ArenaNet:Guild Wars 2 suggestions/Classifieds

Classifieds(Discussion)
Alot of people have suggested shops for offline trade, seeing as many of us would rather be adventuring than spamming "WTS" in-town. I suggest a "Classifieds Ads" system.

For a small fee, you can post an ad in the directory, which will have several categories, such as wanted, offered, services (ex.: running). The directory is available to all players for free - kind of like the "Party Search" in GW1, exept global - and is accessed through an NPC or item. The directory would have a search system, so that if you were looking, for example, to buy item x you wouldn't have to look through thousands of other adverts. Having found the item/service desired, you leave a message to the player, using that player's "account name". The responses would be available through the character selection screen.
 * How it would work

The actual advertisements would be formatted automatically depending on the category they are placed in. A "Item for sale" advert would have an inventory slot to see the actual stats of the item and an asking price, and an "item for item trade possible" box which could be checked. An "item wanted" would have the desired stats of the item as well as price range. The "service" category would have a description of the service and asking price. Guild adverts would automatically have guild faction alignment and alliance listed, as well as a short description. You get the idea.


 * Why this is better than a shop system
 * A shop system would be disasterous to the Guild Wars economy. People would prefer using shops than in-town trading through chat. As of such, people who do not own a shop will have more difficulty selling items, and people who own shops would simply buy/offer to resell a player's item for a certain percentage/buy them for much lower prices. Therefore, the first few people to afford shops will keep getting richer. New shops would not be able to compete with the older shops, because they have reputation amongst players, and people will prefer going somewhere they know than searching through thousands of small shops with one or two items in them.
 * A shop system could create scams with the concept of "reselling items", such as promising to pay someone back for the item once it is sold, ect. A directory would avoid the need for a 3rd party and eliminate possible scams.
 * With shops, players will want customisation. A lot of it. Which means more coding for ANet, and more expenses in servers.
 * A directory service is slightly more realistic than a shop system. A shop system involves an unlimited area filled with buildings and stalls.


 * Why this is a good idea
 * Offline trading means less time spamming in-town and more time playing the game.
 * A directory is the simplest way of trading offline, and is the hardest exploit.


 * Why it may not work out
 * People could abuse of the advertisment service with "LF GF/BF/SEX PARTNER". This could be countered with a "Report Spam" button on all advertisements.
 * Scammers could post ads and make something's price much higher than it really is through Shill Bidding. (View the "Ventari's F.A.Q." thread on the Guild Wars Guru site for more information). This could be countered with an "Unreasonable Price" button on all advertisements. (Comment from some1 else how DOES like the idea: This can also b done is WTS style selling, so this is not a reasonable reason 2 y it may not work.)