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[Column] Elder Scrolls Online: Examining the Economy in ESO
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
The Elder Scrolls Online will not launch with a feature that some MMORPG players almost take for granted now - an auction house. Instead, ESO will feature a system where individuals are on their own, as well as an economy intricately tied into the game’s guild system. This way of handling the player economy has multiple implications for ESO’s features and seems intended to encourage players to actually talk to one another in some ways. Will it be a success?
Read more of Christina Gonzalez's Elder Scrolls Online: Examining the Economy in ESO.
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Comments
200,000 beta keys are almost gone since yesterday. Lol.
Endo, this might be your guy!
In all seriousness, the auction house (less) system is really neat. Back in the day (pre-WoW) MMO's like DAOC actually had meaningful conversation in Zone chats and such. People were looking for gear and other items to be crafted for them by the crafters right then and there. It builds a community. Which is something that is lost in a lot of newer MMOs. Might even drowned out some of the spam from trolls that usually destroy zone chat systems.
Just my thoughts.
Welcome to "Wholesalers of Tamriel", our guild consists of 100 crafters who make EVERYTHING. The other 400 spots are reserved for "customers". You get an invite for 1 hour, get to take your time browing the shop, then get kicked out by our friendly "storefront staff". Come back soon!
There, i just solved the entire auction house problem.
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That will totally happen haha
Rather than it being guild focussed. Trade will be fociussed on individuals who ply their trade in certain towns and become well known for what they do.
Yhats a whole lot easier to deral wit hthan trying to stay ina a guild or running around trying to get to a specific guild keep whilst it is still in a particular guilds control.
I have run a 500 player guild in Warhammer and players are not so keen to help their guild mates as people might imagine.
Stuyf in demand will sell in trade channels people will grab the rest of the rubbish when they can mostly .. not organise their play around which guild has a store up the most often.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
No auction house? This is going to be fantastic! I still fondly remember GW1's "Spamadan", aka, Kamadan, where all chat channels were constantly bombarded with WTS/WTB/WTT.
And guild shops only in keeps held by your guild? There are 18 keeps on the map, so expect your side to hold 6-10 in a not too lopsided match. Surely, there can't be more than 10 guilds in your alliance and timeslot competing for spots to open up shop? Also looking forward to staying up until 4am, because that's when the guild comes online with that Russian weapons crafter who makes those awesome swords!
I hope the community will make enough noise about this to get it changed, like the starter island thingie.
This is pretty much whats going to happen. The whole guild opening a store in Cyrodill with a claimed keep will be meaningless. Not only is that store only viable while you control the keep, its also tied to a specific campaign. The vast majority of players wont even have access to it, even if they didnt care that it was PVP. Something this article seems to not point out.
Also, guilds ARE crossfaction, at least in every beta so far. Something the article got wrong. The only thing is, if you are not in the same alliance as the guild you are in, then you cannot participate in the same Cyrodill campaign as your guild. Which of course doesnt matter, since you can still use the guild store.
Like the quote I used above, the most effective way to trade will be to join the guild you want to buy from for 10 minutes, get what you want, then leave. I applaude ZOS for trying to do something different, but in the end all it does is inconvenience everyone.
Oh and of course, the chat spam.... because thats exactly what players want. /sigh
Only difference this will make is, as ButeoRegalis mentions, there'll be even more spamming in various channels than are rampant in other MMO's today.
This is not, by any means, good news.
Sounds bad... but im guessing there is a system to it which makes it similar to an auction house that potential customers can buy goods at any time from specific vendors.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
"Guilds are not (yet?) cross-faction..."
I played as an Altmer Templar in the Aldmeri Dominion and got to level 11 before I found out that a bunch of group members from another game had started a guild in ESO. They sent me an invite, I accepted, and continued on my merry way. About 20 minutes later, I noticed that they were all Ebonhearts...wait! What?
This struck me odd at first. I was confused but as there were only a few hours left in the weekend test, I felt the need to reroll and get a character started with the Ebonheart Pact. This time I rolled a Dunmer Templar (I don't have a thing for elves! I swear, it's only for the magika boosts!).
Upon logging in, I noticed that I was in a guild already. Neat! They go by account rather than character. I wonder now. Does the 500 limit, then, mean characters or accounts? If it's characters, I see at least one issue. Guilds kicking people for too many alts. If it's capped at 500 accounts, well...that's just f***ing sweet!
The player interaction and having people likely migrate to popular hubs to "spam" their goods could actually kind of be immersive.Would put me in mind of SWG doctors hanging out at med centers or starports in Coronet. Or even in UO; even though they might have vendors at a house, they would be at Brit or Moonglow advertising their shop and casting gates for travel.
Sometimes; what seems inconvenient makes the old school in me grin and willingly take every bit of it.
The economy aspect, and crafting aspect, are some of the most interesting and impressive things about ESO in my eyes. I do know many of the posts, regarding issues with this game, seem confused on what kind of game ESO is.
It's fine to question the combat system (I think ranged needs some work, and melee needs that hair trigger feel), or even the Intro itself (that's opinion though).
However, a lot of problems and worries I see are about end game. Raids not being in it, and WoW like aspects. You WoW fans out there, this isn't a rush to end game, and stand in a capital, waiting for your raid wait to pop, while you troll in between. If you want that sort of game, You aren't going to find it in Wildstar, ESO, or EQN. Best to stick to WoW, with the option to buy 60 dollar boosted characters.
"What tastes like purple?"
Man I loved EQ! Loved it! I'm old school when it comes to MMORPGs. I like death penalties, i like deleveling, I like forced grouping, I like huge worlds, I hate bread crumb quests, I like crafting that actually matters, I hate Cross realm LFAnything, etc., you get the picture.
I HATE this factor of ESO. EC tunnel was a clusterfuck of spam, spam, spam. EC made LFG spam seem like a silent movie. One of the few innovations for newer MMOs has been the AH. It's awesome. Put it up and forget it. It sells, or it doesn't. Having to scroll through "trade" chat looking for something is a boring mechanic.
I can't get the other "older" features back in these new games, but someone thinks this is good? Ugh!
I think in the long run they will either end up ignoring player demand or they will listen and give players a way to trade with anyone and not just people in the same guild as them
imo the current trade system in TESO is one of the games weak points
Except you can be in multiple guilds and assuming the rumors about guild size at launch being much higher are true you will be able to be not only in social guilds but also alliance guilds and even trading guilds if you want. This game is going to require people to think about guilds a bit differently. At least ones 2 to 5 as I think guild 1 will still be a traditional guild makeup.
Assuming there is value to commerce I can see alliances forming to defend the keep networks needed to keep the trade stores open. If there really isn't any value in having those stores people won't bother. A lot of this depends on how self contained PVP and PVE players can be with small group crafting and token/gold merchants.