Tag: bidding

How Blade & Soul Distributes The Wealth


BnS_2015-08_gamescom_01

Drops have always been a divisive issue when it comes to raids, particularly when you’re dealing with players using the roll system to hoard items that they don’t need and probably can’t sell, but want anyway because of greed. In the early days, this was dealt with through a need/greed system, but players would simply roll need on everything. To combat this, games like Neverwinter restrict the need button to classes that can actually use said item.

In Blade & Soul, as one Reddit user points out, party leaders can set the loot rotation to a bidding system. Players bid on drops above a certain value with the winner paying out for the item. To ensure that no one comes out empty handed, the winning player’s bid is distributed among the other players. This way, the more you lose bids, the more money you have to win them in the future or just outright buy the equipment.

(Source: Reddit)

Albion Online Introduces Auction Bidding For Housing


568c945fded478874733aeb3cc379e8609d0f689

Albion Online is ditching its upkeep system in favor of a new way to keep you paying for your plots of land. Initially, plots of land will be considered unclaimed until a player puts down a bounty of silver to take over ownership. After a set amount of days, generally one or two months, the plot of land will come up for auction during which other players can outbid you for your plot. If another player wins the plot, they take over not just the land but the buildings that were erected there by the previous owner.

The good news is, the owner isn’t completely out of luck. For starters, owner bids count as double, so you only need half as much money to fend off competing bidders. Secondly, land owners receive a compensation based on the value of the buildings on their land should they lose the bidding war.

The goal of this new system is to prevent a constant blockade of building plots – and also to give players joining Albion Online later a fair chance at owning a desirable building space. Theoretically, players now can purchase any plot – as long as they are able to outbid the previous owner. With this change, we want to encourage a more fluid market and also bring some additional „economic PvP“ into the game.

(Source: Albion Online)

WAR’s Auction House Becoming WAR Flea Market


File this under...

File this one under “how is this in improvement?” I don’t normally talk about game’s individual updates, but the upcoming patch to Warhammer Online, 1.3.6, is revamping the UI of the auction house to better fit the searching needs of the game’s players. As a result of this upgrade, all auctions are standardized to 48 hours, and Mythic has decided to remove the option of bidding on items, opting for a buyout only approach.

According to the WAR Herald, the options being removed are due to lack of popularity, so I won’t question that aspect. I do have to question how removing the aspects altogether, rather than allowing the few who do utilize them, can be an improvement. It is possible, of course, that the new infrastructure of the auction house required some of the options to be removed, but aside from a technical limitation point of view, I don’t believe there is much Mythic can say to convince me “no, this is for your own good.” I feel like I’m talking to the Apple of MMOs.

Personally in the grand majority of MMOs that I have played where an auction house exists, I’ve found myself setting up a tried and true method of selling my wares: start low, set a high buyout amount, and start gathering data on how well the items sell for. On World of Warcraft, this method has become a godsend in selling stacks of cloth and has allowed me to make a substantial amount of gold doing what is essentially a side-job.

Runescape is one of the few MMOs I can think of that only features a buyout option, although the Grand Exchange isn’t billed as an Auction House, and the system of buying and selling is 100% anonymous.

I have a feeling Mythic might offer their players some clarification, and hopefully if enough people ask for it bidding might be returned to the game.