Diablo 3 to have in-game AH with real money trade.

JasonTerminator

JasonTerminator

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http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/01/diablo-3-to-feature-player-to-player-real-money-auction-house-fo/

I don't know what to say or feel about this.

It's not items getting pulled out of nowhere, it's player-obtained and player-sold. People could, theoretically, make money playing D3 (Probably not enough to make it worthwhile for time invested, but it's still interesting.) But Blizz seems to be taking quite a few cuts of it.

If it was an in-game store, where you just buy-to-win, it's one thing, but you can sell your items on the same AH to pay for items that you actually want.

I dunno, what do you guys think about this?
 
I don't like it. When the super rares get found, do you think people are going to sell them for gold? No, they'll be sold for money. Blizzard just made Diablo 3 a game with a microtransaction system. Can you imagine if WoW did this? People would go ballistic. Bad move, I don't like it one bit.
 
The only reason I can think of for this move is to use gold farmers to their advantage. Rather than police them, they'll just take a cut (like eBay) of the profits. It cuts out the middleman and provides a secure venue for what would undoubtedly happen anyway. It's a genius business move and I might actually use it to sell stuff I come across. Ironically, this system might kill off the value of gold in Diablo again and we might be trading in SOJ's as a monetary standard for a second time.
 
I was wondering how gold would function this time around and you make a great point, Jodou. Gold is probably going to be pointless again. I'd say they should just take it out of the game completely but it's still satisfying to kill a zombie and have a big pile of gold fall on the ground.

Now that I think more about this thing, I doubt anyone will be listing items for gold at all. Why bother if you can get actual money instead of in game currency that, outside of this auction house, will only be used to repair gear or gamble from Gheed?
 
[quote name='Megazell']Maybe they are setting it up to go F2P.[/QUOTE]
You mean WoW? Doubtful. They may be trialing this system to be used in WoW, though.
 
Diablo was always F2P and WoW will never go F2P, they're making WAY too much money on it. It would make sense that if this takes off (which it probably will) that WoW will adopt the same model.
 
[quote name='plasticbathmonki']I'm more concerned about players being required to have an internet connection to play. I travel quite a bit for my job, so I take a gaming laptop with me on my trips. It helps with 4-hour layovers in random airports. Access to the web can be spotty at best in some locations.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/118/1185029p1.html[/QUOTE]

That stinks, I had heard initially it would be like SC2, with offline single-player.

[quote name='tcrash247']Diablo was always F2P and WoW will never go F2P, they're making WAY too much money on it. It would make sense that if this takes off (which it probably will) that WoW will adopt the same model.[/QUOTE]

Blizzard actually mentions that it's unlikely to happen in WoW because of the differences in ways loot drops. In WoW, loot drops from progressively harder bosses, while in Diablo, it's random. To quote the article:

"Diablo 3, says Pardo, doesn't work the same way that a game like World of Warcraft does. World of Warcraft's loot is deterministic, dependent mostly on skill, progression, and time spent playing. Diablo's loot, on the other hand, is random -- while some items are tied to some areas, there's still a random chance that a player will either get a piece of gear that fits their character or playstyle, or that they'll get a drop that won't."

And Megazell is hoping that D3 will be playable without an initial purchase, which won't happen. Diablo 2 still sells for $20 after 11 years.
 
[quote name='tcrash247']Diablo was always F2P and WoW will never go F2P, they're making WAY too much money on it. It would make sense that if this takes off (which it probably will) that WoW will adopt the same model.[/QUOTE]

Incorrect.

Diablo has never been F2P.

WOW does have a F2P version.

[quote name='JasonTerminator']And Megazell is hoping that D3 will be playable without an initial purchase, which won't happen. Diablo 2 still sells for $20 after 11 years.[/QUOTE]

Incorrect.

I never hope a games goes F2P. If it does though, I will try it.
 
Oh, well when I hear F2P I imagine it to be a game that doesn't have a monthly fee but does have an initial purchase price, but yeah now that you say it like that I get what it actually means.

And I don't think you can really call WoW's 20 level trial F2P. I consider it to be an extended demo. F2P to me means you can play the entire game and do everything it has to offer for free. WoW's trial is like playing 25% of the game while missing important features.
 
[quote name='JasonTerminator']Blizzard actually mentions that it's unlikely to happen in WoW because of the differences in ways loot drops. In WoW, loot drops from progressively harder bosses, while in Diablo, it's random. To quote the article:

"Diablo 3, says Pardo, doesn't work the same way that a game like World of Warcraft does. World of Warcraft's loot is deterministic, dependent mostly on skill, progression, and time spent playing. Diablo's loot, on the other hand, is random -- while some items are tied to some areas, there's still a random chance that a player will either get a piece of gear that fits their character or playstyle, or that they'll get a drop that won't."[/QUOTE]

That's not what I was talking about at all. I'm saying it's quite possible that WoW's AH will go the same route meaning you can purchase things off it for real money. Progression and different bosses dropping different to has nothing to do with it, it would still be the same AH but using real world currency instead of gold.

And when I hear F2P I imagine it to be a game that doesn't have a monthly fee but does have an initial purchase price, but yeah now that you say it like that I get what it actually means.

And I don't think you can really call WoW's 20 level trial F2P. I consider it to be an extended demo. F2P to me means you can play the entire game and do everything it has to offer for free. WoW's trial is like playing 25% of the game while missing important features.
 
[quote name='tcrash247']Now that I think more about this thing, I doubt anyone will be listing items for gold at all. Why bother if you can get actual money instead of in game currency that, outside of this auction house, will only be used to repair gear or gamble from Gheed?[/QUOTE]

Depends on how it's set up. A lot of people won't bother (too much hassle or too afraid) and kids without their own credit/debit cards or bank account will not likely participate.

And of course people who do sell things for real money would be more than happy to spend in-game currency to re-sell them for real money.
 
[quote name='Draekon']Depends on how it's set up. A lot of people won't bother (too much hassle or too afraid) and kids without their own credit/debit cards or bank account will not likely participate.
[/QUOTE]
Exactly. I'm sure a major factor will be whether its set up like ebay where you don't pay any fees if your item doesn't sell, or whether Blizzard charges you upfront for their fee.
 
[quote name='eddie291']Exactly. I'm sure a major factor will be whether its set up like ebay where you don't pay any fees if your item doesn't sell, or whether Blizzard charges you upfront for their fee.[/QUOTE]

From what I've come to understand of it...Blizzard charges a fee to put an item up for sale, and takes a fee whenever the item sells. At time of sale, you can opt to have the funds go into your Blizzard account or to cash out, with a portion of that money going to the third party people handling the money transactions. It also seems like the money in your Blizz account cannot just be cashed out by itself. Once there, it can only be used for Blizz products and services (and presumably D3 auctions). So, in theory you could cash out that money by buying stuff and reselling it, but then you'd incur more fees.

Only way I see myself using it is to sell stuff...never buy. If WoW is any indication though, there are a lot of people out there willing to spend a lot of money on pretty stupid stuff.
 
[quote name='blueshinra']I think the bigger story here is that they won't be allowing mods - http://www.next-gen.biz/news/diablo-iii-will-not-allow-modding[/QUOTE]
Well, that's not really surprising considering the only D2 mods I remember were game-breaking.
[quote name='Salamando3000']From what I've come to understand of it...Blizzard charges a fee to put an item up for sale, and takes a fee whenever the item sells. At time of sale, you can opt to have the funds go into your Blizzard account or to cash out, with a portion of that money going to the third party people handling the money transactions. It also seems like the money in your Blizz account cannot just be cashed out by itself. Once there, it can only be used for Blizz products and services (and presumably D3 auctions). So, in theory you could cash out that money by buying stuff and reselling it, but then you'd incur more fees.

Only way I see myself using it is to sell stuff...never buy. If WoW is any indication though, there are a lot of people out there willing to spend a lot of money on pretty stupid stuff.[/QUOTE]Guess I should have known better. They didn't really solve the problem, just sidestepped it. If they're going to charge a fee to list, then forget about it. Not being able to cash out money is a dealbreaker as well. Either way, I don't get involved in RMT at all so it doesn't really affect me.
 
Maphack was a godsend and the only mod I ever used online. I remember Blizzard tried for years to shut that mod down, but I'd bet it's still going strong today. Man, now I'm feeling nostalgic for packet sniffers. Stuff like that and ShowEQ will never happen in online games ever again. :(
 
[quote name='tcrash247']And I don't think you can really call WoW's 20 level trial F2P. I consider it to be an extended demo. F2P to me means you can play the entire game and do everything it has to offer for free. WoW's trial is like playing 25% of the game while missing important features.[/QUOTE]

That has never been the meaning of F2P. What you just described is FREEWARE not F2P. F2P always has restrictions.
 
What the fuck is blizzard thinking? Now players with money to burn can outpace other players that chose to try and play the game themselves without cheating. And yes buying items with real money and shortcutting the game is cheating because your bypassing actually playing the game yourself.

Its basically blizzard saying "We dont feel like trying to stop gold sellers and item sellers so were just going to let you sell stuff on your own.....of course we will get a cut of the cash ourselves." So basically blizzard took online item selling and put it in house by instead of letting cheaters make money off other cheaters blizzard will make the money off the cheaters themselves instead of actually solving the problem.

I used to love blizzard but honestly ever since they have been doing cheap money grabs left and right and becoming more about just getting cash than making games since they joined with activision. Its obvious the greed of activision is influencing blizzard now. Since they have joined activision the prices of their pc games has increased like starcraft 2 was 60 bucks for a very long time when before they were always 50 like everyone else, instead of puting all of starcraft 2 into one game they broke it up into 3 games, they started selling mounts and pets in WOW for real money, now you cant play starcraft 2 single player without being logged into b.net and now you can buy items in game with real world money while blizzard gets a cut?

I was really looking forward to diablo 3, but not after this news. I understand kind of why they do this because its going to happen unofficially but instead of them discouraging it they are encouraging it and instead of trying to figure out ways to stop it they are taking the lazy way out and saying "Sure, cheat away just give us money if you do".

Blizzard, your assholes.
 
Because Diablo has always been a competitive environment, right? If people want to buy their gear in this game, go for it. Waste of money really.
 
I agree somewhat with Gargus, but like Jodou just said, it's not as big a deal as it would be in a game like WoW. Diablo doesn't have the end game, progression and competitiveness that WoW has. Really, the only reason to keep playing D2 was to try and get that better gear or to try and get 99. If you buy it, then what else is there to do besides pvp? The reason D2 was so addicting was because you kept running the same bosses over and over to get that piece you really want. Then when you finally get it, it's the greatest feeling in the world. This AH has the potential to take that aspect away, but only for people who choose to buy their gear.

While I'm not in favor of this, this isn't a deal breaker in the least. I really only played Diablo 2 solo or strictly with friends. I rarely played with randoms. To be honest, it's going to take a lot to turn me off of Diablo 3, Diablo 2 is my favorite game ever, I played it so damn much. I think I had 3 full accounts with level 70+ characters.
 
If you are worried about people "outpacing" you in Diablo, then you don't understand what kind of game Diablo is. It's not an MMO. You play it by yourself or co-op with up to 4 people. What do you care if someone buys items or not? It has zero effect on you or your character from a gameplay standpoint.

Item selling will happen regardless whether Blizzard embraces it or not. At least this way it's safe and possibly gives back to the player base instead of it all going to the gold sellers.
 
One can hope that the profits Blizzard gains return to the playerbase as improved cheater/hacker detection and more effort towards extra content and patches. Probably not, but I can dream.
 
[quote name='blueshinra']I think the bigger story here is that they won't be allowing mods - http://www.next-gen.biz/news/diablo-iii-will-not-allow-modding[/QUOTE]

Was anybody honestly surprised by this after D2?


[quote name='gargus']What the fuck is blizzard thinking? Now players with money to burn can outpace other players that chose to try and play the game themselves without cheating. And yes buying items with real money and shortcutting the game is cheating because your bypassing actually playing the game yourself.

Its basically blizzard saying "We dont feel like trying to stop gold sellers and item sellers so were just going to let you sell stuff on your own.....of course we will get a cut of the cash ourselves." So basically blizzard took online item selling and put it in house by instead of letting cheaters make money off other cheaters blizzard will make the money off the cheaters themselves instead of actually solving the problem.

I used to love blizzard but honestly ever since they have been doing cheap money grabs left and right and becoming more about just getting cash than making games since they joined with activision. Its obvious the greed of activision is influencing blizzard now. Since they have joined activision the prices of their pc games has increased like starcraft 2 was 60 bucks for a very long time when before they were always 50 like everyone else, instead of puting all of starcraft 2 into one game they broke it up into 3 games, they started selling mounts and pets in WOW for real money, now you cant play starcraft 2 single player without being logged into b.net and now you can buy items in game with real world money while blizzard gets a cut?

I was really looking forward to diablo 3, but not after this news. I understand kind of why they do this because its going to happen unofficially but instead of them discouraging it they are encouraging it and instead of trying to figure out ways to stop it they are taking the lazy way out and saying "Sure, cheat away just give us money if you do".

Blizzard, your assholes.[/QUOTE]

Starcraft 2: WoL's campaign the same length as the original Starcraft's, and the two sequels will be the same way, with more units and such as well. It's basically two expansion packs. If you recall, Starcraft 1 got an expansion pack. It's nothing new for Blizz. And SC2 single player just needs a online login to play it, once that first check is done, you don't need to be connected anymore.

And as others have said, Diablo doesn't have the same gear dynamics as WoW. It doesn't matter if people buy their equipment or have it drop, as it's no real indicator of skill time spent, as the drop system is random.

[quote name='tcrash247']That's not what I was talking about at all. I'm saying it's quite possible that WoW's AH will go the same route meaning you can purchase things off it for real money. Progression and different bosses dropping different to has nothing to do with it, it would still be the same AH but using real world currency instead of gold.[/QUOTE]

Even if Blizzard does do that, however unlikely, the way equipment works in the game (Soulbinding and all that), it wouldn't be a pay-to-win system either. You can't get most of the items in the game on the AH, so all that would happen is people would pay real world money for a "sweet" motorcycle, or something.

But I don't think it'll happen as it would destroy WoW's gold based economy.
 
[quote name='tcrash247']I agree somewhat with Gargus, but like Jodou just said, it's not as big a deal as it would be in a game like WoW. Diablo doesn't have the end game, progression and competitiveness that WoW has. Really, the only reason to keep playing D2 was to try and get that better gear or to try and get 99. If you buy it, then what else is there to do besides pvp? [/QUOTE]
clearly you are not a jsp member.


as for this news, well, blizzard is doing everything possible to ruin this game. i think i'll just let them and focus on gw2 instead of playing both.
 
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[quote name='crystalklear64']clearly you are not a jsp member.


as for this news, well, blizzard is doing everything possible to ruin this game. i think i'll just let them and focus on gw2 instead of playing both.[/QUOTE]

I'm with you on this one, except replace GW2 (Guild Wars?) with Torchlight 2 -- hopefully that comes out around the same time as Diablo 3.

The real money AH is complete garbage. Like most of you said Diablo is all about the items. What incentive does anyone have trade things for other items or in game currency? None, you find anything that has worth, you throw that shit up for real world money. Thus killing the in game economy from day 1.

From what I understand, Blizzard makes money once you list an item (regardless if it sells), once the item sells and then one last time when you want to "cash out". This is nothing more than a chance for them to make an obscene amount of money and fuck over their customers.

I think you guys are confusing hacks with mods. Maphack was a hack (hence the name). When they say no mods, they mean things Eastern Sun, Median XL, etc...

Unless they break up the real money AH players and the in-game money AH players (or some other sensible solution), I think I'll have to pass on this until I can pirate it and play through the single player at least once.
 
I think the real problem here is not that they are offering this service but the fact that who is going to sell a rare ass item for in game currency when they could make real money out of it? I mean I feel there might be a horrible imbalance between items that will be sold via in game money and items that are sold with real money. They essentially killed their own economy with this unless people spend NO real money on items because if there is a chance they can make real money, they sure as well will try.

Now being a former WoW player, if Blizzard offered this same model, it could also kill WoW entirely unless no one bothers to use it. There are a ton of crafting recipes and such where you need that one rare item and who is to say the only ones on the AH are the here pay us real money for it.
 
I'm afraid I really don't see why the AH is such a big deal. The AH that uses real money lets those who want to buy or sell items do so. No one is obligated to spend any real money unless they choose to. It also seems like a wild assumption to think that no one will sell anything for in game money instead of real money. There will be tons of items that won't be worth enough real money to bother selling them that way. There will also be plenty of people who won't want to invest in using real money to buy items period.

I don't plan on buying any items with real money so this real money AH won't impact me at all. I really don't understand why this is such a huge deal with some people.
 
I guess I also don't understand why people are so enraged over this. Same thing with the TF2 store, if you don't want to spend money then don't! No one is holding a gun to your head on this. As for the worry that this will kill the in game gold trading marketplace I don't think it will. There will be thousands upon thousands of players who will never spend real money on an item. There will be a place for gold in this game still. Also I heard that the real money AH and the in game gold AH are going to always be on different servers. If that is true then you just need to have characters on the "free" servers and pretend that the "real money" servers don't even exist. Easy way to solve the issue.
 
[quote name='cgarb84']Also I heard that the real money AH and the in game gold AH are going to always be on different servers. If that is true then you just need to have characters on the "free" servers and pretend that the "real money" servers don't even exist. Easy way to solve the issue.[/QUOTE]

The AH's are going to be separate from the actual game. Pretty sure I read you access both from the main menu screen. Anything you buy will go into your shared stash.
 
[quote name='tcrash247']The AH's are going to be separate from the actual game. Pretty sure I read you access both from the main menu screen. Anything you buy will go into your shared stash.[/QUOTE]

Well, there will still be USEast Auction Houses and USWest Auction Houses, wouldn't there?

If they do break out paid and non-paid AHs, ala hardcore characters, I see no problem with that.
 
Actually, if you play on Hardcore servers, you never have to worry about the real-world AH. If you remember, in Hardcore mode there's no respawning...once you die, that character's dead. They didn't want people losing items they paid for with real-world money when they die.

I too am kinda curious why people think it'll kill the game or whatever. Are they worried it'll make it harder to obtain stuff on the normal AH, or what?
 
[quote name='Mattte']Well, there will still be USEast Auction Houses and USWest Auction Houses, wouldn't there?

If they do break out paid and non-paid AHs, ala hardcore characters, I see no problem with that.[/QUOTE]

That's a good point, I'm not sure on that. I assumed it would be one big AH, but it makes sense to split it up per server. And yes, they are definitely having one AH with strictly money and one with strictly gold.

[quote name='Salamando3000']I too am kinda curious why people think it'll kill the game or whatever. Are they worried it'll make it harder to obtain stuff on the normal AH, or what?[/QUOTE]

I think part of the reason is that people are worried that the gold AH will be bare. If someone gets a very rare piece of gear, they're most likely going to sell it for real money rather than gold. So if you want some of the rarer stuff, you're probably going to have to shell out real money for them.

What would be a good idea though is if the AH's were in game and you rolled your character on a gold AH server or a real money server. That way if someone on the gold server got a rare piece of gear that they wanted to sell, they'd have no choice but to sell it for gold.
 
[quote name='tcrash247']What would be a good idea though is if the AH's were in game and you rolled your character on a gold AH server or a real money server. That way if someone on the gold server got a rare piece of gear that they wanted to sell, they'd have no choice but to sell it for gold.[/QUOTE]

That was my thought too, unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's the case. Found here.

Who knows, maybe they change their mind -- or it doesn't work how it looks (that screenshot may just be a summary of account wide bids). Hopefully Blizzard clears things up soon (if they haven't already).
 
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