Blizzard to introduce auction houses in diablo 3

http://pc.ign.com/articles/118/1185020p1.html

Well it looks like Blizzard and Acctivision have been chatting. Although you as a player can make money, it costs $ to even advertise the item and then money to sell it. So say its $1 to advertise and $1 to sell, and you sell for $2:50, yeah $00.50 thats not much. And if you don't even sell the item thats $$$ wasted advertising

bobby kotick...

Unreal. What has Blizzard become. Of course I know the answer and its in the post right above this one. :?

This is why Blizzard have gone from my fav dev to my most hated and why I have quit WoW and will never buy another Blizzard game. They are greedy, plain and simple!

This is why Blizzard have gone from my fav dev to my most hated and why I have quit WoW and will never buy another Blizzard game. They are greedy, plain and simple!

Raxzor

this

Remember that guy that bought a Corvette with the money he made from selling items in Diablo 2? Those were the days indeed...

An official auction house is better than Ebay. Farming and trading for real cash happens in D2 as well, don't pretend they don't exist. I wasn't expecting being able to cash out of the system though. It's going to be very interesting.

Not sure why the shock..Shoulve realise some thing like this was going to happen..Just dont use it boycott the auction house..Only thing you can really do im not going to sue it..Like ot find items on my own..Never liked trading them either..Its really no big deal..

Remember that guy that bought a Corvette with the money he made from selling items in Diablo 2? Those were the days indeed...

An official auction house is better than Ebay. Farming and trading for real cash happens in D2 as well, don't pretend they don't exist. I wasn't expecting being able to cash out of the system though. It's going to be very interesting.

Baranga

Probably why microtransactions exist in the industry and why Blizzard is doing this. There are clowns willing to fork over money to own virtual items the easy way.

Meh, i don't see a problem. If some guy want to spend his money buying virtual items, i'd be happy to sell em to him.

Meh, i don't see a problem. If some guy want to spend his money buying virtual items, i'd be happy to sell em to him.

DoomZaW

You don't see a problem with perpetuating the type of thinking that is systematically ruining gaming/?

Seriously?

Well - I see a problem with several aspects of Diablo III, which is why I'm not buying it.

[QUOTE="DoomZaW"]

Meh, i don't see a problem. If some guy want to spend his money buying virtual items, i'd be happy to sell em to him.

Born_Lucky

You don't see a problem with perpetuating the type of thinking that is systematically ruining gaming/?

Seriously?

Well - I see a problem with several aspects of Diablo III, which is why I'm not buying it.

I'm not sure if this is discouraging professional gold sellers or encouraging it even more. Not sure I like where this is going, if true MMO's follow this trend they will become nothing more than virtual farms.

[QUOTE="Born_Lucky"]

[QUOTE="DoomZaW"]

Meh, i don't see a problem. If some guy want to spend his money buying virtual items, i'd be happy to sell em to him.

FelipeInside

You don't see a problem with perpetuating the type of thinking that is systematically ruining gaming/?

Seriously?

Well - I see a problem with several aspects of Diablo III, which is why I'm not buying it.

That sucks. if they over do it with this micro transaction crap they can keep their game. Grim dawn looks better anyway.

[QUOTE="DoomZaW"]

Meh, i don't see a problem. If some guy want to spend his money buying virtual items, i'd be happy to sell em to him.

Born_Lucky

You don't see a problem with perpetuating the type of thinking that is systematically ruining gaming/?

Seriously?

Well - I see a problem with several aspects of Diablo III, which is why I'm not buying it.

It's been around for years. Blizzard is just of several who wants in on it

[QUOTE="Raxzor"]

This is why Blizzard have gone from my fav dev to my most hated and why I have quit WoW and will never buy another Blizzard game. They are greedy, plain and simple!

sinpkr

this

Agreed. Things like this does not belong in games at all.

Pretty terrible decision, I'd rather pay a monthly fee if they actually added back all the things they cut out from Diablo 2.

I told myself if D3 came out near TOR I'd probably skip on TOR, but now I have some serious doubts. I also told myself if Blizzard ruined D3 I'd disavow them.

Just leave it to Blizzard haters to make a big deal out of nothing.

Blizzard also had to introduce fees to play certain maps in Starcraft 2. Look how that turned out.

As usual people just uses a rumor and unleashes hell for nothing.

[QUOTE="yellonet"]

[QUOTE="sinpkr"]

this

FelipeInside

Agreed. Things like this does not belong in games at all.

This is IMO taking gaming in the wrong direction.
Gaming should be a flight from reality, not somewhere you go to earn money, it should be completely about fun for the sake of fun.

In one breath, players will complain about gold sellers and blame the developer for doing "nothing" about the problem...but in the next breath, they'll condemn a developer for taking an active role in creating a system that essentially eliminates the "black market" for digital goods.

If anyone took the time to actually read the article, they would know that both in-game currency and real life currency can be used...so if you choose to strictly use in-game funds, you'll be spending $0 on the Auction House. However, if you do choose to use the AH for real money, then flat fees will be charged as a means for revenue, and preventing people from just spamming the AH with junk.

Overall, I like this idea. It gives dedicated Diablo 3 players a legit way to make money off their gaming, while at the same time removing much of the power away from gold/item sellers.

But I'm sure their are Blizzard haters that will feel "betrayed", "slapped in the face", and "disgusted" by D3's AH no matter how rational those feelings really are.

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="yellonet"]

Agreed. Things like this does not belong in games at all.

yellonet

Get over yourselves and grow up and understand the modern market....

Ah yes, we should just accept everything and anything because it is modern.
You're obviously a blind follower that accepts pretty much anything thrown at you, so I wonder who of us needs to grow up.

This is IMO taking gaming in the wrong direction.
Gaming should be a flight from reality, not somewhere you go to earn money, it should be completely about fun for the sake of fun.

You are right, of course. Being a PC gamer has gone from a niche hobby to being all about money, and it is sad. Some people are too busy being above the rest of us to see past the nose on their face. While anyone can agree that this is in fact the business model that has evolved, it is also okay to agree it is probably more of a bad than good direction for pc gaming. In the end business is business, and that is what these big time game companies are, all about business. The question is why would any pc gamer side with the business end of gaming before the hobby part of it? Maybe they are the ones who need to "get over" themselves.

In one breath, players will complain about gold sellers and blame the developer for doing "nothing" about the problem...but in the next breath, they'll condemn a developer for taking an active role in creating a system that essentially eliminates the "black market" for digital goods.

If anyone took the time to actually read the article, they would know that both in-game currency and real life currency can be used...so if you choose to strictly use in-game funds, you'll be spending $0 on the Auction House. However, if you do choose to use the AH for real money, then flat fees will be charged as a means for revenue, and preventing people from just spamming the AH with junk.

Overall, I like this idea. It gives dedicated Diablo 3 players a legit way to make money off their gaming, while at the same time removing much of the power away from gold/item sellers.

But I'm sure their are Blizzard haters that will feel "betrayed", "slapped in the face", and "disgusted" by D3's AH no matter how rational those feelings really are.

testament1

[QUOTE="yellonet"]

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]

Get over yourselves and grow up and understand the modern market.... vfibsux

Ah yes, we should just accept everything and anything because it is modern.
You're obviously a blind follower that accepts pretty much anything thrown at you, so I wonder who of us needs to grow up.

This is IMO taking gaming in the wrong direction.
Gaming should be a flight from reality, not somewhere you go to earn money, it should be completely about fun for the sake of fun.

You are right, of course. Being a PC gamer has gone from a niche hobby to being all about money, and it is sad. Some people are too busy being above the rest of us to see past the nose on their face. While anyone can agree that this is in fact the business model that has evolved, it is also okay to agree it is probably more of a bad than good direction for pc gaming. In the end business is business, and that is what these big time game companies are, all about business. The question is why would any pc gamer side with the business end of gaming before the hobby part of it? Maybe they are the ones who need to "get over" themselves.

Right, cause companies in the past WEREN'T about making money....

It's just more obvious now and more EASY cause of the Internet.

I don't agree with it either, but it isn't going to stop me from playing games or whining about it....

In one breath, players will complain about gold sellers and blame the developer for doing "nothing" about the problem...but in the next breath, they'll condemn a developer for taking an active role in creating a system that essentially eliminates the "black market" for digital goods.

If anyone took the time to actually read the article, they would know that both in-game currency and real life currency can be used...so if you choose to strictly use in-game funds, you'll be spending $0 on the Auction House. However, if you do choose to use the AH for real money, then flat fees will be charged as a means for revenue, and preventing people from just spamming the AH with junk.

Overall, I like this idea. It gives dedicated Diablo 3 players a legit way to make money off their gaming, while at the same time removing much of the power away from gold/item sellers.

But I'm sure their are Blizzard haters that will feel "betrayed", "slapped in the face", and "disgusted" by D3's AH no matter how rational those feelings really are.

testament1

For me this has nothing do to with liking Blizzard or not, I just don't agree with their actions, sure, real money has been involved in games before, but not really in this way and in such a mainstream title.

I just feel that they are opening a big can of worms.

You don't have to be a "hater" to realize that Blizzard is now in a sense sanctioning the use of real money such has been done for buying and selling WoW characters, because their reason for forbidding it was not because a conviction that using real money in/around games was wrong, but because they didn't get a cut.

For me this has nothing do to with liking Blizzard or not, I just don't agree with their actions, sure, real money has been involved in games before, but not really in this way and in such a mainstream title.

I just feel that they are opening a big can of worms.

yellonet

They also stated they wanted to introduce payments in Starcraft 2 to play certain maps. And they had to get a cut of it too. And that never happened, not even with their own maps.

But nevermind, go on, ignore the fact that it's just a rumor and keep raging.

I just think people overreact to anything Blizzard does at this point. There are so many spoiled brats playing their games, and contrarian haters not playing thier game, that Blizzard making any sort of move like this will just breed contempt from everyone...regardless of the legitimacy of their idea.

I would be totally against this if say we could ONLY use the AH for real money...then that would be pretty lame. But since I can use in-game or real currency, anyone will be able to participate in the AH...only thing players gained was another option.

I've sunk so much time into WoW that I wish their was a way to get real money for all the time I've invested...now maybe I can with D3. Or, if I end being a more casual D3 player...then in-game currency is perfectly viable.

Who knows how this will work out in the end...it may be the best thing ever, or it could be a gian fly in the ointment...but we won't know until this launches...so no point in people crying foul over a feature that's completely optional and untested.

[QUOTE="vfibsux"]

[QUOTE="yellonet"]

Ah yes, we should just accept everything and anything because it is modern.
You're obviously a blind follower that accepts pretty much anything thrown at you, so I wonder who of us needs to grow up.

This is IMO taking gaming in the wrong direction.
Gaming should be a flight from reality, not somewhere you go to earn money, it should be completely about fun for the sake of fun.

FelipeInside

You are right, of course. Being a PC gamer has gone from a niche hobby to being all about money, and it is sad. Some people are too busy being above the rest of us to see past the nose on their face. While anyone can agree that this is in fact the business model that has evolved, it is also okay to agree it is probably more of a bad than good direction for pc gaming. In the end business is business, and that is what these big time game companies are, all about business. The question is why would any pc gamer side with the business end of gaming before the hobby part of it? Maybe they are the ones who need to "get over" themselves.

Right, cause companies in the past WEREN'T about making money....

It's just more obvious now and more EASY cause of the Internet.

I don't agree with it either, but it isn't going to stop me from playing games or whining about it....

I never said they were bad for making money, I stated in the end they are businesses, period. A business without profit is not a business at all. Saying that, the PC market was nowhere near as profit focused 5-10 years ago as it is now, you cannot argue this fact. Hell, even just in recent months have we started seeing the trend of new PC games matching outrageous console game prices. As for "whining" about it, I am so tired of this myth that no one is allowed to complain about something without being perceived as a whining baby. Why is it people like you will defend the gaming companies as businesses.....yet PC gamers such as myself are never considered customers? As a customer I complain about services I am not happy with. This whole if I don't agree with you then you are whining thing is getting old. If you can't come with a real point then stay out of the conversation. Just calling people with valid concerns whiners is unproductive.

I never said they were bad for making money, I stated in the end they are businesses, period. A business without profit is not a business at all. Saying that, the PC market was nowhere near as profit focused 5-10 years ago as it is now, you cannot argue this fact. Hell, even just in recent months have we started seeing the trend of new PC games matching outrageous console game prices. As for "whining" about it, I am so tired of this myth that no one is allowed to complain about something without being perceived as a whining baby. Why is it people like you will defend the gaming companies as businesses.....yet PC gamers such as myself are never considered customers? As a customer I complain about services I am not happy with. This whole if I don't agree with you then you are whining thing is getting old. If you can't come with a real point then stay out of the conversation. Just calling people with valid concerns whiners is unproductive.

vfibsux

You can't complain on something you don't know. And you don't know anything about Diablo 3.

You're the one without a real point or valid concerns. As I stated earlier, Blizzard also "wanted" to introduce pay-to-play maps in Starcraft 2. They didn't even do that with their own maps. Noone can tell how will this be implemented.

Besides, you can still use in-game currency for items, and we don't even know if there will be a binding system like WoW's.

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"]

[QUOTE="vfibsux"]

You are right, of course. Being a PC gamer has gone from a niche hobby to being all about money, and it is sad. Some people are too busy being above the rest of us to see past the nose on their face. While anyone can agree that this is in fact the business model that has evolved, it is also okay to agree it is probably more of a bad than good direction for pc gaming. In the end business is business, and that is what these big time game companies are, all about business. The question is why would any pc gamer side with the business end of gaming before the hobby part of it? Maybe they are the ones who need to "get over" themselves.

vfibsux

Right, cause companies in the past WEREN'T about making money....

It's just more obvious now and more EASY cause of the Internet.

I don't agree with it either, but it isn't going to stop me from playing games or whining about it....

I never said they were bad for making money, I stated in the end they are businesses, period. A business without profit is not a business at all. Saying that, the PC market was nowhere near as profit focused 5-10 years ago as it is now, you cannot argue this fact. Hell, even just in recent months have we started seeing the trend of new PC games matching outrageous console game prices. As for "whining" about it, I am so tired of this myth that no one is allowed to complain about something without being perceived as a whining baby. Why is it people like you will defend the gaming companies as businesses.....yet PC gamers such as myself are never considered customers? As a customer I complain about services I am not happy with. This whole if I don't agree with you then you are whining thing is getting old. If you can't come with a real point then stay out of the conversation. Just calling people with valid concerns whiners is unproductive.

If I read it correctly you can NOT earn real money; you earn Blizzard store credit to buy other games or more WoW time. All of the money goes straight to Blizzard.Nerkcon

No, you can have the money sent to your Blizzard account, or you can have it sent to a 3rd party i.e. Paypal.

[QUOTE="Nerkcon"]If I read it correctly you can NOT earn real money; you earn Blizzard store credit to buy other games or more WoW time. All of the money goes straight to Blizzard.testament1

No, you can have the money sent to your Blizzard account, or you can have it sent to a 3rd party i.e. Paypal.

Utterly PATHETIC what happened to Blizzard since the Activision merge.

Some people still will have the nuts to defend a devastating decision that turns from a game that rewards personal effort into a game that rewards your wealth... Is sad that such kind of people exist.

This is just CHEATING BEING LEGAL, and only due GREED reasons.

What Blizzard should have done was to use his financial muscle to prosecute and ban the item x money market, no legalizing the cheating.

In Diablo III only the killer can see what the monster drops, so now the people will see how wealth players which payed for more powerful items kill their monsters and steal their loot.

Is not a surprise that after the monetization of the Starcrat II modding they lost all the modding comunnity, they lost DotA and now are so ridiculous that only Blizzarard is developing mods for Starcraft. Greedy persons, with Kotick at head... This will end bad, very bad in the mid term.

[QUOTE="testament1"]

[QUOTE="Nerkcon"]If I read it correctly you can NOT earn real money; you earn Blizzard store credit to buy other games or more WoW time. All of the money goes straight to Blizzard.Nerkcon

No, you can have the money sent to your Blizzard account, or you can have it sent to a 3rd party i.e. Paypal.

Theres is no a single downside to this feature. It is, in fact, brilliant.

Its one thing if the ONLY auction house was real money, but the fact that theres two auctions houses: one more traditional trading with in-game gold and another using real life money.

The real life money auction house legitimizes gold farming. It removes the spamming that comes from gold farmers, and since people were going to buy gold anyways no matter how well they attempt to stop it, this allows players a convenient way to get it.

Please, someone tell me ANY downside to this.

What Blizzard should have done was to use his financial muscle to prosecute and ban the item x money market, no legalizing the cheating.

Ondoval

Thats a very naive way of thinking. Do you know of ANY MMORPG not plagued by item/gold selling? No, it doesn't exist. And such a system cannot exist short of removing the ability to trade. There will always be demand for it.

In Diablo III only the killer can see what the monster drops, so now the people will see how wealth players which payed for more powerful items kill their monsters and steal their loot.

Ondoval

It doesnt work that way. Anyone has a chance to get loot whether they kill the creature themselves or not.

I also fail to see the difference between paying in game gold for powerful items that had to be found by the player community vs real life money for powerful items for community found items.

Is not a surprise that after the monetization of the Starcrat II modding they lost all the modding comunnity, they lost DotA and now are so ridiculous that only Blizzarard is developing mods for Starcraft. Greedy persons, with Kotick at head... This will end bad, very bad in the mid term.

Ondoval

No, it won't. It will, most likely, be underutilized (like the SC2 paid maps thing). But Blizzard has not lost the modding community at all.

This diablo 3 auction house thing is by far a good thing for everyone.

@"This is a business" guys. If I didn't care about everyone's personal enjoyment, let alone mine, I would go for career that earns the most amount of money like a oil company. Its hard for me to explain, since you are all in attack mode to protect Blizzard. YES, all business are to make money. But isn't it possible to make money, AND please your market? I mean just think of it this way; if the Blizzard devs were aren't just gamers like us, do you think THEY would like this feature? Most likely not. Online only and no mods would be acceptable if it was their attempt to stop cheating and gold sellers but now its clear they did those things to promote this. They will probably introduce a cash shop as well such as different hair colors and etc. Nerkcon

They would like this. Seriously, there is no downside at all to this setup.

People were going to be trading items and gold for real life money, anyways. The people that had no interest in doing so, would have to put up with spamming. The people that were interested would have to put up with scams.

If you dont care to use money, use the regular trading house. If you wanted to pay for items with money, you've got the real life money auction house.

Anyone interested in using real money would have just paid for gold, then used the auction house.

Please, someone tell me ANY downside to this.XaosII

[QUOTE="Baranga"]

Remember that guy that bought a Corvette with the money he made from selling items in Diablo 2? Those were the days indeed...

An official auction house is better than Ebay. Farming and trading for real cash happens in D2 as well, don't pretend they don't exist. I wasn't expecting being able to cash out of the system though. It's going to be very interesting.

XIntoTheBlue

Probably why microtransactions exist in the industry and why Blizzard is doing this. There are clowns willing to fork over money to own virtual items the easy way.

[QUOTE="XaosII"]Please, someone tell me ANY downside to this.Nerkcon

1. People with lots of money will always be ahead of you. They will dominate you in PVP and they will slaughter circles around you in PVE. 2. There is still a good possibility that there will still be gold sellers, offering better deals you can't get going through Blizzard. They have sweatshops with hundreds of children being paid to farm items. 3. As I said before, when this proves successful more games will adapt this. 4. It will show Blizzard that they can yet again push even further to how much they can milk us, like selling items that give you stats in WoW. Nerkcon

1) Realize that your statement of "People with lots of money" still applies to the statement "people with lots of in-game money" will always be ahead of you. Except someone interested in paying with real money would have done this already, with or without a system in place. This point holds no merit.

2) Unlikely. They would have to adjust pricing nearly daily based on gold prices. They might stilll do it, but its far easier for a player just to check the auction house to see the value of gold/items. That, and with a system to SAFELY trade gold, most players would prefer the safe and secure method to the possibility of getting scammed.

3) I dont mind. I dont see any issues with a well implemented system, since tere are no downsides.

4) This isnt milking at all. Its resolving a problem.

[QUOTE="Ondoval"]

What Blizzard should have done was to use his financial muscle to prosecute and ban the item x money market, no legalizing the cheating.

XaosII

Thats a very naive way of thinking. Do you know of ANY MMORPG not plagued by item/gold selling? No, it doesn't exist. And such a system cannot exist short of removing the ability to trade. There will always be demand for it.

In Diablo III only the killer can see what the monster drops, so now the people will see how wealth players which payed for more powerful items kill their monsters and steal their loot.

Ondoval

It doesnt work that way. Anyone has a chance to get loot whether they kill the creature themselves or not.

I also fail to see the difference between paying in game gold for powerful items that had to be found by the player community vs real life money for powerful items for community found items.

Is not a surprise that after the monetization of the Starcrat II modding they lost all the modding comunnity, they lost DotA and now are so ridiculous that only Blizzarard is developing mods for Starcraft. Greedy persons, with Kotick at head... This will end bad, very bad in the mid term.

Ondoval

No, it won't. It will, most likely, be underutilized (like the SC2 paid maps thing). But Blizzard has not lost the modding community at all.

This diablo 3 auction house thing is by far a good thing for everyone.

I'm right in all of my statments; you can see the item drops from other players, only the killer has that feature except if He discardes the loot; also, I think that some people will find no real reason to start playing Diablo III: is much better wait 6-12 months, then buy the game, but god-tier items and punch in the face another players that did waste their time in the game but fell away compared with the professional item farmers will be able to provide.

I don't support the idea of people gaining access to features and items without self-work involved; I trader some items in Diablo II LOD, basically using perfect gems as money, and it get me a lot of time to collect those gems and it get a lot of time to the players selling items top sell that items, so we where changing work for work, which to me seem a fair deal.

Money x items = cheating. If I would be able to play Bad Company 2 with all the weapons and items unlock at level 1 paying for it then I wouldn't play the game, or for sure I did't spent the over 600+ hours playing and enjoying the game.

The mere notion of knowing that people that barely did play the game will be playing the game with item advantages makes me SICK. Is revolting, is the renunce by the game system to a model of a self-made effort.

You guys don't even see the problem?! You know if other RPGs adopt this you could say goodbye to things like mods because that would compete with their real money auctions/cash shops right?! I can't ****ing believe you guys! If the next Counter-Strike does this kind of crap gaming will be ruined for me.Nerkcon

No. Please explain to me the problem.

I dont know of any persistent online rpg that allows modding, so i dont understand your argument.

I also do not see the logical jump from Diablo 3 having real life money auctions to Counter-Strike having it. The systems are completely different.

I'm right in all of my statments; you can see the item drops from other players, only the killer has that feature except if He discardes the loot; also, I think that some people will find no real reason to start playing Diablo III: is much better wait 6-12 months, then buy the game, but god-tier items and punch in the face another players that did waste their time in the game but fell away compared with the professional item farmers will be able to provide.

I don't support the idea of people gaining access to features and items without self-work involved; I trader some items in Diablo II LOD, basically using perfect gems as money, and it get me a lot of time to collect those gems and it get a lot of time to the players selling items top sell that items, so we where changing work for work, which to me seem a fair deal.

Money x items = cheating. If I would be able to play Bad Company 2 with all the weapons and items unlock at level 1 paying for it then I wouldn't play the game, or for sure I did't spent the over 600+ hours playing and enjoying the game.

The mere notion of knowing that people that barely did play the game will be playing the game with item advantages makes me SICK. Is revolting, is the renunce by the game system to a model of a self-made effort.

Ondoval

If someone was interested in buying god-tier items, they would have just bought gold from gold spammers and then bought the items via the in-game gold only auction.

NOT having an real-money auction does not stop, slow down, or fix this problem. Having a real life money auction, legitimizes something that people were going to be doing anyways.

BC2 doesn't have an auction house or any way to trade. There is no demand for community items. The economic systems are not comparable.

2) Unlikely. They would have to adjust pricing nearly daily based on gold prices. They might stilll do it, but its far easier for a player just to check the auction house to see the value of gold/items. That, and with a system to SAFELY trade gold, most players would prefer the safe and secure method to the possibility of getting scammed.

XaosII

Gold has no value in Diablo. Pretty much has no purpose in Diablo II, my characters has so much that can't keep more and aside from reviving mercs, reapair armors and gambling has no use (all of those uses are extremely cheap). And in Diablo III you don't need repairs.