Diablo III's Auction House And Always-Online Aren't Going Anywhere

[Steven Bogos]

Diablo III's Auction House And Always-Online Aren't Going Anywhere

Diablo III's new game director shuts down PC gamer hopes that the console version removing the Auction House and Always-Online may make its way to PC.

Diablo III's two most controversial features: the Auction House and the Always-Online requirement, are here to stay, says Diablo III's new game director Josh Mosqueira, who took over from Jay Wilson early this year. He does, however, admit the faults of both systems, and stresses that the team has taken massive strides to eliminate the necessity of the Auction House with Loot 2.0 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127079-Update-Diablo-IIIs-Loot-2-0-Breakdown-Less-Better-More-Epic], and improve the game's online features to make Always-Online feel like a feature instead of a shackle.

"The Auction House is a very complicated conversation..." Mosqueria tells Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-09-05-blizzards-road-to-redemption-diablo-3-and-reaper-of-souls]. Complicated indeed - the absolutely broken itemization of the game at launch, compared to the unprecedented amount of players, meant that items you wanted rarely dropped, and were about a million times easier to just buy from someone else, be it with gold or money.

Nonetheless, Mosqureia stresses that "trading is a very important part of Diablo" and he couldn't be more right. In Diablo II, fans built entire economies around items like Stones of Jordans and Zod Runes, so the Auction house was an obvious solution to un-complicate the entire trading process. "It was really important for us to provide a safe environment in which [players] could trade items."

So basically, the Auction House isn't going anywhere, and because of that, Always-Online isn't going to budge either. Mosqureia stresses that these two features go hand-in-hand, and their removal from the console version made for a very different beast:

"Not a lot of people connect their consoles to the internet, that's where the whole idea of having to get four people on the same couch playing together. That's how we get that social aspect. But on PC, we really want players to feel they're part of the bigger Blizzard and Diablo community."

He also assures us that Loot 2.0 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/127079-Update-Diablo-IIIs-Loot-2-0-Breakdown-Less-Better-More-Epic] is the Auction House solution that PC gamers are looking for:

"Ultimately [with Loot 2.0] the Auction House will still be out there, but we don't want players to feel they need to go to the Auction House."

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-09-05-blizzards-road-to-redemption-diablo-3-and-reaper-of-souls]

Permalink

 

[BanicRhys]

The upcoming changes to Diablo 3 sound really exciting, at this rate D3 could easily become as "good" as Diablo 2 eventually became.

But, I really hope they provide us with some kind of "self found" mode in the future, while the AH is handy I would love a mode that functions similarly to the console version. Of course, I can see why they don't do that. Given that most of game files are stored server-side, I assume it would take A LOT of effort (which could be otherwise spent on more content) to add in an offline mode like that.

/Equips fire resistance armour [http://soshable.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Everything_went_better_than_expected.png]

 

[Doclector]

That fucking sucks.

No really, that's a total dick move. Diablo 3 was THE thing PC gamers were waiting for, its fans kept the faith for such a long time, only to be rewarded with a broken loot system and always online DRM.

Then the console version comes out, fixing most of these problems. Updating the PC version should be a non brainer, but no, Blizzard's already got its teeth into PC gamers and doesn't feel like letting go. It's nothing short of an absolute abuse of their most faithful fans, whilst they give the "fixed" version to fans they likely never had before, on a platform that, to be honest, isn't as well suited to those kinds of games.

 

[Zhukov]

"You will eat our shit, damn you, and you will enjoy it."

I am actually mildly thankful that I've never been a Diablo fan.

 

[Phishfood]

Do these companies think we are stupid?

EA claims it needs always-on to "offload processing".

Blizzard claims it needs always on "for the auction house"

Both times it is nothing but bullshit. There is absolutely nothing stopping Blizzard doing what they did in earlier versions and what the likes of Dungeon Defenders does now. One character stored offline with no need for online interaction, one character stored online that can use all the online features. Best of both. Gamers get offline play when they want/need it and all the characters that can use the auction house are kept safe and hack proof on the blizzard servers.

 

[Adzma]

Translation:

All PC gamers are pirates and we refuse to treat you like legitimate consumers.

 

[SilverBullets000]

"We didn't remove the worst two features of our game, and it isn't likely to work well on consoles."

Good to know. I pity old-school Diablo fans that have to put up with that shit now, especially if the older games really were as great and atmospheric as I heard.

 

[Zeckt]

So blizzard made a game knowing full well that they were screwing their fanbase hoping to squeeze cash out of them, and is surprised because they got upset. Sorry, I don't stay in abusive relationships with self centered dicks. Go to hell blizzard.

 

[Frostbyte666]

I saw the way the wind was blowing after buying wings of liberty (stupid, stupid, stupid) and have boycott blizzard since. and as much as I want the console version of diablo 3 to play with mates I'm not buying it until they provide those same features to the pc version, though it's still debatable even if they did, I'm not one to take abuse and they owe an apology. Really they've become too big for their britches and seem to be trying to reach microsoft levels of fuck you to the consumer base.

 

[RicoADF]

This was the first diablo I've ever played, I got it to play coop with friends and wasn't bothered by the online since thats where I was planning to play it. I was expecting something like Titan Quest (another game in that genre) and since it was Blizzard I trusted they could do it well. Lets just say I got to just after the end of Act 1 and well, it died rather fast. Server offline (because they love doing updates during Australian gaming times), lag at times, lots of updates etc turned me off it for good :-(

 

[weirdee]

"Ultimately [with Loot 2.0] the Auction House will still be out there, but we don't want players to feel they need to go to the Auction House."

yes, while you're still keeping the features in that force players to deal with the consequences of having it around, even though it's clear that they were never necessary

"no, you don't have to go to the auction house....you just have to do everything else in order to keep it going"

WHY.

 

[Doom972]

I don't recall people being that upset about the Gold Auction House. Just the Real Money Auction house. For good reason.

Not removing the always online requirement? I'll keep not buying that game. It just sounds more awful the more I read about it anyway. I love Diablo 1 and like 2, but I'm not sure if this one is even worth $10 - and it still costs $60, because Activision.

Also:

But on PC, we really want players to feel they're part of the bigger Blizzard and Diablo community.

Really? Is this what Diablo is about? And I thought it was about the feeling of fighting the forces of hell on your own, but I guess they just had to make it as WoW-like as possible.

 

[piinyouri]

God that sucks.
I'm not suprised though. Though they've said in the past the RMAH and online requirement were mistakes and wish they could take them back, the cat's already out of the bag. There's been players making real money off of the RMAH, not necessarily a lot, but enough to count. I imagine it's a damned if they do/don't thing. At this point taking away a way for gamers to earn money by playing games is going to enrage a LOT of people. (I wouldn't be surprised if they outnumber the folks who don't like the RMAH) I I can fully understand them not dropping the online requirement. The game almost entirely plays from the server. It's so well integrated that as far as I know, the game still hasn't been cracked yet, and probably never will since almost everything is ran from the server. It would be a massive undertaking, more or less redesigning the entire game to remove the connection requirement.

It still would have been nice for everyone else if they had bit the bullet and just nixed the RMAH and it is sad to hear that it isn't going anywhere for the PC players.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

This was the first diablo I've ever played, I got it to play coop with friends and wasn't bothered by the online since thats where I was planning to play it. I was expecting something like Titan Quest (another game in that genre) and since it was Blizzard I trusted they could do it well. Lets just say I got to just after the end of Act 1 and well, it died rather fast. Server offline (because they love doing updates during Australian gaming times), lag at times, lots of updates etc turned me off it for good :-(

Your first Diablo game was D3? You have my condolences. Speaking of Titan Quest, some of the former devs did a Kickstarter last year for a new game using the same engine. It isn't set in ancient Asia Minor although.

Thus ends the possibility of me buying D3 it seems. The game may have smashed records due to its brand and company behind it, but how much damage has it done in the process?

I for one will be extremely interested in the percentage of D3 owners who buy the expansion.

 

[Karathos]

Would love statistics on how many people are actually -ACTUALLY- negatively affected by always-online and RMAH (no, being butthurt about the features but being perfectly capable of playing the game despite them does not count as being negatively affected). I'd wager the number is pretty damn small.

Enjoyed D3 thoroughly, and will be getting the expansion. I have an internet connection that's constantly up, I play the game with friends to begin with so online is pretty much default, and I've never bothered spending money on the auction house. I just don't see the world-shattering problem of these features. Maybe I'm just not that picky? Go figure.

 

[RicoADF]

This was the first diablo I've ever played, I got it to play coop with friends and wasn't bothered by the online since thats where I was planning to play it. I was expecting something like Titan Quest (another game in that genre) and since it was Blizzard I trusted they could do it well. Lets just say I got to just after the end of Act 1 and well, it died rather fast. Server offline (because they love doing updates during Australian gaming times), lag at times, lots of updates etc turned me off it for good :-(

Your first Diablo game was D3? You have my condolences. Speaking of Titan Quest, some of the former devs did a Kickstarter last year for a new game using the same engine. It isn't set in ancient Asia Minor although.

Thus ends the possibility of me buying D3 it seems. The game may have smashed records due to its brand and company behind it, but how much damage has it done in the process?

I for one will be extremely interested in the percentage of D3 owners who buy the expansion.

I'm thinking of getting Diablo 2 as it's available in the same complete pack that Starcraft 1 and Warcraft 3 (I have both) are available in. And I know that it doesn't have the stupidity of 3. Blizzard has lost it, and I have lost my interest in their future games.

 

[Marak Daga]

I agree with krathos i play it online with mates, the rmah never cost me a cent and fine into lvl 60 on hell.

Looking forward to the new loot system though!

Edit: damn fat thumbs on a mobile