Diablo III Auction House Closing Down
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
They've got my real money, so they are FINALLY admitting it?
Yay!!!
"it ultimately undermines Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot,"
Duh, that's what everyone -EVERY DAMN ONE- said before hand.
But you filthy money grubbers didn't care...
Yay!!!
"it ultimately undermines Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot,"
Duh, that's what everyone -EVERY DAMN ONE- said before hand.
But you filthy money grubbers didn't care...
Hey look, Blizzard finally figured out that some of their launch features were garbage and unwanted by the brunt of their fans. It's too bad that there wasn't some sort of a massive fan outcry long before the game came out that they could have used to foresee this blunder. Same goes for the Sim City 5 fans that should have told Maxis the always online idea wasn't going to work.
The remove a optional feature and don't remove the mandatory drm feature wtf ? At least I got something out of d3 my money back from the rmah. Now if the expansions sucks I can't even do that legaly ?
When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades.
Now there's a bit of corporate weasel speak if ever there was one. No Mr Hight, the real money auction house has never had anything to do with convienience for the players, it was always all about getting as big a cut from micro transactions as Activision Blizzard could possibly get. Turning Diablo 3 into nothing but a big grinding portal for real money trades. The DRM, the item frequency, all structured to support the RMAH.
Except of course it hasn't worked like that at all, as always happens with entirely virtual 'products' (be they in games or or stock markets or corporate debts) the market has been flooded with speculators hoping for growth, which of course never came because there is nothing to drive that growth, it's a videogame. The market rapidly spun to the extreme of players trading millions if not billions of worthless items for largely worthless sums to try and pry a bit of cash out the system, all the while Activision Blizzard has been paying huge sums of money and bandwidth running a system that generates essentially no income.
Diablo 3 PC has been a financial disaster for Blizzard, somehow they have taken one of the most highly anticipated games in a decade and lost money on it, purely through greed and trying to push unsustainable systems onto players who have already forked out full price (and League of Legends/DotA 2 utterly torpedoing the market for them).
Even Duke Nukem Forever made money so that's a pretty special achievement.
Now there's a bit of corporate weasel speak if ever there was one. No Mr Hight, the real money auction house has never had anything to do with convienience for the players, it was always all about getting as big a cut from micro transactions as Activision Blizzard could possibly get. Turning Diablo 3 into nothing but a big grinding portal for real money trades. The DRM, the item frequency, all structured to support the RMAH.
Except of course it hasn't worked like that at all, as always happens with entirely virtual 'products' (be they in games or or stock markets or corporate debts) the market has been flooded with speculators hoping for growth, which of course never came because there is nothing to drive that growth, it's a videogame. The market rapidly spun to the extreme of players trading millions if not billions of worthless items for largely worthless sums to try and pry a bit of cash out the system, all the while Activision Blizzard has been paying huge sums of money and bandwidth running a system that generates essentially no income.
Diablo 3 PC has been a financial disaster for Blizzard, somehow they have taken one of the most highly anticipated games in a decade and lost money on it, purely through greed and trying to push unsustainable systems onto players who have already forked out full price (and League of Legends/DotA 2 utterly torpedoing the market for them).
Even Duke Nukem Forever made money so that's a pretty special achievement.
You know what I didn't like the AH. I used it but I didn't like it because with the game being balanced around it, you were better off playing the market than the game.
That said I'm sad to see it go. I don't think they should get rid of it. It was such a good service for picking up random little things. They really just needed to rebalance the items and readjust drop rates so that the auction house doesn't feel as necessary.
Also because it wasn't included in the original post here's the video they posted along with the announcement.
That said I'm sad to see it go. I don't think they should get rid of it. It was such a good service for picking up random little things. They really just needed to rebalance the items and readjust drop rates so that the auction house doesn't feel as necessary.
Also because it wasn't included in the original post here's the video they posted along with the announcement.
Upside: No more RMAH (real money auction house) and hopefully - since they said the AH was the reason for the always-online requirement - no always-on requirement soon.
Downside: No more GAH (gold auction house) so I'm gonna have to grind out all those components for the secret level's key myself.
Downside: No more GAH (gold auction house) so I'm gonna have to grind out all those components for the secret level's key myself.
Would be much more exciting I think to do trades again.
I imagine the cost of items are gonna shoot through the roof at the end.
I wonder if there will be a gamble system again. Otherwise the money will be useless again.
I imagine the cost of items are gonna shoot through the roof at the end.
I wonder if there will be a gamble system again. Otherwise the money will be useless again.
No doubt. But I do think that Blizzard will offer another option for trade (maybe creating lobbies or something like that). I think the buying aspect of the game will be hurt, but I doubt that the trading aspect will go unsupported.shintakie10 said:
But in any case, some considerations:
1. The Black Market in D2 had a better drive for players because of multiplayer, mostly absent in this edition.
2. Contrary to forum beliefs, the black market scene is most for the superhardcore (or people with money to spare). There were no need to go to the third party before and there is no need now.
3. Buying to have things ingame is a more common practice now, but I do prefer to play the game to gain things (this one is a personal preference, of course).
I'm really thinking about getting back in the game, now. At least to reward this pro-gamer approach.
and make it more like D2/TL2 in terms of skill selection and stat distribution and I MIGHT, reinstall it.Adam Jensen said:
Okay so if last year was considered the year of Rage in gaming then this year is most certainly the year of Back Peddling. Didn't they put their foot down two weeks ago saying it would never ever go away?
I gotta say 2013 has been one hell of a fun roller coaster ride.
I gotta say 2013 has been one hell of a fun roller coaster ride.
To each their own, friend. You'd have to remember what Diablo II was like, then. The grind wasn't unreasonable. If anything, I can only hope the Loot 2.0 system brings us back to that particular feel, seeing as I remember the 1-to-15 climb feeling gratifying, back then. Diablo III's level climb was utterly painful, in comparison, and rendered completely moot by the existence of the Gold Auction House.Aeshi said:
I had one gold-farming toon, one year ago, and two others that essentially spent the first character's earned money liberally. That robbed the game of all tension, seeing as I could artificially over-level myself past Level 1 stats and blow through the first five or six hours of the game without so much as a scratch.
As for the RMAH - it wasn't exactly evil. Just misguided, as you honestly cannot trust a series with such a strong scammer and exploiter base to create a predictable and reliable economy. Asian farming sites and other shady groups were artificially inflating the rarity of certain gear pieces and driving the top-tier prices up the wall.
Paying one dollar for a full set is fine; it's something I've done once or twice. Hearing about obsessed and desperate players burning THOUSANDS on virtual items, however? That was alarming and fairly pathetic.
Blizzard: Please keep the Online play requirement. I want to see how many comments there will be with people complaining about it.
Seriously, a majority of the decent PC games these days are MMOs, or a game with an online component. You use Steam? You're online anyway (yes, I know offline mode). There is -no- real reason to have it offline.
Seriously, a majority of the decent PC games these days are MMOs, or a game with an online component. You use Steam? You're online anyway (yes, I know offline mode). There is -no- real reason to have it offline.
The RMAH was clearly an abject disaster from day one, but I've always quite liked the gold house (not for flipping, I just like getting rid of the useless stuff I find that someone else might want, while also quickly grabbing little bits I need) and I'll be one of the few that misses it.
If it's the first step to removing the always-online dependency though, I'll have to be for it; I really want to enjoy hardcore, but two deaths to lag spikes have been enough to convince me that it's not worth it.
If it's the first step to removing the always-online dependency though, I'll have to be for it; I really want to enjoy hardcore, but two deaths to lag spikes have been enough to convince me that it's not worth it.
Huh, well I guess I have to stop ranting about being the Beta Tester for Diablo 3 for 60 bucks while the consoles got the good version.
I mean it would have been nice to have had this implemented awhile ago, but still good on Bliz for recognizing, admitting and fixing a fairly fundamental problem with the game. A lot of companies would just have plowed on and give the Diablo franchise up for dead, but Bliz seems to be actually trying to keep it going by listening to feedback
I mean it would have been nice to have had this implemented awhile ago, but still good on Bliz for recognizing, admitting and fixing a fairly fundamental problem with the game. A lot of companies would just have plowed on and give the Diablo franchise up for dead, but Bliz seems to be actually trying to keep it going by listening to feedback
The Auction House could have been a great idea, but I hate how it became necessary if you wanted to keep your character geared, since none of the monsters ever dropped anything that was useful to you at that level. I used to save up all the stuff I would find to hand down to an alternate toon, but after a while, item drops became pointless. I never found anything useful for my character, and the one time I got a really great item it wasn't for my class.
I'll certainly take another crack at the game if my item drop experience is more in-line with Diablo 2's, but it's a little weird to pull the plug on the Auction House entirely. There's really no reason they can't have the Gold AH AND have their Loot 2.0 system.
I'll certainly take another crack at the game if my item drop experience is more in-line with Diablo 2's, but it's a little weird to pull the plug on the Auction House entirely. There's really no reason they can't have the Gold AH AND have their Loot 2.0 system.
I bought Diablo III just after launch and got a refund about a week after that. Now it's starting to sound like a game I'd want to play, assuming loot 2.0 reflects a good arpg item drop system, but it's far too late for me to do anything but make some popcorn in advance of the expansion sales numbers coming out.
Never experiencing lag while playing alone is a pretty good reason.Makabriel said: