I want to buy some gear, but why's everything so expensive? The forum warned about the crazy Origin margins since newbies can't travel. Setting up a stall is also too much for most beginners and the older players take advantage of this.

There's no alternative to buying their stuff though. Why do they have to overprice everything? Even the most basic goods and food go for ten times what you'd expect. You are better off trading with the NPC merchants, and their pricing already sucks.

And there were plans to phase them out soon, once the game is ready to run on a full-on player-based economy. What will happen with the starter village then? The devs might be aware of it and that's the reason they didn't take that step.

Would they even care though? They put a lot of effort into the most random aspects of the system while ignoring some key elements. For some reason, player satisfaction doesn't look like their main priority.

Whatever, they can do what they want. Gear. The Death Rats bit through my old, trusty mail so an upgrade might be a good idea. Annelise offers a plus-three Res scale armor, and it's fifteen gold. The same in the marketplace costs twenty-five, and the buy price is two.

Better yet, the one Tank gifted me goes for thirty while it blocks less damage. Why does it cost more? The STP is better and weighs less, so that could explain it. The blonde merchant won't trade it though, no matter what.

She won't buy mine either, because it's below ninety percent of its durability. Well, it's closer to thirty after all the abuse, but I didn't want to sell it anyway, not for that laughable price. It's good to know that the condition of the gear matters.

The players aren't as picky. Some vendors set the STP limit on their buy orders to fifty percent, but that's still more than what I have. They also pay less for damaged items, which would be reasonable if they didn't offer pennies.

So can you fix damaged items, or once their durability suffers, that's that? They don't offer such a service in the market, though it should be something you can do in a blacksmith anyway. Or the Textile Workers, I should ask COTTONEYEJOE about it sometimes.

Oh, would you look at that? They sell stuff from the tutorial at a hefty price, considering they're free ten meters away. They offer loads of spears, wooden swords, and training shields. They vary between one and three silvers while the buy offer is a copper coin for each.

Capitalism at its best. Well if someone's dumb enough to skip the tutorial and try to buy the free items for that price, they deserve it. Why would anyone not take advantage of it? Tank's style alone was worth it, and he taught me some legit tricks and fencing basics.

Okay, I know, the irony isn't lost on me either. As much as the tutorial repulsed me, it kickstarted my leveling by introducing me to the Guild. And what if this whole bandit event only kicked off because of my good relationship with Tank?

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That would suck, to be honest. Those good old boring ratting errands might dry up because of my fault. Let's hope the last two on my list stay there until I can farm them a few more times. The place does nothing but make my head spin.

This Player Market is a nightmare to walk through and also to navigate. Unlike the private or NPC trading window, it doesn't list all the available items. Instead of an inventory-like UI, they show one commodity at a time, offering all the values, both buy and sell.

The system makes it difficult to compare the prices of similar items. Heck, finding something is a challenge as is, unless it's already in your inventory. A quick Boogle search offers an alternative though, some players set up a site to help with trade.

You can list the items by category and by their respective bonuses there. Once you're done, select a trade hub and compare their value, this way you can find the best bang for your buck. Why's this not in the base game?

Well, it doesn't matter. It's not worth buying anything here, it's way overpriced, and better gears are behind a lock anyway. Comparing the local prices with Taji, it becomes obvious fast. They ask at least twice as much for everything while offering one-tenth of their value.

At least the arrows sold out. Even these plus-one crappy ones are in high demand and the margins are better than with the NPC trader. The hundred or so skeleton arrows pay almost the same as all their bows combined.

Okay, enough headache in this crowd, let's not buy anything here and check the ratting quests. The sun's up now, and the journal didn't warn me that someone ran the errands, so they should be good. Considering how much stuff I sold, they paid a mere two silvers.

Even if the rat tail price remains the same, the hundred and forty I cut off so far would pay me almost three gold. Not on the market, of course. Their buy price is ridiculous. The Pharmacy is right next door though, offering twenty coppers a piece.

Right. Let's check in and see if it changed. I need some potions and to get rid of a thousand copper anyway. It weighs down my purse more than it should. The counter on my minimap calms down once the marketplace is behind me.

It only shows ten people when I reach the Pharmacy. The system popup greets me even if the two pharmacists look through my character. The girl still has the name Petra floating above her head, while the guy remains unnamed.

It's crazy that all it took was to ask about it. This shows that the players don't care at all about NPCs. What if the devs don't care about the players for the same reason? Does Tank and Selena get the same treatment? Only a few people visited them, even during this quest crisis.

"Good morning, Petra, I'd like to buy some potions." Is it okay to call her by that name? Well, the system named her for my sake, so why not? And the morning. It's already late afternoon in the real world, but the sun only woke up in this one.

"Of course, Noob, what can I help you with?" She doesn't seem to mind, and the trading window opens. She still offers twenty copper for the rat tails, and they give a fifteen percent discount on the potions. They sell them way cheaper than the Origin Market from the start.

"I'll take five antidotes and five healing potions. Oh, and four stamina boosts, please." That should help me purge all my coppers, and set me up for the plague rat escalation. She takes the thousand and twenty coins, and my purse is much more manageable now.

The coppers weigh half a gram each and the potions eighteen. This exchange made my backpack a quarter kilos lighter, and the vials are way more useful than the coins.