Moderating the trade channel

[Emsy]

Hi guys I would like to offer some feed back on the trading channel. I really do think there needs to be some sort of education or some kind of command that stops the players doing what they are doing lol I know that makes no sense let me explain.

I noticed there is a lot of what people call Price Jacking going on and scamming new players. I noticed for the past hour and a half tonight a certain player has had a offer up on the trade channel right at the very top so it is always one of the first couple of offers you see and he is offering 400 marble for 80coins even though we all know that 400 marble ranges from 18-30coins. This guy is hoping that people either miss read and think he is offering 80 coins for the 400 marble or that a new player who does not know the worth of resources will make the trade. It is not fare to the new players who do not have many coins and are just learning how to manage the economics of the game yet. Maybe there could be a thread that lists all resources and roughly what they are worth either in coins or other resources. That way a new player can check 1st if 80coins is a fair price for the 400 marble and also how is this player getting his offer at the top over and over again? Is there no way of stopping this?

Yesterday one of my friends who started playing last week and has just build her branch office, I warned her not to pay too much for resources and to see if I could help her first, but yesterday I was offline a few hours and she needed some marble so she looks on the trade channel and see's what she think is 38coins for 400 marble and thinks thats not toooo many coins and makes the offer only to find out it was stone and not marble and as she was new and they both look rather similar she made the mistake but I believe that player was trying to trick the new players in to thinking they were getting marble. She did not trade again on the channel and does not plan to until she has watched it for a few days.

I know there are changes in place for the future of the trade channel but surely we can put in some safe measures now?

sorry for the rant but it has been bugging me for a while now.

[Salamo_Frisbee]

The tutorial should include the trade channel. For starters once i build my branch office i couldnt for the life of me figure out how to use it and looking on the help channel a lot of players suffer the same fate.

That tutorial should then also instruct players on how to sort (press the left column to sort on offers press the cost column to sort on cost). That will go a long way I think. Also the tutorial should remind players of their trade options in the provisioning house.

The whole scamming thing as annoying as it is, is part of a trade system like this. You cant prevent it. Education is the way to go imho. Moderating the trade seems like a big no no to me.

[Emsy]

Im not saying someone should be watching it 24/7 I just think we can do more to stop this from happening and yes I totally agree with including it in the tutorial in took me a day to find the trade channel to start I thought you had to click on the branch office to trade and when I found the trade channel I did not understand the options to begin with and I accidently made a trade or two. Education is always best but unless it is included in the tutorial it becomes the players responsibly to find the forum and then search through the threads to find the advice and not everyone is a internet or computer savy as others.

[Maaa]

why are you using a word "scamming"?
it is free market, anyone is allowed to set price as he/she wish for his goods
it is buyer free will to agree with an offer or ... not
what do you want to moderate? value people set for their goods? common....

if someone offers 400 marble for 80 gold - well, it is his offer - you may buy it or (most likely) not
insulting players coz others can not identify icons in game or have an issues with 1+1=2?
ehhhh....where is something called common sense?

[Nukar]

The trade system needs a complete overhaul anyway.
But to make sure you dont pick the top trades always sort the trade tab. You can do this by clicking the column names.
Sort all marble together and the 80c offer will most likely stick out as the worst offer.

[Emsy]

that is something else that should be in the tutorial, i was on the understanding that sorting of the trades would be happening in the future but you can do it now that does help your right and yes it does need a complete overhaul.

[Emsy]

Maaa there is no need to mean or rude. This thread was made so I could express my opinion which is my free will and I did speak to many players before making this thread. It is the consensus of myself and these other players that when we encounter these problems we do feel "scammed". I can not say that a player asking 60coins for 400 stone (i have seen this) that the player is intending to "scam" but I can say that to the players that make that mistake they do feel scammed. I do although believe that some of these offers are made by players hoping that a new player does confuse marble with stone and take the offer. I apologise for using the word moderate I guess I used the wrong word and I will change it. what i was trying to say is that something could be done to help stop these players feeling like this and I totally agree Salamo_Frisbee that Education is best but we have to rely on the game writers to include this in the tutorial and they are already busy trying to fix many other bugs.

It is not fair of you to say we dont have any common sense their is a difference between common sense and people being internet, computer or online gaming savvy.

[Ceran]

If someone offers 400 marble for 80 coins, then that IS a scam, unfair trade, or whatever you want to call it, anyone who knows the game and Trade system wouldn't be fooled by it. However its obviously aimed at players who don't know that deal is a complete rip-off. Thats what makes it a scam, and the player a scammer, because they are deliberately trying to trick people into an unfair trade.

I personally wouldn't even consider offering 38 coins for 400 stones, and same again, anyone who knows the game wouldnt be fooled by it, but a new player would, therefore making it a scam.

I got stung when trade first came up after I built the branch office, I made a couple of dodgy trades but after getting stung a couple of times you learn fast what is a good deal and what isn't. Having said that, the best deals are when both people feel as if they have ripped off the other. I do try to keep my trade offers to what I consider a fair deal, but others won't. Wherever there is a trade system in a game, people will figure out ways to get an advantage from it, or whats the point of trading at all. Moderating would be difficult if not impossible, moderaters are busy with chat channels etc, but maybe a warning pop up, that you can choose to disable, stating the deal may not be fair based on a list of trades and what you can make in prov house.
Seasoned players would disable it, but new players would have a chance to not trade an obviously bad deal.

[Qualan]

prices vary anyway- BB cant dictate prices or price ranges really. Trades are always at own risk and caveat emptor applies

Only thing that helps is - educte yourself what normal price ranges are and if stuff is outside expected ranges, inquire why- there might be something you didn;t take into account or people trying to manipulate prices. Still, if you click ok on a trade in trade channel, you can hardly call it a scam, just overpricing

Same way most won;t hesitate to innitiate trade when someone posted something obviously underpriced. U have probably seen the people saying they misposted and didnt realise untill they sold 3 or 4 or more trades of the item.

And sometimes people just post a trade because no other are up and they will overprice for the desperate or hasty people or post a trade where they know they can get quick sales because they need the items fast. It is hard to see which trade is which and what is a scam

I still have most issues with people on friends lists abusing it by trying to mail you inverse trades or "almost similar" trades as ones you post on TT with only intention to indeed scam you and hope you will misread due to expecting a more or less similar trade in the mail

[unlucky]

It's a difficult call to make this discussion. Even after playing the game for a bit I often have to think twice about either placing a trade offer or accepting one, now have I said that right?

What I mean is the price for the goods I am trying to sell or buy . . . the wording definitely needs working on to make it clearer.

The issue of price is another matter, it was once said that if you gave 100 people 100 units of currency, put them all in a lift (assuming it was big enough), some would come out rich and others broke through trading. . . this seems to be the case here.

In a "free" game, with no manual, it can be difficult to follow everything and to understand what is going on. Perhaps what we actually need is a "settapedia" which could be accessed through a separate screen from a button. In it, the finer details could be listed - so there could be a section on how to trade, gold coins, there use and value, each building and the costs for upgrades etc and whether or not it shuts down on upgrading etc.

We can't change human nature, no matter what rules are there, but we can have guide lines in the form of knowledge to help everyone - think I'll post the above paragraph in suggestions!