Diablo 3's auction house is a factor in item drop rates.

[Jdb]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5149013410

"The auction house obviously provides an incredible service to allow for very easy trades between characters, and essentially blows out the wide range of items you could have available to you at any one time. So, in fact, the AH has to be a factor in how we drop items. On one hand you have a huge benefit because you can buy and sell items very easily, as opposed to having to post up WTS threads in the old USEast trading forums, but on the other end it does impact the item pool economy with the inherent ease at which you can trade items. If the AH existed but wasn't a factor at all into how items dropped/rolled, the economy would be completely tanked within a matter of weeks."

I wonder if there's anything stopping Blizzard from lowering a drop rate to zero, waiting for that particular item to increase in demand, then selling it themselves under the disguise of a normal player for 100% profit when the RMAH hits. This works with the gold auction house as well because it is possible to buy and sell gold with real money.

I wonder what Diablo 3 would've been like if the effort went into making an infinite money generator went into more game improvements.

 

[piinyouri]

I remember a very very long time ago, when I was still in school and MMORPG was just a word for something I could only dream about was like.

Hearing about the auction house in World of Warcraft I thought "Oh WOW! That's so cool! That must be a game for older more mature people."

How times have changed.

Also this is a really backhanded but not at all unexpected move from Blizz.
It's like they spent 12 years not trying to make the best game possible, but how to make a game that would make them the most money possible.

 

[Jdb]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8CBbeSAjVo

"Players found ways around this artificial difficulty by using spells such as Smokescreen and Diamond Skin, but Blizzard has since nerfed these skills into the ground making the loot grind an absolute necessity."

First the always-online requirement, then the auction house affects item drop rates, and now nerfing skills that mitigated the need for a visit to the auction house. All roads in Diablo 3 lead to the auction house. I wouldn't be surprised if there were nerfs and buffs to popular items to encourage equipment changing and more trips to the auction house, or adding PvP but making the auction house the only effective way to stay competitive.

 

[piinyouri]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8CBbeSAjVo

"Players found ways around this artificial difficulty by using spells such as Smokescreen and Diamond Skin, but Blizzard has since nerfed these skills into the ground making the loot grind an absolute necessity."

First the always-online requirement, then the auction house affects item drop rates, and now nerfing skills that mitigated the need for a visit to the auction house. All roads in Diablo 3 lead to the auction house. I wouldn't be surprised if there were nerfs and buffs to popular items to encourage equipment changing and more trips to the auction house, or adding PvP but making the auction house the only effective way to stay competitive.

Ouch. Goddamn.

This all looks very very bad when you remember that Blizz now gets a percentage of the profits.

This is getting really ugly.

 

[Dendio]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8CBbeSAjVo

"Players found ways around this artificial difficulty by using spells such as Smokescreen and Diamond Skin, but Blizzard has since nerfed these skills into the ground making the loot grind an absolute necessity."

First the always-online requirement, then the auction house affects item drop rates, and now nerfing skills that mitigated the need for a visit to the auction house. All roads in Diablo 3 lead to the auction house. I wouldn't be surprised if there were nerfs and buffs to popular items to encourage equipment changing and more trips to the auction house, or adding PvP but making the auction house the only effective way to stay competitive.

Ouch. Goddamn.

This all looks very very bad when you remember that Blizz now gets a percentage of the profits.

This is getting really ugly.

Currently the gold auction house doesn't even work. People are reporting losing hundreds of thousands of gold on the AH failing to deliever items and profits. Its all over the diablo forums. I think i'll skip the pay to *win* of diablo 3. The most positive remarks I hear are from people who flat out ignore the AH, gimping themselves for the sake of giving the grind meaning.

 

[GenericAmerican]

Glad someone else bought the game for me. . . never saw the appeal in the game, and stuff like this just turns me away from playing.

 

[Soopy]

The absolute brazen wrought that is D3 is disgusting.. .

 

[Vault101]

don't forget that they totally need to be online all the time BECAUSE of the auction house

*sigh* at least in this instance "voting with my wallet" is easy

 

[Dryk]

Of course it is! Why would they waste opportunties to encourage people to give them that sweet 30-100% of the profits

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I knew something like this would happen. Always-on + Auction house = Disaster. It is unacceptable. I can't believe more than 6 million PC gamers were dumb enough to buy this game.

 

[Signa]

I knew something like this would happen. Always-on + Auction house = Disaster. It is unacceptable. I can't believe more than 6 million PC gamers were dumb enough to buy this game.

I know! It's as if people are actually ENJOYING PLAYING THE GAME. It's insane!

Enjoying or not, it's nearly criminal the way the consumers are being treated in this. The only reason why you don't have a problem with it is because you're also having fun.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

My uncle visited me and we talked a little about hearing all of the crap D3 has gone through, including its launch and afterwords. He said to me, "You must've laughed when you heard about that."

Now, I'm laughing so hard, I can compete with Bender.

Totally cash cowing the shit out of every game of theirs that they can now. At least I can wait for September 18th!

 

[Kahunaburger]

Fun fact: Diablo was originally designed as a graphical roguelike a la Dredmor. Now it seems to be taking more cues from Farmville. I mean, you can't blame blizz for liking money, but still...

 

[Jingle Fett]

And that ladies and gentlemen is why Diablo 3 is online only

See if the game was playable offline people could cheat and get all the high end items. Not that they'd be able to use them in multiplayer but they'd have less incentive to use the auction house. Furthermore, if they were playing single player and got a bunch of good items they'd also have less reason to use the auction house. I'm guessing a majority of the playerbase is in it only for the single player mode, so Blizzard had to find a way to get those players to use the AH.
So not only do they prevent you from using cheats in single player mode, they also control exactly what items you get when playing normally. It's foolproof!