The inherent competitive divisiveness of using a real world currency shop for in-game items is clear: you get first and foremost access to items that would normally be very difficult to obtain otherwise, possibly requiring days/weeks of playing for normal users, while improving additional characters through the same system becomes a breeze for people willing to go the extra step; generally, as a paying customer, you'll always be one step ahead and ten times as faster and more likely to get the best equipment than the majority of the dedicated 'free 2 play' crowd ( if you're at least moderately dedicated yourself ) -- again, it's the very definition of a pay 2 win model; even if a few from the hardcore crowd will manage to keep up, you're still going to have to work harder to compete than those with real word money; it doesn't have to mean that you're not going to be able to keep up at all.

Bringing up the ( vanilla ) video game currency-based trading system is a non-argument. You're never going to find the same selection of items being sold in gold when there's a market for them in real-world currency. Basic vidya game economy 101.

SkyWard20

All I read here is that you completely lack a gaming ethic and just assume everyone is willing to shell out cash as if it grows on trees. "Assume" being the keyword.

If it's not pay 2 win, then what is it? People who don't take out their wallets will have a much harder time competing to be on equal standing with those who do.

That's the very definition of a 'pay 2 win' model.

SkyWard20

Again, you can get those items yourself. Somebody buying them off the AH means somebody else is *NOT* getting to use them.

Pay to win implies you get an unfair advantage over those who *don't* pay. What if they implement a match-making system based on gear and make difficulty scaling based on gear too rather than just player count? How is that pay to win?

Also, what's up with people completely forgetting that there's a in-game currency AH too?

The LotR-style maps in Starcraft and Warcraft 3 were amazing although you can't play those anymore. Most of my time on Starcraft was spent on them. So yes, there have been good LotR games.

It's a shame no publisher has ever made a really, REALLY good LotR game, it's even more of a shame that up to now only the Third Age was touched...

People who have more expendable cash have an unfair advantage and more options over players who don't. This isn't like microtransaction hats or mounts here, this stuff can give players a real boost over each other. I have no job and already play lots of games and WoW, I can't afford to buy the items I need for real money, I just have to play the game for a while to get them. Meanwhile some kid who borrows his parents' credit card will breeze through the content those items help with.

Vaasman

This isn't a boost or anything.

You can get those items by yourself. There's nothing "unfair" in it. "That kid who borrows his parents' credit card" means somebody else is *NOT* getting to use said item.

Besides, Blizzard also had to make a similar system for Starcraft 2 maps. Turns out they didn't do that, not even with their own maps. If you read the article Pardo states the AH system is a system that's only meant as a revenue stream for Asian countries where selling boxes is not viable. He even said they might consider going free to play.

As usual people take only one line of the interview, blow it out of proportion and completely ignore the rest. How Gamespot-ish :roll:

heres the link to the removal of skill trees link

TheShadowLord07

It says they are *changing* it, meaning there will be no tree-like structure.

Diablo III team is implementing and testing a new system that changes how skills are acquiredArticle

"This new system is still in the development stages and if it does not work, we still have plenty of options to fall back on. Right now, we're just trying different things and getting a feel for the few ideas in regards to the skill system that we have going on right now. It differs from the World of Warcraft/Diablo II type hierarchical **** and is more of a skill pool/path than a tree per se."Article

It doesn't mean there aren't going to be skill gaining *at all* like you're making it sound :roll:

This is basically paying to be better. Sure you could use 3rd party sites for Diablo 2, but Blizzard wasn't sponsoring it. Now Blizzard is making sure that if people want to pay to be better, that they are getting some money off of it. It is a lame more on Blizzard's part. I consider buying better items with real money to be cheating.SF_KiLLaMaN

This is *not* basically paying to be better.

You CAN get those items yourself just like the seller got them.

I really like this post on Terrariaonline forum by Vaxter

Seto_Akari

How does that belong here?

Says who, you?

I'd like to see an announcement from anybody even remotely affiliated with Blizzard saying that, "single-player is not the way their games are meant to be played." Although it does beg the question, if single-player was never the way Blizzard games were meant to be played then why have all of their games (up until now) had single-player portions?

Seems like an awfully big waste of resources for something so...frivolous.

-wildflower-

It's all explained here

There you go, straight from an interview with Greg Canessa, Battle.net project director.

At the Cologne 5-day show?

FU Valve, how am I supposed to watch both SC2 and DotA2 tournaments now :(

If you conveniently ignore the post directly above yours, sure, that sarcasm would be warranted.

topgunmv

I quoted before his post appeared as you can see from the difference in posting time, keep needlessly snide comments for yourself mmkay ;) ?

So this new Diablo is different beast all together from the previous two games which did have the option to be played off-line as a single-player game and on-line as a multi-player (or "solo") game. Blizzard is essentially giving their customers less options than they had in their previous two games and this is supposed to be a good thing, how?

-wildflower-

It encourages people to explore the interaction with other players. Playing the SP alone is *not* the way Blizzard games are meant to be played.

It's not a matter of piracy, everyone knows it will be cracked even before it's unlocked just like what happened with Starcraft 2.