How long till we get Cross-realm AH?

[Rivellana]

Having been on the same realm since I started playing and watching as it gradually went downhill, I can definitely see where you're coming from.

Checked here: http://wow.realmpop.com/us.html
Not sure how up to date that is...my server definitely isn't the worst of the worst but I can now see the difference between my realm and actual populated realms. 180k characters versus 40k characters is quite a large gap.

For that simple reason I could definitely agree with having a cross-realm AH. My small server is 70% horde/30% alliance and when I played alliance there were times that a single person could have a full and complete domination of some aspect of the AH...like jewelcrafting for instance.

People on smaller servers now have less access to mats to farm due to CRZ but the same problem as always with their AH.

[Arbs]

Whenever Blizzard stops producing content for WoW & they leave WoW as a B2P than prbly, but until than if than ever happens it will never happen.

[Netherspark]

There are over 50,000 items on my server's AH and it's already a pain in the ass clicking through dozens of pages to reach what I want. There's no way in hell Blizzard are going to link servers together and increase that number x100.

You vastly underestimate the amount of items that would be in the AH if it was cross-server.

[Deleted]

Google is your friend here to look it all up.

My friend (Google) says you pulled that out of your nether regions.

[tylenol]

As others mentioned, gold sellers, cross realm AH and cross realm trading will never happen, ever

[Kuja]

This cross-realm bullshit makes many people quit. I hope there won't be a CRA as well. They should scrap the zones too. It's enough that there's cross realm dungeons and raids.

[Mercarcher]

This cross-realm bullshit makes many people quit. I hope there won't be a CRA as well. They should scrap the zones too. It's enough that there's cross realm dungeons and raids.

Realms and servers are becoming a thing of the past. Blizzard is just trying to keep up.

Look at what TESO is doing. Its the next AAA MMO coming out, and they are having a single "Megaserver" for everyone

[Deleted]

Id love to see this implemented I cannot see any downside, for sellers you get a lot more people looking at items so a lot better chance of selling your item.....theres quite a few times ive had some rare but only wanted by people who are after something specific item ive had to wait weeks to sell because of the lack of interest.

And for buyers? a lot more choice.

so whats the issue?

[Kantoro]

Since it will suck more fun out of the game, I am guessing not too long.

[Deleted]

Since it will suck more fun out of the game, I am guessing not too long.

How will it suck fun out of the game? do you enjoy waiting ages to sell your items and when some decent peice of gear comes up it immediatly going for a stupid price because theres so few of them appearing on the ah because your realms dead? thats not fun mate, not in the slighest!

[Kantoro]

How will it suck fun out of the game? do you enjoy waiting ages to sell your items and when some decent peice of gear comes up it immediatly going for a stupid price because theres so few of them appearing on the ah because your realms dead? thats not fun mate, not in the slighest!

Neither is 100s of items listed one at a time. Or the 85 people who just undercut you by 1 copper only to be undercut themselves by 30 more people. Cross realm this will blossom into 1000s of people listing items 1 at a time. Cuz I know how often I want to buy a single Jade Squash, luckily I can do that, 100 times. Oh and don't forget the asshats who list level 14 greens for 365g each and buy up every single other green and relist them for 4000% profit.

Yea, more servers on the AH means more asshats. And that is not fun, in the slightest. I don't care if your realm is dead, you can move rather than impact my game play.

[Pancaspe]

I support the Cross Realm AH idea. In fact, I would like to see one central AH for all of North America. It would solve a lot of supply problems, and stabilize the economy.

---------- Post added 2012-11-21 at 11:53 AM ----------

There are over 50,000 items on my server's AH and it's already a pain in the ass clicking through dozens of pages to reach what I want. There's no way in hell Blizzard are going to link servers together and increase that number x100.

You vastly underestimate the amount of items that would be in the AH if it was cross-server.

If only Blizzard had a model to work from, like the Diablo AH

[Darmalus]

Combine a central AH for the entire continent with buy orders, and we may have something interesting on our hands.

[Halicia]

Yea, more servers on the AH means more asshats. And that is not fun, in the slightest. I don't care if your realm is dead, you can move rather than impact my game play.

if your 'gameplay' is being negatively affected by how OTHER PLAYERS using the auction house as it was designed to be used, then maybe you should stop using the auction house.

Of course with regionwide auction houses, the interface itself would require some updating. Blizz already has a decent template for that in D3, and SEVERAL addons, on how to present the info players want without forcing them to trudge through the muck.

[Netherspark]

If only Blizzard had a model to work from, like the Diablo AH

The Diablo 3 AH sucked, big time. Having 46 pages of the same item is not a good idea.

[yjmark]

I think it would be pretty awesome since you would actually get to pretty much always find what you wanted. Yeah, it would suck for people who just camp the AH to make money as their competition would increase significantly. But, I'm ok with that. Some extra competition is not always a bad thing.

Also, what is the big deal if the server economy gets wonky for a while until it stabilizes? It's not like raids will start falling apart, and PvP will get out of control, or anything like that.

[Pann]

if your 'gameplay' is being negatively affected by how OTHER PLAYERS using the auction house as it was designed to be used, then maybe you should stop using the auction house.

Of course with regionwide auction houses, the interface itself would require some updating. Blizz already has a decent template for that in D3, and SEVERAL addons, on how to present the info players want without forcing them to trudge through the muck.

D3 has a number of restrictions in place such as a 10 auction limit per player that simply will not work with WOW, (someone who plays the auction house will have on average between 400-700 auctions up at any one time) such a limit would cripple professions such as inscription. D3, also, suffers from trade skill items being sold for a few copper over the vendor price due to heavy under cutting and the D3 AH is heavily driven by loot drops, which simply will not work with WOW's system of soulbound gear, rather than craft skills in WOW.

[Caliph]

I'm trying to think of a real-world scenario that I could suggest hypothetically happening that would give a more clearer view... but nothing is coming to mind, and I'm about a minute from falling face-down on the keyboard due to sleepiness... oh well, I'll just leave it in WoW terms.

Look at it like this: The price of items could either go up or down, depending on supply and demand. People without much gold, but can afford the simple things they need on their current server's economy, could either be able to afford items more easily or run into issues getting the funds. Now take this scenario and add eight zeros behind that one person. Ten million players have the possibility of making it or going through a whole "crash and burn" deal.

At least with the server economies separated, people can always transfer somewhere with a more favorable outlook. This option is eliminated when everywhere you go has the same prices.

---------- Post added 2012-11-21 at 12:15 AM ----------


You can't be selfish when asking about something that would change the experience on such a large scale. You may not see anything wrong with it, but thousands or millions more might.

A simple fix is to add in orders. Allow players to place an order for things at a certain price. the sellers and professionals can fill those orders. Or they can simply ignore them and post on teh AH.

The AH will simply readjust to the new market. It's just like the AH is today but now you'll have a much bigger market. THe only problems with that is you'll need better search functionality or else it'll lag big time.

BTW doesnt' blizzard already do this with D3. everybody is apparently on one shard and one AH. So clearly the tech and skill is there, it's just the willingness to do so provided WOW tech isn't too limiting.

[hiragana]

It will happen soon, they will pair low pop realms up with high pops, will make those shitty realms like mine that never get tgc cards etc on more interesting. I wouldnt like region wide AH though, would be camped so heavily by bots and people like me. Most people would have no chance of making any gold.

[Gurbz]

CRAH would be great for buyers but relatively terrible for sellers. Primarily, it would give the buyers far more control over the markets than they have now. It wouldn't automatically crash the markets, as the supply vs demand ratio would stay roughly the same, like settling in around the level seen on a mid-pop realm, though I believe prices would drop for different reasons.

The more people involved in an AH system, the more stable it will be. It is more difficult for a single player, or consortium of players, to hold control of a market. Thus much more difficult for artificial manipulation of prices to occur. This would lead to lower prices for most anything, as the market would settle into a pricing structure that more accurately reflects what buyers think an item is worth, instead of what the sellers want to get for it. Both supply and demand would be evened out across all servers, leading to more consistent prices for goods.

I really think it is only a matter of time. Blizzard seems like they are moving more and more toward a model of one single "realm" instead of a many isolated servers. Over time I expect more and more walls to come down keeping the individual realms separate. The only thing that might stop this would be Blizzard deciding the revenue from character transfers is too profitable to diminish in any way. And even that I think would only delay it for a time.