Satrina Wrote:I'm fine with this. The second the AH is put into the game, RMT will swoop in and ruin the economy,ala Aion style. I would rather go a few months with players stabilizing the economy through trades.
Did anyone here play Lineage 2? It was/is notoriously one of the worst RMT games out there and they work on a bazaar system (though, I think they may have added a limited AH recently).
The RMT people controlled the market because they would buy low and sell high, just like you do on the AH. Since you had to go through a crap load of bazaars to find what you wanted, half the time you'd find it at an insane price... and because it was nearly impossible to find a competing price you'd buy it or not get it. It wasn't like people with a certain item would cluster together to compete (it did happen sometimes, mostly with consumables though). So many people bought gold, got the item at a jacked up price which was essentially giving the gold back to the RMT so they could sell it to some other sap.
Eventually, they did add a limited search function. Since all bazaars were able to type a little message of what they were selling that showed over the character's head, you could then search for a term and it would highlight the signs. That was a big help, but it just made it easier for the RMT to buy up the good stuff and sell it high. XIV so far has no signs, but a bunch of rooms with creepy people standing around. You have no idea what they are selling and it could take you hours to find what you want, which I guess is a good thing since it can take the same time for an RMT person to find something. But with all this effort to stop RMT, all you're doing is making it hard for everyone else. There is really no easy answer. The RMT people make a living off this. They have tons of people that just do this all day long. You won't deter them this easily, unfortunately.
Honestly, I don't think one system is better than the other, but I know people have a strong feeling on this and I'm not trying to start an argument. I just don't think Bazaars will stop RMT especially if L2 is any indication as they were alive and well there to the point that you pretty much HAD to buy gold if you wanted to succeed.
Granted L2 had other issues, such as you couldn't get armor from drops (typically) and higher level armor could only be crafted by one race, which was stupid.
