Guild Wars 2

Hey, I have seen a lot of player scamming often related to player to player mail scenarios.

This led me to think abit about a player to player trading system using a third party intermediary, as long as that third party is trusted by both this works out fine. It can even be extended to using an external website and using proxy players within the game. That said the third party ofcourse needs to be “paid” in game currency (either a flat fee or a percentage).

My question really is whether this is against any TOS?

PS: If you are technically minded and are starting to think about automated processes with external programs actually doing the mail transaction etc. then dont, this is just a question about the core idea of facilitating party to part trading using in game mail

It falls under the same category as mail-mail trading and it’s not against the EULA because the third party (as long as it’s not getting paid with real money) is simply a mediator.

The easiest method is finding someone you both trust and then going into a guild bank and dropping the items (you’re not able to pick up items). Then the mediator will either loot the items and send the appropriate amount to both parties, or will take one players loot and give the other player access to the bank whilst sending the looted loot to the correct player.

I suppose the community could create a system:

• Profile is made with Account Name so they can be blacklisted if they do scam
• People have the ability to rate the person (as in, they’re legit)
• People have the ability to post what they have for sale / what they’re looking for

Of course, this wouldn’t prevent people with multiple accounts scamming, as well as it’d take a lot of trust from the community to set it up / start the ratings ect.

Direct trading/exchange existed (and still does) in GW1. It was a simple and effective way to exchange stuff between players while being pretty secure to use (scams were possible only if extremely incautious). In my opinion the very same system could work very well in GW2 but my guess is ANet doesn’t implement it because people would then have a way to circumvent Trading Post taxes. I would however welcome such a system because in all honesty there are situations where I simply wan’t to exchange stuff with people without using mail or risking being scammed.

Nah was thinking more of someone posting an item with certain gating factors to the transaction, one could be the receiving account and the other would be the cost of the item.

This way the third party wouldnt release the item before the gating factors have been satisifed. This ofcourse means that the third party has both sale and purchasers stuff a while and this ofcourse means it needs to be trusted, but thats something that builds up over time if its a service offered and not random player x.

Guild bank was interesting, if this would be offered as a service then large amount of storage might be needed and that ofcourse could be an issue in the long run i.e. managing all this space might require establishing multiple guilds/players etc.

I also see the following scenarios:

3rd party gains gold and item.

3rd party requires payment to facilitate…. Hrm, maybe like 15% of the transaction to make it worth it. Oh wait…

Difference is that it might be alot cheaper (15% of a precursor or legendary is quite a lot) but the biggest factor is person to person trading.

I am still at a loss why ANet hasnt provided this, even with the list/sales tax as part of it.

I am Totally against this stupid IQ deprived idea !

one of the biggest and best features is the centralized gamewide trading post

Ask yourself this
Would saving yourself a couple of measly silver coins warrant making it so anyone can charge whatever the hell they like for an item ? of course not

Does saving yourself a couple of measly silver coins warrant being open to even worse scams ? of course not

Which game has the best economy of any online game ?
EVE which this system was based on (without the obvious scamming abilities of EVE as some have pointed out)

Stop this none sense about direct player trading already !!!

Unless you’re looking to ruin the entire game !

Latinkuro.9420:

I AM TOTALLY AGAINST THIS STUPID IQ DEPRIVED IDEA !
ONE OF THE BIGGEST AND BEST FEATURES IS THE CENTRALIZED GAMEWIDE TRADING POST !

ASK YOURSELF THIS
WOULD SAVING YOURSELF A COUPLE OF MEASLY SILVER COINS WARRANT MAKING IT SO ANYONE CAN CHARGE WHATEVER THE HELL THEY LIKE FOR AN ITEM ?

DOES SAVING YOURSELF A COUPLE OF MEASLY SILVER COINS WARRANT BEING OPEN TO EVEN MORE SCAMS ?

WHICH GAME HAS THE BEST ECONOMY OF ANY ONLINE GAME ?
THE ANSWER IS EVE WHICH THIS SYSTEM WAS BASED ON !

STOP THIS NONE SENSE ABOUT DIRECT PLAYER TRADING !
ALREADY !

UNLESS YOU’RE LOOKING TO RUIN THE GAME !

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/forum-code-of-conduct/

Do not post in all capital letters

Thank you.

My eyes are beeding.

Fixed !!! stop your whining now !

Latinkuro.9420:

The idea is so IQ deprived I had to make it clear by using all caps, which I know many hate (me included) but it does make you look and read ! goal achieved.

Actually no. I don’t bother reading all caps because I find it a silly way for someone to try to make a point. I don’t even know what your post said. I just quoted it to make my point about all caps. Goal achieved.

aeneq.1760:

Difference is that it might be alot cheaper (15% of a precursor or legendary is quite a lot) but the biggest factor is person to person trading.

I am still at a loss why ANet hasnt provided this, even with the list/sales tax as part of it.

Assuming you’re selling something for 1000g. Is 150g worth losing the entirety of your sale?

Risk vs. Reward.

You wanted the reward, so you took the risk.

Strong feelings eh? Anyhoo, the OP was about the legality of offering a service such as this (which there are people asking for) not whether someone thought it was a good or bad idea according to their personal opinions…

I think I got my answer tho, that said there are technical issues around getting this working in a fluent manner so I doubt I will find the time.

If you peruse the BLTC sub-forum, this question was asked, and a Dev (John Smith) commented on its viability.