[miltonyorkcastle]

We may also consider having both the option for OOC "speed-transactions" as well as a place and set-up for a more interactive market place.

To be honest, there are days when I have the time and desire to spend an hour and a half RPing a regular transaction (and by regular, I mean a deal between two characters who know each other and have long since made trade arrangements). Then there are other days when I don't have the time. And still other days when I don't have the desire. I'm interested in a different story than "How Steel got his two-hundred mushrooms." Thanks to crafting, it seems Steel is constantly hiring out folks and making deals. I've had to do the craziest stuff just to make some of it interesting, but I'd typically rather not even bother with it. I'd rather invite those same characters Steel is trading for honey to be involved in some intrigue at the Arms or an exploration adventure. So yeah, if there was a way I could drastically cut short trade time, I'd take it, unless the trade is important to the story. Most of the time, it's not important to the story I'm trying to create, at least not directly.

(And to be very honest, 90% of the time I find all buying and selling interaction boring. Even the most interesting characters typically only need that first encounter to establish the mode of operations with another character, and after that, it's just "I got this, you got that, let's trade." If I wanted to play a merchant, I wouldn't be playing an adventurer.)

Point is, options are good.