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Blizzard admits Diablo III Auction House was a mistake (gold and RMAH)

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Hacp said:
Its about fun. RPGs are fun because they allow you to plan.
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And you can plan all you want without having to spend some time remaking a character because your plan sucked or you don't like it once finished. It only punishes players. Nobody forces you to respec when it is free and available for anyone who wants to do it. It is not fun having to make 15 paladins because I dislike the way each plays at endgame. It doesn't matter if it takes me an hour or a month to get to the last level, it is punishment and an artificial lengthener to games.
 
They're just trying to get some positive spin to sell more PS3 copies. I was D3's biggest fan in the years leading up to release and was extremely disappointed. The AH wasn't the reason the game failed. It was poorly designed throughout every area, lacked testing/polish, etc etc.

D3 should have died a month after release but apparently there are still a few people (and lots of bots) still playing.
 
TidusZ said:
They're just trying to get some positive spin to sell more PS3 copies. I was D3's biggest fan in the years leading up to release and was extremely disappointed. The AH wasn't the reason the game failed. It was poorly designed throughout every area, lacked testing/polish, etc etc.

D3 should have died a month after release but apparently there are still a few people (and lots of bots) still playing.
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Pretty much this.

There is a whole lot more wrong with Diablo 3 than there is right. Due to that the game will never be worth playing. I feel for all the disappointed Diablo fans holding out thinking an expansion is going to fix this rotten turd of a game. It will be more of the same; dumbed down simplified junk continuing to not even be an RPG, just an action game on rails towards micro-transactions.

If you want to be appalled take a look at Jay Wilson's presentation at GDC explaining why they designed (destroyed) the game the way they did.

http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/extensive-slides-from-jay-wilsons-diablo-3-gdc-postmortem

The slides are the most interesting (sad) part of it all. Basically they wanted a simple and easy game that was not as complex as Diablo 2. They felt Diablo2 was too 'math-y'

Pathetic.
 
smackababy said:
And you can plan all you want without having to spend some time remaking a character because your plan sucked or you don't like it once finished. It only punishes players. Nobody forces you to respec when it is free and available for anyone who wants to do it. It is not fun having to make 15 paladins because I dislike the way each plays at endgame. It doesn't matter if it takes me an hour or a month to get to the last level, it is punishment and an artificial lengthener to games.
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And what you're looking for is an action game, where choices matter less. In most classic RPGS, choices were real and mattered. In action games, people just wanted to smash face without worrying about making optimal decisions.
 
Hacp said:
And what you're looking for is an action game, where choices matter less. In most classic RPGS, choices were real and mattered. In action games, people just wanted to smash face without worrying about making optimal decisions.
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No, he's looking for a game with specs that allows respecs. Not for simplified, non-RPG gameplay.
 
KaOTiK said:
The biggest problem is really the itemization, the AH is almost a bandaid fix for that. The drops you get suck major ass 99% of the time. When I played through I almost never got drops that were upgrades for me or even sidegrades. The gear I was wearing was always between 6-13 levels behind my real level. If I didn't use the AH (gold) I wouldn't have even been able to almost anything.
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Never bought or played the game but this is my understanding of the issue.

Of course this was intentional to encourage players to drop real $ on the AH, but with the gold AH in place as well player simply got in to a selling/buying loop with gold in order to get the gear they need.

I'm sure they'd remove the gold AH if they could, because that would force the only option to be the RMAH as the only viable method to play the game, I'm sure they'd love the increased revenue there.

The whole idea is fucking diabolical to me, you might say it's diablollical.
 
I have never used the RMAH.

But the GAH (for me) is one of the good, positive points of DIII. In fact, making g for new gear etc. and occasionally flipping stuff on the AH is one MAIN reason I am still playing this game.

I never understood the hate for the (G)AH, I don't understand why people don't have the same fun as I have finding items, selling them, looking for new gear etc..etc.. without it, DIII would be a bore.

A few weeks ago, I got probably the HIGHEST DPS sword this game has ever seen for an incredible 50M. I sold the sword shortly thereafter for 1.4b. I also already sold some drops, eg. vile wards for 800M and so forth.

I love the fact that in D3 there are two things to do: Farming/Killing/Finding stuff...and the other part of the game spending time on the AH
 
Hacp said:
Therein lies the problem. The game became a game of loot and not one of character development. They turned the game into an MMO, but without the benefits of updated MMO content. Blizzard has stopped making games that they as developers would want to play, and started making games based on research on how to cash out.
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Why would blizzard, the maker of one of the most known and successful MMOs need to have a *second* MMO?

IMHO, D3 did not "become" a game of loot, IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN a game of loot, I actually call it a "farming game". Mind you, this is not really meant in a negative sense.

I start to think that the hate many have for D3 is because of wrong expectations where people ERRONEOUSLY expected a MMO or RPG out of something which was intended as an action "RPG" or...well..."game of loot".

Why do i have not the slightest problem with this game of loot?

Because there are a zillion "real" MMORPGs and RPGs out there I could play (and played) if I wanted - in fact my wife bugs me every day to get into SWTOR but I just have a MMORPG burnout.

I hated how WoW turned into a "do your dailies" game and how many RPGs and MMORPGs went from "exploring and excitement" to grinding and "dailies", I can't take it anymore. The same with leveling skills etc. for months, if not years.

In D3 I don't have to do that #, I can start the game and farm for hours on end. I am putting my loot up on the AH and vice versa, trying to get my PL up to 100, getting to 500k DPS and increased MP levels, still have fun WITHOUT any grind or "dailies".

Rest assured, once I feel the urge for a GOOD MMORPG, I will play again. SWTOR is (i think) not worth it, maybe Elder Scrolls Online will be. I will see. As someone who played WoW religiously for years, I also rejected/refused to play the stupid Pandas, so sadly, WoW is over for me. For the time being I very well enjoy my little "game of loot".
 
Hacp said:
So basically choices that don't matter.
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You say that like your choices mattered in D2. They were either so granular they were meaningless (stats) or so good that you basically couldn't go wrong (skills). You'd have a hard time, within reason, actually making a character that could fail in D2. Provided you don't go completely off track and, say, dump all your skill points into defensive auras on a pally you'll still have a usable character. I say this a someone who played a zealot, one of the crappiest skills in the game but still was able to play and farm successfully; just far far slower than everyone else.

In a game so firmly entrenched in the idea of being a colossal time sink not having a respec option is nothing short of archaic. I don't mind if it has a [reasonable] price or cooldown attached to doing so, but saying "we dont want/need them" in an effort to try to assuage some sort of self-righteous sense of being a "hardcore g4mer" is inane. I have no problem devoting many hours to a game, but very seldom does a game have enough depth of gameplay/building/mechanics to make levelling anything more than a chore/means to an end, and D2 definitely is not one that does.
 
The problems with items don't just come from drops. I think item properties needs an overhaul, in no small part because of the stupid way they obfuscated what properties actually mean and how they gimp them at the harder difficulties.

Most items in the game are not worth picking up at all and that's made worse by the lousy crafting system.

TidusZ said:
They're just trying to get some positive spin to sell more PS3 copies. I was D3's biggest fan in the years leading up to release and was extremely disappointed. The AH wasn't the reason the game failed. It was poorly designed throughout every area, lacked testing/polish, etc etc.

D3 should have died a month after release but apparently there are still a few people (and lots of bots) still playing.
Click to expand...

Yep. The auction house wasn't even my biggest issue with the game. Really the only reason the auction houses added so much to the ruin is because Blizzard intentionally screwed the drop rates to push people there. I don't even know how Jay Wilson can say what he did about that, but he's already shown he's so utterly clueless and out of touch that I have no clue how he ever got to where he was.

They could fix any one of several major things and the game would still be mediocre if not outright bad still. Honestly, the only thing I'm ok with is the visual style (its not all that good but I could live with it and don't hate it quite as much as I did initially, it could use an overhaul though too frankly).

There is one thing about the console version that I really like, and that is they're moving to a direct control method which I think is what this genre needs to do to give it the visceral feel it should have.

flexy said:
I have never used the RMAH.

But the GAH (for me) is one of the good, positive points of DIII. In fact, making g for new gear etc. and occasionally flipping stuff on the AH is one MAIN reason I am still playing this game.

I never understood the hate for the (G)AH, I don't understand why people don't have the same fun as I have finding items, selling them, looking for new gear etc..etc.. without it, DIII would be a bore.

A few weeks ago, I got probably the HIGHEST DPS sword this game has ever seen for an incredible 50M. I sold the sword shortly thereafter for 1.4b. I also already sold some drops, eg. vile wards for 800M and so forth.

I love the fact that in D3 there are two things to do: Farming/Killing/Finding stuff...and the other part of the game spending time on the AH
Click to expand...

I don't mind grinding for gear and "shopping" in games, but this game managed to suck the fun out of both. I'd personally rather not have to play the market in a game either. If I want to do that there are games that have much better systems that I could play some other game while managing the market one in the background. Or hell I could just become a day trader.
 
Everyone who says the drop rate was changed in any way for the AH has no idea what they are talking about. Please go play D2, RIGHT NOW, and tell me the drop rate for end game items is not worse than D3. If anything, D3 made gear (without the AH) easier to obtain. The game itself is harder than D2, to encourage multiplayer, so it doesn't feel like you get the upgrade progression like you did in D2. When in reality, you could be D2 Hell in starter gear. Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration, but you still could have "bad" gear and farm well. This isn't the case in D3 and people whine about gear drops. The AH made trading gear so much simpler. In D2, you had to go to some obscure forum and hope then track down a player to make the trade. In D3 you list it and forget it.

The overall itemization took a lot from WoW, but randomized it. Which you may or may not like. Same with the gameplay. If you dislike the way the game plays, that is fine and a valid reason for disliking D3. If you dislike D3 because of the AH, you are a moron.
 
yeah, major problem with a game like this is.... People want everything right away with out having to work or pull out their cc for it. When the devs. give in completely to this, that is when the game will really die. Value in anything is, primarly based on how rare the item is. If everyone found a 6 cc mempo of their preferred flavor, no one would care about it. If everyone has BIS gear, pretty much, it's game over for the game completely.
 
darkewaffle said:
You say that like your choices mattered in D2. They were either so granular they were meaningless (stats) or so good that you basically couldn't go wrong (skills).
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The stats do matter. Its just that you got to the point in gear where you could choose to invest in all vitality. One of the most sucessful builds in D2 was the Frozen Orb sorc who maxed energy shield, mana, and spammed frozen orb.

You'd have a hard time, within reason, actually making a character that could fail in D2. Provided you don't go completely off track and, say, dump all your skill points into defensive auras on a pally you'll still have a usable character. I say this a someone who played a zealot, one of the crappiest skills in the game but still was able to play and farm successfully; just far far slower than everyone else.
Click to expand...
Yes, if you played safely, you could succeed with almost every build. That's a good thing.

In a game so firmly entrenched in the idea of being a colossal time sink not having a respec option is nothing short of archaic. I don't mind if it has a [reasonable] price or cooldown attached to doing so, but saying "we dont want/need them" in an effort to try to assuage some sort of self-righteous sense of being a "hardcore g4mer" is inane. I have no problem devoting many hours to a game, but very seldom does a game have enough depth of gameplay/building/mechanics to make levelling anything more than a chore/means to an end, and D2 definitely is not one that does.
Click to expand...

Again, it all comes down to whether you want your choices in game to matter or not. D3 is a game where choices don't matter, and that's why alot of people have moved on. They tried all the skills and left because there is nothing else to do. Its like played a Civilization game with an easy to access undo button, one that is displayed prominently. Suddenly, your choices don't matter and the game becomes boring because you can easily go back and undo any mistakes you made instead of having to live with them.
 
darkewaffle said:
Quick, are these features of D2 or D3?

The answer? Both!
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Dont know what game you played, maybe Jay Wilson's imaginary version of D2? In D2, you could find non-unique items in normal mode that would last you till the end of hell. It was always worth picking up and item and identifying it because everything could potentially be useful, not just an ilvl 63 item found in the hardest difficulty.
 
Hacp said:
Dont know what game you played, maybe Jay Wilson's imaginary version of D2? In D2, you could find non-unique items in normal mode that would last you till the end of hell. It was always worth picking up and item and identifying it because everything could potentially be useful, not just an ilvl 63 item found in the hardest difficulty.
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That is only because D2, even on Hell, was incredibly easy. D3 was made significantly harder to encourage multiplayer. And D2 was just as much about grinding out that next better item as D3 was, except D2 had the advantage of everything being available due to dupes. D3 doesn't have duping at nearly the level D2 had, if any confirmed dupes at all.
 
Hacp said:
The stats do matter. Its just that you got to the point in gear where you could choose to invest in all vitality. One of the most sucessful builds in D2 was the Frozen Orb sorc who maxed energy shield, mana, and spammed frozen orb.


Yes, if you played safely, you could succeed with almost every build. That's a good thing.



Again, it all comes down to whether you want your choices in game to matter or not. D3 is a game where choices don't matter, and that's why alot of people have moved on. They tried all the skills and left because there is nothing else to do. Its like played a Civilization game with an easy to access undo button, one that is displayed prominently. Suddenly, your choices don't matter and the game becomes boring because you can easily go back and undo any mistakes you made instead of having to live with them.
Click to expand...

I think you're wrong here. In D3, you do have to make a choice, but the choice is in the gear that you buy or find. Example, Depending you how much arcane on crit and crit chance you have, CM wiz build may not be viable for you. Another is, depending on how much mana regen you have, bears may not be a a viable build for your WD.

I remember when everyone thought the DH was the best and most OP character in the game b/c of their paper dps from sharp shooter, lol.

The more you play, the more you test, the more depth you'll find in this game. Sure there are certain builds that are the best build for each character, but there are many builds that are fun to play with as well. Also, there's variety in each build as well.
 
smackababy said:
That is only because D2, even on Hell, was incredibly easy. D3 was made significantly harder to encourage multiplayer. And D2 was just as much about grinding out that next better item as D3 was, except D2 had the advantage of everything being available due to dupes. D3 doesn't have duping at nearly the level D2 had, if any confirmed dupes at all.
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Yes, D2 was significantly easier. That's a good thing. You can run a playthrough using self found gear and sill beat the game. D2 isn't about item grinding, its about character development. That's where Jay Wilson got it wrong, because he thought the game was about item grinding.
 
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