Sold to the highest bidder, or is it?
by Amanda Rivera 
Jun 19th 2007 at 9:29AM
The Auction House system in WoW is one of the more popular mechanics in the game. Having a way to trade goods is one of the ways that Blizzard puts the Massively Multiplayer in MMO. But I know that when I use the AH, 90% of the time I buy something using the buyout price. I don't have the patience to participate in a bidding war. And evidently this is a trend within the game.
Tobold explains that the system is actually designed so that players will be more than likely to choose the buyout rather than play the bidding game. Part of this comes from the fact that to not have an item sell is to lose the down payment we place on it when a bid is first posted. With the Auction House as it is currently designed the bidder gets no sense of the bid prices, of the history of bids, of really any of the information that someone might see on an auction site like eBay. It's actually too transparent for the purpose as an auction system.
There have been suggestions as to how this might be improved. Perhaps, like Tobold says, tweaking the interface so that the auctions have more information provided might work. Reader Joe Szilagyi wrote in with a different suggestion. He mentioned the possibility of making the AH like the PvP system, system-wide rather than server-specific. He explains that this would be a way to bolster the economies of lower population servers while at the same time allowing loot to be available to both the Horde and the
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Festis Jun 19th 2007 9:44AM
I think that although the task of making the AH not just server wide but system wide would greatly benefit the community.
It would make servers that are old and things are selling inexpensively even out with the newer servers where things are selling at ridiculous rates.
Not only would it do this, but it would also provide a way for there to be more price competition in terms of things that are in high-demand such as stacks cloth and materials etc.
This would end the monopoly's that currently exist on many servers that result in one greedy player controlling the market.
All in all the only downside I could see to this is that perhaps some people would just make their prices so low that it would force others to sell their goods ludicrously low.
Well that's my opinion on the subject take it or leave it. : )
daniel Jun 19th 2007 9:45AM
why not simply have one AH for the whole server instead of one horde, one ally and one neutral? or maybe there's a reason for this that i don't understand. cutting auction fees will probably encourage the use of the AH as well, i'm not that used to putting up greens/blues so i usually opt to vendor it for a few gold instead of loosing money trying to get it sold on AH.
tynk Jun 19th 2007 10:03AM
Cross server auction houses are not an option. It would inherently allow easier access to breaking of the EULA with gold transfers and character sales. This would also tend to cause more abnormalities instead of evening things out as certain items would tend to migrate towards one server over another (such as those servers opening AQ). As for making things more reaonably priced on the new servers? Not a chance. You would have people create a new character on a new server then put a stack of arrows on the ah for 10,000 gold. jump on their character from another server with an abundance... and you now have an absurd economy on a new server.
Festis Jun 19th 2007 10:11AM
@3
Here's how you prevent that, you make it impossible to bid on things that have been put on the AH by your own account much as you cannot bid on your own items on ebay.
And as for the mention of AQ, that would be part of the natural fluctuation supply and demand.
The way I see it, the System Wide AH's benefits greatly outweigh any downsides.
Mystrana Jun 19th 2007 10:13AM
System wide would be a joke. Think to how each server already has a retard who tries to sell their stuff on the AH for vendor price, and then someone goes and undercuts that... (alright, I've only seen it happen on lower level leather and herbs, but I saw it once or twice at level 50 items too)...
Is that really the economy we need?
The AH can already be daunting enough. And think about those BOP blues... the ones that can sell for a ton because they're a rare drop... right, now imagine when one from each server is available to everyone across the servers... byebye profits.
Addie Jun 19th 2007 10:17AM
I almost always hit the buy button. The only time I'll bid is if I don't care if I lose it or if the time left is short enough that I'll likely be on the whole time. People who put stuff up with no buyout price drive me crazy... I'm shopping *now* - I dunwanna wait 'til the auction expires and babysitting your bid stinks. I use the auction house everyday, but I'm not much into the "auction" part, I guess.
Monistatus Jun 19th 2007 10:27AM
@4... so how do you prevent me from placing something in the AH at 9999 BO, sending the gold to my wife's account and having her buy it?
The gold still gets to my alt.
ben1778 Jun 19th 2007 10:34AM
I use the bid feature all the time. I probably have 10-20 items bid on at any given time (on my AH alt).
I do use the buyout feature often for mats I need immediately or if I see something at a good price. I'm a middleman. I check the AH often for good deals to add to my inventory and then sell them later on at a markup.
I don't clear out entire types of a mat and then just charge huge amoutns though, I pick and choose items here and there. If I see a Valanos Longbow up on the Ah for 9g butout, i'll grab it. Stuff like that. Pants of Living Growth for 175g? Sure. I'll take it.
I like the Ah system just the way it is, other than the scammers who do the 1s bid and 9999g buyout.
With my high volume bidding, I win some every day and lose some every day. In the long run its a relatively stable flow through bidding and I save lots of money.
Step 1. Bid
Step 2. ???
Step 3. Profit!
thunder Jun 19th 2007 11:17AM
The #1 problem with the auction house causing buyout to be the preferred method is the limited access to viewing auctions.
In order to confidently bid on an item, the player must be able to track their bids more than once during the duration of the auction.
With a maximum auction time of 24 hours, its just not feasible.
Blizzard should re implement it to either allow much longer auction times, OR... Implement the UI such that the AH can be browsed from anywhere, tracking your auctions and bids, however forcing players to return to the AH to post auctions and make bids.
In order for more people to want to bid for better prices, they need to be able to monitor and bid more than once or twice.
Hidden_Agenda Jun 19th 2007 10:44AM
My only complaint about the AH is that people can remove their own auctions even if there are already bids on them. I tend to call the AH my “Primary Profession" as it is my primary source of income. That said, even I have made a few accidental postings that had far too low of a starting bid and/or buyout for the item being posted. Usually I catch it quick, take it down and repost. However, if I am too late and someone has bid on it, then I leave it alone.
Why? Because it does not make sense to me that you should be able to take down an item that already has a bid. The only reasons I can think that you would want to do so, if A.) You placed a low starting bid, but you auction is about to expire and is not even close to where you wanted to sell it, B.) You ended up finding someone to buy it outside of the AH (which, frankly, you should not be doing if it is already posted for sale), or C.) You mistakenly posted the wrong amounts on an item.
How could this be fixed? Well I would suggest that you should be able to take down an auction at any time if it has no bids at all. Otherwise, you should not be able to take it down. Perhaps there could even be a 15min grace period just after posting where, even if it had a bid, you could still take it down.
Perhaps a bit off-topic, but eh...
neoplasmax Jun 19th 2007 10:58AM
Combining servers would be a stupid idea unless you combine the game play too...
Aside from all the "tricks" gold farmers would do and people would do that own multiple accounts, it would destroy some while thrive others...
For instance, on my server, we have some slow progression going on atm, I would love to get some of the patterns and cheap materials sold on other servers from guilds already doing instances like BT,The Eye, etc... Imagine some of the BoE crafts being made for your server and your server hasn't even killed Nightbane yet... (extreme example but just an example)... Plus, it would just suck to have to compete with those servers when you can't get no where near them in progression (or have a chance to)... Or the servers that have extremely low prices because they are overcrowded vs. the servers that don't have many people yet... Dumb idea... would not work... Maybe combining horde and alliance on same server might be ok... Since theoretically (with a neutral AH) they are already sort of combined (just no one uses it really cause they so far out of the way)...
Someone above said it would stop monopolies...
NO, it wouldn't... It would only create a larger scaled one... And would be worse because some people on other servers wouldn't even have a chance...
Terrant Jun 19th 2007 10:59AM
A change I would like is when being outbid on an auction, I would like to know whether a higher bid was placed or someone paid the buyout price. It's annoying to run to the auctioneer from the mailbox not knowing whether you can bid again or not.
Rich Jun 19th 2007 11:26AM
Blizz just needs to get an economist in to help them tweak the economies and the AH would definitely be a good place to start.
Freehugz Jun 19th 2007 11:29AM
AH is fine as is.
Alexander Jun 19th 2007 11:32AM
The best AH implementation I have seen to date in a MMORPG is that of Final Fantasy. The seller lists a minimum price that the bidder cannot see (a reserve price) once the bidder bids that price or higher he gets the item.
One thing I feel is a downfall and failure of the AH is the pricing of the items. I for one will not place a lot of items on the AH because if they don't sell I am losing money. Or , who ever heard of the seller having to pay more in AH fee's then he will see in return when selling his good?!?!?! Flawed system, it needs tweaking.
Baluki Jun 19th 2007 11:37AM
I agree with #12.
I also would like to be able to rebid on items I've bid for in the AH, but from anywhere in the game. It's pretty annoying to bid on something, hearth back to Outland, and then immediately see "you've been outbid" and have no way to retaliate other than waiting for an hour or making the long trek back. But it should only be on items you've already bid on.
Shamonue Jun 19th 2007 11:43AM
I think the AH should have more Categories, so that you can easily find stuff without knowing the name and without looking through 100 things.
Food and drinks should be separated from the other stuff, and also should have a "Level" so you don't have to look and see what level you need to be to use it.
Professions should have their own category for materials used in that profession, with stuff in each category it can be used in.
I like the idea of a system wide AH, but I don't ever see it being implemented because how easy it would be abused. With that said I think the way to help prevent that would be to make you post it as a
bid, with no buyout.
Fixing the whole bid system would help a lot too. Make it where you can put a max amount you would bid for it, and also make it where you can't just take down a auction that already has bids on it.
Sylvester Jun 19th 2007 12:02PM
@8. When someone lists an item for 1s bid 1000g buyout, put a low bid on it (an amount where if you won you still can turn a profit). The person will obviously cancel the auction which causes them to lose their deposit cost and 5% of the bid amount. If they don't cancel you have an item you can still resell for a profit. Win-win for you, lose-lose for them. Teach them not to be a dumass!!
Geo Lara Jun 19th 2007 12:11PM
Three improvements I would like to see in the AH.
1) Search by attribute. For example, I would like to search for all mail armor with intellect.
2) A visual way to filter out profession recipes I already know - which would be handy for alchemists and enchanters. The way things you cant use show up in red, things you already know how to use show up in blue. Or they way you can search by character level, search recipes by skill level.
3) A neutral auctioneer in at least one of the major cities. Prior to TBC, going to the Booty Bay or Gadget AH would turn a nice green item or gem for a good price (it was like shopping at Target!). Now post TBC, all that's left is Green Hills pages, Savory Deviate Delights and folks posting grays at 200g to send money to their cross faction alts.
On thing that has been both a blessing and a curse is Auctioneer. Auctioneer places the buy out and starting bid prices so close together - there's almost no point in bidding on items. We also have a couple of players on my server that use Bottom Scan to play the market by buying low and selling high (Scootertheif on Uldum, yes I'm talking about you), and its funny because they are like the day traders of WoW and you always parked at the AH. I can see the machinema parody of Boiler Room now.
From a tech standpoint I think system wide AH linking would be a disaster. Think about it, 8 million players that’s a lot of AH transactions. It would take forever to do searches Bliz would have to have dedicated servers just to handle AH transactions, and imagine the slow down if all those people did AH scans with Auctioneer?
Kyle Jun 19th 2007 12:40PM
I think it would be very helpful if I could specify a maximum bid when bidding on an item. If someone outbids me after I've left the AH the system could automatically increase my bid so that I am the high bidder, until doing so would exceed my maximum bid or I win the auction.