Notes

Do We Really Need a Cross-realm Auction House?

I'm living on an old server. It's not quite dead, but it's slowly withering away. I'm not certain what happened precisely but I do have an idea of when -- at the start of Wrath of the Lich King, Dalaran was packed. There were far fewer people around by the end of the expansion. Orgrimmar in Cataclysm was a peaceful place to be. In Mists, the Horde shrine is populated by a few handful of players. AZOV I'm not sure why but the vast majority of players who were present when I rolled in Burning Crusade are now gone.



It makes Pandaria an idyllic and peaceful area. Rare spawns are rare and there's not much competition. There is no need to compete with anyone else for quest mobs, ore nodes or even herbs. There's not much drama on the server, by and large since there aren't many players around to create it. There are few jerks, but it seems like everyone on the server is generally calm and well-behaved, so long as you don't participate in Trade Chat.



On the other the other hand, it makes trying to buy or sell anything at the auction house an absolute nightmare.



Here's the problem -- there really isn't anything for sale. There's nobody who wants to buy. There are very few alternatives for transmogrification equipment. While there are some people selling potions and flasks, the actual sales aren't very impressive. People can easily collect their own ingredients from their own farms. Why should they? There is a standard collection of gems and ore, however, even those gems aren't selling at high prices.



In reality, with a population as small as ours appears to be everyone has what they need. A server with a population this size would normally be considered dead. However, our server is still going strong and is working in a quiet manner. Our server is now possible to stay alive due to cross-realm and cross-realm raids. In spite of the low number, there are still groups who can manage content. They have a lot to do and a reason to be playing, and they love the peace and quiet.



However, what they don't have and cannot enjoy is a thriving server economy. The game has evolved to a shared pool of battlegroups, however auction houses are the only one that is able to avoid any server-crossing integration. This means that the auction house is managed by a small group of players who are experts in the game. The rest of the server purchases directly from these individuals or doesn't buy at all, leaving the auction house without much function.



Maybe the farm is to blame. After all I've never had a reason to not buy any consumables since I began cultivating my own herbs and expanded my plots on my farm. The issue is mostly due to a shortage of supplies and the absence of demand.



Redditor aHesketh asked a question regarding the r/wow/ game, which has been raised several times in recent times -- what would the result be of cross-realm auction Houses? The discussion in the comments brings up some valid concerns, I have to say that the solution for my low-population server is a surge in activity. I have been to other realms, and I have often looked at auction houses and the goodies inside, longing for the same variety on my main realm.



Cross-realm auction houses are unlikely to be a saving grace for an economy that is dying in low-population realms. I would love to tell you what it would bring to high-population realms. However I'm not living on one. It's hard to imagine how it would feel like to sign in to the Shrine that suddenly became crowded with players. I can't even imagine what it would be like to see more gear than two pages on the auction house for any given category.



Although aHesketh's blog post didn't garner many comments on Reddit it made me want to revisit this subject again and check out what other people think. Are you on a popular server, or are you on a low? What's the economy of your server? Do you think it's a boost to your server economy or a slow way to the end of the world? Do you think that a cross-realm auction house is a benefit for the game overall, or something that should be avoided and why? Let's hear it.


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