The last auctions took place a good while back and since then many guilds have been saving up. We expect the guildhouses to be sold for high amounts of trias.

So why set a minimum price at all?
And even when a house gets sold for 1.6 million, what's the problem with that? It's how the market works, and at least every guild will have a chance to take part in the auctions.
With these reserve prices, I wouldn't be surprised if half of the houses won't be sold at all.

Of course there is a bit of friendly rivalry between stonebreakers and hammerwielders. Stonebreakers tend to be the better miners and crafters. while hammerwielders are the better fighters, so each clan takes pride in trying to outperform the other clan in their field of excellence. But in the end, they always will have a beer together, and call eachother brodr, because that's what they are: brodrs!

There are a number of activities in PS that are quite boring, like mining, smelting, crafting, and repairing your weapons and armour.
So we could make it more fun by adding arcade-like mini-games? I'm with Mythryndel: don't! If I want to play tetris, I can do that anytime and anywhere I want.
I actually like these "time-outs": they give me an opportunity to devote more attention to guildchat, or to have some private converstation in tells. Or do something else entirely.

Getting back to the original post: how could we make weapon/armour repair more realistic?
I agree there should be a chance of failure or of ruining your weapon/armour. I would also like to add the idea that you ought to have special tools (outside the repair kit) to repair your equipment. With just a repair kit, you should not be able to fully repair your weapon/armour, unless you had access to an anvil. So with a repair kit in one hand, your battle axe in the other, using an anvil, you would have a chance of fully repairing that axe. Without the anvil, it would take you longer, you would repair less damage, and you'd have a bigger chance of ruining your axe.