Do shop directories ultimately help or harm the game/atmosphere?

Koda

I was doing some good ol fashioned Aetolia thinking on a long drive today (don't worry, I thought about the road and pedestrians too), as I'm sure many of you also do when you're left alone to think about the most random things, and my mind went to shopkeeping, having just gotten a shop myself.

I came to the realization that since I've started playing again after a good deal of time away, I have yet to spend any time jumping from shop to shop trying to find a particular item that I'm looking for, and instead bounce solely back and forth between directories.

Pretty common pattern, right? Well, thinking deeper on this I came to the following conclusions:

- By skipping the shop-to-shop approach, I've just lowered my chances of interacting with people in a shop via running into them at random pretty significantly, as instead of going to more shops in the city to find what I'm looking for, I'm just making a beeline for the shop that I know has the item I want.

- Seeing as I'm not digging through miscellaneous items in various shops' wares to see if they have what I want, I'm also not seeing nifty little things popping up in the wares list to buy at random that I wouldn't have seen otherwise, because I'm just buying exactly what I searched for. This results in me spending less gold, and shopkeepers making less gold by extension.

- If I'm buying curatives in particular, I can easily (with practically 0 effort) see who has the cheapest items, thus turning curative sales into a matter of who's willing to make less money than everyone else without spending some time doing the research.

In exchange, directories are super convenient, and there's no arguing about that, but are they worth some of the things given up/changed as a result of them being there?

This is by no means me trying to push a change or wave a rallying flag I promise, but more or less genuinely curious as to what other people think about the subject. Discuss!

Lin

I appreciate directories - and understand that I say this as a die-hard roleplayer who has to emote everything - because yes, while it was fun to stroll into a shop and have a chance encounter with someone, honestly, sometimes I'm just trying to restock my moss. And what about players who don't like to roleplay?

We have numerous shopkeepers who have no problems finding this sort of RP, whether it's by running a famous tavern or simply by being famous themselves and just hanging out in their own store all the time.

I also appreciate the directory system for encouraging economic competition - I can, at a glance, see the average price of flame sigils in Duiran, and easily undercut or match the lowest price if I want.

I understand where you're coming from, but I think it's suggesting removing an incredibly valuable system for little gain.

Zaila

I am a maaaaasive RPer. All I do is RP. I RP and RP and then when I get bored, I RP some more to pass the time.

I love directories. They make shopping 100% easier, I find things exist I never knew existed and it gives me motivation to go places I wouldn't have gone otherwise while saving me buttloads of time.

If I want to RP or run into people in an "I'm shopping!" sort of way, I'll go shop to shop - after all, we still have to go into shops if we want to actually probe the items, so it isn't like the directories actually remove all shop-hopping aspects of the game.

Heck, I'll go into shops if I see someone there and pretend I give a unicorns about the wares if I'm there for RP. Directories both help remove the annoyance of "well, that guy was just price shopping and didn't want to RP anyway and I just wasted a couple minutes trying to come up with an emote to greet them" as well as reinforce to me that if I DO see a couple people in a shop for more than 1 minute, they're probably there for RP and I'll go to engage them (unlike pre-directory, when I'd assume they were probably just shopping and not interested in RP)

Emir

Sacrificing potential random rp for the sake of not having to scroll up 20 times to find out which store had what price and/or writing it down for comparison in notepad (or even /on/ a notepad) among other tedious things involved in shopping is super worth it in my opinion. 

Eliadon

What Emir said!

Xenia

Depending on my mood, I use the directory. If I'm trying to get shit done, I'm using the directory. If I'm feeling immersive and want to experience Xenia going shopping, then I'll wander the shops.

Teani

Xenia said:

If I'm feeling immersive and want to experience Xenia going shopping, then I'll wander the shops.

And that's when @Xenia wrecks things in the shop with her spider legs. 

I agree with people above. Directories are good. If people want to RP, they can still go about their shopping in the traditional way, but it's a good tool if you're just looking to stock up. 

Aishia

to be honest I meet more people in the directory room than I ever did in the shops.

Rhyot

Speaking as a guy who is practically self-reliant anymore, I don't quite care for the directories because I never really use them much anymore.

However, when I do need to buy some occasional item from the shops, I do enjoy having the directory that I can find the cheapest item I'm trying to buy and gtfo to continue on about my previously scheduled business.

So I'm in the middle, I don't care if they stay, but don't care if they go either. However, I highly doubt they'll be removed because of the time it took to implement such a policy. (That and the fact that there's an artifact that came from the implementation of the Directories)

Jaymi

Directories for the win!

Tekias

Rhyot said:

(That and the fact that there's an artifact that came from the implementation of the Directories)

For the newbs/rusty oldies, which artifact would this be?

Kyna

The artifact is called: a shopping guidebook

You can find it under HELP ARTIFACTS_MISC, but here is the info from the scroll.

A Shopping Guidebook: (150 cr)
Artifact Power: directory
- Allows you to use the shop directory command from anywhere, for anywhere.
- DIRECTORY