In Path of Exile 2 trading works just like in the predecessor. A mistake, as MeinMMO author Cedric Holmeier finds.
How does trading work? In Path of Exile 2, trading takes place through the developers’ website (via pathofexile.com). To sell an item there, players must place it in a public premium stash and set a price.
To buy, players also need to go to the website and find a seller who is currently online. This seller is contacted via direct message to initiate the purchase. Then a group must be formed, and they must meet at a common place in the game for the trade.
There is always the risk that the seller or buyer will try to trick their counterpart by placing fewer items or the same items with different values in the trade window, hoping that this deception goes unnoticed.
An NPC in Path of Exile 2 is particularly useful:
Trading like from the MMORPG primordial times
The trading between players in Path of Exile 2 was already a thorn in my side in the predecessor. Leaving the game just to go to a website to trade is something that one associates with the early days of MMORPGs. About the time when players still exchanged information in forums instead of via Discord.
Even in the predecessor of Path of Exile 2, the trading system was actually outdated. To this day, Path of Exile is one of the few games that also offers an active forum with an even more active trading area. The community has even developed its own programs for the predecessor that simplify trading and price checks.
That the developers rely on exactly the same system for the sequel is a missed opportunity. Yes, the existing system also works in Path of Exile 2, but it also has the same clunky approach that is so unfamiliar to new players that most of them are likely to play involuntarily in SSF mode (Solo-Self-Found mode, no groups & no trading allowed).
Sorry, it’s 2024
What solution does MeinMMO author Cedric Holmeier propose? The fact that Path of Exile 2 does not take a new approach here is a missed opportunity, especially since with this installment they wanted to be more beginner- and user-friendly. There is clearly a lack of an auction house!
An auction house would improve many things:
- Trading would take place natively in the game
- Players could buy items directly in the auction house without having to find an online seller
- For new players, trading would be much easier
- Valuable items could be auctioned off
- A gold tax like in other games could limit bots’ access to the market
In MMORPGs, auction houses are long the industry standard. And even if Path of Exile 2 does not want to rely on gold in player trading, an auction house would definitely be feasible. Especially if players can simply exchange the requested item from the seller.
If a new MMORPG were to be released today, where the majority of trading takes place through an external site and players need to meet in the world to trade, players would probably be visibly confused.
One can only hope that the developers will add this feature by the full release and do everyone a favor by at least adding the auction house to trading if they do not let all trading run through it.
An auction house could thus simplify several things for the players and eliminate the detour through the website. The system around the filters already works well and could serve as a foundation for the auction house. Another complex system is the passive skills: Path of Exile 2: Skill Tree explained – This is how the complex system works
