TOPIC: Arcane Recipe <=Artifact Creation Token

Price fixing only takes the ability for the market to determine the value.  It seems that it is working quite well now.

Not price fixing among suppliers. Among those purchasing. I guess you could call it the bidder's version of collective bargaining.`

I want these price-fixing discussions over with (sorry to end the sentence with a preposition).<br />

There was once a psychology study where strangers were gathered in a room around a table in the center of which sat a bowl. There were some peanuts in the bowl and they were told that they could take as many or as few as they wanted, but they couldn't talk to the other people in the room. Every 30 seconds, the researcher would double the number of peanuts in the bowl. So if there were 5 left when the time was up, another 5 would be added.<br /><br />In the first run of the experiment, not a single group made it to the first doubling point. The researchers reported that one person in their haste to get to the peanuts actually dived across the table and ended up knocking the entire bowl onto the floor.<br /><br />The experiment was then run again a second time but people were allowed to communicate with one another. Very quickly all the groups came up with a common strategy where they all either waited for the bowl to double a few times and then divded some of the proceeds or divided some first and allowed the rest to double. The net effect being everyone got a lot more peanuts.<br /><br />The whole point being that it's that uncertainty, competition, and lack of communication that tends to drive selfish action. It's also what artificially inflates bidding in auction systems. Allow people to discuss the situation beforehand, and it's far less likely there's peanuts all over the floor.

But dont allow it and you get a lot more for your goodies.

I was opposed to "price fixing" in the auctions ever since the first one, when a bunch of people worked out between themselves which artisan tokens they would bid on and agreed not to bid on anyone else's tokens, to keep the prices low.  I think it takes away from the entire intent of the auction - and doesn't really seem honest.  <br /><br />I doubt price fixing would even work in this case though, because there are only two Arcane Recipe tokens and more than two people that want them.  The best that could be done would have two people agree not to bid against each other - but there would still be other people bidding against them (hopefully). 

I believe the idea behind this "auction" will be to have every one who is interested in bidding to stand up.  Start increasing the bid price and ask people to sit down when it gets to a point they are not willing to pay.  The last two people standing will get the tokens.<br /><br />There should not be as much of a run up that way.  <br />

So, it'll basically be the live-action version of e-Bay.  The artifact creation tokens won't fetch the highest prices possible, they'll just fetch slightly more than the third person left standing (assuming two tokens for auction) is willing to pay.

<br />I believe the idea behind this "auction" will be to have every one who is interested in bidding to stand up.  Start increasing the bid price and ask people to sit down when it gets to a point they are not willing to pay.  The last two people standing will get the tokens.<br /><br />There should not be as much of a run up that way.  <br /><br />

<br /><br /> It won't have the "competetive edge" that many auctions have... but none of the last 4-5 folks will want to sit down... and I'd be suprised if several folks didn't pool resources to max out a bid potential for an artifact they all felt they could use.<br />(ie I'll get the token and then we can make the Ring of Brian's +17 to everything which only works if your name is Jeff)<br /><br />or something roughly the same.

I have lots of Dwarven Steel and such.  I would like to be able to make combos just by using trade item tokens.  We are trading in all theses tokens and only a few of them will be used (perhaps, that is how it looks to me).

Hopefully rediculous item requests will simply be told no.<br />The power scale of this game has for the most part stayed fairly low. It would be ashame if they started changing that now.

<br />Hopefully rediculous item requests will simply be told no.<br />The power scale of this game has for the most part stayed fairly low. It would be ashame if they started changing that now.<br />

<br /><br /> I wasn't implying a ridiculous power level item.. simply that if several people get together they can come up with an artifact they can all use, and then with some trading, all create... making it Very sensible for several folks to pool resources (gold) and maximize their bid chances.