Diablo 3 will permit item sales for RL cash

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Thuleman

Supreme [H]ardness
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Let the farming begin!

Diablo III will allow players to buy and sell their stashes of loot with real-life currency, developer Blizzard said on Monday.

The hotly anticipated role-playing game will feature an online auction house in which players can hawk almost everything they find in the game for either in-game gold or real money. The company calls it a “convenient, powerful, and fully integrated” solution for players who want to turn their green boots into greenbacks.
[...]
Blizzard will also take its own cut, in the form of two separate fees on each transaction. Sellers will have to pay a fixed charge to list each item, whether or not it is sold, and an additional fixed charge when an item is purchased.
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source: http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/08/diablo-3-auction-house
 
This can be either good or bad . . . . it's all in how it is implemented.

I don't like the whole taxing players twice thing, that's NOT good.
 
The first digital item I ever paid real money for was an ith bow in D2. It was 11 bucks on ebay. No regrets. :D

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I'm betting that in order to sell items for RL cash you'll need a special subscription based account, blizz will then take their cut and quadruple dip. I have had a feeling for years that blizz has either been supporting or turning a blind eye to the WoW gold farmers. Either that or taking a cut of their profits. I'm not really sure how I feel about this. It seems a little shiesty on the surface.
 
Someone needs to create a Diablo 3 all-encompassing thread. There are basically three threads all discussing the same two things at the moment.
 
PM Oldie, he'll probably decide what to do, maybe make a thread titled ALL Official Diablo 3 Discussion HERE!
 
Or hand out infractions for mini-modding.

If the Auction House is just for trading between users I don't see any problems, but if Blizzard decides to only make the best items available through it then it's basically going to be very expensive micro-transactions (since the items are auctioned).
 
I'm betting that in order to sell items for RL cash you'll need a special subscription based account, blizz will then take their cut and quadruple dip. I have had a feeling for years that blizz has either been supporting or turning a blind eye to the WoW gold farmers. Either that or taking a cut of their profits. I'm not really sure how I feel about this. It seems a little shiesty on the surface.
 
ugh fuck that. As difficult as it may be I'm so close to swearing off games with micro-transactions. There are some games that do it ok but this reeks of bullshit.
 
I can't wait til some hacker finds a way to dupe shit or exploit something for items and he turns around and makes thousands of real life dollars now.
 
Stiler said:
I can't wait til some hacker finds a way to dupe shit or exploit something for items and he turns around and makes thousands of real life dollars now.
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What if they make item drops more of a lottery than Diablo 2 ever was? You could be privately farming with your friends and get that ONE drop that's worth thousands of dollars?

That'd be pretty insane!
 
Fail said:
What if they make item drops more of a lottery than Diablo 2 ever was? You could be privately farming with your friends and get that ONE drop that's worth thousands of dollars?

That'd be pretty insane!
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you can keep it secret from your friend.
everyone gets their own loot and sees only their own loot on screen :>
 
This is a fantastic idea and will hopefully drive down prices through saturation. I've never bought anything in game items (except in game pets for my kid in "free" MMOs), but I would happily drop $1.50 to fill a gear slot that a character was missing.
 
Here's the kicker, they are charging you $60 for the game up front, THEN if you decide to auction something, they charge you a fee, and when you buy something, they charge you a fee on that too.

Can anybody say rape?

I can.
 
I really really dislike the idea. Pay to win (lets not debate the meaning of "win" in diablo. Obviously getting loot is a major part of the game) just bothers me, even as my time at college is coming to an end and I'll probably have a full time job when D3 comes out. And I know people would be paying real money for items anyway but this will increase it 10x easily.

I'm surprised by how many people actually don't seem to mind the idea though, so I guess I'm in the minority.
 
In order to make items worth anything given the thousands of players farming they must intend to make good items epicly rare drops... otherwise I would think items be worth damn near nothing given the number of repeats
 
What difference does it make if you dont like the AH?
Dont use it

Some guy your party has better items than you from the AH?
Who cares? Monsters die faster and more loot drops in the same amount of time

Going for world first max level?
If you're really racing at the top, there will be no items useful for you.

Losing in PvP?
I'm pretty sure after everything settles out, if one or two AH items is preventing you from winning, you're doing it wrong.

I find it funny that people get so flustered about optional features in the game, the AH never prevents you from experiencing any part of the game: no classes, difficulties, or acts are driven by the AH. All items are obtainable outside of the AH. Thats like saying SC2 or SC1 is a completely broken game because cheats are allowed in single player missions, or that Oblivion and Fallout 3 should get a 0/100 because they allow fast travel.

I personaly wont use the cash AH, but I dont see anything worth crying about.
 
You can certainly see the influence Activision is beginning to have, can't you?

This is the future of gaming. The golden age of gaming is dead.
 
I think it's going to make things interesting and maybe a little exciting. It's like an extension of D2's crazy economy.

As for PvP balance etc. the developers have gone out of their way to say that their PvP system will not be serious in any way like D2; it's not going to be an e-sport. He gave an example that if there was an outcry that Barbarians were OP, he'd say "yeah, they probably are."

Daggah said:
You can certainly see the influence Activision is beginning to have, can't you?
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Yet another Activision scapegoater eh? I always put the blame on Blizzard themselves, for both the good and the bad. They charged $25 to transfer characters between WoW servers and $10 for a freaking name change long before the merger. This isn't like some sort of creeping infestation. The times are changing with each decade and having a "grandfather" attitude will just put us father and farther behind the times.
 
Nice Blizzard has found a way to tailor to a persons greed and ego. They will make gazillions!
 
Yoshiyuki Blade said:
Yet another Activision scapegoater eh? I always put the blame on Blizzard themselves, for both the good and the bad. They charged $25 to transfer characters between WoW servers and $10 for a freaking name change long before the merger. This isn't like some sort of creeping infestation. The times are changing with each decade and having a "grandfather" attitude will just put us father and farther behind the times.
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Wasn't it already Activision Blizzard when they started charging for name changes?
 
Daggah said:
Wasn't it already Activision Blizzard when they started charging for name changes?
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I'm pretty sure that paid name changes happened before the official press announcement of the merger (which was well before the official merger iirc). I'll see if I can dig up the actual times about that.

EDIT: Paid name change happened in Oct 2007: http://www.wowpedia.org/Paid_name_change_service
Merger was announced in Dec 2007 and dealt in July 2008 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard
 
Crash250f said:
I'm surprised by how many people actually don't seem to mind the idea though, so I guess I'm in the minority.
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We're here. My expectations aren't that high anymore to begin with. Item finding just isn't fun anymore. I'd rather play a real single player game and cheat, if this is what gaming has come to. Anyways, I play games for combat action, story, atmosphere and escapism anyways.
 
They said they'll only charge you a listing fee if you start posting too many listings in the RMAH. They want it not to get flooded with 99 cent junk people are trying to make quick cash off of.

The nice part about it is that you don't have to enter any type of debit/credit card unless you want to cash out or add money to buy stuff. You'll have a balance with blizzard, and you can recoup it whenever you decide you want to.
 
Hardcore mode => no real money auction house => greater incentive for me to play exclusively hardcore in D3.

Can Hardcore-mode characters use the currency-based auction house?

No. Hardcore characters will only have the option to buy and sell items together with other Hardcore characters via a separate "Hardcore-only" gold-based auction house; they will not be able to use the currency-based auction house. Hardcore mode is designed as an optional experience for players who enjoy the sense of constant peril that comes with the possibility of permanent death for a character. All of a Hardcore character’s items are forever lost upon that character’s death, so to avoid the risk of a player spending real money on items that could then be permanently lost when the character dies, we decided restrict the use of the currency-based auction house in Hardcore mode.
Also, Hardcore mode is intended to provide an additional level of challenge in which players try to keep their characters alive through a combination of skill and luck. Allowing players to access the currency-based auction house with their Hardcore characters would undermine the value of Hardcore-related achievements for everyone because the playing field would not be even. As with other aspects of Diablo III gameplay, we will continually monitor how this system plays out and make adjustments as necessary.
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Daggah said:
You can certainly see the influence Activision is beginning to have, can't you?

This is the future of gaming. The golden age of gaming is dead.
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Blizzard's parent company before the merger is actually the majority stake holder in Activision Blizzard. There seems to be a common misconception that Activision itself owns Blizzard after the merger.

As for this AH, I don't understand some of the objections, for instance complaints about the fee. Almost any service that acts as a middleman will charge some sort of service fee. If you want to sell digital items using ebay and paypal, they will charge you a fee for instance. You are still able to use other avenues to conduct transactions if you want to avoid Blizzard's fees, just like currently, except Blizzard offers an in way game to do it which has convenience and security. Unless they are somehow removing direct trades between characters with items only exchangeable via the AH?

The reality is for any MMO type game where there are sought after virtual property there will be a real money market with or without official developer support. This is especially true if the game is relatively more mainstream/popular, which Diablo 3 will be. Not allowing this type of transaction over WoW for example clearly does not prevent real money transactions. Blizzard might as well offer a more convenient and safer way to do this while making themselves money as opposed to 3rd parties.
 
I really don't have a problem with this, hell, people were doing it with D2 left and right.... it will just be easier now. Use if you want to, don't if you don't.

Personally, I don't see myself using this unless I get some really rare piece that is sought after. It would be cool to make a buck or two that way! I have no interest in buying anything there however...

That whole farming thing is crazy, I mean in China, that is actually people's jobs! They get payed crap and it is really annoying playing with them online....

I wonder if they will use PVP to cheat and steal OPs stuff. Oh yeah, that's right.... they will.
 
IMO, China will go where the money is. Going into a market where virtually everyone can be a competitor doesn't look very appealing. That's not to say there won't be a black market (or a legitimate market using Blizzard's system), but I'd bet that it would be nowhere as lucrative as the WoW black market. It's not just about gold farming either, but also for stealing accounts (usually from their own customers) including credit card information.
 
Those who have the money get the best stuff and those who don't, get nada. Seems like a very poor decision, especially based on the current economic climate. Paying for gear is ridiculous to me. I understand it for sure, but it's just not cool.
 
I see more and more companies jumping on the bandwagon to get a cut. If there is a mechanism to allow or people taking advantage of workarounds, it'll happen. This is there solution to what happened with previous multiplayer games. It's going to happen anyway so Bilzzard is trying to grab a little of it. I don't have a problem with it, I steer clear of it myself, other people make it there perogative though. Gotta have the best gear......wtg, that will carry you far in life, decking out your virtual persona.
 
Fail said:
Here's the kicker, they are charging you $60 for the game up front, THEN if you decide to auction something, they charge you a fee, and when you buy something, they charge you a fee on that too.

Can anybody say rape?

I can.
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but can you walk afterwards?
 
Mungojerrie said:
but can you walk afterwards?
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but you forget: your argument only applies to people who want to pay real money for in game items. so they're already putting down more cash, and blizzard wants a cut. i say why not? i would MUCH rather blizzard take a piece and (ideally) pay for more stable servers, or pay for an extra mod to watch for hacks or whatever. than to jump into a game and see ****FREE OCULUS RING WITH EVERY ORDER! FAST DELIVERY CHEAP ITEMS AT WWW.ISPAM.COM*******
 
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The Cisco Kid said:
Those who have the money get the best stuff and those who don't, get nada. Seems like a very poor decision, especially based on the current economic climate. Paying for gear is ridiculous to me. I understand it for sure, but it's just not cool.
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This is already happening in practically every Blizzard game. Perhaps because you didn't go to the 3rd party sites and didn't see it, so it didn't upset you. But this will most likely in no way change the dynamics of the game or what is already going on.

Be interesting to see if the money launderers hit it up though. There is a hell of a lot of interest in the AML community about virtual worlds/currency, and a built in real money auction house, with the large player base Blizz will have, seems ripe for abuse.
 
Dome said:
but you forget: your argument only applies to people who want to pay real money for in game items. so they're already putting down more cash, and blizzard wants a cut. i say why not? i would MUCH rather blizzard take a piece and (ideally) pay for more stable servers, or pay for an extra mod to watch for hacks or whatever. than to jump into a game and see ****FREE OCULUS RING WITH EVERY ORDER! FAST DELIVERY CHEAP ITEMS AT WWW.ISPAM.COM*******
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It will probably fund the cost required to implement and maintain a secure transaction system and item database. There will also be people to investigate issues that can occur with people's accounts (stolen, scammed, etc.). I dunno if it'll be on the same level as WoW (being subscription-based) but any level of quality support will come at a cost.
 
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