Merits of an Auction Channel

Archive of the Sojourn3 Ideas Forum.
Azur
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Merits of an Auction Channel

Postby Azur » Mon Apr 21, 2003 12:49 pm

I'm not sure if the viability of an auction channel has ever been looked into. There would be many benefits:

A 10% mud surcharge for each transaction would help cut down inflation.

People would have an easier time getting rid of/aquiring stuff (currently it is a real headache hooking up with people especially being overseas).

It would add a new twist to the mud and breath new life into it.

It could be completely automated, so it could run at all times.

Since it would be global, good/evil relations would be irrelevant.

Basically I imagine it would work like this. It would be a channel you could toggle on or off. When toggled on, you could have commands like "auction helm 100" which would set a minimum price of 100 plats on whatever helm you had. Then people could bid on it with something like "bid 1 150" which would bid on item 1 for 150 p. There would also need to be a command to bring up current items for auction, and the time left on them. The duration could be either short or long, depending on what works best.

I look forward to any feedback anyone has on this, especially from gods. I'm really frustrated with trying to sell/aquire stuff with other players, and have been kicking this idea around awhile.
Treladian
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Postby Treladian » Mon Apr 21, 2003 7:20 pm

There are certain rules about stuff you can't sell. To enforce those rules on an auction channel, the gods would have to have someone monitering it 24/7. I don't think many of them are jumping at the thought of that (except possibly off bridges).
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Postby Pheten » Mon Apr 21, 2003 9:48 pm

"There are certain rules about stuff you can't sell. To enforce those rules on an auction channel, the gods would have to have someone monitering it 24/7. I don't think many of them are jumping at the thought of that (except possibly off bridges)."

And do you think someone monitors all trades between players 24/7? If anything this would probably be easier to monitor than a simple transaction between two people at 2am in the morning.

pheten
Tanji Smanji
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Postby Tanji Smanji » Mon Apr 21, 2003 11:04 pm

I think the real downside to this idea is the fact most stuff isn't sold, it's traded. There's no standard pricing system in place to sell items. If there was a use for plat aside from the rare auctions this might be a fairly good idea.
Kifle
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Postby Kifle » Tue Apr 22, 2003 12:06 am

The reason for plat uselessness is because most people are scared to sell because they fear not being able to use the plat. It would be nice to have some sort of monitary/item equivalence system somehow.
ssar
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Postby ssar » Tue Apr 22, 2003 11:55 am

Yea, this idea has merit for sure.
Auctions are a great way to sell items, and more of them, including the fact that they are a good ude for plats would be cool.

The coding for such a channel as the admins would like it might be tricky, dunno.
BEER
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Postby Bilraex » Tue Apr 22, 2003 2:43 pm

I don't think theres a huge coding issue for an auction channel. The other 2 muds ive played based on this code have had auction channels. And as far as the selling of quest items, lots of them already have !sell flags, which the auction channel could easily check for.
I think it would be nice to make the 30k in plats usefull for something.
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Postby Llaaldara » Tue Apr 22, 2003 6:16 pm

I like this idea a LOT!! :D :D :D

I was just thinking about running regular auctions for people. They'd give me eq, tell me min bid, and I'd hold weekly auctions selling other peoples gear all to get some form of economy going again. This is a great idea! It means I wouldn't have to! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

As for code. Hey! If I can code it into zmud, as I pretty much did. I'm sure one of the code monkeys can surely do a mucho spiffer mud version! :mrgreen:


GImmIE!!!!! :twisted:

-LL
Azur
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Postby Azur » Fri Apr 25, 2003 8:00 am

Thanks for all the input. I'd like to expand on the economy and how I believe an auction channel would affect it. Right now, I would venture to guess that most people have a lot of money. I for one do. I also feel it is largely useless. I can only buy so many rations and waterskins.

Whenever I look at the FS/T board, I find the majority of items are FOR TRADE only. If we don't use money to trade with, than what good is it at all?

The one (and only) place I consistantly see money being exchanged is at the auction hall in BG. Anymore, things sell for simply outrageous prices. Why? Simple economics. There is actually a huge demand for a permanent auction channel. The few we have now are in such high demand that people will often pay 20K+ for an item. By implementing an auction, prices would remain high for awhile, but gradually would decrease, until a rational level is found and maintained.

With the current auction system, 100% of the money goes to the seller. More money is going into the game than is going out. This causes inflation. Think 20K is high for an item today? In a few years it could be 100K. This could be so easily remedied however. Apply a 10% charge to every item that is sold on the auction channel, and for every 20K trade, 2k plats is eliminated from the game. Eventually the marketplace will STABILIZE, and inflation will be seriously reduced and the economy will come back to reality.

I truly urge an administrator to become a part of this conversation, because I think it is vital to the mud's future. In fact, here is what I predict if this is not implemented. I believe that once again, the economy will get out of control, and the elites will become so uber rich with items and platinum that the only way to equalize things will be a pwipe.

The less elite need access to the elite marketplace in order to prevent a need for a pwipe. Also, money must go out of the mud in proportion to how much is created. In real life we spend most of our money, no? We don't make 100K and then spend 1 dollar on food and water every month or two do we? If we did, inflation would ruin our economy, and money would become useless. Well, money is becoming pretty useless on the mud too. Don't you see the simple solution to all of this?
Azur
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Postby Azur » Fri Apr 25, 2003 8:15 am

I'd also like to add a few notes on the implementation of this system, should it be decided that it would be beneficial to the mud.

When an item is sold, it should be transfered automatically to the buyer. This service is part of the 10% surcharge, and justifies the charge.

When bidding, each consecutive bid should require at least a 10% increase over the last. This will keep the bidding from going on and on forever.

The 10% mud surcharge should be subrtracted from the final price, not added to it. The reason for this is pretty obvious.

An item that has no bidders should be "held" by the auction system. In other words, deleted. This will be an incentive not to sell junk on the channel.

There should be only one auction channel, open to everyone, regardless of race, level or alignment. Paladins should not be limited from buying on the auction channel.

People should be able to talk over the auction channel, in order to see or ask for item requirements/restrictions. Either that, or automatically make the stats available to buyers. There is absolutely no sense in making an auction channel if buyers don't know what they are bidding for.

I'll post more ideas as they come.
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Postby Teralyn » Fri Apr 25, 2003 9:17 am

The last mud that I played on had an auction command. Had all of the issues that Azur has mentioned. Only difference was that you could only bid one thing at a time, and it wasn't a channel. I'm sure someone could figure a way to work it in. It would also give poor people like myself a chance to make a little money if we were to aquire an item that someone is looking for. Good thinking Azur! =)


-Teralyn
Azenilsee
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Postby Azenilsee » Fri Apr 25, 2003 9:56 am

I just wanted to support this idea, cause there's only so much plats you can have. Tho certain quests do help control the plat inflation somewhat, lots of people still have lots of money that right now has no value.

Plus I like to buy stuff. :)
Azenilsee - Faern Dalharil
Clan Blindhammer
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Postby Clan Blindhammer » Fri Apr 25, 2003 5:52 pm

-grumble- Yer all daft.

1. Are ya trying to be runnin' Clan Blindhammer out o business? Quit yer marketeerin' ideas and go find me some eq to swindle ye out of!

2. mmail, the message boards, and auction boards, shouts, and tells kinda kill the idea. That is free lines of communication, no surcharges...moving around and meeting people is not hard if the people really want something. I don't wanna be mean and blow this idea out of the water, but when I have things to sell to goodies, I move to WD. If I have things to sell to evils, I'm in DK. It's all part of the business to move to where the customer is, and taking that out is just...lazy.
Guest

Postby Guest » Sat Apr 26, 2003 8:13 am

Kifle wrote:The reason for plat uselessness is because most people are scared to sell because they fear not being able to use the plat. It would be nice to have some sort of monitary/item equivalence system somehow.


OMG! plats useless?
With all the slot machines in the realms how can you say this???
Azur
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Postby Azur » Sat Apr 26, 2003 9:59 am

You're joking, I hope Azuth!

Those dang machines keep 95% of the money you feed into them. Talk about a joke!
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Postby loshaenar » Sun May 04, 2003 4:09 am

k... i am another of those who have played on muds with auction channels..and generally they work really well... is anyone else getting tired of reading countless FT: posts on the bbs...where someone cut and pastes there bag contents..... 6 arrows, pile of dung, blah blah blah blah... only interested in surtur...etc etc etc... some of the suggestions u've made about possible outcomes for this place are pretty scary...but very real.... what are we doing with our money ?? how many of us have unlimited hours following up quests and throwing 2k here... 8k there... and then coming up with a new shiny thing...which we then want to trade...

it's scary because i see us as halfway there already... i know we all at some point come back to baseline thinking "it's MINE! i did it, i won it, i quested it, i own it all..it's MINE MINE MINE MINE..."... common..don't deny it...at some point we all have our clucky moments... and for those of us who want to hang onto to said crap that we never use...that's cool..

but i really do think that 2 things need to happen here.. :

1. Implement an auction system like the one proposed.... who knows, we might attract some of those rarely seen true noobs again..

2. let's explore possibilities for plat plz.. ?? i'll happily start another thread about ideas... guildhalls is one extreme... but other outlets... restrings ? hell..own personal airship ? fund an orphanage ??? whatever... and don't mention those goddamned slot machines... mudding as an addiction is bad enuff...but gambling WHILE mudding.... oh god...more prozac plz.

interested in seeing where this goes :)

Locky.
Llaaldara
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Postby Llaaldara » Wed May 07, 2003 6:24 pm

Clan Blindhammer wrote:-grumble- Yer all daft.

1. Are ya trying to be runnin' Clan Blindhammer out o business? Quit yer marketeerin' ideas and go find me some eq to swindle ye out of!

2. mmail, the message boards, and auction boards, shouts, and tells kinda kill the idea. That is free lines of communication, no surcharges...moving around and meeting people is not hard if the people really want something. I don't wanna be mean and blow this idea out of the water, but when I have things to sell to goodies, I move to WD. If I have things to sell to evils, I'm in DK. It's all part of the business to move to where the customer is, and taking that out is just...lazy.


Yeah but Artipants, Clan Blindhammer could get really rich with an auction channel!! :D They wouldn't be so limited in how much they sold things for (since auctions are notorious for letting you get more money for something!) Plus! Clan Blindhammer wouldn't be limited in who they are selling to, because anyone logged on would be able to bid! Not just limited to the zone! Soon You'll be Artideepocketpants! :D

And I'm not arguing with you! :D

-LL

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