Will I be able to make a nice little income through this game?

[Scatlover]

I'm getting Diablo 3 free from the WoW Annual Pass and I've been wondering if it'll be easy to make a few bucks here and there.
how much $ will things be going for on the auction house do you guys imagine?

[Lysah]

No idea, really. If we go based off of D2, not much, a few USD for the most expensive stuff. Keep in mind that hardcore players can't use the RMAH, and that softcore players have no reason to once they've geared up a character.

[Deca]

alot of people gonna play this game and they all want to make money.
this will result in a superlow pricing for "normal" items.

the only items who will have a high price are really, really rare items. items, that are hard to find, even when you play alot.
so, you can't know if you gonna make good profit from D3 or not, because everybody can find a super rare item.

a chinafarmer grinds over 1 year, probably can't find a good item -
and in the same moment a casual goes first time infernal and he finds a super item what gets him 50$.

to answer your question:
when you are lucky -> you gonna make profit.
when you unlucky -> you don't.

D3 isn't WoW
in D3 everybody has the chance to get a super rare item.
in WoW only good players has the chance.

[Deleted]

If your intentions are to sell items; i recommend playing on SC server.

[Lysah]

Don't expect anything but the good players to be able to run through and clear Inferno all day. At least, that's the way the game is supposed to work.

[Slaughty8]

Only inferno gear will be worth farming, and yet, it all comes to one's luck. I am guessing that only pretty rare inferno items will sell for more than 5$/each. Also, + EXP and +MF gems will have very, very high demand.

[Lolsteak]

You've probably got better luck making money out of Team Fortress 2 than D3, with the amount of people that are going to be selling things the prices will plummet

[stgeorge78]

Probably enough to buy a hamburger once a month. I just don't think item trading will be as big as Blizzard thinks it will be. The game has very little replayability due to the weak talent system - once you play it through once per class, you really will have no reason to run again to try a new spec since you've seen everything.

In Diablo 2, the variation between a poor spec and a godly spec was about 1000% power difference. In Diablo 3, since they want to make it casual friendly and also prevent power specs, the variation is more like 10% power difference. Great "balance", but this isn't Starcraft. Lack of balance is Diablo's draw - the chance to create an overpowered spec. Items were largely just to boost specific talents that a spec was centered around. Now that is not possible anymore, so the game will feel very boring to those specific type of people that like to min-max and would power an Auction House economy.

The remaining and vast majority of people will treat Diablo 3 like any other game - play it through once or twice and then shelf it. They will never touch the AH.

[Caiada]

Probably enough to buy a hamburger once a month. I just don't think item trading will be as big as Blizzard thinks it will be. The game has very little replayability due to the weak talent system - once you play it through once per class, you really will have no reason to run again to try a new spec since you've seen everything.

In Diablo 2, the variation between a poor spec and a godly spec was about 1000% power difference. In Diablo 3, since they want to make it casual friendly and also prevent power specs, the variation is more like 10% power difference. Great "balance", but this isn't Starcraft. Lack of balance is Diablo's draw - the chance to create an overpowered spec. Items were largely just to boost specific talents that a spec was centered around. Now that is not possible anymore, so the game will feel very boring to those specific type of people that like to min-max and would power an Auction House economy.

The remaining and vast majority of people will treat Diablo 3 like any other game - play it through once or twice and then shelf it. They will never touch the AH.

That first paragraph, and what your apparently basing this argument on, is entirely your own opinion on the talent system. Forcing people to redo something to try a new way of doing things isn't replay value, to me.

OT: Depends on your definition of 'small.'

[Ovacor]

For a short period of time I sold items on Diablo 2 for some cash; what I can say is this. If the item rarity in Diablo 3 is anything like it was in Diablo 2 you will be able to make some cash IF you dedicate some time to it. I had a level 99 Amazon, full Godly gear that I would literally do runs on all day Mon/Weds/Friday for about a year. During that year I made a decent amount of $$ but it was nothing I could live off of. There are still items that I NEVER saw drop, nor have I seen in game at all. If there are those kind of items in Diablo 3 (which I am sure there will be), if you were to get your hands on one of these extremely rare items you could make yourself quite a bit.

In certain aspects Diablo 3 & Diablo 2 are extremely similar, in certain aspects they are totally different. The inability to teleport through walls in Diablo3, which is what we did in Diablo2 we slow down "magic finding" a lot.

Tl;DR - Yes, if you dedicate enough time & effort you can easily make that $150 you paid for the annual pass back. The glorious part of Diablo is that you do not need to dedicate all of that time immediately, I.E. you don't have to raid. All of it is dependent upon you & when you feel like playing.

[Lysah]

Never seen the IK Armor drop in game in...ten years of playing? Also never seen a rune above like Um drop.

[Tekt]

I apologize if this was posted elsewhere (I've been catching up on Blizzard news sporadically).

I understand there is some sort of Blizzard wallet tied to our D3/B.Net account. How do we cash out? Through PayPal?

[Deleted]

You've probably got better luck making money out of Team Fortress 2 than D3, with the amount of people that are going to be selling things the prices will plummet

Couldn't agree more.

[Ninjam0ves]

Probably enough to buy a hamburger once a month. I just don't think item trading will be as big as Blizzard thinks it will be. The game has very little replayability due to the weak talent system - once you play it through once per class, you really will have no reason to run again to try a new spec since you've seen everything.

In Diablo 2, the variation between a poor spec and a godly spec was about 1000% power difference. In Diablo 3, since they want to make it casual friendly and also prevent power specs, the variation is more like 10% power difference. Great "balance", but this isn't Starcraft. Lack of balance is Diablo's draw - the chance to create an overpowered spec. Items were largely just to boost specific talents that a spec was centered around. Now that is not possible anymore, so the game will feel very boring to those specific type of people that like to min-max and would power an Auction House economy.

The remaining and vast majority of people will treat Diablo 3 like any other game - play it through once or twice and then shelf it. They will never touch the AH.

Could'nt disagree more.

---------- Post added 2011-11-04 at 04:36 PM ----------

I apologize if this was posted elsewhere (I've been catching up on Blizzard news sporadically).

I understand there is some sort of Blizzard wallet tied to our D3/B.Net account. How do we cash out? Through PayPal?

Yes, the RMAH will use PayPal.

---------- Post added 2011-11-04 at 04:39 PM ----------

You've probably got better luck making money out of Team Fortress 2 than D3, with the amount of people that are going to be selling things the prices will plummet

This is the case, only the super super super rare items will sell for a proper amount.
But again - this is only speculations, there is no real way of telling before the game ships.

[dkdk]

I apologize if this was posted elsewhere (I've been catching up on Blizzard news sporadically).

I understand there is some sort of Blizzard wallet tied to our D3/B.Net account. How do we cash out? Through PayPal?

Yes it will use PayPal, but the way that it works it a little more complicated than that. You have to use PayPal to buy things, simple enough. BUT, when you sell something you have to decide at the time of sale if you want to have that money go back into your PayPal account or keep it in your Diablo wallet. If you keep it in the wallet you are able to use that money later on the AH to buy things, but you are never able to take that money out of the Diablo world and cash it out to PayPal.

I'm not sure how they can stop you from buying a friends item and then having them buy it back off of you and cashing it out that way, but I assume they will make it harder than that. Also not sure how they will incentivise you into keeping money in your wallet rather than always using your paypal account.

[Dhurn]

No not at all. Unless you are the luckiest gamer alive and see legendaries every day and they have good randomized mods, you wont be able to make an sort of significant income. Maybe like 100 at most a month with dedicated farming but nothing to compare to a real job.

[Archangel Tyrael]

nah man... hard gear is indeed freakingly hard to come by.

[Slaughty8]

One of these scenarios may give good income:

Buy all very rare items and mats and gems for gold and resell them for $
-or-
Buy all very rare items and mats and gems for $, resell for gold, and then...sell gold for $

I am gonna test these when Diablo 3 comes live.

[sidneycrosby]

complete guess, but i think it will be extremely difficult by yourself to make enough to say, pay for a WoW sub in a month. i'd guess 2-10 bucks a month on average. 10 being a very god month.

[Vespian]

No idea, really. If we go based off of D2, not much, a few USD for the most expensive stuff. Keep in mind that hardcore players can't use the RMAH, and that softcore players have no reason to once they've geared up a character.

What Lysah says mostly.

In the beginning, there won't be enough gear (edit: I actually mean; nog enough incentive to buy gear that will be hellishly expensive at first) to make a decent profit, but one month after release, I predict people start gearing up alts, more players join that need gear that can then be farmed more easily and thus more readily available, but not yet saturated, so I figure people start making little bits of money after a week or 3, 4. The real diehards that are capable manipulators in all Blizzard games' economy can probably make enough of a profit to pay for all their subscriptions for the rest of the year, but the average Joe will most likely only make a few bucks here and there. Enough, probably, to be a little extra every month. If only some flowers for your girl, right?

Either way, eventually the market will become saturated, although this will probably take at least 6 months, presumably even longer before it happens. It does mean, however, that you won't be able to create a steady long-term income to cover your mortgage. The economy simply won't last long enough, so you probably don't want to go there.

Personally, I have a good friend that's really good with any auction house, so I expect him to make some insane profits and I'll just profit from that occasionally. He's a student, I've got a job, so it's easy for him and actually functions as a bonus, while it's more of a risk to me. Investing a lot of time, that is. So look at your current situation as well, before you decide to invest time.