The Grand Exchange: A Love Story.

[Beeman95]

Hiya. This is my first thread so please give me some pointers and feel free to criticize. I was relaxing at the G.E one day and I thought to myself, "What exactly has the G.E done to Runescape?" So I looked into it and here's what I've found.

 

Most people I've talked to/interviewed have given me generally positive reviews, easier buying/selling etc. But every now and then I would find someone who didn't like the G.E at all. Some even told me that they had to find an entire new way to make money and generally play the game.

 

Now if free trade was your only way to make money it couldn't have been that honest, but I still found this unnerving. These people were far and few between but these people have been more or less ignored when it came to doing something about the G.E. It all boils down to: What do you think about the G.E? How has it changed Runescape and is this change good or bad?

[John Halo Chief]

Welcome to Tip.It!

I personally love the G.E. Think of all the quests you would have to spend hours waiting to do because you couldn't get the one miscellanious/useless item no one uses? E.G. Enlightened Journey. It's also very interesting how it's been used to merch, and the trade and prices and all that.

[Logdotzip]

The grand exchange is an excellent tool. It's perfect in itself, but the problems it has are due to trade restrictions that are imposed on it.

 

People can say the GE is reponsible for unbuyable rares and other good items, but that's no free trade + merch + etc etc's fault

 

People can say the GE is responsible for the general practice of dumping items at lowest to sell them faster, and as such the lowering in price of commodities, but that's also due to imposed price fluctuations that can't handle real-time supply and demand.

 

 

Grand Exchange is one of the best things to happen to RuneScape. The rules it has to adhere to are some of the worst.

[Beeman95]

@ ragmar. Thanks for the welcome but while I agree with you, some may disagree about the merching thing. Many think it's destroying the Runescape economy.

[tuggernongy]

The GE is a good thing, for the most part, the restrictions that are in place on the other hand.....

 

People have been crying wolf, and claiming that the sky is falling for a long time, Still hasn't happened.

[highlanders]

I started the game in 2002 so I've seen the whole evolution. In Rs1 it was ridiculous how you needed to waste hours upon hours making things into certs. Buying things was very annoying even in Rs2. Always having to check forums, have to deal with the spam-fest in world 2. The whole process of buying/selling was long and you always got screwed some way or another by a middle-man along the way, unless you were willing to wait around all day for a reasonable offer to come up, but then again you had to compete with merchants to buy it first.

 

It was interesting in a way, though, because negotiation was a big part how well you did. After a while you got the hang of it and could get things mostly at the price you wanted. But that's about the only interesting part.

 

The GE dehumanizes the process, but allows everyone to be efficient. Before the GE, you needed to have people skills to get what you wanted. Some people "hired" "workers" to collect items for them, and paid them below-market price. The "workers" could have easily just gone to world 2 and sold it for more. You gotta have people skills to pull off that sort of thing.

[Gwasha]

The GE is the best update to ever happen to runescape.

[No_99_Melee]

GE definitely makes things easier and quicker when it comes to buying and selling items, but it is a pain for merchants who want to make a quick profit. I remember a couple of things before the GE that were a pain. I remember having to go on Runescape forums to see what prices things were in the moderated price thread. Nowadays the prices are listed for us, but merchants can't go beyond a price limit if they find someone who is willing to pay extra. I also remember selling 25000 cooked lobsters in edgeville to pkers for hours on end just to break even for cooking gains. Now I can just go to the grand exchange and put up a bulk amount of items for sale so I don't have to look for a buyer.

 

Overall the GE is a great thing in my opinion, but like others have said its the restrictions that take away from anything positive it has going for it.

[Tylers]

I really like G.E.

I don't do any kind of merching, flipping anything. If anything I lose money in G.E.

But ya, it makes runescape much better in terms of buying and selling items. Makes everything very simple.

[Beeman95]

Any suggestions for new restrictions?

[Unb34t4bl3]

I absolutely love the GE. I don't have to spend hours in W2 buying and selling things to make a profit anymore. I can basically play the game and still be a part-time merchant without spending 12 hours a day online thanks to the GE. And the quest items - yes it is a huge time saver in that one.

 

All in all, time = money, and the GE saves a ton of time. :thumbsup:

[Quyneax]

I like what the GE did to the imp catcher quest :P.

 

But yeah, without the GE I couldn't be farming the torstol I do, because I don't like trading in busy places. I find it difficult to keep an eye on what the other person is saying while the trade window is open (first add as friend then change chat from hide to friends - too much hassle imo).

[casualjohn]

The Grand Exchange has been the best thing that has ever happened to lazy people like myself. It's a godsend!

[Hameigh]

GE is one of the best updates in RS history. I probably wouldn't still be playign if it wasn't for it since I hated having to spend so much time gathering items or standing in the buying/selling areas.

[Kimberly]

The GE changed how I played completely. No longer did I need to hoard, but everything could be bought and sold at a drop of a hat. My bank swelled, my cashpile grew fat with flipping, and overall I enjoyed my gaming experience a lot more. However, I never merched in the old style religiously. That was a huge hit to most people. But I do think, considering how easy and low-maintenance it is to flip things, that the average person is better off and the above-average can milk the system to their full advantage.

[Uula]

It's lovely for anyone who, well, buys or sells items. It makes it really easy to just go and do one of those emote clues where you need these obscure items you couldn't get easily any other way. Everything is fitted into one little interface. It makes it super easy for newcomers to the game (who find out about it early enough) to just go and cut an inventory of normal logs or collect some ashes, and sell for instant profit. Makes the game more enjoyable for everyone. No longer do I have to post on forums to buy some vials of water, just put in an offer.

 

While being very simple it's also incredibly complex and mysterious. I don't believe it ruined merchanting, it just took it to a whole other level. Now it takes more than just patience to make some money, and you can do other things while waiting for your offers to complete. As mentioned, trading used to be a big hassle in world 1/2 when you couldn't see what the other person wanted to say and such. With the GE, you don't have to discuss prices with anyone but yourself. If no one is willing to sell for your price, too bad.

 

However, the pricing limits do set a certain restriction. The GE would be different, but not totally different, if the pricing was totally free of bounds - there could still be a median price, and items would be able to reach their true "street price" much easier. Jagex should consider implementing this type of free trade to the GE; as you can't fully control who you are buying from/selling to anyway, there could be a solution implemented so that it couldn't be abused to RWT.

[Beeman95]

apparently i talked to the only people who didnt like the G.E :P

[Uula]

apparently i talked to the only people who didnt like the G.E :P

What did those people comment on that they directly disliked with the GE? I mean, I above mentioned the 'bad' sides in my view but I can't see how the good sides don't weigh heavier.

[Bxpprod]

It's sad, but I remember the big introduction of the glorious GE. As an f2per at the time, it was very difficult to be able to buy things in bulk unless you struck a great amount of luck in w1 or at Varrock East, because forums were 100% p2p (something which even then, I supported). And trying to sell things in bulk? Forget it.

 

When coupled with the trade restrictions, it made it really hard to trade the way we used to. Buying in bulk on discount? Nup.

 

It's definitely been a good thing, but it had it's downfalls. Long gone are the days of loyal buyers/sellers to particular people. :(

[tripsis]

apparently i talked to the only people who didnt like the G.E :P

Well I don't know what they said exactly, but many people automatically associate the GE with controlled prices, lack of free trade, etc. And when looking at those aspects, I'm sure you'd get a lot of people expressing their dislike. But the GE itself, putting aside the restrictions, is a great update. Having to stand around and manually advertise/sell/buy your items took out a lot of actual playing time and, to put it bluntly, was a real pain in the ass.

[Beeman95]

The few people that said they didnt like the G.E said that they viewed it as taking the power away from the players and hampering the progress of item prices. They just saw the bad sides and don't even consider the positive things.

[miracleman58]

Do you know how hard it was to buy a Bullseye Lantern before the GE?

 

I almost cry just thinking about it.

[NastyJenny]

Only real disadvantage of GE i can see is that it made DIYing completly pointless and made the average player even lazier than he was before... lol

Free trade never existed for me, i never felt i had an impact on the offer/demand thing. I made good deals when i could but that's it.

 

I remember pre-GE how painfull it was selling slayer-loot or buying anything semi rare. I remember when i had to buy my whip : first checking tip it and runehq for a uptodate streetprice... looks in bank only 1M in cash there... Goes to Edge and sells pray pots, super sets... Woot finally the 2M i need. Let's go world 2 : half an hour to try log in (only later i learned about the 'shortcut' to log in). Dam it the price seems to be 2.2M now... Nevermind have to go work now, maybe can buy it tommorow...

 

Nowadays just put an offer at max if in a hurry and you get it semi instantly.

[Pinata]

I like how easy the GE makes things, but I dislike it can ruin the prices of things. Example, would be manipulation clans. I feel that the GE would be perfect if it couldn't be abused. I also think the GE throws street prices out of whack. I lol at the thought of Blue Phat being 10B.

 

Edit: 10m to 10b

[la la la]

it's ebay for runescape. collections and uniqueness of items has lost its value.