District based market systems for shops.

Hi,

Since FPC has made a commitment to improving Calypso; Or better stated, putting in the work that should have been put in over time in the first place.

I make the following suggestion to improve the flop state of the shops & shopping malls implementation upon Calypso to bring them back to life and restore their value.

Hint : Marco, people in this world are lazy, they are for the most part not interested in running from shop to shop to find an item, they just want the damn item so they can go out and have some fun.

Idea :

Independent District Market systems, NPC driven
(not attached to the global Auctioneer system)

It would operate in a similar way the Auctioneer system would work, using all the same UIs yet run as independent systems for each mall & district.

Mall systems - PA Mall, TP Mall, EL Mall systems
City district markets - Sukura, TI city, Omegaton, etc.

The market would list items via shop number, and location (building or mall lvl)

Only items located in a shop estate would be listed, not those in shopkeeper pads or other containers providing extention.

Listing dynamics :

1. Shop owner places item in the shop on display, sets price to sell for xx ped.
Local district market updates.

Item name - TT Value - Opening Bid - Buy Out Price - Shop Number & Location.
(No time left included)

2. Shop owner places item and does not set a price, no update to district market.

3. Shop maintenence fee expires.

All items placed within the shop (not including those in containers such as shopkeepers) have their sale values removed, also removing them form the local market NPC and requiring the shop owner to pay the maintenence fee and go around setting all the prices on items before they are added to the local district market again.

Local district market NPC listing would display shop as closed on the UI window and display no listed items.

^^ This should keep shop owners in check with the responsibility of maintaining their rental upkeep on their shops. It would be part of the mechanics of the system so avoiding this would require a lot more coding work. (KISS)

This way,

Those who are patient, or have the time to flurry around to each and every shop for the millionth time to see what is new and exciting (Very little in Entropia day to day) can do so.

Those who can't justify wasting time running around for the next hour or so to find what they are looking for can access the independent district market for each city area / mall and purchase what is available from a central location.

Hence adding a dualistic value back to the shop concept in Entropia which at present as a whole is a flop requiring much more effort than it is worth at times to make a success due to the lifestyle attitudes of most around the world today in this era of ' Rush, Rush, Rush, there is never enough time' and those who generally do not like the concept of procrastination before undertaking their desired activities within the universe.

Comic Relief

FPC Developer: So Marco where should we place the Mall District Market NPC, I was thinking inside, near the middle of the ground level.

CEO Marco: No stupid, we are FPC remember, we need to start thinking outside the box and to be considerate that not all of our customers will be using the latest/reasonable computer systems with the ability to handle object intensive areas.

FPC Developer: Ah ok. So where then.

CEO Marco: See what I have to work with, inconsiderate propeller heads!
Near the district TP for city areas, and at the mall entry points. (inc TP)
We are trying to increase the useability and viability of the system,
Not restrict it !!

Cheers,
Sparkz

PS. Mind the tone of the post, the idea of suggesting ideas until some
'Deeds not Words' come out of MindArk & FPC to restore respect is not something that sits well presently with me. Never the less, benefit of the doubt.

Good idea and well thought out.

I like it,

narfi

narfi said:

Good idea and well thought out.

I like it,

narfi

Click to expand...

Thanks,

As mentioned in another post made today,

It is the small additions to enhance useability, functionality and viability that can make such a big difference to turn the Entropia flops into successes.

Much like adding a rudder to boat to turn it around and make it truely sea worthy.

Thinking about the smaller things that make the bigger things work

Let us see what FPC does over the coming 12 - 24 months.

It will be interesting to see how much they listened to their customers over the past several years to initiate active collaboration, establishing synergies & compremises;

And to what degree they are still caught in their own selfishly deluded untamed world with little care for their users.

ie. Predominant focus on the bottom line and dollars rolling in without adequate focus upon & investment into that which achieves increases in both of these.

Lavawalker said:

Small things such as this (and the search being addressed) that go so far to make a difference in making the Entropia RCE service offering so much more appealing through being a less frustrating and limiting dinosaur to work with in the financial environment.

Click to expand...

Great IDEA!

one thing I would like to add, Im sure the shop keepers would agree.

Add some flexibility to the MU%. make it to where you can set a range you are willing to live with in... have it fluctuate with the auction %'s.

I go to buy something in a shop, and it is marked with a % thats a few months outdated. It has to be tiresome trying to keep up with the fluid markets as a shopkeeper. So setting a low % they would be okay with and the high % and it auto adjusts in that range with daily rates, weekly rates, whatever they wish to attach their MU% to.

Hope I made myself clear... tired not sure Good idea though!!!!1

EBO

very intriguing idea. since it sounds very much like a local auction that is seperate from the global auction i doubt that MA will ever do it in that form. i could see them putting in a terminal that allows visitors to see inventory/price/location(s) for items in malls/cities i however highly doubt that they would ever allow purchase from said terminal. ex. 2 avatars looking at same item in a shop, one at the mall terminal one in the shop they try to purchase at the same time one of them will be very angry when they do not get the item.

i think just like IRL shops list what they have either online or in newspaper ads, there should be a way for shop keepers to put a centralized listing of their goods ... would sure make me shop in shops again, i got tired or running the planet trying to find what i wanted.

this is worth reading

Very interesting idea!

There's supposed to be an overhaul to the auction system in the coming year or so, maybe they'll include this.

So basicaly what you are proposing is

Converting Shops to be like warehouses in a way. but still be foot stop shops.

But There will be a market that works as a auctoneer. with reduced fees for shop owners only.

Sorta like a Discount for buying a shop.

the item limit of the shops are the max amount of orders a shop can have in the

Mail order catalog so to speak.

And this will bypass the problems of shop owners not having buisness. and overpower the basic urge of lazy people to finaly buy shopkeeper items...

Add some flexibility to the MU%. make it to where you can set a range you are willing to live with in... have it fluctuate with the auction %'s.

Click to expand...

Not quite sure how that would work. When would the change in price be made? It could be in the middle of a transaction . It would also annoy people who go round comparing prices finding that the price had changed when they went back 5 minutes later. It would probbaly be better if MA could introduce an easier way of updating prices so that you don't have to do a lot of clicking just to check the prices of the goods you are selling.

Personaly i think shops should just be like warehouses. and this system proposed. I was thinking of this very same idea, except alot more global. it is quite obvious that shop owners paid for something good. and if you take the good the only thing you really get is selling without fee's. Taxes are not fees. Fee's feed to everyone taxes feed to one person.

But yeah shops were a good idea. but not an idea that belongs in a game such as this. 2nd life yeah sure whatever. but this game just isnt the kinda game to do this. this game caters more to i need it now and will get it now. just like wow. thats why wow has sole emphisis on the AH model. As far as economic models of EVE online. they support a more of a commodity market with feirce competion, but there is no shops there too.

you have to see the reasoning behind why those other games support no shops. the reason being the nature of people. EU does not have as wide a playerbase as those other games do. but the ADHD generation has also grown up. so there is still 30 year old kids with credit cards. well im 27 so i am excluded. (btw we dont attract many long term under age players)

The reason Shops work in games like 2nd life. is becouse the diverse nature of creativity. but here in EU. we have something far more powerful. we have the ability to use what is given to us and run with it. not only that we have focus in our endevors, and a lack a fluff, that is super meaningless. everything in EU has a purpose. except like Basic filters. but thats another story.

Shops need to be taken out of its fluffyness. and placed on a pedistal where it belongs. Players have paid good money for these shops. and to sell a shops inventory side by side with the auctioneer. is the answer.

The best part is only shop owners can acsess this feature to sell goods. their own Fee'less Auctioneer if you will. and the mall owner's set the tax rates. Put it on the same footing as its competion and it will compete. as right now well. I aint fucking walking into a shop. but put the shops at my conveniance. in a broad based market like we have with the Auctioneer, well i know where i am gonna get my deals from.

If you shop owners cannot agree to this. well your best bet is to just transfer your shop deed to someone else. and not ask for a dime. becouse thats about how much shops are worth. they provide nothing but a time sink, and time is just something i dont want to spend. not when i can just pay an extra ped to get it from the AH.

By the way i do not own a shop.