cRPG

cRPG => Suggestions Corner => Topic started by: Wrangham on April 19, 2013, 02:53:20 am

Title: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 19, 2013, 02:53:20 am
Edit: Illuminating data on people who have -1'd the OP. If you wonder why people are against this suggestion, look at how it might affect their wallet:

Dach - 8 offers on marketplace, all asking for X item + 55k gold, without rhyme or reason except to ensure a tidy profit.
Kafein - one of 5 players with a trade booth. Simplifying the market would ensure that his trade booth would no longer have a purpose.
Mwiw - 22 offer on marketplace, all asking for X item in exchange for his near worthless Danish Greatsword.
Falka - "plenty of ppl got fucked up by market sharks, but it's their own fault to some extent."

==================

The goals of a marketplace system should be to:

1) Facilitate item/heirloom point transfer between players;
2) Encourage possessing things of value;
3) Encourage fairness and arms-length dealing.

The current marketplace system achieves only the first, most basic goal of a trade system. I propose a new, intuitive and easy to code overhaul of the marketplace:

Players should only exchange items/loom points for an amount of gold and the 5% tax on item exchanges should be lowered to 1%.

===PROS===  
- Eliminate the "lazy tax"

One problem with the current system is that understanding the implications of accepting any given offer requires a near encyclopedic knowledge of prior transactions and patch histories. Players are unable to sift through the labyrinthine amount of offers and requests, let alone draw a meaningful set of conclusions about item value from that data. Instead, both offerors and requesters understandably and lazily ask for another ~50k when they list an item.

To illustrate the difficulty in determining the actual value of an item, here is a look at some offers of a +3 Awlpike, the alphabetically highest item in my last searched category:

Bec de Corbin + 55k gold
Long Spear + 30k gold

Now the flipside. Requests for an Awlpike:

Bec + 19k gold [36k lazy tax]
Long Spear - 97k gold [127k lazy tax]

- Very easy to determine the relative value of items.

A gold-only system very clearly shows which items are valuable and helps players decide where to invest their heirloom points. An extreme example that most players already know: don't put heirloom points into crossbows and danish greatswords. But there are other over-supplied items as well. A simple price listing would reveal them with a glance, instead of hours of clicking through links on the market site.

- Reduce marketplace offer spam.

Currently, standard practice for someone trying to sell or purchase an item is to post a dozen offers or requests listing numerous combinations of heirloom points and gold. Each of these listings:

A: Require the listor to estimate the value of the item they wish to trade. A little experience with the system shows that players are not the most objective appraisers. Try the Awlpike example with any other item!

B: Require the listor to estimate the value of the other item they wish to trade for.

C: Add enough extra gold to ensure they won't feel cheated if someone accepts their trade.

D: Represents an identical valuation. Instead of players able to just list gold, that quantity has to be some creative amalgamation of gold, heirloom points, and items, carefully calibrated to meet the ideal.

===CONS===

- Some players resent change. Players who have invested hundreds of hours into figuring out how to game the market will not like this change.

- Some players think the devs are removing everything from the game and that more complexity is always good. This change will bring about simplicity.

- This change will complicate the ability of players to gift heirlooms by trading rocks or straw hats. But there is an easy workaround. Just make a post in the marketplace declaring your intention to trade to so-and-so player and then do it quickly. It isn't like there are many players spamming refresh on the marketplace waiting to grab a deal that an admin will just revert anyways.

- This change will require some additional coding. However the code for gold-only transfers is already in place.

===Reduce the Tax===

The 5% tax rate is probably too high for pure gold transfers. I suggest reducing it to 1-2%. I suspect but cannot prove that 99.99% of gold taken out of the system is done so via item repairs and not the tax on transactions so reducing the tax should not affect gameplay.

tl;dr The marketplace system is the Gordian Knot of cRPG but the devs are Hercules.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 19, 2013, 04:19:11 am
I say that the tax is fine, but we should get rid of booths, so the 6 guys that have one (or is it 5 guys and one guy has two booths?) stop poaching all the lower priced loom points.

Those booths really serve no purpose except for them to poach LPs and then list terrible deals.  They don't really even have any better visibility due to the booth, since everyone just searches for the things they want by name.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Kafein on April 19, 2013, 07:43:22 pm
Disallowing heirloom for heirloom trades won't magically make heirloom value information easily accessible for anybody. In fact, everybody would be forced to have encyclopedic knowledge of heirlooms to know their gold equivalent, instead of just exchanging one item they know for another item they can get decent info about.

It would also globally slow down market activity, as if you imagine the very frequent scenario of somebody wanting to trade say a 2h sword that person uses for another 2h sword they would prefer, having to do two trades instead of one introduces huge problems. First, two trades cannot be immediate, and people are left with gold they have no direct use of, which is bad if you don't have any fallback options for the item category you just sold. Second, there's no guarantee you will ever get your hands on the heirloom item you wanted, even after selling the item you had. In fact, if you don't want to be screwed over, you will have to create offers yourself for everything, which implies other people will maybe never accept your trades.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: LordRichrich on April 19, 2013, 07:50:12 pm
I've never understood the idea of loom + gold myself.
It should be:
"I've got a +3 YOU want, and YOU'VE got a +3 I want. Lets just trade em?"

But instead looms have a price tied to them for god knows what reason and causes marketplace playing, where you can make 10k-70k for looming something else wants when they have something you want. It seems odd to me.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Kafein on April 19, 2013, 07:53:46 pm
I've never understood the idea of loom + gold myself.
It should be:
"I've got a +3 YOU want, and YOU'VE got a +3 I want. Lets just trade em?"

But instead looms have a price tied to them for god knows what reason and causes marketplace playing, where you can make 10k-70k for looming something else wants when they have something you want. It seems odd to me.

Back to woodstock with you !
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Gurnisson on April 19, 2013, 08:12:15 pm
I've never understood the idea of loom + gold myself.
It should be:
"I've got a +3 YOU want, and YOU'VE got a +3 I want. Lets just trade em?"

But instead looms have a price tied to them for god knows what reason and causes marketplace playing, where you can make 10k-70k for looming something else wants when they have something you want. It seems odd to me.

An example. I have an item some other player want. I'm not particularly fond of the item he's offering, but can accept it if he adds cash. The other guy gets the item he wants, I probably end up with a profit when trading it again. Both happy, even though I never really wanted his item!
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 19, 2013, 08:21:40 pm
In fact, everybody would be forced to have encyclopedic knowledge of heirlooms to know their gold equivalent, instead of just exchanging one item they know for another item they can get decent info about.

I don't understand your point. In a gold only system you would open the marketplace and could just search by item and sort by price. The only way to get "decent info" in the current system is to compare the various offers of item + gold + heirloom points and make a judgment about what the offer is really worth. That may work for people with 7000 posts who have been playing for years but the system is not intuitive or easy to use.

Quote
It would also globally slow down market activity, as if you imagine the very frequent scenario of somebody wanting to trade say a 2h sword that person uses for another 2h sword they would prefer, having to do two trades instead of one introduces huge problems.

This scenario is actually incredibly infrequent. There are 46 different people trying to get rid of their 2h sword. The number of people currently wanting to trade a 2 handed sword for another 2 handed sword: only seven. Five of those seven want to trade their worthless Danish Greatswords for more valuable weapons; ie what they are really trying to do is get rid of a worthless item any way they can. Only 2 of them are trying to trade it for another. TWO PEOPLE out of FOURTY-SIX. 4.3%. Not "very frequent."

Examples:

Dach (downvoted the OP) adds a blanket 55k lazy tax to every item he requests in return for his 2h offers. Does Dach really think +3 Longsword and +3 Mallet are worth 55k more than their respective requests, or does he realize it is impossible to determine the value of the items he wants and just wants to be safe? I wonder why he doesn't like the proposed system. . .

Mwiw (downvoted the OP) adds a blanket 10k lazy tax in addition to his near-worthless Danish Greatsword and then makes 22 different, completely 1-sided offers. I wonder why he likes the old system? Because people are foolish enough to make these terrible trades that he knows he can get away with. Currently, the only way to know a Danish Greatsword is relatively poor value is to click through multiple pages of offers and requests, click through even more pages of offers and requests for whatever item is being requested in exchange, add a touch of patch history knowledge, and make an estimate.

Quote
First, two trades cannot be immediate, and people are left with gold they have no direct use of, which is bad if you don't have any fallback options for the item category you just sold.

I don't understand the difference between being left with an item you don't want (current) and being left with gold you can't use (proposed.) It isn't as though in the current system everyone is running around using Danish Greatsword + Crossbow thinking to themselves "I don't really like these items but I haven't traded them yet so I'll keep using them!"

Quote
Second, there's no guarantee you will ever get your hands on the heirloom item you wanted, even after selling the item you had. In fact, if you don't want to be screwed over, you will have to create offers yourself for everything, which implies other people will maybe never accept your trades.

I don't understand this point. Just post the item you want to sell for a price. If no one buys it then the item isn't worth as much as you think. Value is what people will pay for an item.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 19, 2013, 08:24:15 pm
An example. I have an item some other player want.
So sell your item for X gold.

Quote
I'm not particularly fond of the item he's offering

So buy his item for X minus Y gold. You both get the items you want and you also make a net profit.

Quote

The other guy gets the item he wants, I probably end up with a profit when trading it again. Both happy, even though I never really wanted his item!

This is the hallmark of a terrible system. 2500 post count, multi-year veteran, game administrator can take advantage of the system to profit off of ignorance.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Gurnisson on April 19, 2013, 08:31:08 pm
So sell your item for X gold.

So buy his item for X minus Y gold. You both get the items you want and you also make a net profit.

This is the hallmark of a terrible system. 2500 post count, multi-year veteran, game administrator can take advantage of the system to profit off of ignorance.

Wasn't talking about your system, I really don't care how the system works. I just explained LordRichRich why there's a ton of trades with gold on top for +3 items and not just straight trades :P
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Phew on April 19, 2013, 08:52:01 pm
The problem with marketplace is that the VAST majority of listed offers are people just trying to increase their net worth, i.e. trading a crappy item for a good item or trading a good item for another good item+gold.

What about those of us that don't want to increase our net worth, just make a fair trade for a different item that maybe suits a new build/playstyle? Our offers get lost among all the "phishing" offers.

Let's say you are a relatively new player that put a lot of work into heirlooming a +3 Longsword, but you want to try out a +3 Danish for a while, so you offer up a straight trade. One of the "marketplace tycoons" with a booth/etc snatches up the trade immediately, with no intention of actually using the Longsword, just flipping it for profit. You just pissed away ~300k of your net worth, and probably didn't even realize it, because you'd have to have watched the marketplace for months to understand the relative value of these two items.

The OP's suggestion is just a way to make the relative value of items more apparent to players that don't necessarily watch the marketplace 24/7. Maybe not the best way to do it, but a solid suggestion nonetheless. The current system siphons wealth away from casual players that just want to try different builds/gear and concentrates it in the hands of a few of marketplace tycoons.  If the system allowed rentals, these tycoons could at least provide a useful service, but alas, the tycoons are just leeches right now.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Gurnisson on April 19, 2013, 08:56:57 pm
The problem is, the large booth would just fuel the rich people even more if it was just gold trades. Even now the large booth is just a possibility for the rich to become richer, but with the small sums of 50 k it's definitely not as breaking as 1.2kk. The large booth shines the higher the price, and that's why you see most of the booths being used to offer low amount of cash for low value items (heavy lance, danish, scimitar, crossbow etc.) or having several offers up for selling and buying loom points with a 20-25 k profit for each one traded. I think the large booth is silly, and if this was implemented, the large booth really would have to go. :P
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Falka on April 19, 2013, 08:59:27 pm
One problem with the current system is that understanding the implications of accepting any given offer requires a near encyclopedic knowledge of prior transactions and patch histories. Players are unable to sift through the labyrinthine amount of offers and requests

- Some players resent change. Players who have invested hundreds of hours into figuring out how to game the market will not like this change.

Meh, it's completely not true. You definitely don't need to invest "hundreds of hours" to know how market works. Market rules are really simple (first rule of the market - to rule them all - make your own offers) and you don't need to know the value of every loom to make good deals.

Let's say you are a relatively new player that put a lot of work into heirlooming a +3 Longsword, but you want to try out a +3 Danish for a while, so you offer up a straight trade. One of the "marketplace tycoons" with a booth/etc snatches up the trade immediately, with no intention of actually using the Longsword, just flipping it for profit. You just pissed away ~300k of your net worth, and probably didn't even realize it, because you'd have to have watched the marketplace for months to understand the relative value of these two items.

You're right that market lets ppl gain gold and looms in a "fishy" way and plenty of ppl got fucked up by market sharks, but it's their own fault to some extent. It's really not that hard to figure out that most offered item on the market isn't worth as much as item which no one offers.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Falka on April 19, 2013, 09:10:24 pm
 :oops:
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 19, 2013, 09:14:27 pm
Meh, it's completely not true. You definitely don't need to invest "hundreds of hours" to know how market works. Market rules are really simple (first rule of the market - to rule them all - make your own offers) and you don't need to know the value of every loom to make good deals.

So when Dach posts 10 offers for a 2h weapon and requests X item + 55k gold for every offer that's a good deal? Or is Dach unable to determine neither the value of the items he has or the items he wants, and instead just adds 55k to make "good deals" and ensure he can't be cheated?

Quote
You're right that market lets ppl to gain gold and looms in a "fishy" way and plenty of ppl got fucked up by market sharks, but it's their own fault to some extent.

Hilarious. These are the people downvoting the OP. Acknowledge there's a problem, make conclusory statement that OP is wrong and move on. Please keep the -1s coming because it isn't like this thread is a well-intentioned attempt to identify a weak spot in cRPG and improve it.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 19, 2013, 09:23:41 pm
Updated OP. It is a strange coincidence that everyone who has -1'd the idea has a lot to lose from improving the interface.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Falka on April 19, 2013, 09:26:43 pm
Please keep the -1s coming because it isn't like this thread is a well-intentioned attempt to identify a weak spot in cRPG and improve it.

I think that solution you proposed is wrong, that's why I downvoted your post. Pls, don't tell me you care about your infamy. And if someone really thinks that market is devil's tool I'd propose barter only deals, without additional gold on the top. Just item for item. No one would lose gold this way.

Updated OP. It is a strange coincidence that everyone who has -1'd the idea has a lot to lose from improving the interface.

I have nothing to lose cause I have already more looms than I need and basically don't trade any more :P

PS. Kisses and "-"s for u :P

PS2. Oh, one more thing.
Quote
Currently, the only way to know a Danish Greatsword is relatively poor value is to click through multiple pages of offers and requests, click through even more pages of offers and requests for whatever item is being requested in exchange, add a touch of patch history knowledge, and make an estimate.

Nah, you just need to check this one (http://c-rpg.net/index.php?page=marketplacetrade) to know that danish aint worth a shit. 100 offers, 10 requests (all like: sth for danish + 200-300 k).
 
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Kafein on April 19, 2013, 09:48:34 pm
I don't understand your point. In a gold only system you would open the marketplace and could just search by item and sort by price. The only way to get "decent info" in the current system is to compare the various offers of item + gold + heirloom points and make a judgment about what the offer is really worth. That may work for people with 7000 posts who have been playing for years but the system is not intuitive or easy to use.

In a system with direct trading, you only need to know the relative value of two items to create a good trade. One is slightly better ? Put a few dozen k in.

This scenario is actually incredibly infrequent. There are 46 different people trying to get rid of their 2h sword. The number of people currently wanting to trade a 2 handed sword for another 2 handed sword: only seven. Five of those seven want to trade their worthless Danish Greatswords for more valuable weapons; ie what they are really trying to do is get rid of a worthless item any way they can. Only 2 of them are trying to trade it for another. TWO PEOPLE out of FOURTY-SIX. 4.3%. Not "very frequent."

Your reasoning is innaccurate as hell. Listing standing offers is only a way to show what nobody accepts. Few people actually use gold for trading, they just want to have good items and hit people with things, and the marketplace was designed in the first place as a way to exchange heirlooms between main characters of different people. Hell, for months there was no way to trade heirloom points safely and no tax.


Examples:

Dach (downvoted the OP) adds a blanket 55k lazy tax to every item he requests in return for his 2h offers. Does Dach really think +3 Longsword and +3 Mallet are worth 55k more than their respective requests, or does he realize it is impossible to determine the value of the items he wants and just wants to be safe? I wonder why he doesn't like the proposed system. . .

Mwiw (downvoted the OP) adds a blanket 10k lazy tax in addition to his near-worthless Danish Greatsword and then makes 22 different, completely 1-sided offers. I wonder why he likes the old system? Because people are foolish enough to make these terrible trades that he knows he can get away with. Currently, the only way to know a Danish Greatsword is relatively poor value is to click through multiple pages of offers and requests, click through even more pages of offers and requests for whatever item is being requested in exchange, add a touch of patch history knowledge, and make an estimate.

Yes, people create stupid trades, is that a problem ?

I don't understand the difference between being left with an item you don't want (current) and being left with gold you can't use (proposed.) It isn't as though in the current system everyone is running around using Danish Greatsword + Crossbow thinking to themselves "I don't really like these items but I haven't traded them yet so I'll keep using them!"

Imagine you are a 2h swordsman, and say you have a +3 GGS and want a shiny +3 SoW instead. Thing is, you use that +3 GGS because it is kinda good, you just want a +3 Sow because it is better. You don't want to be unable to use an heirloomed sword for an indefinite amount of time just because you wanted to change.



The bottom line is, having to do two trades instead of one for something as basic as exchanging items is not acceptable.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 19, 2013, 10:06:52 pm
In a system with direct trading, you only need to know the relative value of two items to create a good trade. One is slightly better ? Put a few dozen k in.

Nobody does this. Everyone assumes their item is relatively more valuable, e.g. Dach asking for 55k no matter what item he requests.

Quote

Your reasoning is innaccurate as hell. Listing standing offers is only a way to show what nobody accepts.

Then why do we have this system? Nobody accepts the offers because they are obviously unfair but most of the time it is too difficult to figure out how to arrange a fair trade.

Quote
Imagine you are a 2h swordsman, and say you have a +3 GGS and want a shiny +3 SoW instead. Thing is, you use that +3 GGS because it is kinda good, you just want a +3 Sow because it is better. You don't want to be unable to use an heirloomed sword for an indefinite amount of time just because you wanted to change.

Current system: You see an offer of +3 SOW. He wants a +3 GGS + 100k. You think that's unfair so you post an offer of +3 GGS for +3 SOW. Nobody accepts it because like our in-house expert/troll Falka points out: "first rule of the market - to rule them all - make your own offers."  What can you do? Click through a dozen links to determine if you've just been unlucky or maybe your idea of relative value is not so accurate?

Quote
The bottom line is, having to do two trades instead of one for something as basic as exchanging items is not acceptable.

Every comment you have made has ignored any possible positive outcome from a gold-only system, despite my evidence that only 4.3% of people are trying to make the kind of offers you keep talking about. That 4.3% is not science so take it with a grain of salt, but don't act like ridiculous offers are not the norm.

Yes, my proposal negatively impacts the 0.001% of trades which involve a guy who:

A - loves his item,
B - but still wants to trade it (for some reason. . . )
C - and can't stand not having a replacement heirloom immediately.

I do not propose my system as a perfect solution., but your entire criticism of a gold-only system is premised on being unable to use an heirloom which you do not want for a few hours or days. And you ignore every possible advantage of a gold-only system.  I list several cons in the OP. I wish you would have the decency to do the same and look at both sides of the argument instead of just finding one problem and harping on it for the sake of maintaining your tax-free trading post.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Phew on April 19, 2013, 10:12:49 pm
A "better" way would be if the system tracked every marketplace transaction, threw out obvious "stones for +3 item for my clanmate" trades, converted each trade to an equivalent gold value, and displayed the current trailing average gold value for each item like a stock ticker: "+3 Danish Greatsword 800k ^20k" etc.

The algorithm would be complex, but after enough trades, the "true" value of items would be very transparent. Actually, I bet someone has already been logging the transaction history and doing just this for their own gain.

EDIT; OK, the algorithm wouldn't actually be complex. Just start by initializing every item to some arbitrary value; a +1 say 300k, a +2 600k, +3 900k for instance. Then after each trade, adjust the "value" calculation based on the gold delta for the trade. i.e. someone trades a +3 danish & 200k for a +3 Longsword? The "value" of the danish drops to 700k. And just keep a running average based on the last 3 months or whatever.

Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Malaclypse on April 19, 2013, 10:31:47 pm
I don't see why you'd have to get rid of Item for Item trades. Why not just get rid of the ability to add gold to them?
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 19, 2013, 10:40:17 pm
I don't see why you'd have to get rid of Item for Item trades. Why not just get rid of the ability to add gold to them?

Almost no one does it, the few that do are still looking to make unfair deals, and (I imagine) it would make it harder to implement the changes because you would have to make changes to the framework already in place. Instead of just removing the "requested item" column you would have to jig up some new system. Maybe it would be simple to code straight trades and a gold-only system but again I don't think it would be very useful even if it was.

That being said I agree there is no problem with allowing people to trade item for item as long as there is also a system to intuitively determine their relative values.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Kafein on April 19, 2013, 11:04:51 pm
Wrangham, you want evidence that what you propose would effectively hurt a majority of the trades that actually happen ?

Look at this : http://c-rpg.net/index.php?page=marketplacestatistic&view=recent

I cba to make an exact count, but from what I can see, about 1 in 10 heirloom trades (actual trades, not gifts) are full gold/LP vs item trades and roughly 90% are the exchanges you are suggesting to make impossible, out of which about one half involve an additional small sum of gold. And that additional gold is present on both sides of the offers.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 19, 2013, 11:25:10 pm
Wrangham, you want evidence that what you propose would effectively hurt a majority of the trades that actually happen ?

Look at this : http://c-rpg.net/index.php?page=marketplacestatistic&view=recent

I cba to make an exact count, but from what I can see, about 1 in 10 heirloom trades (actual trades, not gifts) are full gold/LP vs item trades and roughly 90% are the exchanges you are suggesting to make impossible, out of which about one half involve an additional small sum of gold. And that additional gold is present on both sides of the offers.

What does this matter? Yes, people are making do with the current system to trade items. That does not change the fact that the system needlessly encourages over pricing and mindless clicking through two dozen trade screens.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Miwiw on April 19, 2013, 11:48:55 pm
Quote
Mwiw - 22 offer on marketplace, all asking for X item in exchange for his near worthless Danish Greatsword.

?

Anyway, I dislike the idea, that's why I downvoted the OP.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Bronto on April 20, 2013, 01:58:32 am
+1 because I've played for a long time and have had people in my clan make stupid trades before they could ask me if it was smart or not. You're right that the people with the most market "experience" (also known as shitlords) will always pull the add gold and it's a deal on you. Just be careful trading and trade with people you know and or like.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Dach on April 20, 2013, 04:41:26 am

Players should only exchange items/loom points for an amount of gold and the 5% tax on item exchanges should be lowered to 1%.

That's stupid... removing item for item trade is the base function of the market... why remove it???

One problem with the current system is that understanding the implications of accepting any given offer requires a near encyclopedic knowledge of prior transactions and patch histories. Players are unable to sift through the labyrinthine amount of offers and requests, let alone draw a meaningful set of conclusions about item value from that data.

lol, yeah I made a 3 year degree's in C-RPG market university to start my career as a trader.  :rolleyes:

- Some players resent change. Players who have invested hundreds of hours into figuring out how to game the market will not like this change.

lol, again hundreds of hours... Yeah I put my item in the market to make profit, You got a problem with that?! Anyway your system wouldn't prevent me from doing profit, it would just make me change the way of doing it.

- Some players think the devs are removing everything from the game and that more complexity is always good. This change will bring about simplicity.

Where will be the simple I trade my item for your item?

- This change will complicate the ability of players to gift heirlooms by trading rocks or straw hats. But there is an easy workaround. Just make a post in the marketplace declaring your intention to trade to so-and-so player and then do it quickly. It isn't like there are many players spamming refresh on the marketplace waiting to grab a deal that an admin will just revert anyways.

Now gift are bad?!? The fuck... If I want to give some of my heirloom to a clanmate, that's my choice and you got nothing to do with that.

===Reduce the Tax===

The 5% tax rate is probably too high for pure gold transfers. I suggest reducing it to 1-2%. I suspect but cannot prove that 99.99% of gold taken out of the system is done so via item repairs and not the tax on transactions so reducing the tax should not affect gameplay.

Here I could agree, fuck tax! That's actually why I charge 55k instead of 50k... Someone need to pay for the stupid tax... and it's not me.  :wink:

Overall you are just removing options, which is bad... Options are good.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 20, 2013, 05:04:25 am
Overall you are just removing options, which is bad... Options are good.

The option to sell things at ridiculously inflated values to players who don't care to study dozens of pages of items is a great addition to C-RPG! My bad, I am only just realizing this. Deleting OP now . . . Viva la options.

Also if you are going to quote something which I have clearly labelled under a section titled "===CONS===" it would be decent to leave that in the quote. You seem to have taken a huge chunk of my OP out of context so I won't respond to the rest of your post.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Dach on April 20, 2013, 05:15:21 am
The option to sell things at ridiculously inflated values to players who don't care to study dozens of pages of items is a great addition to C-RPG! My bad, I am only just realizing this. Deleting OP now . . . Viva la options.

I'm not forcing them to accept my offer... if they don't like it than can just put their own offer for the item they want...

It's called CHOICE...


Also if you are going to quote something which I have clearly labelled under a section titled "===CONS===" it would be decent to leave that in the quote. You seem to have taken a huge chunk of my OP out of context so I won't respond to the rest of your post.

I repsonded to the specific part I wanted to... it's not like I deleted your OP... it's still there to read if someone care...
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Torost on April 20, 2013, 05:51:55 am
Only trading in gold would make the market easier for those that do not follow it closely.
And those who lack patience.
Easier to compare prices, tighter spreads etc..
5% tax is too much pricedistortion, it would have to be removed or reduced.

Today there is a group of players that play the market like its a game.. crpg-trader.
Looking for arbitrages, circletrades that gives profit. Buy low -sell high. Or just see value.
Stocking up on unpopular items today.. like +3 crossbows and +3 Danishes +3 Rusbows,knowing that they will be more popular in the future when the market has cleared out the excess.
You do not have to be very clever either. Just have some patience.

The best profits comes from the ultra-rich gen 30+ players. The old gold crowd.
That just want something INSTANTLY.


Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Rumblood on April 20, 2013, 05:31:55 pm
I down voted you for editing your OP with ad hominem. Next time argue the merits of your case.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Kafein on April 20, 2013, 05:33:16 pm
And those who lack patience.

That's weird, because one heirloom exchange goes faster than two gold trades.

What does this matter? Yes, people are making do with the current system to trade items.

So you are psychic ? How can you tell people want something they already have the option to do, when they are actually doing something else ? That's impressive.

That does not change the fact that the system needlessly encourages over pricing and mindless clicking through two dozen trade screens.

How exactly would a gold based system not encourage overpricing or stop having to go through dozens of trade screens ? Your scenario of I sell my item I don't want, I buy the item I want is simplistic. I could very well sell item A, buy item B, sell item B for profit, and finally buy item C. Even though A and C are defined by what you want and don't want, B can be anything that lets you make a profit, so I would have to go through all the offer screens. Yet guess what, the current system lets you browse potential chaining offers very quickly. About overpricing, patient sellers will remain patient sellers.




Btw your attempts at hurting our arguments with ad hominem are pathetic. Your suggestion has no motivation in reality whatsoever and instead of defending it, you try to dismiss the huge problems we pointed out by ignoring them and justifiying that course of action because "don't listen to dem evil rich baddies !". If you want a civil discussion, follow the rules.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: oohillac on April 20, 2013, 07:04:12 pm
Bartering, bargaining, and locking down trade deals is half the fun of this game for me.  Leave the market alone, and have a -1, OP.

It's impatient traders like you that make me rich!
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Riddaren on April 20, 2013, 08:55:19 pm
I suggest you read this book Wrangham:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Book_of_Communism
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 20, 2013, 11:54:15 pm
I down voted you for editing your OP with ad hominem.

[/quote]

It's ad hominen to post people's publicly listed trade offers? Isn't that an acknowledgment that the behavior is disgusting? Please consult with your forum hivemind before responding!

Quote
Next time argue the merits of your case.

Please go through the suggestions forum and find me any other thread that argues merits better than my OP so I can have an example!
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Malaclypse on April 21, 2013, 12:59:57 am
I +1'd OP and I'm guilty of always asking for gold on top. Trying to get money for respec auction.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Miwiw on April 21, 2013, 02:41:56 am
It's ad hominen to post people's publicly listed trade offers? Isn't that an acknowledgment that the behavior is disgusting? Please consult with your forum hivemind before responding!

Does that mean my behaviour is disgusting because I add 10-25k to my offers to get rid of my Danish?
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Kafein on April 21, 2013, 03:58:33 am
It's ad hominen to post people's publicly listed trade offers ?

You finished high school, right ? It is ad hominem to argue that this publicly available information about them is what motivates people to criticize your terrible suggestion, and not its flaws.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 21, 2013, 05:39:51 am
You finished high school, right ? It is ad hominem to argue that this publicly available information about them is what motivates people to criticize your terrible suggestion, and not its flaws.

Why don't you defend the current market system instead of snarky 1-liner responses tearing my suggestion down? I have 37 posts in over a year and had an idea to improve a game I enjoy. You can't honestly believe raising an army of 8000-post hiveminders -1'ing every post I make regardless of its content is the way to improve c-rpg? When the guy telling me to read a book about death camps gets better treatment I question whether I even care to try any more.

You may disagree with my ideas but please point to one other thread that at least tries to be a critical and intelligent discussion on a controversial topic. GranPappy, a forum admin, accuses me of posting one-sided marketplace activity to insult forumites to win an internet argument, and obviously not because someone's bias is relevant to his opinion. Meanwhile the "poletorch platform" receives overwhelming support. I am slowly realizing that's the way things are on this disservice to the word "forum."
(click to show/hide)

Maybe my idea would not work. I do not have a Ph. D. in economics or years of experience and even people who do still manage to make huge mistakes about markets. But almost every response in this thread has been about how I am a monkey who didn't finish high school instead of about ways to improve an imperfect system.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Zlisch_The_Butcher on April 21, 2013, 06:43:39 am
Wrangham, I think your suggestion is total bullshit, feel free to look up my large number of trades with 50k+ gold for switching one loom for another.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Rhekimos on April 21, 2013, 08:03:33 am
1. Unnecessary.
2. Unnecessarily limits freedom.
3. Wouldn't make the market "fair".
4. Unnecessarily removes depth from the game. (Trading around to get the item you want.)
5. Unnecessary.

I see nothing good coming from this.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Kafein on April 21, 2013, 12:29:50 pm
Why don't you defend the current market system instead of snarky 1-liner responses tearing my suggestion down? I have 37 posts in over a year and had an idea to improve a game I enjoy. You can't honestly believe raising an army of 8000-post hiveminders -1'ing every post I make regardless of its content is the way to improve c-rpg? When the guy telling me to read a book about death camps gets better treatment I question whether I even care to try any more.

You may disagree with my ideas but please point to one other thread that at least tries to be a critical and intelligent discussion on a controversial topic. GranPappy, a forum admin, accuses me of posting one-sided marketplace activity to insult forumites to win an internet argument, and obviously not because someone's bias is relevant to his opinion. Meanwhile the "poletorch platform" receives overwhelming support. I am slowly realizing that's the way things are on this disservice to the word "forum."
(click to show/hide)

Maybe my idea would not work. I do not have a Ph. D. in economics or years of experience and even people who do still manage to make huge mistakes about markets. But almost every response in this thread has been about how I am a monkey who didn't finish high school instead of about ways to improve an imperfect system.

I'm sorry you got the impression I (and others ?) was insulting or attacking you personally in any way. I was criticizing the content of your suggestion, just like all the people that quoted you in this thread.

Then out of nowhere you start implying that I only do this because I have a trade booth. At that moment I thought "fuck this guy" and - ed all your posts. Just like I said before, if you want a civil discussion, start by being civil yourself.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Spleen on April 21, 2013, 07:55:43 pm
just introduce the ability to turn any loomed item into another loomed item.
problem solved, marketplace not needed, maybe also add a timer so nobody switches around every hour...

its not like any of the current goldsinks are actually working atm
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Brrrak on April 21, 2013, 09:44:18 pm
Upvoted.  Not because I sperg out over the marketplace, but because I want to see the post reach equilibrium in votes.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Zaren on April 21, 2013, 10:08:15 pm
I suck at marketplace and loose money constantly because i dont know how to find good trades
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Wrangham on April 22, 2013, 07:07:42 am
I'm sorry you got the impression I (and others ?) was insulting or attacking you personally in any way.

I wonder where I got that impression?
Quote
Then out of nowhere you start implying that I only do this because I have a trade booth. At that moment I thought "fuck this guy" and - ed all your posts.

Oh that's right you gave me the impression when you insulted me!

Quote
Just like I said before, if you want a civil discussion, start by being civil yourself.

Asking Kafein's opinion about the c-rpg marketplace is like asking Larry Page's opinion about "Bing!" or inviting whoever made War of the Roses to critique C-RPG. In America it is entirely civil to point out another's bias in a matter. Senators do not write laws which would profit themselves. Judges do not decide cases which impact their assets.  I am sorry if this is not the case in your culture but I will not apologize if the sensibilities of freedom offend you. So when Kafein says he can transcend bias, I question whether he is really a supremely altruistic and intelligent person descending from his pedestal of reason; or if he is reacting to a suggestion which would significantly and materially impact him.

Bias is probably the most important factor to consider when evaluating someone's opinion:

["Wrangham:"] I suck at marketplace and loose money constantly because i dont know how to find good trades

Blacktiger28 can neither put together a complete sentence nor spell the word "lose." And despite being so upset that he is compelled to go through every post I have written to -1 me, he still understands the importance of bias. Blacktiger28 assumes that I am unable to use the marketplace effectively and am therefore biased against the system. His decidedly un-civil and mostly inaccurate message is more compelling than any other response in this thread.

Contrast it with this post:

Bartering, bargaining, and locking down trade deals is half the fun of this game for me.  Leave the market alone, and have a -1, OP.

It's impatient traders like you that make me rich!

At least oohillac can write a complete sentence. But it's the same message that he and Kafein and a dozen other posters embarrass themselves by repeating: "System is fair, say profiteers of system."
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Falka on April 22, 2013, 08:24:01 am
it's the same message that he and Kafein and a dozen other posters embarrass themselves by repeating: "System is fair, say profiteers of system."

I told u in my first post, marketplace is not fair, just like c-rpg isn't fair. Rich ppl have an advantage over poor ones, smart guys like me have advantage over dumbasses like you :lol: But it doesn't mean your suggestion is something other than bullshit  :wink:
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: DUKE DICKBUTT on April 22, 2013, 08:59:48 am
I would just like to reiterate that the Large Booths are the worst part of the market.  It prevents us from having a truly free market economy, and 6 (or is it 5) players are allowed to control the entire loom point economy.  So if your main concern is people who are already rich getting richer, this mechanic is the worst offender.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Riddaren on April 22, 2013, 07:02:54 pm
I would just like to reiterate that the Large Booths are the worst part of the market.  It prevents us from having a truly free market economy, and 6 (or is it 5) players are allowed to control the entire loom point economy.  So if your main concern is people who are already rich getting richer, this mechanic is the worst offender.

That's true. However, the bidding is between the richest/most active traders on the marketplace.
It's just like in real life. The richer you are, the easier it becomes to make good profit.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Miwiw on April 22, 2013, 07:07:41 pm
If you got time, it's quite easy to become rich. Of course you must use the time first to farm gold or retire and sell your LPs for good prices. Never loom anything yourself, sell LPs or use them to buy +3 items for 2 LPs (and maybe a little gold). Patience is very important.
Only those who stick with this, can use the market properly and make some profit.

I'm myself quite impatient but still made some good deals (and many bad deals because I wanted those items!!), and got some good profit until now.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Grumpy_Nic on April 22, 2013, 08:24:13 pm
also this:

http://forum.meleegaming.com/suggestions-corner/torch-48366/
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Kafein on April 23, 2013, 11:22:00 am
I wonder where I got that impression?
Oh that's right you gave me the impression when you insulted me!

So you see, there are three different things, one called the past, one called the present and the last one called the future. You started going apeshit in the past, which lead me to insult you after that. Now you are arguing that your motivation was something that actually happened in the then-future. That is much interesting, as causality is most often considered not to go back in time. Even more interesting, this is a prerequisite cycle, as I wouldn't have insulted you if you didn't fall back to ad hominem in the first place.


Asking Kafein's opinion about the c-rpg marketplace is like asking Larry Page's opinion about "Bing!" or inviting whoever made War of the Roses to critique C-RPG. In America it is entirely civil to point out another's bias in a matter. Senators do not write laws which would profit themselves. Judges do not decide cases which impact their assets.  I am sorry if this is not the case in your culture but I will not apologize if the sensibilities of freedom offend you. So when Kafein says he can transcend bias, I question whether he is really a supremely altruistic and intelligent person descending from his pedestal of reason; or if he is reacting to a suggestion which would significantly and materially impact him.

Except you are mixing opinions and arguments. The list of actual trades being made isn't an opinion, it is a fact. You are failing to get pretty basic rethoric stuff right (and no it doesn't depend on freedom, which as we all know only exists in America).

To describe the situation, let me give you an imaginary example : suppose you debate with Pepsi PR personel which soft is the best between Pepsi and Coca Cola. They are biased as hell. Yet if they prove you that each Coca Cola bottle contains harmful quantities of radioactive strontium, if you say their argument is null because they are biaised, you are stupid. As a matter of fact, when discussing actual arguments bias doesn't matter, unlike with pseudo-arguments and opinions.

Basically what you are doing is taking every criticism as opinion. What about you then ? It is your suggestion, of course you want it to be right ! Your opinions are biaised too !


Also just so you know, I have to pay more than 100k gold (and regularly more than 200k) for this booth every two weeks to keep it. Much unlike the "undeserved and unfair advantage" you make it out to be. I even ended up in loss twice because the booth price was very high at those moments. In fact, I would love being able to trade properly without this booth and only having to pay a 1% tax.

I'm not criticizing your suggestion for personal reasons, I'm showing you it is bad.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Grumpy_Nic on April 23, 2013, 12:08:40 pm
Marketplace is just a joke anyway these days. Full of bullshit offers from booth owners. Kill it
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Tindel on April 25, 2013, 11:55:21 am
Its a great idea, i always make bad trades xD
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Matey on April 25, 2013, 12:07:57 pm
i only read page 1... but it sounds like a great way to make the market more accessible for everyone. the only thing i would add is that if you want to give a loom to someone it should be as easy as offering 1 gold for a triple loomed item. im fine with gold only listings but you should be able to offer gold for an item instead of just an item for gold, that way not only can you transfer items easily if needed but you can also make a lower bid for an item if you feel people are overcharging.

p.s. anyone doubting that it would be easier to keep track of item values... there is already a "transaction history" for items but it only lists when the item was sold for gold only. with this system every single transaction for an item would show up there and you could easily check exactly how much the item usually goes for and how frequently they sell.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: sF_Guardian on April 26, 2013, 04:02:43 pm
Why the hell you dont just leave unfair trades and search for a fair trade to do?
If I want an item badly and want to pay 100k on top of mine to trade, why not?
I mean after all you're not forced to buy anything.
And 55k is really not that much, 2 days of casual playin in cheap gear and you have it, wheres the problem?
To me this sounds like no improvement but just a way to prevent the failers from failing.
And after all the failers will still fail, be sure.
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Zaren on April 27, 2013, 08:42:19 am
Zaren(blacktiger28) has a gigantic peni.......heart
why thank you
Title: Re: Enforce Gold-Only Transactions
Post by: Nukkel on April 27, 2013, 09:49:58 am
I think this a great idea.

+1