Site's like p99auction puts a price tag on items and removes the need for people to interact and think outside of the square ( i.e ask their guilds, their pals, their trusted EC buddies the PCs on items)
it's basically a symptom of modern MMORPG community; people don't want to THINK or ACT or TRY.
EC Tunnel back in the day was a place where you could score a deal or be ripped off; just like any trade hub would be in the context of a "real world Norrath". Instead everyone walks around with a price check list on items.
The supposed advantage of spending time in the EC tunnel was that you learned the price/ the movement of items etc etc, how often an item came up, you could see a Hero Bracer sold for 250pp and you could resell it for 300-350pp fairly easy so you buy it and make a small profit. This is supposed to be a fantasy MMO after all.
it's really a symptom of modern MMORPGS trickling back in to 17 year old emulated EQ; people want to eliminate so many aspects that are lost in old school MMOs and make them some bland login to get pixels then log out.
When I switched from Red to Blue recently I couldn't even haggle on a 50-100pp item coz the sellers were referring back to the buy/sell manuals and had no dynamic control over their pricing....it made the EC experience SHIT.
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