an MMO) and maybe even more live sales. For those of you who played Star Wars Galaxies, think outside Coronet Starport. It also gives a nice feeling of a “busy street” and allows hardcore crafters to advertise in-person – and give a reason for players to travel across the galaxy.
We don’t yet know which way BioWare is going with this, but in my opinion, access to the auction house should be available only in the central cities and major social hubs, not on our ships.
So let us know! Should we have access to the auction house from anywhere? Leave a comment as well!
Loading ...Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Voted no,
Auction house avalible from anywhere will make people lazy.
PS FIRST!
I voted ‘Yes’. I frequently buy and sell from AHs in other games and it’s never a social experience. I target the AH vendor and open the window (which usually takes up most of my screen), do my business, and set back off on my way.
Besides, what’s the use of playing in a galaxy of space-age technology if you can’t pull up eBay on your handheld?
Agreed!
Thats the point! Big yes is the answer.
Well, buying and selling may b a social experience in other MMOs, but I honestly cannot imagine Darth Vader standing somehwere shouting for people to buy his freshly crafted crystals.
And only in the most backwards parts of the galaxy do you have to go to Toshe Station in person to pick up some power couplings.
AH on every planet is a bad game design. AH only available on capital cities is mostly the reason why those cities aren’t a ghost town. If there’s a AH on each planet, then I don’t see why people would stick on Kaas City or Coruscant at high level beside rp’ing.
I voted no, as well.
I thought the same thing as Ilex; in-game the technology is certainly available that it’d make sense. However, having it accessible from anywhere could get annoying. Perhaps I’m being unduly pessimistic, but I’ve got horror scenarios running through my head of people suddenly going unresponsive while grouping, in flashpoints, etc. because they had the sudden need to check on the AH.
Access it from the ship? Eh, sure. That hardly counts as anywhere. I have to disagree with ReDDoT that visiting the AH is any kind of social experience, unless you count “damn, there are so many people in here and some jerks are standing on the auctioneer again” as a social experience. I grant you, that as much of a convenience as that would be I can understand it if BioWare chooses not to go that route.
But no, definitely not accessible from anywhere (to reiterate, I obviously don’t consider the ship to equate to anywhere).
I voted yes only to stress that I don’t want it located only in specific cities. I think the ship is a great place for access.
On the one hand, I’d want to shank a fool if he was checking his sales while we were in the middle of a flashpoint/warfront. On the other, I wouldn’t mind being able to list loot on the AH right after I find it to clear it out of my bags (I’m an organization freak, I need my bags to be pristine at all times).
So yeah, I voted Yes because I do want it much more accessible than just Planets A, B, C, and D though my answer for the question as written is actually a No.
What about a system where you can place/check on auctions/bids from anywhere outside of operations/flashpoints, but there was some sort of interaction forced for exchange of goods, sort of like eBay does. I bid the highest price on your item, the system says, ok you made the highest bid, here’s the contact information, then they send the item and you send the money in return. Or have a planet where you meet to exchange goods.
All the AH does in almost any game I can think of right now is eliminate the personal interaction of exchanging goods. I remember in Everquest, there was a “Bazaar” on our server (no AH at that point in MMOs) where it was a location in game and at certain times you could go and sell your gathered goods, or buy goods. It forced interaction, but was also fun times.
I voted no. It’s not because I think it’s more social, I just don’t think it’s needed. Most people will have bank characters. These characters will hold most of your account’s money and they will also sell things for you. You craft something on your level 50 Jedi knight, mail it to your level 10 banker and he sells it, it’s more anonymous that way too. I said level 10 because you need to be on the capitol planet in order to post things on the AH. And as we know, you need to be about that level to reach it, unless there is a teleport of some kind.
I voted no, but I actually lean towards both yes and no. In the age of technology that ToR has, you should easily be able to access the GTN from anywhere… for purchasing. For selling, I think it best that the person be at a GTN terminal.
If you allow players to sell from anywhere, you’ll see the GTN become a short term storage for items that players don’t need immediately on their current questing trip.
I know going to a GTN terminal in person to sell is a bit arbitrary and you could just ‘mail’ the items to the GTN to sell, but it wouldn’t eliminate the short-term storage problem way too many people would use it as.
Yes.
With WoW, i enjoy sitting at McDonalds and accessing the AH while i have my lunch.
That’s a whole different topic entirely, but touche´!
I considered including a knee-jerk “heavens no, please no smartphone auction app”. But you know what? If TOR is successful enough for BioWare to deem it worthwhile to create something like that, then I ain’t gonna complain about no thing.
Can you dig it?
I voted no but, this is why I voted no. I don’t want someone checking their bags in a FP or Op. But out side of those. Sure have the crew mail the stuff off order it with wi-fi. The crew can accept. There is not really any interaction or social stuff going on at the AH anyway. But put in The AH as well in a few places. Put in the “Bazaar” someplace like Tatooine and Ord Mantell for the RP guys and the social players. Give the people who want to be social someplace to meet and the ones who don’t want to be social a way to do things quickly. Both things can be done. Then you don’t have non RP people messing with the RP folks and the RP folks are happy. Win Win. imho
I voted no. Yes, I do agree that in Star Wars, the technology is there, but sometimes Lore has to give way to Game-play. To actually auction items, or to pick up items, I feel that people should have to go to Auction Terminals – which would be located in larger cities on most planets. This would prevent those cities from becoming complete “ghost towns”. Placing bids and monitoring the AH should be able to be done remotely.
Buying and Selling via the AH is not, in and of itself, a social activity in general. However, by requiring players to return to cities, you create the “illusion” of a living, active city. This is a very necessary thing in an MMO.
I remember playing WoW many years ago and venturing back to some of the old cities after WotLK came out. They were empty – abandoned by the other players. If you wanted to start up an alt, or just visit a place that you remembered as a thriving city – you now faced a stark emptiness that did not match your earlier memories.
Of course, there are other ways to do this same thing, beside the AH. There is the Bank, Housing or the Guild HQ – all of which will not be used in swtor for that purpose. There is also re-using areas for higher-level content so that there is a reason for higher-level players to go back to those cities. LotRO did this with some of its quest areas. One branch of a road from a low-level area would lead to low-level quests, while another would lead to quests for those of a much higher level.
If BioWare uses other methods to drive players to want to go back to low-level areas and cities, I have no problem with remote AH sales. But “ghost towns” in MMOs are a result of poor game design (unless there is a quest/Lore attached to them). It ruins immersion for players that join years after launch or that go back to the old areas for whatever reason. It has to be countered, but without making the Player feel like they are being forced to go to a city just because the designer says so. They have to want and need to do so – and be rewarded for it.
Really nice post, that brings up a really good point. Even if there’s little to no actual social interaction going on, part of it is just the feeling you get while you’re in a major city. Walking in and seeing nobody around other than NPCs makes your time spent in the city extremely boring.
The other problem I have with accessibility and functionality of the AH from anywhere, is how fast people can undercut eachother. If this can be done instantly, the prices will drop extremely fast, and all your hardwork to acquire an item will have to sell for way under what your time is worth. And that would piss me off.
If everything is available from anywhere, why even have cities?
People gradually acclimatize to little conveniences like this. Eventually, years from now, someone would want to be able to do all of their quests on any planet without ever even moving their character.
My opinion is that we should be able to browse and purchase from anywhere. However, to emulate goods movement, if you aren’t at a centralized auction house “warehouse” or some such then you have to wait for a period of time for the goods to arrive at your ship. You could also post items directly from your ship to the AH but it would also have a similar delay to the posting while the item is in transit to the warehouse.
This way, while it allows access and usage in the field, it is far more efficient at a central location and thus would still allow for bazaar type selling or interpersonal interaction.
Buying yes, selling no.
Yes you should be able to buy stuff from anywhere. But you should have to go to capitals to list it for sale.
The idea of selling on the spot anywhere feeds the nightmare of people “ninja’ing” loot. Making it that much more difficult to get the items off them. In character the AH’s are like third party companies that take the items to sell for you. Not the same as e-bay where you are still selling the item, just using them as advertising space.