Post by Morreion on Mar 26, 2012 18:01:24 GMT -5
In UO, if you were selling or buying something, you'd go to the bank in the town you were in. Britain was the capital, and typically the busiest town, so the bank at Britain was a busy place for merchant activity.
Players would often customize their chat colors to stand out- note that in UO, your chat would be visible over your head to those around you. There were no 'chat channels'. Actually there were, but those were special custom things.
Auction houses have become standard since WoW, and those places are certainly efficient. But there's something to be said for actual merchant activity in a virtual world. A bazaar is to community what an auction house is to impersonal convenience, IMHO. Lots of conveniences (instances, instant travel, next to no death penalty etc.) may be popular and even make sense in isolation, but when they're added all together, games are irrevocably changed in unforseen ways, and not for the better in my mind.
