I think you gave the best reply I've seen yet, hogscraper.  Until the developers get a grip on the reality of their economies, and figure out some alternatives, we will have more of the same unfairness. I hate raids, as do many others, so that isn't an answer for all. All it does is fuel the greed. From what I understand about gold farming, it isn't the farmers who are getting the profits. They make money, yes, but it's the online site sellers who are reaping. That's why Sony decided to join them, and from what I hear, Sony has found another money maker.

I have been playing since the lost lands of UO.  I have found when there is only a regional market (IE vendors) the players tend to make global markets (Live Auctions or Web Base Auctions)  As a MMORPG Cr after since 97, I prefer a vendor system only when the items crafted by a player has diversity (One of the things I loved about SWG) for without that, there is no reason to go to vendor B, because vendor A has the exact same thing.

SWF was also gold farmer friendly. I did enjoy the game the way it was first released. It was very community friendly.

The markets should be local to the city they are in. Listing items across the entire game is one of the stupidest conventions of MMO's. It always leads to Flooding, price gouging,early item depreciation, and saturation or the perception there of.

Local markets for each city/town, created and managed by the players of that town (Threw use of NPC mode ETC) is the way to go..not only for all MMO's but most.

I will be very disappointed if they continue to list items across the entire game.

No broker, auction, bazaar or what ever you want to call it.

As far as ingame mechanics..I do hope that you can set your NPC up to be able to list items FOR acution on THAT NPC As an option to a flat price when selling.

Acution houses (or what ever you wish to call it) are a bane to MMO's.

Thew history of them each and every MMO that uses one has to take drastic mesures to combat the things i listed above (such as no trade, soulbinding, ETC...).

Considering every one has the ability to to become a crafter in most games, If a game uses an auction house (or what ever) that lists all items across the game (Becouse thats what they do) all games WILL have the same problem.

[h1]IT NEVER WORKS.[/h1]

Thoes guys in the mountains may have the iron..but they dont have the weat.

If a crafter in a small village wants to craft his swords for 10 goths and seel them in his town for 15 goths...More power to him. If there is a crafter in a town 30 miles away that sells them for 20 goths, more power to him. If that same crafter wants to but the first crafters swards for 15 move them to his town and resell them for 25 goths MORE POWER TO HIM!

This is the way of the world...and it should be no diffrent in
MMOs.

The only way it would be a good thing is IF the acution house IS a house IN one of the starting citys..and you have to be IN that house to bid, and it is NOT listed across the entire game.

A true acution house IN a loacation and not listed in any place other than that house. Peroid.

Anything other than that we will get the same problems that every other MMO has faced.

i dont mean EACH city should have one... I would attach it to a size and make this allowed building City size restricted.

Only large citys should have somthing like this.

And im only speaking about acutions...not flat priced items.

I would still prefer if when we start getting options to go into NPC mode and have the option of listing an item open for biding while still listing other items for flat prices. So in the smaller citys its up to the merchant...in larger ones you have the option of this house.

This all of course works better for games that are not item/loot based, and player created based. (Mobs drop parts/components)

I love economy debates they always get so indepth.. Anyways I have to weigh in on the subject .  I think regional economies are important. For one it gives the new player a fighting chance to join the crafting profession. Which I think is simportant if you want a larger community. I think the pre NGE SWG was proof of that. By having regional suppliers you limited the crafter to selling on only a few planets. It also made people talk with one another "hey man you know a good vendor who sells such and such" To me regional economies are best it adds to the RPG and encourages community. For those people saying convieniece is most important all I have to say is if your willing to raid for hours on end to get an uber item.  Why is it so different shopping around for your other needs a little while. If convienince is such an issue, I think it should be a cross of SWG and their listing all items but make it so you still have to fly out to buy the item.

  Lastly I think the real problem with game economies is the lack of money sinks.  As long as you can make way more than you spend you will have inflation and skewed economies.

I think there are enough money sinks. Devs look for more all the time. But,  some people make more money than others do; not everyone enjoys crafting, believe it or not. So, adventurers have to rely on quests and drops. With the new "you pick it up, you own it", there isn't much chance to make money from that.  So, please, no more money sinks.

I can't help wondering how gold farmers make their money now. 

I enjoy "playing" the worldwide AH - the regional system doesn't interest me. If the MMO doesn't offer the worldwide version, then it's like it is missing an important gameplay feature for me. I've beta tested plenty of MMO's and found several that I thought to myself how fun they could be if they had this. And of course, I didn't subscribe to them.

/more SWG
The planetwide search helped a LOT, there were tens of thousands of vendors, if not more, full of mostly crap. The vendor search allowed people to find what they were looking for, at the best prices. It was one of the few changes they made post-cu that I think made a positive impact.

Also, about the "little guy," dont feel bad for those smaller crafters. If they're little it either means 1) They're not as devoted as the bigger crafters 2) They're new. Either case, with hard work and dedication, even if you're new, you can easily outquality the big crafters. Most of them make decent equipment for a decent price, this is where the smaller crafters can come in and make uber equipment for uber prices. This is how I always ran it on SWG. I didnt have the time, resources, etc to mass produce quality goods, so I stuck to making enhanced equipment, and I made a fortune doing it. Sure, it takes a long time, I spent over a year just collecting resources, and I still never got everything I needed (I never did make a T-21), but I made what I could, and I made it good. This is all that matters.

*Carresses the memory of his 1800 dura +130 krayt geo pistol*
*Cries for whoever bought it, since durability and stun went out the window*

I've played MMOs with both regional (SWG & EVE) and global (WoW & MX:O) auction systems.  EVE is probably a special case, since it's so vast that Space Trucker is a valid profession choice, but SWG is a lot closer to the size scope of most MMOs, so I'll focus on it for my main regional example.

One of the aspects where the "real world" argument for regional markets breaks down is that for most MMOs, it's relatively easy to traverse all or most of the world without too much time penalty or risk.  In SWG, if I wanted an item that was only made by a crazy chef using an exploited vendor on Dathomir, (the other end of the universe) it would be an annoying waste of an hour to get there and back, but not much more than that.  In the "real world" if I (a middle-class American) want an Double-Double from In & Out (Southern California hamburger chain) it's a major undertaking, because I live 1000 miles from the nearest location.  It's stuff like this that I think makes the regional economy work in EVE, but not in SWG.

Another point on SWG.  I don't know about other servers, but for the one I was on, Coronet, Corellia pretty much became a giant trade center.  Malls (guild halls full of vendors) pretty much became the main place to buy stuff, neatly circumventing the regional economy argument.  Sure you could waste an hour looking for the perfect piece of armor, but most people (me included) would rather pay a little more for the convenience of finding what we need in ten minutes.

Does a global economy make it more difficult for crafters?  Maybe a little.  I'm doubtful that it makes it all that much easier for a monopoly though, simply because I feel a global economy makes it easier to undercut the leader.  For most players, though, it's a win.  Less downtime, and more time playing the part of the game you enjoy is always a win in my book.