My main problem in this thread with the ones that support this: They think the RMT companies will not actively try to make a profit from this. Do you guys think they will let a cash cow like diablo 3 rake in profits without them manipulating the crap out of it. You guys are underestimating them. I see only 2 benefiting from this, Blizzard and RMT companies. No gamers at all.
Call them greedy if you want, but this decision is downright smart beyond belief. What are Blizzards options?
1. Allow RMT trade to continue as is. This means illegal foreign companies are taking all of the players hard earned money and none of the money is reinvested into the game. Illegal sites are also bastions for phishing and scams will continue to exist. Yep, this option sucks.
2. Blizzard regulates the RMT. This means that the profits go to Blizzard who can then reinvest the money on further development and expansions for D3, while at the same time reducing the risk of ignorant players getting scammed by illegal websites. Wow, that sounds pretty awesome.
RMT is here to stay, so it was the prudent move to make it work for them rather than wasting money in a futile attempt to prevent it.
The thing is that most players would never buy gold from illegal sites...with this decision blizzard made most players will do buy objects for real money...at the end...you´ll have to spend real money to get the best items because no one will sell them for the game currency.
The price of a high quality MMO plus a year of monthly fees = $230
The price of playing Diablo 3 for one year = $60
Point being, this RMAH is optional and is being implemented to prevent 3rd party, shady scammers from trying to sell the items instead. Anyone who is going emo over this needs to wake up.
You guys are funny. As soon as theres an option to buy something, you freak out and say you're not playing. Its still the same game. What changes. I mean honestly, think about it before clicking reply.
If a guy spends 18 hours a day for a week playing a game and gets better stuff than you, you dont complain. But if another guy spends his money that he earned to get better than stuff than you, you get upset? So what? In both cases, neither of these people's actions affect you. They both just have decent stuff. One spent time, the other spent money. You act like devs of any game are going to sell a one super weapon that makes a crappy player into a good player. The only things cashshops do are either let people progress faster, look fancy, or give them quality of life. You can spend your time getting the same things.
Some people want to waste money on things that dont really exist and others want to waste time for them, in the end, everyone loses something. I assume its kids/teens whos brains are still developing that in that "its not fair" mindset. Its pretty fair. Some people have a lot of time, some people have more money, some people have neither, some people have both.
Ok two points. The first one people always seem to forget especially if they are in favour of RMT. Games are a hobby, not a right. If you dont have time to play games, then you shouldnt be playing them. Food Water Air are rights every person should have, GAMES are not. RMT are there to help those that dont have time or are lazy either way its a cheat for those that cant or wont invest time. I have 2 kids, wife and a house, yet i have great time management skills and can still invest time into games, even though im 35 yo.
So on that basis lets call RMT what they are: Blight in gaming and Money making exercise for companies, which in turn benefits the more lazy gamer and those that dont have time to play games, who shouldnt be playing in the first place,
Secondly WTF give them quality of life its a friggen game not a terminal illness perspective much ffs, credability gone after this staement.
Wow, head up your ass much? Tell all those malnurished children in 3rd world contries that food and water is a right rather than a privilage. Just because you have an ample supply of these things, doest mean everyone does. How can you even compare a form of entertainment to the essentials of life?
Thats what it is, a medium for entertainment. Its only a hobby or lifestyle for some, not all. Im only 26, so you have a few years on me, but 23 of those have been with a controller or keyboard/mouse in hand. Yes, Gaming is both a hobby and way of life for me, when im not out at sea or some foreign country as the navy tends to take me.
Who are you to tell everyone games are only for those with great amounts of time to invest in them? Why cant the weekend warrior expereince the same things as the 5 hour a day gamer, substituting his money for time spent farming? As long as that person is enjoying his experience and feels his investment is worthwhile, how is this a blight on gaming?
It makes it more accessible, and has zero impact on your ability to enjoy the game. I personlly dont like RMT when they can be avoided, and in this game there is absolutely no reason you cant avoid it. But I will not think less of the game or company for having it there as an option.
agreed with RMT companies will make $$$ and no one else...
the steps i think they will take are fallowing.
1. Lets say RMT company # 1 has 100k USD to work with this fiscal yr.
2.Buys Every item in the AH Reprices all for a profit
3. Company # 2 has a nice overhead to work with.
4. #2 buys up entire AH raises pricing. and earns profit.
Rinse And repeat Till all Items in AH are for the 1% of wealthy folk
Valid...maybe they will work something in to the extent of limiting the number of transactions per account per day. Aso the regional lockouts could limit this from the foreign markets a bit. Maybe in another year or two we will know >.<
You guys are funny. As soon as theres an option to buy something, you freak out and say you're not playing. Its still the same game. What changes. I mean honestly, think about it before clicking reply.
If a guy spends 18 hours a day for a week playing a game and gets better stuff than you, you dont complain. But if another guy spends his money that he earned to get better than stuff than you, you get upset? So what? In both cases, neither of these people's actions affect you. They both just have decent stuff. One spent time, the other spent money. You act like devs of any game are going to sell a one super weapon that makes a crappy player into a good player. The only things cashshops do are either let people progress faster, look fancy, or give them quality of life. You can spend your time getting the same things.
Some people want to waste money on things that dont really exist and others want to waste time for them, in the end, everyone loses something. I assume its kids/teens whos brains are still developing that in that "its not fair" mindset. Its pretty fair. Some people have a lot of time, some people have more money, some people have neither, some people have both.
Ok two points. The first one people always seem to forget especially if they are in favour of RMT. Games are a hobby, not a right. If you dont have time to play games, then you shouldnt be playing them. Food Water Air are rights every person should have, GAMES are not. RMT are there to help those that dont have time or are lazy either way its a cheat for those that cant or wont invest time. I have 2 kids, wife and a house, yet i have great time management skills and can still invest time into games, even though im 35 yo.
So on that basis lets call RMT what they are: Blight in gaming and Money making exercise for companies, which in turn benefits the more lazy gamer and those that dont have time to play games, who shouldnt be playing in the first place,
Secondly WTF give them quality of life its a friggen game not a terminal illness perspective much ffs, credability gone after this staement.
Wow, head up your ass much? Tell all those malnurished children in 3rd world contries that food and water is a right rather than a privilage. Just because you have an ample supply of these things, doest mean everyone does. How can you even compare a form of entertainment to the essentials of life?
Thats what it is, a medium for entertainment. Its only a hobby or lifestyle for some, not all. Im only 26, so you have a few years on me, but 23 of those have been with a controller or keyboard/mouse in hand. Yes, Gaming is both a hobby and way of life for me, when im not out at sea or some foreign country as the navy tends to take me.
Who are you to tell everyone games are only for those with great amounts of time to invest in them? Why cant the weekend warrior expereince the same things as the 5 hour a day gamer, substituting his money for time spent farming? As long as that person is enjoying his experience and feels his investment is worthwhile, how is this a blight on gaming?
It makes it more accessible, and has zero impact on your ability to enjoy the game. I personlly dont like RMT when they can be avoided, and in this game there is absolutely no reason you cant avoid it. But I will not think less of the game or company for having it there as an option.
Its simple really, because if its not his way, its wrong. If your enot enjoying the same thing a shim, youre wrong. If you would rather spend a little cash that you worked a lot harder for IRL on something rather than sitting behind a keyboard for hours on end to get it instead, youre wrong. Maybe he doesnt have much money due to supporting his wife & kids, and paying fo rthat house and his "time management" consists of trading video game time for time he should be spending with them... but thats ok and you spending money that you earned rather than neglecting your family in order to get something you wan tin a video game is wrong.....
Now I see you have to be connected to the internet to play and all characters will be stored on the b.net server. Sorry, this doesn't work for me. Contrary to many developers current beliefs, not everyone has constant internet access and games like Diablo 3 would be perfect for my laptop while I'm travelling to places that may not have internet but I can't play unless I'm on the web.
Thats simply the nature of the current hysteria about DRM. As long as the game companies can continue to get away with this type of BS (Ubisoft is at it again...), they will keep coming up with these ideas. It is after all about "increasing share holder value" after all... <rolls eyes> Once it starts losing them enough money, I suspect it will fade out again. But not until then.
*shrugs* Oh well, what can ya do. I can spend my time being outraged, or just give into apathy and enjoy the game.
One can also don't play D3 at all.
---------
As for some people arguing that Blizz idea is some kind of "solution".
I don't see "legalizing" item/gold=cash trade as solution. Because it does not solve main problem. It just increse RMT and change main beneficient of it.
So imho it actually make problem bigger not lessen it or solve.
There is no "solving" this problem. Not as long as so many people lack the patience to do things themselves. Its better this way, as Blizzard can keep the major portion of those people in the internal system, and thus limit at least some of the impact of when it was entirely external. Its simply a matter of supply and demand.
My main problem in this thread with the ones that support this: They think the RMT companies will not actively try to make a profit from this. Do you guys think they will let a cash cow like diablo 3 rake in profits without them manipulating the crap out of it. You guys are underestimating them. I see only 2 benefiting from this, Blizzard and RMT companies. No gamers at all.
The main benefit for players will be less chance of loasing ones account, using the internal system. Not to mention, that those who value time over money will see some value to this as well. Keeping duping down, and thus supply, will work to keep the system at least relatively stable. If RMT companies get squeezed out of some profit, I'm all in favor of that. ^^
1. People who care about gear and it's rarity are the reason this would ever be an issue. Gear shouldn't be the endgame, it shouldn't be the end-all, it shouldn't be that important. For someone like me who doesn't care about people who take pride in getting purples, it just doesn't matter if people can buy them.
2. If you really wrap your head around this, there's no cons. No practical cons. Perhaps you think it sends the wrong message. But if you are worried about gearflation, see 1.
1. People who care about gear and it's rarity are the reason this would ever be an issue. Gear shouldn't be the endgame, it shouldn't be the end-all, it shouldn't be that important. For someone like me who doesn't care about people who take pride in getting purples, it just doesn't matter if people can buy them.
2. If you really wrap your head around this, there's no cons. No practical cons. Perhaps you think it sends the wrong message. But if you are worried about gearflation, see 1.
I don't know if I can apply this mentality to Diablo, or it's ilk. It's a game designed with an achievement philosophy. A big part of character progression comes in the form of itemization.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
My main problem in this thread with the ones that support this: They think the RMT companies will not actively try to make a profit from this. Do you guys think they will let a cash cow like diablo 3 rake in profits without them manipulating the crap out of it. You guys are underestimating them. I see only 2 benefiting from this, Blizzard and RMT companies. No gamers at all.
There are more benefits for gamers than negatives.
1. For players that like farming, they can make a profit.
2. For players that like buying items with money, they can get one they want in a safe manner.
3. This has no effect on players that aren't interested in using the RMAH.
4. No need for in game website spammers since trade is now centralized and regulated.
What are the negatives?
Players without jobs/lives get mad because other people with have access to good gear too.
1. It has no effect on players that aren't interested in buying RMT items
1. People who care about gear and it's rarity are the reason this would ever be an issue. Gear shouldn't be the endgame, it shouldn't be the end-all, it shouldn't be that important. For someone like me who doesn't care about people who take pride in getting purples, it just doesn't matter if people can buy them.
But this is a Diablo title we're talking about. Gear is so massively itemized that it essentially IS the entire game.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
1. People who care about gear and it's rarity are the reason this would ever be an issue. Gear shouldn't be the endgame, it shouldn't be the end-all, it shouldn't be that important. For someone like me who doesn't care about people who take pride in getting purples, it just doesn't matter if people can buy them.
2. If you really wrap your head around this, there's no cons. No practical cons. Perhaps you think it sends the wrong message. But if you are worried about gearflation, see 1.
Have you played Diablo on battlenet? Thats the #1 thing that drove the online game. Probably 85% of the rooms are ____ runs(insert baal, diablo ect...)
1. People who care about gear and it's rarity are the reason this would ever be an issue. Gear shouldn't be the endgame, it shouldn't be the end-all, it shouldn't be that important. For someone like me who doesn't care about people who take pride in getting purples, it just doesn't matter if people can buy them.
2. If you really wrap your head around this, there's no cons. No practical cons. Perhaps you think it sends the wrong message. But if you are worried about gearflation, see 1.
I don't know if I can apply this mentality to Diablo, or it's ilk. It's a game designed with an achievement philosophy. A big part of character progression comes in the form of itemization.
I agree. Diablo 1 and 2 LOD were like the original loot whore games. I mean....the whole point is phat loot from dungeon crawling. I don't see how RMT works with that. If you use it, you're just cheating YOURSELF out of the game, really. And I certainly don't see how coop play can be used when you can BUY your gear. In that way...it's like an MMO. But...hell, I don't know. I'm disgusted with it now and D3 is on my shit list, but that's just me. I certainly wouldn't tell anyone ELSE how to think.
1. People who care about gear and it's rarity are the reason this would ever be an issue. Gear shouldn't be the endgame, it shouldn't be the end-all, it shouldn't be that important. For someone like me who doesn't care about people who take pride in getting purples, it just doesn't matter if people can buy them.
2. If you really wrap your head around this, there's no cons. No practical cons. Perhaps you think it sends the wrong message. But if you are worried about gearflation, see 1.
Have you played Diablo on battlenet? Thats the #1 thing that drove the online game. Probably 85% of the rooms are ____ runs(insert baal, diablo ect...)
And a large number of those run rooms are also probably hooked up to some bot, or tied into a D2JSP-style network, where people are brokering items and services for Forum-Gold (Think BitCoins with no centralized oversight or currency denomination).
The grey market for just D2 is still massive. While not as lucrative as MMO-gold farming, it's still probably in the top 10 of annually monetized video-game commodities globally.
Now, instead of dealing with shady-FG based sites, people just have to deal with Bliz.
Instead of risking financial information to random-internet-guy, people can leave the transactions in the hands of people they've already been trusting with their CC info for years.
Instead of a faulty "honor system" where people have to make games to ensure the transaction, its a clean, understandable brokerage service.
Instead of unwittingly turning over information to complete a transaction, things can be sold with some level of annonimity.
Instead of a bogus currency that has no control over it; whos "owners" WILL manipulate for their own gain, there is are flat, standardized values.
Lets Push Things Forward
I knew I would live to design games at age 7, issue 5 of Nintendo Power.
Support games with subs when you believe in their potential, even in spite of their flaws.
The most important part of the game is the pvp system. If it's a success (balance, robust ranking system, and smart arena matchmaking )then all this Real AH garbage won't matter.
Take this scenario. Joe Blow with the office job, 2 kids and a wife in the suburbs, buys D3 but can only play a few hours a week, mostly on weekends. Finally after a few weeks, he hits level cap. He checks up on diablohead.com for the best gear to pwn faces in pvp arenas. "Damn the sword of pwning, .. 1% drop rate off this lizard boss in the wailing marshlands" screw that , grabs his wallet, bing! you have recieved a new item in your mail. So Joe Blow is all decked out now after a few purchases and is ready to pwn in arena matches.
Now we move on two scenario 2: Larry Liveswithhismom can play 6-10 hours a day and for the first month is on no sleep. Utter addiction and on a mission to get those awesome drops. He kills a boss but the sword he wanted doesn't drop, instead the epic staff does. No biggy, he puts it up in the Real currency AH and bing! Your item has sold for 6.99$ Larry is really happy, cause now he can use that cash to buy the sword of pwnage he was grinding endlessly for, and a few other armor pieces with the other items he sold for hard cash. Larry queues up for arena matches and who does he get matched up against, omg its Joe Blow.
Now who wins the match, one guy is decked in gear using his credit card, or the other by grinding for hours on end. I'd say Larry destroys Joe, because Larry actually knows his class way better since he's been play 10 times more than Joe who plays a few hours a week at most. So in the end the better player with no life wins, not the big wallet.
So stop complaining and buy the game you dungeon dwellers!
1. People who care about gear and it's rarity are the reason this would ever be an issue. Gear shouldn't be the endgame, it shouldn't be the end-all, it shouldn't be that important. For someone like me who doesn't care about people who take pride in getting purples, it just doesn't matter if people can buy them.
2. If you really wrap your head around this, there's no cons. No practical cons. Perhaps you think it sends the wrong message. But if you are worried about gearflation, see 1.
I don't know if I can apply this mentality to Diablo, or it's ilk. It's a game designed with an achievement philosophy. A big part of character progression comes in the form of itemization.
I agree. Diablo 1 and 2 LOD were like the original loot whore games. I mean....the whole point is phat loot from dungeon crawling. I don't see how RMT works with that. If you use it, you're just cheating YOURSELF out of the game, really. And I certainly don't see how coop play can be used when you can BUY your gear. In that way...it's like an MMO. But...hell, I don't know. I'm disgusted with it now and D3 is on my shit list, but that's just me. I certainly wouldn't tell anyone ELSE how to think.
RMT works because its no different than trading or giving gear for free, which happens all the time in the lobbys and in games in general where loot can be given from one person to another. The RMT says that very rare items can be traded for monetary value between players. Its not cheating when players buy a specific card from a store or a friend for magic the gathering collectable card game, so how can it be seen as different for a game like diablo?
This will out and out RUIN PvP in the game. Just like WoW and Diablo 2 PvP was 'very' gear-centric and the really rare stuff was very sought after because of it's rarity. Being able to just buy this stuff will destroy any viability to PvP in the game. Especially when it's so obvious that Blizz intends to turn it into a sport with the advent of the arena system and added ladder systems.
I see a lot of people sticking up for this because of the RM websites out there that sell D2 goods. You do realize this won't stop those people. It won't stop gold farming, it will only rapidly increase it. Those websites will still sell all kinds of gear, they'll just undercut the in game market, considering the in game market will surely spike very quickly as inflation rises dramatically as the game ages. So it does nothing to stop those websites and is an open invitation for gold/gear farmers to make even more money hand over first.
On top of this the 'for gold' AH in the game will be absolutely dead. Who in their right mind would sell items for in game gold (which really in Diablo 2 actual gold has been utterly worthless) when people can make real world money off the gear they find?
Last but not least there is an obvious greed motive here. Blizzard clearly is saying with this 'cant beat them, join them and rake in as much cash as possible!' with the extra fees required to use the RMAH. In the end this is a terrible idea and not only is it going to drive down sales on the whole, but it assure the games gear, money and balance issues (which plagued D2), an out and out devistation to D3's longevity.
I'd like to note, this isn't just a D3 thing, but Battle.net, if that doesn't hint that this will eventually come to SC2 and WoW, I couldn't imagine a bigger hint. Not that I play either, I avoid Blizzard games like the plaque these days. Frankly, if Activision/Blizzard continues down this path I fully expect their 'next gen MMOG' to bomb on an epic scale, post initial sales.
This will out and out RUIN PvP in the game. Just like WoW and Diablo 2 PvP was 'very' gear-centric and the really rare stuff was very sought after because of it's rarity. Being able to just buy this stuff will destroy any viability to PvP in the game. Especially when it's so obvious that Blizz intends to turn it into a sport with the advent of the arena system and added ladder systems.
I see a lot of people sticking up for this because of the RM websites out there that sell D2 goods. You do realize this won't stop those people. It won't stop gold farming, it will only rapidly increase it. Those websites will still sell all kinds of gear, they'll just undercut the in game market, considering the in game market will surely spike very quickly as inflation rises dramatically as the game ages. So it does nothing to stop those websites and is an open invitation for gold/gear farmers to make even more money hand over first.
On top of this the 'for gold' AH in the game will be absolutely dead. Who in their right mind would sell items for in game gold (which really in Diablo 2 actual gold has been utterly worthless) when people can make real world money off the gear they find?
Last but not least there is an obvious greed motive here. Blizzard clearly is saying with this 'cant beat them, join them and rake in as much cash as possible!' with the extra fees required to use the RMAH. In the end this is a terrible idea and not only is it going to drive down sales on the whole, but it assure the games gear, money and balance issues (which plagued D2), an out and out devistation to D3's longevity.
I'd like to note, this isn't just a D3 thing, but Battle.net, if that doesn't hint that this will eventually come to SC2 and WoW, I couldn't imagine a bigger hint. Not that I play either, I avoid Blizzard games like the plaque these days. Frankly, if Activision/Blizzard continues down this path I fully expect their 'next gen MMOG' to bomb on an epic scale, post initial sales.
So your opinion is that only a few should be able to be good at pvp because they happened to be the ones who got that lucky .05% chance of some super rar eitem to drop? PvP should revolve around who won the lottery, rather than who is actually a better player when players are equally geared?
Games that revolve purely around gear instead of who is the better, smarter, or faster player is what ruins PvP.... not giving everyone an opportuniy to purchase gear.
You all (or close to "you all") need to chill out. The only items being sold, were found by players. You do not NEED to buy the items, and you can attain any one of these items yourself, without "paying" for them. The game is changed in no way, shape, or form, other then allowing a safe way to trade things in such a way.
Comments
My main problem in this thread with the ones that support this: They think the RMT companies will not actively try to make a profit from this. Do you guys think they will let a cash cow like diablo 3 rake in profits without them manipulating the crap out of it. You guys are underestimating them. I see only 2 benefiting from this, Blizzard and RMT companies. No gamers at all.
BOOYAKA!
The thing is that most players would never buy gold from illegal sites...with this decision blizzard made most players will do buy objects for real money...at the end...you´ll have to spend real money to get the best items because no one will sell them for the game currency.
I am ubber dissapointed. Pay to win ¬¬
The price of a high quality MMO plus a year of monthly fees = $230
The price of playing Diablo 3 for one year = $60
Point being, this RMAH is optional and is being implemented to prevent 3rd party, shady scammers from trying to sell the items instead. Anyone who is going emo over this needs to wake up.
I wonder how this will affect the Arena/Ranking system they were looking to put into D3...
Wow, head up your ass much? Tell all those malnurished children in 3rd world contries that food and water is a right rather than a privilage. Just because you have an ample supply of these things, doest mean everyone does. How can you even compare a form of entertainment to the essentials of life?
Thats what it is, a medium for entertainment. Its only a hobby or lifestyle for some, not all. Im only 26, so you have a few years on me, but 23 of those have been with a controller or keyboard/mouse in hand. Yes, Gaming is both a hobby and way of life for me, when im not out at sea or some foreign country as the navy tends to take me.
Who are you to tell everyone games are only for those with great amounts of time to invest in them? Why cant the weekend warrior expereince the same things as the 5 hour a day gamer, substituting his money for time spent farming? As long as that person is enjoying his experience and feels his investment is worthwhile, how is this a blight on gaming?
It makes it more accessible, and has zero impact on your ability to enjoy the game. I personlly dont like RMT when they can be avoided, and in this game there is absolutely no reason you cant avoid it. But I will not think less of the game or company for having it there as an option.
agreed with RMT companies will make $$$ and no one else...
the steps i think they will take are fallowing.
1. Lets say RMT company # 1 has 100k USD to work with this fiscal yr.
2.Buys Every item in the AH Reprices all for a profit
3. Company # 2 has a nice overhead to work with.
4. #2 buys up entire AH raises pricing. and earns profit.
Rinse And repeat Till all Items in AH are for the 1% of wealthy folk
Valid...maybe they will work something in to the extent of limiting the number of transactions per account per day. Aso the regional lockouts could limit this from the foreign markets a bit. Maybe in another year or two we will know >.<
Its simple really, because if its not his way, its wrong. If your enot enjoying the same thing a shim, youre wrong. If you would rather spend a little cash that you worked a lot harder for IRL on something rather than sitting behind a keyboard for hours on end to get it instead, youre wrong. Maybe he doesnt have much money due to supporting his wife & kids, and paying fo rthat house and his "time management" consists of trading video game time for time he should be spending with them... but thats ok and you spending money that you earned rather than neglecting your family in order to get something you wan tin a video game is wrong.....
Thats simply the nature of the current hysteria about DRM. As long as the game companies can continue to get away with this type of BS (Ubisoft is at it again...), they will keep coming up with these ideas. It is after all about "increasing share holder value" after all... <rolls eyes> Once it starts losing them enough money, I suspect it will fade out again. But not until then.
There is no "solving" this problem. Not as long as so many people lack the patience to do things themselves. Its better this way, as Blizzard can keep the major portion of those people in the internal system, and thus limit at least some of the impact of when it was entirely external. Its simply a matter of supply and demand.
The main benefit for players will be less chance of loasing ones account, using the internal system. Not to mention, that those who value time over money will see some value to this as well. Keeping duping down, and thus supply, will work to keep the system at least relatively stable. If RMT companies get squeezed out of some profit, I'm all in favor of that. ^^
Two things.
1. People who care about gear and it's rarity are the reason this would ever be an issue. Gear shouldn't be the endgame, it shouldn't be the end-all, it shouldn't be that important. For someone like me who doesn't care about people who take pride in getting purples, it just doesn't matter if people can buy them.
2. If you really wrap your head around this, there's no cons. No practical cons. Perhaps you think it sends the wrong message. But if you are worried about gearflation, see 1.
I don't know if I can apply this mentality to Diablo, or it's ilk. It's a game designed with an achievement philosophy. A big part of character progression comes in the form of itemization.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
There are more benefits for gamers than negatives.
1. For players that like farming, they can make a profit.
2. For players that like buying items with money, they can get one they want in a safe manner.
3. This has no effect on players that aren't interested in using the RMAH.
4. No need for in game website spammers since trade is now centralized and regulated.
What are the negatives?
Players without jobs/lives get mad because other people with have access to good gear too.
1. It has no effect on players that aren't interested in buying RMT items
But this is a Diablo title we're talking about. Gear is so massively itemized that it essentially IS the entire game.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Have you played Diablo on battlenet? Thats the #1 thing that drove the online game. Probably 85% of the rooms are ____ runs(insert baal, diablo ect...)
I agree. Diablo 1 and 2 LOD were like the original loot whore games. I mean....the whole point is phat loot from dungeon crawling. I don't see how RMT works with that. If you use it, you're just cheating YOURSELF out of the game, really. And I certainly don't see how coop play can be used when you can BUY your gear. In that way...it's like an MMO. But...hell, I don't know. I'm disgusted with it now and D3 is on my shit list, but that's just me. I certainly wouldn't tell anyone ELSE how to think.
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And a large number of those run rooms are also probably hooked up to some bot, or tied into a D2JSP-style network, where people are brokering items and services for Forum-Gold (Think BitCoins with no centralized oversight or currency denomination).
The grey market for just D2 is still massive. While not as lucrative as MMO-gold farming, it's still probably in the top 10 of annually monetized video-game commodities globally.
Now, instead of dealing with shady-FG based sites, people just have to deal with Bliz.
Instead of risking financial information to random-internet-guy, people can leave the transactions in the hands of people they've already been trusting with their CC info for years.
Instead of a faulty "honor system" where people have to make games to ensure the transaction, its a clean, understandable brokerage service.
Instead of unwittingly turning over information to complete a transaction, things can be sold with some level of annonimity.
Instead of a bogus currency that has no control over it; whos "owners" WILL manipulate for their own gain, there is are flat, standardized values.
Lets Push Things Forward
I knew I would live to design games at age 7, issue 5 of Nintendo Power.
Support games with subs when you believe in their potential, even in spite of their flaws.
Take this scenario. Joe Blow with the office job, 2 kids and a wife in the suburbs, buys D3 but can only play a few hours a week, mostly on weekends. Finally after a few weeks, he hits level cap. He checks up on diablohead.com for the best gear to pwn faces in pvp arenas. "Damn the sword of pwning, .. 1% drop rate off this lizard boss in the wailing marshlands" screw that , grabs his wallet, bing! you have recieved a new item in your mail. So Joe Blow is all decked out now after a few purchases and is ready to pwn in arena matches.
Now we move on two scenario 2: Larry Liveswithhismom can play 6-10 hours a day and for the first month is on no sleep. Utter addiction and on a mission to get those awesome drops. He kills a boss but the sword he wanted doesn't drop, instead the epic staff does. No biggy, he puts it up in the Real currency AH and bing! Your item has sold for 6.99$ Larry is really happy, cause now he can use that cash to buy the sword of pwnage he was grinding endlessly for, and a few other armor pieces with the other items he sold for hard cash. Larry queues up for arena matches and who does he get matched up against, omg its Joe Blow.
Now who wins the match, one guy is decked in gear using his credit card, or the other by grinding for hours on end. I'd say Larry destroys Joe, because Larry actually knows his class way better since he's been play 10 times more than Joe who plays a few hours a week at most. So in the end the better player with no life wins, not the big wallet.
So stop complaining and buy the game you dungeon dwellers!
RMT works because its no different than trading or giving gear for free, which happens all the time in the lobbys and in games in general where loot can be given from one person to another. The RMT says that very rare items can be traded for monetary value between players. Its not cheating when players buy a specific card from a store or a friend for magic the gathering collectable card game, so how can it be seen as different for a game like diablo?
This will out and out RUIN PvP in the game. Just like WoW and Diablo 2 PvP was 'very' gear-centric and the really rare stuff was very sought after because of it's rarity. Being able to just buy this stuff will destroy any viability to PvP in the game. Especially when it's so obvious that Blizz intends to turn it into a sport with the advent of the arena system and added ladder systems.
I see a lot of people sticking up for this because of the RM websites out there that sell D2 goods. You do realize this won't stop those people. It won't stop gold farming, it will only rapidly increase it. Those websites will still sell all kinds of gear, they'll just undercut the in game market, considering the in game market will surely spike very quickly as inflation rises dramatically as the game ages. So it does nothing to stop those websites and is an open invitation for gold/gear farmers to make even more money hand over first.
On top of this the 'for gold' AH in the game will be absolutely dead. Who in their right mind would sell items for in game gold (which really in Diablo 2 actual gold has been utterly worthless) when people can make real world money off the gear they find?
Last but not least there is an obvious greed motive here. Blizzard clearly is saying with this 'cant beat them, join them and rake in as much cash as possible!' with the extra fees required to use the RMAH. In the end this is a terrible idea and not only is it going to drive down sales on the whole, but it assure the games gear, money and balance issues (which plagued D2), an out and out devistation to D3's longevity.
I'd like to note, this isn't just a D3 thing, but Battle.net, if that doesn't hint that this will eventually come to SC2 and WoW, I couldn't imagine a bigger hint. Not that I play either, I avoid Blizzard games like the plaque these days. Frankly, if Activision/Blizzard continues down this path I fully expect their 'next gen MMOG' to bomb on an epic scale, post initial sales.
So your opinion is that only a few should be able to be good at pvp because they happened to be the ones who got that lucky .05% chance of some super rar eitem to drop? PvP should revolve around who won the lottery, rather than who is actually a better player when players are equally geared?
Games that revolve purely around gear instead of who is the better, smarter, or faster player is what ruins PvP.... not giving everyone an opportuniy to purchase gear.
they are getting rid of gold farmers by making the players into the gold farmers. Congrats...you just became a blizzard employee by buying the game.
Blizzard will never sell anything to players , the auction house is only for exchange between players. So that's acceptable imo.
Players never get something unbalance in auction house, so I don't care about that. Im still waiting for Diablo 3
You all (or close to "you all") need to chill out. The only items being sold, were found by players. You do not NEED to buy the items, and you can attain any one of these items yourself, without "paying" for them. The game is changed in no way, shape, or form, other then allowing a safe way to trade things in such a way.