No Auction House? Is Equipment fun? How would you make it fun?

AbstractThou

IMO, I liked the way EQ1 handled crafters and player-trading.

It didn't have an Auction House back in the old days, nor did it have a Broker. Instead, players sold based on /auction channel, and they advertised themselves as crafters on /auction.

/auction Weapons Crafter looking for work, PST!

I remember asking a blacksmith how much armor I could get for a specific amount of money, and him telling me for [this much] he can make a FULL SET. With my current armor being crappy, regular equipment hard-to-find or too expensive on the NPC, I got a completely new set of awesome looking, fashionable (It was all the same color!!!), awesome-stats armor.

Whenever I need a set of bronze platemail, I'd /auction WTB bronze armor, scrounge the money, and then use ALL my money to buy the new equipment.

 

Why did I like this system? Why would I prefer not having an Auction House or Broker? Because back then, equipment was hard-to-find, and getting it, looting it, questing it, crafting it, or buying it from players was an accomplishment in itself. It made you feel like yo actually achieved something when you upgraded your weapons, armor, or equipment. You were always strapped for cash, so you spent your coin carefully, with a lot of wisdom and planning.

Now-a-days you can take all your coin (which is PLENTY enough), go to the AH or Broker, buy equipment for CHEAP (or even average), and throw away your quest items, throw away your loot items, throw away your old crap, and buy an entire set with money left over.

When I play these current MMO's, like WoW, equipment loses its meaning. At level 5, I just go to the AH and buy a rare sword for cheap, and now I am twinked. In fact, with crafting alchemy, I was able to make enough money to TWINK myself at level 19, despite the fact that was my highest character. I had all blue-gear, and I was owning the twinks in PvP.

Is there a better solution than chunking the AH and adding /auction as the only method? Absolutely.

Right now, I don't want to think of how though.

 

Give me YOUR idea of how to make equipment FUN again, or if you think equipment is already FUN enough. Give your opinion, your ideas, etc.

The TOPIC is: Equipment and what it takes to be fun.

Discuss!

AbstractThou

One method does come to mind, which is to have all items player crafted, encourage crafting players to set up "shop hours" IRL time, and when the shops open, the player can play the part of Merchant, just like you did in Dragon Warrio 4 with Taloon.

Only players online can sell, as it's ALL player trading. No vendors, no NPC's, no "npc shops", no auction house, no broker, nothing but players and player salesmen.

IMO, this would be very fun, as you would have both equipment INFORMATION and equipment SALES in the same place. You want a new weapon? Well, you step up to the player-merchant and ask, "I want a new weapon, what would you recommend?"

Perhaps you can have a menu with common items and prices, or a general price-range menu.

Regardless, this requires COMMUNICATION, forcing players to interact with each other, which is the driving core of MMORPG's, and the reason MMO's are becoming boring. You group in an MMO now, and no one talks. You ask for a group, and everyone says "I'm solo." You expect community, teamwork, communication, but get a single player game with multiplayer regional chat.

Make crafters and salesmen different. Setup a "marketplace" in several places. A system where shops "come online", with player-run crafting, player-run shops that open and close. Make a gameplay system where getting equipment wasn't vital and required "right away!" so that players who decide to wait for the cheaper merchants (Most likely prime-time) can wait, instead of buying from the more expensive merchants.

Perhaps the only shop open at 5am has ridiculous prices. Maybe the servers are inter-continental, so while the USA primetime  players close shop, the EU players open shop.

 

Please don't critique, fault-find, or tell me of why you think my idea is stupid, flawed, or bad. For one, I don't care about your opinion. Two, it's just a random thought, not something to be taken seriously.

badgerbadger

"Please don't critique, fault-find, or tell me of why you think my idea is stupid, flawed, or bad. For one, I don't care about your opinion. Two, it's just a random thought, not something to be taken seriously."

 for one: then this should be a blog; not a thread.

for two: What's wrong with random thoughts?  A little brainstorming never hurts.

 

  My two cents is...

  Always use reality as a model and modify from there - its a good starting reference.

   In reality; weapons potent enough to be the determinants of power will not be tolerated to be sold indiscriminately by private individuals by the powers that be.

  Now most games have little connection to reality or internally-consistent logic; but even in a magical world one can conclude that there is still going to be politics and rulers and...

  Oh wait I'm discussing roleplaying and story-writing; and i forgot - no one gives a dog's steaming turd about any of that anymore...

Froma game point of view; my experience has been that selling magic items that arein limitless supply means the only commodity is time - so people are really selling the time and effort of 'mining'  them

 which is certainly a balancer for thise who don't have the time..

 But IN MY EXPERIENCE; the way most games are set up; item's level requirements don't reflect the level of adventure/opponent that you would actually procure the item - so buying items pretty much breaks the game balance and promotes the "accessible" - no real challenge - game.  Some people of course use this to race to the end-game where the adventures EXPECT 'leet gear' and suddenly its challenging and interesting again.