Blizzard Reveals Real World Money Auction House for Diablo 3

Post by Steve Farrelly @ 05:04pm 01/08/11 | 53 Comments

Blizzard offered AusGamers a chance to head out to their Irvine, California-based campus for the latest on Diablo III, which included a heady catch up of events in the narrative, skills, runes and character classes field, but also gave them a chance to drop a real bomb.

A lot of people were wondering how they'd go about dealing with all of the trading that took place in the previous games, and now we can reveal to you they've taken the player-created model, adapted it for Diablo III, secured it, and are giving it back to you, with real world money transactions. It's a pretty in-depth set-up, so just head in to our feature outlining everything we learnt while there.

Click here for the full run-down.

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Latest Comments

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Che
Posted 05:14pm 01/8/11

So when does D3 get released? Need to let my employer know when i'll be quitting to become a professional gold farmer.

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jconradr
Posted 05:18pm 01/8/11

Definitely an interesting development which I did not see coming, but an understandable one nonetheless... The volume of trade is going to be crazy! I am just worried that gaming is starting to cost too much $! It's not over once you've bought the game anymore. Still pumped for Diablo 3, microtransactions or not.

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Python
Posted 05:36pm 01/8/11

Then Asia comes in and undercuts it all!

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Thundercracker
Posted 05:48pm 01/8/11

They are putting a bunch of limitations on the real money trading.

Once you transfer your funds to Battle.net, though, you can't choose to cash it back out into currency. Getting money out of the system is a one-time opportunity at the time of the sale.

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ravn0s
Posted 06:01pm 01/8/11

so you need a constant internet connection to play, mods will not be supported and there will be auction houses that use real money which blizzard takes a cut of?

FAIL!

isn't wow raking in enough money for them?

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Obes
Posted 06:02pm 01/8/11

They are putting a bunch of limitations on the real money trading.

That's not a limitation.

It is a way to help ensure more real dollars tied up in their virtual dollars, and when you do "cash" out it costs you more.

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syzc
Posted 06:19pm 01/8/11

Why do people get hung up on optional features?

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skythra
Posted 06:28pm 01/8/11

This smells like good news!

(oh wait)

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Crakaveli
Posted 06:29pm 01/8/11

@syzc

Because PC gamers believe developers owe them something.

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qmass
Posted 06:37pm 01/8/11

Because PC gamers believe developers owe them something.

considering that most devs started in pc and made their name there... its not that unreasonable a stance.

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Nathan
Posted 06:39pm 01/8/11

Im fine with it, since it just gets rid of the "black" market that would appear (see: gold farmers in WoW)

At least this way, for those who CHOOSE to spend money on items - and make no mistake, people will do that, with or without Blizzard's blessing - can at least do so in a way that's supported by the developer

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Seven
Posted 06:40pm 01/8/11

I think I'll choose a non-real money auction house.

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csirac
Posted 06:41pm 01/8/11

i suspect there is still going to be a black market of some sort. or an underground market like D2JSP because the IRL auction house wont be availble to the hardcore ppl who wish to play on the ladder system (i suspect its a system like that) so in the end communities like D2JSP will sitll exist and flourish to trade within.

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FraktuRe
Posted 06:49pm 01/8/11

There are 2 absolutely s*** side effects to this.

- Always on DRM, NO OFFLINE MODE AT ALL.
- Mods are expressly forbidden, NO MODS AT ALL.

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Garai
Posted 07:05pm 01/8/11

RMT ruins the sincerity of gaming leading to unfun in ingame trading. Inevitable imo especially when they make super rare items that can sell for hundreds in real cash.

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Reverend Evil�
Posted 07:20pm 01/8/11

F*** it. I'm still gonna play it. And having a net connection is no worry either because I'm used to that from playing WoW. Unless you have a s*** connection there shouldn't be a problem and on Blizzards end they always have reliable servers so that won't be a problem either.

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d^
Posted 08:01pm 01/8/11

I can see all sorts of problems arising from this, like the story of that guy who went and stabbed someone in real life because they stole an in game item worth money. S*** will hit the fan, the game will become some people's form of income, where's the fun in that?

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Reverend Evil�
Posted 08:15pm 01/8/11

Or you can just play normally without buying stuff with real money.

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Dazhel
Posted 08:23pm 01/8/11

This seems to be the direction the entire gaming industry is going in, and it sucks to be honest.
Subscriptions, micro transactions, trading real dollars for virtual items that are worth d*** all when the publisher decides to switch the servers off, providing weapon upgrades that bring in-game advantages to those with extra cash to splash around...

Doesn't anybody play games because they're fun any more?

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Timmeh
Posted 08:33pm 01/8/11

Gaming
–noun
1. the playing of video or computer games.
2. Gambling
3.Child games or sports

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Eorl
Posted 08:49pm 01/8/11

Companies don't give a s*** anymore Daz. As soon as the suits realised they could make millions, they jumped at it.

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Julez
Posted 09:06pm 01/8/11

Wow no mods that is one stupid move, surely they have to change their mind on that one.

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Thundercracker
Posted 09:20pm 01/8/11

The whole no mods thing has been known for a long while now. Nothing new there.

Obes I would agree, not being able to cash out my money at any time is pretty cheap.

You can also buy gold with real world cash. Should be interesting to see the coversion rate.

The beta sounds pretty short, only a portion of the first act. Either way, WANT.

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Trauma
Posted 09:27pm 01/8/11

The more I hear about this game the less I want it.

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infi
Posted 10:01pm 01/8/11

this rpg for real momey stuff is serious bzns

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Trixxta
Posted 10:53pm 01/8/11

this could be interesting - in teh hands of any other gaming company im sure they would screw it up but if anyone can do it right blizzard can - I'm a big auction house freak anyway so this will make things even more fun for me :)

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TufNuT
Posted 11:43pm 01/8/11

Companies don't give a s*** anymore Daz. As soon as the suits realised they could make millions, they jumped at it.

i could be wrong but i think that, if this helps keep the gaming industry stay alive and get stronger, i am all for it. as long as prices aren't excessive i don't really see the problem.. this is a way for the developers to give the consumer value added services while continuing to support the games they develop and turn over a profit (thats kinda the point of a busniess, profit that is)..

anyway thats how i see it..

last edited by TufNuT at 23:43:19 01/Aug/11

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grug09
Posted 12:09am 02/8/11

I do like that this moves micro-transactions to the player's hands. Sure Blizzard have stated they will take a fixed cut but this could play out to be interesting for the consumers who choose to partake.

Either way i am looking forward to many late nights destroying my mouse buttons again (even with the new keyboard bindings/controls)

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Dazhel
Posted 12:36am 02/8/11

The monetary factor isn't a huge concern, though it can be easy to lose track of how much money is sunk over time.
A lot of the games with micro transactions you're not forced to buy the stuff that's on offer, you can spend a large amount of time to get them but that feels like working more than gaming.

I reckon that's the bigger concern - once the game company has fingers are in the pie for extra revenue from in-game stuff after release the incentive for them is to maximise that revenue, potentially to the detriment of the underlying game. It can even swing so far that the entire purpose of the game is to buy the virtual crap on offer. (e.g. Farmville, etc)

Looks like I might be one of the few that is concerned about the trend though, so time for me to go back to waving my newspaper and yelling at kids to get off the lawn. :)

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kos
Posted 02:49am 02/8/11

People are acting like these real money transactions are required to play the game. Don't like it? Don't spend any of your real money. Simple. As has been mentioned heaps already, all this stuff went on in Diablo 2 as well, just not officially through Blizzard.

Either way i am looking forward to many late nights destroying my mouse buttons again (even with the new keyboard bindings/controls)

What are these new keyboard bindings/controls you speak of?

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Khel
Posted 03:02am 02/8/11

Yeah, while I'm not a fan of the bulls*** that goes on in games like Farmville, I don't really see the issue with this. I mean, its just something extra, you could still play it the same way you played D2 and I'm sure you wont suffer, its not like Diablo is a game thats been known for being stingy with the loot. I never grinded for gear in Diablo 2, or got involved with any kind of gear trading/selling thing, I'd assume its only the really serious people who'd get into that anyway.

This way, if you want to be super serious with the game, you have a choice: spend time or spend money. You'll achieve exactly the same results either way, just depends what is more valuable to you. Some people love the grind, and are happy to spend hours playing the game and amassing their own stockpile of wealth, and more power to them. But I know if I was gonna do it, I'd just spend real money, cos I'd rather drop $5 or $10 or whatever on some gold and some gear than spend the time grinding for it, cos I just don't have that much spare time.

I guess the big potential downside to it is if nobody uses the in-game currency version of the AH, and just uses the real money version. Like everyone just starts listing their loot on the real money AH because they want to make real money from it, and then the people who want to buy gear with ingame currency from the ingame gold AH wont have much of a selection of stuff to buy.

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DM
Posted 07:42am 02/8/11

Not sure if it's been mentioned but apparantly blizzard are doing an ubisoft which requires you to be online at all times even for SP. If this is true I have serious doubts wether I will buy it or not.

EDIT - Oh and mods are “expressly prohibited”

Yup set sail for fail.

last edited by DM at 07:42:56 02/Aug/11

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Reverend Evil�
Posted 07:45am 02/8/11

I reckon you'd be fine DM unless your net connection is crapolla. Also it doesn't worry me because I only play games on my pc so I wouldn't be taking the game away from the house.

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DM
Posted 07:50am 02/8/11

I read somewhere that their reasoning while also for piracy, it's so you can take your SP character online and they can be sure that it's hack free. Something like the character is stored with them, but you can play solo. So in that way it's a good idea but with the s***** ping times we get here to battle.net i'll never be going online to begin with.

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grug09
Posted 08:20am 02/8/11

All characters are stored server side DM, it's supposed to stop the character hacks that D2 was filled with.

If the real money auction house stops all the spamming, and server side characters stops all the hacked characters it's shaping up to be better than d2. I'm not exactly the kind of person to put money into a game in such a way as buying gear, but it is kind of cool that blizzard are not oblivious to the fact this stuff happened regardless.

Kos the bindings are just action keys you can set abilities to i think they only use 1-5 similar to an MMO action bar. its not something you HAVE to use, but it sounds better than the quick swap buttons from D2

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paveway
Posted 08:27am 02/8/11

so i'm guessing gold is going to be some rare commodity in d3 as oppose to what it was in d2 where you'd drop piles of it because you couldn't hold anymore ?

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kos
Posted 08:31am 02/8/11

Kos the bindings are just action keys you can set abilities to i think they only use 1-5 similar to an MMO action bar. its not something you HAVE to use, but it sounds better than the quick swap buttons from D2

Damn! I was really hoping for some sort of complimentary WASD movement system for long walks, etc. (not replacing click to do freaking everything, just as well as).

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Obes
Posted 08:33am 02/8/11

Only mod I ever used for D2 was one that gave me larger screen rez. The no mods things is a nothing.

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Thundercracker
Posted 08:35am 02/8/11

so i'm guessing gold is going to be some rare commodity in d3 as oppose to what it was in d2 where you'd drop piles of it because you couldn't hold anymore ?

Most definitely. Gold will actually retain value. One advantage of having a game like WoW under their belts is that Blizz are essentially experts in running a virtual economy.

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paveway
Posted 08:44am 02/8/11

so what the f do we do at the start when you'd just collect everything you found first up and sold them for gold so you could get basic armour etc when you're really low level

or will there be like bronze/silver for the lower down stuff?

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glynd
Posted 09:11am 02/8/11

Not sure if it's been mentioned but apparantly blizzard are doing an ubisoft which requires you to be online at all times even for SP. If this is true I have serious doubts wether I will buy it or not.

when are you ever *not* online when you game? it'll be just like starcraft 2

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Scooter
Posted 09:42am 02/8/11

It's not just you having to be online. The Auth Server has to be online as well.
I'm online all the time when I game, so I really doubt it will be a problem for me. I would still like to play a game I paid for if either my connection or their server went down though. For Auth worries I don't think the location of the server will matter... but playing with friends, all in Aus, on a server located in some other country sounds pretty stupid and will probably affect gameplay, which sucks.

As for the item trading, it happened in D2 (I never did) and it didn't affect me in anyway as I only played with friends. Pretty sure the same thing will happen with D3. I have no problem with this. Eventually I think Bliz will start selling items, just like they did in WoW. As long as these are purely cosmetic, I wouldn't have a problem with that either.

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Eorl
Posted 01:12pm 02/8/11

Mmm, we shall see how this goes. With the always online authentication, I'm not to bothered. People who are able to afford Diablo III are most likely able to stay online to play. Hell, all my LAN's now have everyone connected, because internet connections these days can handle more then 2 people.

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Khel
Posted 03:11pm 02/8/11

Why are people suprised its online only though, wasn't Starcraft 2 the same thing?

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Yulla
Posted 03:29pm 02/8/11

im still buying this!! hurry up

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greazy
Posted 04:36pm 02/8/11

when are you ever *not* online when you game? it'll be just like starcraft 2

All the time. I was playing zelda on the gamecube the other day.

I might buy this game them pirate it.

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defi
Posted 05:44pm 02/8/11

Anyone know how the loot will work?

Is it CLICKLCIKCLICKCLICKCLICK like D2 or will there be a rolling system like WOW/MMO's?

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Lawlord
Posted 05:57pm 02/8/11

yes, the items that drop on the ground are YOURS. Only you can see them and others cannot pick them up until you pick them and re-drop them.

This removes the competition for drops and everyone gets drops randomly. Very cool system. I hated how US players would beat me in terms of lag.

I'm very excited about this. You could seriously make some money investing your time in this game now. I will most definitely be buying items I want, considering I've bought over 10 copies of d2 and still play the game and have not quit in 10 years :)

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paveway
Posted 05:59pm 02/8/11

i'm pretty sure that was covered ages ago that it would automatically distributed, rather than douchebags just clicking the f*** out of s*** and stealing it

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trog
Posted 06:18pm 02/8/11

Hi! I'm one of those weird people that never got into Diablo. I played the first one for about 10 minutes and then went "this is boring" and went back to playing Doom.

This seems like a cool idea for the reasons Nats described - it takes away the "black market" aspect and integrates it into a way that hopefully won't disrupt the economy as much.

However, this sort of makes the game sound a little like one of those free2play ones where the business model is to just cash in off you buying stacks of in-game content - except done a little craftier so a) it's not free2play at all, you have to buy it and b) you don't actually think you're buying all this in-game content because they've integrated it so cleverly they're just making money off people trading it.

So it sounds, to me, like an interesting approach. Knowing that Blizzard aren't a bunch of rank amateurs I'm sure they've thought this through in a way that will make it engaging to play - and the fact that they're focusing on auctions being their moneyspinner makes me feel a little more confident that they're not going to just gouge you all by constantly introducing new items with larger numbers that they expect you to buy.

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Obes
Posted 06:24pm 02/8/11

RMT in these genres in even pay to play games is far from new.
Sony via SOE and Everquest had premium server where you essentially had a SLA of an hour for GM resolution of problems and other random useless perks. They had several servers where RMT for items and even characters was allowed.

Interestingly it didn't stamp out blackmarket at all.
Gold spammers still exist. All that happened is Sony made more money.

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csirac
Posted 07:27pm 02/8/11

it wont stamp out the blackmarket at all because only the casual people will be playing on the "non-ladder" where you can use RMT to buy items. While the more hardcore ppl play on the ladder where integrity of items wont be questioned.

and just like sony. blizzard are going to make squillions off the casuals. woo for them.

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paveway
Posted 07:37pm 02/8/11

trog unlike those games that are free that base their models around buying content pretty much force you to buy items to be able to get anywnere as far as i've heard

i don't think you *need* to buy anything to play the game like you always could in d2

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