Artisan Archive
Thread: PETITION! Trading Terminals in cities that list items on player owned vendors!
I'm not a Merchant, but this should definitely be a Merchant only skill. Sorry. Doling this out to everyone would make Merchants obsolete; it would be far more effective than Merchants' other methods of advertising. People currently have to work to attain the meager skills they have, but you want something infinitely more effective to be just given away to everyone? Rubbish. That's lazy.
ArdenStarmariner wrote:
By current precedence already established by the DEV's, merchant skill gives advantages over other players on the Bazaar but it does prohibit non-merchants from placing items up for sale.
The Bazaar is basically a proxy of the classified section of a newspaper. It requires no skill. You pay a small fee to list your items, and if people don't buy them within a week, you have to take out another ad. Businesses-- especially car dealers--tend to use the classifieds to some degree, and when they do so they frequently have ads that stand out. This is the advantage Merchants get. But in the game, with convenient sorting of fields, it's not much of an advantage. If someone is simply looking for the cheapest version of an item, all they have to do is glance at the list and identify the low price. It's not like the classifieds, where you have to slog through lists of seemingly random items and are likely to buy the first thing you see that meets your requirements solely because you're tired of searching. In an environment like that, eye-catching ads help. Here, they offer only the vaguest of advantages.
What you're proposing goes far beyond the range of classified ads. The concept is good. In fact, it should be a Merchant's bread and butter, because they are, after all, Merchants. What you're suggesting would be more like TV commercials. Giving this ability to everyone in the game would be flatly ridiculous. Picture this: you're watching TV, and your show takes a break. It's prime time. On comes a commercial forCoca Cola. Andthen:
"Hi. I'mJimbo from Mississippi. I know you folks out there don't know me, but I'm sellin' this brand new gas-cookin' grill. I reckon it'll char up any critter y'all wanna throw on it REAL good. I made me some blackened squirrel ribs the other day, and them sumbiches was mighty tasty! Way I figgur, I can set y'all up real nice-like. Just come by my house at 203 Backwater Avenue, Jackson MS, and I'll sell you a grill and even throw in some braised wildebeast chops fer free!"
And then a McDonalds commercial. Next:
"Uh... hi. My name's Susette, and I sell handcraftedpuppets which I have fashioned myself out of human hair and nail clippings. They're... uh... great for burning as effigies and stuff. Some of them I use in strange rituals where I sacrifice virgins to my foul pagan gods. But don't worry. The hair and nail clippings didn't come from sacrifices or anything. Oh my, Schroffelclocker-- you know, the Dark Lord ofHighway Safety and Motor Vehicles?-- would be angered if I slighted him by keeping part of a sacrifice for myself!I would never do that. I procure all of mymaterials from the beauty salon where I work. If you need any of my puppets, just swing by my house at 6 Nifelheim Place, Toronto, Ontario, Canada."
Now... would that make any sense? Any at all?
Let's look at something else. Would it be a good system?
If everyone could list their vendors, there would be a ridiculous amount of clutter in a planet-wide search. Galaxy-wide would only get worse. And with half of the vendors being nothing more than packhorses, it could get pretty hectic. The Merchant class would go from weak to obsolete in no time flat, and the vendor terminals would be more cluttered than the bazaar.
On the other hand, if this ability was limited to the Merchant class, Merchants would fulfill their role farmore effectivelythan they can at the moment (although frankly, I think most of the complaints about Merchantile limitations will be pretty much solved when player-built cities go live). The Advertising Terminals (that would make sense as a name) wouldn't be so cluttered with random vendor junk from every Tom **edit** & Harriet in the game. People could find what they were looking for relatively easily, if it was there to be found. A sort-by-Merchant field could be put in so people could find specific Merchants they have come to know and trust. Tradesmen who have goods to sell could simply find a Merchant who deals with their type of goods and try to strike up a deal with them. Easy.
It makes sense and it fits the class. It streamlines the system. Those who want to take part can simply dish out the points on Merchants.
As to your complaints about lazy Merchants, that entire line of reasoning is weak. Lazy people can succeed in any class. How about macro Entertainers? And how much thought does it take to play a combat or crafting character in the first place? It's all about your capacity for tedium if you want to play a mediocre character. In games like this, there is always a distinct line between someone who plays a character and someone who plays a character well. A Merchant with an eye for the market who transports goods all over the place to seize advantages is going to do far better than one who just sits on his starting planet and sells to newbies. Any class can coast if they want to. It's not likeit makes being aMaster Merchantsomehow fundamentally better than being a Droid Engineer simply because you perceive advancement to be easier. They're not even the same class. It's apples vs. oranges, top of the ninth, and the oranges have a 5-2 lead! Nonsense. The abilities conveyed are different. If someone is playing a class based on relative ease instead of playing a class they find more engaging, they're just going to get bored and move on. Especially with the one character per server bit. You don't have to worry about people leveling an "easy" Merchant just so they can twink another character. Your problem seems to stem more from jealousy than anything else.
Okay. I think that's all I get for two cents.
Akagai Arkaaba - Starsider
Yes,
4. The trading terminals should be open to all professions either to access or have the items on their vendors listed. It should not be gated by a required skill by any one profession (i.e. Merchant).
No, Merchant only. Anyone can buy but only certain level of merchant skill gets there vendor wares listed. I really want there to be a merchant class, that must be used by players in order to sell there wares.
5. Add player crafted data terminals that can be placed in houses which function as these new trading terminals giving people access to the Player Vendor Network in their businesses and homes.
OK, but it should work at staandard bazaar terminals aswell
I say NO also.
The vendor terms you get in artisan are there to give you a taste of what it is to be a merchant.They are bulky, costly and hard to findand I beleive that's the point.
If you like selling that much, take the profession. If not, find a merchant that will sell your stuff. However, the merchant profession is seriously deficient and needs revamping.
I agree with it becuase it makes sense from an economic standpoint and from a business standpoint (I wonder how many merchants have a business background).
From an economic standpoint; price is ALWAYS dictated by the law of supply and demand. Prices reflect the point at which supply and demand are in equilibrium. This suggestion makes good economic sense in that it provides better information regarding supply and demand. In economic terms better information translates into more efficient markets (economic markets not locations). Efficient markets result in a more robust economy.
From a business standpoint; there is no access to the mass market in this game. The average consumer when considering making a purchase wants to know where he/she can get the best widget for the least amount of money (I think everyone can relate to this). As the game is constructed, there is no way to easily get this want addresed.
The public bazzar provides at best a limited view of what is available. I suspect that most of the economic activity occurs in private trades with vendors or individuals. So the information regaring what's available at what price is at best limited.
Without mass marketing, a number of crucial business strategies (especially to the merchants) are not able to be implemented. You cannot get a decent economy of scale without mass marketing. Without an economy of scale, verticle integration makes no sense. It is these very things that are strangling the merchant class. The merchants should be busy making large numbers of standard items and selling them under a standard cost structue (think Henry Ford guys).
This is what is needed to fix the merchant class.
Ok Artisans (of which I am one) before we start screaming "what about us? We'll be out of business". Stop, Just Stop and think about it! We are NOT in the same business as the merchants (people make this mistake because we both sell things). Do we own factories? Are we set up to grind things out 100 at a time? No. Our business is different. We make hand crafted customized items.
Perhaps an example is in order. I want a new SG82. I don't want one with the standard 130 max damage points, I want one with 175 damage points. So what do I do? Go to a merchant who only makes things in lots of a 100? How likely is he to make a production run for this specialized requirement? Will he have the manufacturing schematics for it (remember we're the ones who experiment)? No, he goes to his local gunsmith who does this kind of thing all of the time. Merchants make their money with a small profit on a whole lot items, we make our money with a large profit on relatively few items. And guess what?
You can use this new network to tell the market exactly why people should pay the extra money to by customized items from you.
No, this idea makes so much sense that I have only 2 suggestions:
1. Put this in place and get rid of the public bazzar all together. Its been said over and over again that the DEVs want an economy based on relationships. With the bazzar replaced by an indpendent advertising/information network, relationsips are the only way it will work (BTW - why what the dev's want should matter is a mystery to me. They're not playing the game nor are they paying for it - we are - what we want is what counts).
2. The new network terminals should be owned by merchants, who could charge access fee and publishing fees. Note I said the terminals. Don't like the fee's that one merchant is charging, go to another merchant's terminal (Hum - copetition, what a novel concept in this game).
Well that;s all folks. Do what you but ignore these buiness & economic principles at your peril. These principals have withstood the test of time and I don't think that this or any other game will succeed in overturning them.
Nite - Nite all.