A New, Parallel Market System in FFXIV Shows How Badly Version 2.0 is Needed.

Fantastic news rained down upon Eorzea this week as the FFXIV development team announced a parallel market system would be implemented into the game in the upcoming Patch 1.22. Players had previously been told not to expect significant improvements to the market wards until Version 2.0. Turns out, the devs found a workaround.

Yet if I'm high-fiving fellow gamers with one hand, then I'm definitely facepalming with the other. Kudos to developers for finding a way to let us shop in all three starter cities without having to leave Ul'dah (what, did you think this was going to get us out of Ul'dah?). However, the fact this workaround is needed at all shows just how badly Version 2.0 must really be needed.

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I'm pretty good with analogies, but I'm struggling to think of something that describes this situation. This is like having a car with square wheels, only when you go to replace the wheels with round ones, you realize the wheels are actually part of a long, rectangular axel that spans the width of your vehicle. And if you remove the giant rectangular axel, your engine would fall out. So the solution is to attach a set of larger round wheels to the outside of the rectangular axel. Hey, it's not perfect, but at least you're not trying to roll on squares anymore ("squares," get it?).

This version of the game must be a video game programmer's nightmare. More tech-savvy players tried to warn players like me about how poorly programmed this game was when it was first launched, but I wasn't wise enough to listen. I accepted the truth several months ago, but things like this workaround are stark reminders over what producer Naoki Yoshida is working with. Credit the guy for getting things done.

As for the market workaround itself, it's obviously not the ideal fix. Having to talk to three different NPCs to see all your options isn't where I thought we'd be at this point in the game's life. I also can't wait until we can sell things without needing to use retainers. I've played this game since launch, and I have yet to sell a single item through the market wards. It's just too clunky and inconvenient.

The silver lining is knowing Yoshi-P wasn't ignoring our pleas when we were begging for an auction house. It's just that the game in its current state doesn't allow him to help us.

Version 2.0 (and a fully revamped market system) can't come soon enough.