4.0 the new 8.8?

[Loony BoB]

I agree, it hasn't exactly sold me. All it really needs is a good way to search for items, which they are putting in. You'd get the same issues with an auction house at release since no economy has been established. The word is they'll end up putting one in soon enough.

I completely agree here. If there were an AH system people would still complain because they don't understand how in-game economies work. The AH would still need to be stocked and it would be wild-west in pricing since nobody had a good idea of relative values. I'm still not sold on the idea of no AH though. Even with a search function the bazaar system would require you to travel across the world to get the item, would it not? Perhaps even chasing someone who was on the move.

Nope - well, I suppose the bazaar system would work that way, but the market wards use a retainer-system. Basically an NPC who stands around selling your crap for you at a 10% tax (will become 5% if you sell things in the right wards once the system is updated on Friday). So you'd still have to find the retainer in a room, basically. It's not that hard, but would be much easier if more of them would load than just the ones standing next to you (this little process is obviously done to decrease lag, but it's a pain anyway and I hope it's someday fixed so you can see more people at a distance when in crowded areas).

Seriously... you still have to meet in person to trade link pearls? Who thought this was a good idea? I get that it makes the world feel large and adds awe in scope when you have to travel and meet people from far away places, but let's get real for a second. Sometimes people just want to play with their friends. Sometimes their friends don't all want to start in the same place. This makes it ridiculous difficult to play together the way World Passes did back in FFXI (and how many years did it take them to fix that.... too little, too late).

You still have to meet them, but I personally don't mind that at all. Let's put it this way: The other day, Bleys got a new character. The new character (and his existing one) were in Gridania. I wanted to give him some cash, so I teleported there and met him. It took about, what, a minute or two? That's fine by me. It gives me a little "quest" to meet him and it encourages members to travel around. But all the same, it still takes seconds. The only time it can be a hassle is if you're never online at the same point... but then, if that's the case, it can be resolved by setting up pearlsacks who are on at that time (something which I intend on doing for Fat Chocobos once I get a better idea of who is going to be here for the long haul - I know Ouch!, Del Murder and Miriel can expect them, and Rostum might get one since he's in a different timezone to most of us).

I suppose people can complain that it uses up their anima to teleport, but I play the game a lot and rarely teleport unless someone is waiting on me, and haven't dropped below 79 anima yet. If you were to travel in large groups, it's easy to teleport to dozens of places in a day and only use up 6 of your 100 anima (generating 4 in that day).

I guess I'm just very good at finding good things even where others would not. xD But yeah, SE are certainly out of touch when it comes to PR. Did you know they are advertising for two PR positions in North America? Go figure.