IamLEAM1983 said:
Rooster Cogburn said:
The real money auction house affects game balance, your power relative to other players, and your ability to beat content relative to other players you interact with. It impacts the all-important sense of fair play, the satisfaction of challenge and accomplishment, and the concept of the auction house itself. It arguably guts the whole point of playing the game past the credits. There are also other design decisions which may or may not favor funneling people into the auction house over fun and convenience.
Now if none of that matters to you in a multiplayer title, that's fair enough. But I think you can see the issue doesn't disappear when you put your head in the sand. Not that you are doing that. You said it doesn't bother you and I have no reason to doubt it. But it bothers me.
Now please indulge me by letting me vent a little bit: I can't fucking believe I have to defend the concept of playing a game without fucking money involved. Can you see why I feel like the fucking last sane person on earth? Whew, I feel better. Sorry.
Fair enough, but I'm curious to hear why you're bothered by other people having more proficient gear. See, D3 bases everything offensive on the value of your equipped weapon. You're playing as a Witch Doctor? Then find the cudgel or the hand axe with the biggest stats you can early on in the game, and you'll basically clean house. The Offense and Defense stats are virtually the only ones that matter. Everything else - even the uniques' sometimes fairly jaw-dropping stats - feels secondary in nature.
Considering that, wouldn't your personal spoils be enough? The game is never unfair as to leave you with improper weapons in a particularly hard stretch. Seeing as every build Blizz has planned for (if you don't use Elective Mode) is designed to be functional, even entry level spells like the Zombie Dogs are going to be relevant sixty levels down the line.
So when the only things that really matter are how much you can hit and how much damage you can soak, obsessing over some overpriced item in the RMAH just feels a little idiotic to me.
In a sense, D3 is only going to be Pay-to-Win if you put it in your mind that you *have* to be the alpha dog on the team, the one doing the most damage. It doesn't help that the inventory screen shows you your character's DPS - further accentuating the WoW-ish dispositions they'd like their players to take.
Just focus on upping these two base values. Your own item drops will suffice. If, on the other hand, you're trying to build some guy for PVP (which I have no idea if it is even possible in D3), then you might be in for a little more finagling.
The antidote for this is obvious: play with friends. Everyone has their own drops, but all items you discard from your inventory are visible to all. If your friends are the least bit thoughtful, they might run into something that'll work well for your class or your build.
I did not even list "other people having more proficient gear [than me]" as a complaint. I promise that is not the reason I don't like the RMAH. I'm bothered by the Real Money Auction House for all the reasons I listed. It's not that I'm bothered by people having more proficient gear. And it's not that I'm worried about being unable to tackle the game's content. Well, all that is part of it I suppose, but my issue is more fundamental. The ability to bypass the challenge of obtaining that gear by paying money and the fact of other people doing so deflates the motivation for and satisfaction from obtaining it in- and this is crucial- in a multiplayer environment. It also introduces the real-world concept of money into a video game, and not with subtlety or even the most contrived attempt at a gameplay justification. It's not that I can't get by with my personal spoils, it's that all the fun and motivation of doing so is gone. Well, not all of it. But it's a pretty big blow. I totally, utterly, and fundamentally disagree with the idea that what other people are doing in a multiplayer game does not affect your gaming experience. Your interactions with other players are what defines the experience. And it should be fun, challenging, and emotionally rewarding. Everything I listed in my first post contributes to that experience. You said to just ignore it, and all I'm trying to do is explain why that is a very unsatisfying solution for some of us.
The random drops
do bother some people, and I don't much care one way or the other about that. But they differ from real money purchases in that random drops apply to everyone equally. You are still playing the game to get them and the process of obtaining the random drops is not being bypassed with money.
If I played exclusively with friends, that would indeed solve the problem. But my friends don't play this type of game, and even if they did I would probably want to play with randoms as well. I don't agree that pay-to-win is a state of mind. I don't agree that a game being pay-to-win is contingent on a person's attitude. Pay-to-win is paying money for a significant in-game advantage or to bypass content, and that's what the RMAH is. I get what you're saying, it won't bother you if you have the right mindset. But I don't share that mindset and I don't particularly want to.
My understanding is PvP is not currently available, but will be added later with a patch.
Aeshi said:
Rooster Cogburn said:
But doesn't "leave those alone" just mean "don't criticize Blizzard?" I mean, are you being harassed or something?
Harassed? Have you seen
half the Diablo III threads on this forum? seems like every 3rd post is either a spambot impressionist going on about how good some similar indie game is or "LOL ERROR 37 ENJOY YOUR GAME SHEEP."
Well of course I want the game how I want it. And I'm going to say so. That's what we do. We talk about stuff.
This'd hold more merit if half the complaints weren't just "We want Diablo III to be Diablo II again!"
No offense, but it sounds like the only difference between the two is whether or not they criticize Blizzard.
The difference is one acknowledges that other people can still enjoy the game while the other basically goes "Well I'm not going to have fun playing this, so I don't want anyone else to enjoy it either."
Now please indulge me by letting me vent a little bit: I can't fucking believe I have to defend the concept of playing a game without fucking money involved. Can you see why I feel like the fucking last sane person on earth? Whew, I feel better. Sorry.
If you don't like the Auction House then don't use it, and if you're so adhered to the concept of "I got this gear by winning glorified dice rolls" being somehow better than "I got this gear by buying it" that you refuse to play with anyone who does the latter then just roll a Hardcore, they can't access the RMAH and have their own separate servers.
Yes, I have seen insulting posts and that is cause for complaint. It was not clear to me from your first post what you were objecting to exactly, but now it makes sense.
You may not agree with people who want
Diablo III to be
Diablo II again, but I wouldn't say they shouldn't express it on a forum if that is how they feel. Not that I want that. Besides, many of the complaints that are characterized that way could also be characterized as wanting
Diablo III to be
good. And I'm not saying it isn't.
I don't think not wanting you to enjoy something (a pretty natural and self-serving response if you think the 'something' blows chunks) is an offense worth mentioning. If they are insulting you, I agree that is worth griping about.
I did express why the RMAH problem is not solved if I simply don't buy things from it. Have you heard even one person complain about the RMAH on the basis that they personally would buy things from it? All that would solve are my money problems. Collecting loot is a huge draw for this game, which is why there is an auction house to begin with. You are reducing that appeal to "glorified dice rolls" to defend the RMAH. You are denigrating the game to make it sound as shitty as a real money auction house. Why defend something when you make it sound so shitty? You don't really feel that way, do you? Well, to answer your statement, I don't think collecting loot is as shitty as you imply, and definitely not as shitty as the RMAH.
And playing hardcore is only a good solution if I happen to want to play hardcore, and I don't. It can be exciting but too often it is boring or frustrating.