In Path of Exile 2, trading works the same as in its predecessor. A mistake, as MeinMMO author Cedric Holmeier thinks.
How does trading work? In Path of Exile 2, trading takes place via the developers’ website (via pathofexile.com). To sell an item there, players must place it in a public premium storage locker and set a price.
To purchase, players must also go to the website and find a seller who is currently online. This person will be contacted via direct message to initiate the purchase. Then a group must be formed and meet at a common location in the game to barter.
There is always the risk that the seller or buyer will try to trick their counterpart by having the players place fewer items or the same items with different values in the trading window and hope that this fraud is not discovered.
One NPC in Path of Exile 2 is particularly useful:
This NPC in Path of Exile 2 identifies your items
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Trade like from the MMORPG era
The trade between players in Path of Exile 2 was already a thorn in my side in the predecessor. Leaving the game and going to a website to trade is something we know from the early days of MMORPGs. Around the time when players were still exchanging ideas via forums instead of Discord.
Who is writing here? Cedric Holmeier is a freelance author at MeinMMO and a veteran of Path of Exile 2. He was able to play the new part before anyone else and already knows the predecessor from the closed beta. Outside of Path of Exile, he is well versed in MMORPGs and has logged thousands of hours in games like Swords of Legends Online, Throne and Liberty, and Tarisland.
Even in the predecessor of Path of Exile 2, the trading system was actually outdated. To date, Path of Exile is one of the few games to also offer an active forum with an even more active trading area. The community has now even developed its own programs for its predecessor that simplify trading and price checks.
I think it’s a mistake that the developers are using exactly the same system for the successor. Yes, the previous system also works in Path of Exile 2, but it also has the same clunky approach that is so unfamiliar to new players that most of them probably end up in SSF mode (Solo Self-Foundation) unintentionally. mode, no groups & no trading allowed).
Sorry, it’s 2024
What solution does MeinMMO author Cedric Holmeier have? The fact that Path of Exile 2 doesn’t break new ground here is a missed opportunity, precisely because the aim of this part was to make it more beginner and user-friendly. An auction house is clearly missing!
An auction house would improve many things:
Auction houses have long been the industry standard in MMORPGs. And even if Path of Exile 2 doesn’t want to rely on gold when trading between players, an auction house could definitely be implemented. Especially when players simply exchange the exact item requested by the seller.
If a new MMORPG were released today where most of the trading took place through an external site and where players had to meet in the world to trade, players would probably be visibly confused.
One can only hope that the developers will add this feature to the full release and do everyone a favor by at least adding the auction house to trading, if not letting all trading run through it.
With an auction house you could simplify several things for players and prevent the detour via the website. The system around the filters already works well and could serve as the foundation for the auction house. Another complicated system are the passive skills: Path of Exile 2: Skill Tree explained – This is how the complicated system works