Who all is in for Diablo III at launch?

[proxops-pete]

I personally couldn't care less about AH... in my mind, finding and searching for rare loot is PART of the game and the experience... so to buy something defeats the purpose of finding it... just my 2 cents

[Snakespy]

I personally couldn't care less about AH... in my mind, finding and searching for rare loot is PART of the game and the experience... so to buy something defeats the purpose of finding it... just my 2 cents

Agreed. I haven't bought anything from it. I have sold a few things however. I tend to find a ton of good monk weapons when playing my Demon Hunter. I have no interest in playing a monk. So I sell it.
Edit. Well, I usually just give it to the first monk I see. There is actually a lot of giving away and in-game trading of items. Even in pub games.

[ImaNihilist]

The problem is those tweaks fix the macro-economy of the AH, but destroy the gamer that wants to play by finding their own gear. Then you are bound to the AH, because your rare items are unrepairable or you absolutely never see a drop that you can use. BOE could be the way to go, but like I said I think too many items drop for it to really matter---but if you tweak the drop rate you could destroy normal play. They need super items that are BOP perhaps linked to achievements, very hard quests, or extremely rare/practically impossible bosses.

I'm just not sure I see it as a problem if the good items are, in fact, rare enough.

I think there is this idea that everyone should be able to have the "best" item, and I just don't think that's correct. Some people will have better items than others. It's not fair. If you want those items, you can try to save up and buy them from someone else. Everyone should be able to have good items, but if there are 10 swords that do 2k base damage out there, so be it. You are not bound to the AH. It is simply an option.

I think people get a little two wrapped up in having the absolute best items, and I just don't think that it makes that much of a difference in terms of how fun the game is.

[Kamakazie]

Agreed. I haven't bought anything from it. I have sold a few things however. I tend to find a ton of good monk weapons when playing my Demon Hunter. I have no interest in playing a monk. So I sell it.
Edit. Well, I usually just give it to the first monk I see. There is actually a lot of giving away and in-game trading of items. Even in pub games.

I'm a monk! I like awesome items!

[vertices]

Solution? Kill the for-gold auction house. Make it go away. Create easily-accessible trade channels and make people trade the old-fashioned way - via chat channel or forum post. This won't fix the issue of how many awesome rares are available, but at least it will slow their spread, and it will make people work a little more to get these items. It's better than doing nothing but clicking a couple of buttons to get ridiculously good gear for your character.

I don't think simply making it more difficult to trade is the answer either. That just adds frustration for no reason. I like that I can easily peruse an AH and buy what I want.

I really think the best answer is a combo of BoE and BoP like Timman said. That would keep the AH an easy and user friendly method of trading items, but drive prices up by reducing supply.

[monroeski]

The thing that bothers me most about the auction house is that when I look online for advice on something the answer almost always seems to be "just get some stuff from the auction house." As a guy on another board posted -

"guys check my char, any tips?"
"AH"

"i have X dps, is that good for my lvl?"
"AH"

"wow normal/nm/hell/inferno is tough"
"AH"

"is it worth crafting"
"AH"

"So my barb..."
"AH"

[ImaNihilist]

The thing that bothers me most about the auction house is that when I look online for advice on something the answer almost always seems to be "just get some stuff from the auction house." As a guy on another board posted -

"guys check my char, any tips?"
"AH"

"i have X dps, is that good for my lvl?"
"AH"

"wow normal/nm/hell/inferno is tough"
"AH"

"is it worth crafting"
"AH"

"So my barb..."
"AH"

That's not true, sometimes you just have to learn to AH.

[Astros Fan]

sounds like it's turned into a $60 FTP game.

[dyne]

Trying to get this figured out but thought you guys might have an idea. I usually start my playtime between 8-8:30 pm est. I will for sure get booted from both the game and Ventrillo at least three times in the first half hour. My ping bar is always green and less than 230ms. The odd thing about it is that Windows is telling me in the taskbar that I have no net connection at all during this time. After about 1-2 minutes it comes back on. I've tested the pc during the same time doing other tasks and not once do I get these off disconnects. It's only while playing Diablo 3. Are there any firewall settings I should be looking into? I know I gave it privileges through Windows the first time I booted the game.

[ImaNihilist]

sounds like it's turned into a $60 FTP game.

If the RMAH actually brings in a decent average revenue per user then they probably will make it FTP.

[Trunks]

I can't even browse the official forums anymore; nothing but trolls and people who got 'hacked'. It irks me to no end that people are that ignorant. This is the only place I will go to talk anything about D3 anymore.

To that note, I'm logging in now. Feel free to join me, trying to get through NM.

[kpxgq]

AH is just like mods in Oblivion/Skyrim.... yes, they can break the game... yes, it is your choice to break the game... yes, i would rather have the option to choose for myself if i want to break my own game

[James]

Listening to you guys talk, the only thing that truly stands out to me is this: You are discussing everything in MMO terms.

Me personally I don't think that every game has to act exactly like WoW in order to be considered good. Diablo and Diablo2 were nothing like WoW, and they were good. From your discussions/mind set it seems that Diablo 3 is nothing more than WoW in a new suit. That makes me sad.

[Trunks]

[Timman_24]

I'm just not sure I see it as a problem if the good items are, in fact, rare enough.

I think there is this idea that everyone should be able to have the "best" item, and I just don't think that's correct. Some people will have better items than others. It's not fair. If you want those items, you can try to save up and buy them from someone else. Everyone should be able to have good items, but if there are 10 swords that do 2k base damage out there, so be it. You are not bound to the AH. It is simply an option.

I think people get a little two wrapped up in having the absolute best items, and I just don't think that it makes that much of a difference in terms of how fun the game is.

That is the opposite of what I am saying. I'm saying it is too easy to be the best at the moment by simply purchasing items from the AH. I think there needs to be extreme gear that is BOE or BOP so that everybody with a couple thousand gold can't trick their guy out to the max. However, the ways that you said could "fix" the problem end up screwing the people that want to play legit by making it either impossible to get gear to drop that is usable or it makes their gear unrepairable, hence the needs to hit up the AH.

It will be interesting to see if there is gold inflation on items, or depreciation. It is a fine balance between rare drops and gold drops. If much more gold drops compared to rare items then the price is going to go through the roof. However, it seems to be the opposite. For every X amount of gold that drops, one rare drops. That ratio seems very low right now (gold per rare.) This is the largest factor contributing to the crazy amount of rares priced at rock bottom prices.