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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

#101

Post by d3gamer »

kibibu wrote: post #94
d3gamer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you actually played Inferno difficulty pre-1.03?! it was just downright frustrating because everything after Act 2 one-shots your character!

I haven't played since 1.02 (?), in which I was mopping the floor with standard mobs in Inferno Act 1, but couldn't kill any special mobs at all (in my memory they all seemed to have molten, arcane, fire-chains and vortex modifiers)

yup, that was the main point of frustration with Inferno.

white mobs were easy to deal with but Elite packs had disgusting affixes.

And then after grinding Act 1 (remember Butcher runs? lol) for about a month, you finally gear up enough to be able to easily kill Act 1 Elite packs.

Then you get to Act 2 and find yourself getting one-shotted by those stupid wasps (and we're not talking about Elite variety, these were just the regular wasps).

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

#102

Post by mehwoot »

Steko wrote: post #61

The AH wasn't really the problem for D3. The problem was the basic stat balance issues created huge lottery items. At launch for a Monk basically there were a handful of god stats (attack speed, life on hit, dex, all resist, your specific resist, magic find), a handful of ok stats and a large number of garbage stats. Now even a good stat can be worthless because of the large value ranges. Back of the envelop numbers:…

And this is different to D2? D2 was even worse, with the amount of time you needed to spend to get that perfect item.

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

#103

Post by d3gamer »

vacri wrote: post #91
d3gamer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you actually played Inferno difficulty pre-1.03?! it was just downright frustrating because everything after Act 2 one-shots your character!

No, because to get to that level of difficulty, you have to run through the game on 'stupid dumb easy' first. I don't really understand complaints of difficulty when you've already experienced the game several times, and then when you pick the 'really, this is crazily hard' setting, it's too hard.

Yeah, the first three difficulties were really easy. Inferno was like a wall that you run into the first time you try it. I remember kicking Diablo's ass in Hell difficulty and then replaying Act 1 but in Inferno. Came across the first zombie in New Tristram and promptly died in two hits.

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

#104

Post by cheald »

listic wrote: post #90
programminggeek wrote: post #7

Wow, this is a surprising reversal of trends as far as user generated content and micro-transaction based economies go, but the auction house really did change the core mechanics of Diablo 3. As a player I really did kind of like the auction system during the initial grind from level 1 to 60, but when there was no more level progression and the only progression was item progression, it just stopped being fun because…

> The auction house mechanic might work on a MMO style game, but Diablo 3 isn't a MMO What's the meaningful difference? I mean, what specifically makes auction house work in an MMO, but not a game like Diablo? I thought auction house as a feature either works, if done right, or it doesn't. I thought auction house as an idea is great, and now this... I haven't played Diablo 3 yet; I played a little World of Warcraft b…

D3 is all about the (tradeable) loot. The AH works in WoW because everything sellable was also consumable, and the most desirable items couldn't be sold. To get the best stuff in WoW, you play the game. To get the best stuff in D3, you pull out your wallet.

Imagine how WoW would have been if good items only dropped from dungeon bosses once per 1200 runs, but were sellable on the AH. Once you've been through the dungeon once to experience it, why would you ever go back, rather than just purchasing some gold?

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

#105

Post by MrGando »

stonewhite wrote: post #79
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…

This whole "casual gamer" centered design is what became the plague of modern gaming. But I remember the pre-expansion Diablo 1, and it was _sucky_ to be gentle. All the good stuff including runes, higher level uniques (remember there wasn't any uniques in nightmare & hell), runewords, hammerdins (argh!) came much-much later. So I am saving myself for the expansion, I am done with this one.

You mean the pre-expansion Diablo 2, I agree. I'll give it another shot when the expansion is released. I played D2 for 10+ years... waited for this piece of crap to be released.

I think now, there's hope.

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

#106

Post by Camillo »

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…

This problem is often seen in politics.

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

#107

Post by jasonwocky »

csense wrote: post #92
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…

> This is truly one of the gaping holes in human cognition, this idea that a single participant in a larger system can make a change and then model the results of that change without accounting for the reactions of all the other actors The parent's sentiment may be a tired old theme in the context of a game company that produces a long-awaited sequel to a much-beloved classic, meddles too much with the winning formul…

> The best, surest way to get a complex system that works is to begin with a simple system that works and make a series of many incremental changes.

Shades of Gall's Law from Systemantics:

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over with a working simple system. – John Gall (1975, p.71)

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

#108

Post by thefreeman »

diminoten wrote: post #96
thefreeman wrote: post #86

Fuck Blizzard. I will never forgive them for the cashgrab they called D3 I don't care how they change it.

How is this attitude rational? I can't understand how people react like this. Is it left over anger from when the situation was in the undesirable configuration? Can they not see how their opinions have had an influence in something they're passionate about? I can't see how someone who wanted this to happen would consider Blizzard to be still in the wrong.

Because they already made all of their money from it in the first place. Now they are pretending they give a shit in order to try to get more money from people.

They showed their true colors when they destroyed my favorite franchise of all time. I will never give them another cent.

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

#109

Post by thefreeman »

EpicEng wrote: post #31
ars wrote: post #20

Seems like there will be a huge divide between pre-auction house characters and post. Is there any sort of PvP in the game?

Why? With the implementation of "loot 2.0" you will catch up to "paid for" characters by, you know, actually finding good gear that you can use. This change (as well as others they have planned) works because they are overhauling the loot system.

Are you really going to just jump on the "loot 2.0" bandwagon assuming they will right all previous wrongs. I can almost guarantee this expansion will be just another money grab.

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

#110

Post by thefreeman »

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…

Why shouldn't we judge it buy the game we bought. This game took 10 years to make. It's not like they didn't have enough time to get it right.
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