Sunday, June 7, 2009

What Happened to Storefronts?

Recently I started a modest BPO store on mygamescribe blog. I'm excited about having it open, even if it is only a couple of items.

This got me thinking about one of the things I don't like about selling on the open market in EVE. There's no real way to know what corporations built and/or created the sell order, outside of creating a private buyer/seller relationship with another corporation.

The ability to develop a public image is essential to a corporation. A corporation's public image determines its life or death.

There was talk of the implementation of "Storefronts" in EVE. In the end it wasn't fleshed out enough to put it in-game. While a full on "Storefront" sounds nice on a lot of levels, I would at least like to see a simple way to show the public what your corp provides.

A market order tab on a corporation's info menu would provide an easy way for a potential buyer to see what your corporation has on the open market. It would also provide better opportunities for corporations who want to create an identity for themselves as a supplier of a particular constellation or region.

The current system relies largely on the market hubs that exist in a handful of Empire systems. A market order tab would spread the economy out, even allowing corporations to establish small hubs in low sec.

Was anyone else really looking forward to the Storefront feature?

3 comments:

  1. Until there is some way to differentiate products by quality or some way to indroduce savings through bulk sales, I don't think storefronts will change the market overly much. Most people will still simply gravitate to the lowest local prices.

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  2. @Kirith Yes. Most people will stick to the hubs. It would just be nice for corps to have the opportunities to generate their public image.

    There are also buyers like me that wouldn't buy from specific corps because of who they are. On the open market there's no way to know who you're buying from until you've purchased it. Of course if there is, I will feel daft lol :)

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  3. well, an option to see 'what else seller has available' would be a nice addition (we know that contracts has that ability to search for)

    that would be a small step in the right direction.

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