Diablo3 will be region locked and all Chinese farmers will stay within their region. That's where Blizzard will make a ton of money.
I think it will take atleast a year before a legit bot will be available on NA servers, and problaby a few more years before it is available for sale.
I think hacker/botters will keep their programs close because now they can make a ton of money directly through the game.
Also, Diablo2 was plagued by BUGS. The biggest problem D2 had was duping. Bots didn't supply shit to d2 economy because most botters never found any runes, and if they did, it was mostly UM runes or IST runes. And it took thousands and thousands of runs for any good runes to drop. Most items that were cherished in d2 were the super rare, eth Berzerker %15 ED damage axes which almost never dropped. Also, super rare helms for Hammerdins, sorces, zons, sins, druids. And most of those were duped once they were found.
It took 3 GUL runes and a cube to make an ist and 3 more IST for the next. That's how most folk would get to higher runes, and runewords.
DUPERS ruined diablo2, not the botters.
It also didn't help when Blizzard would roll out a patch every 2 years.
It didn't help that people would scam one another.
It didn't help that people would use hacks in pvp and pretty much ruin the pvp aspect.
I'm a fan of the AH, but not a fan of the real money exchange. They could have left that out and made gold worth something.
I don't mind the internet access requirement, since I only played d2 online. I don't like the idea though that other folk who do enjoy single player and mod support being prohibited.
You really think that the chinese RMT farmers will not find a way using proxy servers to play on NA battle.net? Too much money in it.
Also, you assumption that it will take a year to make a bot is laughable. If there is money to be gained, that bot will be up in running in less than a month. You can quote me on that if im wrong and make me look like a fool, but I am certain that I am right.
i say.. so what? you already could do this in everquest and vanguard with their bazaar servers and on any server in vanguard.
i once paid for 3 months of vanguard game time by leveling up a fast leveling class and selling it for $47 when it got to level 30.
if i had the patience and time i wouldve sold boats too.
it didnt break those games, it wont break diablo 3.
First of all: it was against the NDA in those games so many people didn't do it because it is cheating there. In D3 it will not be cheating but instead the normal way to do things.
Secondly, those games were MMOs, now we are talking about a regular game.
I don't like where this is going, soon all games will have microtransactions and content for sale. Sure, it is a long time ago that gaming wasn't only about money but the companies are getting more and more greedy all the time.
Blizzard are nickle and diming you anyway they can...that's what the auction house cost is a way for them to make money. If it wasn't going to net them a tidy sum why bother to chage for the cash house transactions at all?
As for Facebook, it isn't a direct charge, but it is a social network link-up designed to get more players onto Battle.net and generate Blizzard more money.
As I wrote above, legalizing gold farmers, who let's face it, will be a significant presence on the cash auction house is making legit a section of the gaming world that Blizzard has previously been going to extensive efforts to ban, they are legalizing this trade in their games and it will likely occur in other triple A Blizzard-Activision titles.
If you don't understand why a real money market requires a fee for placing an item on the market, then you don't deserve to be a part of the conversation.
And thank God they are legalizing it. Now it'll be average Joes that can reap the rewards of their efforts, not JUST illegal RMT. This will lead to a much healthier RMT economy and one in which everyone can participate in. The only problem I see with it is that I feel that the market is likely to tank into ridiculously low amounts because of the extreme supply vs low demand for these items. You still need buyers that are willing to spend real money, and I believe it's likely that there are going to be a LOT more sellers than buyers.
The only thing that anyone has said that makes this sound even remotely scary is that Blizzard has 100% control the drop rates and real money is involved. They could theoretically change drop rate and do some personal trading based on inside information. This does sound pretty insane though since if they were caught, it would ruin them. And right now they are making a ton of money.
The problem with Blizzard and the cash auction house is that they have significantly shifted their position from trying to ban the player-based in-game cash microtransactions to basically charging a fee and saying come on players and farmers here is a nice online shop for you on our company web space.
The problem with cash auction houses is that it makes the game unequal. The effort to aquire in-game items becomes lessened and gold as a currency undergoes hyperinflation because for a few bucks you can buy as much as you want.
The drop rate issue is a major mechanic issue in Blizzard games...I AM BETTING THEIR ARE SOME .00001% drops placed into Diablo 3 to stimulate the players to the farm.
Ten pages and not one opinion offered on a valid way to work around this 3rd party sites than what Blizzard did. When are people going to learn that people still buy shit in diablo II TODAY. It its big time, these items didn't sell for a couple bucks, they sold for 20-30.
This is really a pointless topic. Until people understand that people spent tons of money on a singleplayer/multiplayer game called DiabloII they aren't going to understand the benefit of why this is a good thing compared to the alternative. This was not a decision they looked at and said, "hey lets make a RMT auction in diablo3 and call it a day." They weighed all the negatives versus the good it would do and decided the players in the end would benefit the most from this course than the alternative courses decided to counteract 3rd party sites.
Maybe Blizzard should of came out and stated what all their ideas to counteract 3rd party sellers were and showed us this was the best alternative. Then again maybe I'm wrong Blizzard said 3rd parties sold items we are going to allow our players do and take a minor cut in D3. Let the sites try to best our ingame one.
Either way some type of discussion involved how to beat/profit from the 3rd party sellers. That is the culprit along with the hundred of thousands that bought or sold something in the game. Blame competitive nature of people for a single player ladder type game. If they were not so dang greedy this wouldn't be an issue, its the market evolving and to many people are blinded by typical MMO type game since obviously this is an MMO forum and this game should be not even mentioned here.
It is a single player game. Who cares if someone wants to spend a bunch of money on a piece of loot, It has ZERO effect on my game and my individual game world, except that if I find something really rare I might choose to sell it instead of use it.
As far as the having to be connected to Battle.net to play, I agree that sucks.
I can not support this choice by Blizzard. I will not be buying the game. No amount of discussion or "blah blah blah" from Blizzard will make me see otherwise.
Sadly, I'm probably the minority on this issue. No where near enough people will vote with their wallet. They will swallow this turd with a coating of sugar.
What needs to happen...no one buys this game and Blizzard gets a wake up call. No you can't do what ever you feel like. You have to stay in touch with the fanbase. What will happen...everyone will buy it and Blizzard will continue to be a company I no longer wish to give my money to.
Oh well...Sooooooo many great games coming out this year. I can afford to pass on D3.
The story of the week for the last seven days comes by way of the news coming out of Blizzard regarding the Real-World Money Auction House that's going to be making its way into Diablo 3 when the highly anticipated title hits the shelves. What repercussions will the MMO industry see from Blizzard's decision to go this route? That's what we take a look at this week in our Story of the Week
As we reported and pontificated on already, Blizzard announced this week that Diablo 3 will launch with a real-money auction house where players can hawk their goods for real world money. Let’s put aside the fact that the game will also force users to be connected to Battle.net to play (even solo), and instead focus on the very big story that Diablo 3 will allow item-farmers to sell their rares and valuables for cold hard cash. In the words of Ron Burgundy, it’s “kind of a big deal.”
I'm curious to know if a more appropriate title wouldn't be "Activision Grabs for Cash."
Blizzard seems to be making a series of incredibly unwise business decisions over the past 9 months or so, resulting in a loss of approximately 900,000 total subscriptions since Cataclysm launched (if the numbers released over time are to be believed). Given that Cata only sold some 4.3 million copies (if the numbers I read back in March are to be believed), that doesn't paint the prettiest of pictures.
IMO, Activision's history of makingless-than-sound business decisions is far longer than Blizzard's. RealID, battle.net, Facebook integration, the mess that is Cataclysm (it took them over 6 months to correct a graphical issue that caused seizures...), RMT built into the game... all of these terrible decisions sound like Activision. Or like a company that believes itself "too big to fail" and needs a lesson in humility.
"You are obviously confusing a mature rating with actual maturity." -Asherman
Maybe MMO is not your genre, go play Modern Warfare...or something you can be all twitchy...and rank up all night. This is seriously getting tired. -Ranyr
Didnt WOW lose like 300k players in a single month or something just a little while ago? Think this has much to do with it? *waves goodbye to blizzard and never looks back*
No, and neither does anyone else. No one leaves a game because a TOTALLY DIFFERENT GAME does something they do not like. End. OF. Story. You didn't either, this is just whining or trolling and none of us buy it.
Ten pages and not one opinion offered on a valid way to work around this 3rd party sites than what Blizzard did. When are people going to learn that people still buy shit in diablo II TODAY. It its big time, these items didn't sell for a couple bucks, they sold for 20-30.
This is really a pointless topic. Until people understand that people spent tons of money on a singleplayer/multiplayer game called DiabloII they aren't going to understand the benefit of why this is a good thing compared to the alternative. This was not a decision they looked at and said, "hey lets make a RMT auction in diablo3 and call it a day." They weighed all the negatives versus the good it would do and decided the players in the end would benefit the most from this course than the alternative courses decided to counteract 3rd party sites.
Maybe Blizzard should of came out and stated what all their ideas to counteract 3rd party sellers were and showed us this was the best alternative. Then again maybe I'm wrong Blizzard said 3rd parties sold items we are going to allow our players do and take a minor cut in D3. Let the sites try to best our ingame one.
Either way some type of discussion involved how to beat/profit from the 3rd party sellers. That is the culprit along with the hundred of thousands that bought or sold something in the game. Blame competitive nature of people for a single player ladder type game. If they were not so dang greedy this wouldn't be an issue, its the market evolving and to many people are blinded by typical MMO type game since obviously this is an MMO forum and this game should be not even mentioned here.
No see, here's my issue. With a system like Diablo 2 I never had to deal with the 3rd party sites. I didn't have to deal with the RMT if I didn't wish to. It was never there in my face. With this forced online thing and the fact that RMT is legit it means that now all that crap is in my face. Every time I go to the market place anything worth buying is likely going to cost real money. Players and RMT alike will be making real life money more important than in game currency.
You may not have been there for APB's mess of a market or EQ2's when they allowed RMT sales, but I was. I know how assinine this crud can get.
As far as the game being mentioned here, one it's a big title, two it's by Blizzard you know the guys known for WoW, three the fact that it's online only (Not so single player) with legit RMT. Any of those alone warrants it coverage on a broader range of sites than a single player game normally would get on it's own.
In any case, it's bad enough I have to deal with RMT in my MMO's spamming all day. Now I have to deal with them in my single player games. Not only that there encouraging players to RMT. My Hobby is turning to shit. It's becoming nothing more than a wasteland of money grubbers and sheep that believe they are wolves. It's like the little drug dealers on the corner that think there going to hit it rich without any real work lol. No the majority of you simply aren't going to make any money, some will but it will be a small portion. What most will do is simply make things as annoying as possible for others.
You guys want to make some money of crap like this, go play the stock market and sink your money into futures. Go play online casino's. Play Entropia or w/e it is. Don't turn actual games into money grubbing ceaspools.
For the love of all that is holy don't embrace this RMT crap. You can't win against them, but at least you can limit the damage it does. You give in then they really do win and gamers lose.
My only opinion on this has nothing to do with Diablo or gaming at all except in a very general way. Considering the fact that we are most likely entering Great Depression 2.0, I doubt that facilitating the sale of virtual items in a game is going to be as profitable as Blizzard hopes. In fact, the whole gaming industry is likely to take a major hit along with other non-essential sectors of the economy. When Mommy and Daddy have no job, its kind of hard to justify the purchase of virtual items.
Didnt WOW lose like 300k players in a single month or something just a little while ago? Think this has much to do with it? *waves goodbye to blizzard and never looks back*
No, and neither does anyone else. No one leaves a game because a TOTALLY DIFFERENT GAME does something they do not like. End. OF. Story. You didn't either, this is just whining or trolling and none of us buy it.
Blizz, especially WoW got its kickstart from Diablo, Warcarft and Starcraft fans. WoW had a rather good start due to their very good reputation and games. I know because i was part of it. I had played Blizz games for years when WoW lauchend. Perosnally i didnt subscripbe to WoW after open beta, the game was a joke as MMO and got worse after every patch.
But i think Blizz will get through with this. Friends of me from the days of D2 are still Blizz fans and would buy crap if it has only the Blizz logo on the box.
I will make this short and simple for the people who just dont get it. RMT is going to happen no matter what blizzard does, that is a fact. When you accept that the question then becomes do you fight a battle you cant win and kill yourself in the process or do you make money off it?
This excuse doesn't stand in the water, a lot of fight will never be won, you better get used to it now, heck even life on a personal level will never win.
I think RMT buyers should be threated like RMT sellers, meaning you get caught -> lawyers gonna send you a strong letter.
Really don't know what kind of people I hate more, those china farmers selling the stuff or the people buying it, guess it heavily hate both shouldn't have a place in gaming.
Lazy excuses such as you can't win the fight, is like allowing drug selling cause you can't win the battle right? Guess what one can lose the battle, but still win the war.
Bli$$ard just wants to make their shareholders instead of customers happy, people really have to be brainwashed supporting this crap.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play." "Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
I quit Lineage 2 for the very same reason. Farmers simply camped and owned places where best items (and most expensive) dropped so they could sell them on Ebay.
What will prevent farmers now to camp places like that to collect all the best items and sell them regulary (this time) on market. And believe me, there is no guild that can fight off these farmers as I'm talking about 100+ organised people who work for their *BOSS* in some shady place.
People will buy the game. Firstly because it Blizzard and secondly because its probably good.
But once realising they cant get items they want simply because of farmers, unless they say hello to the little thing called Mastercard or Visa. Rage quit is inevitable.
Blizzard, wake up! You are going the wrong way! Billions aren't good enough for you? You want trillions?
Have you ever played Diablo?! It wil not be open world MMO. Everyone will play his own instanced world so everyone will be able to farm.
I am more concerned about the 'no offline solo' than I am about the auction house thing. I don't really care about people buying/selling items for real cash, I don't plan to use that system so it doesn't really effect me. If I had any concerns about it, it would simply be the ripple effect mentioned, as these things tend to have a way of spreading to other games/genres if they are received reasonably well. Which is to say, if not too many of us complain about it then it's likely this practice could spread and evolve into something that I might have issues with.
But at the moment I care more about not being able to play solo offline. Not so much b/c I have a problem with needing to be online to play, I don't really care about that it's just during the coarse of playing games like this I like to do certain things that Battle.net would consider cheating and they actually ban people over. For instance, in RPG's I generally will hack my gold, I play games to have fun and in a solo play enviroment it is not fun for me to have to farm gold. If I'm forced to play online however I'm assuming I'd be subject to Blizzard's conduct rules, or whatever and this would most likely be considered cheating, while I can understand that, I don't feel it's my fault as they're not giving me the option to play offline where this decision by me wouldn't hurt anyone. I just feel, if I'm paying 60 bucks for this product, I should be able to enjoy certain aspects the way I want. I wouldn't be opposed if they even made it so you have an offline character and an online character, so if you choose to play offline, then none of that stuff carries over to online play. But if you play online solo, where they can assure you're not "cheating" then all your accomplishments will carry over. I dunno, I just don't like the thought of Blizzard policing my SOLO play experience. For me, the whole appeal of a solo rpg is that I can play how I want to play, I don't hurt anyone else, my actions don't hurt anyone else's experience.
it's not a grab for cash. it's an Blizzard's attempt to control the market that is built on their own effort. as i really can't see a way to remove item economy from Diablo, it's just a path of lesser evil.
personally, i'm more annoyed by "online play only", but then again i don't have to play itl, so... meh. to be honest, unless gameplay is changed to something else than point-and-click, i don't really want to play it, either.
100% agree.
It is the online only requirement that forced me to pass my copy of SC2 to my friend. I travel too much to play MMOs lately, and I do not love of the idea of an online solo game.
I guess D3 is another no go for me. Oh well, time to preorder Skyrim.
I am more concerned about the 'no offline solo' than I am about the auction house thing. I don't really care about people buying/selling items for real cash, I don't plan to use that system so it doesn't really effect me. If I had any concerns about it, it would simply be the ripple effect mentioned, as these things tend to have a way of spreading to other games/genres if they are received reasonably well. Which is to say, if not too many of us complain about it then it's likely this practice could spread and evolve into something that I might have issues with.
But at the moment I care more about not being able to play solo offline. Not so much b/c I have a problem with needing to be online to play, I don't really care about that it's just during the coarse of playing games like this I like to do certain things that Battle.net would consider cheating and they actually ban people over. For instance, in RPG's I generally will hack my gold, I play games to have fun and in a solo play enviroment it is not fun for me to have to farm gold. If I'm forced to play online however I'm assuming I'd be subject to Blizzard's conduct rules, or whatever and this would most likely be considered cheating, while I can understand that, I don't feel it's my fault as they're not giving me the option to play offline where this decision by me wouldn't hurt anyone. I just feel, if I'm paying 60 bucks for this product, I should be able to enjoy certain aspects the way I want. I wouldn't be opposed if they even made it so you have an offline character and an online character, so if you choose to play offline, then none of that stuff carries over to online play. But if you play online solo, where they can assure you're not "cheating" then all your accomplishments will carry over. I dunno, I just don't like the thought of Blizzard policing my SOLO play experience. For me, the whole appeal of a solo rpg is that I can play how I want to play, I don't hurt anyone else, my actions don't hurt anyone else's experience.
Actually hacking the game is against their ToA. They explicitly said no mod.
That said, I agree with you about "no offline solo" and could not care less about RMT by others. To me D3 is a solo game, I play mine and who cares how you play yours. If I need to trade, I go home, set up a LAN game and trade with my family friends.
Ten pages and not one opinion offered on a valid way to work around this 3rd party sites than what Blizzard did. When are people going to learn that people still buy shit in diablo II TODAY. It its big time, these items didn't sell for a couple bucks, they sold for 20-30.
This is really a pointless topic. Until people understand that people spent tons of money on a singleplayer/multiplayer game called DiabloII they aren't going to understand the benefit of why this is a good thing compared to the alternative. This was not a decision they looked at and said, "hey lets make a RMT auction in diablo3 and call it a day." They weighed all the negatives versus the good it would do and decided the players in the end would benefit the most from this course than the alternative courses decided to counteract 3rd party sites.
Maybe Blizzard should of came out and stated what all their ideas to counteract 3rd party sellers were and showed us this was the best alternative. Then again maybe I'm wrong Blizzard said 3rd parties sold items we are going to allow our players do and take a minor cut in D3. Let the sites try to best our ingame one.
Either way some type of discussion involved how to beat/profit from the 3rd party sellers. That is the culprit along with the hundred of thousands that bought or sold something in the game. Blame competitive nature of people for a single player ladder type game. If they were not so dang greedy this wouldn't be an issue, its the market evolving and to many people are blinded by typical MMO type game since obviously this is an MMO forum and this game should be not even mentioned here.
No see, here's my issue. With a system like Diablo 2 I never had to deal with the 3rd party sites. I didn't have to deal with the RMT if I didn't wish to. It was never there in my face. With this forced online thing and the fact that RMT is legit it means that now all that crap is in my face. Every time I go to the market place anything worth buying is likely going to cost real money. Players and RMT alike will be making real life money more important than in game currency.
You may not have been there for APB's mess of a market or EQ2's when they allowed RMT sales, but I was. I know how assinine this crud can get.
As far as the game being mentioned here, one it's a big title, two it's by Blizzard you know the guys known for WoW, three the fact that it's online only (Not so single player) with legit RMT. Any of those alone warrants it coverage on a broader range of sites than a single player game normally would get on it's own.
In any case, it's bad enough I have to deal with RMT in my MMO's spamming all day. Now I have to deal with them in my single player games. Not only that there encouraging players to RMT. My Hobby is turning to shit. It's becoming nothing more than a wasteland of money grubbers and sheep that believe they are wolves. It's like the little drug dealers on the corner that think there going to hit it rich without any real work lol. No the majority of you simply aren't going to make any money, some will but it will be a small portion. What most will do is simply make things as annoying as possible for others.
You guys want to make some money of crap like this, go play the stock market and sink your money into futures. Go play online casino's. Play Entropia or w/e it is. Don't turn actual games into money grubbing ceaspools.
For the love of all that is holy don't embrace this RMT crap. You can't win against them, but at least you can limit the damage it does. You give in then they really do win and gamers lose.
Your right it does need to be mentioned here for your reasons you specified. I was going to list something about how Entropia hasn't turned all games into money playgrounds, but reality is Diablo had a lot of money being made off it because people wanted the best regardless of how it would affect them in a week. The third party sites and hacks were the reasoning behind this determination, and I take the opposite stance on a non-persistant co-op online only game than you. RMT is going to be there, I'd rather have Blizzard take some of the cut and let me make some than ignore the problem.
The part in red though, you and everyone who played on battle.net may not have been forced to acknowledge or visit the 3rd party sites, but they infact had the major role in "IP lockouts" and the reason why my wife, myself, and brother/friend over could not play on battle.net at the same time. They had a major effect on the overall game to where I decided in 2006 to call it quits and go to singleplayer offline only just using LANs then.
Another big point. When you accept the fact RMT will happen if it is supported or not, do you want your currency going out of the country or staying in? I vote staying in the country now, more then ever.
I will choose to supoort my economy over funding guns to blow up my friends, family and fellow countrymen. Also, before you say this statement is rediculous, a article was just released with information on the very subject.
Also, I wrote to the whitehouse on RMT and how big the problem was with USD flowing out of the country 2 years ago. I didn't expect it to ever get far or past the trash bin if ever even looked at by a real person, but I tried. Yes, it is probably a drop in the bucket compared to other problems, but it was one I felt could be quickly addressed by government. I am very happy Blizzard is making these changes for them, the players and for us as a country. ( If you don't agree that billions flowing out of the country every year is a problem, you probably can agree that this doesn't hurt )
As a player I'm disappointed by their take with the EBay AH.
I was looking forward playing this game with my wife. We both have very good memories of nights spent on D2. That being said, while I I'm fully aware Blizzard don't care but they just lost 2 customers and this move did prevent me from ever installing back Wow to try out Cata.
I do know it's a business and producing video games costs millions however milking the cow like this is a bit too much. Anyway, who cares, pretty sure they'll make millions out of this... on the back of chinese prisoners.
Lest we forget, diablo is not an mmo. There ie no "world" for farmers to camp. Each player has their own world. Things they buy or sell will then be transfered from one world (like on my system) to another world (on someone elses system) never to be seen (by me) again ... unless there is some sort of player vs player (like starcraft) on battle net for diablo (I really do not know). I dont think I will be forced to go to the AH to buy anything.
I am basically against the idea of buying or selling anything to use in a vid game unless it is done within the game for "play" money. Greed is bad .... mmmk?
Comments
You really think that the chinese RMT farmers will not find a way using proxy servers to play on NA battle.net? Too much money in it.
Also, you assumption that it will take a year to make a bot is laughable. If there is money to be gained, that bot will be up in running in less than a month. You can quote me on that if im wrong and make me look like a fool, but I am certain that I am right.
First of all: it was against the NDA in those games so many people didn't do it because it is cheating there. In D3 it will not be cheating but instead the normal way to do things.
Secondly, those games were MMOs, now we are talking about a regular game.
I don't like where this is going, soon all games will have microtransactions and content for sale. Sure, it is a long time ago that gaming wasn't only about money but the companies are getting more and more greedy all the time.
The problem with Blizzard and the cash auction house is that they have significantly shifted their position from trying to ban the player-based in-game cash microtransactions to basically charging a fee and saying come on players and farmers here is a nice online shop for you on our company web space.
The problem with cash auction houses is that it makes the game unequal. The effort to aquire in-game items becomes lessened and gold as a currency undergoes hyperinflation because for a few bucks you can buy as much as you want.
The drop rate issue is a major mechanic issue in Blizzard games...I AM BETTING THEIR ARE SOME .00001% drops placed into Diablo 3 to stimulate the players to the farm.
Ten pages and not one opinion offered on a valid way to work around this 3rd party sites than what Blizzard did. When are people going to learn that people still buy shit in diablo II TODAY. It its big time, these items didn't sell for a couple bucks, they sold for 20-30.
This is really a pointless topic. Until people understand that people spent tons of money on a singleplayer/multiplayer game called DiabloII they aren't going to understand the benefit of why this is a good thing compared to the alternative. This was not a decision they looked at and said, "hey lets make a RMT auction in diablo3 and call it a day." They weighed all the negatives versus the good it would do and decided the players in the end would benefit the most from this course than the alternative courses decided to counteract 3rd party sites.
Maybe Blizzard should of came out and stated what all their ideas to counteract 3rd party sellers were and showed us this was the best alternative. Then again maybe I'm wrong Blizzard said 3rd parties sold items we are going to allow our players do and take a minor cut in D3. Let the sites try to best our ingame one.
Either way some type of discussion involved how to beat/profit from the 3rd party sellers. That is the culprit along with the hundred of thousands that bought or sold something in the game. Blame competitive nature of people for a single player ladder type game. If they were not so dang greedy this wouldn't be an issue, its the market evolving and to many people are blinded by typical MMO type game since obviously this is an MMO forum and this game should be not even mentioned here.
It is a single player game. Who cares if someone wants to spend a bunch of money on a piece of loot, It has ZERO effect on my game and my individual game world, except that if I find something really rare I might choose to sell it instead of use it.
As far as the having to be connected to Battle.net to play, I agree that sucks.
I can not support this choice by Blizzard. I will not be buying the game. No amount of discussion or "blah blah blah" from Blizzard will make me see otherwise.
Sadly, I'm probably the minority on this issue. No where near enough people will vote with their wallet. They will swallow this turd with a coating of sugar.
What needs to happen...no one buys this game and Blizzard gets a wake up call. No you can't do what ever you feel like. You have to stay in touch with the fanbase. What will happen...everyone will buy it and Blizzard will continue to be a company I no longer wish to give my money to.
Oh well...Sooooooo many great games coming out this year. I can afford to pass on D3.
*waves goodbye to blizzard and never looks back*
I'm curious to know if a more appropriate title wouldn't be "Activision Grabs for Cash."
Blizzard seems to be making a series of incredibly unwise business decisions over the past 9 months or so, resulting in a loss of approximately 900,000 total subscriptions since Cataclysm launched (if the numbers released over time are to be believed). Given that Cata only sold some 4.3 million copies (if the numbers I read back in March are to be believed), that doesn't paint the prettiest of pictures.
IMO, Activision's history of makingless-than-sound business decisions is far longer than Blizzard's. RealID, battle.net, Facebook integration, the mess that is Cataclysm (it took them over 6 months to correct a graphical issue that caused seizures...), RMT built into the game... all of these terrible decisions sound like Activision. Or like a company that believes itself "too big to fail" and needs a lesson in humility.
Firebrand Art
"You are obviously confusing a mature rating with actual maturity." -Asherman
Maybe MMO is not your genre, go play Modern Warfare...or something you can be all twitchy...and rank up all night. This is seriously getting tired. -Ranyr
No, and neither does anyone else. No one leaves a game because a TOTALLY DIFFERENT GAME does something they do not like. End. OF. Story. You didn't either, this is just whining or trolling and none of us buy it.
No see, here's my issue. With a system like Diablo 2 I never had to deal with the 3rd party sites. I didn't have to deal with the RMT if I didn't wish to. It was never there in my face. With this forced online thing and the fact that RMT is legit it means that now all that crap is in my face. Every time I go to the market place anything worth buying is likely going to cost real money. Players and RMT alike will be making real life money more important than in game currency.
You may not have been there for APB's mess of a market or EQ2's when they allowed RMT sales, but I was. I know how assinine this crud can get.
As far as the game being mentioned here, one it's a big title, two it's by Blizzard you know the guys known for WoW, three the fact that it's online only (Not so single player) with legit RMT. Any of those alone warrants it coverage on a broader range of sites than a single player game normally would get on it's own.
In any case, it's bad enough I have to deal with RMT in my MMO's spamming all day. Now I have to deal with them in my single player games. Not only that there encouraging players to RMT. My Hobby is turning to shit. It's becoming nothing more than a wasteland of money grubbers and sheep that believe they are wolves. It's like the little drug dealers on the corner that think there going to hit it rich without any real work lol. No the majority of you simply aren't going to make any money, some will but it will be a small portion. What most will do is simply make things as annoying as possible for others.
You guys want to make some money of crap like this, go play the stock market and sink your money into futures. Go play online casino's. Play Entropia or w/e it is. Don't turn actual games into money grubbing ceaspools.
For the love of all that is holy don't embrace this RMT crap. You can't win against them, but at least you can limit the damage it does. You give in then they really do win and gamers lose.
My only opinion on this has nothing to do with Diablo or gaming at all except in a very general way. Considering the fact that we are most likely entering Great Depression 2.0, I doubt that facilitating the sale of virtual items in a game is going to be as profitable as Blizzard hopes. In fact, the whole gaming industry is likely to take a major hit along with other non-essential sectors of the economy. When Mommy and Daddy have no job, its kind of hard to justify the purchase of virtual items.
Will D3 have a ladder like D2 ?
If so, then i cant wait to see how ladder and shop cope with each other :P
Well, for me it means i ll save quite some money not buying D3. I doubt there is any D2 dev left over anyway.
Blizz, especially WoW got its kickstart from Diablo, Warcarft and Starcraft fans. WoW had a rather good start due to their very good reputation and games. I know because i was part of it. I had played Blizz games for years when WoW lauchend. Perosnally i didnt subscripbe to WoW after open beta, the game was a joke as MMO and got worse after every patch.
But i think Blizz will get through with this. Friends of me from the days of D2 are still Blizz fans and would buy crap if it has only the Blizz logo on the box.
This excuse doesn't stand in the water, a lot of fight will never be won, you better get used to it now, heck even life on a personal level will never win.
I think RMT buyers should be threated like RMT sellers, meaning you get caught -> lawyers gonna send you a strong letter.
Really don't know what kind of people I hate more, those china farmers selling the stuff or the people buying it, guess it heavily hate both shouldn't have a place in gaming.
Lazy excuses such as you can't win the fight, is like allowing drug selling cause you can't win the battle right? Guess what one can lose the battle, but still win the war.
Bli$$ard just wants to make their shareholders instead of customers happy, people really have to be brainwashed supporting this crap.
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play."
"Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
Have you ever played Diablo?! It wil not be open world MMO. Everyone will play his own instanced world so everyone will be able to farm.
I am more concerned about the 'no offline solo' than I am about the auction house thing. I don't really care about people buying/selling items for real cash, I don't plan to use that system so it doesn't really effect me. If I had any concerns about it, it would simply be the ripple effect mentioned, as these things tend to have a way of spreading to other games/genres if they are received reasonably well. Which is to say, if not too many of us complain about it then it's likely this practice could spread and evolve into something that I might have issues with.
But at the moment I care more about not being able to play solo offline. Not so much b/c I have a problem with needing to be online to play, I don't really care about that it's just during the coarse of playing games like this I like to do certain things that Battle.net would consider cheating and they actually ban people over. For instance, in RPG's I generally will hack my gold, I play games to have fun and in a solo play enviroment it is not fun for me to have to farm gold. If I'm forced to play online however I'm assuming I'd be subject to Blizzard's conduct rules, or whatever and this would most likely be considered cheating, while I can understand that, I don't feel it's my fault as they're not giving me the option to play offline where this decision by me wouldn't hurt anyone. I just feel, if I'm paying 60 bucks for this product, I should be able to enjoy certain aspects the way I want. I wouldn't be opposed if they even made it so you have an offline character and an online character, so if you choose to play offline, then none of that stuff carries over to online play. But if you play online solo, where they can assure you're not "cheating" then all your accomplishments will carry over. I dunno, I just don't like the thought of Blizzard policing my SOLO play experience. For me, the whole appeal of a solo rpg is that I can play how I want to play, I don't hurt anyone else, my actions don't hurt anyone else's experience.
100% agree.
It is the online only requirement that forced me to pass my copy of SC2 to my friend. I travel too much to play MMOs lately, and I do not love of the idea of an online solo game.
I guess D3 is another no go for me. Oh well, time to preorder Skyrim.
Actually hacking the game is against their ToA. They explicitly said no mod.
That said, I agree with you about "no offline solo" and could not care less about RMT by others. To me D3 is a solo game, I play mine and who cares how you play yours. If I need to trade, I go home, set up a LAN game and trade with my family friends.
Your right it does need to be mentioned here for your reasons you specified. I was going to list something about how Entropia hasn't turned all games into money playgrounds, but reality is Diablo had a lot of money being made off it because people wanted the best regardless of how it would affect them in a week. The third party sites and hacks were the reasoning behind this determination, and I take the opposite stance on a non-persistant co-op online only game than you. RMT is going to be there, I'd rather have Blizzard take some of the cut and let me make some than ignore the problem.
The part in red though, you and everyone who played on battle.net may not have been forced to acknowledge or visit the 3rd party sites, but they infact had the major role in "IP lockouts" and the reason why my wife, myself, and brother/friend over could not play on battle.net at the same time. They had a major effect on the overall game to where I decided in 2006 to call it quits and go to singleplayer offline only just using LANs then.
Another big point. When you accept the fact RMT will happen if it is supported or not, do you want your currency going out of the country or staying in? I vote staying in the country now, more then ever.
I will choose to supoort my economy over funding guns to blow up my friends, family and fellow countrymen. Also, before you say this statement is rediculous, a article was just released with information on the very subject.
Also, I wrote to the whitehouse on RMT and how big the problem was with USD flowing out of the country 2 years ago. I didn't expect it to ever get far or past the trash bin if ever even looked at by a real person, but I tried. Yes, it is probably a drop in the bucket compared to other problems, but it was one I felt could be quickly addressed by government. I am very happy Blizzard is making these changes for them, the players and for us as a country. ( If you don't agree that billions flowing out of the country every year is a problem, you probably can agree that this doesn't hurt )
As a player I'm disappointed by their take with the EBay AH.
I was looking forward playing this game with my wife. We both have very good memories of nights spent on D2. That being said, while I I'm fully aware Blizzard don't care but they just lost 2 customers and this move did prevent me from ever installing back Wow to try out Cata.
I do know it's a business and producing video games costs millions however milking the cow like this is a bit too much. Anyway, who cares, pretty sure they'll make millions out of this... on the back of chinese prisoners.
Lest we forget, diablo is not an mmo. There ie no "world" for farmers to camp. Each player has their own world. Things they buy or sell will then be transfered from one world (like on my system) to another world (on someone elses system) never to be seen (by me) again ... unless there is some sort of player vs player (like starcraft) on battle net for diablo (I really do not know). I dont think I will be forced to go to the AH to buy anything.
I am basically against the idea of buying or selling anything to use in a vid game unless it is done within the game for "play" money. Greed is bad .... mmmk?
If Ya Ain't Dyin, Ya Ain't Tryin
I love how people hate RMT until they are done with a game, want to move on and realize they can get 200.00 for their toon.