Sign In

### Topic

#### Make Trade Channel Have a Level Requirement

since invites have opened there have been a lot of rookies in the trade channel. they're looking for help on very basic things, and wanting to buy very basic things: tomatoes for a quest, allspice, a frying pan, etc. i'm thinking it might be better if the "trade channel upgrade" isn't available till after a certain level- at some appropriate point where new players have the basic concepts down about vendors, skills, live help, global, etc. otherwise, they might end up getting ripped off and/or play glitch as a totally buy/sell rather than DIY game.

Posted 4 months ago by greenkozi | Permalink

### Replies

- It currently requires level 3 —which, for the latest batch of newbies is around two hours in (!)— but we'll keep an eye on it and keep tweaking.
  Posted 4 months ago by stoot barfield | Permalink
- i'm thinking greenkozi is right - a recent quote from the trade channel: "What's a sdb? (I started playing yesterday)"
  *apologies if the new player sees this and recognizes his or her words! it just seemed too relevant to this topic...
  Posted 4 months ago by katlazam | Permalink
- Another option may be to equip the Trade Channel with an intro message similar to the message displayed when players clicking the Live Help Channel, informing them that the Trade Channel is ONLY for Trade and that if they have general gameplay questions to please make their way to Live Help.
  Posted 4 months ago by The Cat Face | Permalink
- There is such a message, Cat Face.
  Posted 4 months ago by Pascale | Permalink
- katlazam, I've seen that several times, so you're safe. ;-)
  Perhaps a better short term solution is simply to report users who don't seem ready to participate in the channel, for whatever reason. Staff can work with them to make sure they understand how TS wants the channel used.
  Posted 4 months ago by WindBorn | Permalink
- Pascale - yeah I guess I posted before thinking/noticing. I guess they need to dust off the Long Distance Splankometers again....
  Posted 4 months ago by The Cat Face | Permalink
- I also believe that Guides (agreement perhaps from more than one) need the ability to give Time Out from the Trade channel, and Global too, when there are no staff about. Staff could sort it out, ban, tell off whatever when they are back to work
  Posted 4 months ago by IrenicRhonda | Permalink
- What's wrong with "I need tomatoes" or "I need a frying pan"? Just because they're not looking for 5000 cherries or 24 wall segments doesn't make what they are looking for any less valid. Point them to the auction house.
  Posted 4 months ago by WalruZ | Permalink
- I agree that new players should be able to attempt to buy a tomato or a frying pan (I've seen high level players do this many times). However, I also believe that there should be a higher level required before the card is offered. What I see new players asking are things like "How do I do this quest thing?" or "Will someone give me this thing I'm supposed to find?" or "Where do I go for _____?" or, most often, "What's a tower/sdb/shrine/guano/this-random-thing-I-just-saw/got/found?". I have no problem answering those types of questions for new players, but shouldn't this be directed towards global or help? I think that giving them the card long before they are likely to have accessed (or regularly accessed) the other chat channels available makes them think that it is "the only one" they should turn to.
  Posted 4 months ago by foolbunny | Permalink
- See, the thing is, it straight out says when you first open the trade channel "This channel is for trade only, blah blah blah." and you have to click something that says you'll use it only for trade. I don't think the problem here is the character level. It's reading comprehension (or if they're reading it at all), and there's not much we can do about it. Delaying the level just hurts those who would be able to use it properly.
  EDIT: I realize that this was posted a few days ago. Perhaps the trade channel has changed since then. I don't know that for sure, but if it was changed, A: ignore this message, and B: know that that was a pretty smart fix, in my opinion.
  Posted 4 months ago by Sicupocalypse | Permalink