Diablo 3 to include real money item auctions

When Diablo 3 launches, players will be able to buy and sell any and every item in the game through real money auction houses.

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When it eventually releases, Diablo III will include player to player auctions of in-game items for real money. Blizzard's Rob Pardo introduced the unprecedented plan with four key motivations behind it. He said that players want it, and that if they [Blizzard] didn't offer it, outside companies would. Because this system will be regulated, he said that this then ensures a great experience both for buyers and sellers. Shifting focus to how it integrates with the game, Pardo explained that the random nature of getting items in Diablo perfectly suited having such an auction system. And finally, he said that they expect it to add a great deal of depth and fun to the game long-term.

The real money auction house will operate at an account level, meaning players can feed items into it from any of their characters. Much like other online auction services, Blizzard will take a fee from both the seller and buyer on every transaction. Listing fees will be a flat amount, with the threshold set such to encourage a baseline quality of items to be worth it to try and auction. A fee will also be processed at the time of sale to cover the logistics of handling the trade. To give players a chance to try it out, Pardo said that there will probably be a certain number of free listings to start with.

Sellers will face an important decision at the time of sale. Proceeds can be taken as an electronic credit to the seller's Blizzard account. Doing so, however, locks that money into the Blizzard store system and it cannot be converted to cash. A second option will be offered to receive the proceeds from a sale in cash. This payout will be handled by a third party payment provider who will charge a separate transaction fee for this service. Pardo said that they are close to announcing the company which will be handling the cash side of the system but the contracts are not finalized yet.

Diablo 3 will also include a traditional auction house using the in-game gold system. Like the real money version, it too will be at account level, allowing universal access for all the characters a player creates. Pardo also said that at this time Blizzard has no intention of creating a store to directly sell power items to players but cosmetic items have been considered.

From the financial perspective it's easy to see Blizzard's motivation for instituting an auction for cash system. Gold farming boomed in World of Warcraft, creating an extremely lucrative business that Blizzard didn't see a dime from. At the same time, combatting the efforts of those outside profiteers cost Blizzard valuable resources. From the player's standpoint, it's much more difficult to gauge the impact on the game. Pardo repeatedly said that the designers of the system expect it work smoothly because the large number of players and broad, random selection of items will work to keep the marketplace balanced. However, he admitted the team will need to monitor thing closely as it's something that's never been done before.

We'll have to wait for the final retail release to see how it works out. Due to the planned character wipe at the end of the beta, only the in-game gold auction house will be in the beta. Until then, though, there's certain to be plenty of discussion around this provocative decision.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 1, 2011 12:30 AM

    Garnett Lee posted a new article, Diablo 3 to include real money item auctions.

    When Diablo 3 launches, players will be able to buy and sell any and every item in the game through real money auction houses.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:31 AM

      Wow, crazy.

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      August 1, 2011 12:36 AM

      That sucks.

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        August 1, 2011 3:22 PM

        There is nothing wrong. There is already a market of people making money doing this unofficially. If you were blizzard you will do it too.

        It wont be filled with gold farmers now because in the case that this game makes gold farming easy and there are a lot of them then it will dilute the price downwards, so there is very little reward for farming.

        You aren't forced to buy anything, and its just an extra option. I'm not planning to buy anything.

        If your argument is that it is misrepresentative of skill/time played since people will just be able to buy their way up, well, this would happen anyway externally so it is actually an improvement, because this way the prices will at the very least be lower and hence a lower barrier to entry if it comes down to outbuying each other.

        No matter how you spin it, this is a good thing.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:36 AM

      EXCEPT IN HARDCORE MODE which might actually drive me to play HC for once.

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      August 1, 2011 12:37 AM

      Well that sucks.

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      August 1, 2011 12:39 AM

      Yet another thing that gamers will bitch about, along with the online DRM, yet will buy the game anyway.

      The only thing that bothered me about this whole presentation is that the game looks kinda crap. Not a lot of enemies on screen, and it all looks WoW-ized. I'm very much leaning towards a no-buy. With Battlefield 3 and SW: TOR, I doubt I'd have the time to worry about D3 anyway.

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        August 1, 2011 12:45 AM

        If they bitch then they must have missed the part where they said they're still including an in-game currency AH still. So, this real world thing is optional and only serves to stop people from going to third party auction sites for this sort of thing.

        Basically, it changes nothing but I'm sure people will overlook this.

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          August 1, 2011 3:56 AM

          Having it in-game obviously gives more people the incentive to use it. Not everyone used D2 forum gold et al.

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          August 1, 2011 7:36 AM

          Yea this is just another over reaction by the internet hordes that cry foul anytime something is changed.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 12:29 PM

        Your complaints about the game looking like crap I don't agree with. I've played it twice. It play's like Diablo should and look's pretty good compared to the screens.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:41 AM

      Of course, it's completely 100% optional to use this, as there are gold-only auction houses. NO OMG WORLD IS COMING TO AN END WE CAN'T HAVE THE OPTION

      Diablo 2 had this same feature. It was called the internet, and Blizzard thinks since people are going to do this anyway, they should probably have a cut of it. It's beyond me why they haven't started one for WoW while they're at it.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 1:37 AM

        It is just going to lead to 2 different Auction Houses. The real auction house where all the good items are posted for real money. And the shit auction house where everything else is dumped.

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          August 1, 2011 2:02 AM

          But it looks like you can play on the real money AH without ever spending anything yourself. Sell a few items yourself and get a balance, and use that to buy other real money items from your own sales. So you can hang out in the "good" AH and participate in the economy for no money output so long as you sell more than you buy.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 3:58 AM

            He said there would "probably" be a certain amount of free listings, but that means it's not set in stone. He confirmed there would be a listing fee normally.

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          August 1, 2011 6:16 AM

          There's no way to buy in-game gold with real money though, so when you sell an item that way you're only able to use the proceeds in the RMT auction house. I think plenty of people will want to stick to the in-game auction house. Hopefully you can list an item in both simultaneously.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 6:19 AM

            Some of the RPS comments indicated this was not the case, that nearly anything can be sold (including gold) on either auction house, meaning that you can pay real world money for in-game gold.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 6:40 AM

            [deleted]

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 7:40 AM

              wow, legitimized gold farming!

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 7:42 AM

                shit yeah. time to quit my job. get a couple diablo 3 copies and start farming!!!! :D lol

                • reply
                  August 1, 2011 7:54 AM

                  I can't wait to see the 8- and 16-box solutions people come up with. It's going to be nuts.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 2:13 AM

        It's the fracture between the two that I think is kind of strange. We'll have to wait and see how the two houses work, I guess.

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          August 1, 2011 12:45 PM

          I think the two auction houses is the best way for Blizzard to stay out of the economy and just let the market determine the real world value of in-game gold. If Blizzard were to set that price, and if they only had one auction house (that dealt in gold), Blizzard would constantly be trying to adjust their price of gold so that people who choose not to spend real money aren't getting cheated.

          For example, if Blizzard set the price of gold too low, then the prices of items would increase and people whose only income comes from playing might not be able to keep up. I would assume they could just make gold selling items, but perhaps that isn't something they want to get involved in.

          I'm very intrigued to see how this works out. Blizzard leading the way for better or worse.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:41 AM

      I really didn't expect this. I sure as hell won't be spending real money on in game AH stuff, but I can see how some people might want to. As long as it doesn't end up fucking up somehow I don't really see a problem with it.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:42 AM

      time to buy cataclysm and WoW time by farming in diablo 3 here we go

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:43 AM

      I think it's cool so long as Blizzard isn't the one selling the items.

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      August 1, 2011 12:44 AM

      I actually don't mind the idea, if you're serious, play hardcore mode. All gear has a level restriction anyways. My concern is if it will become mandatory to buy gear in order to stay with the curve in arena, knowing it not a serious mode or part of the game it would still kind of suck for it to turn into that.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 4:22 AM

        Well how does it work in Diablo 2?

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      August 1, 2011 12:45 AM

      I'm interested in how much money I could make from it.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:45 AM

      I stand corrected. This a ballsy move for sure. But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. But it still sounds like a logistical and support nightmare for them.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 1:47 AM

      [deleted]

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        August 1, 2011 5:45 AM

        Neither do I. Plus the apparently always on internet connection that they should probably have with this type of game mechanic.

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      August 1, 2011 1:55 AM

      I'm much more distressed by the fact that it will require a persistent internet connection to play, and that it will store all characters on blizzard servers.
      http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/36266/Blizzard_Reveals_Plans_for_Real_MoneyPowered_Diablo_III_Auction_House.php

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 2:08 AM

        Why does that bother you?

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          August 1, 2011 2:41 AM

          I can't play it on my laptop during work breaks or while traveling.

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          August 1, 2011 2:58 AM

          The internet service available to me is not very reliable, and prone to disconnect every now and then.
          In addition, call me old fashioned, but I like my saved games on my own hard disk.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 2:23 AM

        So did Diablo 2, unless you played single player or on open b.net (or, in other words, with characters hacked to hell and back). And playing Diablo games in single player kind of defeats the purpose of these types of games.

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          August 1, 2011 2:46 AM

          [deleted]

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          August 1, 2011 2:59 AM

          Single player and LAN diablo 2 was the best thing ever!

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 3:11 AM

          [deleted]

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            August 1, 2011 4:20 AM

            I didn't realize people actually played Diablo 2 offline for any significant amount of time.

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              August 1, 2011 4:23 AM

              Pretty sure those offline people are in the vast minority, they are vocal about it too.

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 4:30 AM

                [deleted]

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 9:43 AM

                You have a very, very warped impression of the majority of game players if you think that's correct. Think about the era in which Diablo 2 came out. The vast majority of them played the game offline.

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                August 1, 2011 9:50 AM

                people playing offline are pretty much never a vast minority, including the biggest MP shooters

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                August 1, 2011 12:34 PM

                Most people I know that played D2 played offline or would just lan. I played a little bit online but I was tired of how everything just turned into a rush and people hacked the shit out of items when I was on. Single player and lan were much more fun and rewarding for me.

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 12:55 PM

                Swing and a miss!

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 5:23 AM

              Almost all my time spent playing D2 was offline.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 8:30 AM

            [deleted]

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 1:51 PM

            You missed out. Online was a completely different ballgame. Once I went online I never went back to single player.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 4:21 AM

          No

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 5:58 AM

          Why don't you just go all the way and say that Torchlight should never have existed?

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            August 1, 2011 7:03 AM

            Everyone bitched about Torchlight being SP only!

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 8:50 AM

              EveryonePeople that wanted it to be multiplayer bitched about Torchlight being SP only!

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 11:15 AM

              I would have liked a MP component to Torchlight and still would have played it primarily in SP. I don't understand why complaining about the lack of one component means people don't want the other component.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 6:48 AM

          I played D2 and LoD in single player mode exclusively. I enjoyed playing at my own pace and taking time to enjoy the storyline.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 4:38 AM

        welcome to typical gaming trends of 2011 gaming?

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 6:51 AM

          Thanks. Where can I find the mens room?

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 1:13 PM

        I don't understand what all the fuss is about that. WoW requires the same thing. I highly doubt this will result in a noticeable loss in sales, and will improve things for majority of the people who don't mind it.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 2:44 AM

      blizzard is turning into another Zynga

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      August 1, 2011 4:22 AM

      They knew ebayers would do it anyways, so they figured they would get a cut on all of the sales

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 4:46 AM

      Nearly everything that drops on the ground, including gold, can be traded with other players directly or through the auction house system. Aside from certain quest items, there will be very few (if any) items that will be “soulbound” to your character and therefore untradable. We are also planning to allow players to buy and sell characters in the auction house at some point in the future and will have more details to share on that at a later date.

      they finally did it, I hope this happens to all the blizzard games.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 7:53 AM

        Yeah, I think it's kind of cool.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 4:53 AM

      And millions of Chinese gold farmers scream out in agony at the loss of their livelihood.

      This is actually a brilliant move. I won't use it, but the devs are going to rake in some money taking a cut. Would be nice if this funded DLCs so we don't have to pay for them.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 6:00 AM

        [deleted]

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          August 1, 2011 6:24 AM

          Prices will be way lower through the legit auction house than what you could get in the black market one, because there will be far more people participating. It probably won't be worth the gold farmers' time.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:02 AM

      And this too will be exploited and used by foreign armies to amass large amounts of cash.

      "Mom, I have a job. I farm Diablo 3 gear."

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:09 AM

      At this point I'm more pumped for T2

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:15 AM

      Danger, danger Will Robinson!

      Red flag, cross the line, turning point...

      Whatever happened to Blizzard's ideology that items that are for sale have no impact on gameplay... so players can't essentially 'ebay' their characters? All the game I know of that allow you to exchange real world money for in game items are all terrible with the exception of TF2. However, in TF2 it's quite easy to get said items by in game means and you aren't at a disadvantage if you don't have them (even the base items are still pretty good).

      This is a step in a very wrong direction.

      "He said that players want it, and that if they [Blizzard] didn't offer it, outside companies would."

      Another company is going to make a Diablo 3 and sell items in it? ...or are they attempting to say they have absolutely no control over their world and gold sellers that operate in it?

      The former is hard to believe and the later will always have gold sellers operating illegally outside of their means for cheaper then anyone that works inside of it.

      "At the same time, combatting the efforts of those outside profiteers cost Blizzard valuable resources."

      It's tough fucking shit being the good guy and standing up for things in the world. I'm sorry that underhanded means of making business generate a lot of money. Drug and firearm trades are definitely lucrative too.

      "However, he admitted the team will need to monitor thing closely as it's something that's never been done before"

      No, you know what? It's going to spiral completely out of control. As soon as people start putting a value on an item in real world money and they DEVALUE it, then they can come back and bitch about how much worse it is and that what they have isn't what they bought. With in game currency you can say tough shit, but when people spend actual money on something it definitely rubs them the wrong way when you spit on it.

      This is a huge balancing issue and this is one of the reasons Blizzard didn't put items up for money in the first place. Even if they don't sell the items themselves, what they're doing is the same thing, they're just trying to pretend they have no hand in what happens besides skimming the coughers.

      Oh, and I'm still waiting to see the 'premium' maps pop up on SC2 for sale. All I've seen so far is a couple decent maps that were made before SC2 launched and that are still being played and a bunch of DotA, zombie, tower D, and protect the guy clones. It's funny how everyone forgot about what Blizzard was going to do and it just kinda disapeared without anyone noticing.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 6:33 AM

        What happened to Blizzard? They read too many articles about legalizing weed.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 6:38 AM

        blizzard made an announcement within the past few weeks that the SC2 market is coming soon.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 7:16 AM

        You can thank Activision for shitting up Blizzard.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 7:46 AM

        Yea, I'm worried now the game will never be able to be balanced in the proper sense. Once someone drops $10 on an item (or more, who the hell knows) they're going to throw a shitfit if it gets nerfed, and in some ways they have a right to since it's now an actual legitimate part of the game.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 9:47 AM

          This already happens in tf2. Items are changed all the time and there isn't a huge outcry.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 12:53 PM

            TF2 is not a RPG. Items in TF2 are easily acquirable by people outside of spending money and their most profitable item are hats.

            The BASE items in TF2, you get when you start the game, are still also very usable and still some of the best in the game. New items are balanced around it. Items in a RPG like this aren't balanced around a couple items, there is a perpetual gear escalator.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 11:16 AM

          Didn't they say they weren't looking to balance the game in a PvP sense, so it doesn't matter all that much if if Joe Schmoe was silly enough to pay to get Cockblade of Burning Discharge.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:16 AM

      I'm sure activision had some part in this

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 7:22 AM

        some part every part.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 8:45 AM

        Again, what does Activision have to do with Blizzard? Aside from being owned by Vivendi, they're two, completely seperate companies. This would be like blaming Bethesda for the inclusion of long chat trees and a buggy game code in Heart of the Swarm.

        You people...

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 3:13 PM

          Not anymore. IIRC, Mike Morhaime reports to Bobby Kotick. They've been making organizational changes in the past year or so, and are obviously emphasizing turning all of their games into services.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:19 AM

      Who is Garnett Lee?

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 5:27 AM

        Some writer from NeoGaf. For some reason Shacknews reprints his articles.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 5:29 AM

          Is he that guy from the 1up podcast? Never used the 1up boards just spoke about Neogaf all the time? Then he went to some other site, can't remember the name - and continued to do nothing but speak about Neogaf? He works for Neogaf right?

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 10:31 AM

            Yeah, he is from the 1up podcast and talks about Neogaf all the time.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 5:29 AM

          Abrasion does not approve.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 1:07 PM

        Like, who are you, man?

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:26 AM

      Good move. Create an economy. Provide a legitimate way of selling your items for real (and in game) money. Reap rewards. Promote more farming.

      Their games are all turning into online farming machines.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:48 AM

      [deleted]

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:02 AM

        It would actually make me laugh if this became the case...hell, I was a fiend at playing the auction house in WoW in my spare time. It would be even more awesome if I could make actual money doing the same thing.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:49 AM

      I'm not sure why anyone would be against this. Blizzard is taking ebay out of the picture and giving players a method to sell shit that is allowed by their ToS.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:55 AM

      I'll be interested to see Chris Remo's reaction to this. I'll be playing Idle Thumbs 23 (At The Mountains of Money) for a comparison.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:57 AM

      I seriously wonder if this is going to make the game fall under gambling rules and restrictions, given that the loot drops in the game are effectively games of chance.

      If the money you get from a sale can only be used to buy items from the store, they're probably ok (would be the equivalent of f2p microtransactions) but if you can take out money, some gov't somewhere will be all over this.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 5:58 AM

      [deleted]

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        August 1, 2011 6:02 AM

        [deleted]

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        August 1, 2011 6:06 AM

        Is it really surprising coming from blizzard?

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        August 1, 2011 6:11 AM

        Do you just pretend that ebay doesnt exist and isnt used to sell wow and diablo items right now?

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        August 1, 2011 1:43 PM

        Diablo is not and likely will not be something to be competitive about. When playing with people that optimize their characters, they will be 10-30% better at whatever probably.

        But it doesn't matter. At all.

        The only way it would matter is if you were a competing item seller and mob kill rate was a direct reflection on how much money you made.

    • Ziz legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      August 1, 2011 6:01 AM

      And who said ya can't get rich playing games!?

    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
      reply
      August 1, 2011 6:22 AM

      I don't think anyone will get rich off this. Now that it's legit there will be far more people participating and the prices will be fair. The only downside in my mind is that it allows rich players to bypass everything the game is about and just have all the best loot without having to play at all. I don't much care about that for co-op but I sure hope they figure out gear balance in PvP.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 6:28 AM

        yep. blizzard is wisely planning this. in the "skip as much as possible" era, they are going to allow it to happen rather than fight it. immediate gratification people will buy up loot, characters, whatever - in the interest of reducing their efforts.

        might as well enable poopsockers to cash out and blizzard gets a cut along the way.

        kiddos that never want to put any effort into games will swipe that credit card without hesitation. everyone wins.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 6:35 AM

        The rich could always have done this. It would have just cost them more.

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          August 1, 2011 6:37 AM

          Yes but there's no denying that they're now much more likely to do it. It will be much more obvious to casual players, and there will be no chance of getting scammed which might have prevented intelligent people from doing it before.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 6:55 AM

        It's always the rich. Why do they have to make so much money? Why can't every one be poor?

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 7:06 AM

      So pretty much its going to be about who has the biggest BANK ROLL IRL to compete in PVP.

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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        August 1, 2011 7:13 AM

        PvP is going to be bullshit no matter what if they let people use whatever gear they want. If it's not rich boys with twinked characters it's 13 year olds farming all day for the rarest uber loot. I really hope they have a PvP mode that's gear-regulated, i.e. give everyone a choice from a few standard sets to play in.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 7:20 AM

          [deleted]

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 7:21 AM

          Well i know they said PVP will not be balanced and it will be second to the PVE, but still, this is going to break pvp.

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          August 1, 2011 7:33 AM

          I think Blizzard was supposed to do this with battlegrounds in WoW. I don't know if they ever got around to doing it though. It seems easy enough to give the items a 'gear score' and that would give you an average. Then maybe compute win/loss ratio and factor it in with the gear in the PVP match making.

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          August 1, 2011 7:40 AM

          well this should help a bit, if they leverage wow's client/server technology to verify items and such.

          but you are correct, people bitch at both ends of the spectrum. the poopsocking highschool and college kids get all this shit, and people complain. then they can sell it to adults that have jobs and see the opportunity to bypass a lot of stuff... and then people still complain.

          at least it will be legitimized and not duped and hacked up. maybe i can quit my job and play diablo 3 all day all night and sell loots and characters omfg

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 7:15 AM

        Or plays the most. Of course, PvP isn't balanced at all anyways.

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        August 1, 2011 8:07 AM

        Unlike Diablo 2 where everyone duels honourably with their completely legitimately acquired perfect stat gear with a couple 12 in a million runes.

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          August 1, 2011 8:09 AM

          haha. No shit :)

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          August 1, 2011 8:13 AM

          If anything, it keeps the cost of entry low for people who take a decade off.

          Trying to get into Diablo 2 now would be a nightmare, since you don't have the huge surplus of 1-in-a-million runes to buy shit with.

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      August 1, 2011 7:37 AM

      I'm really conflicted about this. On one hand people were already paying real money to buy items from 3rd party websites (I've actually done this myself). On the other hand, I feel like this basically turns the game into Ebay. Why spend 4 hours MFing loot when you could just fire up the auction house and drop some cash.

      I guess I'm worried part of me will just take the "pay for loot route" they make it easily available in game, therefore I won't actually be _playing_ the game, I'll just be searching for items in their auction-house browser.

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        August 1, 2011 7:42 AM

        Also, I'm wondering if this might screw up the economy in the long run. There can't be any ladder resets, and Blizzard can't do any serious rebalancing or people will throw a shitfit.

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          August 1, 2011 7:45 AM

          well since it will be tied to REAL money, there will be an upgrade to buyer's remorse. I'm sure there will be an item that has an "oopsie" on it, like some uber purple weapon that has no level requirement and it will go for a bazillion real dollars for a while.... then it gets fixed. just like in WoW, but the first folks bought it with real money and the item has changed and can't be used on their level 1 characters anymore

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 7:47 AM

            Yea, but now in effect Blizzard is selling it (since it's _their_ action house, run by their servers, with the items they designed), not some dude on Ebay.

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              August 1, 2011 7:48 AM

              It's not Blizzard selling it. Blizzard just has an in-game ebay.

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              August 1, 2011 8:34 AM

              Blizzard isn't taking the money, just a cut from the AH.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 9:47 AM

            So?

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 7:48 AM

          It's an in-game ebay. You're not buying items directly from Blizzard.

          I doubt it'll prevent Blizzard from rebalancing anything, and Diablo's economy has always been fucked up in the long run. The end-state of this is likely being able to buy uber items for a few bucks, if that.

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            August 1, 2011 7:54 AM

            Ebay still assumes some responsibility for what is sold through them. Ebay also doesn't have the ability to retroactively nerf a TV you bought on their website.

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              August 1, 2011 7:58 AM

              There will definitely be a "use at your own risk" clause.

              I don't know. I don't see this as being the "omg Diablo is dead!" shit some people do, nor do I see it as a necessity to enjoy the game.

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 8:02 AM

                Also, just reading more about it, apparently you can put money in through Battle.net, but you can't take money out through Battle.net. You have to go through a "3rd party" to withdraw money. That's kind of weird, especially since it seems like they want to say "this stuff is going to happen anyway, we just want to give people a secure environment to do it in".

                • reply
                  August 1, 2011 8:04 AM

                  Probably paypal.

                  The Battle.net store has a mechanism to charge your cc directly, but doesn't have one to deposit money into your bank account. I doubt Blizzard wants to setup the infrastructure necessary to handle direct bank transfers, anyway, and (afaik) they already have a dealie with paypal, so...

                  • reply
                    August 1, 2011 8:09 AM

                    Plus it puts them at future risk in case congress moves on online transactions.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 8:38 AM

          Blizzard can make ladders that exclude RMT purchases if they want, and Blizzard can happily rebalance anything, shitfit or no.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 9:46 AM

          Who says they cant rebalance stuff? Everyone playing these types of games should be well aware of potential balance changes. buying an item through an auction doesnt change that at all

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:49 AM

        as long as *someone* still has to spend 4 hours MF'ing loot, it doesn't seem so bad imo. It'd be different if you could directly buy items from Blizzard that materialized out of thin air.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 7:46 AM

      I'm shocked. Blizzard ham-fistedly monetizing? It's not like they've already done an MMO for that same reason or anything...

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 7:48 AM

        I was under the impression that they still frowned on gold farming?

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 7:49 AM

      Diablo 3 everyone has their own loot now right? So you can't get ninja'd or ninja someone elses loot? Would be awesome to see some super rare item that sells for hundreds of dollars get ninja'd away from you.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 8:36 AM

        Correct, the loot you see drop is yours. You have to drop an item manually from your bags for another player to see it and be able to take it.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 7:50 AM

      One of the best franchises of all time is now ruined. Sure, we can look at it as though there doing something good here since stuff is sold online anyhow, but anyone with a half a pebble in their head can figure out just how bad this will ruin the gaming experience. Face it people, Diablo is dead and it seems to be a steady trend across the board.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 7:51 AM

        THE SKY IS FALLING

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 8:03 AM

        I wish hyperbole would make a comeback on the internet. I don't think people are overblown and crazy sounding enough in the new level headed post Obama world.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 8:20 AM

          I'M TAKING MY COMPUTER TO BLIZZARD'S OFFICE AND WILL PERSONALLY DROP MY PANTS, PLACE MY COMPUTER AT THEIR FEET, TURN AROUND, AND DROP A GIANT SHIT ON SAID COMPUTER. I WILL EXPLAIN TO THESE IDIOTS THAT THIS IS A SYMBOLIC GESTURE, MEANING THAT THIS IS WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO HUMANITY AND ALL OF GAMING. I WILL HAVE THE CITY COUNCIL DRAFT A RESOLUTION DECLARING THAT DAY TO BE "THE DAY THAT BLIZZARD KILLED THE DIABLO FRANCHISE". I'LL THEN CHOP OFF MY OWN LEG, HOBBLE DOWN TO THE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, HAVE MY NAME LEGALLY CHANGED TO WIRT, THEN KILL MYSELF.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 8:21 AM

            I find that hard to believe.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 8:23 AM

            I want to play the class that gets big awesome armor and weapons. What are you going to play?

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 8:31 AM

              Fkn witch doctor dude. Looks saweeeeeeeet.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 8:23 AM

            you don't even know what blizzard is at this point, scrub! lrn2game n00b

            you are probably still on some shitty laptop on battery power on their neighbor's wireless B with one bar of reception

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 8:28 AM

              Tazemebro > Your fahort mage!

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 8:48 AM

        Are you saying you can't somehow play offline, and/or not use the RMT features? Oh the tragedy!

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 8:50 AM

        you heard it here first folks!!! diablo is dead!!!

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 9:06 AM

          This does solidify the "Diablo died when Blizzard North closed down" attitude. Over two years ago, that cry came out when the first videos of "WoW-palette Diablo 3" were released. Now that there's no single-player offline, and there's a freemium economy, it's not the same type of game as Diablo 1, in many ways. It's a locked-down quasi-MMO that forbids user-created content.

          Diablo 1 ain't coming back; the closest thing will be Torchlight 2.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 9:25 AM

            Diablo 2 wasn't the same type of game as Diablo 1 either.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 9:34 AM

            You are defining the game based on irrelevant features. It looks like diablo, and presumably plays like diablo. its fucking diablo.

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 9:44 AM

              It's more like a revolution in Diablo than an evolution of Diablo. Some core things are changing with this revision that shake things up considerably.

              When taken as a whole, each of these pieces of news aren't considerably shocking:

              1) No mods makes sense if they're trying to mitigate content control issues
              2) Always online makes sense if they're trying to tightly control the content market
              3) Real-world money AH house raises the stakes for the content market, too, so 1 and 2 are put into perspective.

              This also tells me Blizzard will heavily crack down on people trying to patch in support for outside servers (someone mentioned this), and perhaps some other developments, like a referral system, inspired by other in-game economy models and games.

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 9:47 AM

                That said, I don't want a WoW-like Action RPG.

                I would highly suggest that people more interested in traditional ARPG stuff gravitate towards Torchlight 2 and even invest in some modding. With the multiplayer framework, and an already-robust modding community for T1, I imagine we will see some mature content for T2 that could even rival D3.

                • reply
                  August 1, 2011 9:50 AM

                  The game is wow-like because they are adding an auction house that will probably be no more then another menu in battle.net?

                  It looks and plays like diablo. how is it any less of an ARPG then torchlight or even diablo 2 for that matter?

                  You guys are trying to argue that the gameplay changes because of features being added to battle.net. it makes no sense at all.

                • reply
                  August 1, 2011 9:59 AM

                  How is Diablo 3 "Wow-like" ?

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 9:50 AM

                also lol: AH house

                department of redundancy department

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 9:52 AM

                2. Always online makes sense if they want Diablo 3's economy and loot to more closely resemble WoW than D2: ie not full of hacks and dupes, which I am all for. Whether there was real money involved doesn't really change that aspect for me.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 8:54 AM

        Face it people

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:47 AM

        I'm just going to play the game till I make all my money back.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 11:04 AM

        God damn, let's try and overreact more next time. I think you have at least another ounce of it left to milk.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 8:12 AM

      Just an expected, natural step in the "games as service" evolution.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 8:21 AM

      kgargs - at least now you don't have to understand the appeal of loot in games like this since you can just buy it with $$$$$$$! how excited are you for diablo 3 now? plz response btw kgargs

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 8:23 AM

      The young highschool version of me would say this is a shitty and unfair. But the grown-up version of me with an income and a life says this is an awesome idea.

      Definitely gonna miss the drop loot nostalgia though.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 8:23 AM

      Diablo 3 the new unofficially disclosed MMO by Blizz.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 8:46 AM

      Well I guess that's reason enough for me not to get Diablo 3. Blizzards greed just went over the top. I Wonder how long until they start selling gold in WOW.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 8:55 AM

        lol

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 8:59 AM

        It really makes you think. :/

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 8:59 AM

        Hahahahaha. What do you suggest they do? People have proven to be VERY willing to spend money for gold/items already. Enough so that they are willing to be BANNED for it.

        Why would Blizzard continue to fight on the wrong side of that battle? People are throwing money at this. Why not take a cut? I don't blame them at all. I actually kinda like this, because now I can sell stuff for real money too, even if it only pays for lunch.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:11 AM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:17 AM

        Gonna tag this post to come back to it on December 27th.

        "hay guys what's your name need someone to run a dungeon with"

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:31 AM

        I'm not one of those lets boycott this game type. Its just me not buying this game. They just made it so now the farmers can do it legally, and overrun your game.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 9:38 AM

          as opposed to the farmers doing it illegally, and overrunning your game still. how dumb of blizzard to do such a thing.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 9:44 AM

          One less person to undercut my auctions. Thanks!

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 11:42 AM

          But now you can sell your items too. Take the money from those sales and buy new ones.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 12:17 PM

            There are still in-game auctions and trading you can do.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 12:48 PM

        Not soon enough imo

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 8:59 AM

      This thread is everything I hoped it would be.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 9:06 AM

      Well Blizz can always give a double standard of their commitment to quality games:


      From Blizzard in 2007: The game's Terms of Use clearly states that all World of Warcraft content is the property of Blizzard Entertainment, and Blizzard does not allow 'in-game' items to be sold for real money. Not only do we believe that doing so would be illegal, but it also has the potential to damage the game economy and overall experience for the many thousands of others who play World of Warcraft for fun ... While we can understand the temptation to purchase items for real money, we feel that players can find ample equipment and money for their characters within the game through their own adventuring and questing.

      Hrmm, oh wait, I am sorry, D3 does not apply right? Pfffffttttt, nice going Blizz.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:14 AM

        I can't say for sure, but it might have something to do with WoW being subscription-based?

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 9:08 AM

      I wonder if anyone will actually be able to make a "living" in the USA selling items in Diablo 3?

      Follow up: I wonder if the success or failure of this auction house model will be a precursor to it appearing in WoW.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 9:10 AM

      You would think that the Government or Security issues would arise. Sums of money being sent to North Korea, or other hot spot locations you'd think the feds would be going nuts.

      V

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 9:18 AM

      The more I think about it, the more I think the problem is with the psychology of Diablo's gameplay. It's really the convenience the proposed auction house that I see as the problem. Before you'd have to go to d2sale.com or something, search for items, enter your paypal info, check your email to get the name of the game + password, login with your mule, go to the game and pick up the items, logoff and bring your mule into another game with your character...

      It was kind of a pain in the ass. Now you'll just be in a D3 game, click the "auction house button", search for items, and then click "buy it now!" only to have the item immediately dropped in your inventory.

      Written another way by PC Gamer:


      "I have a different concern. To me, the pleasure of Diablo is finding these items – that nerdy thrill of seeing some gold letters amongst the loot that twirls out of a dying boss. Better still, of finding a randomly generated weapon whose stats put my current kit to shame.

      I don’t mind that I’ll be able to sell that for real money in Diablo 3, but I mind that I could have just bought it in the first place. Not for some prohibitively huge some of in-game gold, but the spare change in my wallet.

      I asked Jay if they saw this as a problem. “That’s not anything different than Diablo 2,” he says. “The best items that came through that game did come through trading, and came through interacting with other players.”

      True for some, I guess, but one of the reasons they’re doing this is that there weren’t convenient ways to find and trade items in the previous Diablo games, and no safe way to do so for real money. By making it easy, legal and searchable, Blizzard have put the boring option temptingly close to the long and rewarding search for great loot. I don’t have to take it, of course, but I worry the search will seem that much longer and less rewarding with a Buy It Now button nestled right next to it."

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:24 AM

        I agree with this unfortunately, but I will wait to see how it works out to place judgement.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 9:19 AM

      Awful.
      Next thing you know they'll be announcing that it won't be on Steam.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 9:20 AM

      Next stop. WoW goes free to play (except you'll have to buy everything with real money)

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:27 AM

        You have to pay to level up?

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 9:38 AM

          I'd be more than willing to pay $25 for a blank lvl 85 toon. Not talents, No armor or weapons, no gold or profs. Just level 85 Class/Race of my choice for $25. I'd soooo pay it.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 9:26 AM

      I MUST ALERT THE INTERNET AS TO WHETHER I WILL BUY THE GAME OR NOT BASED ON A RECENT DEVELOPMENT!

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 9:28 AM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 9:29 AM

          I know they will. I'm not worried. They just have to express their outrage before they fall into line the acceptance line. :D

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 9:54 AM

            Speak for yourself only. I been gaming far too many years and I am pretty much done with it anyhow. The industry has gone in the wrong direction for my tastes and this was the nail in the coffin for me and D3. But if you like being part of the SHEEPIL, then go right ahead and lead your line...

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 9:59 AM

              lol wow

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 10:00 AM

              "SHEEPIL"

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 10:06 AM

              [deleted]

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 10:13 AM

              Blizzard did 9-11.

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 10:14 AM

              Yeah Idiocracy was a documentary amirite?

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 10:17 AM

              Is that the official spelling of SHEEPIL, with the caps and all?

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 10:34 AM

                Hrmm, good question. We could make it official for dramatization effect. I doubt it works anyhow. It's like the giant red sign over the cashier line of the express lane that says 12 items or less and the 15 people in front of you just don't care to see it. I guess I could have used the Lemming scenario it's really the same thing....

                • reply
                  August 1, 2011 11:22 AM

                  but if the cashier rings the 15 people through, it's all good

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 10:39 AM

              fuck you BLI$$ARD

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 9:37 AM

          I guarantee I will buy this. However, I am concerned it will affect my long-term enjoyment. D2 was fun because it was a loot-finding game. D3 could turn into an ebay-searching game.

          I know you could buy items in D2 previously, I even bought some stuff myself from websites. However, it was pretty inconvenient and expensive to get really good stuff. I'm almost worried now it will be too convenient (and possibly cheaper if everyone is selling stuff) to get items. It might not affect how much I enjoy the game in the next year, but it might affect how much I'll enjoy it for the next 5+ years.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 9:38 AM

            Also, they had ladder resets before to refresh the economy, now stuff could just pile up for years. I know they have crafting to try to take some items out of the economy, but no one is going to craft some uber-equipment.

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 9:39 AM

              er, I should say "break down some uber-equipment for crafting".

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 9:41 AM

            just because the system is there doesnt mean you have to use it.

            I have a feeling that blizz will test a completely open auction house (ie. every item) and find that it doesnt work very well. they should really try to incorporate some sort of soulbinding or account binding stuff.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 9:41 AM

            The counter balances they had back then will be counter balanced by other things that are NOT the same as they were back then.
            A company like Blizzard is too smart to let things like character refreshes and stuff be oversights.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 9:45 AM

            D2 was an ebay searching game too, you just didn't participate. Do some google searches. It still exists today. I suggest you avoid participating in that part of D3 as well, if it's bothersome.

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 9:47 AM

              I did participate, but not that much.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 10:27 AM

            [deleted]

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 2:52 PM

        It's certainly their prerogative to do so. *Shrug.*

        Who cares? I'm still going to buy it, but they're entitled to their opinion and ability to express it.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 9:38 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 10:53 AM

      No thanks. From that one feature I now have zero interest in this game. What a CF. D3 will be nothing but a medium for scummy people to try to make as much money as possible, rampant gold farming, hacking, etc. Utter fail.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 10:56 AM

        how's this different from the first two Diablos?

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 11:11 AM

        Erm..not really. Being as it's mostly single-player and you can get all the drops BY YOURSELF if you had the time and patience. So there won't be any gold farmers in YOUR game.

        I personally will be co-oping with 2 good friends of mine so no worries, as for buying items if it works like TF2 then fair play, you don't have to buy em if you don't want to.

        The fact this bankrupts your interest in the game is a little more than silly.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 11:24 AM

        You won't notice it if you don't visit the AH page. I don't see what the problem is here.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 11:27 AM

        oh hell yeah man utter fail great call

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 11:37 AM

      Unlike an MMO, I find that I just don't care whether this exists in Diablo 3.

      Diablo 2's "Closed" economy was affected by RMT (and probably more-so by hacking) and I just ignored all of it by playing with friends in private games.

      A potential upside of integrating RMT in-game is it will broaden the market beyond what it was in D2, making manipulation efforts more difficult. The average casual gamer doesn't involve themselves with RMT unless its an F2P game with the component integrated directly.

      Ideally, Blizzard keeps an eye on SIGNIFICANT** efforts to manipulate the market and prevents them.

      (**Emphasis on significant. Jimbob being clever and buying up today's offering of GoatBlade's to resell at a markup is not a significant market manipulation. IGE buying up 30% of items on the market to resell at a markup would be significant.)

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 11:39 AM

        To clarify: as a gamer, I don't care. The rest of my post is "As someone interested in the gaming industry, here's what I think..."

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 11:52 AM

          Yeah I pretty much feel like you. Also I am not some huge Diablo fan so if this all blows up and explodes it doesn't really matter to me. I am just excited to see how this plays out because it is new.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:00 PM

      The first few weeks of release will be interesting, as players won't have an accurate gauge as to how rare / valuable certain items are. I'd LOL if I see the equivalent of Nagelring selling for $20

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 12:18 PM

        I'll LOL when I sell it

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 1:15 PM

        Like any economy, everything's going to be outrageously over priced.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:01 PM

      Wow wtf is Blizzard doing? They take this shit way too seriously; They've taken games from leisure activity to this hardcore monetized crap.

      Let people play offline and cheat as much as they want, then you don't need to worry about policing the game.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 12:19 PM

        Why should they let people break their product and then have to support it?

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 12:22 PM

        Um, what? In D2, you could play offline and cheat as much as you want, but online still needed to be policed heavily. And it's not Blizzard that takes it way too seriously, it's us gamers. If we didn't take it seriously, would there be all those eBay auctions for ingame items?

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 12:51 PM

          But these things only have value because Blizzard polices the game. They create an artificial value for things that have no real world value.

          I'm beginning to think they should go the other way with their games. Don't police the game, let people cheat. Then these digital items will have no value, and people can go back to just playing the game to have fun.
          We don't need items in Diablo III to have real world value; It's a game, meant for entertainment not work.

          Sure there will be tons of people who have the best items in the game, but who cares? Play online with friends, or with a community who doesn't cheat.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 12:56 PM

            I don't think I can agree with that, if I get an item drop that is the best in slot for my character, but it has been duped 300000 times and worth nothing, there is no excitement in having it drop. If there's no excitement, whats the point in playing a treasure hunt game?

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 12:57 PM

            [deleted]

            • reply
              August 1, 2011 1:10 PM

              I don't agree with speed hacking or aimbots, things that break the game for other users.

              I'm just tried of virtual items having value.
              I know lots of users think that spending obscene amounts of time acquiring virtual items is fun, but I'd argue that it isn't.
              Watch this if you already haven't :
              http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2487-The-Skinner-Box

              I'm just taking the "nuclear" option here, by saying if you allow cheating then virtual items wouldn't have value. Then people enjoy playing the game rather than hording virtual items.
              There's probably a happy medium (which is probably closer to what was in D2).

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 1:13 PM

                Why not just take it further then. Instead of cheating, why doesn't Blizzard just give the option of having every single item in the game with a click of the button. You say acquiring items is not fun. Okay, let's eliminate that. And I guarantee you Diablo won't be nearly as popular or as played.

                • reply
                  August 1, 2011 1:17 PM

                  "I bought the game, I deserve all the items therein!!!"

                • reply
                  August 1, 2011 1:17 PM

                  I'd actually like if they did that.
                  I would play the game normally as well, but sometime it's fun to sandbox a game. Cheats allow a user to explore the entire breadth of the game without putting in the hundred or thousands of hours needed to see everything in a game.

                  Let the user define their commitment to game, not the other way around.

                  • reply
                    August 1, 2011 1:58 PM

                    The item's rarity makes it valuable which makes it exciting when it drops. If everything were to be had at the click of a button, it would not be exciting to have it finally drop from a boss. Sure, I could choose not to click the button that gives me the top gear, but its value is already diminished.

                    I want things made difficult for me. I don't want to be able to slay the dragon in one hit. I want to pull it off by the skin of my shiny teeth.

                    • reply
                      August 1, 2011 2:03 PM

                      Right, and I advocate that both options be available to the user.

                      • reply
                        August 1, 2011 2:12 PM

                        Perhaps it's a bit selfish of me, but I strongly disagree simply because it wouldn't be as fun for me (and I'm assuming for most people). Like I said, the mere existence of a button that gives me loot, even if I didn't click it, would kill my enjoyment of the game.

                • reply
                  August 1, 2011 2:05 PM

                  Dear slippery slope, how are you today?

              • reply
                August 1, 2011 1:19 PM

                Everything that takes time will have value. Period. You can never escape it.

                For games like Diablo, a good part of the enjoyment comes from the loot lottery. Take that away by giving everyone all of their virtual items, and you destroy a good part of the game.

                • reply
                  August 1, 2011 1:24 PM

                  But the loot is only one aspect of the game.

                  I've always advocated the concept of allowing the user to define their experience. Cheat codes are a great way of allowing the user to control their experience. They are totally optional but can used to remove time barriers in the game, or allow the user to do something that is not within the confines of the game rules.

                  • reply
                    August 1, 2011 1:26 PM

                    Loot and builds are what give the game longevity. After the third or fourth play through, the content just isn't going to be compelling any more.

                    • reply
                      August 1, 2011 1:43 PM

                      I'm just not interested in being tied for three of four playthroughs just to see all the loot.

                      I've got other games to play that I will actually enjoy the gameplay that don't rely on the Skinner box technique to keep me playing. I don't plan on making a career out of playing Diablo III

                      • reply
                        August 1, 2011 1:48 PM

                        You will never, ever see all of the loot. Not in three, four, or a dozen playthroughs.

                        Equating "seeing all of the content" to "seeing all of the loot" in a game like Diablo is a bad way to go.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:28 PM

      What's everyone complaining about... big deal. I think its a great idea. Keeps the game alive at least. Same goes for WOW.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 12:54 PM

      Is this just a lot of poor people complaining?

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 2:14 PM

        I think this is great for poor people. Play game, sell loot, get beer money.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 1:08 PM

      can't wait to change my career.. professional D3 item seller

      i will be a millionaire!!

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 1:13 PM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 1:19 PM

      /ooc WTS Superior Lick King Sword of Money Making x 1. PST

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 1:24 PM

      Sounds like a bad move. Although I've never been excited about D3 anyway (LOL SHACKPILE). All this does is make gamers with more money, more powerful. I would rather have a subscription fee than this bullshit.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 3:14 PM

        As opposed to making gamers with more free time more powerful, which is A-OK.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 1:26 PM

      I can't wait to get 50,000 in Diablo 3.

    • reply
      August 1, 2011 1:39 PM

      I wonder how long it will take for the dupes to show up, especially if you can sell things for real cash.

      • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
        reply
        August 1, 2011 1:41 PM

        Given that it's always-online, I'm sure it will be no more easily dupeable than WoW.

      • reply
        August 1, 2011 1:43 PM

        It'll get handled quickly. As I posted in the other Diablo 3 thread, this is tied into the content tracking system that WoW uses. Every item drop of every boss is recorded on the Battle.net servers. Every trade, auction, item sold, item bought or mail/message sent is stored by Blizzard.

        If they detect duplication they can track down the duplicate item to the moment it was created, delete it, refund any money paid, and ban the user who created it.

        • reply
          August 1, 2011 1:49 PM

          This is real money now. The incentive to dupe has just been increased a hundred fold.

          It isn't a huge problem in WoW because it's hard to monetize, but with this it is right here. I can't imagine how many people are going to be looking for these things.

          It'll be bad the first few weeks I imagine.

          • reply
            August 1, 2011 2:07 PM

            Just imagine the account hacking. Now I'm going to get scam emails from wow and d3. =\

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              August 1, 2011 2:29 PM

              How do you not have a secondary email for such things, setup with filters so trusted ~game company~ emails go through to your main's inbox and the rest is trashed? :)

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            August 1, 2011 2:12 PM

            Does desire to dupe somehow magically facilitate its feasibility? I'm not saying it isn't possible, but this isn't a matter of hex editing a couple files and walking off to the bank laughing.

            Also lol@ your assumption that it isn't a huge problem in WoW because it's "hard to monetize". It's not a huge problem in WoW because it's fucking hard to do, period. The concept of duping for profit is identical for both D3 and WoW. You dupe items and sell. In WoW there is the middle man step of turning the items into gold, but those are easily liquified into cash through the right channels.

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              August 1, 2011 2:21 PM

              The rewards (cash payments) are now very easy to get once completed. Real money provides the incentive to have more people looking for these types of exploits.

              There are certainly people in WoW that look for this, but the only thing you can really monetize is the gold since the majority of useful items are not allowed to be traded.

              In Diablo 3, you presumably can trade all (or most at least) items and any dupe exploit would be quite disruptive.

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                August 1, 2011 2:25 PM

                A dupe exploit is found, and the second an item is found twice by people willing to dupe it is the very same second the price is driven down to a single penny.

                Or someone buys the item for a decent amount, dupes it, then initiates the price war.

                The end-state for any of these is the same -- the market gets flooded, and the price hits the minimum.

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                  August 1, 2011 2:30 PM

                  The ability to dupe is not going to be publicized for exactly the reason you mention. Unless someone makes a million dollars or something and then says "lol suckers" or something at least.

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                    August 1, 2011 2:42 PM

                    I've got some bad news for you. While not all dupe exploits get publicized, most do. If you find a dupe, chances are it's been posted about someplace. This started back in the early days with sites like Dr. Twister and have continued to this day in the form of pay to access forums.

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            August 1, 2011 2:13 PM

            There's a real money economy for WoW, it is significant enough that there are large companies whose only job is to make money in WoW.

            Duplication will not be an issue for the reasons I mention above. I'm not kidding when I say every single transaction of every type is recorded. They record and store everything. They record: Every drop from every enemy in every game world, every coin drop, every player-to-player trade, every auction created, every auction completed and money transfer, every item sold/bought from a vendor.

            They even have the ability to record all of the raid/instance data for any guild or player if they need to. (They do this to balance after major content releases).

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              August 1, 2011 2:15 PM

              This, BTW, is how the account specialists recover items for accounts that are hacked. They can pull up the transaction history for any player (though it takes time if that data occurred after a 'patch day' since part of that process is compression and off-loading of that transaction data) including every item acquired, used, enchanted and sold/sharded. They can recover the inventory to the exact state before the hack.

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              August 1, 2011 2:22 PM

              I know Blizzard has tracked items for a long time, but I thought they couldn't move money over to that system because of backend issues? That's why WoW fell prey to some of the old school MMO dupes that have worked in a number of games.

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              August 1, 2011 2:25 PM

              But you can only realistically make money off gold selling via whatever method you do to generate that gold (account stealing, farming, whatever).

              This would be every single item.

              The only way that this would not be a problem if there is some sort of automatic way to detect and remove duplicates within moments of their appearance. As soon as it goes for sale and someone buys it you can't delete it without some serious problems because now someone has paid real money for an item that just disappeared.

              I don't know how practical it is to instantly detect and remove, but there will likely be holes in the detection methods that will be found.

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                August 1, 2011 2:31 PM

                WoW already does this. On drop every item has a unique identifier and is created server-side only. The database does not allow duplicates to occur because the client has no 'items' or ownership. This is why loot lag used to be so bad in WoW. When you 'picked up' an item the client was waiting for the server to indicate that the item had been transferred.

                This is different from things like Minecraft where the inventory is client-side. This is why you don't see item hacks on WoW, only account hacks/farming/sharding.

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                  August 1, 2011 2:35 PM

                  In addition (a change from D2) WoW's item list (an oracle database) is kept separate from the server (character/mob) storage. Items are requested (when a mob is killed) by the server, the items are generated and handed to the server to allow client interaction.

                  Should the server crash, the item server still knows where all the items are located. Items that were never picked up are pruned during the next maintenance day.

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                August 1, 2011 2:38 PM

                They can and do do this. In dupe bug cases in the past, they tracked back the item ID information to the sellers and banned them and any associated accounts. If the end buyer was determined to not be linked to the seller, items/gold were not removed.

                It's an issue that has been solved in the MMO space; it just takes money to handle the bandwith/storage requirements and some incentive to actually go to that effort. Blizzard has plenty of money and incentive, so they've become very good at it.

                In general, duping isn't and has never been the best way to generate gold for gold selling. It raises red flags even quicker than exploits. There's far easier and more stable ways for gold sellers to conduct their business. I recommend taking a look at this video for a bit of insight on how they generate their income. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvHcoqru7I

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                August 1, 2011 2:56 PM

                In Diablo1, when the original dupe bug was found, they didn't have dupe detection in place, and duping was extremely rampant. But duping in there literally made a copy (same unique ID per item).

                Once they added dupe detection, if you logged into a game with dupes in your inventory, it would delete them. It's pretty easy to detect and fix. That was around the Diablo1 days, I imagine they are much better at this now. I've never seen a dupe in WoW, that I recall. I'm sure it's been found at some point, but I never remember hearing about a way to do it.

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                  August 1, 2011 3:00 PM

                  The real dupe killer is the soulbound stuff.

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            August 1, 2011 2:26 PM

            not really duping, that's a dead end. bots and scripts though... now THAT is really going to see some haxoring attempts.

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          August 1, 2011 2:47 PM

          Yeah, thanks to the "only online" thing with characters, they can create a unique ID for every single item that ever drops in any person's Diablo3 game, and they can track them and ensure they remain unique.

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      August 1, 2011 1:50 PM

      I wonder why they're not doing this in WoW already?

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        August 1, 2011 2:04 PM

        It's explained in one of the interviews. Basically because WoW is all about the end-game raids for many players and if they allowed selling it'd destroy progression. Also, most items that would be worth selling are soulbound anyway.

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      August 1, 2011 2:42 PM

      So, basically the farmers will take over both AH's. They'll buy the uber items off of the gold AH and re-list for cash. The gold prices for the best items will get incredibly inflated. Players like me will do things the old-fashioned way - grab a couple friends and run bosses oursevles - but we won't be able to compete in PvP with anyone willing to open up their wallet.

      I am a self-described Blizzard fanboy but this kinda sucks, guys! I feel like the ability to spend a few bucks to gear up really cheapens the entire experience. I'm obviously still buying the game, but I'm a little less excited than I was yesterday.

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        August 1, 2011 3:11 PM

        The same thing already exists in Diablo 2. The only way to be competitive in pvp is to spend $$$ on high end runewords since you'll never, ever, ever find a Jah and Ber on your own.
        In any event, it's a moot point because Blizzard has said the pvp in D3 will match players by their gear. So it doesn't matter if you're wearing Godly Armor of Godliness or Low Quality Cracked Cloth Armor, it'll still be a level playing field.

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          August 1, 2011 6:25 PM

          I think that was a primary motivator for it, to be able to make all the crazy runewords you had to trade on d2jsp for forum gold to buy all the crap you needed.

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        August 2, 2011 8:45 AM

        This would also allow Blizzard to recognize and limit (if they so desired) purchased items in PVP.
        You could end up with servers where the reason people buy high-end high-cost items is for the bonus it gives them on loot runs in SP an Co-op but not directly against other players.
        I imagine Blizzard will provide options that meet the needs of various sub-demographics of Blizzard fans.

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      August 2, 2011 9:46 AM

      Actrually, this might be nice. I can pay for my EVE subscription by selling rare items on Diablo 3. Happy days :D

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        August 2, 2011 9:48 AM

        Also, I hope they use Paypal as the transaction agent. Would be aces!

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