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The g.e. was originally a Player submitted idea, which was aimed at allowing players to buy and sell their items more efficiently than simply scouring through the trade forums or standing in Falador park coping with the spam.
I envisioned it as an in game access to the already thriving marketplace forums, which would allow me to focus more on playing than opening another browser window to find a trade offer I was interested in and hoping the other player was still on line.
Where the g.e. failed, in my opinion, is that it allowed a single player to purchase a large quantity of items from several hundred players all in a single transaction. Instead of giving players better access to trade opportunities, it gave direct access to the items themselves.
I play another game, Path of Exile, which has a similar marketplace forum, and several chat channels devoted to trading, posting your offer in the forum automatically posts it to the trade channel and can verify that you actually have the items you are selling.
Ingame access to this list of offers is effected by a bulletin board at each banking area, which does not require a separate area on the game map and keeps the public spam to nothing, although the chat traffic in the several devoted channels is equaly as hectic as the current Varrock trading areas.
I personally think the Auction House should act as an agent to help us find trade offers and should not greatly automate our ability to buy or sell items, especially from more than a single trader per transaction.
Perhaps a better vision for the Auction house is to have it as a communication medium which will connect us to the person we are trading with, without the need to change worlds or add them to our friends list. It could then connect us through the existing trading windows which allow us the chance to not be scammed.
This x100000000000
Seriously reconsider the current design and make it unique.
23-May-2014 18:12:02
