Merchant Archive

We do not have an effective voice with the developers, but there are many of us.

Like all relations between haves and have nots, we can transmute our numbers into power through cooperative effort.

I propose that all shop owners put arbitrarily large entry fees on their shops and change their signs to "CLOSED DUE TO MERCHANT STRIKE! WILL NOT RE-OPEN UNTIL INSANE VENDOR ITEM LIMIT NERF GOES AWAY!"

When all of the shop owners on all of the servers close their doors in unison, the howls of the rest of the player base will be heard by the devs.

In this way, we can unite in effective action.

I suggest further that dedicated merchants employ themselves and/or their barker droids in protest at the major starports of each galaxy (Bestine, Coronet, Theed).

I suggest that each merchant vote his conscience and begin this strike immediately, but further propose that strikers position themselves at Bestine, Coronet, and Theed as described above.

In each galaxy, those who are early adopters can meet at the starports and begin organizing in earnest.

Do not let the insane caprice of the devs and beancounters destroy this game that WE THE PLAYERS have built.

The dev/beancounter aristocracy may have provided our initial access to this New World, but we are the colonists who have breathed into it the life that we all share.

Without our citizenship, the worlds of Star Wars Galaxies are empty virgin territory of no worth. Only through our painstaking application of useful labor are these raw ingredients transformed into meaningful products.

Do not allow your humanity to be crushed by the heartless soulless beancounters.

RISE UP!

UNITE!

I'll see my fellow merchants this evening at the Coronet starport on Bloodfin.

The idea is to motivate action *before* horrible horrible changes go into effect.

Further, if the merchant/crafter base can become more organized, it will be much easier in the future to coordinate in response to other ill-conceived ideas.

Hopefully this can serve as a basis to encourage the player base to actively assume more ownership of their fate.

The game cannot exist or be profitable without the playerbase (much like neither a company nor a corporation can exist without citizens or employees).

Similarly, these constituents should not relinquish control of their fates to those who may not have their best interests in mind.

You have to be kidding me, no one would EVER strike, Sure its a good idea, you get some of the key monopolies on the server to pull their vendors, crash the entire economy, make everything worth actual money. But no one would ever lose multi-millions a day on a risky gamble.

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Enevitable wrote:
You have to be kidding me, no one would EVER strike, Sure its a good idea, you get some of the key monopolies on the server to pull their vendors, crash the entire economy, make everything worth actual money. But no one would ever lose multi-millions a day on a risky gamble.

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You ignore, of course, that the risky gamble of today is balanced against the certain disaster of tomorrow.

According to SOE, the problem is the monpolies. What in the galaxy possesed you to think the monopolies will close off their vendors and stop spamming at numerous starports until the very last minute?

Monopolies?

I've only been playing for a few months and have been a dedicated crafter/merchant that entire time.

I have never once felt that I am unable to enter the market.

From the very beginning as a neophyte artisan, I was able to craft and sell my wares. In the present day, though I am far from being a megamerchant, I am still unable to stock my vendors as quickly as people buy my wares.

In fact, I have a few subcontracts where I supply some of those so-called monopolistic merchants at the high end.

This is called the supply chain.

Whose complaint is this ninnyhammered fix supposed to address?

That prices are too high? This is a market economy! Prices reach a natural balance between the difficulty of providing a good/service and the availability/demand of capital in the market.

If anything, this change is going to drive prices even higher as crafters/merchants are driven out of business.

Right now, the mega merchants are in fierce price competition with each other which makes goods that would be normally inaccessible actually available.

It seems like the devs are trying to manipulate the market for foolish reasons.

As long as we have a market economy (and we always will), prices will find their own natural level.

This means that those possessed of the most organizational ability will be able to leverage economies of scale and offer the best prices.

There will *always* be crafter/merchant conglomerates more wealthy than the small timers.

This doesn't mean that small timers can't make a profit.

I don't see the need to launch a strike at the moment myself, with TH's recent posts (and the fact dedicated merchants will get 12 vendors with 300 items per vendor) -- I feel as though this need has been addressed properly

We've been warned by Doc for MONTHS that unlimited items were going away, what I personally found horrible was the amount we were limited to with a MASTER merchant that i'm keeping valuable skillpoints keeping. With this latest set of comments by him most "Dedicated" (read: master) merchants are going to be able to possibly EXPAND their businesses, the larger array of vendors availiable to us will counterbalance the smaller number of items per vendor anyhow. Personally the only problem I personally will have is needing three or four vendors to properly house my tailored goods, and with the vendor number increases I'll be able to continue with "Business as usual".

Of course you could be upset that you aren't getting to keep your vendors without skillpoint use, but this comment is pure speculation on my part. For a master merchant, these numbers seem totally acceptable to me.

Just my two centicredits.

EDIT: It turned out it WAS pure speculation

Message Edited by Raijen_ArDesh on 08-17-2004 12:21 PM

Of course you could be upset that you aren't getting to keep your vendors without skillpoint use, but this comment is pure speculation on my part.

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Ad hominem. I am, have been, and will continue to be a master merchant.

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ArveMennderchukk wrote:

Of course you could be upset that you aren't getting to keep your vendors without skillpoint use, but this comment is pure speculation on my part.

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Ad hominem. I am, have been, and will continue to be a master merchant.

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