Originally posted by nariusseldon
Originally posted by bunnyhopper
Originally posted by nariusseldon
Originally posted by nethervoid
MMOs are not "complex, community driven" anyway. Most modern MMOs are action RPG with more content & progression.
I'm not sure as to how I am supposed to respond to this part really. If you want a complex economic/economic driven social metagame then a central AH is not such a great idea. I also stated that games not looking to go down that line, well AH is fine. So pointing out that modern mmos are not complex or community driven seems a bit of a waste of time. I know they are.
Sure, you may want to play a blacksmith running your own shop. Personally i want to sell & buy items in the most efficient manner.
Well you don't actually have to focus on being a blacksmith running a shop to get the benefits of a decentralised market place. I'm a massively pvp centric player, but I can see the benefits of a complex economic/crafting system in the right game.
And there are people who play the market too. Have you read about the dude that made $10000 on D3?
I think that has something to do with RMT to be honest which is a entirely different kettle of fish. People can make loads of IG money in an AH game. No doubt about that. But there is clearly more opportunities to "play the market" in a decentralised economy if you know what you are doing, more depth, more complexity.
Socializing adds very little to efficient transaction of items. When you want to buy a computer off the internet, it is quite easy just to look at all the attributes (CPU, memory, price ...) and made a decision. I won't want to talk a person when i do that. Buying a virtual sword where the price and stats are known .. is the same thing.
Well a couple of thoughts occur. First of all is that just because you remove a central AH, doesn't suddenly mean you have to enter into a massive discourse everytime you buy an object as an end user. What it does though offer is interaction between the relevant people heavily involved in crafting, transport and providing goods.
It also doesn't mean that if you are just a casual goods buyer, that you are going to have to treck for hours on end for every item you want. That really isn't the case 90% of the time.
Secondly you are quite right, when you go to buy a computer online you don't want to have to chat to someone about their day. But that is someone different to electing to play a massively multiplayer online computer game with other people. You have elected to enter a social form of gaming. It would be like going into a computer shop, walking up to the counter, pointing at a PC and then refusing to speak to the guy serving you.
Now I am not saying you should have to chat to someone just because you are in an mmo and I am not implying that without an AH you have to spend all your game time chatting. But the analogy you provided just seemed a bit odd.
