In game commerce/trading

[NattyFido]

First let me say that this is not a complaint and I am very grateful for all the help I've been given in-game.
BUT, I feel I need to express this and find out what others think. Quite often my character will accept a quest that is beyond her current capabilities, the latest one was for Trasok. He needed some things that Lovthis wasn't capable of getting herself, an Ulbernaut heart, and some gold ingots, to be precise. She did try to kill an Ulber, but ended up taking the 'long walk' through the DR.

I was giving a running commentary of her progress in the gossip channel, and when the inevitable happened and she was back at Harns, another player who had obviously been reading the gossip, offered me an Ulber heart. No problem so far. I asked in gossip if he wanted to do the trade IC or OOC and we ended up doing it IC, all good because I need as much IC experience as I can get (hopefully I am getting better at it?!).

The problem, if it can be called that, was when I offered to pay for the heart. The other player didn't want paying. Now, from my point of view, that would be fine (and most kind) IF we had traded OOC, but IC, surely everyone would want paying for their services? Especially as Ulbers are hard to kill. Even a token payment would have been more (I hate to use the word in games) realistic, and bartering would have been perfect. When it comes to buying and selling ores, everyone I've interacted with has an idea how much they want to pay or be paid, and that's great.  There seems to be a general consensus on the value of each type of ore and we get to haggle until both parties are happy with the deal.
When it comes to other items though, especially animal parts, there seems to be no 'guide price' from which to start haggling, and nobody seems to want to be paid for their effeorts in securing the items, especially if they already have them in their inventory or storage.

I feel this is a shame as buying, selling and trading are great ways for noobs like me to ease ourselves into the world of RP. It is something we already know how to do in RL, and the process has never really changed since the beginning of recorded history. Given the fact the the game has a medieval setting, and medieval times were hard, if someone has something that someone else needs, surely they will want to get as much in return for it as they can? (I'm pretty sure socialism didn't exist until quite recently!)

Anyway, once again I am grateful for all the help and advice I've been given, I just wondered what the rest of you thought about this. Thoughts?

[Eonwind]

I feel like this has nothing to do with socialism or anything like that and I'm pretty sure if you asked for a full stack ulber hearts (for example to craft some item) you'd have both agreed on price to trade.
But it's just a single item and you are [or you've been perceived  ] as new player and many players are eager to help each other (especially new ones) in the hope they will stay longer.
Consider this: the longer you stay the more the people they can play with. This is their payment.

[NattyFido]

I understand the 'wanting to keep players coming back', obviously it makes it better for everyone, and the socialism comment was just me trying to be funny!

But he could have asked for a simple favour, something along the lines of, "Could you grab me a couple of apples while I get the heart from storage", or a token payment of a few Tria, or even, "You can have this one, but I might ask a favour from you in the future". Just something to make it feel like the item has some value.

Maybe it's just my sense of fairness, not wanting to be ripped off and not wanting (to be seen!) to rip people off. It's a little thing, but I was just curious how other see it.

[Volki]

Insist that you pay, then. Surprise him with a gift. It's considered polite to offer something to someone and not ask for payment. Asking for payment is seen as greedy or selfish, even though it is fair.

[bloodedIrishman]

The economy is wonkers so figuring out IC trading is anybody's guess. Your concern is noted. I, surrogate of Talad, will get on the matter as soon as possible.

[Rigwyn]

Hello Natty,

Not everyone on the server role plays and of those who do, the level to which they do varies. If you had made that trade with one of my evil characters, I assure you, there would have been a price - or at least a veiled consequence 

Not everyone plays like that though.

I would say just take note of who is thorough about RP, and who is just sort of eh... about it.

As for the actual values and prices, yes, there is a huge gap in prices and personal wealth. People tend to be unrealistically generous at times ( probably because they gained their wealth incredibly easily as compared to real world wealth building, thus tend to burn it ) We've have huge discussions about improving the Planeshift economy and the dev team even tried having the NPC's dynamically adjust their prices based on demand or something. I don't think that system is still in use as it didn't really hold up all that well.

Many of the role players ( well, there are a few ) who play now tend to be more interested in rp and less interested in actually receiving physical goods. Ie, some folks would gladly just role play handing over a bulging sack of money verses actually trading real tria. This is in part because of the economy and partly because they are not interested in grinding.

[bilbous]

When your character is sufficiently trained you will have more money that you can reasonably use and more junk in storage that is just not worth selling because of it. Value is relative. Ulbernaut hearts are much more useful than they used to be -- alchemy ingredient -- but there may still be players who have hunted the beasts for years and have no interest in alchemy. A while ago someone needed a maulbernaut talon and I didn't have any so I went and killed a dozen or so until I got one for themmight have taken 20 minutes that I would have otherwise spent running in circles and flapping my gums on gossip.

A reason to do something is sometimes a gift.

[Karzela~]

When Karzela had a quest that kept asking for more and more deadly claws, aka malbernaut talons the beasts didn't cast magic. Still it took hours to get them. Hides nor hearts were needed. She never charged for just one heart, but some would insist on some kind of offering even when Karzela pleaded with them to take the heart because it was  beginning to smell! The negotiating was fun to RP. Many over the years have agreed to 'pay it forward', meaning to help someone else in the future.

[novacadian]

My character is a hunter and brings back such items from her trips. Yet as mentioned it is just the small bonus of the kills compared to selling hides. I normally save the hearts for noobs, as altar offerings, or enkis that I want to impress with a yummy treat. The rest goes to the npc merchants. It need not be taken OOC as I have given them away, to enki at least, in rp.

[P.S. Keep in mind that they would have a short shelf life in the PS world too. Harn would want them out of storage after a day or two ]