Business And Economy Archive

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Lambash wrote:

Funny part with this change is that you merchants cant make your fancy profit no more. Welcome to real economy where the lowest price of a product that is equal in QL will sell over the one that is over priced.

First off - Do you know my prices? Do you have a CLUE how economy works? A REAL economy is NOT about the "best" for the "least". In many sectors, quality is perceived as value for the money. That 19 inch TV with a remote made by a non name company invariably is only sold to bargain hunters - Not to people who know that a certain brand name has superior picture, service, etc. In the real world, Quality MATTERS, and most are willing to pay the premium. But not in the game anymore. I will not be surprised to hear from many of you after this happens that you dislike it. "I had to search 15 pages before I found what I want" and "How come nobody is making DL44s anymore?" Will be constant outcries. Because since only the "best" will matter, Crafter will only make the "best" items available to you. Your choices will diminish, not increase. There will be more of certain items across the board, and less of the items that Crafters deem not worth their time and effort.

On my server, I am one of the lowest priced Shipwrights, have been from the start. This change actually will BENEFIT me to no end as I already have a good product at a good price. Yes, this change will make it easier for YOU - But it will definitely hurt many people who are currently crafters.

For the matter btw, i am sick and f------ tired of going from shop to shop to find empty vendors. I dont care if there is 1001 painting in it, the vendors are empty and i wasted my time. So suck it up - live with it or close your shop then.

And for MY matter, I am sick of people whining that they have to play the game as designed, The system wasn't perfect, but it worked. The whining from pure combat types that everything takes sooo long, and everything is sooo expensive haven't the faintest idea of what it's like to play a crafter. You want instant gratification - Too bad. To make some items takes TIME. I ask all of you purely combat types - Why are you even in this game? You are wanting a first person shoot em up game, not an MMORPG. This change definitely makes it into more of what you want. Congrats. Hope it turns out as great as you all are thinking it will be.

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Derku wrote:

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Bhasayate wrote:

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HunterCotC wrote:

I think that's a great idea - I can remove vendors from 3 planets, stock insane amounts of armor in 1 location, and cut my vendor maintenance time by 3/4.

As for customers, from what I read, everyone is assuming customers are dumb. I think that's a little ignorant. As crafters/merchants it is our responsibility to make shopping as easy as possible for consumers. Customer's will compare items much more easily without wasting time. The people that are going to complain about this are the ones selling an inferior product at inflated prices. I openly welcome the changes.

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In RL customers are dumb.

Honest.

I was a computer salesperson. And telemarketing works! And stupid ads work, too.

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And look you bought SWG!!!

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Lambash wrote:

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Phaelyn wrote:

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Mosdl wrote:
My main shop and vendors are located in a player city right next to the Krayt spawns.

My main non-shipwright related product I sell are vehicules. A lot of them. My guess is people loose a lot due to hunting and often need to replace them fast. I use good materials, so I sell them pretty expensive (90% swoops at 38k and they still sell like butter).

So if they could buy and get fedexed cheaper Swoops, I would get hurt. If they need to travel to get it, I might just need to lower my prices

Remember, you need to use a vendor to do the searching (at least according to the FAQ they posted), so that might not make the situation that bad.

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That makes the situation even WORSE, in my opinion.

Using the bazaar to search the Galaxy for goods will create a large price war - OK, I will survive that, I have a bank account to weather the idiots who will undervalue their goods, and go out of business.

But using MY Vendor to searh AND purchase? That's just flat out wrong - Let me paint you the picture:

You own Mosdl's Pizza Delivery service. One day, you decide to give your loyal customers free Internet access. A perk, and that can't hurt, right? Well, your customers come in, and before they order your Large Pepperoni, they use your free Internet to look up someone else's Large Pepperoni. Finding that your Pizza costs $1 more, they ORDER the Pizza with the Internet, PAY using your internet, and leave to go get their pizza somewhere else.

Why in the world would any merchant want to let customers buy somebody elses goods? Especially since we Merchants won't even receive a fee for using our vendors/

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Funny part with this change is that you merchants cant make your fancy profit no more. Welcome to real economy where the lowest price of a product that is equal in QL will sell over the one that is over priced.

For the matter btw, i am sick and f------ tired of going from shop to shop to find empty vendors. I dont care if there is 1001 painting in it, the vendors are empty and i wasted my time. So suck it up - live with it or close your shop then.

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bluejanus wrote:

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Bhasayate wrote:

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Windsbreath wrote:

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GrupertRHD wrote:
And it will bring prices down, and frankly, I, and most people could care less about the cry babies that don't want this.

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Clearly you're not an Artisan.

This is great for consumers, because it means less credits for you to spend, and that makes things a lot easier on you ; it's bad for Artisans, because if making and selling things is how they gain credits to buy better resources and 'advance' in game, the game just became a lot harder for them.

I agree that with the instant-FedEx gone, this change has gone from insane to simply dangerous. My comments above were a little harsh and I spoke way too soon, but my opinion of this change has not altered much. The comments made by someone (forgive me for not remembering the name) about how it may raise the prices through what to my mind sounds like price fixing is an interesting one with much merit, and still terribly dangerous (although it would be bad for consumers too). I suspect that the change will either have that effect, or the opposite that most people expect where prices plummet, thus shoving smaller, more localized Artisans out of their professions (which would have a continued, spiraling effect of sending more players into the Combat arena where they'd buy even more stuff from the established Artisans who can stock hundreds of items and fix prices).

A galaxy-wide bazaar that browses player-shops and lets people buy from any place where there's a terminal is not necessary.
A galaxy-wide listing of vendors, with item counts by category per vendor and waypoints to them, plus a rating system for the owners, would be a much better improvement. A way for consumers to locate vendors that are truly stocked, not just advertised on the map as so, would still have the downside of sending more business to the well-established Artisans and less to the newer or smaller Artisans, but I think it's more sensible.

Message Edited by Windsbreath on 02-12-2005 08:14 PM

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But this idea makes sense. That's why the monkeys didnt think of it.

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How does it make sense anyways? There isn't a system like this anywhere in the world.

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Phaelyn wrote:

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Lambash wrote:

Funny part with this change is that you merchants cant make your fancy profit no more. Welcome to real economy where the lowest price of a product that is equal in QL will sell over the one that is over priced.

First off - Do you know my prices? Do you have a CLUE how economy works? A REAL economy is NOT about the "best" for the "least". In many sectors, quality is perceived as value for the money. That 19 inch TV with a remote made by a non name company invariably is only sold to bargain hunters - Not to people who know that a certain brand name has superior picture, service, etc. In the real world, Quality MATTERS, and most are willing to pay the premium. But not in the game anymore. I will not be surprised to hear from many of you after this happens that you dislike it. "I had to search 15 pages before I found what I want" and "How come nobody is making DL44s anymore?" Will be constant outcries. Because since only the "best" will matter, Crafter will only make the "best" items available to you. Your choices will diminish, not increase. There will be more of certain items across the board, and less of the items that Crafters deem not worth their time and effort.

On my server, I am one of the lowest priced Shipwrights, have been from the start. This change actually will BENEFIT me to no end as I already have a good product at a good price. Yes, this change will make it easier for YOU - But it will definitely hurt many people who are currently crafters.

For the matter btw, i am sick and f------ tired of going from shop to shop to find empty vendors. I dont care if there is 1001 painting in it, the vendors are empty and i wasted my time. So suck it up - live with it or close your shop then.

And for MY matter, I am sick of people whining that they have to play the game as designed, The system wasn't perfect, but it worked. The whining from pure combat types that everything takes sooo long, and everything is sooo expensive haven't the faintest idea of what it's like to play a crafter. You want instant gratification - Too bad. To make some items takes TIME. I ask all of you purely combat types - Why are you even in this game? You are wanting a first person shoot em up game, not an MMORPG. This change definitely makes it into more of what you want. Congrats. Hope it turns out as great as you all are thinking it will be.

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Crafted meds for 6 months in game.... Ya i can tell you alot about profit. As rifleman/doc i could kill any avian - for that matter meat i needed. The rest put up rigs do the grind and finally go buff people.

I calculated that it cost me about 2.1K to make them in the end. Crate of 10 = 21 K Lets say i buff for 10K, 12 per item X 10 .... now you still want to talk about having a clue about prices???

What this will lead to is, you have to adapt and lower or if you sell dead cheap get more customers. Price will become all and everything - and as i said before WELCOME TO REAL ECONOMY.

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Lambash wrote:

WELCOME TO REAL ECONOMY.

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GraySeven wrote:

The ability to search galaxy-wide is good, but having the item sent to you is bad. Keep the ability to search everywhere, but require people to go pick up the item. This will prevent those who have spent considerable time and effort on Malls and Locations from being penalized.

Being able to search and buy is going to bring parity to prices, but the only lowering I see will be from those who like to overprice their stuff. And if you are worried about undercutters, don't. More often than not, those items will be bought and resold by Merchants to prevent someone from flooding the market with cheap goods.

The ability to put a vendor on galaxy-wide search should be limited to a certain box in the Merchant tree, not given to everyone.

I know why non-Merchants wanted the "Fed-ex" option, but no Merchant ever wanted it that I know of.

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Windsbreath wrote:

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Lambash wrote:

WELCOME TO REAL ECONOMY.

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In a game that has nothing to do with reality.

Hmm.

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So in yourvariant ofSWG universe the best combo of cheap/good stuff dont sell then?? That is what i meant with it.

As in as you so nicely pointed out RL a product that is of equal quality is bought where you get it for the least amount of cash... no matter how fancy the shop is.

Message Edited by Lambash on 02-13-2005 05:33 PM

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Lambash wrote:

So in yourvariant ofSWG universe the best combo of cheap/good stuff dont sell then?? That is what i meant with it.

As in as you so nicely pointed out RL a product that is of equal quality is bought where you get it for the least amount of cash... no matter how fancy the shop is.

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Yes but you're neglecting in your argument the factor that a) this is a game and b) the professions need some semblance of balancing. If the realism of the in-game economy has to suffer because the people who create the bulk of stuff to be bought in the economy (crafters) deserve a fair playing experience, then so be it in my book. SWG isn't a real-world experience, nor does it have a real-world economy, and nor should we expect either from it. Other games like, say, EQ1 and DAoCdon't have as much of a problem with economies because there are no classes in those games based entirely on 'making stuff'. If the ability is provided for a player's entire game experience to revolve around inserting tab A into slot B to produce item C, then accomdations to thoseprofessions have to be provided by the people who make the game, otherwise the playing experience of those people who chose those providedprofessions falters and that part of thegame fails.

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Dawgypoo wrote:

Now I'm going to quit worring about this and go play some SWG.

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Ehhh...good point. I think I will too...bye!