Rating player shops and services in game.

Many of you know that players will be able to buy and/or rent stalls to sell goods and services. However I would like to know what are your thoughts on being able to leave a rating or some sort of quick review of a players stall. I.e where they high quality goods, did they treat you well, and did they at any point strip down naked while emoting on your corpse after killing you to take back the stuff you got. If you like this discussion don't forget to like.

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Bricktop

How could you prevent people from trolling the ratings/reviews?

That's a potential problem I can think of.

Sathrago

hm, yeah like @Bricktop said you could have a ton of trolls making life difficult for the censoring algorithm and harassment in general. But lets say it was introduced, what ideas could make it work?

First off I believe a limit of one review per player should be a given. Having a word limit similar to like twitter could be good too... I am conflicted on how to keep players from false reviews though. It wouldn't make sense to give the shops power to delete any post they want but I feel like they should be able to delete posts that alert the profanity filter? This wouldn't stop false flags or well worded hate messages but at least it would make the trolls have to be more creative while also reducing the amount of work the moderators would have to do in such a situation.

If you have any better ideas im all ears but the current suggestion seems to have a few too many holes to be worth implementing.

Kuldjux

The best crafters and merchants will get known by 'word of mouth'. I don't see the need for anything more than that.

daveywavey

Blair wrote: »

and did they at any point strip down naked while emoting on your corpse after killing you to take back the stuff you got.

What did I sell to you...?

Kuldjux

To follow up on my previous post, and thinking about it a bit, I really don't like this idea at all. No disrespect to @Blair, but to me it seems leaving reviews and ratings is a very modern concept. Did we do that before we had the internet?

Voidwalkers

Reputation of local crafters & traders ... sounds like information that one should be able to find out at a local tavern (in a typical RPG world)

But a rating & comments/review system seems to be out-of-place imo ...
1. a player-shop in a fantasy RPG world shouldn't be an eCommerce (well although technically it is, coz we're running it in a virtual world)
2. as Bricktop said, they need to prevent trolling somehow.

Irohnic

I can't speak for everyone, but I'll definitely be putting my shop on yelp

Themata

Kuldjux wrote: »

To follow up on my previous post, and thinking about it a bit, I really don't like this idea at all. No disrespect to @Blair, but to me it seems leaving reviews and ratings is a very modern concept. Did we do that before we had the internet?

We did, but it was mostly done in places like the newspaper by local guides and columnists. Or in guest books or town newsletters. In my opinion that style could work, where players have the means to promote and spruke in RP fashion. Let them put up signs and posters and collaborate with real people writing about their servers.

Giving people the ability to rate shops and stalls like they are an app gives more potential problems than it gives solutions, or anything useful. It's also super immersion breaking and hamstrings the potential for con artists and such.

daveywavey

Can always do that on the forum here, anyway. There's nothing stopping you having a thread to promote your shop in your city. And if you did/didn't like a shop, you can leave your review on their thread.

maouw

daveywavey wrote: »

Can always do that on the forum here, anyway. There's nothing stopping you having a thread to promote your shop in your city. And if you did/didn't like a shop, you can leave your review on their thread.

Yes!
I wouldn't be surprised if the forums had a dedicated section for Buying/Selling

Nagash

Didn't Albion online do something like this?

Percimes

Maybe an automated rating, based on the amount of items sold (total in the shop or for each item)? Add the percentage bought by guild members so it's not too easy to exploit.

Sathrago

Percimes wrote: »

Maybe an automated rating, based on the amount of items sold (total in the shop or for each item)? Add the percentage bought by guild members so it's not too easy to exploit.

Oh that could be an idea. If they could make a list of items and how frequently they sell in the shop that could help with quickly finding a shop with the items you might need.
As an example:

Shop A, B, and C all sell swords within a city.
Shop A sold 10 rare sword 30 uncommon swords and 40 common swords last month.
Shop B sold no rare swords, 50 uncommon swords, and 100 common swords last month.
Shop C only sold 30 rare swords last month.

So of the three shops you would see a ranking for the item, Shop A has a more general array of goods, Shop B has a bulk of lower tier swords and Shop C focuses on quality.

The second part of this would be listing an average cost that each item sells for in each shop. So maybe Shop A rare swords sell at a higher price than the ones at Shop C, while the common swords at shop B would sell cheaper than the swords in Shop A. Now the advantage that Shop A has over the other two is that it is placed closer to the market place center or a bank. So perhaps it costs more to shop there but it is more convenient.

This could create a system that fleshes itself out naturally, giving shop owners a competitive system that can easily be checked on to track other's prices, as well as making it easier for a player to decide where to go and shop when they need a specific item.

neuroguy

I would love Yelp review boards at local taverns. I can check out reviews of local businesses, pick out brochures and pick out my lovely weekend at the node hahaha.

But in all seriousness, I don't think there are enough degrees of freedom for the quality or experience of the stall to be that variable outside of the actual items being sold. Also, if prices do dramatically differ, I think word of mouth is actually amazing for this. Don't want to get ripped off? It may be worth going to a local tavern and actually talking to real freaking players to get a lay of the land.

Themata

Personally I just don't like the automation of it at all. If I make a shop and am only able to make 3 swords a week because I'm lazy, but am an amazing, charismatic salesman, this automated system completely destroys my ability to bring in customers. What you guys are describing is about as exciting as an auction house. How much cooler would it be if someone found their way to your shop from word of mouth or creative posters you put up, rather than opening a spreadsheet on a tavern wall and sorting top to bottom.

Ryufu

What do you call the Yelp of Verra?

Sathrago

Ryufu wrote: »

What do you call the Yelp of Verra?

Town crier but with like magic somehow.

maouw

Sathrago wrote: »

Ryufu wrote: »

What do you call the Yelp of Verra?

Town crier but with like magic somehow.

Town Scryer?

winner909098

Themata wrote: »

Personally I just don't like the automation of it at all. If I make a shop and am only able to make 3 swords a week because I'm lazy, but am an amazing, charismatic salesman, this automated system completely destroys my ability to bring in customers. What you guys are describing is about as exciting as an auction house. How much cooler would it be if someone found their way to your shop from word of mouth or creative posters you put up, rather than opening a spreadsheet on a tavern wall and sorting top to bottom.

I think having the ability to put up posters would work, and maybe even signs in houses for if your running for mayor!

CROW3

Not a fan of a Yelp-like system for vendors. There is just too much potential for it to be abused. I'd much rather see more automated, objective measures - if any at all.

What measures would change your decisions to use one vendor over another?

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