Artefact Auctions

Iphis

Tvistor said:

Yeah, I hear you there. I've never regretted the credits I've dropped for things like customizations, both because they're so much cheaper than mechanical benefits and because the most interesting thing Achaea has going for it is enforced roleplay. I'll never be able to play a regular MMO after trying Achaea.

Mechanical benefits being more expensive makes some sense to me, since IRE does need money or none of us can play for free, plus it gives you superiority to people without the benefits -- possibly to their detriment. (as in combat)

It's just that this:

is marginally cheaper than those wings.

I see your Asus and raise you an MSI. Cheaper, AND more powerful. Less HDD though. 

Cahin

Sylvance said:

I bet you 300cr it goes for more than what he's saying

Sounds like an easy way to make 240 credits.

_____________________

Also, you plebeians and your 'laptops computers'.

Daklore

If I had money... I would buy credits... and get that custom deathsight...

Not that it'd be approved, but...

Falling to the overwhelming power of cupcakes and lollipops, SoandSo has been slain by Sir Daklore Le'Murzen-Sparrow.

Iocun

I want to buy it and just make it:

<Player> dies.

Kyrra

I spent over 5k credits on my house in Cyrene. It was a pretty little mansion with every conceivable upgrade except a couple. I happen to have a love for houses and interior design, so it made me happy to do even if only a couple people ever got to see it.

With all the griping about money and the bitterness displayed during this auction, I can sort of understand. My first few years of playing were income-free and without credits. I went away for five years, got a life and a job, and now I choose to spend my money on a single line of code. I work damn hard and that's my reward to myself.

Auctions are rare. In all the time I've been playing, I've seen one land auction and this is my first items auction. It's pretty exciting. I sit here thinking how much I'd love to have those wings or a sceptre ( You try toteming water rooms when devos act like you have cooties ) and while there is a realistic chance that I may not win anything, I'm hardly going to begrudge the winners for being in the position to win. However people got the funds, chances are the worked damn hard for it.

Lighten up. Have fun. This is a game after all.

Daklore

Kyrra said:

or a sceptre ( You try toteming water rooms when devos act like you have cooties ) 

Assuming you're a Shaman or a Runie, in which case, you'd still need a second person with the sceptre, or toteming powers. The part time is five minutes, give or take a few seconds. Time for implanting with gauntlet is 7.5 minutes. It's simply not possible to solo-implant a water room as a runie/shaman and a sceptre.

I know. I tried. Because I have a sceptre. MINE. ¬_¬

Edit: Because I missed a period, and failing simple grammar like that is simply unacceptable.

Kyrra

Daklore said:

Kyrra said:

or a sceptre ( You try toteming water rooms when devos act like you have cooties ) 

Assuming you're a Shaman or a Runie, in which case, you'd still need a second person with the sceptre, or toteming powers. The part time is five minutes, give or take a few seconds. Time for implanting with gauntlet is 7.5 minutes. It's simply not possible to solo-implant a water room as a runie/shaman and a sceptre.

I know. I tried. Because I have a sceptre. MINE. ¬_¬

Edit: Because I missed a period, and failing simple grammar like that is simply unacceptable.

I know I'd need a second person. I only know of two other people with sceptres though and it'd be useful to have regardless.

Sylvance

I think the general complaint boils down to the fact that 99.9% of the player base don't have a snowflake's chance of being able to compete in this auction.  And some people could work as hard as they like and not be in a position to spend 4k on Cherlolian Wings.  It's a legitimate grumble (i.e. it's accurate) but that's life, and that's auctions.  So, yes, I hope the people who can take part have a lot of fun with it, I'm jealous as all hell, and for the rest of us there's still ridiculously easy credits to be had by participating in the weekranks.  And if you still feel that you aren't being loved, you have over 2 months left to submit your Bardic/Artisanal piece

ETA: Wonder if the word 'kerbstomp' would be allowed in the custom deathsight.

Sylvance

Eld said:

Sylvance said:

Adet said:

Sylvance said:

 That said, I will be eagerly awaiting the mandatory ragepost from whoever pays a couple million on the globes and gets kerbstomped by the RNG.

Hopefully that wouldn't happen... globes were $3.99 each, so that's $25 for five (buying them one at a time - I think it was $20 for five in the recent event).  $25 is... not a convenient number, but let's say 60 credits.  So, assuming common sense (which is brave, I know), the auction shouldn't go about 360k.

** Summary for Auction #14 *********************************************

Title:                                     (Days until closing: 127)

     Gold: 5 Globes of Shifting Continents

Prize:

     5 Globes of Shifting Continents - what's inside? Could be

     credits, minipets, artefacts, gold, or other great prizes.

Current bid:

     325000 golden sovereigns.

************************************************************************

TL;DR: pwnt

Eld said: Wouldn't be at all surprising for auctions to quickly build up to close to what the average bidder values the item at, and then go up by small increments for the rest of the week.

** Summary for Auction #14 *********************************************

Title:                                     (Days until closing: 103)

     Gold: 5 Globes of Shifting Continents

Prize:

     5 Globes of Shifting Continents - what's inside? Could be

     credits, minipets, artefacts, gold, or other great prizes.

Current bid:

     520500 golden sovereigns.

************************************************************************

TL;DR: pwnt

ETA: tried to fix quote nesting. epic fail.

Sylvance

More seriously, I actually WTFd when I saw the current price of the lulwings.

Iocun

Sylvance said:

I think the general complaint boils down to the fact that 99.9% of the player base don't have a snowflake's chance of being able to compete in this auction.

That's primarily an effect of the number of items for sale though. With 14 items for sale among hundreds of players, most of them naturally won't get anything. If price wasn't the distinguishing factor, it would be something else. I do believe it's something of an issue when one player buys several items in several auctions just because he can though and thus robs others of the chance of getting something unique. I wouldn't mind winners of previous auctions being excluded for, say, the next one or two auctions, as well as having a rule of only bidding on one item at a time, in order to slightly increase the spread of the auctioned items, but so or so it will always remain a small part of the playerbase who will ever get to own an auction item.

P.S. I also wouldn't mind if they sold a wider range of smaller things (e.g. things similar to the promotion items we sometimes get), in order to get some unique things going at lower prices too.

Namino

I think Sylvance isn't arguing that most people won't get anything. Clearly that is the case. I think that he's complaining that most people can't even compete for anything. Achaea probably isn't as bad as the ninety nine percent thing in America, where 1% of the population holds ninety nine percent of the wealth, but it has a similar problem. A few people have either the IC wealth accumulated, or the OOC wealth at hand to totally dominate the auctions. Even with several days to go, it was already apparent that the layman wasn't going to even get to place bids anymore.

Aktillum

Meh, this round of auction items looks feebly slapped together. The Shop of Wonders item probably the only good one, just for the chance of getting a discontinued item, but the final bidding price is going to far outweigh the original price of any of those items. So lol @ your 3000cr aquatic sceptre, whoever wins.

Sylvance

I think my point was (somehow) both, @Iocun and @Namino.  Like, as soon as I saw the word 'auction' I lost my erection interest, because there was never any chance, whatsoever, that I would be able to engage with it, for the reasons that both of you have stated. On a plus, this means that when I don't win anything I won't feel butthurt.  Take Great Hunts; I played a Great Hunt on MKO, and when my internets died and robbed me of the topspot I was pissed as all hell.

I won't get a sniff at the auction, but that's not been in any doubt for me. As a fundraiser for IRE, auctions are an absolutely amazing idea, and I just cannot fault the business sense of them being able to sell a few (hundred? who cares?) lines of code for $2000 (that's what the wings are currently going for at the cheapest published bulk credit prices!!!).  As a game promotional event it utterly sucks because it's so breathtakingly exclusionary.

I'd love to see @Iocun's suggestions being implemented, but it would be a financial crazy decision.

ETA: Freudian slip.

Namino

What I'm trying to say is Occupy Delos.

Iocun

Namino said:

I think Sylvance isn't arguing that most people won't get anything. Clearly that is the case. I think that he's complaining that most people can't even compete for anything.

That is undoubtedly true, but then: being able to "compete" but still not winning anything in the end doesn't do you much good either. You're not really getting any more enjoyment out of these auctions by holding a winning bid at some point but still being outbid when it finally goes up beyond what you're willing to pay, no matter how much that is.

Sylvance

** Summary for Auction #1 **********************************************

Title:                                      (Days until closing: 99)

     Chenubian wings

Prize:

     A set of Chenubian wings, taking the owner to a special

     "clouds" room with exits of his or her choosing. Note: You may

     select off-continent exits, but they must all exit to the Prime

     Material Plane.

Current bid:

     7105 credits.

************************************************************************

Lemme get this straight: Whoever has bid that amount has got 7105 bound credits sitting on their char? Is that right, or can you bid now and buy later?

Kazu

It's certainly possible, but it's more than likely an escrow bid.

Iocun

Yeah. Few people will have that many credits bound on their character right now, but many have escrows that easily allow for that and will then buy someloads of credits and/or trade in artefacts if they win.

Cahin

It's basically like, we'll except the bid from the man wearing the Rolex watch because he can probably afford to pay what he is bidding, and if he can't we'll just take the watch.

Iocun

Which then turns out to be a forgery. Hah!

Antidas

@Namino just fyi, the wealth distribution in the US isn't nearly that bad. You are thinking of Saudi Arabia with the 99% of the wealth in the hands of 1% of the population.

editted cuz i cant spell

Cooper

@Antidas - worse than in America, but America is still pretty shitty with wealth distribution. Top 1% = 43% here.

Antidas

Cooper said:

@Antidas - worse than in America, but America is still pretty shitty with wealth distribution. Top 1% = 43% here.

I dont know the exact numbers, but yeah, that seems a fairly reasonable estimate. Still a major difference than 99% of the wealth though haha.

Sylvance

So, @Tvistor, what could you buy now for the price of those wings? Because the Asus got well and truly left behind.

Cooper

I would have to trade in almost all of my artefacts just to have enough to escrow for the current price of the wings. Lol.

Lyr

Just do what I do and forget that there's an auction going on.

Tvistor

It is a shame because some of these things (like the custom deathsight) are immensely cool, but I'll probably never be able to even contemplate competing for them. Really rubs in the fact that sinking money into the game does seriously offer some major advantages over the rest of us.

I thought that old RP denizen on sale was a kick to the groin, since interesting RP and relevance into the game world was the one thing you couldn't buy (outside of making yourself relevant via combat arties, I guess).

Orklanishkal

Having an RP denizen doesn't make you relevant.

Tvistor

No, but it provides the illusion of relevance which is pretty cool.