Blizzard Rolls Out PayPal for Diablo 3 Auction House

[OMGIllithan]

It's not Blizzard's fault that people are willing to shell out real money for items in a video game. Because of how the Diablo loot system is structured compared to wow (no soulbound items), there isn't anything stopping people from buying items under the radar. Like the article said, people were going to do it anyways. One could argue that RPGs like this by definition "stimulate unhealthy grinding and, thus, unhealthy behavior in people" because in the end game its always a grind for gear. Adding the auction house (like the article said) at least gives people a safe environment in which to do what they were going to to anyways.

Also, if you don't like it, you don't have to use it! It'll be like its not even there. It's not like you're going to lose your raid spot because your gear isn't as good as some other guy's.

People are willing to shell out real money for items in video games because the developers are dating this business model for quite a while, and slowly expanding on it. Everyone wants a piece of the "F2P cash cow", and sadly, Blizzard is not an exception. I frankly thought that Blizzard, with its deep pockets and innovation tradition, would try to brave a different course, one that would be less 'nickel and dime'. It is one of the few companies that has the weight to do that.

But, of course, easy money is easy money, and I can't blame anyone for making a quick buck. Doesn't mean I have to like it, and doesn't mean I'll support it, though.

Also, the auction is just one of the many problems I have with the game. I think Blizzard should be clearer about it and call the game a MMO, action style. It would make things much simpler and fair, IMO.

Again, people were purchasing items in D2 through an underground market before micro transactions were a thing. You can't blame Blizzard for adding a feature for which there was a certain demand for, especially since it creates a much safer environment for the people would have purchased items regardless of whether or not Blizzard endorsed it. The thing that bothers me more than anything is the opinion that Blizzard is trying to find ways to steal your money and that because of that they're just a bunch of greedy assholes. If you think for a little bit WHY a system like this might be beneficial regardless of the stigma everyone seems to attach to the transfer of money, you'll see that this solves a major problem that D2 had, and D3 likely would have shared.

As far as the comparisons to an MMO go, Diablo is not an MMO and never will be. There is no persistent world, no synergies between classes that allow teamwork for defeating difficult foes, and most importantly, no predefined loot tables. The great thing about Diablo is that because the game isn't only about maximizing your DPS (which is honestly what end game raiding boils down to), the game is free to create utility in abilities in a way that was impossible in WoW or any MMO for that matter.

Have you checked out the skill calculators yet? I highly recommend them, if only to look at the runes.

Edit: Also, why does it make you sad that Blizzard is taking "a piece of the 'F2P cash cow'"? I mean, if people want to trivialize their experience by buying all the best equipment it doesn't affect your own experience at all. Its not like wow where you need the best equipment to get in the best guilds.

 

[LastDarkness]

Perhaps you should read more then the first couple sentances of my comment.
Your reply is pretty much summed up there already as exactly what I was talking about.
"If you dont like it, dont buy it"

Also the game does have single player, it just dosnt have offline single player. which to me is not a issue since im lucky enough to be one of the obvious few who has a constant reliable internet connection.

Theres also nothing forcing you to use the real world money auction house. Theres plenty of alternatives.

I find it remarkable how many people are writing this game off on a optional system, and reasonable security issues when the entire point of the game is to play and enjoy the continuing story of the diablo franchise and to play and have fun with other people in a social enviroment. Appearently thats not a selling point anymore.

You too would benefit in reading everything I wrote before commenting.

When I say 'single player', I guess it was obvious that I was talking about offline single player mode, since I even commented further on why I think this is a bad idea. I feel extremely relieved that you are blessed with a constant Internet connection, but many others do not have the privilege. I also happen to have a small country farm, and I won't be able to play the game while I am there. This is bad.

I find it remarkable how many people are simply dodging the fact that, while this system is 'optional', the whole game will be driven by this 'optional' system: drop rates, amount of rare and unique items, availability of items in the 'free' auction, when you can use the online auction and fetch bigger prices and potentially PayPal credits, etc, etc. The list just goes on and on, and it doesn't take a genius to realize that this 'optional' system will take precedence in all areas of gameplay and in-game market.

Also, what's reasonable for you might not be for me. Hence, my post. You have the right to find everything about this launch ok, but remember to extend me (and others) the courtesy to disagree. Simply having a nice IP is not enough for me. I demand more from the companies I spend my hard-earned money in.

I see what you did there, you took the same thing I said and then parroted it back.

So again I ask.

How does a game that works and be fully enjoyed when you log in and run it and play with your friends. Ruin your play experince because other people who you will likly never encounter and have nothing to do with are spending real money on the game?

 

[LastDarkness]

Not at all surprising, didn't we all say this back when they announced the auction house? Still, nice to have it confirmed, if not you could always suspect the worst.
Also, why are so many people confused, this is Blizzard legitimising gold farming, yes you can make real money out of it.

Except for the part where you can only spend that money on Blizzard products and services. I think using Diablo to pay for your monthly subscription to World of Warcraft would be a intresting
service.
I like the idea of simple economics they are attacking the gold spammer/farmers with, if every other single player is a rival to your bussiness who is more then willing to undercut you at every turn it hurts your bussiness. Of course they could fight this and make gold worth less and less real world money and crash the gold market as it were for example.

It's not "DRM".

The game is an online multiplayer game. It has no single player mode. If you consider this "DRM" then I think you're really pushing the boundaries here.

Completly reasonable and practical in our day and age, want to stop players from hacking in a multiplayer world. Simple save the data on your own servers. I fail to see the problem here.

 

[GeorgW]

Not at all surprising, didn't we all say this back when they announced the auction house? Still, nice to have it confirmed, if not you could always suspect the worst.
Also, why are so many people confused, this is Blizzard legitimising gold farming, yes you can make real money out of it.

Except for the part where you can only spend that money on Blizzard products and services. I think using Diablo to pay for your monthly subscription to World of Warcraft would be a intresting
service.
I like the idea of simple economics they are attacking the gold spammer/farmers with, if every other single player is a rival to your bussiness who is more then willing to undercut you at every turn it hurts your bussiness. Of course they could fight this and make gold worth less and less real world money and crash the gold market as it were for example.

It's not "DRM".

The game is an online multiplayer game. It has no single player mode. If you consider this "DRM" then I think you're really pushing the boundaries here.

Completly reasonable and practical in our day and age, want to stop players from hacking in a multiplayer world. Simple save the data on your own servers. I fail to see the problem here.

Except I've heard that there's an option for getting it in cash as well via paypal, but in a separate, not as convenient system. Also, you have to pay a flat fee to put up stuff on the real money auction house, it would be unfair it you could not make actual money from it.

 

[StrixMaxima]

Again, people were purchasing items in D2 through an underground market before micro transactions were a thing. You can't blame Blizzard for adding a feature for which there was a certain demand for, especially since it creates a much safer environment for the people would have purchased items regardless of whether or not Blizzard endorsed it. The thing that bothers me more than anything is the opinion that Blizzard is trying to find ways to steal your money and that because of that they're just a bunch of greedy assholes. If you think for a little bit WHY a system like this might be beneficial regardless of the stigma everyone seems to attach to the transfer of money, you'll see that this solves a major problem that D2 had, and D3 likely would have shared.

As far as the comparisons to an MMO go, Diablo is not an MMO and never will be. There is no persistent world, no synergies between classes that allow teamwork for defeating difficult foes, and most importantly, no predefined loot tables. The great thing about Diablo is that because the game isn't only about maximizing your DPS (which is honestly what end game raiding boils down to), the game is free to create utility in abilities in a way that was impossible in WoW or any MMO for that matter.

Have you checked out the skill calculators yet? I highly recommend them, if only to look at the runes.

Edit: Also, why does it make you sad that Blizzard is taking "a piece of the 'F2P cash cow'"? I mean, if people want to trivialize their experience by buying all the best equipment it doesn't affect your own experience at all. Its not like wow where you need the best equipment to get in the best guilds.

Yeah, that's Blizzard's trump card, and a master move, IMO: cashing in the item market. I simply think that there are a number of ways to address the issue without transforming it into a real marketplace. Blizzard could have been a little more creative there, but opted out for the easiest (and admittedly, more profitable) solution.

Again, I have no problem if little Johnny Cash sitting by my side has 50 Burizas. More power to him. What I do take offense is that, because these items will have an economic value attached to them, loot percentages will most likely be atrocious (since Blizzard wants you to keep on farming like a zombie, Their words, not mine). This affects my gameplay. I want to be able to equip myself with nice loot without having to pay for it.

I've yet to check the skill calculators. Will do that when possible.

 

[StrixMaxima]

I see what you did there, you took the same thing I said and then parroted it back.

So again I ask.

How does a game that works and be fully enjoyed when you log in and run it and play with your friends. Ruin your play experince because other people who you will likly never encounter and have nothing to do with are spending real money on the game?

Read what I wrote before in this thread. It is abundantly clear. No parrot talk.

 

[LastDarkness]

Not at all surprising, didn't we all say this back when they announced the auction house? Still, nice to have it confirmed, if not you could always suspect the worst.
Also, why are so many people confused, this is Blizzard legitimising gold farming, yes you can make real money out of it.

Except for the part where you can only spend that money on Blizzard products and services. I think using Diablo to pay for your monthly subscription to World of Warcraft would be a intresting
service.
I like the idea of simple economics they are attacking the gold spammer/farmers with, if every other single player is a rival to your bussiness who is more then willing to undercut you at every turn it hurts your bussiness. Of course they could fight this and make gold worth less and less real world money and crash the gold market as it were for example.

It's not "DRM".

The game is an online multiplayer game. It has no single player mode. If you consider this "DRM" then I think you're really pushing the boundaries here.

Completly reasonable and practical in our day and age, want to stop players from hacking in a multiplayer world. Simple save the data on your own servers. I fail to see the problem here.

Except I've heard that there's an option for getting it in cash as well via paypal, but in a separate, not as convenient system. Also, you have to pay a flat fee to put up stuff on the real money auction house, it would be unfair it you could not make actual money from it.

May want to investigate this, everything ive seen is pointing to being able to use credit or debit cards and paypal to put points into your "Blizzard Balance" on your battle net account.
Blizzard states in alot of place(this of course may change) that you cant cash out Blizzard balance once its in your account for real money. You can only use it on Blizzard products and services.

One of the reasons it combats third party gold and item selling bussiness is because of this non-transferable back to real money part.

As I posted before ignorance and knee jerk reactions and assumptions are causing large amounts of people to get the wroung ideas about a system like this. I think too many people are thinking about this in full blown MMO terms and perspectives(Which as many people have said, real money transcations take place all the time anyways) instead of a story driven multiplayer optional game.

As I stated previusly its a entirly optional auction house and ill repeat. Theres two differant auction houses. One for normal players and one for hardcore mode, and then each of those has a normal in game gold version and a blizzard balance version. So technicaly theres 4 total auction houses. Heres the best part, you NEVER need to use them to fully play and enjoy the game. If I had to predict though the popular/harshest prices are going to be in the Hardcore mode players auction houses. (Which to explain to others 'Hardcore' characters have permanete death if they die. The character is wiped)

Also another fact when doing matchmaking for story mode and for pvp the game will only match you with players of similar level and gear. So you may literaly never encounter those players/characters who payed hundreds of dollors for gear.

So I end with another question for everyone.
If another person is willing to pay for items/services and someone else is willing to sell to them and Blizzard is willing to arbitrate and oversee the secure method of this transaction. What gives you the right to deny this from happening?






EDIT***
Forgot to add something, sorry lol
Ok for those who dont know you have a shared stash. What this means is that your Blizzard Balance, Gold, and Item Bank is for your account and not per character.
This is seperate between hardcore/normal characters except for the Blizzard balance part.
So say you have 3 Normal characters and 2 hardcore. The Items and gold can be free sharded between your normal characters with each other but not with the hardcore characters. The hardcore characters can freely share items and gold with each other but not with your normal characters. Your Blizzard balance can be used on either types of character and there is a Auction house for each type and its split between Gold/Blizzard Balance.
I hope this is easier to understand.

 

[GeorgW]

Not at all surprising, didn't we all say this back when they announced the auction house? Still, nice to have it confirmed, if not you could always suspect the worst.
Also, why are so many people confused, this is Blizzard legitimising gold farming, yes you can make real money out of it.

Except for the part where you can only spend that money on Blizzard products and services. I think using Diablo to pay for your monthly subscription to World of Warcraft would be a intresting
service.
I like the idea of simple economics they are attacking the gold spammer/farmers with, if every other single player is a rival to your bussiness who is more then willing to undercut you at every turn it hurts your bussiness. Of course they could fight this and make gold worth less and less real world money and crash the gold market as it were for example.

It's not "DRM".

The game is an online multiplayer game. It has no single player mode. If you consider this "DRM" then I think you're really pushing the boundaries here.

Completly reasonable and practical in our day and age, want to stop players from hacking in a multiplayer world. Simple save the data on your own servers. I fail to see the problem here.

Except I've heard that there's an option for getting it in cash as well via paypal, but in a separate, not as convenient system. Also, you have to pay a flat fee to put up stuff on the real money auction house, it would be unfair it you could not make actual money from it.

May want to investigate this, everything ive seen is pointing to being able to use credit or debit cards and paypal to put points into your "Blizzard Balance" on your battle net account.
Blizzard states in alot of place(this of course may change) that you cant cash out Blizzard balance once its in your account for real money. You can only use it on Blizzard products and services.

One of the reasons it combats third party gold and item selling bussiness is because of this non-transferable back to real money part.

As I posted before ignorance and knee jerk reactions and assumptions are causing large amounts of people to get the wroung ideas about a system like this. I think too many people are thinking about this in full blown MMO terms and perspectives(Which as many people have said, real money transcations take place all the time anyways) instead of a story driven multiplayer optional game.

As I stated previusly its a entirly optional auction house and ill repeat. Theres two differant auction houses. One for normal players and one for hardcore mode, and then each of those has a normal in game gold version and a blizzard balance version. So technicaly theres 4 total auction houses. Heres the best part, you NEVER need to use them to fully play and enjoy the game. If I had to predict though the popular/harshest prices are going to be in the Hardcore mode players auction houses. (Which to explain to others 'Hardcore' characters have permanete death if they die. The character is wiped)

Also another fact when doing matchmaking for story mode and for pvp the game will only match you with players of similar level and gear. So you may literaly never encounter those players/characters who payed hundreds of dollors for gear.

So I end with another question for everyone.
If another person is willing to pay for items/services and someone else is willing to sell to them and Blizzard is willing to arbitrate and oversee the secure method of this transaction. What gives you the right to deny this from happening?






EDIT***
Forgot to add something, sorry lol
Ok for those who dont know you have a shared stash. What this means is that your Blizzard Balance, Gold, and Item Bank is for your account and not per character.
This is seperate between hardcore/normal characters except for the Blizzard balance part.
So say you have 3 Normal characters and 2 hardcore. The Items and gold can be free sharded between your normal characters with each other but not with the hardcore characters. The hardcore characters can freely share items and gold with each other but not with your normal characters. Your Blizzard balance can be used on either types of character and there is a Auction house for each type and its split between Gold/Blizzard Balance.
I hope this is easier to understand.

I agree with you that this is a good idea and that people are jumping to conclusion, but if they don't allow any sort of real money cash out then they're not really combating gold farming, as the farmers aren't gonna care about blizzard money, and will still keep going.

 

[LastDarkness]

I agree with you that this is a good idea and that people are jumping to conclusion, but if they don't allow any sort of real money cash out then they're not really combating gold farming, as the farmers aren't gonna care about blizzard money, and will still keep going.

Indeed the spin im seeing is alot of people are seeing PayPal and jumping to conclusions when its just annouced thats its partnered as one of the partnered payment services.

Im not saying this wont change but its in blizzards best intrests to not pay ouy out real money. hence why its stated your "blizzard balance" can only be used for Blizzard Products and services.

The gold sellers will still be attempting to sell outside gold and items but what it creates is now they are directly in compotition with Blizzard and blizzard is giving away free franchises.
The player economy is yet to be seen but the spammers now have to directly contend with the fluctating price of gold for example with competition who in the majority are not a bussiness trying to make money. Think of all the people under cutting each other and the spamers along with the people who are market savy and buy and sell between both auction houses.

Its a nightmare scenario for the spamers that will really cut into their sales.
I have my own views on how to combat gold spammers, but I belive this system is going to work well.

Thats only the gold spammer issues as well, gold and real money auction houses are a positive thing for the community and help make a good player economy especialy for those who are intrested in it. I know that for most players the whole thing is going to be a non-issue they are just going to list items as they please. Some players are basicaly farmers/spamers themselves and are going to be listing up gold and equipment to add to their blizzard accounts. Others are going to play the market inbetween each auction house and my never actualy put any items of their own up for sale. (I once spent a summer when I was younger running a stand at a Flea market where I would go around and buy high sale items for bargains then resell them in my stand for profit)

What I think alot of people are missing though is how this mechanic is being implimented has the tell tale signs of this is the test for it and is likly to move into other Blizzard products like WoW or their new upcoming MMO as well. Its a good bussiness model for them and would allow them to move alot of things into the free to play market.

Its sad how many people dont understand, game companies make games to make themselves money so they can support the company and make more games, support themselves and/or their families.