Merchant Archive
Thread: Vendor rating system 10 star system?
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gblfxt
Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:01 pm
#1
there should be a vendor rating system in order to seperate the best from the worst, maybe a 10 star system? People would be able to change their vote in case the vendor goes to field....
gblfxt
Sun Nov 07, 2004 11:30 pm
#2
its such a hassle right now to find a stocked vendor... reason i bring it up
Elyssa
Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:50 am
#3
A system like that would be little more than an easy avenue for griefing.
Happymob
Mon Nov 08, 2004 7:31 am
#4
Elyssa wrote:
A system like that would be little more than an easy avenue for griefing.
Maybe. There is no question that there would be griefing. But on a good vendor, the number of legitimate ratings should swamp any grifeing votes.
One possible way around griefing would be to base rankings on some in-game statistic. Number of sales. Size of sales. Number of unique customers. There would be ways to game any system, but almost any ranking system could be used to weed out the truly useless vendors.
I'm not saying that I am for any vendor rating system, but I would love to see it in action just to see if it could work.
CrashNgoBoom
Mon Nov 08, 2004 8:45 am
#5
That would amost certianly create monopolies and force smaller crafters out of business. Right now if your vendor isn't stocked it doesn't show up on the map. I love this idea and haven't had any problems with it. If there was a rating system that people could look for, then everyone would only visit those higher rated and drive they're ratings even higher while the little businesses would sell less.
DocSavag
Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:22 am
#6
I tend to agree. Any system that has people voting will be used to grief that merchant if you have a disagreement with him. Any system that is based on metrics is bound to be slanted to one business style over another. A global search system might help with locating merchandise you are wanting to purchase while not limiting the merchants to being rated on some arbitrary measuring system.
Andymantium
Mon Nov 08, 2004 9:29 am
#7
Good idea on paper...but just look at the forum rating system as an example, plenty of 1-star bandits everywhere, doing what they do for no reason whatsoever. This behavior would likely follow in-game as well..
ofim
Tue Nov 09, 2004 8:07 am
#8
Happymob wrote:
Elyssa wrote:
A system like that would be little more than an easy avenue for griefing.
Maybe. There is no question that there would be griefing. But on a good vendor, the number of legitimate ratings should swamp any grifeing votes.
One possible way around griefing would be to base rankings on some in-game statistic. Number of sales. Size of sales. Number of unique customers. There would be ways to game any system, but almost any ranking system could be used to weed out the truly useless vendors.
I'm not saying that I am for any vendor rating system, but I would love to see it in action just to see if it could work.
Now that idea I like
base it on some sort of game mechanic that has to do with #items, unique visitors and raw sales both in volume and gross credits.
Happymob
Tue Nov 09, 2004 8:47 am
#9
ofim wrote:
Now that idea I like
base it on some sort of game mechanic that has to do with #items, unique visitors and raw sales both in volume and gross credits.
You then may end up with 2 problems - people will try game the system to improve their ranking and as someone else pointed out, it may help the very largemerchants more than the smaller, yet still good merchants.
In the end I have very mixed feelings about this issue. As a fairly large merchant (the largest flora merchant on Scylla), I want to be able to get the message out that I have a great vendor. As a shopper (I buy lots of resources for resale), I want better ways to avoid allthe garbage vendors listed on the planetary maps. I'm inherently lazy in the game, so an in-game automated system really appeals to me. As a master merchant, if we can tie the ability to take full advantage of this system to merchanting skills, even better. Anything that make merchant more useful is a good thing.
But I also don't necessarily want to create a system where the 10 factory crafting operations are able to capture an even greater share of the market since this comes at the expense of smaller operations. To keep the game healthy, we need as many small-time crafters as we can get.
gera
Tue Nov 09, 2004 10:14 am
#10
DocSavag wrote:
I tend to agree. Any system that has people voting will be used to grief that merchant if you have a disagreement with him. Any system that is based on metrics is bound to be slanted to one business style over another. A global search system might help with locating merchandise you are wanting to purchase while not limiting the merchants to being rated on some arbitrary measuring system.
Not to forget "whole guild" 1-starring or "whole guild" 10 starring. This would be just wrong. If you are a good merchant, people will send your wp to others, no need for star system at all..
Elyssa
Tue Nov 09, 2004 11:33 am
#11
A system like that would favor the established merchants over beginning merchants and would do little more than solidify their position as top merchants.
Happymob wrote:
One possible way around griefing would be to base rankings on some in-game statistic. Number of sales. Size of sales. Number of unique customers. There would be ways to game any system, but almost any ranking system could be used to weed out the truly useless vendors.
DocSavag
Tue Nov 09, 2004 11:52 am
#12
All of the metrics you can name won't tell you the one thing you want to know. Is ItemX that I need on this vendor. That is the only real thing that matters. What good is it to know my Vehicle vendor had 1000 sales today and has 400 items on it..when you get there there are 100 X34's and 300 customization kits..the Swoop you want isn't there.
The only real way to improve your shopping experience would be to be able to globally search for merchandise and locate vendors that have that item.
The only real way to improve your shopping experience would be to be able to globally search for merchandise and locate vendors that have that item.
OditeFosore
Tue Nov 09, 2004 4:53 pm
#13
DocSavag wrote:
All of the metrics you can name won't tell you the one thing you want to know. Is ItemX that I need on this vendor. That is the only real thing that matters. What good is it to know my Vehicle vendor had 1000 sales today and has 400 items on it..when you get there there are 100 X34's and 300 customization kits..the Swoop you want isn't there.
The only real way to improve your shopping experience would be to be able to globally search for merchandise and locate vendors that have that item.
Have to agree - the one tool that would reallymake life easier for customers and would boostsales for stocked vendors would be to be able to look at 1 search interface and gather the necessary waypoint information for the vendors that have the product you're looking for. As things are now, if I'm looking for a Mark II engine, I can look for loot vendors or I can look for starship vendors from the planetary map vendor search, but I won't know if any of them are stocked without travelling out to each shop. I would love to get the waypoints for stocked vendors for the item I am looking for and then to just go directly to them.
A search tool like this could be implemented in many different ways - it could be a feature added to the bazaar terminals in cities, or it could be added to all vendors. It would either need to be a keyword search, which would hurt some that have unique names for products or it could work by categorizingitems as they are listed for sale- like the categories listed on the bazaars.
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