I have to agree on this matter with the OP. While I do feel that private stores have a very limited use (such as rural areas where AH does not reach) giving them such an incredibly short timer makes them completely pointless. Although it wont be as drastic as the 30 min timers, I feel something around a 2 hour timer would work a little better. It would prevent people from going AFK to work or school or w/e, but still give the seller a decent amount of time for people to peruse the wares.

Either way hopefully this will cut down on all the annoying open stores in Pand and w/e they call the Elyos city. Nothing destroys the ambiance of the otherwise pretty cool cities like people sitting on crates and text as far as the eye can see.

Still nice to see them trying to do something though. Effort at least shows acknowledgment of the problem and an attempt to fix (effective or otherwise).

^^ This.

The private store concept just seems redundant and counterproductive.

It also feels to me a bit ... tacky ... in its implementation ("I am this world's last best hope for salvation and, by the way, psssst. Wanna buy a Rolex watch, real cheap?").

Aion should just jettison the whole system, imo.

Aion does have an AH system but you can only access it from cities and towns. Private stores can be opened anywhere. I do agree there is quite a bit of overlap but one helpful application I've seen is someone selling gatherables needed for a quest directly beside the quest-giver.

As for the 30-minute limit, though it isn't mentioned, we're sure this will only be a temporary measure. Once the first free month of Aion is up and populations settle the queues will probably become eaasier to control and the limit will be increased or removed entirely.

The concept of the private store is an Asian MMO design concept. A lot of the MMO in Asia have this feature. It isn't a surprise to see such a system in Aion. But I do think its not a design that is suitable for the western MMO players.

1-2hrs would be a better alternative, but given the situation when people blatantly abuse a feature, consequences for all usually result. Its unfortunate that its a result of it, but thats usually how it goes. When things get back ontrack hopefully people who use the system for the right reasons can without the timer. I personally wont miss the 100 or so personal stores right in the teleport area walkway of the major cities.

Its good to see ncsoft actually working on things so early in the release hopefully given some time more features will be implemented. Personally I'd love to see some proper implementation of reporting spammers and the like,

Because the "AH" only has like 10 slots to sell.

Why they have not changed the personal stores to log you out and put a merchant in your place I have no idea. The personal stores are great but the fact it keeps you in game is a bit silly. It needs to be completely reworked so that it just puts a NPC in your place and logs you out.

Course in a few weeks once things settle down no one will care.

Is this a real question?

The auction house takes a portion of your sale. Private stores do not.