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Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

arstechnica.com

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Re: Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

#51

Post by ihsw »

jerf wrote: post #23
josh2600 wrote: post #8

So, I have a bit of a personal episode here I'd like to share. I played a lot of Diablo 2, more than I care to admit, and so the launch of Diablo 3 was a really big deal to me. I pre-ordered it on day 1, I pre-installed the game weeks before launch and I read every piece of information about the game. When the game came out, I initially loved it; just an absolute pleasure to play. It was great, until I found the auct…

The lesson, applicable to games, startups, governance, and indeed systems engineering in general, is that systems react . You can not look at an existing system, then say "Ah, this system is doing X, so I shall do Y which will cause the result Z, and nothing else ." In this case, you can't look at the D2 community, and say, "Ah ha, I shall inject this system for extracting money, and therefore it shall be exactly lik…

One has to wonder about the plans for Hearthstone (another F2P game from Blizzard). The recent discontinuation of WoW TCG seems to make it apparent that they may be pushing Hearthstone as a replacement.

Cards Against Humanity is a really popular table-top card game, and Blizzard would be smart to be taking a hard look at emulating it. Attempting to "monetize" Hearthstone could be dangerous.

Re: Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

#52

Post by josh2600 »

stormbrew wrote: post #14
josh2600 wrote: post #8

So, I have a bit of a personal episode here I'd like to share. I played a lot of Diablo 2, more than I care to admit, and so the launch of Diablo 3 was a really big deal to me. I pre-ordered it on day 1, I pre-installed the game weeks before launch and I read every piece of information about the game. When the game came out, I initially loved it; just an absolute pleasure to play. It was great, until I found the auct…

For me it wasn't the auction house that made me loathe to replay the game, it was the lack of character customization. Item choice is purely about HPS and damage reduction, with all other attributes more or less useless, and the ability to customize your skill loadout at will made it so you never invested in a consistent character. Why would you ever roll another character of a class if it's just going to be the exac…

I had a bunch of toons at level 97; the last 3 levels have the same experience requirement as the first 96, so it's a lot of work to get to 99.

The problems with D3 are manifold, but they all, at least to my mind, come back to wanting to monetize gameplay elements when they should've monetized cosmetics. It's like Blizzard/Activision took a big hit of the EA koolaid and forgot how to make good games. It didn't help that they fired all of Blizzard North back in the day...

If you ever meet a Blizzard North developer, ask them about what it was like. It's an incredible, really just incredible, story of how NOT to treat developers.

Re: Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

#53

Post by brownbat »

The prevailing opinion is that the AH killed the fun of hunting for rare drops, and it should be abandoned.

Over time, I've found games that involve grinding for rare drops resembling more and more the psychology of slot machines.[1]

It's hard for me to be sympathetic to people who claim the fun thing is now too easy, because it doesn't involve as much mind-numbing work. If your game only works with a slot machine mechanic, maybe it has other design issues?

Also relevant: [2].

[1] http://99percentinvisible.prx.org/2013/04/29/78-no-armed-ban...

[2] http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/12/31 (There may be one that's more on point...)

Re: Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

#54

Post by kybernetyk »

ihsw wrote: post #51
jerf wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lesson, applicable to games, startups, governance, and indeed systems engineering in general, is that systems react . You can not look at an existing system, then say "Ah, this system is doing X, so I shall do Y which will cause the result Z, and nothing else ." In this case, you can't look at the D2 community, and say, "Ah ha, I shall inject this system for extracting money, and therefore it shall be exactly lik…

One has to wonder about the plans for Hearthstone (another F2P game from Blizzard). The recent discontinuation of WoW TCG seems to make it apparent that they may be pushing Hearthstone as a replacement. Cards Against Humanity is a really popular table-top card game, and Blizzard would be smart to be taking a hard look at emulating it. Attempting to "monetize" Hearthstone could be dangerous.

> F2P

Don't you have to buy card packs with RL money for Hearthstone to be able to play at all?

Re: Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

#55

Post by josh2600 »

ordinary wrote: post #39
josh2600 wrote: post #8

So, I have a bit of a personal episode here I'd like to share. I played a lot of Diablo 2, more than I care to admit, and so the launch of Diablo 3 was a really big deal to me. I pre-ordered it on day 1, I pre-installed the game weeks before launch and I read every piece of information about the game. When the game came out, I initially loved it; just an absolute pleasure to play. It was great, until I found the auct…

I remember the endless complaints about how hard Diablo 3 was at launch. I therefore find it hard to believe you were able to accumulate enough ingame gold to buy gear 'within a few days' that allowed you to handle 'most everything', except by buying gold. In games like Diablo, buying ingame items or currency is roughly analogous to shooting yourself in the foot with a cannon, because you effectively remove the end-g…

So...

In 2 days, I was in Inferno. That was not the intention of the game designers. I never bought ingame currency, but I know the laws of supply and demand and dealt with the game accordingly. If you're telling me that I should've just pretended the AH didn't exist, I would say that you're telling me not to play D3.

I wish people like you would stop telling me how to feel. I don't think you have some superposition that lets you judge me and I wish you'd separate me from my opinions. I am a person, I have opinions, but when you say "people like me" you lump me into a general audience and I don't think that's ok. I don't speak for anyone other than myself.

I would quite seriously invite you to consider that I invested a lot of time into D3 and played through a number of updates. I know exactly what I wanted out of a D3 experience and I can tell you in excruciating detail how it failed; this isn't the time or place for that.

The fact is, it took almost a decade for the game to come out, why the fuck did it have to ship as an unplayable pile of crap?

Sorry, I'm not trying to be offensive, but you're asking for patience when, as a consumer, I've been basically told that my investment in the game isn't enough for Blizzard: they need to make money off of my invested hours as well. I'm happy that Blizzard is improving the game but I'm not willing to give them any more of my time after what I view as a waste of my time.

It's true Diablo games improve over time, but wow was D3 a steaming pile of garbage when it launched. I mean if they had just implemented D2 with new graphics and content, it would've been glorious.

Anyways, I'm sorry to rant, but the crux of my point is that you can't attack me personally for my opinions and expect to have a good discussion. I concede the point that Blizzard might be getting better, but it also doesn't matter, for me.

Re: Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

#56

Post by vacri »

ordinary wrote: post #39
josh2600 wrote: post #8

So, I have a bit of a personal episode here I'd like to share. I played a lot of Diablo 2, more than I care to admit, and so the launch of Diablo 3 was a really big deal to me. I pre-ordered it on day 1, I pre-installed the game weeks before launch and I read every piece of information about the game. When the game came out, I initially loved it; just an absolute pleasure to play. It was great, until I found the auct…

I remember the endless complaints about how hard Diablo 3 was at launch. I therefore find it hard to believe you were able to accumulate enough ingame gold to buy gear 'within a few days' that allowed you to handle 'most everything', except by buying gold. In games like Diablo, buying ingame items or currency is roughly analogous to shooting yourself in the foot with a cannon, because you effectively remove the end-g…

Diablo 3 wasn't hard at launch. It was so trivially easy that the first run through the game was considered the 'tutorial level' - the entire game was considered tutorial.

I played at a friend's place and was utterly bored by how easy that first run-through was. I don't understand complaints of difficulty, though admittedly I abandoned the entire mindspace of D3 just because it was so mindbogglingly easy. Why would I play the entire game on 'super-easy' just to play it again on 'normal'?

Re: Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

#57

Post by meerita »

josh2600 wrote: post #8

So, I have a bit of a personal episode here I'd like to share. I played a lot of Diablo 2, more than I care to admit, and so the launch of Diablo 3 was a really big deal to me. I pre-ordered it on day 1, I pre-installed the game weeks before launch and I read every piece of information about the game. When the game came out, I initially loved it; just an absolute pleasure to play. It was great, until I found the auct…

I had the same experience. I played the beta like 2000 times before the released gamme. The game until patch 1.03 was totally hard to play and it was rewarding to play bacause you could die. But after this patch they've made all the "so hard difficulty" inferno totally easy. Then, they added a 5th level of difficulty and just because they've broke the initial one and so on. Now ppl farm MP 10 with ease.

This news proves many things. One of them is a different game direction. Yes… no more Jay Wilson scourge.

Re: Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

#58

Post by mentos »

I was able to get through the game relatively quickly with items purchased on the auction house. Afterwards my friends and I were glad we were done with the addiction of 'chasing' the next level/item.

If they could make a larger more satisfying endgame, possibly large PvP areas where guilds can fight for territory, claim land, place houses/structures, I'd be happy to grind.

But endlessly chasing a carot on a stick? I'm glad the auction house 'ruined' the 'game' for me..

Re: Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

#59

Post by jeltz »

kybernetyk wrote: post #54
ihsw wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One has to wonder about the plans for Hearthstone (another F2P game from Blizzard). The recent discontinuation of WoW TCG seems to make it apparent that they may be pushing Hearthstone as a replacement. Cards Against Humanity is a really popular table-top card game, and Blizzard would be smart to be taking a hard look at emulating it. Attempting to "monetize" Hearthstone could be dangerous.

> F2P Don't you have to buy card packs with RL money for Hearthstone to be able to play at all?

One way which would work is if you get your initial X cards free and then you have to pay for booster packs. And if you then have no way of trading cards it would work as a F2P game.
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