In the MMORPG The Elder Scrolls Online there was a problem with the guild traders on Sunday, May 31, which is critical because it can have direct effects on the economy of the MMORPG. The last time this happened was during “Black Sunday,” leading to an economic crash. However, the community manager reassures that it is not as severe as it was the first time in May 2020.
These are the guild traders in ESO: In The Elder Scrolls Online there is no auction house like in World of Warcraft or similar MMORPGs. Instead, there are the NPCs “guild traders” who can be hired for one week to sell the goods of guild members in one location.
For these guild traders, gold bids are placed in advance every Sunday of the week. The highest bidder rents the guild trader for a week, and the losing guilds get their money back. If the guild trader is located in a particularly busy area of the game world, he is considered “valuable” and can attract high bids.
This is the problem: As a player explains in the ESO forum, something went wrong during the trader auction on May 30 on the mega server for PCs in Europe. Guilds won the auction, but did not receive the trader; instead, another guild was awarded the trader.
The mood quickly escalated, as a similar bug had caused major problems in 2019.
Lag in guild traders caused 2019 economic crisis
This makes it so critical: Last summer, there was another guild trader problem in ESO. It became known as “Black Sunday.” At that time, ESO was heavily congested, which led to server issues. On Sunday, August 18, 2019, the problem escalated and caused a significant lag during the trader change.
Due to the lag and a related error, gold was created that was refunded to players who had not actually spent it. This led to a kind of inflation, as items became less valuable due to the “duplicated” gold.
At that time, Zenimax had to awkwardly reclaim the gold from players and remove it from the game.
When problems with the guild traders arose again this Sunday, players assumed that a significant issue was brewing again.
This frustrated some players in the forum, as this major issue was supposed to have already been resolved. Additionally, ESO had launched the big performance offensive to reduce such errors.
Not as severe as 2019, but annoying – Fix coming
Zenimax says: The German community manager Kai Schober explained the problem in the forum. He states that there were about 20 minutes between the end of the auction and the takeover of the traders. During this time, guilds could take over the traders for a small amount.
Zenimax knows which guilds actually won the auction and for what amount. This will now be corrected. The correction is apparently set to take place during the ESO maintenance on Wednesday. On June 3, the PC mega server will be offline between 10 AM and 2 PM.
Schober clarifies: This was not the same error as in August 2019. And this time, “defective millions” were not pumped into the game, so the impact on trade and economy is “significantly lower.”
The old error has been fixed and cannot occur again, and a protection will also be implemented against the new error.
The Elder Scrolls Online has now experienced another influx of players in May 2020. The Greymoor expansion is a highlight of the 2020 gaming summer.
MeinMMO author Jürgen Horn especially finds the new World Events really cool.
