Hehe, I kinda expected this to be a potential money-maker, and I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet.
The RMAH is a pretty sad longevity facilitator - but at least it means there’s a huge incentive for Bliz to keep the game interesting. However, they’d be hard-pressed to make core design changes when people are pouring real money into their characters. Maybe as optional expansions?
So - YOu cant actually take away the money you make from this? Making Blizzard the only winners?
As I understand it, you can use the funds in the blizzard store, though?
You can take the money away from this - AFAIK. It says so right on the box.
If you live in certain areas you can have the money go to paypal for the cost of 15% of the sale. If you have the money go to your blizzard wallet, it’s stuck there.
huh - really? Well then…I guess its time to spend an hour each night on making some more money :-)
Most people thought it would never be a genuine money-maker, for some reason. But based on what a LOT of people went through for gold in WoW - where most good stuff is BoE/BoP - it should be pretty evident how people feel about digital power.
The only reason I think this might not get really crazy, is that the game ends up being rather trivial after a certain point. If it had been a truly worthy sequel (yeah, just my opinion - calm down) - then I think this could have exploded and completely changed how we perceive real money vs virtual reality.
It still might.
But I’ll probably get back to my Monk and finish Inferno soonish - just to grind a bit of money here and there. Who knows how the prices will evolve - though they should match the level of popularity the game can maintain.
I am just waiting for regulators to come in and shut this down.
It’s certainly an interesting thing to behold. There’s no way this gets to explode without some authority looking into it.
Because why?
Because if it exploded, it would represent new ground - and a lot of money is going to change hands without much outside control, and the fantasy/digital nature of the commodities makes it too dangerous to ignore in the long-term.
Taking it to an extreme, it would mean a big part of the workforce could potentially make a living without actually producing anything or doing “work that benefits society directly” - and that’s not going to work well in modern society, without a serious restructuring process. Yes, an extreme - but something you have to consider if something like this truly takes off.
Plenty of jobs pay money without the work producing anything or benefiting society, mine very specifically (my day job, not the D3 rmah).
Yeah, but I’m not talking about D3 destroying world society - but the trend in itself, which could potentially lead to a problem with providing services/goods/whatever to society.
I just think it’s the kind of thing you have to consider way before it happens, to be able to control it - once it becomes too widespread.
At least, I don’t think it’s wise to just let it happen and do nothing.
I am seeing a lot of “Borderlands has more interesting items”. I did play Borderlands but lost interest about half-way through the game so I don’t have a strong recollection of the items. But what made them unique vs D3? I thought they were similar in the sense of having a list of stat increases/changes just like D3.
Though I agree I rarely find an upgrade I don’t ever look at an items level. I just scan it quickly if its blue and see if any of the “compare” fields are green. If all are green I will then look at it more closely. If its a rare I look at it a bit more closely again. If I cant use it but it has interesting stats (primary+vitality for example) I AH it.
For context I have spent most of my D3 time in HC mode which is a different beast. Especially on the AH front. The blacksmith is actually worthwhile at higher levels though still too expensive. So looking forward to the crafting price changes.
Are we still talking about Diablo 3 or the finance industry?
I imagine if there is money to made in the D3 RMAH it will be simple reselling or future price speculation, but I doubt someone would be able to make a comfortable living out of it.
/agree. I think people who are arguing that it unbalances the game somehow seem to be envious of the idea of someone else having a better item than them. The “its 99% an MMO” is a smoke screen to cover that up.
I hazard to guess most people spend most of their time playing solo or with a small set of friends. And that trend will continue to get worse as players slowly attrition away over time.
So yeah, shoot lasers out of your eyes at 100% IAS. I am OK with that.
I’m one of those who claim Borderlands item design is more interesting, so I can give my two cents.
Actually, I wouldn’t say Borderlands “items” were more interesting - but specifically Borderlands weapons.
In Borderlands, each weapon type had a personality in terms of unique procs and effects. Every weapon type provided a specific flavor and style that meant a lot in terms of how you approached combat. A sniper rifle is COMPLETELY different from a combat rifle - and one sniper rifle could be completely different from another sniper rifle, based on what effects and procs it had. It made weapon hunting incredibly fun.
Sadly, the character mechanics of Borderlands are super simplistic - so it’s only the weapon design I’m talking about.
Hellgate took this concept even further - and I consider it the game with the most interesting item design. That game had a HUGE amount of issues - but the items were just fantastic.
Now, in D3 - they’ve made the skills themselves the primary entertainment factor - and they’ve made them all (or most of them) scale directly with a given percentage. This is how they’ve approached the “all builds should be viable” design paradigm, and I get that. Ultimately, I think it’s a failure - because I don’t think a game is more entertaining when everything you choose is equally powerful. It makes your choice meaningless - and what’s worse, it means you will just choose based on playstyle - and you will never change it up.
The only reason anyone changes build/playstyle in D3 right now, is to be able to defeat the harder difficulty levels. It’s not because they WANT to play differently.
Well, that’s what I postulate. At least, eventually - people would find a build that suited their playstyle best - and it would never change, and they would never ever need to make another of that same character.
That’s incredibly bad for longevity and for keeping the game perpetually interesting. It’s fantastic for the short-term experience - and I have no doubt that’s what the testers/designers said to the developers when going through the iterative process. They were annoyed with skill points and they just ended up “playing the system” - so that was thrown out.
But an internal iterative process is, by nature, limited and can really only be short-term - as any change will not be tested for months or years.
That’s why you need one or a few people with genuine vision for a great design - and that’s what I don’t think Blizzard have. I think they have fantastic craftsmen and super experienced developers - and they know how to polish and they know how to appeal to a wide audience.
But I don’t care for their long-term design paradigms or their lack of imagination when it comes to intricate mechanics. Not since so many key members left around WoW vanilla release.
Truly, the game is just “meh” for me at this point - and I’m a huge fan of the genre.
Not even remotely. Borderlands weapons had all kinds of madcap options like shotguns firing missiles, never having to reload, extra elemental damage that actually mattered (unlike in D3 where it’s just flavour), etc
Basically some of the guns could be very much out of the ordinary.
We’re talking about what the world would be IF you COULD actually make a decent living JUST by playing games.
No, I’m not claiming that will be possible in D3 - certainly not for the majority. But it could be the first step to popular game design (quite likely) - and if you want to prevent something really nasty happening in the far future, you should start considering these things when the first steps are taken.
Maybe I’m paranoid or unrealistic - but I can see this kind of thing get WAY out of hand WAY sooner than most people would expect. Human nature is interesting when it comes to the path of least resistance.
I’ve been thinking about this since I first replied and I agree with you. D3 is not likely to be when it happens, but yeah, it’s going to happen. Law moves slow and they need to start now if they haven’t already. I’ll ask.
Why I’m sure authorities will pay ever closer attention to it, it’s not that new; it’s just entertainment dollars. Functionally it’s the same as the “non-productive” and “doesn’t benefit society” work actors do. All they produce is entertainment for someone else, after all.