Diablo 3 to permanently remove its auction houses in March 2014

Post by vehementi » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 10:03 PM UTC

FD3SA wrote: post #30

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…

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." D2 was just complex enough to be extremely interesting. The incredible diversity in skills, items and stats allowed an immense variety of viable builds, leaving players to hunt for specific legendary items which totally changed the gameplay experience (teleporting barbarians, whirlwhind assassins, etc etc). D3 is the complete antithesis to this desig…

Post by minimaxir » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 10:10 PM UTC

josh2600 wrote: post #50

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…

I'd argue the difference is how the complex ecosystems handled parasites. On the one hand, Blizzard enabled balance-breaking monetization, and TF2 enabled costume-breaking monetization. Blizzard could've made just as much (or a lot more really) money just by enabling cosmetic rewards instead of gameplay rewards. I feel like I quote this once a week [0] but Cory Doctorow makes a ton of great points on this and related…

Post by d3gamer » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 10:12 PM UTC

vacri wrote: post #56

ordinary wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Post by Guvante » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 10:21 PM UTC

vehementi wrote: post #71

FD3SA wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." D2 was just complex enough to be extremely interesting. The incredible diversity in skills, items and stats allowed an immense variety of viable builds, leaving players to hunt for specific legendary items which totally changed the gameplay experience (teleporting barbarians, whirlwhind assassins, etc etc). D3 is the complete antithesis to this desig…

Didn't help that every level 60 demon hunter is literally identical except gear. I can take your guy and put on my gear and continue where I left off.

Post by stonewhite » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 10:24 PM UTC

FD3SA wrote: post #30

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…

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." D2 was just complex enough to be extremely interesting. The incredible diversity in skills, items and stats allowed an immense variety of viable builds, leaving players to hunt for specific legendary items which totally changed the gameplay experience (teleporting barbarians, whirlwhind assassins, etc etc). D3 is the complete antithesis to this desig…