Sign In

### Topic

#### Change in auction timing -- thoughts?

So, was trying to rack up some favor really quickly to speed up learning, bought some WBD's and realized that -- all of a sudden -- it takes MUCH longer to get your auction purchase! About 10 minutes in RL time. This is bothersome and I'm not sure why it was implemented...
I really love almost all of the changes that have occurred, and even if I don't love something I assume there's a reason it happened. But this one is super annoying. If it (as was suggested in live help) is meant to promote person-to-person trading -- well, that's just silly! What are the chances that I will find a person that minute -- who happens to be carrying what I need -- and is willing to trade it? Lets be honest, most of us don't carry our inventory around with us these days. And if I wanted to sell it, I would put it on auction -- not carry it around waiting for someone to ask me for it!
OK, rant's over. Any thoughts? Is this bothering anyone else? Does anyone know the reason why this change happened, or does anyone think it's awesome and want to tell me why? I'm flexible, I can be swayed :-)

Posted 8 months ago by Clarabelle | Permalink

### Replies

Previous 1 2 Next

- Instant (or 3-min) availability on auction does not detract from the game. The thing that's kept me interested in Glitch are long-term projects. Most of the meaningful projects in this game have time limits already - there are cooldowns on teleportation, shrine donation limits, XP limits on crafting, street projects are only released periodically, growing crops takes time, harvesting is limited and respawns are on timers. Badges are slow to get and some are very long-term projects, which is great. The auction house made the crafting a little more fun by adding a sort of Quick-Mart to the game. It makes it forgiving if you go to craft something and realize you've come up short a handful of cherries or a few sparkly.
  This game is going to turn into a bit of a chore if the auctions are very slow and we have to plan everything perfectly in advance or head halfway across the map to get a missing item. I have enough shopping lists IRL; I don't need them in my games too.
  Also, with slow auctions you are going to encourage every Glitch to learn every skill and squash diversity in crafting. If I find a patch, I can't season beans, and I have to wait a very long time or go to Global to get a seasoned bean, my reaction is to learn to make them. Same with eggs, earthshakers, or anything else not available on vendors. Once you have a decent stockpile of materials, crafting is essentially instant gratification so you have to make the auctions fast enough to make buying vs. learning skills an interesting choice.
  Posted 8 months ago by Lucille Ball | Permalink
- I don't know @stoot, wouldn't this just encourage Glitches to compulsively hoard everything instead?
  Spurred by your revelation that delivery times will get longer, I've started drafting floor plans to convert my /home into a mega storage warehouse.
  Posted 8 months ago by ping | Permalink
- Changing from a fee + commission structure will make it harder to obtain items that you need infrequently.
  For example: for the past few months I have made sure that a complete selection of vegetable seeds were always available on the auction. I call it the "Corner Grocery" model, since they were only available as a package of 3 (one row) and there were (almost) always 2 sets of seeds in the auction at a price somewhat above the vendor price,
  This was possible because it didn't matter too much if zucchini seeds only sold every few days. If auctions expired, I'd only lost the posting fee, and I could build that fee into my pricing.
  With a single-fee auction, I will only be able to post the 4 seeds that are in the most demand and that I can be sure will sell out each day. The risk of posting auctions for the other seeds suddenly became too high. They are bought every couple days, maybe 2 or 3 times a week. The less often a seed is bought the more times I have to multiply that cost. So, what was a small convenience store will be run out of business by big-box pricing.
  I personally will have to craft more of my own items that I only need infrequently. No one in their right mind will put high priced items in the auction unless they are the very common, in demand items. It is not simply an issue of getting the price "right". It is an issue of closing off a market for items that are only needed infrequently.
  Posted 8 months ago by WindBorn | Permalink
- Have I mentioned my "Automat" idea lately? Where there's no listing fee, no sales fee and no expiration? Just a box you stick stuff in and assign a sales price to? One that is hosted in a marketplace street, one or two per region such as Salatu, Rasana, etc - ? Or even on your street??
  :)
  Posted 8 months ago by WalruZ | Permalink
- That does not address the "convenience store" model. In terms of access, it is no different from the vendor model.
  Posted 8 months ago by WindBorn | Permalink
- stoot said:
  As for new players: it usually takes a long while before they notice the auctions at all.
  But to be fair, this is (mostly) only true to the extent that the game fails to explicitly direct new players to take note of the in-game dropdown menu that links to the auctions etc.
  Posted 8 months ago by katlazam | Permalink
- Time flies when you are having fun. It doesnt seem long when you go about playing and doing other stuff instead of stopping to wait on the frog. Best advice is to forget you called him. Then he shows up like a happy surprise each time.
  Posted 8 months ago by Thursday Soleil | Permalink
- +1 Thursday Soleil.
  People seem to think that the extended auction time makes it necessary for them to just sit around until it comes, and that this change was an intentional effort to completely pause gameplay until it arrives. Not so. You can do things while you wait. That's one of the great things about Glitch - it's not on one track. Usually, while you're playing, you'll have a mental list of a few things you're hoping to do, maybe involving getting animals, starting a tree, getting a certain achievement, or leveling up. Whatever object it is you're ordering, it'll usually only affect the process of/involve one or two of those things, so while you're waiting, just get started on another!
  Also, remember that while Glitch is a game, and of course it's important for players to enjoy themselves, TS is also a company. So sometimes they will be making choices that will affect the game in the long run, perhaps meanwhile slightly inconveniencing people. However, we'll get used to this soon enough, and new players won't even know there was a difference. Sure, it might feel 'not fun', but the devs didn't change it for that purpose. They changed it so, in the long run and in the big picture, the game will be more interesting and will make new players stick around. It shouldn't affect you so much that it makes the whole game not fun - waiting for one thing just gives you a chance to get started on another.
  Posted 8 months ago by Cupcake | Permalink
- @stoot - while I understand the concept, I don't think that making things harder for players is necessarily a good thing. Real life is hard. This is a game. Games should be fun. Making things for challenging just adds stress to something that shouldn't be stressful.
  Posted 8 months ago by Aurora Dellaterra | Permalink
- Well put, scullyangel... I agree completely. Thursday, if I hit a point where I can't proceed without an auction item, I'll go do something else for ten minutes, and probably forget about the game. As it is, my "play" mostly consists of standing around in decoration mode while talking to friends. Regarding the new player experience, I'm reminded of this review.
  Posted 8 months ago by glum pudding | Permalink
- Did everybody else miss Stoot's mention of the possibility of an "expedited delivery option"? Honestly, I LIKE that idea quite a bit.
  Posted 8 months ago by Carl Projectorinski | Permalink
- I saw it, but it'll surely cost more, which will stop new players from using it.
  Posted 8 months ago by glum pudding | Permalink
- @windborn I used to buy your seeds and appreciated they were available - I find getting seeds from piggy plops spectacularly tedious given the amount I get through. Thing is, I run out and always want a few more to plant right now and since I have to garden at home and things take time to grow I'm not going to go out and come back to finish it off. So upshot of longer delay is... If I run out I make my own seeds now!
  Posted 8 months ago by geekybird | Permalink
- Oops hit post before I was finished :0)
  Having said that, when seeds are no longer available from vendors I for one will be in the market for large volumes from... well, somewhere?!
  Posted 8 months ago by geekybird | Permalink
- There's already a problem with finding things in the auction that vendors no longer sell so the "expedited delivery" won't help anything in those circumstances.
  Also, the wait time totally disrupts the flow of game play and the back-to-back frog deliveries are, amongst other things, obnoxiously intrusive
  I play to "lose myself" in something I enjoy doing - am in the mood to do. I don't want to have to "go find something else to do" while I wait for whatever it is I'm needing.
  Trust me, if I wanted to be "doing something else", I wouldn't have called the damned frog in the first place!
  Posted 8 months ago by sgjo | Permalink
- Being able to get any item instantly does make the game less interesting for me. However, there might be better ways to constrain item availability. This simply introduces a wait period. Waiting is not always bad. Waiting in a situation where there are other players present can encourage social interaction and might lead to some interesting emergent play. But as a solo activity, waiting does not make the game more interesting or more challenging for me.
  Most of my play involves advance planning, so I seldom need items in a hurry. The exceptions to that usually occur when I'm trying to help another player or otherwise participate in a spontaneous social activity. If the same is true for others, an unintended consequence of this change might be to discourage just the kind of player interaction that seems likely, IMO, to keep people coming back to the game.
  Posted 8 months ago by Splendora | Permalink
- I'm with sgjo!
  Posted 8 months ago by Aurora Dellaterra | Permalink
- Don't ask me why it took nearly a year, but I have only in the past month understood how important mood is to xp. knowing that, I can't bear to stop for anything in my constant effort to keep my mood up. I know I can keep moving while I'm waiting, but heaven forbid I want to use the thing I bid on in a certain location - I won't want to go back to a place that has already been petted out. We will see what this does to my gameplay.
  Posted 8 months ago by Jewel Stoned | Permalink
- I just had a random idea while reading this post. What if.... You could summon the yoga frog to you to send something to a player?! =D then it wouldn't be so difficult to send a random gift when someone needs something? Hmmm just a thought. But I've noticed as long as I plan ahead and do other things like squeeze chickens and nibble piggies that 10 minutes isn't too too bad. I survived. =)
  Posted 8 months ago by Clickadee | Permalink
- @Clickadee:
  When we get the mailboxes in our R2 homes (soon I think) then you will just have to Go Home to send a surprise, unplanned, gift
  Posted 8 months ago by IrenicRhonda | Permalink

Previous 1 2 Next