Auction House Monopoly

Roo Stercogburn

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Interesting one this, it just came up this afternoon.

There's one chap on our server who buys up everything that people place on the auction house then he puts it back on there at his prices, which are inflated, thus monopolising the market for, say, talismans.

I realise that its a free market as it were in game, but I wondered if it would be worth limiting the number of items that a person can have at auction at any given time to prevent this type of market control.

I understand that there are ways around this type of behaviour, but it might be a good thing to tackle this one head on.

I've not encountered this situation before in an online game so scrabbling around in the dark a bit here.
 

rynnor

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Thanks! Anyway back on topic - I have been the guy monopolising a market myself in other games to make cash needed for crafting etc. but I dont see much point to it in WAR?

Generally they either get enough money or just everyone else starts selling at same price and the cost of such things just increases.

Or if its a busy server everyone sees how much they can make from those items and the market gets flooded!

Market forces will sort it out.
 

Cadelin

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If they are selling for that price then that's how much they are worth. If you are a crafter just undercut his prices slightly. If he still buys them off you, you make a large profit and he makes a tiny profit.

Its sad but he is just taking advantage of people who try and help out their realm mates.
 

Roo Stercogburn

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I don't use the auction house much myself - I have all crafts capped and am fairly patient about getting stuff. It came about today because someone in our alliance was looking for talismans and a discussion ensued.
 

Belisar

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I wonder if you could report the player for grief play (the dreaded spirit of the game) ?

I am sure this is not what the developers had in mind although there is an argument to say it is probably not against any direct rule.

Whilst they only make a small profit it is a small profit for no effort (other than farming the initial cash) and if they have nothing else to do then I suppose it is worthwhile.

Interesting one - I'll have to start saving up ;)
 

Loneliness

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Ive made alot of money selling items cheap but "fast" due to this system.


If i had kept all those conq belts long after they fixed the fort drop rate id be the one buying everyone out now doh :)
 

Bugz

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I wonder if you could report the player for grief play (the dreaded spirit of the game) ?

I am sure this is not what the developers had in mind although there is an argument to say it is probably not against any direct rule.

Whilst they only make a small profit it is a small profit for no effort (other than farming the initial cash) and if they have nothing else to do then I suppose it is worthwhile.

Interesting one - I'll have to start saving up ;)

It should NEVER be grief play.
 

GReaper

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Just take advantage of the market yourself if you can craft. Either put all your items at prices close to his, or flood the market with so many cheap goods it won't be worth his time.

Part of me agrees with you Roo, it's something Mythic should consider looking into. Players who just scan auction houses searching for underpriced goods and resell them contribute very little to the game apart from making items harder to get.

I'm sure that adding limits on auctions isn't a good way of going about it though, he could buy up all the items and just release them at a much slower rate than usual. Alternatively he could start spamming item for sale messages in the capital to do trade the old fashioned way!

The only real way of stopping it would be making items bought through the auction house as bind on purchase - I'm sure it's something people wouldn't be happy with.
 

Raven

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Used to make thousands in WoW doing this, can't really see much point to it in WAR though?
 

TheBinarySurfer

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It's a pain in the ass for those of us with only casual play hours. 150 gps for a greater wounds tali is painful but not inordinate. 250-300gps inflated to make some 12 year old c*nt more fake money (when a number of players on K8P already have 200k+ gold) = not cool and not fun.
 

Gahn

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I can't fucking get it tbh, i'm perma broken around 19 g and got talis/salvage capped.
Fuck the wannabe Hilton gold farmers :p
 

Roo Stercogburn

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I can't fucking get it tbh, i'm perma broken around 19 g and got talis/salvage capped.
Fuck the wannabe Hilton gold farmers :p

I made about 40g last night in just in kill quests. Order were very obliging though I'm sure many of them made good cash out of my little warband running around (3 groups most of the night, most times versus superior numbers - we had great fun being mean green guerillas. Well I'm not green but you know what I mean).

Regarding AH, I recommended that the players that are looking for stuff or selling their bits, do so within the alliance which the auction house allows. I also directed them to use our alliance forums. We have many friendly and obliging players that will help their mates out but have to know about their need first.
 

`mongoose

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tbh the destro player on Norn who does it is pretty despicable. I've got screenies of him threatening players who refuse to match him in fixing prices high.

It's not against the rules or anything and he's rich enough by far to front it.

Just one of those things we have to deal with I guess.

M
 

Raven

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It's a pain in the ass for those of us with only casual play hours. 150 gps for a greater wounds tali is painful but not inordinate. 250-300gps inflated to make some 12 year old c*nt more fake money (when a number of players on K8P already have 200k+ gold) = not cool and not fun.

Its quite the opposite, its ideal for those with little play time. Play the AH, buy low, sell higher. It only take 10-15 minutes a day. It takes a little practise to spot what sells when, raid materials, pots, flasks, enchant mats etc all sell better on particular days of the week. The chaff will always put their items on for a quick sale, buy it up and sell it higher when you know it will attract a better price. It takes a little investment but it can net you a huge amount of gold.

Not sure it would work in WAR though as Mythic saw fit to not bother with an economy, which takes a massive amount away from MMOs (IMO).
 

Tallen

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Not sure it would work in WAR though as Mythic saw fit to not bother with an economy, which takes a massive amount away from MMOs (IMO).

Personally i think the economy in WAR is reasonably nice, it's small and specialist, but you don't have to spend weeks farming cash to buy something that will likely be obsolete in a few months time and you don't get guilds camping spawns of mobs which drop rare kit (and the resulting arguments and poo-slinging) as the best stuff is mostly bop.

It's mainly crafter-driven, talismans, crafting items and armour set pieces, but thats not a bad thing. The auction interface is a bit crap though, the filters are just poor.

It's not a patch on the likes of EvE, which has the best economy of any mmo imo, but that is an exceptional system.
 

dee777

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This happened in just about any multiplayer game that had some kind of marketing system. Really no big deal IMO. However I agree with those that ponder what you need large sums of cash in WAR for apart from stroking your eschlong.
 

rynnor

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However I agree with those that ponder what you need large sums of cash in WAR for apart from stroking your eschlong.

Goldselling perhaps? I dont think I've even bothered with the AH in WAR - he could of course be addicted to selling but how exactly does he threaten people who undercut him??

tbh the destro player on Norn who does it is pretty despicable. I've got screenies of him threatening players who refuse to match him in fixing prices high.

Report him under harassment - pretty clearcut?
 

`mongoose

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Rynnor

Tbh the threats were pretty low level. More unpleasant than harrassment.

Also for me to report someone they generally have to do alot more than that - it's just one of those low level things that people do that contribute to less friendly environment than you would hope for.

Most posters in here have got it nailed tbh, it's not nice but it's not against the rules, it's avoided if you know how and generally speaking it's just not worth getting het up over.

M
 

TheBinarySurfer

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I can't fucking get it tbh, i'm perma broken around 19 g and got talis/salvage capped.
Fuck the wannabe Hilton gold farmers :p

Join the club - I have maybe 200gps between all chars - it's ridiculous how slow it is to farm gold in PvE, and it seems anyone but a Tali maker will struggle horribly to make much money.

I mean i can make a few gold here and there selling the rare seeds potions, but compared to how hard they are to come by, the profit is negligable.
 

Gahn

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Join the club - I have maybe 200gps between all chars - it's ridiculous how slow it is to farm gold in PvE, and it seems anyone but a Tali maker will struggle horribly to make much money.

I mean i can make a few gold here and there selling the rare seeds potions, but compared to how hard they are to come by, the profit is negligable.

I'm missing the money drops from RvR kills tbh -.-
 

Tallen

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Join the club - I have maybe 200gps between all chars - it's ridiculous how slow it is to farm gold in PvE, and it seems anyone but a Tali maker will struggle horribly to make much money.

I mean i can make a few gold here and there selling the rare seeds potions, but compared to how hard they are to come by, the profit is negligable.

Try looking for the high level quests, some of those are good for several gold each.
 

TheBinarySurfer

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I'm missing the money drops from RvR kills tbh -.-
Seconded - 17gps for a solo kill if i remember rightly in DAoC? No reason they couldn't make it 6gps for a solo kill in this or 1gp if in a full group really is there? Would also mean that people who JUST want to PvP can do so.

Try looking for the high level quests, some of those are good for several gold each.
I do kill quests a lot, but sadly the main high level quests aren't repeatable!
 

Ctuchik

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Seconded - 17gps for a solo kill if i remember rightly in DAoC? No reason they couldn't make it 6gps for a solo kill in this or 1gp if in a full group really is there? Would also mean that people who JUST want to PvP can do so.


I do kill quests a lot, but sadly the main high level quests aren't repeatable!



level 35+ quests gives 1.5 gold or more, and theres quite a lot of those, so even if they arent repeatable you'd still make quite some cash from them.
 

Gahn

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level 35+ quests gives 1.5 gold or more, and theres quite a lot of those, so even if they arent repeatable you'd still make quite some cash from them.

Err yeh and when you run out? We are back to start point.
This isn't really an answer to the problem.
 

`mongoose

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kill quests my good man


that and farming PQ's

If you're running low on gold I'd hit the warcamps for the kill quests, the bo's for the kill quests and keeps for the kill quests.

We had a good night last week and made almost 30-40 gold each from completing the player kill quests. :)

Tbh I also find the dyes that drop sell well (if you're lucky enough to hit be/bb or lv regularly)

M
 

TheBinarySurfer

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Err yeh and when you run out? We are back to start point.
This isn't really an answer to the problem.

Good advice Chutchik but as Gahn says, i've been there and done those on all toons - barely made enough money to socket my SM's sentinel gear after doing them on all 4 chars!
 

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