Marketplaces, Auction Houses etc

[Mint Berry Crunch]

Just curious which medium for player-player trading developers use in their game for player-player trading and why. I ask because I still haven't decided which method to use for my own game and whether there are alternatives I cannot think of (my game context is medieval strategy). The ones I can think of:

 

1. Direct Trade/Barter - player contacts other player and arranges a trade. Easy to implement, not much to code.
   
2. Marketplace - big list of people offering things to sell or buy for currency. Still easy to implement. Can add market sales tax as an effective money sink in the game.
   
3. Auction House- players compete to bid on offers. More complex code. I can imagine that this is more geared towards games where there are high level loot and stuff like that - I don't know if people would implement this in a game where only basic commodities exist.
   
4. NPC Vendor combined with above - an algorithm in place where players can buy from NPCs but at some sort of restriction based on the average auction sales or market sales. Difficult to implement.
   

 

Personally I would only throw in options 1 and 2 for now, but I'm sure 3 and 4 have been pulled off elsewhere. What are your thoughts?

Edited May 30, 2013 by Mint Berry Crunch

[sniko]

I'd go with 1, and 2. Only due to an action house doesn't really, in my view, suit medieval (it does suit strategy, though).

With the game I'm developing, I am implementing 1, and 2 for those reasons :)

[Mint Berry Crunch]

I'd go with 1, and 2. Only due to an action house doesn't really, in my view, suit medieval (it does suit strategy, though).

With the game I'm developing, I am implementing 1, and 2 for those reasons :)

Interesting you say that, I would have said the complete opposite :D

IMO Auction house is suitable for the whole medieval bourgeois culture; strategy is more for the grander scale of things, so auction doesn't make too much sense.

Edited May 30, 2013 by Mint Berry Crunch

[KyleMassacre]

I'd go with 1 and do individual player shops so its set up as kind of a farmers market especially if its medieval then it seems as if it was a little market inside a kingdom square

[Dominion]

1. Direct Trade/Barter - player contacts other player and arranges a trade. Easy to implement, not much to code.
   
2. Marketplace - big list of people offering things to sell or buy for currency. Still easy to implement. Can add market sales tax as an effective money sink in the game.
   
3. Auction House- players compete to bid on offers. More complex code. I can imagine that this is more geared towards games where there are high level loot and stuff like that - I don't know if people would implement this in a game where only basic commodities exist.
   
4. NPC Vendor combined with above - an algorithm in place where players can buy from NPCs but at some sort of restriction based on the average auction sales or market sales. Difficult to implement.
   

 

Option 1 can be created as long as you have some way to send the item. Having an actual system in place (hold money until item is sent for example) will prevent scams. From that, and normally forums for the game, options 2 and 3 develop on there own without taxation. People normally post a list of unwanted items or a single rare item to the highest bidder. With this in mind all three are good as long as you can integrate it with whatever genre your game is.

Option 4 I probably would never use.

Edited May 29, 2013 by Dominion

[Mint Berry Crunch]

Option 1 can be created as long as you have some way to send the item. Having an actual system in place (hold money until item is sent for example) will prevent scams. From that, and normally forums for the game, options 2 and 3 develop on there own without taxation. People normally post a list of unwanted items or a single rare item to the highest bidder. With this in mind all three are good as long as you can integrate it with whatever genre your game is.

Option 4 I probably would never use.

Good point on the scammers, I will probably implement in an inbuilt mechanic for arranged directed trade. I will limit it somehow to prevent abuse though (multiple account abuse etc).

Yeah option 4 is a bit of a weird one, it probably suits the 3D MMO more, but I mentioned it because I played Remanum which is a trading game. Players sell their goods off to each other at the auction house with an inherent risk of making lots of money or little. Alternatively they can sell to the NPC market where they can set a price and get a guaranteed sale. The drawback is that the rate of which the NPC buys the stuff off you is exponentially reduced as you raise the price above the auction house selling price average, and vice versa.

A bit funky, and probably only exists because the game is essentially about trade and economy. Not going into my game but might be some food for thought if I make an economy/business game later.