Tech and Talk → Gaming → PC Gaming > Diablo 3 Gold/RM AH being removed 3/18/2014

Diablo 3 Gold/RM AH being removed 3/18/2014

This news came as a shocker to me. The console versions have no AH so I wonder if that was the experiment. I for one will be happy to see it go. This announcement makes me wonder if that date given will be the release date for the Xpac.

»us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/10974978/

quote:

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When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But as we've mentioned on different occasions, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot. With that in mind, we want to let everyone know that we've decided to remove the gold and real-money auction house system from Diablo III.
We feel that this move along with the Loot 2.0 system being developed concurrently with Reaper of Souls™ will result in a much more rewarding game experience for our players.
We're working out the details of how the auction house system will be shut down, but we wanted to share the news as soon as we made the decision in order to give everyone as much advance notice as possible. Please note that the shutdown will occur on March 18, 2014. We will keep everyone informed as we work through this process.
Josh Mosqueira and I wanted to provide everyone with a little more information behind this decision, so please have a look at the video, and stay tuned to this site for further updates in the months ahead.

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first reaction: Ho-ly shit.

Considering I have made maybe a mill off the ah and found absolute shit playing, now I am starting to worry. I seriously hope they get the item drops done right this time or this game will have nothing going for it. Hearing the console players version of the game gives me some relief as they seem to be happy with their drops. Time will tell, but overall this is a good move for the game and franchise and I give credit to Blizzard for being willing to do things like can Jay "fuckthatloser" Wilson and now remove the AH. Seriously, it feels like the recipe for success for Josh Mosqueira is to ask: "what has Jay done"? Then: "ok, fucking do the opposite of that stupid shit."
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No trees were harmed by this posting, but a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

Finally. They should've done this faaaaaarrrrr earlier than NOW. Hell, if Blizzard made this decision within the first few months the game was out then maybe Diablo 3 could've been, at the very least, salvageable! *Gasp!* I know, right!?

Doing this now is my textbook definition of "(far) too little, (far) too late."

I came here to post this...and hollllllly shit is right.

Wow...this is a MAJOR deal. I'm honestly floored that they're doing it. Should have been done a long time ago, but man....good move by Blizz, for sure.

Blizzard going back on its word
Microsoft changing its Xbox One parameters

All because of the whiny Internet! POWER TO US.

The auction house undermined the core gameplay. The DRM was pathetically annoying. Both of these destroyed the single player experience for many gamers.

Too late a-holes. Moving on, and I will not forget or forgive easily.

Well neat.

Let's hope they fix the issue with items and stats going into 2.0.
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How lucky am I to have known someone who is so hard to say good-bye to.

Once again, this decision comes far, far too late. At this point, removing the AH(which was a HUGE issue for many, if not most, at launch) is like calling the firefighters in *after* the huge blaze burned for 1-2 years straight and torched everything to the ground.

I can't imagine how many poor souls still play Diablo 3. I've read some figures that were tossed around some time back. Some information that was posted back in May 2013 stated that an average of 2.1m/day unique Diablo 3 players log in (since launch: 2.1m/day; at launch: avg 5.8m/day). Btw- These figures constitute log ins worldwide.

I found this rather large D3 infographic while scrounging up some information on the web. Make note though that these figures in particular are from May 2013.

More recent figures seem much more grim. Some suggestion D3 get's 1m unique visitors daily, with as much as 3m/month. Supposedly, main chat rooms are completely empty and there are single digit public games available.

I will say that I do have my doubts to the validity of these numbers.

I played the game for a bit in May as did many others for the "Birthday" week. Extra XP while they had the buff active. I got to paragon level 13 and honestly haven't played the game since. The need to farm gold to buy upgrades from the AH because drops even in MP8 which I was playing were still utter crap was still a turn off.

@Taino - You have a PM.

I am in the middle of my own little personal "Blizzard ONLY Gaming Week" where I'm going to only play the Blizzard titles in my Library. I don't have a huge Blizzard game library but I have enough to game for days and hours on end.

I'll surely jump into some Diablo 3 action within the week of my Blizzard festivities. These last 2 days I've hopped right back into the SC2 ladders. My ol' lady says that she can tell when I'm back in the SC2 laddering hunt once again because I'm stressed the f*ck out all day long and both my blood pressure and cigarette count heavily increase. SC2 ranked ladder turns my ass into a grizzly ol' veteran & chain smoking machine. So gee! THANKS to all you SC2 ranked, ladder opponents(or assholes) for literally sending my ass slowly and methodically towards my early grave! Terrific, right!?

There is one small consolation I could go down with. My very only consolation prize... I'll have the last laugh because I'll probably be pointing 4-6(10?!) nukes in your base at the same time. Could make for 1 hell of a tombstone quote, that's for sure.

"Herein lies TruSm0ke...."

Oh god oh god oh god.

Are things looking up? After reading a bunch of the skill tweaks on diablo.incgamers.com to the classes, Loot 2.0, adventure mode, endless dungeon mode, etc…

I am flipping out over here.

AND THEY ARE BRINGING BACK FROZEN ORB!?

Savious’ faith in Blizzard has leveled up.
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Savious like Savior

Haha, it wasn't that low, but it was definently in the mid 50's.
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Savious like Savior

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I've updated my signature. Enjoy.
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DSLRs number 1 Diablo 3 revival fan.

I liked Savious like Salve better.

:-\

There is a new Wizard skill called Black Hole. Obviously going to be amazing.
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DSLRs number 1 Diablo 3 revival fan.

Others have posted my exact thoughts on reading that e mail: ho-lee shit. I would have bet good money against this ever happening. But damn, almost a year and a half after release? There would have to be a hell of a game drought for me to reinstall. At least they're admitting they fucked up.
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The world was movin' she was right there with it and she was

They have started sending emails:

"We are writing tell you about an important change to Diablo III: we're going to be removing the gold and real-money auction house system from the game.

When we initially designed and implemented the auction house system, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But after much review and player feedback, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.

We're working out the details of how the auction house system will be shut down, but we wanted to share the news as soon as we made the decision in order to give everyone as much advance notice as possible. Please note that the final shutdown will occur on March 18, 2014. We will keep everyone informed as we work through this process, but feel free to check out our blog post on the subject, and stay tuned to Diablo 3.com for further details."
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"I just wanted chili" - Krisnatharok

Unless they allow hosted game names there is going to be a huge issue with trading. Trade chat will just be bot central. Making diablo 3 just a single player online game which still will suck because its still pushing more users to play by themselves. If they are removing the AH and not doing anything to adjust for that, then all that's happening is we are losing a feature. Also without the AH there is no standardized currency. Gems wont do it since almost everyone has what they need, we need a return of a soj type currency, but since everything is so random we wont have that either. Also with the fact that everything good is basically gonna get BOA'ed I feel the game still wont be worth playing. All this is doing is helping the self founders happy, still keeping away all the people who wanted to see a d3 like d2lod expanded. The game still is trying to target the casuals and a few die hard blizzard fans.

I might be wrong but to me that's the way it looks.

About diablo 3 player numbers a real estimate would put the actual playing persons under the 200k mark. You have to figure in for bots and auction bots.

oh look, I got their spam email too

It seems the implementation of an auction house, in any form, had to be considered when determining the efficiency level for the loot being dropped during play.

The player reward system was flawed compared to past iterations of the game and others where loot is critical to the design. I seem to enjoy the mystery and excitement from loot discovery.

When I had hours-long sessions where I found nothing better than what I was already using and only the gold found was helpful, the game became very stale for me. And when the value of AH gold became hyper-inflated, I simply did not have the time available to grind away to make enough gold to keep up with the economy. By the time I had gathered my gold up to the 200,000 needed to buy some item I wanted earlier, it was already selling for no fewer that 1,000,000 gold.

The auction house was not fun for me, and I didn't want to spend ANY of my time messing around with it at all, but I was certain I was in the minority and just moved on to other games. Diablo 3 is not a game I will cherish as I did with Diablo 2.