I was just listening to the hot tub edition #138 of The Instance and a question came up about why there are no Auction Houses in Shattrath or Dalaran.
Their answer, one I have heard many times before:
Because Blizzard wants people to continue to return to the Old World and it ensures life in quality but otherwise forgotten content.
But… But…
What about the Neutral Auction Houses.
I sort of consider the neutral auction houses to be a bit of a failure. Really only ever used for cross faction “smuggling”.
In fact, I think that’s all they have ever been used for.
The three current Neutral Auction Houses are in places that players are only ever in temporarily (Gadgetzan, Booty Bay & Everlook). Sure back in Vanilla wow they were hub-ish, but not since TBC hit the shelves.
I think that now is the time to introduce Neutral Auction House in at least Dalaran, if not dropping one in Lower City as well.
The demand for their use is greater than ever. Achievements encourage the sale of faction only items, the problem is the market.
There aren’t enough buyers or sellers. Put the Auction House in Dalaran and suddenly people would be putting all sorts of stuff up for sale, and all sorts would be flocking to see what is up for offer.
This would also cut down on, or at least increase the risk of cross faction smuggling. If there are more buyers watching the Neutral Auction Houses, then is is going to be harder to slip the 50g item through for 50s.
Another thing it will do is help to vitalize lower population factions. It’s just a reality that most servers have some sort of a population imbalance.
The problem with this is that the high pop faction will have a vibrant economy, the low pop faction a stagnant economy. Introduce a high pop Neutral Auction House and some of the economy issue will be readdressed
Sure, the seller will face addition costs in selling via the Neutral Auction Houses (5% cut vs. 15% in neutral auction houses), which will (theoretically) increase the sell price on the items. So players will be faced with a buy/sell at the Neutral Auction Houses and incur higher costs, or deal with the inconvenience of traveling back to a major friendly city.
Just a thought… What do you Greedy Goblins think?
Another Wanted meme
Gnomer and Out!
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Love the meme lol.
I’m actually glad there are no AH’s or even neutral AH’s in Shat and Dalaran. With those being available, I think the population would double and we all know that both of those cities are notorious for their lag.. imagine what it would be with 200-500 more players hanging out there? Ouch.
*que disconnect*
@Fear.Win: Ssshhhhh… that’s part of my fiendish plan… people will get so sick of it they will avoid Dalaran (Maybe heading to Shatt thinking it will handle it better), and I can do my daily cooking quest without spending 50% of the time trying to run through walls.
[...] post began as a comment in response to Gnomeaggedon’s post about Neutral Auction Houses, but I have a habit of getting wordy and didn’t want to flood his comments
So I decided [...]
As I wrote my comment, I realized it was turning into a giganto-post of my opinion, so I decided to turn it into a blog post of my own
Thanks for giving me something to write about!
wow — that’s a good point! have you emailed the boys at the instance about this? i’d love to hear their follow-up opinion.
also, am i the only person who wants more mage content on the instance? sometimes i feel like i am…
Actually, the neutral AH is not completly useless. You can put up cross faction pets for a decent amount of gold. That said, they are mostly a failure.
The problem with putting an AH in Dal/Shat is going to be the lag. It’s the very reason why they are kept in the old world. It isn’t so much because they want people to keep going back to Org/UC or SW/IF, it’s that they don’t want Dal/Shat to constantly crash because everyone is there and the server can’t handle it.
I would love to have easier access to a neutral AH so that I could have a better chance at getting oposing-faction only items (like the herbalism glove enchant, so simple, yet impossible for horde to get any other way).
But, if they put a Neutral AH in Dal, then the only reason I will ever go to that city from that point forward would be….no, there would be no going there. I drop to a max of 2 FPS when I get into Dal and it takes me about 90 seconds to move 30 yards. If you took the population of all the major cities and threw them into Dal too, then screw that place, as far as I’m concerned it would no longer exist for me.
@Brajana: Pleasure to be someone else’s muse for a change!
You bring up some great points to!
@prelimar: Nah, I didn’t email them, although I linked to them, so they may notice….
Me, I want more Mage content everywhere… but is there every anything to talk about? I think there is too great a danger it would come out as QQ.
@Darraxus: That is their primary use at the moment… x-faction pets.
@Psynister: To me lag would be the greatest inhibitor to putting it there in the 1st place. After that… well it’s a free economy, so maybe people will be happy to post at a loss, and maybe it would drain the life out of old content… but I am not to sure.
There are enough greedy goblin’s out there to want to make premium margin and that would require faction AH’s.
Maybe you could talk bliz into dropping a Neutral House in K3? It’s right next to Dalaran and IS a Goblin town.
And putting it outside of Dalaran might help with the lag.
Another thing to consider – if a Neutral House were to become popular it would effectively act as another gold sink thanks to the Goblins taking their cut.
@dorgol: Sounds like a good compromise.
Less Lag
True to Lore
and of course the ever desired gold sink….
I’ll have my people speak to their people…
The only time it was ever useful for me was to empty my bags of salable items, buy a mithral casing, and sell an item to a hordie that wanted an Rare Gem pattern I had listed for alot on the Alliance AH. He messaged me on an alt asking I post it on a neutral Ah, he brought it. I was happy to get my asking price.
So I agree, it needs to be more accesible, and develop its own market dynamic to be of any real use. Not sure if a AH in Dalaran would be good for its stability, maybe at a goblin establishement.
I think that’s possibly the most brilliant idea I’ve heard in a long time. The 15% is a bit archaic as well I mean maybe a solid 10% but the gouge is really a big turn off to using the neutral AH.
I agree dropping one in Shattrath’s lower city or in the Underbelly of Dalaran would not only fit the kit/lore of these big bustling cities, but it’d also provide more immersion (like blizzard knocking out flying mounts in dalaran to keep the city streets looking busy).
Lag in dalaran would be my only concern. It’s already a royal pain to zone in during peak hours with dalaran lag depending on realm population, I can’t imagine how it’d be with a cluster of people hanging out in the sewers.
@pugnaciouspriest: I often wanted to drop by the NAH, but there was never anything there, and as a means to offloading the usual trash in your bags it was expensive, especially since it was unlikely to sell. Unless it was mithril casings or ingredients for the cooking quest (in which case you could make a bucketload of cash on otherwise near worthless items).
I think Underbelly as Spooner suggests has some merit… Goblins worm their way into the sewers… give them their own drain pipe… less lag, more NAH!
@Spooner: Why thankyou bringer of all sorts of juicy information. Hard to imagine that you can be amazed, yet here is proof positive…
I can live with the 15%… happy that it is more profitable to trade within one’s own faction, but the thing is to make sure there is enough quantity going through the AH that people actually look and buy.
I love your idea of Underbelly… slimy little Gnome competitors those Goblins are…
I am sure they could tack on another map area of the sewers without any difficulty… hell if need be they could just introduce Sewer Servers….
“slip the 50g item through for 50s.” – Nah, why pay 7.5s in AH commission, just put it up for 1c. If someone manages to ninja your smuggle (never seen it so far, touch wood) the 50s price won’t deter them.
@Ragnarogue: Yeah true… but then if it’s a penniless alt at the other end, doesn’t hurt to spare the begger a few silver.
that’s actually not a bad idea. take the portal to ogr if you want to use the regualr AH, or stay in dalaran and use the pricier one.
i’d buy that for a dollar!
@ixobelle: Yeah. I think it could work… hell we are already doing the portal bit anyway…
Some people will want to save the % on their sell price, but generally high levels are going to sell stuff that only high levels want… so that isn’t a big issue.
low levels will sell stuff that low levels want + low level mats for powerleveling professions… so there will still be a reason to return.. not forgetting hawking your wares in the 1st place.