Player Vendor Price Index

Honestly this seems like something that any player could create with a small amount of time and effort by recalling to vendor locations once a week, noting the price and putting up the results on the forums with min/max/average prices. To me it seems pointless for staff to spend a significant amount of time/effort to create this system which would more than likely be exploited while still in the early stages (As mentioned with the CBD example above). It is from this point that I draw the conclusion that this system would likely do more harm than good for the shard.



From what you have mentioned and my understanding of it, I would assume that it would be possible to make a system that gathered average prices/sales information, however in order to make it accurate (i.e. ignoring sales that are lower than 90% of the average price to prevent someone selling items for 1gp to bring the average down) I would wager that it would require financial analytics far out of scope for a UO freeshard. Conversely, if a player wished to hike up the price of an item he could buy it for a significant amount more and just transfer the gold onto his other character, I can see no real way in which a system like this would not be exploited to rip players off, ultimately it would completely defeat the initial purpose of the system.



My final point comes where I notice you mention that it is hard to find the price for some items, I agree with that - It is very frustrating when you have no idea how much an item is worth when looking to buy/sell, however keep in mind that price checks on the trading forum are more than acceptable and IRC has a wealth of information. Both of these utilities require interaction with players in some way and are a great way to get to know people, while it may be hard to get an immediate answer sometimes it pays to wait a while. If you are still finding it hard to get prices for items, start your own thread, poll the community for advice on prices and help the shard grow in a manner that does not require Admin intervention.



Lastly let me say that the consensus from other players indicate that your ideas are not to the standard norm, however please don't be discouraged from posting any further ideas as I always enjoy reading new ideas on how to improve the shard (As I'm sure the Admins do too), simply because the majority disagree with them do not make them bad ideas - if implemented correctly I could see this saving a lot of frustration from newer players that have been ripped off. We really do appreciate your efforts in trying to better the shard; hopefully you can see that these are not personal attacks rather just constructive criticism from a bunch of oldies stuck in their ways.

My .02 is that this would be gamed, much like one could game the system mentioned by Wodan (buy and sell from yourself for a price that reflects not what the item is worth but what you want it to look like it's worth in the DB). I guess if tied to forum accounts it would be a little better because you could spot and watch for the liars over time, but still it is a system designed with good intentions but likely to be rendered much less useful by those with ill intentions.

I couldn't stop even if I wanted to

Well Chris has spoken. I do like the idea of at least having some voluntary player feedback in some of the items. That sounds like a great compromise between different opinions heard here.

Of course this system is easily abused but - as mentioned by Deacon - it should be tied to forum identities. With an active community like this one, few people would risk their reputation for price manipulation. Take a look at some threads in the trade forum where people and guilds are heavily fighting over their reputation as honest businessmen.

It's up to us to judge the prices stated there based on an accounts reputation, credibility and personal experience dealing with that person. Basically, it's like asking on IRC only there's no need to ask 500x just to catch the right person. And this person doesn't have to answer the same question 20x.

Allow arguments over pricing statements made. If you see someone claim they sold a ladder for 25k - challenge it and post your experience.
I'm that kind of guy that would frequently post the experience made when shopping for a particular item (eg. large boat !)

I like the integration of the website into the actual shard internals alot. Scouting for housing spots via the World Map, PvM leaderboards, checking other players via the profile ... all awesome features. Extending that to the economy, at least a little, would be even another step of better website/community integration.

Remember the comments section of monsters on Stratics. That was the most useful piece of information AT ALL.

i hope this does not get implemented, because it punishes those that explore the world and stay connected with the community

Take the time and read the thread.