Dancer Archive
Thread: Help Save A Playstyle!!!
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Schardour
Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:31 pm
#1
****Moderators - These are my words, and not taken from another player/corre/glowie/dev****
Ladies and gentlemen, entertainers of all ages, I'd like to bring something to your attention that will negatively affect the game we play, and negatively affect many of our Merchant and Crafter friends. As you may know, the developers (in all of their wisdom) have decided to implement a "Galaxy-wide Search" option for vendors. This willadvertise the goods from vendors across the galaxies on the Bazaar terminals. This includes both the price and the location of the item! The majority of the merchants that I've spoken to are opposed to this 'innovation.'
You might be thinking, "Great! No more long vendor searches!"
But think back...why was this game so successful at launch?
Because it was a real world. People want reality TV. People want to be the American Idol. This game let you do that. It wasn't another FPS. It wasn't another frag-fest. It wasn't another drive-thru video game. But it's quickly turning into one, and more and more players are leaving! Player turnover is skyrocketing not because the game sucks, but because there's nothing tieing them to the game! People want to feel like they're a part of something, and that something is a community. There's no community when every player is out in the field shooting at rancors and becoming loot-whores. I'm sorry, but the American vision of "convenience" isn't going to save this game. I firmly believe that there's much more to the social structure of an MMO than combat players using crafters and other support characters to become "ub3r."
What a player does in their downtime is what separates the ones that are prepared for an "event" (whatever that may be), from those that are not. Basically, my theory is that there are many facets to an MMORPG, and if you're not able to handle each of those, or be successful at each of those, then you should not be on the same level as somebody that can manage each of those aspects. (Combat and social interdependencies, access to support and items, etc.) This is why guilds are present in games. This is why communities form in games. It has nothing to do with RP, but with having a variety of different skills, not just the ability to point a weapon, spam an attack key, and log out with more money/loot/faction points.
People don't pay much attention to "culture" or "integrity" anymore. That's when you begin to see businesses like Enron take huge hits for practicing the wrong policies. If you forget to balance the culture with the 'convenience' and 'profitability,' you're going to run into problems. I can see SWG running into problems very quickly if it continues down this path.
When the game focuses on the individual, or makes it too easy to operate "in a vacuum," so to speak, then you're going to see some negative trends. The focus on the convenience of the individual is what pushed bots to the top of the food chain. It's what drove players to become afk-looters. Why work for money, when you can make money while you're away, and use that money to play the game you way you want to play it?
Making vendors available on a galaxy-wide search allows crafters to operate "in a vacuum." They lose their playstyle and become another support function for combatants. Their gameplay often centers around advertisement, brand building, customer loyalty, and things of that nature. This takes that away. It takes away their gameplay.
Garva, please forgive me for quoting DocSavag on this ONE short paragraph. It's nothing CU-related. (Nor was the other thread, but whatever. 
) "It is without a doubt more convienient for non crafters/merchants. But then again so are NPC weapon vendors. This game was different. It becomes less different with every change along these lines."
) "It is without a doubt more convienient for non crafters/merchants. But then again so are NPC weapon vendors. This game was different. It becomes less different with every change along these lines."Entertainers, please visit the Merchant forums and view the stickied thread located at the top of it. Then visit the "In Testing" Focus thread titled Test Center - Version 0.116143 - March 14, 2005 and support our Merchant and Crafter friends.
I don't want to see their playstyle ruined in a similar fashion to ours.
Else-Whira
Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:38 pm
#4
NO! Stop poluting the dancer forum with this!
I am a master merchant and I *want* this change! Just because those of us who have wanted and do want this change aren't posting to every forum we can find and demanding developers push this through does not mean that we are not VERY excited and looking forward to it.
I am a master merchant and I *want* this change! Just because those of us who have wanted and do want this change aren't posting to every forum we can find and demanding developers push this through does not mean that we are not VERY excited and looking forward to it.
DocSavag
Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:43 pm
#5
Else-Whira wrote:
NO! Stop poluting the dancer forum with this!
I am a master merchant and I *want* this change! Just because those of us who have wanted and do want this change aren't posting to every forum we can find and demanding developers push this through does not mean that we are not VERY excited and looking forward to it.
There are better ways to provide global searching that don't ruin the playstyle of many merchants.
Schardour
Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:45 pm
#6
(That wasn't my one-star, before you yell at me. 
)
)But I know many many more merchants that can't stand to see their wares drowned in a sea of other merchant items! This cuts out customer-merchant interactions, it reduces the importance of advertisement and community relations, destroys branding, and completely changes the tactics of a crafter! Now, instead of the traditional approach to selling goods, the player is forced to mass produce in an effort to capture an entire page of the bazaar terminal, and hope it ends up at the front. Small crafters who operate at a larger margin, or with greater expenses, are going to be forced out of business, because people will seek out the best possible deal and lowest possible price. Those without harvestor fields or the best existing experimentation suits will be left without market share. There are alot of arguments against this new approach. At any rate, the feedback thread is stickied at the top of the Merchant forums. (Read that one, I think it's only for Merchants to post in.) TC feedback is allowed in the link provided. I personally am against this change in both vendor use and in game culture.
Schardour
Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:48 pm
#7
And people, let's not practice these dumb friggin' "star wars." It's annoying, immature, and only serves to anger ME. 
Else-Whira
Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:48 pm
#8
DocSavag wrote:
There are better ways to provide global searching that don't ruin the playstyle of many merchants.
I didn't want just global searching. I wanted to give my customers the ability to buy from any term ala the first draft. I was furious when you correspondents shouted the idea down. Ask Jenden cause he got an earful (err eyeful? lol) from me about it.
I personally think this is an example of the few holding the many hostage. I *am* a master merchant too, who is my voice?
Else-Whira
Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:52 pm
#9
Schardour wrote:(That wasn't my one-star, before you yell at me.But I know many many more merchants that can't stand to see their wares drowned in a sea of other merchant items! This cuts out customer-merchant interactions, it reduces the importance of advertisement and community relations, destroys branding, and completely changes the tactics of a crafter! Now, instead of the traditional approach to selling goods, the player is forced to mass produce in an effort to capture an entire page of the bazaar terminal, and hope it ends up at the front. Small crafters who operate at a larger margin, or with greater expenses, are going to be forced out of business, because people will seek out the best possible deal and lowest possible price. Those without harvestor fields or the best existing experimentation suits will be left without market share. There are alot of arguments against this new approach. At any rate, the feedback thread is stickied at the top of the Merchant forums. (Read that one, I think it's only for Merchants to post in.) TC feedback is allowed in the link provided. I personally am against this change in both vendor use and in game culture.
I totally disagree with you. I think anything that makes a merchants items more readily available can only serve to improve sales. The economy will fluctuate anytime someone sells below cost, but smart merchants will learn to buy these people out and resale for profit. All this will do is open the market and give merchants the ability to reach the population without standing in a star port spamming the loaction of their shop.
Message Edited by Else-Whira on 03-15-2005 05:53 PM
Schardour
Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:02 pm
#10
Else-Whira wrote:
All this will do is open the market and give merchants the ability to reach the population without standing in a star port spamming the loaction of their shop.
You never had to do that before, if you were a decent merchant. A real merchant could build a brand name by advertising on the forums, advertising on vendors with auctions that had the max bid immediately, giving your items brand-names, placing ads on the forums, operating by word-of-mouth, locating in a well-travelled mall, etc. You go ahead and spam outside a starport and see how many people /addignore Else. Really, that's about the worst possible method available for anybody that isn't a doctor. (And I even ignore those half the time.) Even Merchant Barker Droids were an option! The methods are there, but this destroys that portion of the game for alot of dedicated players.
Else-Whira
Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:14 pm
#11
Schardour wrote:
Else-Whira wrote:
All this will do is open the market and give merchants the ability to reach the population without standing in a star port spamming the loaction of their shop.
You never had to do that before, if you were a decent merchant. A real merchant could build a brand name by advertising on the forums, advertising on vendors with auctions that had the max bid immediately, giving your items brand-names, placing ads on the forums, operating by word-of-mouth, locating in a well-travelled mall, etc. You go ahead and spam outside a starport and see how many people /addignore Else. Really, that's about the worst possible method available for anybody that isn't a doctor. (And I even ignore those half the time.) Even Merchant Barker Droids were an option! The methods are there, but this destroys that portion of the game for alot of dedicated players.
And those ways of advertising will still be effective and still work for those kinds of merchants. The people like me that refuse to spam and don't have high end items that sell well on the trade forums will do MORE business with this change, not less. You guys refuse to see this glass as anything but half empty.
Schardour
Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:36 pm
#12
Else-Whira wrote:
And those ways of advertising will still be effective and still work for those kinds of merchants.
How will those means of advertisement be effective when everything becomes a price war?
Right now, for entertainers, you can see it in buffbots.Buffbots even jostle for position against each other inside the same cantina! It's not about the best buff, it's where they're located, how long they're there, what time they can log their bot in to get there first, etc. Now, for merchants, it's going to be"Who has the most items at the lowest price on the bazaar?"
Again, personality is removed and a playstyle is defeated. Those "types" of players will be able to compete as well as the live "types" of players are able to compete against buffbots. You can argue that it's possible, but it's simply not going to happen.
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