Jirosh's Guildhouse Auction discussion.

[Under the moon]

As some of you know, Jirosh is selling a guildhouse in Oja this week. If not read this: http://hydlaa.com/smf/index.php?topic=30634.0

The story is this: Jirosh is a shrewd businessman, and does not like how the auctions in Hydlaa are going. Those of you at a few of the other auctions may have noticed Jirosh's aid, Ungarit Cheene, watching how things went. He returned to Oja and reported to Jirosh, who decided to take the guildhouse off the open block and sell it his own way, which is detailed in that link. Please read it over before commenting.

NOTE! This is a luxury, top of the line guildhouse, not and actual home, so I don't want the topic turn to commenting or complaining about the price, or how OOC they are. These are beach-front condos and high-rent office buildings. The prices are very IC.

What I want to know, is what do you think of this style auction?

What pros and cons do you see?

What roleplay value does it have, in your mind?

What OOC problems do you see?

Any other comments you have are welcome.

[bilbous]

I have to say this is similar to a suggestion I made a couple months ago and I approve. I wonder how you will be evaluating the guild purpose as a guild leader could make up a fine story and have no intention of ever trying to get his members to follow it. His only option would seem to be to kick them out of the guild and if he kicks too many the guild collapses. Also what is to prevent him from suddenly kicking out all but his 5 alts and using it as a personal residence. This last is not a concern specific to this type of auction though.

I wonder is there a blind reserve bid? I did not see mention of a minimum bid so if there is one it might be worth mentioning. From what I saw, the last guild house went for considerably less than the initial ones and with a blind bid such as this it is possible no bids will reach 1 million tria. Also is it possible to make contingency bids where you bid x amount if sufficient to win and x+y should x be insufficient?

Just some random thoughts from an unguilded neutral observer.

[Parallo]

I think I'd prefer the idea of a completely blind auction, just for the fun of it. I'd wonder though if that would actually net more or less than previous ones and I think Jirosh is making a bit too much of a gamble.

[Sangwa]

what do you think of this style auction?

It's good to have a different auctioning style. I think there should be a sort of initial price though, something reflecting a sort of turned down mean of what we've seen sold thus far.

What pros and cons do you see?

Less confusion, less lagging and a time-zone friendlier way of allowing people to auction. It's slower and it feels like shooting in the dark.

What roleplay value does it have, in your mind?

The way it's been played out? Very good. It also makes sense that different house owners choose different auction methods. What we can't change is the unrealistic "new thing" feet about house auctioning in general right now. But that's to be expected! I can't resist it either.
Also, this forces people who would just shout for their house to take some time, read and then role play a bit in writing down their bidding slip. The moderators will also have a chance to decide what guilds aren't taking role playing seriously and make assessments as to why, which could be useful knowledge.

What OOC problems do you see?

OOC problems? I can't think of many. Besides an uncomfortable separation of IC and OOC in the post. Maybe it couldn't be avoided, that's for you to know.

Additional comments? You hardly need my approval, but very good indeed! Will you still look for more diverse ways of auctioning? I hope so.

[Under the moon]

Thank you for the comments.

Bilbous: I can't say what the bids we have so far are, but I will say that any 'reserve' that Jirosh may have had has been met. Only the guild's highest bid will be taken if more than one price is named. Jirosh's intentions are this: Bid seriously, or go home. If you read the notice, you will see he wants a future business partnership with the guild that moves in. In an RP sense, that may be worth more than the guildhouse itself.

Parello: No bids can be seen by any other bidder, and the final price will not be announced (that is up tot he winning guild to say, if they wish), so it is completely blind. Perhaps he is taking a gamble, but it is worth a shot.

Sangwa: Setting an initial price changes the mindset of the bidders in a way. I considered it, but wanted to try this way first. If another is done in a similar fashion, a low price may be set. The lag and timezone issues are one reason this one is being tried this way.

In the RP value, I think people are overlooking the fact that you have time to toy with the minds of other guilds. But yes, those are a few of the reasons. Using Jirosh as the seller gives the ability to put RP over tria in this test. Plus, as stated above, the guild that buys this guildhouse -may- have special inside info on future Mikana Trading Co. business opportunities and perhaps events revolving around such.

[Aiken]

I don't particually like this sort of auction. Have been involved from both sides.  Both from being part of the group that was wondering how impartial the auctions really were and wanting reassurance and the other side of being one of the organizers and having to give the reassurance. I won't have anything to do with blind auctions anymore. I have learnt not to trust them. Too easy to end up with people thinking there was favourtism and the actual bidding having nothing to do with it.

The last guild house auction I saw was people bidding in an open fashion. There was no doubt about who won.

In the case of auctions where you want it limited to guilds that have a reason to be there what about having a guild representative register to participate in the auction? When it comes time for the auction only accept bids from those registered. The registration part itself can be open to more role play. A chance to show something in the open about their guild and why they would want to setup shop  (in this case) in the warehouse district.

Any one who is not registered and won't shutup or keeps getting in the road like that klyros last auction freeze them, teleport port them to the other side of the map/world, anything to get the hint across they should not be interrupting. What would help with this idea is something like irc where you can set a channel so everyone can see what is said but only those with the correct permission can speak. In this case those registered for the auction. I don't know if any of the chat tab in PS have that functionality.

1. you get some role play
2. bidding is limited to those that managed to register
3. a lot of the process is still open and people can see who won and that it was not the person with stuff all money, no reason to be in the area but great friends with all the organisers

[Under the moon]

The final say on this auction was based on the personality of the NPC who would be selling a guildhouse in his shipping district. It was not objective. He is looking out for his best intrests while trying to get the best price.

In this type of auction, the highest bidder does not always win. Think of it like this. You own two office buildings right next to each other, and wish to sell one. Do you A) Take the money from the highest bidder. B) Look for th group that will most benifit your own buisiness.

The goal of this test was for people to ask themselves what their guild was really about, and how that could benifit another entity (The Mikana Trading Co.). That is asking more than the standard tria tossing of shouted auctions, which have their place as well, but require a lot less thinking.

This auction is based on real life auctions or buisiness transactions of the same nature. If possible, there may be other types tried as well, including an invite only like you describe.