Guild Wars 2

There is a growing fear of using the Trading Post in game.

I myself have lost 35g while trading to use my Gold to buy Gems, on the day that the Trading Post suddenly went down, twice in a row (and then stayed down for many hours.)

Arena Net needs to address this. The people they have posting on the forums, all indicate that these are all related to players miplacing their gold. Which is not the case, for a growing list of players. We are legitimently losing gold and it is not being returned.

I am continuing to earn gold, since then I have managed to reach 20g on my account again (nearing more like 30g with crafting ingredients.) Give me a few weeks and that gold I lost will seem pointless to me, thought I will continue having a bitter fear in the back of my mind regarding it. (A fear that, Arena Net doesn’t care what happens to me as a player.)

But for others – the gold they are losing took them forever to earn.

You can already take a look at the Trading Post and the economy. It is going all over the place. Prices are shifting, bouncing and becoming erratic. People are refusing to use the Trading Post in game. They are avoiding it like the plague.

If you don’t know already.

The Trading Post is our ONLY SAFE WAY IN GAME to buy and sell. It is the only SAFE way to trade in game.

Now, our only SAFE way to trade – is becomming unreliable and dangerous. It is not hard to see that /m (map chat) is becomming flooded with reports of this during the days. There are people who are already refusing to use the Trade Post.

This is an issue that needs to not only be address, but to be ACKNOWLEDGED. Yes, Arena Net, there is something seriously wrong with your Trading Post. People need tobe aware of this before they go off unknowingly purchasing Gems with Real Money, or using in game Gold to trade for Gems.

Something needs to be done to protect the Game’s Economy. Before the Black Lion Trading Company (Trading Post) ruins the games Economy.

The Economy of the game is already being affected by all of this. Take the Trading Post offline again if it needs to be done, but if as you say – you are genuinely concerned about the Ecnomy of GW2. Please acknowledge, that something is wrong and you do not understand what.

People should NOT have to be afraid to use the only SAFE and RELIABLE form of Trading.

TP is not broken. People do not fear the TP. They fear the stiff competition in TP that they are not used to seeing in other simpler trading system. Also, these people tend to be speculators that are used to be able to make a profit in a small market but do not understand how a big market works and lose money. In any trading system there will be price fluctuation. No one can say for sure how much is an item worth at any point of time. TP just makes it more visible than traditional P2P trade. Failure to make profit trading is due to a player making a wrong speculation, not the fault of the market. Blaming it on TP is like blaming other players for undercutting.

I’ve never encountered lost gold in using TP (haven’t tried Gem market). Seems like it’s due to a technical bug rather than failure of the market.

Wazabi.1439:

TP is not broken. People do not fear the TP. ¹

They fear the stiff competition in TP that they are not used to seeing in other simpler trading system. Also, these people tend to be speculators that are used to be able to make a profit in a small market but do not understand how a big market works and lose money. In any trading system there will be price fluctuation. No one can say for sure how much is an item worth at any point of time. TP just makes it more visible than traditional P2P trade. Failure to make profit trading is due to a player making a wrong speculation, not the fault of the market. Blaming it on TP is like blaming other players for undercutting. ²

I’ve never encountered lost gold in using TP (haven’t tried Gem market). Seems like it’s due to a technical bug rather than failure of the market. ³

¹ The TP is “broken” in that it currently experiences a bug that eats gold and items. I can guarantee you that anyone bitten by this bug approaches the TP with significant caution now. Outright denying the experiences of others is rude, to say the least.

² This is an interesting tirade but entirely off-topic. The OP is not talking about some kind of design flaw in the market system but a technical issue which causes a chilling effect slant in those who experience the issue.

³ Exactly.

You have to understand – this is NOT a blame game. Arena Net definately did not intend for this to happen. They are not entirely at fault. However, it IS affecting the economy in game.

Yes it is a technical bug. But this technical bug is causing people to be afraid to use the Trading Post or to purchase Gems (either using in-game Gold, or real Cash.)

You may not have experienced this yet, but this issue is effecting a growing portion of the player base.

It is causing a Market Fear that has nothing to do with “Place a Bid” vs. Buy it now.

I constantly use the Trading Post (or did, until recently) to make money. I understand the system to an extent. I’ve managed to make a very good amount of money using it. This is not what I am talking about. It is not the WORKING mechanics of the Trading Post that is causing this fear among the player base.

It is a flaw in the coding of the Trading Post that is causing Gold to be lost, disappear from the system and purchases (either Gems, or items) to not be given to the players. I am entirely certain they did not create the Trading Post with the intention of purposefully causing the playerbase to lose things – and thus have a bad gaming experience.

If they are aware of it – and have fixed it. Please tell us that it has been fixed. Tell us you are unable to give our gold back. But that the problem has been SOLVED. So that we can go back to using the Trading Post, without being afraid that our every purchase will be lost into the void and, “Didn’t happen.”

If that’s the case then I fully agree with you. All sorts of technical bug needs to be fixed. Just that when you mentioned shifting prices I though you were referring to the nature of free market and competition in the market. I apologizes for misunderstanding.

I’ve lost a lot of money and items from the Trading Pose as it stands, and I no longer want to even buy Gems from ArenaNet. My trust in this system is injured to the degree that I’m actually authoring a front-page article for release on MMORPG.com. So far the biggest issue with Guild Wars 2 is the trading post, and people really need to be warned how broken this system is and how ArenaNet isn’t acknowledging it.

This is literally the first time I’ve heard of this problem. I’ve bought and sold plenty of items on the TP, and have bought gems for gold on four different occasions.

I lament that this has happened to some players, and I hope it gets fixed soon, but this thread waxes a little melodramatic, imo.

TemperHoof: that’s exactly what needs to be done. Unfortunately I feel that the info isn’t even getting to the people capable of investigating the issue and fixing it, it seems that any tickets are being stopped at the CSR level and they are afraid to even involve developers in this. Putting it up on a site like MMORPG.com would definitely get some needed attention, maybe one of the developers will read it and start asking questions!

That is actually a good idea Manachanter. People need to be warned about this, and it needs to be acknowledged.

Greyfeld.7104:

This is literally the first time I’ve heard of this problem. I’ve bought and sold plenty of items on the TP, and have bought gems for gold on four different occasions.

I lament that this has happened to some players, and I hope it gets fixed soon, but this thread waxes a little melodramatic, imo.

Since you trade things often, it’s probably best to familiarize yourself with the bug and the indications that it is happening. Details can be found here https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/The-Trading-Ghost-Bug/