31–40 of 55 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always wondered what the ballpark was for people employed full-time playing Diablo 2. Thousands?
If you actually play the game? Probably nothing. You need armies of bots to make anything with how badly item stores and duping dilute the economy. The economy has been a joke for years now; I'd actually be surprised if bots weren't the majority of "players" by now.
Blizzard, strangely enough, is probably in the perfect position to start a successful virtual currency. In fact, they might just do it by accident.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a Diablo 2 player, Step 1 is the nature of the game. Unique Items are extremely rare, so that when you got one, it was a super big deal . You never know what items will drop when you kill the next monster, but odds are extremely low it will be something good. I think that Blizzard monetizing item auctions is acceptable if it's simply done through in-game interface instead of eBay (or shady websites). Of all compan…
This is not just about easier/harder to get items but also a lot about the value of item vs. the value of player skill. As soon as you no longer get better by playing more skilled but only by playing longer you will get such gold mining markets as many people value their time and don't want to spend it completely meaningless. Set a sane upper limit how long it takes to reach items and from there on only skill decides…
Oh, and another thing I just thought of as I was writing this. During that time that you're searching for the "Priceless Crossbow of Ill-repute", you're going to find other, extremely rare artifacts which you can then ... sell yourself, or trade! So instead of having to search through all possible procedurally generated items for the "Flaming Katar of Fiery Doom", you can quest on your own and find items and then sell one or many of your artifacts that another player wants, and ... get the item you want.
How does this system fail again?
Blizzard, strangely enough, is probably in the perfect position to start a successful virtual currency. In fact, they might just do it by accident.
SOJs?
SOJs, "stone of Jordan" was a unique ring in diablo2.
Gold in diablo2 became worthless, even though they tried to soak it up with improving vendor items, and even implementing gambling.
Eventually SOJs became the currency for trading. You'd see postings like "2 socket archon 4 2 SOJ".
What was so interesting is that SOJ's are very similar to gold in the real world. They were easy to trade, easy to store (only taking up 1 square), very rare (or supposed to be), and had great intrinsic value because the sorcerer class was always running out of mana and they gave a 25% increase to mana.
Using SOJs as currency just developed naturally, probably just like gold did in the real world.
I don't know how they're going to manage this with the money-laundering/fraud angle. This makes Epic Boots of the Whale into a transfer medium for money between virtually anonymous endpoints, including internationally. (Long story short: You can run an auction which is honest or you can run an auction which is anonymous, but you cannot do both at the same time. Virtually any information flow from the system to any pa…
I disagree, Blizzard has done a good job with managing their in game economies and they wouldn't be so stupid as to screw it up by competing against their own players for control of assets, they stand to make way more money by just skimming off the top.
I respect that you may no like this. I dislike gravity. Some days we do not get what we want.
For me the huge news here is that they're making Diablo 3. I'm so out of the loop when it comes to games.
I don't know how they're going to manage this with the money-laundering/fraud angle. This makes Epic Boots of the Whale into a transfer medium for money between virtually anonymous endpoints, including internationally. (Long story short: You can run an auction which is honest or you can run an auction which is anonymous, but you cannot do both at the same time. Virtually any information flow from the system to any pa…
Have you heard of rampant money laundering in eBay?
The only fraud they would have to deal with is the same fraud they have to deal with when they sell stuff in their online store.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not just about easier/harder to get items but also a lot about the value of item vs. the value of player skill. As soon as you no longer get better by playing more skilled but only by playing longer you will get such gold mining markets as many people value their time and don't want to spend it completely meaningless. Set a sane upper limit how long it takes to reach items and from there on only skill decides…
Is it strange that I like the extreme rarity of certain items? You don't ~need~ any particular item to beat the game, or be amazing. When weapons and buffs are procedurally generated, it realy doesn't matter. But, if you desperately want the "Flawless Arcane Hammer of The Middle-Aged Gods", then you can sell your current items. Oh, and another thing I just thought of as I was writing this. During that time that you'r…
This will be interesting. Especially after someone figures out how to dupe (duplicate) items in-game. Ah... Fond memories of duping items in the original Diablo game -- Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, Godly Plate of the Whale, King's Sword of Haste... =]
> Especially after someone figures out how to dupe (duplicate) items in-game. Does WoW have duping problems? I was under the impression that it was the particular way D2 handled items[1] that allowed duping, not a necessary part of any game. [1] Probably at the time, the trade-off for being secure would have been unacceptable performance and/or database bloat.