By what I have read so far, I am assuming that the only auctions that most of you have taken part in are the ebay type. Forgive me if I am wrong.
Now, I am not posting to insult or attack anyone, but I see problems on both sides of the fence. Most of which are caused by lack of understanding on how the system of auctions works, and the lack of game features to support them.
First off, I would like to state my position on the subject. As anyone who knows or has met me ingame knows, I eat, breath, and sleep roleplaying while ingame. As I have experienced it, the auction channel is spamed and completely out of
character 99% of the time. It also does not in the least resemble a -real- auction. This 'event' is the one occasion I have seen it put to good use. I am going to get flamed for this, but /auction in no way reflects reality. Like it or not, this system does not support roleplaying in the least. It supports loot and tria. Kill things, sell stuff. That is all. This is the completely wrong way to view something in a game based on RP.
From what I have gathered, there is a fear of placing limits of any kind on who can use what features in the game, so as to give everyone the opportunity to use them. This applies to auctions, guilds, forging, and others. But in order to do this, rules are often made limiting everyone in general, or no rules at all, giving rise to chaos. This is a perfect example of the previous. In the following, I will detail how -I- think the system should work (being an RP fanatic) and ways to apply it. Don't worry, folks, as I am fully ready to be ignored once again.
How it works in real life, and how it should more closely resemble in the game:
1: Not everyone can be an auctioneer. This is a skill, not a right.
As it is, anyone with a pile of dust can start an auction. Most turn out like this: "any1 need /3 SW daggers? look at my description to see what i have for sale." This is when I turn to /chat only.
This is what I suggest to solve this problem, and I turn to the real system of auctions for the answers. Auctioneers need four things: Items, money, location, and a license/training, and advertising. They also need charisma and such, but lets leave that alone for now.
A: Money: See all following.
B: Items: Plural. Meaning more than one. Before someone can start an auction, they need things to sell, obviously. Now, you could point out that ebay has single item auctions, but in fact, they don't. Ebay is a million item auction, and the biggest auction house in the known universe. Auctions DO NOT happen with single items. The game should reflect this. How would this work?
1. Get the items directly. This means the auctioneer either kills and loots, is given, or buys items for sale.
2. Drop boxes. When offline, or not about, the auctioneers could set up drop boxes for other players to put items in. This would be very similar to how WoW does it, but the items would go into an actual player's auction, rather than a public board. This is the first instance of costing money. An auctioneer would pay for slots in the drop box. More slots equals more money.
3. Buy items from the game server at a reduced rate. This would be possible using the license in part D below.
C: Location: Location is everything, as they say. In olden days to this day, public sales were held in town squares, to fullscale, dedicated auction houses. The point is, everyone knew where they were being held. An auction house is a very good idea, but the plaza works as well. Either way, it takes money to own, run, or rent a place to do business. Yes, I am saying it should cost money to start an auction. How the amount should be figured is on several criteria.
1. The Location. The cost would change based on where you set up, and how great a radius your /auction will travel. Think of it as a metered /shout. The more you spend, the louder your auctioneer can speak. Also, no other auction can be started in your purchased range. This leads to many player driven opportunities. But to keep from having 'auction blocks' by a few people, certain safeguards would need to be implemented, such as no double auctions, and time limits.
2. Time span. You would 'rent' an allotted amount of time to do your auction. Like said, no other could start an auction in your area.
3. Number of items, and actual amount of money taken in. Each item would cost an addional small fee to sell. Also, any money gained would be 'taxed' by the Government (server). This taxed money could be 'used' to make world changes to the game in far, far (very far) ahead versions of the game. More tax = patched holes in the plaster walls (yes, I see those), cleaner streets, etc. But that is off the subject. This tax feature is not needed, per say, but would give rise to much IC roleplaying.
D: License/training. Yes, another thing to cost money. Many places require a license and training before you can be an auctioneer. There are even schools for it. Perish the though...training in PS. As long as you don't have to kill rats to do it, I am fine with it, as any good RPer will be as well. Powerlevers may cry a bit, but does that matter so much in a game for RP? After training and your fee, you can officially sell things at an auction. Not much different than starting a guild, really.
E: Advertising. The keystone of an auction. No people means no auction. This can be done on the forums, or perhaps on ingame boards at auction locations. And one more thing that the GMs are going to hate, /shouting is a must. Not in the auction channel either. Full RP town crying. But this would not be a spamming problem, given the reduced number of actual auctions based on A though D. And it would be interesting to have RP 'wars' between adjacent auctions.
That concludes the theory of auctioneers part of my thoughts. Below is how the actual auction might work.
2: Auctions are not all the same, but they all have rules.
There are several types of auctions, based on who the customers may be. Any can be done ingame as it is now, with a little effort, and the changing of the auction spam rule.
There are two basic types that would work well ingame. Paper (two kinds), and open (vocal with restrictions).
A: Paper. This is exactly what it says. However, it is also the least RP and harder to do. It can even be done -without- any auctioneer, and little or no use of the /auction tab. There are two types.
1. Closed. It is often called a silent auction, and much like voting. Items are listed on paper or what not. Folks secretly write what they are willing to pay and place it in a box. Whoever has the highest bid wins. Simple, really. But also the most distant and uninvolved. It is also harder to do ingame. This would call for item descriptions either in character description, or on the forums. All bids would be done ingame in tells, or PMs on the forums. As you can see, not very fun.
2. Paper/Open. Ebay for PS. You can see what everyone else has bid on the item, and bid accordingly. Most easily done on a forum...completely out of the game. Not a good choice for RP, and against the PS forum rules. Maybe if someone made an Auctionhouse guild with their own forum... *hates that idea anyways*
B: Open. This is fully RPed ingame as the event that started this all tried to do. They can be done using the current system if the 'spam' restriction is removed. Again, there are two basic types. Vocal and Quiet, and variants in between. This is completely up to the auctioneer.
1. Vocal. This is what Proglin and Bod's auction was. The auctioneer states what is up for bid, and lets the bidders shout out their own bids. This can be quite chaotic, and is likely what the GM fear. It is also the most fun for both sides, bidder and auctioneer. There are ways it can be tamed, though.
a. One is to do the above system of purchased 'zones'. No overlapping auctions means no spamming. Problem solved.
b. Another way is to separate the auctions in some way. Perhaps a new 'click' button would appear next to [view] such as [bid]. Whatever the person was selling at the moment would be viewed, and his/her auction text would appear to you as 'Auction from...' Just as it does now. The difference is that you could select just the auctions you wished to hear, and ignore the rest.
2. Quiet. This is all about the auctioneer. He states the item, the proceeds to set the price. You all know this as the, "Wadda-ya-give-there. Do I hear 1000 tria? Now 1500?" After which, the bidders raise hands or numbers, but are not allowed to talk. You know the rest. "Sold to the pretty Fenki in the back row!" This is the more efficient way, but again not as fun.
3: What about the little guys?
Okay, the above plan leaves out the players that just want to off their loot in a random auction in the most populated area they can find… Perhaps you can detect the sarcasm in my tone. That is what the pawn shops are for. AKA, Harn’s forge and other places. Perhaps the items could be bought off the NPCs by those licensed to do so. But I do not like random auctions assaulting my chatbox whenever I come into the plaza. So, that leaves people with several options.
A: Sell to a pawn shop.
B: Sell to an auctioneer, place in an auctioneer’s drop box, or a public commission box that auctioneers can browse.
C: Sell to someone they know.
D: Public auction board (like WoW *shudders*)
E: Give to n00b.
F: Get kicked for trying to sell by shouting.
That concludes my take on things, as an avid (rabid) RP supporter. I am sure there are holes that need to be filled, and most will be frowned on (if even read at all), but I have had my very long say. Thanks for reading.
