Really no one should be surprised this would happen. It was called by many people, myself included, from the moment they announced real money AH being implemented.
I'm sure Blizzard knew it would happen as well. They've been combatting this crap in D2 and WoW for how long now?
They knew exactly what was going to happen. In fact, I'm sure they were banking on it, literally and figuratively.
Now that they're getting their cut of it, does anyone think they really care?
Oh, they'll put out the occasional PR saying they don't approve of RMT-related activities, just to shut people up and put on a good, "no really, we care" appearance. Behind the scenes, though, they and Kotick will be smiling ear to ear.
Pure greed move on Blizzard/Activision's part.
The tireless Blizzard defenders can spin, defend and white-knight it all they want. All the spin in the world can't change the reality that what many predicted is precisely what happened.
I don't see why it's a bad thing?
Explain to me why it's a bad thing.
Explain it to me in terms we can all understand, specific and factual, without resorting to hyperbole.
You need it to be explained to you why a system that can be abused and dominated by RMT farmers working 24/7 in order to manipulate AH prices in their own favor by selling massive amounts of items is a bad thing?
You need it to be explained to you how Blizzard/Activision are not going to really give a crap about it - despite the occasional "we hate RMT!" PR they'll likely push out to keep/save face (plausible deniability FTW!) - as long as they're receiving their cut for the activities?
Do you really think Blizzard/Activision don't understand what RMT is or how it works or how it takes advantage of something like an Auction House? Do you think they don't understand how it is that these companies operate and the kind of revenue they generate? Do you think Blizzard/Activision weren't absolutely counting on that when they decided to embrace the idea and bring RMT directly (ie. RMAH) into the game?
Really?
This setup is practically "free money" for them; passive, residual income. The RMT farmers (and participating players, of course) do their thing, Blizzard/Activision just sit back and watch the $$$ roll in. It's a perfect setup for them.
If many of us regular gamers (minus you, apparently) understand it, the folks at Blizzard/Activision certainly do. This is RMT 101. Nothing I'm explaining here is some kind of esoteric "secret" knowledge, possessed by only a handful of people.
Hyperbole? Not necessary. Hell, none of this should even require an explanation at this point.
All it should require is:
1) The understanding of RMT companies and how they do their business.
2) The ability to connect the dots and see how Blizz/Activision are tapping into that business via their RMAH.
3) And of course, the inellectual honesty to accept it and not try to explain or spin it away because you see Blizzard/Activision as some pure, untarnished and infallible entity.
Anyone who's followed them since early on can see this isn't the same Blizzard that made Starcraft, Warcraft or Diablo I or II anymore. This is an entirely different beast, driven by an entirely different motivation. Greed. Thank you, Bobby Kotick.
The RMT companies will do exactly what they've done in MMO after MMO with an AH or anything of that sort. They'll monopolize certain items by using entire teams of people, working 24/7 to farming them themselves, and/or buying out all of a given item on the AH and reselling it at a price point they control. Only this time instead of having to resell the gold on to other players, they're getting the money directly.
TL;DR: It's bad becuase those of us living in first-world countries can't afford to sell items as cheaply as those living in third-world countries. Whereas the OP's 20$ ring was good for him, a "farmer's" 3 1$ rings is just as good, if not better, for him.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
You know what is funnier than those idiots who think they can make loads of real life money playing video games??? The idiots who think you cant.In lineage 2 there is an epic earing that would sell for 2.5 thousand $ instantly if you had one for sale.It kept that market value for a good 6-7 years until the game went free to play.While it was obvious the market in diablo 3 was going to crash, i know for fact people have made thousands from the game already and NOT "chinese farmers" mainly americans.With 1 bot making 900k per hour and gold selling for 15-20$ per mill do the math of a good few weeks of botting 24/7 with a few copies of the game.
I have made thousands selling accounts and items in mmos....might not be legitimately and sure its frowned upon but please dont sit there and think you are smart saying you "cant or its a stupid idea."I have friends who have literally become millionaires selling virtual currency, get a clue.
See, this is where I decide an argument is no longer worth having.
When people take what you say, ignore most of it, then deliberately misrepresent and oversimplify the rest; essentially turning it into a strawman, which they then try to refute.
The process is pretty self-evident and obvious to those who are willing to recognize it. I can't help you if you choose to keep the blinders on with your fingers shoved firmly in your ears.
Whatever helps you enjoy your RMT dominated "always-online single player game", I guess, right?
See, this is where I decide an argument is no longer worth having.
When people take what you say, ignore most of it, then deliberately misrepresent and oversimplify the rest; essentially turning it into a strawman, which they then try to refute.
The process is pretty self-evident and obvious to those who are willing to recognize it. I can't help you if you choose to keep the blinders on with your fingers shoved firmly in your ears.
Whatever helps you enjoy your RMT dominated "always-online single player game", I guess, right?
Shall we do some basic math?
Ring sells for $1.50 Blizzard takes their $1.00 cut, leaving gold farmer with 50 cents. When Gold farmer cashes out blizzard takes a additional 15%. So the gold farmer actually makes 43 cents. the item itself takes a few hours to farm even with some kinda bot. So lets say the farmer get 6 items a day at 43 cents Whee! THE FARMER MADE $2.50 IN A DAY! Now assuming he paid $50 for the game he only has to farm for 20 days to pay off the cost of the game. Now the farmer isnot the only one farming and while 7 million people may have bought the game way less the half will buy from the RMAH so after time goes buy less and less will buy said items even for $1.50.
End point sure blizzard may make some money but the gold farmer surely isn't racking in the hundreds of dallers per item he was with D2. Players who want items cheap win, blizzard gets some extra mopney so they win. Gold farmers well they come to places like this and argue how evil Blizzard is and how no game should have a RMAH so they can continue to make good money selling their items via third party sites.
Every game should have a RMAH. A bunch of people (gold farmers or not) are making real money from virtual items, which is pretty cool imo.
I'm hoping this catches on and more companies follow suit.
Personally, If this is the case, Id just rather have Blizzard sell all the items. But this is a much better model because it creates the illusion for non gold sellers that normal people can make money doing this.
The RMAH was never intended to allow items to be sold at "reasonable" margins. You just have to look at the drop rates in the game, coupled with the fee system on the RMAH and the cap on BNet funds, to realise that the RMAH itself was never designed to allow people to sell items for high prices in the majority of cases.
Basically, the RMAH was designed to disrupt the item market that would have existed without it. Blizzard don't want people buying the rarest items in the game for $100-$200 from a third party company. They don't want that situation to exist for a number of reasons. One thing that was clear was that they realised that if they allowed the RMAH to facilitate such large transactions, the third party sellers could still function (and prosper) as much as they did in D3; they would be able to undercut those figures AND they would be selling more through the attention to RMT drawn by the RMAH. That's not a situation that Blizzard were likely to EVER allow to happen.
The only way to deal with that sort of problem is to saturate the market to the point where item prices are so low, there is nothing to be gained from trying to undercut them. Set drop rates relatively high, ensuring a healthy and high flow through for even the most rare of items, which drives down the prices on the RMAH and leaves no room for the dupers and TPRMT companies to undercut the RMAH = profit, and a massive victory.
It's far, far, far easier than battling them with Warden 2, as well.
Blizzard have, in a really inspired move, ensured that there is no real third party RMT market in Diablo 3 to speak of. EVERY transaction that happens in the game may well only get Blizzard 15-50c a pop, but when ALL of the transactions in the RMT market are happening on the RMAH - because they've left no alternative - they're still going to be making a HELL of a lot form it. And with item prices so low, they will surely have attracted a lot of people to part with their money than would have been the case without such a move.
If you think for an instant that they are trying to discourage the gold farming industry, then it is you who have missed the point. Diablo 3 is a gold farmer's paradise!
Did you even read my post? >.>
Yes, and it really makes me think you have no comprehension of how many items the gold farmers have farmed and will farm... of tgey have to sell 17 billion items a week for a penny each, they got that shit covered. It's called slave labor.
Sorry to break it to you, but "Slave Labor" hasn't been around since the 1800's my friend and anyone using it to describe anything in the 21st centruy is just using hyperbole. Are there Gold Farmers? Yes. But someone doesn't own a person that is being forced to work all day with the threat of whipping and death... Stop using Hyperbole. Sure, their wage is lower than here in the United States, but they DO have the option to QUIT.. Slaves did not... Wtf is happening to history in our schools?!
Shouldn't really be surprising to anyone. In a game with a static inventory list this is going to happen. Having an rmah would be a lot more feasible in an mmorpg since you have constant updates, item restrictions such as boe or damage, items only obtainable via group content, etc. Simply isn't going to work in a game like this. Least not in the fashions some were hoping for.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Somebody please explain the point of paying money for great gear in a game where the objective is to find great gear.
Are you defeating the purpose of the game?
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own. -- Herman Melville
Cheap leet gear cheapens the Diablo experience and makes looting meaningless.
Expensive leet gear gives a massive advantage to those willing to spend.
I personally don't like either of those situations at all.
This is a product of your own mind and how you let others affect you.
Me, I play with a couple of friends on daily basis and I don't give a fuck for you guys, I'm just enjoying my own game.
If i can afford something from AH I buy else I play with what I have at level I can manage. It's so simple yet so many like to complicate and complane just cos they can.
"You" don't enjoy playing a hack and slash dungeon crawler? Wtf are you doing in D3 than... Just QQing on forums? I see...
Honestly, I don't see the point of having EVERYONE use the same market... The RMAH/Markets should be seperated by region, or even country. Having it be all one big market saturates the market completely, destroying competition.
Cheap leet gear cheapens the Diablo experience and makes looting meaningless.
Expensive leet gear gives a massive advantage to those willing to spend.
I personally don't like either of those situations at all.
This is a product of your own mind and how you let others affect you.
Me, I play with a couple of friends on daily basis and I don't give a fuck for you guys, I'm just enjoying my own game.
If i can afford something from AH I buy else I play with what I have at level I can manage. It's so simple yet so many like to complicate and complane just cos they can.
"You" don't enjoy playing a hack and slash dungeon crawler? Wtf are you doing in D3 than... Just QQing on forums? I see...
I know it's been said but just wanted to repeat that the "gold farmers" didn't destroy the RMAH. The only reason why virtual items held their real money value in other games was the lack of competition that created an artificially low supply vs the relatively low demand. Now that everyone can sell items for real money the supply has skyrocketed while the demand has remained approximately the same.
I think adding an AH to Diablo was a bad move given the game's design. The entire point of the game, after you've completed it once, is to acquire better gear. It'd be as if WoW removed raid timers and made all drops BoE.
I had a friend who basically funding his whole college tuition (and a lot of drinking and other stuff) by owning a business of basically a bunch of 12 year olds that he'd pay 7-8 bucks an hour to farm on Diablo.
I didn't even believe him until one day we got a knock on the door from the IRS/FBI saying they had a warrant for his computer. Then he showed me a bank statement of them freezing about 40k in his checking account.
The point of my story is that it's not hardest thing to do to convince a bunch of kids who like to play games to play games and you'll pay them if they give you their loot. TBH I'm not even sure he was using kids or some political prisoners in china (his father was Chinese government official), as this is something that is huge in China. It's all about volume, and that's something China does not lack (1.3 billion people).
Anyways, that was the first time I had ever imagined such a scheme to make money from playing a game, thought i'd share.
Gold farmers didn't destroy Diablo 3, Blizzard did by taking something (i.e. RMT) that was present but looked down upon in Diablo 2 and making it present and encouraged in Diablo 3.
Blizzard has really been selling out recently, no?
^ This
We are witnessing the new Blizzard in all it's greed.
RIP Blizzard North
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Originally posted by Souldrainer Dude.. you are way behind the information curve. Check out the 60 million gold/hr thread here. Blizzard is letting the farmers exploit the horrible security of the game, on purpose... but after the farmers make a good profit, they will ban them, forcing said farmers to buy even more copies of the game.... then Blizzard updates their security, creates a new "we hate exploiters" press release, and allows the farmers to use a new exploit for a while. Rinse/repeat X infinity. This is how Blizzard keeps getting insane box sales in Asia, and how the gold farming industry thrives. Gold farmer interviews confirm these techniques.
That's an attractive tin foil hat you're wearing.
I find it hilarious that you think exploits are not only intentionally left in, but are a crucial part of Blizzard's asia strategy.
Exploits will be plugged and goldsellers will disappear. It won't happen overnight (although RMAH will be a huge initial blow,) but market forces will inexorably force them out.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I think this is a good thing, I prefer markets like this in games, especially in Diablo.
Why?
Diablo 2 was all about finding sick gear. Diablo 3 has (and still is in the EU, we ain't got the RMAH yet!) been more about grinding gold, in order to buy good gear on the AH. Even though I haven't been grinding much gold (because I hate it and it's boring for periods any longer than 30mins).
The fact that gold sells for cheap, means that items will become expensive (in terms of how much gold they cost). Basically, Diablo 3 is now about finding sick items to either use, or sell to buy ones more appropriate for your class. I prefer this, more like Diablo 2!
I play with a solid group of friends. We farm items, not gold. From the looks of the USD RMAH, we've already got a few items worth over £20! That's brilliant! I can sell them off and either gear up my Diablo character or cash out and buy a bag o' weed or a night out!
I've done this is pretty much every MMO I play, but now I can do it all without risking my account getting banned, or getting scammed (which has happened a handful of times actually, fucking annoying but can't be helped sometimes)!
Shame about the 15% they rob on cashout though... That's a bit much when combined with the transaction fees on top, greedy bastards.
_________ Currently playing: Black Desert Korea (Waiting for EU)
Always hating on instances in MMOs! Open worlds, open PvP, territory control and housing please. More persistence, more fun.
Gold farmer still can farm golds and buy out everything in AH then resell it again in RMAH.
Hackers will hack and sell off stuff in RMAH too.
There is always a loop hole in everything.
Yes, they can still do that. Alongside millions of actual players doing the same thing, adding insane amounts of competition to the market. Which dramatically reduces their potential profit.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Why are you buying any items? Is there some competition in game I am not aware of? Is there some form of virtual property you must defend? Will not having item X mean you can't play and enjoy the game? I guess I am dumb founded. Also, it's not even an MMO. It is a single-player with co-op optional play. No persistent world where you interact with people or compete. So all these questions I asked stand. What's the point?
The point is, everyone's trying to sell and there's zero point to buy. :P
and if everyone is trying to sell and few will buy .. prices will crash and people will go back to play the game. In fact, this is a game very BAD for gold farmers because good items never leave the market and prices are going to crash and crash in the long run.
I think we are going to see a very cyclical machine here. There are going to be those that refuse to ever use the RMAH but will use the gold AH. What we are going to eventually see happen is people buying cheap items of the RMAH, selling them for gold on the gold AH and then selling gold on the RMAH. Eventually more and more people will start selling items for gold on the regular AH and we will see an increase in the prices on the RMAH and a decrease on the gold AH and the process will reverse itself. You'll then see more items on the RMAH selling for a bit more and people will flock to that again, then prices on the gold AH will increase and prices on the RMAH will decrease and the cycle will continue. T
hey ensured this when they allowed not only the sale of items but of gold as well. For those that learn to predict when one side will spike and the other decline, they will be the ones to make a bit of money (not much because of the fact that items never go away unless the individual destroys them or sells them to an npc). Eventually I think we will see a point where only gold is usefull to sell because you can sell large amounts of it at a time for the minimum price and this is important as there is a flat fee of 1.00 for all transactions. So if prices fall to 1.50 for a good item due to oversaturation, then you only make 50c. If instead you sell it on the gold ah and then sell gold for money even if 100k gold sells for the minimum of 1.00 you can sell a million gold for 5$ and be better off than selling a piece of armor for 1.5$.
Is anyone really surprised by this? It was doomed from the very beginning.
But someone is actually VERY happy now... Blizzard, who gain a percentage of every single sale.
The real money AH of diablo is the typical Blizzard answer to a problem... it's not "how can we get rid of RMT so that our players aren't annoyed by them and our games have a balanced playfields", no no no! The real thinking is "how can we take advantage and make money of the RMT market". You can expect Titan to have a real money AH too.
Respect, walk, what did you say? Respect, walk Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me? - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
Comments
TL;DR: It's bad becuase those of us living in first-world countries can't afford to sell items as cheaply as those living in third-world countries. Whereas the OP's 20$ ring was good for him, a "farmer's" 3 1$ rings is just as good, if not better, for him.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
You know what is funnier than those idiots who think they can make loads of real life money playing video games??? The idiots who think you cant.In lineage 2 there is an epic earing that would sell for 2.5 thousand $ instantly if you had one for sale.It kept that market value for a good 6-7 years until the game went free to play.While it was obvious the market in diablo 3 was going to crash, i know for fact people have made thousands from the game already and NOT "chinese farmers" mainly americans.With 1 bot making 900k per hour and gold selling for 15-20$ per mill do the math of a good few weeks of botting 24/7 with a few copies of the game.
I have made thousands selling accounts and items in mmos....might not be legitimately and sure its frowned upon but please dont sit there and think you are smart saying you "cant or its a stupid idea."I have friends who have literally become millionaires selling virtual currency, get a clue.
See, this is where I decide an argument is no longer worth having.
When people take what you say, ignore most of it, then deliberately misrepresent and oversimplify the rest; essentially turning it into a strawman, which they then try to refute.
The process is pretty self-evident and obvious to those who are willing to recognize it. I can't help you if you choose to keep the blinders on with your fingers shoved firmly in your ears.
Whatever helps you enjoy your RMT dominated "always-online single player game", I guess, right?
I don't see the problem either.
Farmers and Blizzard make some money.
And buyer pay LOW low prices.
Everybody happy.
Except some people who thought they could make money by playing the game. I don't care about them.
Shall we do some basic math?
Ring sells for $1.50 Blizzard takes their $1.00 cut, leaving gold farmer with 50 cents. When Gold farmer cashes out blizzard takes a additional 15%. So the gold farmer actually makes 43 cents. the item itself takes a few hours to farm even with some kinda bot. So lets say the farmer get 6 items a day at 43 cents Whee! THE FARMER MADE $2.50 IN A DAY! Now assuming he paid $50 for the game he only has to farm for 20 days to pay off the cost of the game. Now the farmer isnot the only one farming and while 7 million people may have bought the game way less the half will buy from the RMAH so after time goes buy less and less will buy said items even for $1.50.
End point sure blizzard may make some money but the gold farmer surely isn't racking in the hundreds of dallers per item he was with D2. Players who want items cheap win, blizzard gets some extra mopney so they win. Gold farmers well they come to places like this and argue how evil Blizzard is and how no game should have a RMAH so they can continue to make good money selling their items via third party sites.
Personally, If this is the case, Id just rather have Blizzard sell all the items. But this is a much better model because it creates the illusion for non gold sellers that normal people can make money doing this.
Cheap leet gear cheapens the Diablo experience and makes looting meaningless.
Expensive leet gear gives a massive advantage to those willing to spend.
I personally don't like either of those situations at all.
Sorry to break it to you, but "Slave Labor" hasn't been around since the 1800's my friend and anyone using it to describe anything in the 21st centruy is just using hyperbole. Are there Gold Farmers? Yes. But someone doesn't own a person that is being forced to work all day with the threat of whipping and death... Stop using Hyperbole. Sure, their wage is lower than here in the United States, but they DO have the option to QUIT.. Slaves did not... Wtf is happening to history in our schools?!
Shouldn't really be surprising to anyone. In a game with a static inventory list this is going to happen. Having an rmah would be a lot more feasible in an mmorpg since you have constant updates, item restrictions such as boe or damage, items only obtainable via group content, etc. Simply isn't going to work in a game like this. Least not in the fashions some were hoping for.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Somebody please explain the point of paying money for great gear in a game where the objective is to find great gear.
Are you defeating the purpose of the game?
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
Their ridiculously low droprates are defeating the purpose of the game.
This is a product of your own mind and how you let others affect you.
Me, I play with a couple of friends on daily basis and I don't give a fuck for you guys, I'm just enjoying my own game.
If i can afford something from AH I buy else I play with what I have at level I can manage. It's so simple yet so many like to complicate and complane just cos they can.
"You" don't enjoy playing a hack and slash dungeon crawler? Wtf are you doing in D3 than... Just QQing on forums? I see...
Honestly, I don't see the point of having EVERYONE use the same market... The RMAH/Markets should be seperated by region, or even country. Having it be all one big market saturates the market completely, destroying competition.
Taru-Gallante-Blood elf-Elysean-Kelari-Crime Fighting-Imperial Agent
I didn't buy the game. You can relax now.
This is preety much it.
While it might not influence people that play solo it does influence the game as a whole and it will influence the design.
I found this game to be a repetetive bore, amazing to me people are spending even a 1.50 on items. What a waste of 60 bucks.
I know it's been said but just wanted to repeat that the "gold farmers" didn't destroy the RMAH. The only reason why virtual items held their real money value in other games was the lack of competition that created an artificially low supply vs the relatively low demand. Now that everyone can sell items for real money the supply has skyrocketed while the demand has remained approximately the same.
I think adding an AH to Diablo was a bad move given the game's design. The entire point of the game, after you've completed it once, is to acquire better gear. It'd be as if WoW removed raid timers and made all drops BoE.
I had a friend who basically funding his whole college tuition (and a lot of drinking and other stuff) by owning a business of basically a bunch of 12 year olds that he'd pay 7-8 bucks an hour to farm on Diablo.
I didn't even believe him until one day we got a knock on the door from the IRS/FBI saying they had a warrant for his computer. Then he showed me a bank statement of them freezing about 40k in his checking account.
The point of my story is that it's not hardest thing to do to convince a bunch of kids who like to play games to play games and you'll pay them if they give you their loot. TBH I'm not even sure he was using kids or some political prisoners in china (his father was Chinese government official), as this is something that is huge in China. It's all about volume, and that's something China does not lack (1.3 billion people).
Anyways, that was the first time I had ever imagined such a scheme to make money from playing a game, thought i'd share.
^ This
We are witnessing the new Blizzard in all it's greed.
RIP Blizzard North
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
That's an attractive tin foil hat you're wearing.
I find it hilarious that you think exploits are not only intentionally left in, but are a crucial part of Blizzard's asia strategy.
Exploits will be plugged and goldsellers will disappear. It won't happen overnight (although RMAH will be a huge initial blow,) but market forces will inexorably force them out.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I think this is a good thing, I prefer markets like this in games, especially in Diablo.
Why?
Diablo 2 was all about finding sick gear. Diablo 3 has (and still is in the EU, we ain't got the RMAH yet!) been more about grinding gold, in order to buy good gear on the AH. Even though I haven't been grinding much gold (because I hate it and it's boring for periods any longer than 30mins).
The fact that gold sells for cheap, means that items will become expensive (in terms of how much gold they cost). Basically, Diablo 3 is now about finding sick items to either use, or sell to buy ones more appropriate for your class. I prefer this, more like Diablo 2!
I play with a solid group of friends. We farm items, not gold. From the looks of the USD RMAH, we've already got a few items worth over £20! That's brilliant! I can sell them off and either gear up my Diablo character or cash out and buy a bag o' weed or a night out!
I've done this is pretty much every MMO I play, but now I can do it all without risking my account getting banned, or getting scammed (which has happened a handful of times actually, fucking annoying but can't be helped sometimes)!
Shame about the 15% they rob on cashout though... That's a bit much when combined with the transaction fees on top, greedy bastards.
_________
Currently playing: Black Desert Korea (Waiting for EU)
Always hating on instances in MMOs! Open worlds, open PvP, territory control and housing please. More persistence, more fun.
Yes, they can still do that. Alongside millions of actual players doing the same thing, adding insane amounts of competition to the market. Which dramatically reduces their potential profit.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I think we are going to see a very cyclical machine here. There are going to be those that refuse to ever use the RMAH but will use the gold AH. What we are going to eventually see happen is people buying cheap items of the RMAH, selling them for gold on the gold AH and then selling gold on the RMAH. Eventually more and more people will start selling items for gold on the regular AH and we will see an increase in the prices on the RMAH and a decrease on the gold AH and the process will reverse itself. You'll then see more items on the RMAH selling for a bit more and people will flock to that again, then prices on the gold AH will increase and prices on the RMAH will decrease and the cycle will continue. T
hey ensured this when they allowed not only the sale of items but of gold as well. For those that learn to predict when one side will spike and the other decline, they will be the ones to make a bit of money (not much because of the fact that items never go away unless the individual destroys them or sells them to an npc). Eventually I think we will see a point where only gold is usefull to sell because you can sell large amounts of it at a time for the minimum price and this is important as there is a flat fee of 1.00 for all transactions. So if prices fall to 1.50 for a good item due to oversaturation, then you only make 50c. If instead you sell it on the gold ah and then sell gold for money even if 100k gold sells for the minimum of 1.00 you can sell a million gold for 5$ and be better off than selling a piece of armor for 1.5$.
Is anyone really surprised by this? It was doomed from the very beginning.
But someone is actually VERY happy now... Blizzard, who gain a percentage of every single sale.
The real money AH of diablo is the typical Blizzard answer to a problem... it's not "how can we get rid of RMT so that our players aren't annoyed by them and our games have a balanced playfields", no no no! The real thinking is "how can we take advantage and make money of the RMT market". You can expect Titan to have a real money AH too.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
You do know that there are many "over-seas" IPs that actually are regular players. To suggest that you ban us is pretty simpleminded and smallminded.