The Itinerant Bazaar

Tael

Jules said:

That is exactly it.  Why is going to a bazaar (shopping) some extreme competition? 

(I am pretty sure this is the video I used when I posted about this... probably back in 2012!)

EDIT:  and yeah, we're sort of on the same page with the mounts.  People do not take care of them (see my above posts on that). 

EDIT2:  If nothing else, this thread has made me realize that I need to see if I can get Imperian to steal Achaea's shitty bazaars and make them awesome, like they do with everything else. 

I think that video lasted longer than this last Itinerant Bazaar.

Antonius

Automation wasn't required at all. Saying that it obviously was required because you weren't able to succeed without it is a little ridiculous. What was required was a lot of prior information; not just who was selling which items but, more importantly, where they were. You can try WALK TO <vendor>;AGREE but I'm not sure if that's going to be fast enough to compete with somebody who knows exactly which room to go to and enters all the commands in one go.

Ultimately, it is what it is for now. Hopefully they'll make further changes to the bazaar model for next time, but it seems unlikely to happen for tomorrow.

Kayeil

Antonius pretty much expressed what I wanted to say in reply. Just because some people didn't manage it doesn't mean a lot of others couldn't. For some reason you seem to think you are the sole standard of what is and isn't possible, and if you can't achieve it then no one can.

Kandra

I don't think it's entirely fair to say it's impossible. I was in Cyrene when it opened and I got there in time to get a few toys, each time typing out to ask soandso wares, get the exact amount of gold out, and buy this or that from soandso. I think just a few things were sold out by the time I got there, and according to my clock it lasted 15-17 minutes both times.

Inuad

Kandra said:

I don't think it's entirely fair to say it's impossible. I was in Cyrene when it opened and I got there in time to get a few toys, each time typing out to ask soandso wares, get the exact amount of gold out, and buy this or that from soandso. I think just a few things were sold out by the time I got there, and according to my clock it lasted 15-17 minutes both times.

I managed to get a few items myself, but I think the notion that stocks are too low is valid. I was going for a token, and just to show:

Often indistinct, the hawking cries of merchants and artisans fill the air as the Itinerant bazaar
opens once more.
8085h 6749m 19635e 14780w B D C K XX|EE 04:02:45.380

Rakdra says, "Ah! Let me show you what I have!"
manuscript362131 a manuscript clad in silk 2 12000gp
To buy something, BUY <thing> FROM Rakdra.
8085h 7673m 20007e 14942w B D C K XX|EE 04:04:42.610

Nearly all the stock for Rakdra (including the tokens, the journals, and nearly all the manuscripts) were sold out in 2 minutes. I do understand that it's supposed to be a special event with new and unique items, but I'm sure they could manage to increase the stock a bit without devaluing the experience.

Jarrod

I bought two separate things before going and buying a token before they sold out.

I do think something that should be brought up is that this bazaar was pitched as "Here's three times for the same items so you can make one!" when in actuality if you want the 'rare' items you have to be at every one because there are unique items for each bazaar in the tokens. I'd have liked if this was stated straight up beforehand, or the stocks on the tokens were 3x everything else because they're 1/3 availability.

Everything else is standard bazaar fare.

Skye

I think that instead of limited stock,  there should be a time sale instead.  Like items are offered within X minutes instead of X items being offered.  After a certain period of time,  the sale cuts off as "sold out".

Jurixe

I was under the impression that all the items would have been the same per @Jarrod 's post, and got quite worried when I saw @Ahmet 's observation about vol: I. Unfortunately that did indeed turn out to be the case. 

Honestly, though, I am kind of baffled by how much people are willing to pay - the content of the books is by no means exclusive, just with a tiny bit more flavour content that you could replicate perhaps just sans colour with reactions. That people are willing to pay 400cr  (seriously? ) blows my mind. I mean it's nice and all but wow.

I feel for the admins as there never seems to be a win when they organise a bazaar, which might be why there are so few of them. I tend to agree with the timed sale idea but believe that it should also have an item restriction limit - perhaps 5 per merchant and increase the quantities sold. Otherwise you'll just have people stockpiling as much as they can in limited time anyway.

Kandra

Jurixe said:

I feel for the admins as there never seems to be a win when they organise a bazaar, which might be why there are so few of them.

You open an entomologist's jar.

With the dexterity of the practiced hunter, you sweep the lid off an entomologist's jar and deftly catch a grasshopper.

Well whoever made this also made a very happy horkval. I hope that's a win of some sort.

P.S. I unofficially named it Uncle Larry.

Skye

Jurixe said:

I was under the impression that all the items would have been the same per @Jarrod 's post, and got quite worried when I saw @Ahmet 's observation about vol: I. Unfortunately that did indeed turn out to be the case. 

Honestly, though, I am kind of baffled by how much people are willing to pay - the content of the books is by no means exclusive, just with a tiny bit more flavour content that you could replicate perhaps just sans colour with reactions. That people are willing to pay 400cr  (seriously? ) blows my mind. I mean it's nice and all but wow.

I feel for the admins as there never seems to be a win when they organise a bazaar, which might be why there are so few of them. I tend to agree with the timed sale idea but believe that it should also have an item restriction limit - perhaps 5 per merchant and increase the quantities sold. Otherwise you'll just have people stockpiling as much as they can in limited time anyway.

Actually in this case, if we make the actual amount of stock 'unlimited', people can stockpile as much as their greedy little hearts can afford. They'll just have a much lower immediate resale value. The actual value of the item therefore lies not in 'were you fast enough' but rather 'were you there' and will only really appreciate many months down the road.

Take into account that most items only last about 2 RL months, unless you non-decay it (immediately adding 50 creds worth of value to it in order for you break even) or have a shop, most of those bulk purchase items are going to be dust anyway. Now, also take into account that with the changes to shop taxes, holding on to that stockroom isn't gonna be as easy as it used to be. Neither is it 100% safe, as evidenced by the last couple of break-ins by Cresil and Antidas.

In the end most of those frivolously purchased items will have decayed, except for the handful of non-decayed ones which have become 'heirloom' items. If you're still thinking of reselling, then that would be the time to cash in the investment.

Austere

For the price these items cost,  and the uniqueness, I don't think that them being super rare is required. Let everyone buy a max of two of each item(one for a friend that cannot attend) for a 15 minute period, then close shop. It's really not that difficult.  I hate to think of the amount of coding and writing effort put into these events for them to really only benefit ~15 people. As is,  I find no justification in the effort required on the admin side.  You're catering to a very specific side of your player base (which is fine, sometimes) and leaving a bad taste in everyone else's mouth(which is not good)

Amunet

This thing was crazy, especially for 2 AM. I only managed to get seven of the items for sale (one of each item, for the record!), and I am a Bazaar veteran. I feel bad for the newbies who tried to get in on the action.

Unfortunately, due to work, I missed the first Bazaar and won't be able to make the third, so I hope the third volume of the book isn't so cool that I can't live without it.

Jules

Skye said:

Actually in this case, if we make the actual amount of stock 'unlimited', people can stockpile as much as their greedy little hearts can afford. They'll just have a much lower immediate resale value. The actual value of the item therefore lies not in 'were you fast enough' but rather 'were you there' and will only really appreciate many months down the road.

Take into account that most items only last about 2 RL months, unless you non-decay it (immediately adding 50 creds worth of value to it in order for you break even) or have a shop, most of those bulk purchase items are going to be dust anyway. Now, also take into account that with the changes to shop taxes, holding on to that stockroom isn't gonna be as easy as it used to be. Neither is it 100% safe, as evidenced by the last couple of break-ins by Cresil and Antidas.

In the end most of those frivolously purchased items will have decayed, except for the handful of non-decayed ones which have become 'heirloom' items. If you're still thinking of reselling, then that would be the time to cash in the investment.

Yes!  Some people are getting it.  Let people buy all they want for the brief time the bazaar is there.  I mean good God, they only come once in a blue moon, and don't stay open very long (that window could be expanded without anything horrible happening too).  Let people stockpile all they want.  In addition to not so richly rewarding people for frenziedly buying everything they can (other than having all of the goodies you wanted, oh the horror), it allows people who weren't there to have a better chance at getting some neat trinket they heard about.  And if the supply was unlimited for the duration of the bazaar, the markups might not be so crazy.  And it will be okay, those stockpiles aren't going to last forever.  The reason these bazaars aren't "wins" right now is because we're unnecessarily making people cranky by dangling shinies in front of them and then forcing them to practically fight to the death for a crack at some. 

Arditi

I'm trying to figure out where my danger boxes went.

Yae

Arditi said:

I'm trying to figure out where my danger boxes went.

They dropped on logout for a bit.  

Decron

wheres the bazzar and is there anything left?

Kazu

You are way too late, @Decron. All 3 openings that were announced have passed, and the items sold out within minutes.

Moving back to the main topic, I remember some of my favorite bazaars were the ones that would restock over a given time period. Like, the shops would be open for around an hour an would restock every 20 minutes or so at a higher price. Combined with a buying time limit, I found those to be quite enjoyable.

Also, I don't want to seem like I'm complaining. I really do appreciate the bazaars. I know the admin spend quite a bit of time designing the items, and I generally have a blast with them. Sure, I don't always get what I want or buy anything at all, but it's still a nice touch that adds to the atmosphere of the game. I merely think there could be some constructive criticism to make them better and more fun and all. In all, thank you @Sarapis and @godsfor the work you guys put in.

Yae

The last Bazaar is tomorrow. Sunday, 10 AM Pacific time?

Ahmet

Kazu said:

You are way too late, @Decron. All 3 openings that were announced have passed, and the items sold out within minutes.

Say what? There's still one more.

Kazu

Oh, you guys are right. I had this feeling that today was Sunday for some reason. Still one to go then!

Tahquil

Two and a half hours to go.

My body is ready and fuck you all if you get in my way.

Jules

What Tahquil is trying to say is that she'll be throwing bows left and right, and she won't let nobody jump in front of her  The items should seriously have like, at least a few drops of blood on them.  That would be awesome. 

Tahquil

There will be a comic once it isn't deep dark in the night and I wipe the blood off my stylus.

Tael

I managed to grab one this time, but the total stock of the tokens was gone in I would guess 10 or 15 seconds.

The insane rush for everything else seemed slightly more reasonable this time though. It seemed like more people got a chance to look around and buy some of the other items.

Valkyn

Welp. Made all three. I'd rather be asleep right now... curse you insomnia.

Tesha

I appreciate the idea behind announcing the times of the openings ahead of time and letting people who want to be there get there, but that combined with the limited stock design model makes the bazaar a huge frenzy. It just feels different from the previous bazaars where they weren't announced and stuff wasn't bought out in the first few seconds. Everything's sold out in the first few minutes now; and although some things get restocked, it kinda sucks for people who wanted tokens. I'm not sure about other people, but my favorite part of previous bazaars was having time to sit and talk with the different vendors, and actually look at things before thinking about buying them. When they're pre-announced, there's just so many people buying everything that you need to buy instantly to get anything. 

This design plus unlimited stock would be great, but if if that isn't an option, I think it'd be better to just do unannounced bazaars in the future. Just some feedback after going to two of them.

Selira

Thank you so much for restocking at least some things. Made a big difference.

Kayeil

So relieved to have gotten the third token. Would've been a bummer to not finish the collection of books. I kind of thought the first Bazaar was easier to get what one wanted for the most part, but then again with the restocks this third one was pretty nice, too.

Jules

I think they've made some steps in the right direction (as I said in my Raves post a little before the bazaars started).  I just hope they're willing to take more steps - and that the portion of the player base whose attitude is "screw you, I always get mine, by hook or by crook", finally gets overruled here, and that Sarapis stops taking P.T. Barnum (or whoever actually said "always leave them wanting more") as the only gospel for every situation, because yes, right now we're in a painful situation where it's awesome that the bazaars were announced, which meant that more people could actually attend one, and it's awesome that there were three, and it's awesome that they're restocking, but it's really clear that the demand still by far exceeds the supply.

Jurixe

Stayed up to get a third book for the Restoration, happy we managed it. 

The restock made a huge difference, so thanks for that! I hope as well that the feedback given here helps for future bazaars. They are really great events and I love them for the chance to get new things, and I appreciate the work and thought put into them by the admin.

I wonder if perhaps, much like the wedding boutique thing, there could be a denizen that stood at Delos or something that we could submit ideas or designs for new items to. That might perhaps alleviate some of the stress of the admin by providing new concepts that you could take and improve on! Just a suggestion.