Architect Archive

Last night, working my shop, stocking vendors and rearanging things, this guy comes in. Starts paging through my vendors. I am not saying anything, just working the shop.

I start to get comments in say from the person there looking through my vendors.

"LOL X credits forX item, thats a good one!"

I ignore it...

"LOL X credits for Y item, you are cracking me up."

I ignore it...

"X credits for Z item, **edit** is that?"

I ask the person, do they know what it takes to make X,Y, or Z item? They tell me no.

I go back to my business. Guy asks how much a house is.

I tell him I don't work for 3 cpu, I won't build anything unless I get 5. No disagreement from the customer.. nods head.

He asks me how much for a medium house. I tell him it is around 22k in resources. No disagreement from the customer, seems to not have a problem with that price so far.

Now I am thinking that if I told him there are 22k in resources, and I only work for 5 credits per resource, at this point he would at this point know if it was reasonable to him or overpriced. If he was going to act like a jerk, he would do it now... a little 3rd grade multiplication would tell him that.

He then says.. "How much is that?"

I tell him "around 100k"

He then proceeds his "LOL" belittlement of me, dismissive "mmmkay" garbage, and the final and predictable "thats way overpiced, I have seem them go for 40k".

Now, I dont have a problem with a "you are way overpriced" or "thats too much". What I can do without is the half brain dead attempt at witless sarcasm. So with that I had to give that guy what any reasonable human being would give.

You know what the idiot got? Punted from the shop.

My question to you all that deal with this behavior on a regular basis is...

Why do people behave in a way in these MMOPRGs that they would NEVER behave like in public? Why does the anonomous breed boldness and rudeness?

Behavior like this in the real world could end up giving you a fat lip, or a slap in the face.

It seems that as soon as people get that "if I act poorly and treat people bad and misbehave, no one can do anything because no one really knows who I am" attitude?

Seems allot of people need some RL attitude adjustments.

I have yet to see that behavior, but it if ever happend I would probably do a ban from the shop and then a /ignore to boot.

I am actually surpirsed at how few people are on my /ignore list so far. The kid that insisted on the constant use of kiddy language ( getting aorund the filter) , that was a Report user and then /ignore. ( I call it kiddy language as the more a person uses foullanguage the younger they usually are )

But it has been pretty rare, most the the people I have met have beennice and almost overly polite. I do know there is a very large number of europeans on my server, I dont know if that has anything to do with it.

I have only had 4 instances from two characters to use the /ignore. Three of them are with my merchant, and they are also on the ban list.

Funny thing.. one of the people that have treated me poorly in the past that got banned sent me an email..

"Ummm, how do you expect me to buy anything when you have your structure closed to the public?"

Don't think I am gonna respond to that. Just going to let the person wonder why. Hehe.

For the most part tho, people have been nothing but polite, and very nice. I get allot of thank you's and friendly gestures. I even had one person help me with AP points and train a bunch of things they didn't really need. They where even going to untrain and retrain some skills. I stopped them at that though. They where looking for some master artisan component, so I gave them a crate of it for thanks.

I had another person... get a load of this.. someone playing a female character was coming to my shop, buying up allot of furniture, buying extractors from me(even though she was in a PA that had a master architect).. told me I was HER architect. This went on for about a week. We would chat and get have a laugh or two about things, sometimes talk about RL. Well.. the conversation went everyday until I answered a question she asked..

"Are you married?"

Me.. "Yeah"

Havent heard anything since, and sales have dropped off.

Why did I go into that story? I am bored today. LOL.

i get both. i tend to ignore the annoyances, so don't have to deal with them too often. I've only banned from the shop once, and I've moved since, so they are probably clean now...I've only /ignore -d someone once, and i took if off a few days later, and haven't heard from them since.

Some people are jerks about the pricing, while most understand. Some people are must plain jerks. Most people are very pleasant and sociable. I think word of mouth helps bring that right type of people, too.

acer

I get allot of repeat business through word of mouth. One other thing that seems to bring people back is the way the shop is set up. Believe it or not, I have gotten 3-4 emails that had the sole intent of telling me how much they like how the shop looked.

I got one email from a person that said they actually enjoyed looking through my vendors.

I don't think I did anything special, just put time into the shop with the layout(I can't stand unproportional things.. spacing, placement, I am a sticklerLOL)and kept the vendors stocked.

I am glad though that allot of people got enjoyment from what I have done.

The good outweigh the bad by far, but it is those really bad that stick in my head and make me post.

I just ignore it. I do exactly what you do, tell them the ammount of resources it takes, tell them I charge 5 cpu... and tell them total price.

If they tell me they saw it for blah blah blah, I tell them, fine go buy it from them, its not worth my time, effort, or my resources to sell a product at anything less than 5 cpu.

From there they either suck it up and buy it, or leave me alone... in either case I win cause I made a good sale at a reasonable price, or I win because I didn't waste my resources by selling so cheap (or waste my time)

Oh I doubt I would report that either,

The only ones I report are those that intentionally and constantly violate the user agrement. I used to ask them to stop it first, but I decided that they agreed to the behavior they would use when they clicked "I agree" to get into the game, there is no point in my talking to them about it. I just report it and walk away.

I get it from all types hehe. I Put on my Merchant tag becasue im sick of tells asking how much for x house, harvester, etc...and getting the Mkay's or snotty assed comments. Once I got really broke having to buy resources for people setting up "public service" factories for our pa. So i had to sell some solars and what not really cheap to cover my harvestor maintainance, as nobody loans to the guy who gives away money hehe. So i get a well known architect in my pa buying it all up, without a word as i stood right there...and felt for some reason the need to explain why i really wasnt an undercutter hehe. People suck.

I whish my pa's architect hadnt gone awol with cities this close. I like making houses and harvestors and seeing them used, I dont like to have to hear the mkay's from pimple faced hairy knuckled poop flingers.

But i found a solution! I sell large harvesters at a moderate profit to architects who have more orders then time, have a couple mining partners and sell lots and lots of ore at 2.5 per. Its a living, Ill be ready for player cities...I can trade small structures to people for them to answer newbie questions so i can get out of tells. It all works out...If you ignore the general public hehe.

I can't say I undestand exactly where it comes from, but it is no suprise, and doesn't really offend me.

The same thing has been going on with the various intenet services for decades. The old line used to be "On the internet, nobody knows if you are a dog." I think it gives people an opportunity to experiment with different social approaches, risking only a disposable avatar, and knowing that the only prejudice involved related to their choice of avatar and presentation. Gives them a chance to learn lessons like, "Gee, people hate me because I insult and threaten them, not because <insert real life issue>." Then again they may just be acting out for their own satisfaction.

Note that I see all kinds of what would be wierd behaviour in RL from extreem suck up, sexual solicitation, and doormat submissivness to outright hostility with vicious threats. I think it is kind of fun, but I know I am amused by strange things. I am not offended by what is said, though occasionally my avatar is.

I once saw a sign at a flea market that says it all: "I have no problem with people who sell for less... they know what their stuff is worth."

Stick to yer guns. If you have set a price of 5cr/ru, well... that seems steep to me, another crafter, but... thats your price. Maybe your stuff is worth it. And if you are getting customers, it MUST be worth it. If it weren't, you would be standing there with a bunch of unsellable stuff.

Another saying comes to mind: "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone." If the customer said they couldn't afford it, thats fine... but saying you are wrong for asking it is sufficient justification for the bum's rush!

Dayln,

Don't make me bring up "Conspicuous Consumption" again

Nike and Rebok et al, don't sell so well becuase they are better than anyone else.. they sell because they have brand recognition. They havea 'Percieved' value that has nothing to do with the Utility of the product.

People buy expensive stuff to impress their friends, or they buy it because although it is expensive to you or me it is pocket change to them.

... But I have to admit its hard to see where that fits in here

I do think that shopping convenience plays a good part in our sales.

If a shop doesnt have much selection I rarely ever re-visit.

If a shop looks like crud, I am less likely to spend time there.

If the shop looks good, carries a wide range of products, and has nice staff, I am likely to stay longer, re-visit, and purchase stuff from it.... even if its prices are somewhat higher than i would pay if i shopped around.

I wouldnt waste 2 hours of my playing time trying to save 5K on astructure purchase. In fact as a rule if you would likely make more mission money in the time it takes you to find a good price than the amount you saved, then you were silly towaste time hunting for a better price.

Idon't realy do houses as a rule, but Ive sold 2 (build-to-order) smalls in the last couple days for 15K and 16K respectively. Im sure the convenience aspect was 99% of the buyers decision.

Daylin, stick with standing up for those who choose to price less forthat is a noble cause. It is hypocritical for you to insult those who choose to price higher. People price what they feel their time is worth and some value it more than others.

Just as those who charge alot for their time and effort have no right to be critical of those who charge less those who charge less have no right to be critical of those who charge more.

Fidg'Ter

PS: My prices are generally low unless I find myself in a resource crunch due to a bump in demand ranging from 2.5cr per unit to 4cr per unit. I wish there was an Auction option where you could set the price and have the item Auctioned over a few days may the highest bidder get the prize.

I agree 100%, the stuff I sell for less than you is not as good.

Of course it lasts as long, and looks the same, and harvests just a much., and isnt any mre expensive to have

But you are still right

I assume you shop around for the higest prices you can find when buying stuff?