This site makes extensive use of JavaScript.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser.
Live
PTR
10.2.5
PTR
10.2.6
So Blizzard is introducing the ability to buy items with real money in Diablo 3. Good idea for WoW?
Post Reply
Return to board index
Post by
izuul
It would be terrible for WoW, but i don't think it's a huge deal for Diablo for several reasons.
1) This has already been happening for over a decade in Diablo II. It just took place on Ebay and sketchy item selling sites. Now it will be safer.
2) Diablo is entirely instanced. Even if droves of RMTs flock to the game to farm items and make cash, it won't negatively impact your gaming experience to anywhere near the extent that it would in WoW. Items would become more common and cheaper, but you wouldn't be competing with these people for monsters or resource nodes.
3) Competitive balance isn't really that important in Diablo. While i can't comment on how PvP will play out in D3, the only real competitive thing in D2 was LLD (low level dueling), and only a small circle of the community participated in it. I don't expect things to be drastically different this time around.
As long as they keep hacking and duping out of the game this time around i think i will be perfectly happy.
Post by
493736
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
doombringer
No. It isn't a good idea for WoW. It isn't even a good idea for Diablo 3.
Let's look at their main justification for adding this in. They say that players in D1 and D2 were trading items illicitly, and by supporting it officially in D3 they make the practice safer for players. Sure, this is true. It doesn't, however, mean the practice is good for the game or the community. Gold-selling happens illicitly in WoW, as do character sales. TCG cards are also sold third-party. Will all this be brought under a Blizzard umbrella, and officially supported as well?
You start to open up a can of worms, where anyone with enough RL money can buy items that previously you had to earn in-game. Either you earned the item by finding it, or you earned the gold to buy it on the AH. Taking this out of the game will only cheapen the experience and is, in my opinion, akin to adding cheat codes. If I can buy a single-player game and cheat my way through it (godmode, unlimited ammo), was it really a great gaming experience? Or just a distraction?
Clearly, Blizzard is inching toward making profit over just making great games. They can say "this will never come to WoW" but they have said the same about other 'design tenets' in the past. They've also gone back on those oaths and have found more and more ways to monetize the game. Nothing is sacred at this point.
Post by
203406
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
deathbeyond
Who can it hurt and it would really kill the spam from gold sellers currently.
Those without the means to pay x$ for the specific items and there goes the balance. I don't understand why Blizzard don't kept themself on the "$$$ = Vanity" path, but i guess they aren't earning enough as it is now.
How would it hurt those that can't afford to spend real money? They still have the option to grind up the gold in game.
Blizzard is a business, after all. Expecting them to do anything other than increase their bottom line is foolish.
I don't doubt that Blizzard wants to do just that. But that goal could in the end hurt them depending on the GENERAL receipt by their player base. Sure they will undoubtedly get a large turnout of box sales. We, however, won't see what effect this monetized AH will have until a good 3-8months after release. Then we will see the end tier items coming onto the $AH, and see what kind of effect it will have. It will either make or break D3. And it still may not be well received before D3 even comes out and cause a large group of potential box buyers not even look at the game.
As much as people may wanna keep throwing out the "if you don't like it don't use it" excuse, eventually it will become an "essential" part and will most likely drive players away when all the top items only ever appear on the $AH and doesn't touch the gold AH.
But hey, we'll haveta wait til that 3-8month point to see what real effect it has.
Post by
Thror
I don't doubt that Blizzard wants to do just that. But that goal could in the end hurt them depending on the GENERAL receipt by their player base. Sure they will undoubtedly get a large turnout of box sales. We, however, won't see what effect this monetized AH will have until a good 3-8months after release. Then we will see the end tier items coming onto the $AH, and see what kind of effect it will have. It will either make or break D3. And it still may not be well received before D3 even comes out and cause a large group of potential box buyers not even look at the game.
As much as people may wanna keep throwing out the "if you don't like it don't use it" excuse, eventually it will become an "essential" part and will most likely drive players away when all the top items only ever appear on the $AH and doesn't touch the gold AH.
But hey, we'll haveta wait til that 3-8month point to see what real effect it has.
The only thing that will need to happen is you learning to suppress you childish need for the best loot. Everyone that arguments against the AH talks as if buying items for cash was mandatory, while it it not. You could complete Diablo 2 on Hell without trading with people, if you got an optimal build and knew how to play. Why wouldn't you be able to in D3.
Besides, you will still be able to trade items with your friends just fine. That will be my preferred way of getting items (after getting them myself during my playing of course).
Post by
Rankkor
as an economist I can tell you this is a BAD idea, and I certainly hope they never implement this on wow.
What most people are failing to realize, is that you wont actually make any money via this system in D3. Maybe a litte bit, but nothing major really. Why? Because each dollar you earn is one (more than one, actually) that someone else spent.
Now, of course, some minor fraction of players will spend an extravagant amount. And some minor fraction of players will manage to earn something decent. Generally speaking, however, it's practically zero-sum for the players (with Blizzard making the profit from their cut). So you have no way to gain any advantage over the other jillion people doing Mephisto runs.
Of course you could force yourself to spend nothing and just sell. And that's exactly where the problem lies, since that's what many will do. Guess what will that acomplish? well, that will just rises supply, lowers demands, and thus devaluates the gains in the whole deal.
And then, we get to the final nail in the coffin: There's the eternal undercut problem of AH... added with the fact that you
pay Blizz a fee even if an auction doesn't se
ll. That's just a BAD BAD BAD combo.
this whole thing STINKS.
Post by
Thror
Yes, you will probably not be able to make a living off this feature.
Yes, the supply will probably be large, and there will be people playing the AH.
Yes, Blizzard has decided that they want a cut of your profit, and they want a small fee beforehand for the posting of the auction. This is not such a new idea. I believe there are companies that first ask you for money just to be hired to do something, and then ask you for a share of the money that is made afterwards. Doesn't it work this way when you want to sell a real estate for example?
So... why exactly does this stink? From the perspective of a seller, do you mind Blizzard making up their taxing system? I guess you might not like that, but the taxes IRL are not really much more fair than that, as well as a lot of companies that provide servies (as with the example I gave above). From the perspective of a seller, do you mind that you will have competition in your business? Because guess what, competition comes naturally when there are money to be made, welcome to reality. Or from the perspective of the buyer, do you mind that sellers will be undercutting each other and selling the item you might want for lower and lower prices? Why?
Post by
Rankkor
This is not such a new idea. I believe there are companies that first ask you for money just to be hired to do something, and then ask you for a share of the money that is made afterwards. Doesn't it work this way when you want to sell a real estate for example?
So... why exactly does this stink?
because this is a game, not a job, not an investment, but a videogame, meant to entertain in your free time, not to eat away your money.
and believe me, what this will do is create a disruptive economy.
From the perspective of a seller, do you mind that you will have competition in your business?
when in a videogame? of course. Understand that real life money isn't the same as videogame money. Videogame money can be farmed, you MAKE money by doing a repetitive activity (Farm mobs, do quests, ect) but real life money can't be farmed (Unless ure a bank rober).
Real life money is limited, you only get a check each month, and that's it, 12 per year. If you try to sell something only to be undercut, it will make you lose money, wich further harms the prospective seller. If it was fake money I'd be ok with it ,because I can make up my loss with little effort, but with real money, its a bit harder to recover from being massively undercut.
Because guess what, competition comes naturally when there are money to be made, welcome to reality.
but guess again? this isn't reality, its a videogame. If this was the stockmarket, I'd be agreeing with you, real stock brokers have to make and lose money by taking risks, but VIDEOGAMES should NEVER work that way.
Post by
Liquoid
I'd quit WoW if they introduced something like this into it.
I'd come back to WoW if they introduced something like this into it.
Post by
Magician22773
I know nothing about Diablo, so I cant really comment on how this relates to that franchise, but as for offering any type of "non-vanity" RL money transactions into WoW, I think it would be a horrible idea....for the players, that is.
From a business standpoint, I have a feeling it would be a wash for Blizz. They would make a ton of cash from micro-transactions, but would lose just as much in sub fees.
The beauty of WoW, is the playing field is level for everyone. We all have the ability to get the best gear and see the best content...assuming we are willing or able to put the time and effort into it. And we all get those abilites for the same $15(ish) a month fee.
As soon as Blizz starts selling enhancement items for cash, that concept goes out the window. Players with deeper RL pockets will be able to obtain items that others without the ability or desire to spend cash to get them can't.
For a while, I played an online golf game called Shot Online. Its a very fun game, and is free-to-play. However, to get better gear, you have to pay via micro-transactions. The game ended up getting extremely expensive to stay competitive in. I was spending upwards of $100 a month just to stay on par (no pun intended) with other players.
Add in the "addiction" factor that WoW has, and I could see this ruining the game, and in many cases, real life finances, of many of its players.
Im not saying it won't happen...in fact, it likely will. But I do see it as a sign of the end of the World (of Warcraft)...so to speak. It very well could be Blizz's last effort to keep their revenue up. But as stated, it will likely be an even exchange at best, and could end up costing them at worst.
Post by
861644
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Jaspirac
So I'll have to farm gold irl, why bother playing the game?
Post by
843194
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Berndorf
as an economist I can tell you this is a BAD idea, and I certainly hope they never implement this on wow.
What most people are failing to realize, is that you wont actually make any money via this system in D3. Maybe a litte bit, but nothing major really. Why? Because each dollar you earn is one (more than one, actually) that someone else spent.
Now, of course, some minor fraction of players will spend an extravagant amount. And some minor fraction of players will manage to earn something decent. Generally speaking, however, it's practically zero-sum for the players (with Blizzard making the profit from their cut). So you have no way to gain any advantage over the other jillion people doing Mephisto runs.
Of course you could force yourself to spend nothing and just sell. And that's exactly where the problem lies, since that's what many will do. Guess what will that acomplish? well, that will just rises supply, lowers demands, and thus devaluates the gains in the whole deal.
And then, we get to the final nail in the coffin: There's the eternal undercut problem of AH... added with the fact that you
pay Blizz a fee even if an auction doesn't se
ll. That's just a BAD BAD BAD combo.
this whole thing STINKS.
ok, so you touched on a few things that I'd been thinking about and wanted to further talk about. First, the fact that you'll basically have two kinds of buyers on the D3 ah, the ones who are willing to pay real money for upgrades for their characters(which they can eventually sell when they become obsolete for them) and the group who will essentially see D3 as a legitimate source of income and try to 'play the ah' much like thousands of people to do for fake money in wow.
So those are the two sources of real money in the D3 economy. As you said, this will be balenced out against all the people actually out there leveling toons and taking on the highest levels of content in the game on a consistent basis and bringing in the items which will command the highest bids on the ah.
So after a few monthes have passed after the release of the game and prices have started to stabilize somewhat we will eventually get to a point where all the prices for all the items will slowly fall(as more and more players reach maximum level and items which have outlived their usefulness are sold and resold more often) and Bliz will have done a good job of eliminating all of these sites which used ot feast upon players who sought items for real money while also making money through the process themselves, That, all in all is not a bad thing as I see it.
The one thing I could see as very bad is if it were to cost real money to just create an auction(which you mention but which I am highly dubious of being part of the game unless you have a link which states this as fact from Bliz). The way I understood it is they will only be taking real money fees from auctions where actual money is paid for an item with maybe a small game money deposit for auctions in general.
I don't see alot of money being made by anyone unless they are just playing 24/7 outside of the first month or so when prices will be very fluid and some players will try to be the first to attain some of the very rare items in the game.
Post by
843194
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
tona91
Ok so u think by doing this there will be no more shady sites? If blizz somehow manages to keep track off ppl and their sell history and manage to exactly see who is selling using illegal sites that maybe could work, but what stops u from running bots 24/7 and selling items to ppl for x amount of $ by using 3rd party sites, u dont have to pay the fee to blizzard and can use it on anything, also obv by selling few items u could earn enough money to buy the game again if u get banned. So if they dont make some kick-ass security system i think bots will run the game, who would pass a chance to ear some good money by clicking 3 cliks just bcs its not fair, like anything is?
This is not an option that will make the game better its just greed, bcs in wow gold industry can earn u enough money monthly that u dont need to to nothing.
1 bot can earn ~10 $ a day(if u sell to the chinese, if u have own website then probably 2 or 3 times more) so if u have lets say 5-6-7+ accounts it can earn u 1k-1.5k$ of pure profit monthly. And u had to worry about being banned while selling, now they approve it and say its ok by them so idk we will have to see.
And ppl saying d2 gold means nothing, its different in wow ye it is maybe but wow gold=d3 items
Also i dont agree on this from other aspect, imagine passing by a guy in bets ingame gear and u are ofc interested how did he get it? His answer, ye my parents are rich so i spend 2k $ on it and u can barely afford the game, for some ppl it might led to thinking what is the point of my hard work when someone can buy all that with irl $$$.
To end this, either make some great protection against ppl boting not by just banning the game, ban the whole bnett acc, ip, hd id , etc or just dont male this option available, make some beta testing in the begining and see how it goes.
Post by
331902
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
300838
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Poolie72
Knew this was coming. I posted way back in 2009 about that horse that blizzard was selling for $25. And said it would lead to other items being sold in game.
http://www.wowhead.com/forums&topic=152798.4
People bought this in their thousands and Blizzard being a money making business, saw an opportunity. Now if it had fallen on its ass and players had stayed away then I don’t think we would be having this discussion.
Blizzard threw in the bait and it was taken – if you bought the horse or in-game pets, well you only have yourself to blame
Post Reply
You are not logged in. Please
log in
to post a reply or
register
if you don't already have an account.