Business And Economy Archive
Thread: New vendor changes coming.
Mallize wrote:
All that said... I'll take this over going to empty shops. And I don't really get the 'this will ruin the profession' comments if you are just referring to seeing everyone's prices and stock. This is what happens in the real world. It's capitalism. It's free market. Are you complaining because people will notice that you were charging 50cpu for an item, when the going rate was 20cpu for most people?
It's not about price or profits really. The more efficient we make the market, the more the game economy will look like Wal-Mart. Some people need to make 200% profits to keep crafting. Some people only need 100% profits. Some are perfectly content at 0% profits (they are in it for reasons other than profit). A few even operate at a loss, subsidizing their crafting through combat missions. The problem with profit margins going down isn't really that I have less money. It's that I have less desire to be a crafter at all. I fear that if this change goes through, instead of having 20 serious stimpack dealers on Scylla, we will instead have 5. As prices go down, more crafters simply decide it isn't worth it, and either go 100% combat, or drop out of the game entirely. I can make the argument for why Wal-Mart and Microsoft are good in real life, but in the game, variety is far more important to me than efficiency.
I don't see how anyone would go so low as to not make a profit on their goods. What would be the point?
Ego. Unlike the real world where money has real meaning, credits have no real value (except to those who violate the rules and sell on Ebay). As a result, there are a lot of merchant-crafters in the game who are interested in factors other than money. Every server has single crafters with lots of alts who run giant crafting operations of 30 factories or more. Do they do this for money? I doubt that's the complete answer as they are already billionaires if they are even halfway good at what they do. I suspect a lot of these people simply want to be the largest crafter in their field.
In the current inefficient marketplace they can't get 100% of the market. Do they get 20% or even 30% of the market? Maybe, but probably not. But what happens when everyone sees everyone's stock and buys from the bazaar? Here we have somebody who has 30 factories of production (and the ability to put down more), billions in stored credits, and hundreds of millions of units of self-harvested resources in dozens of storage houses. Oh, and a strong desire to dominate. Every single server has at least one of these people and it's not hard toguess what will happen in whatever market that person decides to play in.
Galactic Viewing will be allowed only via Bazaar terminals, not private terminals? Or can someone indeed go into a persons shop and use their vendor to search the galaxy for a cheaper price?
- Private Vendors should not allow this. Let browsing be done through NPC City Bazaar terminals only.
Was it the initial plan to allow anyone with vendors the ability to put it up for Galactic Viewing?
- This needs to be a Merchant skill, equal to or higher than Planetary Advertisment. Otherwise, you turnMerchant skillsuseless.
Items would go straight into backpacks unless there was no room (I know this one).
- No good. I don't mind browsing and buying, but people should still have to travel to the location to pick it up. That allows people who have put forthought into their shop location to continue to benifit from their actions.
Overall, I think the idea is a good one, if implemented properly. If you wanted to make it a money sink, you could charge credits to browse via the Bazaar Terminals as well.
And I really don't see the logic behind the statement that some people need to make a 200% profit and others only 100%. We all have the same costs aside from materials purchased from others. With this system, the crafter will be able to get the cheapest resources available, as will every other crafter of the same items...so that assumption doesn't hold water.
Only someone who is less effecient than someone else needs to make more money under the Galactic Bazaar, bringing a new aspect into gameplay...Maximizing profit. If the "average" price of something is 1000 credits, and it cost you 500 to make but someone else makes the same thing for 400, then they earn an extra 100 per sale because of their efficiency. This is a problem?
Message Edited by GraySeven on 02-14-2005 08:58 AM
Happymob wrote:
In the current inefficient marketplace they can't get 100% of the market. Do they get 20% or even 30% of the market? Maybe, but probably not. But what happens when everyone sees everyone's stock and buys from the bazaar? Here we have somebody who has 30 factories of production (and the ability to put down more), billions in stored credits, and hundreds of millions of units of self-harvested resources in dozens of storage houses. Oh, and a strong desire to dominate. Every single server has at least one of these people and it's not hard toguess what will happen in whatever market that person decides to play in.