Dolf Goodcheese wrote: ............
As for your "absolute fairness", that is never going to happen....... ever. That is, unless everyone that plays EQ2 is forced to only use dial-up internet service, have 1 phone line, have the same living conditions, and have only 1 EQ2 account. Personally, I'm going to argue with anyone that says someone with 1 phone line and dial-up service (costing $20-$40/month) with limited connection time should have the same advantages as someone with highspeed service (costing $50-$80/month) that has a connection that is always on. The same goes for someone who only has 1 account to play/sell shouldn't have the same advantage as someone who pays for 2 accounts to sell more.
Now you're being funny. The pursuit of an ideal is done because the effort improves the situation. Noone actually expects to achieve absolute fairness, even though it is a pleasing idea.
^^ I'm glad you understand that.
As for the rest of that paragraph, (detailing how people who can afford better hardware and ISP service deserve a better EQ2 play experience), you seem to feel advantages in EQ2 should be for sale.
^^ Your words are trying to put an evil twist to mine. The simple and correct interpretation of what I wrote is basically this, that the more effort a person puts into the game, the more he or she should be rewarded. Effort, which includes looting/harvesting/crafting, also includes players running more two accounts (one to adventure/craft and the other to be selling), and yes, even having a cable modem / dsl instead of dial up to be able to be online all the time. Some players actually work for a living, and spend more money than the minimum, to have highspeed service and/or a second account.
If I am not misstaken, it is the players effort that defines their play experience. Noone should have an advantage because they have a cable modem instead of a dial-up connection.
So you'd have everyone required to use only the lowest common denominator, dial up with one phone line? Yes, I'm being funny there, sort of, but that is what you seem to portray in that statement.
Therefore, SOE allowing players to sell while outside their houses and maybe offline, but in limited quantities, and leaving the others to sell normally while online and in their houses, will help those players out that are stuck with dial-up, but won't deflate/ruin the market for everyone else.
See.. there is that troubling assumption you are making. The idea that if they let people sell their goods during prime time, that it will have a negative effect on the game economy in general.
It will have a negative effect. Not just some people selling some goods during prime time, like I'm referring to, that would be fine. The problem would be a lot of people selling a lot of goods 24/7.
Depriving a segment of the merchant base the ability to sell on equal ability, because they could not afford a second account, or they happen to play when the best time to sell exists, is wrong. It is depriving the players, who want to buy goods at non-gouging prices, from being able to do so reliably.
Whenever you reduce the competition for goods, the remaining goods on the market are freed from any need to maintain a fair pricing structure for the purpose of competition.
Of course monopolies on goods in the market would not be healthy (really can't happen now), but I'm betting that a Marxist economy is not wanted by too many others.
Put another way, if item A can be made, and sold, for less than it normally appears now, you say that such sales should be blocked.
No, I never said that. Look, using your example, if item A can be made and sold for less than the same item is selling for currently, then fine. Here's is where the trouble comes in though. Expanding on your example: Now, if 10 players make the same type of bed and try to sell them, they will likely compete in price somewhat and the price might be between 60sp - 50sp. Should SOE implement out-of-house or offline selling that is essentially unlimited (up to 56+ items 24/7), suddenly there is 200 players making / selling the same type of bed and because of too much competition in pricing, the average cost ends up around 25sp, just a couple of silver or copper over the cost of supplies needed. And as a result, in a short period of time, a lot of the players give up crafting because it's not worth their time. Apply that scenario, in a greater or lesser degree, across the board to anything crafted or harvested, and there's a huge problem with the economy.
Players should not have the ability to make the extra effort to succeed in the market, because their very presence will make the current merchants actually have to charge a more fair price for goods.
And I never said that. I said just the opposite above "the more effort a person puts into the game, the more he or she should be rewarded".
The arguments you put forth seem to favor those who would inflate prices when given the opportunity. You seem to want to protect those opportunities.
I'm looking at the big picture. I enjoy crafting, I enjoy selling, and I enjoy surfing/buying from the market. There are many many others that also enjoy those aspects of the game, and like myself, see them as breaks from just adventuring. I don't want to see any of of those aspects (all dependant on the market/economy) nerfed to pointlessness.