I...I have nothing to say negatively about this so I'm very pleased to finally have a good thing to talk about.
The good people over at Blizzard clearly were able to listen to the concerns of players very well and have finally brought upon us one of the ideas most requested as far as questing is concerned. No longer are we going to have to pick and choose what we have to miss out on just because we are interested in more than what the current 25 cap allows us. As it stands for me, I'm a Tol Barad, Molten Front, Argent Tournament, and Ogri'la rep fan but I'd be taking Molten Front every time and I suppose I could have done Ogri'la to fill in some of what was left but the limit gave me the feeling (even though it's somewhat nonsensical) that if you do one thing, why *bother* doing anything else? Again, doesn't really make sense, since getting something out of a secondary grind is better than nothing but it's just the way I felt.
With this change, I can finally just go crazy on everything I want. I already have all I want from the Netherwing and Sha'tari Skyguard so fortunately I'm not going to overexert myself on quests (read: that aren't MoP quests, at least). I'm actually almost done Molten Front and Tol Barad is only going to continue until I have the wolf mount (have had the drake forever and recently got the gull before I went into Molten Front stuff again). Heck, Ogri'la and the Argent Tournament are really the only long-term dailies to really bother with based solely on that they are so slow to do anything with (and I hate playing Simon because my memory isn't that good), though the latter I only need a few more mounts from (the ones that cost 100 marks each), the pony bridle for my squire (what? I thought that's what my Argent Gruntling *was*!). Also, pets to sell are certainly something I'll finally get into though many others have already been doing so.
There is one thing, though, that worries some people about this. They feel that it will be a case of quantity over quality for their questing experience as far as the new dailies are concerned for when MoP is released. I can see where they come from and don't want to mindlessly repeat the same tasks with a Pandaren look slapped on.
Though I am not in the MoP beta, because Blizzard implemented this daily cap change I am confident that the level 90 content for dailies (maybe a few 86 to 89 ones, as well?) will also actually make our dailies more interesting so it is just not more of the same things we are used to: kill x creatures, collect x items, turn in x progression marks. Sure, I outright *expect* a fair number of them to be these tried and true processes, but nothing BUT them? Not a chance.
In an MMO there are certainly limits to what can be done for objectives but I find that there are more creative people than what we really give the human race credit for. Heck, a mere *small* example of what could be done is mimic a quest like the one in the Molten Front where you must go around the rune-filled cave and disrupt the summoning ritual for the elemental reinforcements. Running around getting chased by mobs which then disappear as long as you click a rune when said mobs are close enough to you? It's a nice take on quests involving mobs without killing them in the traditional fashion.
I understand not all share my perspective in this matter and are fairly jaded to any potential for hope in this regard but keeping an open mind, even if not continuing one's subscription, it wouldn't hurt to at least occasionally read about the MoP experience. If you find that you are bored and WoW is actually making a few changes in the direction you feel is to be expected of such a massively popular game, then you can judge it to be a game worth coming back to.
If not, feel free to join the naysayers who predict WoW's demise whenever so much as a free-to-play browser game comes out. I won't judge you on that. I'll be annoyed, yes, but judge? No, I'd rather just play my awesome unlimited daily quest game.
Thursday 24 May 2012
Friday 18 May 2012
Auction House Annoyances
Been a while since my last post and I don't believe anyone but myself is reading this (and I'm only re-reading it when posted to more easily find mistakes I've made whilst typing) but here I go again with a new post (finally).
The auction house is a very tiresome and, as far as I'm concerned, outdated.
You have anywhere from hundreds to thousands of players trying to sell what is essentially the same crap to each other. Some use the Auction House Key (or whatever that stupid tool is), to addons, to just making educated guesses and simple math to determine prices.
I fit into that last category. I hate most addons. In fact, I run not even DBM right now (why bother? when others have it, it tells even those who don't have it what is going on, so only timer bars would be extra for me and I never look at those ANYWAY due to trying to pay attention what is happening to my characters).
Why? Why would I hate things that make players' experiences easier and less stressful? Well, I don't give a rat's ass about if other people use them (except anything that tells you about rare spawns active in an area as well as telling you what the opposite team in PvP consists of, that's blatant cheating since otherwise you would have to, oh, I don't know...actually *look* for said spawns and see for yourself whether or not they were active as well as keep track of each individual player opposite of you in PvP to determine classes and how many of them there are).
Sorry, getting back to addons here, it's just that I, personally, don't like automation to such extents. I think for myself and, besides, I hate all this one copper/silver/gold/percent undercutting crap. I list things super high if I want to see if anyone rich will bite when I list something really rare and unique, moderate/average when I just want to sell things that are commonly used and is not unusual to ask a given price for, and low when the listings have few uses, easier than most things to get, awkward because its something not usually considered worth putting up for auction, etc. It's simple.
Like I mentioned earlier, I feel the auction house is outdated. It has been suggested countless times before I ever looked into it but it is certainly worth repeating: give people the tools to just make public listings of what items they want and how much they are willing to pay for them. If someone feels it is worth their time, they will answer their ad and sell the desired items. Both parties leave happy and there is no competition with other players other than the simple "who can do it first?"
By all means, keep the standard auction house as it is but just add the above to it, is all. Or make a separate NPC for that, I don't care. Just do it.
Another thing that could be added is merely a play on the recently discussed Black Market Auction House on the MoP beta. Currently, it is filled with rare and/or outright removed items from the game.
Want Ashes of Al'ar? Okay, just be willing to compete with the insanely rich who won't give it a second thought about buying it. I am, but I am pretty dependent on investments paying off in MoP that I've saved up for literally several years to sell at a higher price. That's right. YEARS.
Well, anywhoo, for expanding on this idea is to create a relatively small (read: high but not so high as for it to truly rival the current system) population of fictional sellers of whom you can buy your basic bread & butter items from (herbs, ore, cloth, etc.) with a dash of more out-of-the-way items if farming to get that nice but annoyingly-costed profession item done. Stuff like that.
Buying them would maybe be a bit awkward because it would need some way of scanning the current auction house for what is reasonable prices and posting around that average, if not a smidge lower. The best part of that end of it is because it's not open to manipulation as much as you would think. No one in their right mind is going to "trick" the NPC auction house into posting low enough prices that they could just score some great deals on the same items because everyone *else* would just buy up the far greater amount of cheaper items from the person doing the manipulating. It's far too risky unless you're on some sickenly dead server in which case it would likely be pointless to do this manipulation in the first place.
So, essentially, it would be the ultimate gold dump. Sure, big-ticket items are a good draw to drain humongous portions of gold all at once but they would likely not sell often. What is needed is to use this idea and make auctions that will be *consistently* bought out at a reasonably fast pace.
It wouldn't really hurt those who farm out items for a decent living, as well, since they would always have far more materials than offered in the alternate auction house.
So, in conclusion, I feel that with the described actions above, the basic idea of buying and selling would make the game a lot healthier and impact the economy in such a way as to balance around the general level of wealth Blizzard wishes was "normal".
Then again...they *did* keep raising the gold cap. Those buggers! They're just toying with us now. March on Blizzard's headquarters and give them all a good, swift kick in the rear!
Okay, but in all seriousness, have a good one, all!
The auction house is a very tiresome and, as far as I'm concerned, outdated.
You have anywhere from hundreds to thousands of players trying to sell what is essentially the same crap to each other. Some use the Auction House Key (or whatever that stupid tool is), to addons, to just making educated guesses and simple math to determine prices.
I fit into that last category. I hate most addons. In fact, I run not even DBM right now (why bother? when others have it, it tells even those who don't have it what is going on, so only timer bars would be extra for me and I never look at those ANYWAY due to trying to pay attention what is happening to my characters).
Why? Why would I hate things that make players' experiences easier and less stressful? Well, I don't give a rat's ass about if other people use them (except anything that tells you about rare spawns active in an area as well as telling you what the opposite team in PvP consists of, that's blatant cheating since otherwise you would have to, oh, I don't know...actually *look* for said spawns and see for yourself whether or not they were active as well as keep track of each individual player opposite of you in PvP to determine classes and how many of them there are).
Sorry, getting back to addons here, it's just that I, personally, don't like automation to such extents. I think for myself and, besides, I hate all this one copper/silver/gold/percent undercutting crap. I list things super high if I want to see if anyone rich will bite when I list something really rare and unique, moderate/average when I just want to sell things that are commonly used and is not unusual to ask a given price for, and low when the listings have few uses, easier than most things to get, awkward because its something not usually considered worth putting up for auction, etc. It's simple.
Like I mentioned earlier, I feel the auction house is outdated. It has been suggested countless times before I ever looked into it but it is certainly worth repeating: give people the tools to just make public listings of what items they want and how much they are willing to pay for them. If someone feels it is worth their time, they will answer their ad and sell the desired items. Both parties leave happy and there is no competition with other players other than the simple "who can do it first?"
By all means, keep the standard auction house as it is but just add the above to it, is all. Or make a separate NPC for that, I don't care. Just do it.
Another thing that could be added is merely a play on the recently discussed Black Market Auction House on the MoP beta. Currently, it is filled with rare and/or outright removed items from the game.
Want Ashes of Al'ar? Okay, just be willing to compete with the insanely rich who won't give it a second thought about buying it. I am, but I am pretty dependent on investments paying off in MoP that I've saved up for literally several years to sell at a higher price. That's right. YEARS.
Well, anywhoo, for expanding on this idea is to create a relatively small (read: high but not so high as for it to truly rival the current system) population of fictional sellers of whom you can buy your basic bread & butter items from (herbs, ore, cloth, etc.) with a dash of more out-of-the-way items if farming to get that nice but annoyingly-costed profession item done. Stuff like that.
Buying them would maybe be a bit awkward because it would need some way of scanning the current auction house for what is reasonable prices and posting around that average, if not a smidge lower. The best part of that end of it is because it's not open to manipulation as much as you would think. No one in their right mind is going to "trick" the NPC auction house into posting low enough prices that they could just score some great deals on the same items because everyone *else* would just buy up the far greater amount of cheaper items from the person doing the manipulating. It's far too risky unless you're on some sickenly dead server in which case it would likely be pointless to do this manipulation in the first place.
So, essentially, it would be the ultimate gold dump. Sure, big-ticket items are a good draw to drain humongous portions of gold all at once but they would likely not sell often. What is needed is to use this idea and make auctions that will be *consistently* bought out at a reasonably fast pace.
It wouldn't really hurt those who farm out items for a decent living, as well, since they would always have far more materials than offered in the alternate auction house.
So, in conclusion, I feel that with the described actions above, the basic idea of buying and selling would make the game a lot healthier and impact the economy in such a way as to balance around the general level of wealth Blizzard wishes was "normal".
Then again...they *did* keep raising the gold cap. Those buggers! They're just toying with us now. March on Blizzard's headquarters and give them all a good, swift kick in the rear!
Okay, but in all seriousness, have a good one, all!
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