Artisan Archive

I'm not talking about logging out of the game. You have to open up a whole seperate program just to check a message board. This takes you "out of the game". It isn't too big of a hassle to just alt-tab, although there are mouse issues at times, but it would be easier if you could do it within the game itself. It also helps keep the atmosphere. I think that its a bit lame to have to go searching the internet for information that should be coming from players in the game. I shouldn't have to track down Lord Zod's post on the trading forum for Bria because it mentioned that he needed a high quality blaster for his character Nigel. It just puts a damper on the spirit of the game.

That's fine, and I don't begrudge you your use of these forums as a game tool. I do believe that they have proven invaluable up to this point, I just think a message board as an in game tool is much more conducive to an efficient player based economy.

Message Edited by shawrty on 02-21-2004 08:19 PM

I would like to see, basically, a glactic bulliten board where people can post what they need, as well as post services. I see a lot of talk about economics on these boards, and there are a lot of intelligent discussions based on it, but the one thing that seems to be misunderstood is what an economy actually is. Economics is the study of scarcity and the best way to allocate resources. Economics is not about money. Needs are generated from the scarcity of resources. If I need a cup of flour to bake a loaf of bread, then I need to get as many cups of flour as a I want to make as many loaves of bread as my resources, time, money, skill, will allow me. If there are only 10 cups of flour, then I must decide what each cup of flour is worth, and how much of the resources I have I want to devote to my pursuit of flour.

I don't mean to be presumptuos and give out a economics lesson to those who don't need it, but economic transactions are not limited to those involving money. The common denominator in almost all economic transactions is the fullfillment of some need. If we had a place where we could post our needs, or our ability to satisfy a need, then money and services could be traded in a wider market than it is now. I see people running around cities shouting about how they are selling this really cheap, or that they need X done for them. How about a bulliten board, not unlike the bazzar or mission terminals, that one could post a message telling what they need.

Let's say Joe Starrider, an accomplished warrior, wants to expand his horizons and try out surveying and mining, but he doesn't know what resources to get or what he can really get for any of the resources he does collect. Now we check out Buck Weapongrinder. He has toiled at the smithy and has become quite adept at making high-quality weapons. Buck has a problem. You see, he finds that the best metal for making rifles, blasteel, is pretty rare, and usually located remote and dangerous locals. Buck really wants some blasteel, but it is just too costly in time and effort to go get some. Buck decides to post a message in the glactic classified ads, aka bulliten board. The message reads "Rare metal blasteel needed. Willing to pay 10000 creds/500 units. Send Buck a /tell." Joe decides to check out the board and sees Buck's post. "Hey", he thinks, "I have the ability to go where this stuff is, and I'm trying to survey and mine as well." Joe sends Buck a /tell, Buck tells Joe where he thinks he can find it. Joe gathers his resources, does some exploring, find a blasteel deposit, and proceeds to collect 1000 blasteel and makes a cool 20000. In the meantime, Buck produces 20 rifles, which he can sell for 25000 a pop, and give joe a discount for all his hard work.

All this could take place over and over again. It could even happen in reverse. Joe could post that he is willing to go searching for rare resources, and Buck could see his post and contact him. What the game needs are more channels of trade between players, which would add more ways to make money. all you need is an in-game way of advertising your needs.

"Galaxy Trade Boards, does precisely that."

But you have to come out of the game to view them. There needs to be an in-game option to facilitate this, besides, a person playing the game may not ever come to the forums, or do so only rarely.

Yeah, I just use alt-tab...