In the fantasy MMO The Elder Scrolls Online, the third update for August will introduce armor dyeing, guild symbols, and new campaigns. However, an important change in the trading system is also coming.
With the beautiful video and all the colorful hues, it’s easy to lose sight of what the players can expect in August. On one hand, the PvP campaigns will be drastically shortened from 90 days to just 5 to 30 days; on the other hand, the trading system will change, with a new method introduced for players to sell their goods.
Guilds will be able to bid on an “Auctioneer”. According to the latest information, 122 of them will be available. The auction will take place “blindly”. This means the guild does not know how much has already been bid on the auctioneers. It will likely work in such a way that the guilds will anonymously bid a certain sum of gold. If they are one of the 122 highest-bidding guilds, they will be assigned an auctioneer. This will replace the “Guild Kiosk,” which was originally discussed. At least this “general” bidding seems to be more logical than having 122 auctioneers with hidden price tags on the big toe, which could be bid on solo.
Through the auctioneers, members of “Auction-Winning” guilds can sell goods to non-guild members at physical locations – so perhaps it will be a kind of auction house that is introduced through the back door.
The absence of an auction house in The Elder Scrolls Online was welcomed by some players before the release, as it would promote communication among players and increase the value of guilds. However, in practice, the system has proven to be impractical because it requires more effort and concentration than many are willing to give. Especially since the interface is not exactly intuitive and looks like a spreadsheet.
Other aspects of the trading system were almost ignored. The possibility for guilds to set up vendors in fortresses they occupy to sell goods was hardly utilized. In everyday life, the guild stores, with their confusing menus and opaque price comparisons, turned out to be too unwieldy and unattractive for a generation of MMO players who are used to an auction house like in World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2, or nearly every other modern MMO.
The changes in the trading system are just a small part of a whole series of dramatic changes that are expected in the upcoming months for The Elder Scrolls Online.
