A Fair Middle Ground for the Barter vs AH Argument

"

3a) If that player accepts, the items are exchanged automatically (no need to meet in town).

3b) If that player rejects, the offer is returned to its sender.

I have a giant problem with this, you see the reason I like the barter system is it enforces the community aspect of trading and lets you meet friends. This removes that entirely. So get rid of these and I'll be happy, I want players to have to meet up and actually do some sort of interaction before trading. Currently this game has one of the strongest communities I have ever seen, please don't ruin that.

"

Gaxe wrote:

"

3a) If that player accepts, the items are exchanged automatically (no need to meet in town).

3b) If that player rejects, the offer is returned to its sender.

I have a giant problem with this, you see the reason I like the barter system is it enforces the community aspect of trading and lets you meet friends. This removes that entirely. So get rid of these and I'll be happy, I want players to have to meet up and actually do some sort of interaction before trading. Currently this game has one of the strongest communities I have ever seen, please don't ruin that.

My experience is quite the opposite, and for every person that wants a "personal" exchange, there are dozens that just want a quick transaction. As stated before, both parties give something up here (the latter being that transactions are slowed via lack of buyout option).

Besides, there's nothing stopping you from trading traditionally. I'm simply talking about a market system here. Where you want to require people to meet to trade, I hate the hassle of it (as do many, many other people). If you want the community experience, you can still join/create public groups to play in.

Where a previous user has stated he wants a "pure" AH, you are saying you want a pure barter system. This division is part of the reason there is so much hate for trading in this game. We need a compromise.

There is no way for 100% of players to be 100% happy, I'm hoping this takes it from how it is now--50% of people 100% happy, and this is being very generous--to something better, 100% of people being 80% happy. And please don't take the numbers too literally; they are just to illustrate the point.

Edit: Haggling via whispers is still more personal than meeting in town and exchanging items through a trade window, so I don't really see where your concerns stem from.

"

My experience is quite the opposite, and for every person that wants a "personal" exchange, there are dozens that just want a quick transaction. As stated before, both parties give something up here (the latter being that transactions are slowed via lack of buyout option).

Besides, there's nothing stopping you from trading traditionally. I'm simply talking about a market system here. Where you want to require people to meet to trade, I hate the hassle of it (as do many, many other people). If you want the community experience, you can still join/create public groups to play in.

Where a previous user has stated he wants a "pure" AH, you are saying you want a pure barter system. This division is part of the reason there is so much hate for trading in this game. We need a compromise.

There is no way for 100% of players to be 100% happy, I'm hoping this takes it from how it is now--50% of people 100% happy, and this is being very generous--to something better, 100% of people being 80% happy. And please don't take the numbers too literally; they are just to illustrate the point.

Your wrong, I dislike the barter system how it is currently. D3 is trash for a reason (granted my opinion), it has nothing to support a real community. My inbetween system is having a fake "AH" that lets you search for items and their prices, then leave a note for the person selling the item. The other person logs on checks the fake "AH" and checks their AH messages or whatever and see that you want to buy x item. When they're both online they meet up and easily trade the items. This doesn't have to be the case for all items either, lets say your trying to trade currencies. That could be automatic in my opinion.

Most people play solo, me included. There is just no real incentive to party up with other players, I'm in a guild and I often trade though which I enjoy talking with other players and setting up meeting people. Searching for a item that you want and to hope that person is on when your on can be annoying though, fix one of those problems (searching for items) and I believe you have a true inbetween of barter and AH. Honestly your way is leaning way more towards AH than barter, my way is leaning a tad more towards barter than AH. I want to preserve the community that we have here and that is my biggest goal.

What about timezone problems?

"

Gaxe wrote:

Your wrong, I dislike the barter system how it is currently. D3 is trash for a reason (granted my opinion), it has nothing to support a real community. My inbetween system is having a fake "AH" that lets you search for items and their prices, then leave a note for the person selling the item. The other person logs on checks the fake "AH" and checks their AH messages or whatever and see that you want to buy x item. When they're both online they meet up and easily trade the items. This doesn't have to be the case for all items either, lets say your trying to trade currencies. That could be automatic in my opinion.

Most people play solo, me included. There is just no real incentive to party up with other players, I'm in a guild and I often trade though which I enjoy talking with other players and setting up meeting people. Searching for a item that you want and to hope that person is on when your on can be annoying though, fix one of those problems (searching for items) and I believe you have a true inbetween of barter and AH. Honestly your way is leaning way more towards AH than barter, my way is leaning a tad more towards barter than AH. I want to preserve the community that we have here and that is my biggest goal.

You're asking to take the convenience features out of my idea, which is the main thing that AH players want while keeping all the things that make trade frustrating and tiresome in the system. This isn't a compromise at all, from your end. The solution I proposed is already equipped to handle offline to offline trading (people who don't ever play at the same time), as well as making the process itself expedient, while preserving the "barter" aspect by not setting prices in stone via buyout and having players whisper if they want to haggle. If they want to just offer up what the seller was asking for on his note, they don't have to deal with the hassle. This gives the largest number of people the best experience.

I'm sorry, friend, but most people do not want to deal with a person for an extended period of time just to handle a transaction that could be done in under a minute, but this still leaves room for those who do. Your way still forces people who would prefer it to be fast and impersonal to go through a slow and personal process. For people who don't want to deal with it, this is a very tedious and irritating process that ruins trade for them--because they view trade as a method of progression for their character, not a social event. They have a right to treat it that way as much as you have the right to make it personal (and you don't have to use the Market system anyway).

If you want to make suggestions for the system, I do want to hear it, but you have to think about all the kinds of players--not just your own preferences. If I could have it my way, I'd simply make it a true AH and have it deal only in Chaos/Exalts. However, I understand that a large portion of the community doesn't want that, and I think this middle ground is the best way to satisfy everyone as much as possible.

"

Spysong192 wrote:

What about timezone problems?

I don't know what you mean. If you mean trading between people who don't play at the same time, the buyer simply makes an offer and leaves it up for a couple days so the seller can respond. If they don't log in by then, the buyer can take his offer down and offer it to someone else instead. When the buyer logs out, his offer would remain until accepted/rejected, so when the seller comes online, they can view their shop and see the offers for their items.

I meant that to finish the deal you would need to be both online right at the same time to exchange items to each other personally right?

"

Spysong192 wrote:

I meant that to finish the deal you would need to be both online right at the same time to exchange items to each other personally right?

It's an unnecessary step that further hinders the process.

Look, I understand you value the social aspect of the game, but most people don't view trading in such a way. However, there are lots of other ways to be social. You said yourself you are in a guild, and you can also use global chat and whispers. There's no shortage of ways to make friends or people willing to be friends. Trade is the weakest of these methods, and smoothing this process out will go along way in easing the agitation that people currently feel about trading.

I'm sure you have noticed the countless threads about how you are "forced" to trade, or how this game has turned into "Trade Tycoon." Simply stream-lining the process would alleviate a lot of this. People wouldn't mind the need to trade as much if it were simple and expedient to do so. And if the rumors about the new expansion zones going up to character level 82 are to be believed, this kind of trade system in conjunction with these higher level areas to farm would make the progression curve a lot smoother for players. I don't think it makes it much "easier" for them in terms of raw difficulty of content, but it would take a lot of the pains out of trying to gear up to take on these new challenges (assuming you can afford it).

One other aspect to consider are the people who actually enjoy trade for trade's sake--the people who enjoy gaining wealth. This system would have plenty of room for them as well.

"

Allnamestaken wrote:

We don't have barter. And never did. If GGG wanted barter they wouldn't have made orbs tradable. Orbs are gold with prices set (or at least influenced) by RMT sites, GGG imposed vendor rates and the top 1% - if anyone still believes in market regulating itself (not only in poe) - I can only laugh at them.

This.

"

AlbinosaurusRex wrote:

"

Spysong192 wrote:

I meant that to finish the deal you would need to be both online right at the same time to exchange items to each other personally right?

It's an unnecessary step that further hinders the process.

Look, I understand you value the social aspect of the game, but most people don't view trading in such a way. However, there are lots of other ways to be social. You said yourself you are in a guild, and you can also use global chat and whispers. There's no shortage of ways to make friends or people willing to be friends. Trade is the weakest of these methods, and smoothing this process out will go along way in easing the agitation that people currently feel about trading.

I'm sure you have noticed the countless threads about how you are "forced" to trade, or how this game has turned into "Trade Tycoon." Simply stream-lining the process would alleviate a lot of this. People wouldn't mind the need to trade as much if it were simple and expedient to do so. And if the rumors about the new expansion zones going up to character level 82 are to be believed, this kind of trade system in conjunction with these higher level areas to farm would make the progression curve a lot smoother for players. I don't think it makes it much "easier" for them in terms of raw difficulty of content, but it would take a lot of the pains out of trying to gear up to take on these new challenges (assuming you can afford it).

One other aspect to consider are the people who actually enjoy trade for trade's sake--the people who enjoy gaining wealth. This system would have plenty of room for them as well.

Do you confuse me with someone else?

The sentence was marked as a question. And i questioned that because i don´t get how the buyer finally gets the buyed item. Than i wanted to make sure that with your system there is no problem with timezones because that´s a problem with trading right now - that both people have to be online at the same time.