Merchant Archive
Thread: Am I griefing?
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Chumplestilskin
Wed Apr 06, 2005 3:16 pm
#27
Wow, this is a good question!
I had to think about this before I gave my response.
First, in RL, I am a Senior VP of a 24 million dollar company...so, I'm gonna put that hat on and pretend it's "real" business for a sec.
Albeit, he is benefitting from a bugged vendor system that you have no control over. In business, that happens all the time. Newspaper stories, magazine ads, etc often profiling one of our competitiors (who are legitimately inferior) are often generated because of some kind of connection to the media source, or due to the organization donating to the source of media. Our competitors get great exposure and often even accolades that are truly unwarrented and unearned. The onlyrelationship I draw here is the unearned exposure your competitor is getting due to a bugged vendor system.
Now, your challenge, if you so choose to try topursue it, would be to figure out a way overcome that obstacle with more innovative ideas of how to increase your exposure to the SWG galaxy. Perhaps using the Trade forums, Advertising Droids, etc..and in my opinion from a purely "ethical" point of view without placing your tent right next door.
Now..that being said, I'm taking off my "real business" hat. We're playing a game and its fun to experiment too. I think that's pretty cool about your discovery there. Perhaps you could place several tents that would get ya in the listings until you found a spot that was not occupied by a competitor? Then you have an equal playing field and would be satisfied with your sales. You said yourself, had that happened to you, you would be turbo mad. Overall, you're right, business is business and I feel it is up to you on how you ultimately want to run your business...I would play itwhich way was most fun for you.
DesktopSaki
Wed Apr 06, 2005 9:56 pm
#28
I'm glad I found this thread before I remade my Scouting vendor to rename it. Oi.
Crustyfur
Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:47 am
#29
I actually removed the tent that I had placed in my experiement, as I would prefer to try and generate my own custom rather than camping some other guys location.
As I have already stated I have used all means AVAILABLE to me to get sales. I have done a 1500 mailshot of all my previous customers - you can only send 25 mails at a time so this took hours. I use the Barker Droid daily. I use auctions on the Bazaar to show off my goods. Although I have refrained from spamming coronet. What else can we do? Nothing.
Crimsonsplat
Thu Apr 07, 2005 6:30 am
#30
Chumplestilskin wrote:
Wow, this is a good question!
I had to think about this before I gave my response.
First, in RL, I am a Senior VP of a 24 million dollar company...so, I'm gonna put that hat on and pretend it's "real" business for a sec.
Albeit, he is benefitting from a bugged vendor system that you have no control over. In business, that happens all the time. Newspaper stories, magazine ads, etc often profiling one of our competitiors (who are legitimately inferior) are often generated because of some kind of connection to the media source, or due to the organization donating to the source of media. Our competitors get great exposure and often even accolades that are truly unwarrented and unearned. The onlyrelationship I draw here is the unearned exposure your competitor is getting due to a bugged vendor system.
Now, your challenge, if you so choose to try topursue it, would be to figure out a way overcome that obstacle with more innovative ideas of how to increase your exposure to the SWG galaxy. Perhaps using the Trade forums, Advertising Droids, etc..and in my opinion from a purely "ethical" point of view without placing your tent right next door.
Now..that being said, I'm taking off my "real business" hat. We're playing a game and its fun to experiment too. I think that's pretty cool about your discovery there. Perhaps you could place several tents that would get ya in the listings until you found a spot that was not occupied by a competitor? Then you have an equal playing field and would be satisfied with your sales. You said yourself, had that happened to you, you would be turbo mad. Overall, you're right, business is business and I feel it is up to you on how you ultimately want to run your business...I would play itwhich way was most fun for you.
I guess you're responding to the OP. But anyway, as we've found, his results were anomolous, and probably the results of a bug. However, your point, if there is one in there, is irrelevant.
- First, if you're trying to say RL = Game in this respect, then I have to disagree. RL is full of utterly random and chaotic crap. Writers often say, seriously, that what they write is tamer than reality because it has to make sense, whereas life doesn't, it just IS. Games, because they function as a limited reflection of reality (a form of fiction, if you will), have this same constraint. Utterly random and illogical stuff just doesn't belong there. If there is a random events table to cause an element of unpredictablity (like news stories, rumors, etc.) then it must be designed within the constraint of a game system: i.e.: balanced & logical. You can roll snake-eyes in craps and lose instantly. That's understandable, and everyone plays by those rules. No one thinks that losing at craps because a gorilla just walked in,ate your dice, (and then the Vogons destroyed Earth) is a good idea.
- Second, the RL = Game metaphor breaks down once again on a point you often hear: "I play a game to get away from real life!" In real life, I say "Fair is just a word in the dictionary." If anything, life is totally unfair. But in a game, the rules have to be fairly applied to all. This is only good sense; if you "discriminate" whether by design or indifference, then you alienate players. In this regard, rigging the vendor system to favor established players discourages newer players (meaning customers). It favors the formation of oligopolies composed of the oldest crafters on the server, who have all the advantages: established reputation, customer base, huge reserves of money and resources, the best shop locations, etc. For SOE to perpetuate this system is counterproductive to the enjoyement of many crafters, and a disservice to the customers of the crafting professions.
Anyway, that's my nickle's worth.
Elyssa
Thu Apr 07, 2005 12:32 pm
#31
(personally) I think it would be a good idea if being on ANY page depends on what skills you have in merchant. 
Rowgue
Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:52 pm
#32
Wow that's rich.
A "Senior VP of a 24 million dollar company" is trying to equate the SWG economic model to real life.
Something there doesn't seem to make sense...let me think...oh I know, your a fifteen year old kid who thinks that if he uses really good grammer and fancy words and dazzles us with his qualifications then we'll believe everything he says like it's gospel.
Like Crimsonsplat said it has already been debunked as an anomoly. It was not only difficult finding a point in your post whatsoever, but also extremely annoying to have to read through the long explanation of the difficulties of your fictional 24 million dollar company to get there.
MeciniaLua
Mon Apr 11, 2005 2:36 pm
#33
Elyssa wrote:
(personally) I think it would be a good idea if being on ANY page depends on what skills you have in merchant.
The trouble is how many Master Merchants on each server.
They could effectively squeeze out anyone else 
(And yes i'm a master merchant with Mecinia, Bien and Vok are alsomerchants and in time will master
However I do think merchant skills should way into the formula somehow.
Elyssa
Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:16 pm
#34
I'd like to see your merchant skill determine whether your vendors are seen in "This region" "This planet" or "Entire galaxy"
If "This Region" was expanded to 2000-2500m and a bazaar terminal could be added to player cities, I thinkAdvertising 1 (or Novice merchant at the very least) should be required to be visible at this range.
Advertising 4 for the whole planet, and Master for the whole galaxy.
TheNola
Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:47 pm
#35
Interesting on that speculation of the "page location." I think I will find out which page I'm on from Coronet's bazaar...
Pappi
Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:09 pm
#36
Elyssa wrote:I'd like to see your merchant skill determine whether your vendors are seen in "This region" "This planet" or "Entire galaxy"If "This Region" was expanded to 2000-2500m and a bazaar terminal could be added to player cities, I think Advertising 1 (or Novice merchant at the very least) should be required to be visible at this range.Advertising 4 for the whole planet, and Master for the whole galaxy.
it's kinda silly, "this region" is only useful on the advanced planets where you can actually place a house (and have vendors) close to the outpost. I wish they could relax that for starting planets
Elyssa
Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:23 pm
#37
But if that range were increased to about 2500m and bazaar terms could be included in player cities, that would go a long way to addressing that issue.
Crustyfur
Tue Apr 12, 2005 1:37 am
#38
IMO they should remove 'region' all togeather and just have 'Planet' and 'Global'. We have more chance of them removing something than actually 'Fixing It!' 
Just for the record, even with the new text filter, oldest vendors are still listed at the the top of the list. The only thing I can thing of that could be used to randomise the way results are listed is the serial number of the item. You know the Alpha/Numeric one. No one would have any control over this.
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