Diablo III's Auction House
Rob Pardo reveals Blizzard's plans to beat the black market at its own game.
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Rob Pardo reveals Blizzard's plans to beat the black market at its own game.
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Diablo III's Auction House
- Thread starter Gus Mastrapa
- Start date
Well, the one thing is, that because you can't "cash out" people may be more reluctant to put REAL money items up, seeing as once you pay for a years WoW sub and flesh out your toon, who needs more "limmited use money." personally I think the virtual gold house will still stand up just fine, which is my only concern, as Im not going to put extra real money on the line once the game is purchased. though I know there are those that will.
Strangely, I don't mind this.
I think the fact that you can't turn take the money into the real world and spend it on anything other than Blizzard stuff makes is good.
I think the fact that you can't turn take the money into the real world and spend it on anything other than Blizzard stuff makes is good.
Except you can, you can opt out of Blizzards cut and go to using Paypal, or another third-party site like it. I read the full post, and the FAQ on mmo-champion.com.
So pretty much what I see happening is... People go to RL-Currency AH and buy a lot of gold, people in turn use the gold auction house and because they already have so much gold they set the prices far higher than anybody can pay. The economy is going to SUCK in this game. This is a horrible choice. I'm so displeased with Blizzard right now it makes me sick, I've been waiting for this game for so long and the more information they release the less likely I am to buy it.
So pretty much what I see happening is... People go to RL-Currency AH and buy a lot of gold, people in turn use the gold auction house and because they already have so much gold they set the prices far higher than anybody can pay. The economy is going to SUCK in this game. This is a horrible choice. I'm so displeased with Blizzard right now it makes me sick, I've been waiting for this game for so long and the more information they release the less likely I am to buy it.
I like this idea, Hellgate has a similar in game gold player trading system that works quite well
The reason you can't take money into the real world is because it would bloody well attract people who would play the system and Blizzard would hemmorage money. I'm sure there's also laws involved.
Still, letting people buy low and sell high and MAKE e-credit? Thats pretty damn impressive.
Still, letting people buy low and sell high and MAKE e-credit? Thats pretty damn impressive.
Once again, wrong.TsunamiWombat said:
Yes, as an advanced feature, players will have the option of attaching an account with an approved third-party payment service to their Battle.net account. Once this has been completed, proceeds from the sale of items in the currency-based auction house can be deposited into their third-party payment service account. "Cashing out" would then be handled through the third-party payment service. Note that this process will be subject to applicable fees charged by Blizzard and the third-party payment service. Also, any proceeds from the sale of items in the currency-based auction house that have been deposited into the Battle.net account will not be transferrable to the third-party payment service account. Not all regions will support this advanced feature at launch. Region-specific details, as well as details regarding which third-party payment services will be supported and the fee that Blizzard will charge for the cash-out process, will all be provided at a later date.
If i read that right, it costs money just to put an item up for auction?
....why not just use ebay?
in all seriousness though, i think the idea is pretty good, i just dont think you should have to pay to put your items up for auction. if someone wants to spend 5 dollars on your shitty sword, let them. saying that "it helps maintain a high level of quality in the items" is just a fancy way of saying "we want more of your money, and now, please"
but hey, this is coming from someone who's never touched a Diablo game, so take this post with a grain of salt.
Or an entire salt shaker.
....why not just use ebay?
in all seriousness though, i think the idea is pretty good, i just dont think you should have to pay to put your items up for auction. if someone wants to spend 5 dollars on your shitty sword, let them. saying that "it helps maintain a high level of quality in the items" is just a fancy way of saying "we want more of your money, and now, please"
but hey, this is coming from someone who's never touched a Diablo game, so take this post with a grain of salt.
Or an entire salt shaker.
I like this idea a lot ive always been a cheap bastard and the ability to rack up cash in a virtual wallet for in game items and games(as long as i sell what i can from the first few trial auctions) is a very good thing. This also hopefully solves many of the problems the previous game had with item selling as well as giving bliz some profit in return.
VERY interesting idea. whether or not you agree with it its an interesting experiment in game micro-transactions.
I suppose the only issue i can see occurring is someone buying a shitload of gold on the real-money AH and then using that gold to flood the market of the in-game gold AH. However the simple solution to that is to just forbid the use of gold bought with money from being used in the gold-AH.
very interested to see how this works. it may change how micro-transactions work for games in general.
I suppose the only issue i can see occurring is someone buying a shitload of gold on the real-money AH and then using that gold to flood the market of the in-game gold AH. However the simple solution to that is to just forbid the use of gold bought with money from being used in the gold-AH.
very interested to see how this works. it may change how micro-transactions work for games in general.
This is GREAT! You know what? Can I just pay a couple hundred bucks and get my character to the highest level and gear? And while we are at it, every time a content patch comes out just charge my account for the new gear and level me up to the new level cap.
Yeah being able to buy gear with money does and always will ruin games and their economy. Especially for those that don't use real life money.
I love how they are claiming they are using this system to curb players accounts getting jacked. "Definitely one of the biggest problems with WoW is the account compromises that happen from all those situations." But lets also take a bit of money from each and every transaction. What? It's for your own safety!
Did they forget why they were trying to stop gold sellers in the first place? Cause it fucks your game. Man, glad I'm not at all interested in this game.
Yeah being able to buy gear with money does and always will ruin games and their economy. Especially for those that don't use real life money.
I love how they are claiming they are using this system to curb players accounts getting jacked. "Definitely one of the biggest problems with WoW is the account compromises that happen from all those situations." But lets also take a bit of money from each and every transaction. What? It's for your own safety!
Did they forget why they were trying to stop gold sellers in the first place? Cause it fucks your game. Man, glad I'm not at all interested in this game.
Ridrith said:
If there was no in-game version, people would use eBay - they still can (and will) - but now they have another option that has a couple of advantages:thereverend7 said:
For the player - it's 100% secure and fully automated. You can't be scammed. WYSIWYG.
For the developer - Blizzard gets at least some of the money paid for the item, instead of none.
Except they wouldn't, like at all.TsunamiWombat said:
If they take a listing fee of say 10%, and an sellers fee of say, 10%, and you wanna cash out your money to paypal or something so you can actually spend it they take a transfer fee of , lets say, 10%. that's 30% of the sale going straight in their purse, and that's extra money that people are paying to the game. So even if people do 'abuse' this system, Blizz still gets 20-30% of that profit for doing almost no additional work.
On top of that this will mean that there are (almost) no 3rd party gold sellers as people will want to go though the game as much as possible (for safty and security) and whilst gold farmeres will probably still work on this game Blizz will get a cut.
I actually think this whole idea is pretty good. If you can't afford the time to get better gear you can always invest the money. And the idea that playing D3 could potentially pay for your WoW subscription fee is pretty funny too ^.^
The easier way would be to remove the effect currency has on the market, or build a more stable economy, but that wouldn't fill their coffers as fast.
Who cares if a parent's credit card is emptied? Blizzard obviously doesn't.
Who cares if a parent's credit card is emptied? Blizzard obviously doesn't.
This is a good idea, it has something for everyone and potentially will keep the gold farmers at bay as well as keep people from getting ripped off.
As other people have alluded to, perhaps the most compelling thing here is that if you find some good items in Diablo III, you can sell them and have the proceeds transfered to your Blizzard account - which could then pay for your subscription to World of Warcraft (or other games they might develop). This is somewhat similar to how Eve-online allows people to buy and trade game time.
Also, I'm not seeing anywhere in the original statement where Blizzard says they are keeping a cut of anything. They did say that a small fee will be charged for the third party processing if you get paid out to your pay-pal or bank account, but that's all.
Here's a cool question - could you sell items for cash to other players, then turn around and use that money on Blizzard or Activision products (like new games??)
I think this may be what Blizzard is going for, or where they see the value add for themselves. Even if a small percentage of sold funds get transfered to Blizzard accounts, the most they can be turned in for is virtual goods, which already have an insanely huge profit margin. Let's assume that a mere 10% of the economy gets transfered into Blizzard accounts, that's potentially a huge revenue stream almost as good as a subscription base for Diablo 3.
As other people have alluded to, perhaps the most compelling thing here is that if you find some good items in Diablo III, you can sell them and have the proceeds transfered to your Blizzard account - which could then pay for your subscription to World of Warcraft (or other games they might develop). This is somewhat similar to how Eve-online allows people to buy and trade game time.
Also, I'm not seeing anywhere in the original statement where Blizzard says they are keeping a cut of anything. They did say that a small fee will be charged for the third party processing if you get paid out to your pay-pal or bank account, but that's all.
Here's a cool question - could you sell items for cash to other players, then turn around and use that money on Blizzard or Activision products (like new games??)
I think this may be what Blizzard is going for, or where they see the value add for themselves. Even if a small percentage of sold funds get transfered to Blizzard accounts, the most they can be turned in for is virtual goods, which already have an insanely huge profit margin. Let's assume that a mere 10% of the economy gets transfered into Blizzard accounts, that's potentially a huge revenue stream almost as good as a subscription base for Diablo 3.
