Guild Wars 2

Those of you who have played GW 1 will know of the trader NPCs. While ANET never explained the algorithm they used to determine their prices, they seemed to work well. When they had the item in stock, the price they set for an item was considered the market rate by everyone. The theory Mr Illogical has is that those traders would have eliminated WTS spam for those items.

The fact is that people still tried WTS spam to sell stuff that they could dump at the trader because the difference the traders had between their buy and sell prices. Even if it was not in their best interest. For example back before Factions was released, I had a very expensive rune drop for me. One that was sitting at the maximum price on the trader. I sold it through a website that helped arrange player to player trades. After I sold it I looked at the difference between the price the trader was offering and the price I got. Then I looked at how much gold I could have earned if, instead of arranging a trade through that website, I just sold the rune to the trader and played GW1 (not even farming) for that amount of time. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but I do remember that I decided that if an item could be sold to a trader NPC, I would either sell it to the NPC or hoard it.

Other players never learned that lesson. They saw that if they stood around WTS spamming they could charge a price between the traders buy and sell prices, which would be a good deal. Except they seemed to ignore how long it took to sell anything via WTS spam. One example that sticks in my mind is one guy trying to sell a cheap rune for 1 platinum via WTS spam. I saw him spamming, then left to go play some part of GW1. I then came back to that city an hour later seeing him still trying to sell that same rune via WTS spam. In that time I had made about 2 platinum from killing enemies.

It would have been in that guys best interest to just sell to the trader NPC then go off and play GW1. He would have had more currency at the end of it.

He was not a one off. Items that could be sold to an NPC trader were regularly listed in the WTS spam. They don’t spam in GW2 because it’s obvious that there is no secure trading method. If they don’t see it, someone will point it out to them. That scares them away from mail trades, which means they can’t see the spam paying off. So they don’t spam.

Very good point. Although I havent played gw1 much, (only started last week) I do see wts spam now and again. Hmmm I will have ro remember that next rime I play gw1

@Snoring: It’s worth pointing out that there are some well-known grey market traders in the game who buy/sell certain items. However, these traders have been at it for a while and have built up their own reputation for trustworthiness by virtue of time and word of mouth. Nobody is going to trust some random guy offering to buy a Precursor for a suspiciously good price. If the grey market becomes flooded with people buying stuff through direct trades, that sense of “renown” would be very quickly buried.

The thing about GW1’s trading system , if I am remembering correctly, was that the trade window only showed trades that were available in the town or outpost that you happened to be in a the time. i.e. You were only tapping into a very tiny proportion of the available market at any one time. The BLTC taps into the whole game population.

Admittedly, I quite like the GW1 style as it gave one a much more adventurer style feel. You went out and found a rare item that you really can’t use or doesn’t have the stats you want. However, there may be someone who wants it in town so you go to trade. It had the medieval feel that GW1 seemed to embody.

GW2 has a much more global trading system. It’s more like listing stuff on a commodities or stock exchange. It’s less personal but it does mean the GW universe has evolved from the past.