Auction system

[chrisjenkinson]

For my game Xiphos, I will be implementing a trading system based on current commodities trading, where people issue buy and sell orders which are matched by the trading house. This allows prices to fluctuate which offers some controls for the game designer against inflation and other economic problems (e.g. setting up NPC sellers and buyers).

As this is something which will affect most games with an somewhat-complicated player-based economy, I thought I would see if I can open up what I am doing to other game developers.

I have published some initial thoughts - http://starglade.org/ and http://starglade.org/home/guide

I'd be grateful for your comments, particularly on whether this is something you would want to implement in your game (and if not, why not).

Thanks,
Chris

[DV8]

Initially, after having played quite a bit of World of Warcraft, I was keen on implementing the same type of auctioning system. I decided against it (for now) because a) it was always a nice-to-have, b) there weren't that many resources to trade, mostly gear, and c) it seemed like a great way for people to start farming with multiple accounts.

However, if the core of your game revolves around trading, it seems like a completely different bag entirely, and one that I don't have the experience to comment on. Because I do have a passing interest, I'll continue to lurk and see what others have to say about it.