Diablo 3 Auction House Announced - Spend and Earn Real Life Money!

[Mth]

Treatment has been shown to be much more effective then prohibition and incarceration in lowering drug use. You'd save billions in enforcement, have less problem drug users, and save thousands of lives in central and south america. But I guess an imaginary person in the sky told you drugs were bad so we need to put these persons in prison.

I did not at any point say the end-users/consumers were the main problem. The problem is the Distributors/manufacturers. The fight to remove the shops, be it item shop or drug "shops" (I know it will only work in a perfect world) is still by far the best thing to do. Remove the drug, and nobody can use it.

[Magicochon]

Well, I know some chinese business man that may scream of joy from this announcement.

[Duster505]

No, but I have yet to see anyone provide a valid explanation for their moral stance that holds up under scrutiny and the weight of factual evidence. Just a lot of circular arguments that come down to "I don't like it because it's bad, and it's bad because I don't like it".

Anyone is perfectly entitled to their own opinion. It is the insults to people who either like or don't care either way about this feature that I can't stand. And the hyperbole about the downfall of all things good that will come about because of this.

Now here is the news mister. Think of every person in the world trading in virtual items that have nothing to do with real life. First off - that means that something that has zero to do with any real life activites like eating.

Now.. think of who is benefitting from the virtual items. WHo is taking a cut of the profit in AH? Exactly... And who is the 3rd party benefitting ? You think Americans will be earning a living by selling items in D3? Can they maintain a living for 1$ per day?

Virtual item trading is illegal for a reason. I have absolutly ZERO worry about this feature beeing released in D3 since even the American Government is obligated to support worldwide laws on virtual items trading. This will most likely have exactly the oposite effect... that is that websited like ebay and others "legal" sites will be given much strichter rules to follow or they will be punished.

You will one day know why Gaming companies like BLizzard are trying to push out virtual item trading as part of their game. You will one day also understand why governments all over the world are trying to fight it.

[kiaran]

Why are some of you talking about ethic???Isn't a company always build to get profit???? C'MON! This threat is getting ubber boring.I'm still getting hot-dogs from this AH! Hell Yeah!

[Tang]

No, but I have yet to see anyone provide a valid explanation for their moral stance that holds up under scrutiny and the weight of factual evidence. Just a lot of circular arguments that come down to "I don't like it because it's bad, and it's bad because I don't like it".

It's very simple. Selling of items that have a tangible effect within the game world for real life money cheapens the game experience, and makes the game less enjoyable for most players. Blizzard is now directly facilitating and encouraging this behavior in order to make a greater profit.

An ethical business seeks to make a greater profit by delivering more value to their customers, who pay them more in kind. What Blizzard is doing is the complete opposite of ethical business. Blizzard is seeking profit in direct opposition to creating or adding value of any kind.

It would be irresponsible of me as a consumer to continue supporting Blizzard, so after 15 years of being a dedicated fanboy, I am done. I have spent literally thousands of dollars on Blizzard products, and I doubt that I will ever spend another penny on their products again.

[iced1138]

I really hope Blizzard rethinks this.

[deathtakes]

How many times do I have to point out that this is not in any way different that F2P games with a cash store, except that the goods are provided by players instead of Blizzard. Facebook was practically BUILT on virtual goods trading. EVE Online has a method for translating in-game currency into real world money. Second Life's in-game currency is traded on international currency exchanges. And, for the third time, Sony Online Entertainment has been running this exact same feature for at least 5 years. And that is just the examples I can come up with off the top of my head.

You keep saying that there is this great crusade against virtual goods trading, yet it is a thriving, multi-billion economic market being tapped by some of the largest companies in the world. And in all that time, our way of life has not devolved into a cesspit of wretched existence. The only person I see on this great crusade of yours is you.

Well said. But beware the rebuttal of sound circular logic based on nothing and possibly a very vague analogy to shoot down your facts, in his/her mind anyways...

[Nocturnes]

To everyone saying "lol people are going to bot/sell shit for money/etc anyway" the point is it has never been a LEGAL thing in any of their games, ever. That is why people are so upset.

Captain Obvious is on board!

[woxingma]

i dont see how this changes anything.....if you played diablo 2 in its heyday you know for damn sure that people would spend real money on stones of jordan and later on runes. this is just cutting out the middle man (i.e. ebay, paypal etc.)the only thing i fear is that this will bleed over into WoW at some point.anyway....should be interesting....makes me kinda hope that i can make some easy cash when this game comes out

This guy is exactly right. I think this is going to have the effect of actually stabilizing the sale of these high quality/rare items by putting the marketplace all in one spot.

Most of the doom and gloom I see here on the comments seem to be from people who didn't play diablo II back in the day. Back then if you weren't' buying off of ebay and using hacks you weren't doing it right.

[Papabull]

Why are some of you talking about ethic???Isn't a company always build to get profit???? C'MON! This threat is getting ubber boring.I'm still getting hot-dogs from this AH! Hell Yeah!

OT:Speaking of hot dogs its 12(noon) EST and it's mah lunch time! Be back in a hour to read all the goodness unless the thread has been locked by then.

[Trispec]

Captain Obvious is on board!

Next time learn to resize pictures before making retarded posts, thank you.

[Tang]

This guy is exactly right. I think this is going to have the effect of actually stabilizing the sale of these high quality/rare items by putting the marketplace all in one spot.

Most of the doom and gloom I see here on the comments seem to be from people who didn't play diablo II back in the day. Back then if you weren't' buying off of ebay and using hacks you weren't doing it right.

I played Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo 2: LOD. I never bought anything from ebay or used any sorts of hacks. I don't know if I was "doing it wrong" or whatever, but I know that I put as much money in Blizzard's pockets as those who were buying off of ebay.

Now perhaps Blizzard will make more money with this new scheme. Maybe the customers that they lose like me will be more than offset by the fees they collect on RL item transactions, or maybe they won't. But whatever happens, they've definitely lost a lot of customers, not just for Diablo, but for their games in general.

[deathtakes]

It's very simple. Selling of items that have a tangible effect within the game world for real life money cheapens the game experience, and makes the game less enjoyable for most players. Blizzard is now directly facilitating and encouraging this behavior in order to make a greater profit.

An ethical business seeks to make a greater profit by delivering more value to their customers, who pay them more in kind. What Blizzard is doing is the complete opposite of ethical business. Blizzard is seeking profit in direct opposition to creating or adding value of any kind.

It would be irresponsible of me as a consumer to continue supporting Blizzard, so after 15 years of being a dedicated fanboy, I am done. I have spent literally thousands of dollars on Blizzard products, and I doubt that I will ever spend another penny on their products again.

Please let the door hit you on the way out.

[Beere]

As long as I can play the game fully in single player, I really don't give a flying f*ck. I don't care much about PvP so it's unlikely I will even do that. But that doesn't change the fact that I find this idea is a punch in the face of the whole 'gaming' concept. Effort vs Reward loses its meaning completely and the current 'Time = Reward' concept from World of Warcraft will be even more downgraded to a 'Money = Reward' concept in Diablo 3. I guess there are just enough mainstream cashcows to afford this kind of strategy. Next time we'll probably have to pay extra just to finish a game after buying it.

[Daswolfen]

Now here is the news mister. Think of every person in the world trading in virtual items that have nothing to do with real life. First off - that means that something that has zero to do with any real life activites like eating.

Now.. think of who is benefitting from the virtual items. WHo is taking a cut of the profit in AH? Exactly... And who is the 3rd party benefitting ? You think Americans will be earning a living by selling items in D3? Can they maintain a living for 1$ per day?

Virtual item trading is illegal for a reason. I have absolutly ZERO worry about this feature beeing released in D3 since even the American Government is obligated to support worldwide laws on virtual items trading. This will most likely have exactly the oposite effect... that is that websited like ebay and others "legal" sites will be given much strichter rules to follow or they will be punished.

You will one day know why Gaming companies like BLizzard are trying to push out virtual item trading as part of their game. You will one day also understand why governments all over the world are trying to fight it.

Show me the United States statute that makes this illegal? The ONLY reason that Paypal shut down the gold sellers is because Blizzard pulled the IP card.

And for the record, you need to look at Second Life and EVE Online to see how virtual goods and player produced virtual items/currency interact.

[Redblade]

Achievement earned by Blizzard

Fuck the game in a day

You do realize that the forum reading gamer is a small minority of the player base of nearly any game right, it's also shown that that outraged gamer that shouts about the doom of a game on the forums are an even smaller minority within the reading minority.

[Velandyl]

You can kiss any in-game competitive play goodbye (i.e. Arenas). You can't have competition in a pay-to-win structure.

So true

Won't be buying this game if it goes live with this. Fucking stupid bringing real money into it.

Same here

[Duster505]

How many times do I have to point out that this is not in any way different that F2P games with a cash store, except that the goods are provided by players instead of Blizzard. Facebook was practically BUILT on virtual goods trading. EVE Online has a method for translating in-game currency into real world money. Second Life's in-game currency is traded on international currency exchanges. And, for the third time, Sony Online Entertainment has been running this exact same feature for at least 5 years. And that is just the examples I can come up with off the top of my head.

You keep saying that there is this great crusade against virtual goods trading, yet it is a thriving, multi-billion economic market being tapped by some of the largest companies in the world. And in all that time, our way of life has not devolved into a cesspit of wretched existence. The only person I see on this great crusade of yours is you.

3rd party virtual trading and facebook virtual trading are totally diffrent matter. Thats for a reason. You might understand it later why that is. Go do some research on it maybe?

[kiaran]

It's very simple. Selling of items that have a tangible effect within the game world for real life money cheapens the game experience, and makes the game less enjoyable for most players. Blizzard is now directly facilitating and encouraging this behavior in order to make a greater profit.

An ethical business seeks to make a greater profit by delivering more value to their customers, who pay them more in kind. What Blizzard is doing is the complete opposite of ethical business. Blizzard is seeking profit in direct opposition to creating or adding value of any kind.

It would be irresponsible of me as a consumer to continue supporting Blizzard, so after 15 years of being a dedicated fanboy, I am done. I have spent literally thousands of dollars on Blizzard products, and I doubt that I will ever spend another penny on their products again.

And the real deal is that you weren't obliged to be a fan boy and spend 15 years and money been it. So the one responsible of this is only YOU!

[Daez]

If you guys want to all pretend like real life money hasn't influenced MMOs since MMOs came into existence then good for you. However, that is some major delusion. All this does is give Blizzard a piece of that real life cash action. They should do the same thing in WOW. If Blizzard took 10% to let you sell items and gold a lot more people would do it which would lower the prices and remove some of the complaints.