Merchant Archive

ghartan...dont act 13 and read the post

The headline says "remove it and redesign it"

...meant to get attention and if you've read my posts...you'll clearly see I am advocatinga redesign (not practical to remove obviously) as even the dev's have admitted they did not account for how the players are using this profession...i.e.: we didnt think this through (just like CH's) and now we are stuck in between a rock and a hard place.

The call here is to admit they screwed up....and come out and say....we are redesigning this...bare with us it will take some time ..but we know its the key to the player economy and we want to get this working smoothly.

Have you heard this from the Dev's yet? No ....its basic human nature to avoid admitting a mistake...but those that do and work to resolve the issue are the ones who succeed....this is what they need to come to grips with quickly on several fronts within this game.

For the record... this post is to put dialogue on the board....stating they need to come out and admit and redesign this profession.....this is not about ripping Marqie (though he/she took the defensive and quickly begged for scrutiny)or anyone else.

This profession despite the value we know it holds is dying....just the facts....you take it cuz of the obvious value...then you leave it or stop using it as much as you can after the first 2 weeks of dealing with any decent volume. This is the evolution of the profession...plain and simple.

I read and understand what you are posting. I agree, often whole-heartedly, with some of what you say. Many of the details of being a merchant can be frustrating. Draznar's faq helped me reduce my frustration a lot, and learning to be proactive has helped me avoid death by email spam supporting both a shop and mall vendors 3 planets away from each other.

My opinion is different. That does not make yourfeelings invalid or wrong. You feel the way you feel. I too have played a merchant for 3.5 months now. My wife and I spend way too many hours online out of enjoyment. I've gone to work bleary eyed from late-night sessions more times than I care to admit.I really adore this game, and the merchant profession. Sure a bunch of stuff is broken, or works wierd, or is frustrating. But I like the game, and the potential.

I like marquie's method's of dealing with both our requests/wishes and the devs. Calm, thoughful. If she got a bit frustrated at losing her store and merchants, a game-breaker to many of us, I will not hold it against her for wanting to leave in the heat of anger. Who amongst us that has been a merchant for some time hasn't seriously considered it? She stuck around and continues to fight the good fight.

But what will outrage and rants gain us?

Sony ran the EQ boards many, many moons ago. When the boards began filling with rants and rage, they shut the "official" boards down. An odd solution, but effective.

Given the Dev responses and lack thereof,and problems that seem to be with almost all the classes to one degree or another, it appears to me that we are not dealing with a full development team of eager, addictedplayers like ourselves. A percentage of the developers must then be normal folks for whom programming is a job, and they are just happy to have work in a tight economy.They saw star wars and play enough to understand the concept of what they are doing. Apparently the merchant class falls under one of these average folks. Much like anyworker in a store or resturant or business, raging at them, particularly threats, are not going to go over well. Calm, thoughful, logical, CONSTANT pressure will achieve our goals with these types of folks in a later rather than sooner time frame, but they will be addressed better and more fully than panic responses just to get us off their backs.

We are a devoted, pasionate bunch, and I won't stop you from yelling at the top of your lungs about what you may feel about this game and our time here. You have some very accurate points, and it shows you actually have been a Mall Manager, god bless you for doing that. But I don't agree that the merchant profession should be scrapped. And if I take a bit of offense at your comments at marquie, forgive me. Again , difference of opinion.

Improvments, make-overs, all will come and be welcomed in due time. If you are here in years, as you say, you will see them.A Shout and Pout posting session will neither bring them any swifter nor make things any better.

I apologize for my rampant mispellings in my last post. Ugh. Typing too fast. Anyway..

I was thinking about the Merchant Dev just last night and thought he must be the quiet guy.The onenoone talks to, and he doesn't really talk to anyone. They have meetings and he's the guy who just sits and nods and listens to how much they'll be changing combat classes. Every once and awhile he thinks about raising his hand and saying something about our problems and then GreenMarine or someone says something about how worthless merchants are and crafting is ruining the economy and the Merchant Developers hand goes down before it even starts to go up.

Ever see Office Space? I see the Merchant Developer as the Milton Waddams of the SWG Dev team. He brought his Red Stapeler with him and it's his, but Holocron probably took it away a long time ago. 'Bout the same time he stuck his office in the broom closet.

Poor Milton the Merchant Developer. When will he ever stand up for us and himself?

So you're say that the Devs ignore our ocrrespondant in the forum the created to give direct attion to class correspondants?

Great.. Thats just great. What the hell has to be dont to get some sort of response or attention? I called for a strike months ago, I just wish everyone cared enough to do it.

This is sick. It makes me ill.

Message Edited by GarVa on 10-10-2003 03:11 PM

Back to the drawing board... yes, that is needed.

Do we even know who the Merchant designer is? Marqie do you know?

I think what needs to be focused on is making the Merchant profession FUN to play as a stand alone profession.

What it is today is a set of tools for an artisan to use to help sell their goods. It is not designed to be a playable profession in and of itself.

Even as a limited set of tools, it performs poorly.

I'd love to see a redesign of this profession. Make it something fun to play for those that aren't specialized artisans. Something full featured and fun. As it stands, Merchants are vendor owners. Pure and simple. This isn't fun.

Move the focus away from vendors and towards shops, retail, and business tracking tools. Business can be fun. There are plenty of games out there (SimAnything) that exploit the challenge and entertainment value of business management. Make THAT what the merchant profession is about.

DON'T make it more tedious and difficult than running a real business! )

In short...I think the Merchant Profession is designed (intentionally or not) as an auxillery profession to crafters, while it deserves to be able to stand on it's own.