Suggestions to End Auction House Griefing

Community General Discussion
1

I think it’s long-past time to add some safeguards to the Auction House to make this unbelievably important in-game system better for regular players. The current system allows anti-competitive behavior and griefing, and those issues need to finally be addressed.

:stop_sign: Problem:

Some people post items for sale well below their market value.

:question: Why Does this Happen:

Sometimes the current price for an item is too high, and the quantity demanded for that item, at that price, is very low (sorry, but you’re not going to sell Garn Nighthowl for 1,000,000g, Craig).

This isn’t a major issue for low-volume items like mounts and BOEs. But in many other major markets (trade goods, consumables, etc.), it happens for other, much more nefarious, reasons. Those include the following:

  1. Griefers post a single unit of an item that usually sells for 100g for 10s in the hopes of tricking an unsuspecting player to post a bunch for that price, which the griefer then buys and resells at market value.
  2. Griefers decide to tank the market for an item that regularly sells for 1,000g by posting a significant quantity at 600g, thus preventing anyone making that item from deriving a profit. This is done for several reasons–to reduce competition by pushing people out of the market, to force competitors to buy their surpluses (lets they watch the market crumble), or (perhaps most likely in the dystopian nightmare that is World of Warcraft) because they’re just a jerk who wants to watch the world burn.
  3. Plus, with the name of the poster now hidden from players in the auction interface most of the time, there is even less in-game accountability for this type of behavior.

:x: Why is this a Problem:

Griefing is bad. This is a game, and games are supposed to be fun. Griefing ruins that fun. The auction system is a major part of this game–a system that the game cannot survive without, frankly. Griefing there is no more acceptable than in any other situation. And we shouldn’t allow it. The people tricking others into posting for rock bottom prices are, in my opinion, cheating. That should result in a ban, or at least a large gold fine.

:thought_balloon: What Should Be Done About It:

I propose adding some controls to the auction house to prevent certain deceptive, anti-competitive, and nefarious behavior. Specifically:

  1. Price controls that prevent undercutting if a sufficient quantity of the item is selling at the current price. This would only need to apply to items with more than 500 of that item in regular trade on the AH at a time (i.e., it would not apply to BOE’s or mounts, but would apply to the more common and steady commodities, like meat, herbs, buff food, flasks, potions, armor kits, etc.). This will prevent anyone from screwing with the market by dropping the price unnecessarily.
  2. With the price now the same for every auction posted in those catergories, the OLDEST, not the NEWEST, should sell first. This will end the cancel shuffle. Once an item is posted, it’s posted. No more staring at your longboi for hours canceling and reposting and pushing everyone out of the market. This practice has always been awful, and it’s high-time we put it to bed. Go play the rest of the game after posting your wares.

Would love to start a discussion about what is good and bad about the current AH system, and ways it could be improved.

EDIT: God forbid there ever be a rational, civil discussion on these forums. Why is this community such a toxic group of pricks? You don’t have to agree with everyone to be civil.

It’s always attack, condescend, degrade, and insult in this game now. Just a series of trolls, one after the other.

For a game as good as wow, the “community” is utter trash.

Since it’s obvious that you people are incapable of any serious discussion without behaving like complete wankers, I’m just going to unfollow the thread, and you can scream your insults into the void.

I identified what I see as a problem, and I stated my suggestions for a fix. I stand by them, even against the numerous insults in this dumpster-fire of a thread. For the like two people who actually provided some serious and thoughtful input on this, even while disagreeing, thank you—you’re the little glimmer of hope remaining in what is otherwise a cesspool.

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2

Read the screen. Problem solved.

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4

Blizzard has repeatedly stated a lack of interest in getting involved with this. And there’s a point where people really need to take a modicum of personal responsibility for their own actions.

The AH isn’t a vendor. It’s a place where people list things for sale at prices that are sometimes ridiculous on either end of the spectrum. It’s a mostly free market. It’s not a guarantee of a profit for you. It’s not a guarantee that your items will sell.

You can spend some time on it and make quite a bit of gold. You can ignore some fairly basic rules of thumb (like researching price histories and reading the screen once in a while to see that things are in line with those histories) and lose your shirt.

But the game doesn’t owe you a safety net on everything. And losing some gold isn’t going to hurt you a lot in the long run.

80 Likes
5

if i were blizz i wouldnt go near the AH with a 50ft pole. seems like any time they make some sort of change there the forums instantly get flooded wiith people who do nothing but play AH all day (weird to me but to each their own) screaming and complaining making dozens of posts.

AH players are prob the most toxic community in Wow

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6

I have a hard time imaging that people actively exploiting players is good for the long-term health of the game. Those lazy disinterested people that the three of you are happy to crap on are the ones paying enough money to keep the servers running so you can I can still play the game. Why is griefing in the AH different than griefing elsewhere? Explain that to me.

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AH has been perfectly fine for about 95% of the playerbase since it was released.

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8

undercutting the AH has been a great strategy since vanilla wow.

what the problem is?

and the misclick buys are an awesome way to make gold tbh

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9

You seem to misunderstand the term “griefing”. The term is generally defined as:

" Griefing refers to the act of a player ruining the gaming experience of another player, either involuntarily or on purpose."

How exactly is setting a price on an item in the AH griefing, by that definition?

I have seen this topic raised before and I have never been able to understand how anyone feels incapable of reading the information on a screen. If you, for example, go to the Sell option and place, say, a Glyph for sale, on the right of the screen it will display every other offer on that item, lowest to highest price, along with the number of sellers. If the item is being sold at a particular price by a single seller it will display their name (despite your comments that names of sellers aren’t displayed). The only time names arne’t display is when more than one seller is offering the item at the same price.

It is YOUR responsibility to choose what price to sell and buy anything at. And as Crepe said, the game doesn’t need to be a total nanny state for everything. Use your common sense and your eyes and your IQ and that’s absolutely all that is needed.

30 Likes
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This isn’t grefing, stop trying to spread falsehoods.

Posting an item below average is the persons choice.

If they are making a profit at a lower price, thats fine.
if someone mistakenly posts items at a lower cost because they aren’t paying attention, thats their own fault.

What should be done about it? Teach people to actually look at the screen.

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I like to gobble up all the aethereal meat when fools put it up below the vendor price.

Am I a griefer?

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12

If you tricked someone into posting them for below the vendor price, then yes. If you stumble upon it innocently, then no.

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I usually undercut by 20%.

I want my stuff to sell. My main concern is playing the game. If I have something to sell, I want to list it, have it sell, and get on with me playing the game.

I don’t want to have to deal with it again.

I’m playing WoW. I’m not sitting there running an AH bot to cancel/relist/undercut by a copper like the people complaining do.

Nor do I care in the slightest if my playing the game “ruins” “their” market or “costs them money”.

If they want to buy my stuff and re-list, go right ahead. That’s gold in my pocket and I can get on with playing the game.

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14

First off, this isn’t always griefing. My bank alt often will dump an item at a greatly reduced price if it’s been slow to sell at market value. Usually if something doesn’t sell after 3 post attempts I’ll just do a quick sale at a substantially lower price. This is a matter of expedience and controlling the size of my inventory and not griefing.

Second, if this is an issue that has bitten you, then perhas you should be doing a scan for undervalued items and buy them before you post your auctions? If you sell a lot of item X and you see one of item X for an usually low price, then buy it and resell it. This “griefing” trick only works if you’re not watching what you’re doing. Turn it around and make a profit off of their attempted tricks!

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15

If the oldest item sold instead of the newest item, you could post your stuff at non-idiot prices, sell them all, and not have to repost 30 times to fight the bots either. This would be better for you.

My guess is you’re also not making hundreds of flasks and undercutting by 20%, and you’re not crafting hundreds of legendary items and undercutting by 20%, so that part isn’t really a big deal as applied to you.

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I made some legendaries near the start of the expansion but the botters are on 24/7 insta-relisting for a copper less. It’s a fool’s errand to set foot into that system.

If Blizzard would just eliminate AH botters, I would be a happy man. That includes addons like TSM (which are just botting, renamed).

The simplest solution would be for them to remove the cancel auction option after something has been up for 60 seconds. Let people remove it right away if they made a mistake when typing in the price, but otherwise if you list it, it stays up.

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17

The items that aren’t selling are not within the scope of what I’m talking about. You’re not having this issue with current-content mats or consumables. If you are, it’s because someone is undercutting you quickly upon you posting, which is something that should simply go away.

For example, I had a stack of 20 strength potions I wanted to sell. Those sell in significant quantities on my server. I posted them 3x a day for two weeks before they finally sold. Why? Because one guy with no life sits on his longboi and posts/cancels/posts/cancels all day long. Why is that good?

18

I hate the AH, but not for the reasons OP posted.

Only problem I have is automation.
Some people use AH bots, or run software that just posts and reposts things automatically.

Automation software is against TOS I believe.
So, basically this just has to be enforced.

Alternately, allow people to post orders. That would solve lots of problems.

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19

That would be a step in the right direction. I hate having to babysit auctions, but you basically have to if you want to sell anything. Longboi mounts have made it so much easier for people to just cancel shuffle all day long.

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Limiting the number of auctions you can have up at once would be another solution, like they did with the D3 AH.

There’s really very little reason for anyone to have more than 20 auctions up at once, or 50 at the most.

Account-wide, of course.

21

Honestly man, there isn’t much wrong with the current AH, other than it could use a fresh paint (new UI).

What you’re suggesting is essentially policing the AH. I am sorry man, but the prices are set by what the consumer (buyers) are willing to pay. You can either capture that business, or try and maintain your profit margins.

I’ve gotten lucky with some auction house “snipes” where some person would post 100+ listings of an item, usually enchanting materials, at 90% off. Failure to read. I’ve gotten a few messages about asking me to “give them back”. But, nah. They are mine now.

I also sell and undercut vastly when I Just want to get rid of things. 40-60% off, on average. It’s the market man. Sorry.

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