Auction House, Auction House, To Hades With Trade Etiquette

First off, I've been playing POE1 off and on since the day after it came out, so I'm not a an freakin' tourist.

POE's trade system is trash. It has always been trash, defended by people with too much time on their hands.

It does not prevent botting, it rewards it. It doesn't prevent shitty trade practices, it encourages it. It does not bring the average player into the market, it discourages it.

I'm 34 y/o, job, wife, 2 kids. This does not make me a casual gamer. I am a man with responsibilities.

If I take the time to play the game, kill monsters, have loot drop, or craft it. I should not then be expected to stay logged in, so that I can facilitate the sell of my item. This is ridiculous, I don't play POE to have a second job. It should not be expected of me or any other player, nor should it be required in order to engage in this part of the game.

Forcing players to go out of the game increases the odds that bots and scumbags will engage in trade and not your average player.

Forcing players to be online to conduct the trade, again, rewards botters, and scumbags, not your average player.

An in-game Auction House will cause more items to populate the market, even at lower levels. This will hopefully balance out the pricing.

Now it is important that the auction house behave identically to the currency exchange. Otherwise the scumbags will continue to haggle you over the agreed price when you go to conduct the trade.

I've seen people argue that it should be in-game, but you should still have to whisper so they can decide if they want to sell. My dude you're not a Christian baking a cake, set your price and sell to the first person that buys. The only reason to desire this to not change is again, to be a scumbag that changes the price on the buyer.

My current process for upgrading gear is thus, I check what dropped, I check the store(if I leveled), I see what I can craft(with what little crafting currency I have), then I go to the trade website. Fiddle with the levers trying to find what I'm looking for. All the while I'm thinkiing of how annoyed I am that no items have dropped. How annoyed I am that currency isn't dropping. How annoyed I am that crafting is so aimless that even when I get said currency to drop, it is immediately used and the item is thrown in the trash because yet again, it's a shit roll. Then I look back at the screen, see the whisper button, and say, I don't even want to deal with this asshole.

Trade etiquette simply would no longer be a thing with an AH. We don't need to teach the newbies proper trade etiquette, we don't need to turn our nose up at people that don't know to wait for the seller to initiate the trade, we need to band together and demand GGG remove this unnecessary burden from our shoulders.

On a side note, as far as endgame penalties. Everything in this game is random, save for one thing. The experience I gained, I earned. It should not be taken. You want to take bosses and activities off the map, fine. You don't want respawns, fine. But stealing from me, the only progress that I have definitive control over, is ridiculous. I cannot make good gear drop, I cannot guarantee good rolls on crafted gear. I can kill monsters. Stop making my game harder, use the hundreds of dollars I've given you, buy a paddle, and punish yourself. I'm here to be challenged, not choked.

And don't even get me started on your unacceptable excuse of couch co-op. If I have an account, I should be able to log in to said account, even as player 2. Period.

Other than that, games good, D4 Bad. D2 did have hirelings though.