Player Input Request: Split Up The Auction Forum?

[NegInfinity]

A suggested came up staff-side to break "The Auction House" (viewforum.php?f=55) forum into three "The Auction House" subforums for each of the roleplay forums (surface, underdark, and upperdark).

I wanted to get a feel for how players felt about the idea before I enacted it.

I would prefer to have auction forums removed completely and replaced with in-game trading or/and in-game stores. I think bgtscc would've become a better place if those ooc forums were gone.

Their usefulness of forums was always very low (because people sit on stuff waiting for rare trade), and they tend to create "parallel world rp".

Two decent trading systems were present on sigil - where a merchant had a chest with fake items, displaying properties of real one, and would give out the real item once the purchase has been paid... or on Arelith, where people could buy stores, place items there on display and collect gold later, if someone actually pay something.

A stall type system would be cool, like a more immersive and localized auction system. I've already said, if storage is localized, so should auctions be. The less global the market is the more opportunity for trade RP there is.

The cool thing about stalls is when a merchant stands near them to interact with.

I've seen it done both ways - where a merchant HAS to be present (sigil) or if it is up to the player (arelith), both are fun, and both are more fun than forum trading.

A stall type system would be cool, like a more immersive and localized auction system. I've already said, if storage is localized, so should auctions be. The less global the market is the more opportunity for trade RP there is.

It would be nice but If people are not willing to sell for coin, what's the point? I wonder why it is people don't sell epic items for gold? Why is gold not working as intended, as medium for trade?

Because you can grind up potentially infinite gold (given time), because there's muling (so you can store infinite amount of gear), and because some things drop VERY rarely. Since there is no enchanting system in place, once people get something VERY rare, they'll likely sit on it, waiting for a perfect trade - forever.

[Maecius]

Players can currently trade in game in real time, and can set up stalls using in-game placeables.

Creating a mechanical system that allows for actual "bidding" (or creating stalls that a PC sets up and it gives access to their "merchant storage inventory" to anyone who clicks on it, for example, for "browsing") is something the devs would have to take a look at, if any of them was interested in it. Likely, it would replace or augment the existing in-game consignment locations with a true auction NPC.

All of those are great ideas, of course; but not quite what I'm looking for here.

Right now, the short-term decision, is whether the Auction Forum will stay where it is -- or get broken into three subforums (inside the Sword Coast, Upperdark, and Underdark Roleplay forums).

[Moridin]

I think that the forum should be split. The Underdark threads tend to get buried.

[Vogar Eol]

I also don't feel the Auction forum needs a split.

[Maecius]

At this point, there are 4 players who are for the split, and 6 against. So I probably will not push forward with the split.

The best suggestions I saw were 1) "buy/sell" forums, and 2) in-game trade amenities.

1) On creating a separate forum for those who are looking for items, not selling them, would this be helpful? If so, I could make a "Want Ads" subforum in the Auction Forum for people looking for items or maybe even services (like wand and potion makers, or possibly even bodyguards and the like for RP connections)?

I wouldn't want to make a whole new main page forum, as I feel it would bloat the front page.

2) On in-game trade enhancing systems and items, we will keep the idea for stalls and the like in the back pocket. They're great ideas but nobody on the dev team really jumped on it, and there's plenty to keep our devs busy right now. An idea to be visited later, though, perhaps!

[Fury_US]

I gotta say, I'm all for a "Want Ads" forum, for all those people who tend to hit the forums, but never think to check the bulletin boards in game (like me)

[Maecius]

If I do a "Want Ads" subforum, I will probably rename "The Auction House" to "World Markets" or something to cut down on confusion/broaden its use.

[Maecius]

In the end, I've opted not to split the Auction Forums.

Instead, I've renamed them to "The Marketplace" to make them more inclusive of different types of commerce RP, and have established a separate "Want Ads" subforum for those seeking to make a purchase of goods or services.

[Tsidkenu]

And I've populated said subforum with approximately the last year's worth of 'Seeking' ads, because quite frankly anything older than that is not worth my time moving