Responding to the post (https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/blogs/151/176/pantheon-new-features-and-new-players), I would like to add an idea that would address as a response to the point #1->"1. What systems and such do we want to take from the first generation of MMOs and bring them back because, especially for our target audience, they've gone missing from the newer MMOs. I think we have a pretty clear picture of that, both from ourselves and from the community."
I would bring the option to sell items through Merchant using your character been in AFK, like it was in Everquest done in the Bazaar. But I would shape different rules to it to make the economy more dynamic. So below is my idea"
Economy
Game Merchant system:
- Character would be able to have in-game slots to put merchant items to sales
o Sells Fee would be 10% of item cost
- Character would be able to go as well to a particular zone go afk and sell their items on their bags as merchant as well
o Sell Fee would be 5% of item cost
- Character would be able to have Cross Server selling items on in-game merchant slots
o Sell Fee would be 15% of item cost
->This next rule I would implemented, around 90 days after launch, after conducting analysis based on servers’ data. (analysis 1)
- All the fee collected would be store on an in-game Auto-Administrator (like the IRS of the server)
- On a Month to Month Basis, the Auto-Administrator will select X amount of guilds base on In-Game Contribution. (This would be based on game design, it’s by Killing Names, Looting items, Guild Quests or whatever)
o Top Guilds would receive equal splits of the items, to enforce guild competition and progression (What would be the equal split would be determine by Analysis 1)
o The X amount of guilds would be determining on the result of analysis one (How many guilds would be a healthy choice to make the split)
èA more depth idea toward splitting, it’s to Create Names on City. Main Bosses, which ever guild raid that name, would gain all the Fees of Players sold items that have a residence on the City the boss Spawned (or more near City)
èThis would be a solid one that can be created, when Raiding (End Game Content is added)
That’s the concept of my idea, but it’s not a detail or final. It can be overlook, but I believe that it’s just a good concept that with interest can be implemented and polish in to something more helpful toward the game and allow us to interact in-game and relate to each other more efficiently.
I’ve understand through reading some of Brad post, that he seems truthfully interested in bringing back the social aspect of MMO of the old times, like EQ did. We gamers engaging in to hard encounters and getting inside the world, is something that has gotten my attention since I read about Pantheon. I agree on this post, that after all of this changes to the MMO games since Dark Ages of Camelot was launched, then WoW and others, making a copy of EQ or VG would not work, but definitely if we aim to integrate ideas and systems while conserving the social aspect of the MMO, I firmly believe we can reach there.
For those reading, my main language is Spanish. If you need any clarification or have question of what I was expressing, let me know.
I don't entirely understand what it is you are proposing, but I will respond to what I think I understood.
Visionary Realms doesn't even want globalized trade or auction houses, so I think cross server would be out of the question.
https://www.pantheonmmo.com/content/forums/topic/2594/death-to-the-auction-house/view/page/1
This is where I get confused. The idea of having an IRS seems unnecessary, as taxed money already has an implied application just as any tax would in real life. There are already administrations of the virtual government that would require that money. Of course, the virtual govenment is not a real govenment, so it doesn't technically require our money, but it is a simulation and serves as a gold sink. To funnel the money back to players would defeat the purpose.
yunke said:o Top Guilds would receive equal splits of the items, to enforce guild competition and progression (What would be the equal split would be determine by Analysis 1)
So you're suggesting taking the taxes collected from *all* item sales and splitting it up among the top guilds? Take from the poor and give to the rich?
That would get a hard NO from me.
That said, I do like the idea of such a sales tax serving as a money sink.
In regards to the economy I think online marketplaces, in game auction houses, cross server trading, and anything of the sort is a bad idea. EQs biggest downfall was when the Bazaar was implemented. The economy was corrupted and completely destroyed when this was added. It is my belief that if we are trying to create a realistic and challenging gaming experience then not only should progressing through the game be challenging but so should the selling/trading portion of the game. Having an in game auction house creates a flooded market which makes it really tough to actually sell those items you worked so hard to acquire whether it be by tradeskilling or by spending hours and hours farming. Allowing players to just throw their items up on an auction house causes lowballing with everyone having to mark their prices down just to make a sale because there are so many of that item up on the market already. Then the next player lowers theirs then the next and then you have to go back and relower yours because so many others have already lowballed the ones that already had their items up. Having a centralized location in the game (which obv would be chosen by players for convenience) stimulates the economy in so many ways. It creates relationships and friends and most of all... reputation. Its nice to be able to build up a reputation where you are known to give deals for multiple item purchases or you are more willing to negotiate more than others. If I am working hard to sell my items why should I have to lower my prices because 20 other players have thrown their items up on an auctionhouse? The old fashioned way of working to get items and then working to sell them is just so much more positive in so many ways. Again, the EC tunnel created so many friendships and was such a great place for a noobie to go and negotiate with someone for a new piece of gear to help their character as well as a great place for an end gamer to go to negotiate on that high end piece of gear or quest piece they need.
Auction houses are bad... so bad. Selling should take work just like leveling your character. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say we will be extremely disappointed with an auction house. Personally I wouldnt even want to see a Trade channel either. Want to sell your items? Then take a little time and go sell them while you are LFG or before bed. Let us figure out our own way to sell our wares like EQ allowed us to do!
Xaleban said:In regards to the economy I think online marketplaces, in game auction houses, cross server trading, and anything of the sort is a bad idea. EQs biggest downfall was when the Bazaar was implemented. The economy was corrupted and completely destroyed when this was added. It is my belief that if we are trying to create a realistic and challenging gaming experience then not only should progressing through the game be challenging but so should the selling/trading portion of the game. Having an in game auction house creates a flooded market which makes it really tough to actually sell those items you worked so hard to acquire whether it be by tradeskilling or by spending hours and hours farming. Allowing players to just throw their items up on an auction house causes lowballing with everyone having to mark their prices down just to make a sale because there are so many of that item up on the market already. Then the next player lowers theirs then the next and then you have to go back and relower yours because so many others have already lowballed the ones that already had their items up. Having a centralized location in the game (which obv would be chosen by players for convenience) stimulates the economy in so many ways. It creates relationships and friends and most of all... reputation. Its nice to be able to build up a reputation where you are known to give deals for multiple item purchases or you are more willing to negotiate more than others. If I am working hard to sell my items why should I have to lower my prices because 20 other players have thrown their items up on an auctionhouse? The old fashioned way of working to get items and then working to sell them is just so much more positive in so many ways. Again, the EC tunnel created so many friendships and was such a great place for a noobie to go and negotiate with someone for a new piece of gear to help their character as well as a great place for an end gamer to go to negotiate on that high end piece of gear or quest piece they need.
Auction houses are bad... so bad. Selling should take work just like leveling your character. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say we will be extremely disappointed with an auction house. Personally I wouldnt even want to see a Trade channel either. Want to sell your items? Then take a little time and go sell them while you are LFG or before bed. Let us figure out our own way to sell our wares like EQ allowed us to do!
I don't agree with a few of the ideas presented either. One of those is not having an Auction House.
Put all the vendors in the east commons tunnel if you want so people still have to gather to buy things (I don't think it necessary to be able to pull up an AH window from where you are as part of the UI). Make there be no vendor fees to post items on Sunday or something to encourage a market gathering if that helps.
Heck, only have it open on sunday so everyone will have to gather to post their items.
But an AH really is a much more efficient way to sell than /trade. That is one of the things about newer mmos that I actually like better.
There will still be a trade channel if people want to use it anywhere in the world.
And actually, instead of putting gold into the world increasing inflation because I sell all of my items to vendors since I don't take the time to /trade things, there is also a small AH fee. So not only is some extra gold not put into the system but a small amount is taken out. Honestly it is a pretty huge factor as far as inflation. EQ got pretty ridiculous after a few expansions. All mmos do.
I know there was a recent thread about it with few solutions given. I hope the inflation is addressed early and often or it will get out of hand.
Tralyan said:fazool said:I want exactly the opposite of everything suggested here. All terrible ideas IMO.
Come on, Fazool. Don't be that guy.
He's not wrong.
Oh, and lets not forget the economy, loot, auction houses and trading have all been covered under other threads most of which are still within the first 5 pages of this forum.
fazool said:I don't want offline trading.
Giving cash bonuses to top-tier guilds is riduculous and doesn't help mudflation and only further motivates race-to-the-top uber-phat-lewtz game-mentality.
It is usually more helpful to offer possible solutions than to just say what you don't want :P
So you prefer to simply auction items using /trade?
Maybe some ideas that might help with deflation in game would be helpful...
I read some of your opinions and do find some of your comments to be solid.
I do not agree with AH been a game killer like some did comment above. Economy needs to be ingame, and Trader is a good tool to capitalize on it. The key is finding the Right way to do it without sacrificing the Social Aspect of the Game and Reward system of the game as well.
Considering what I just said, all I did was sharing a concept of what I believe would shape in to a good economic system. Feel free to comment and modify or change it with ideas as you like.
In all honesty all I care about is having a strong economy. Of all the MMOs I have played... EQ/EQ2/WoW/Aion/VG/Rift/Warhammer/SWG/FFXI/DAOC/UO/TERA/and others I cant remember, the strongest economy I ever saw was EQ Pre-Luclin. It was also the most enjoyable experience I had trading my stuff. I still remember the first time I saw an auction house in a game... I absolutely hated it. I hated having to pay to sell an item. I hated when people put the same item up for less then I had to pay a fee to end my auction early so I could put it back up lower than theirs and then pay another fee to put it back up. I hated having to filter what I was looking for. I could sit there all day filtering every single option just to see items I could use. It was so much simpler to just see what people were selling and click the item links as they popped up. I enjoyed getting buffs from high level toons when I was a noobie while they were selling and I enjoyed giving noobies buffs when I was a high level while I sold. I also enjoyed people sending me tells for jewelry combines because they heard I was reputable and wouldnt overcharge for combines and give deals for purchasing multiple pieces. I also enjoyed being able to take offers on high end pieces of loot instead of having to throw it up on an auctionhouse. I enjoyed meeting people and having conversation or letting someone know what items I might have that would benefit their character. And most of all... I looked forward to seeing what items I might be able to afford as I leveld up when I finally had what I thought was a decent amount of money and asking what items people may have for my character in my price range.
Yes these are my personal experiences but they are the same experiences a lot of others had as well. Perhaps there may be some way to please both sides on this matter but it is my belief the newer school players are against the old school way because all they have ever known is auction houses. I really hope Brad will take his own EQ experience to heart on this matter and understand that when the bazaar was added it eventually led to the downfall of EQ's economy and ultimately the player base as well. Auction houses are just so stale and crowded. THey dont allow players to converse with each other and make deals nor give players the opportunity to build a reputation. I understand some people want the easy option of just being able to throw their stuff up on an auctionhouse before they log. But it just seems like for a challenging game nothing should be made easy.
fazool said:I don't want offline trading.
Giving cash bonuses to top-tier guilds is riduculous and doesn't help mudflation and only further motivates race-to-the-top uber-phat-lewtz game-mentality.
To be clear, Fazool, I agree with you. My mistake, as I thought you were referring to every suggestion within the entirety of the thread and not just the OP, without proposing alternate ideas or justification.
I for one am a huge advocate of the consignment shop that has been talked about as an alternative to the OP's suggestion. Keeps it in the hands of the players without forcing anyone to either trade via Auction House or via EC Tunnel.
Tralyan said:I for one am a huge advocate of the consignment shop that has been talked about as an alternative to the OP's suggestion. Keeps it in the hands of the players without forcing anyone to either trade via Auction House or via EC Tunnel.
Thanks for bringing this up Tralyan. I went and looked it up. In the consignment thread Brad says:
"I think this could be pretty cool and we've thought a bit about it. Being able to create a vendor NPC to sell your wares is an interesting idea. Being able to place one of your items on somebody else's vendor NPC on consignment is also interesting.
The only negative that comes to mind, and where we need to be careful, is that if a player can fully automate all his buy/sell/trades by having a vendor NPC do it for him then we lose a lot of that direct contact between players which could stifle community building and people making new friends. "
For me as a player, as long as I don't have to spend hours in /trade to sell my items that is all that matters.
I don't really see the difference between having the AH sell your items and a NPC vendor sell your items. Is it essentially the same afaic. I guess the difference would be that you have to move around and click on each vendor individually instead of clicking on one ah vendor and being able to sort through all the wares. Though I assume it would still be like the bazaar where there is a "main menu" to sort through things before you have to find the individual vendor. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. I don't see the difference. Any of those works for me.
I'm glad I read Brad's quote mentioning the subject because I know they are busy and have a limited number of people/time. It would be much easier for them to just make a /trade channel and justify that as being all that is required. I'm glad there is more going into it than that.
The only part of the Auction House I would want is the listing.
An area in a town or city designated for trading, one who wanted to sell their goods could "rent" a stall, and that would flag them as a merchant, which they could then identify which items they are selling.
Those items are added to a master list of all items merchants are selling in this AH.
The list would be nothing but a condensed list of items for sale by players here, with what the item is, (linkable stats maybe?) who is selling it and for how much, and what stall they are in. You could click their name to send them a tell, or run over to them and begin /say chat.
There would be not option for AFK selling(well you could go AFK, but you risk missing /tells for sales), just a master list of the markets items, so as not to have to flood chat channels with selling spam, and the such.
This concept would provide a way for customers to search for the items they want without wading through tons of unnecessary items, and hook them up with the seller where transactions then must be done live and in person.
philo said:Tralyan said:I for one am a huge advocate of the consignment shop that has been talked about as an alternative to the OP's suggestion. Keeps it in the hands of the players without forcing anyone to either trade via Auction House or via EC Tunnel.
Thanks for bringing this up Tralyan. I went and looked it up. In the consignment thread Brad says:
"I think this could be pretty cool and we've thought a bit about it. Being able to create a vendor NPC to sell your wares is an interesting idea. Being able to place one of your items on somebody else's vendor NPC on consignment is also interesting.
The only negative that comes to mind, and where we need to be careful, is that if a player can fully automate all his buy/sell/trades by having a vendor NPC do it for him then we lose a lot of that direct contact between players which could stifle community building and people making new friends. "
For me as a player, as long as I don't have to spend hours in /trade to sell my items that is all that matters.
I don't really see the difference between having the AH sell your items and a NPC vendor sell your items. Is it essentially the same afaic. I guess the difference would be that you have to move around and click on each vendor individually instead of clicking on one ah vendor and being able to sort through all the wares. Though I assume it would still be like the bazaar where there is a "main menu" to sort through things before you have to find the individual vendor. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. I don't see the difference. Any of those works for me.
I'm glad I read Brad's quote mentioning the subject because I know they are busy and have a limited number of people/time. It would be much easier for them to just make a /trade channel and justify that as being all that is required. I'm glad there is more going into it than that.
Thanks for bringing that up, @ Philo
So there is no confusion, the consignment idea I'm referring to is the one you'll notice if you read a little further into that thread. This idea completely takes out Vendors or NPC's, and is run completely by the players.
Player 1 gives items to player 2 that he would like to sell. Player 2 sells items, keeps a stipend/consignment fee, and gives the proceeds to player 1.
There are ways to make this a feasible and secure system, and to prevent Player 2 from simply taking the items or money and boot-scooting on out of there. Simply create a bag for consignment only. Player 1 tags an item as "Consignment" with the pre-determined seller fee, trades to player 2. Tagged items go straight into player 2 Consignment bag. Once item is sold, the agreed upon percentage goes directly to player 2, and the agreed upon price of the item goes directly to player 1 bank, or mailbox, whichever.
I agree with you 100% that creating NPC's for consignment is pretty much no different than creating an AH. With the player run consignment system, you leave it up to the players while still giving everyone the option for either automative trading, or the old school EC tunnel trading. It creates even MORE social interaction while at the same time giving the convenience to those who want it.
I absolutely love the system, and will continue to advocate it strongly. Frankly, I don't know why it's not already done
Tralyan said:Thanks for bringing that up, @ Philo
So there is no confusion, the consignment idea I'm referring to is the one you'll notice if you read a little further into that thread. This idea completely takes out Vendors or NPC's, and is run completely by the players.
The consignment idea you mention was actually from the OP in that thread I believe. Brad is just ellaborating on what the OP said in the response I quoted. Honestly, I think that idea relies to much on trusting the seller to actually take the time to sell the items. But I like the idea and it is a good starting point that could be developed further.
Fulton said:The only part of the Auction House I would want is the listing.
An area in a town or city designated for trading, one who wanted to sell their goods could "rent" a stall, and that would flag them as a merchant, which they could then identify which items they are selling.
Those items are added to a master list of all items merchants are selling in this AH.
The list would be nothing but a condensed list of items for sale by players here, with what the item is, (linkable stats maybe?) who is selling it and for how much, and what stall they are in. You could click their name to send them a tell, or run over to them and begin /say chat.
There would be not option for AFK selling(well you could go AFK, but you risk missing /tells for sales), just a master list of the markets items, so as not to have to flood chat channels with selling spam, and the such.
This concept would provide a way for customers to search for the items they want without wading through tons of unnecessary items, and hook them up with the seller where transactions then must be done live and in person.
Fulton, I like this idea.
I'm among those that are not interested in the proposed systems. Ironically I dont like either the AH/AFK Merchant ideas and the taxation idea the same reason on both. It encourages people farming content to get massive cash, not to play a game.
In the case of the AH : When you have a system in which a player need not invest any time or effort in order to sell the goods he collects, and no knowledge of the current economy to know what a particular items is going for, then you leave open an encouragement for players to spend time trying to get as much loot to sell as they possibly can, simply for the sake of selling loot. There's almost no reason for anyone to gift items, explore for the sake of exploring rather than repeatedly killing named, etc. There's no personal investment in unloading the gear if the game engine makes that posisble with a few clicks. And that's aside from the lack of interaction with other players in the transaction. It floods the gameworld with available goods, reducing their value, making almost nothing truly rare. And if it is rare and very valuable you can be absolutely assured that peopel with interests counter to the health and balance of the game itself will attempt to monopolize the contested content from which that item comes. That's not as big a deal if everything is instanced and no one can effectively be locked out of ever getting the item thru gameplay. But it's a trainwreck when everything is contested. It leaves the only realistic possibility of getting the item for most of the playerbase to go and farm other crap that's more common from other contested content, sell it in the AH, and eventually amass enough coin to buy the item they actually want rather than aquirring the item themselves thru entertaining gameplay.
In the case of the taxation : Awarding this coin to the guilds that "accomplish" the most provides exactly the same perverse incentives as the auction house for guilds to go attempt to monopolize content in order to kill/loot/complete the most prestigeous accomplishments, and at a higher rate than any other guild. It takes the ugliest parts of contested content in high end raids and ratchets the impacts up even more. It might not even matter that a guild has already fully geared every member with the loot from that dragon. It might not matter that they are deliberately killing the dragon whenever possible to prevent the progression of lower guilds who will them compete for the higher contested content. Now it's also a counterproductive incentive to consume content at the expense of other players simply to win a monthly lottery, which itself is funded at the expense of other players. It also could well end up causing the death of many smaller guilds who lose members to the one behemoth guild on the server that wins the tax lottery every single month.
Sorry, but I cant find a positive spin on any of it.
Feyshtey said:In the case of the AH : When you have a system in which a player need not invest any time or effort in order to sell the goods he collects, and no knowledge of the current economy to know what a particular items is going for, then you leave open an encouragement for players to spend time trying to get as much loot to sell as they possibly can, simply for the sake of selling loot. There's almost no reason for anyone to gift items, explore for the sake of exploring rather than repeatedly killing named, etc. There's no personal investment in unloading the gear if the game engine makes that posisble with a few clicks. And that's aside from the lack of interaction with other players in the transaction. It floods the gameworld with available goods, reducing their value, making almost nothing truly rare.
I agree with everything you say in the paragraph above. The issue is that spending a bunch of time selling items to players manually isn't fun for most people so everyone just sells a lot of things to vendors. This adds a lot of currency into the system increasing inflation. Hopefully there can be enough gold sinks added to thwart this. ...but I kind of doubt it. You can only slow inflation, you can't stop it if players are constantly gaining currency from drops and vendors. Selling items to vendors is a major way that currency gets added into the system.
But, I do agree with your assessment of the situation.
Feyshtey said:And if it is rare and very valuable you can be absolutely assured that peopel with interests counter to the health and balance of the game itself will attempt to monopolize the contested content from which that item comes. That's not as big a deal if everything is instanced and no one can effectively be locked out of ever getting the item thru gameplay. But it's a trainwreck when everything is contested. It leaves the only realistic possibility of getting the item for most of the playerbase to go and farm other crap that's more common from other contested content, sell it in the AH, and eventually amass enough coin to buy the item they actually want rather than aquirring the item themselves thru entertaining gameplay.
This paragraph above is where you lose me. Regardless of whether there is an AH or just a /trade channel people are going to camp and, like you say, "monopolize the contested content from which that...sought after...item comes". We know instances will be limted. If the only realistic option is to earn enough currency to buy a specific item because it is always camped, you have a better chance of getting that item if there is some form of AH. The more market competition there is for a specific item the easier it will be to attain through the market (generally both in terms of cost and quantity).
Items will be camped. That is a given. Sometimes it is best to choose the path of least resistance even if it isn't the perfect solution.
Xaleban said:II hated having to pay to sell an item. I hated when people put the same item up for less then I had to pay a fee to end my auction early so I could put it back up lower than theirs and then pay another fee to put it back up. I hated having to filter what I was looking for. I could sit there all day filtering every single option just to see items I could use. It was so much simpler to just see what people were selling and click the item links as they popped up. I enjoyed getting buffs from high level toons when I was a noobie while they were selling and I enjoyed giving noobies buffs when I was a high level while I sold. I also enjoyed people sending me tells for jewelry combines because they heard I was reputable and wouldnt overcharge for combines and give deals for purchasing multiple pieces. I also enjoyed being able to take offers on high end pieces of loot instead of having to throw it up on an auctionhouse. I enjoyed meeting people and having conversation or letting someone know what items I might have that would benefit their character. And most of all... I looked forward to seeing what items I might be able to afford as I leveld up when I finally had what I thought was a decent amount of money and asking what items people may have for my character in my price range.
...
Yes these are my personal experiences but they are the same experiences a lot of others had as well. Perhaps there may be some way to please both sides on this matter but it is my belief the newer school players are against the old school way because all they have ever known is auction houses.
The good thing with AH is that they are optionnals. If you wanted to sell your item on your own and not pay the money sink, you could. I don't understand why you dislike filtering what's for sale? How could it take you the whole day to find your item? It's the greatest thing the bazaar introduced to EQ imo. The ability to quickly see what 1h slash weapon with 10str were for sale at that time. Maybe there are none, maybe you discover an item you didn't know about.
I started playing EQ between Kunark and Velious, so maybe it was different before then. Or perhaps it was my server...but I never had the meaningful, community building, reputation backed interaction everyone is talking about while spamming and reading spam in EC. It was just a nightmare of finding what I wanted, then sending an offer, 25% lower than advertised, then pay the counter-counter-offer.
-> Would you take Xpp? Not lower than Ypp. Ok. wru?. T1.*Open trade window* Thanks. Thanks.<-
This is what I had 99% of the time in EC and I would rather not have to do it again.
Mekada said:The good thing with AH is that they are optionnals. If you wanted to sell your item on your own and not pay the money sink, you could. I don't understand why you dislike filtering what's for sale? How could it take you the whole day to find your item? It's the greatest thing the bazaar introduced to EQ imo. The ability to quickly see what 1h slash weapon with 10str were for sale at that time. Maybe there are none, maybe you discover an item you didn't know about.
I started playing EQ between Kunark and Velious, so maybe it was different before then. Or perhaps it was my server...but I never had the meaningful, community building, reputation backed interaction everyone is talking about while spamming and reading spam in EC. It was just a nightmare of finding what I wanted, then sending an offer, 25% lower than advertised, then pay the counter-counter-offer.
-> Would you take Xpp? Not lower than Ypp. Ok. wru?. T1.*Open trade window* Thanks. Thanks.<-
This is what I had 99% of the time in EC and I would rather not have to do it again.
Yep. I think most people are remembering the commons tunnel through rose colored glasses. Nostalgia has a way of altering our view of what was the reality.
I completely agree with you.
philo said:Tralyan said:Thanks for bringing that up, @ Philo
So there is no confusion, the consignment idea I'm referring to is the one you'll notice if you read a little further into that thread. This idea completely takes out Vendors or NPC's, and is run completely by the players.
The consignment idea you mention was actually from the OP in that thread I believe. Brad is just ellaborating on what the OP said in the response I quoted. Honestly, I think that idea relies to much on trusting the seller to actually take the time to sell the items. But I like the idea and it is a good starting point that could be developed further.
See, if I feel like those problems could be easily handled.
If they're able to make something Automated like an Auction House, Cash on Delivery, and a Bazaar, surely they can create these kinds of safeguards with a consignment bag.
Scenario:
You have a Wurmslayer you'd like to sell, but you hate EC trading. You want to keep adventuring. So you locate me, a trader, willing to trade this item for you so that you can continue killing snow bunnies in Eastern Wastes. You and I agree on a percantage, or a consignment fee.
Philo right clicks wurmslayer, clicks "Consignment", and a menu pops up. In this menu you can choose the sale price, the consignment percentage, and days on the market. This item is now marked as Consignment, and when you trade it to me it goes directly into the "Consignment bag", a bag every player has that can only be used for this purpose. When I sell the wurmslayer for the agreed upon price, the percentage goes directly to me, and the sale price after subtracting that percentage goes directly to your bank. IF I don't sell the wurmslayer within the days you input in that menu, let's say three days, the item itself goes directly back into your mailbox.
The point of the consignment bag is that it can only be removed completely from that bag - my inventory - when the full agreed upon price is paid.
This creates the social interaction between you, and myself, while also giving you the option of having the auction house experience of selling goods.