Trading in WoW and D3.

[Flux]

So a bit of info about D3's plans for trading/auction house came out from Gamescom:


in.Diablo.d3: Trading: Very big part of D2. Players like to trade item for item, rather than just selling for gold.
Jay Wilson: We’re looking to improve trading. Not just chat channel spam or creative game names. We haven’t determined the system yet.
in.Diablo.d3: Can we trade item for item?
Jay Wilson: We’re going to do something. Haven’t decided yet.

Someone who plays WoW clue the rest of us in. Is all the trading there for gold? I know there are semi-automated vendor type things, and you can put items on them and specific your price. But when it comes to trading top end items, is that only for gold also? (Most high end stuff is BoE or BoA, but some trading must go on?)

Why would it be so hard to implement item for item anyway? You've got something to trade, you list what items you'll take for it, and if someone sees your listing and agrees, then they use an interface and get 'er dun.

The hard part would be finding a trade item from someone who didn't wildly overestimate its scarcity and utility. Back in the early days of D2C, when trading with humans was possible before bot spam ruined everything, I seldom found it worth the trouble, since every dude with like, War Travelers, thought they were worth an Un'id'ed Stormshield. Etc.

[Killafornia]

When I played WoW during Burning Crusade it was all for gold. But all the desirable items where bind on pick-up, so the auction houses had a few rares and low level equipment. They where mainly for trading crafting stuff like gems, enchantments, and so on. However the market was really balanced out. Everything had a set value by then. Of course a few would try to rip you off, and sometimes you could get things for a very good deal.

With almost every item in the game having random properties it'd be really hard to set up an auction-like system for item-item trading. To do that I'd want to do it human to human so I could verify that the fixes are suitable for what I'm trading.

[Deckard Cain]

I think the direction they are going is that Item to Item trade will be allowed, but somewhat obsolete. Just like in D2 how at one point you would trade your items for soj, then trade soj for other items etc (or now HR's whatever i don't play).

In WoW all top end gear was bind on pick up, so you couldn't really trade that. Not too mention, you didn't really need or want to. In diablo you would create new characters all the time, and often need to trade gear. In WoW you sort of have your 1 or 2 main guys (well most people) and wouldn't have much of a reason to trade off all your gear like you may in D2.

Edit:

Another very important thing to note in order to better understand trading in WoW is that people hardly ever find items that they don't need. When I played the top end gear was all found in raids. When doing a raid you would never receive an item that had no value for you. If a warrior item dropped, one of the warriors would get the items.

This is drastically different from D2, where random items drop and it is a mad grab for the best loot.

[Apocalypse]

in wow almost all trading was done in the AH so it was item for gold however gold had more of a point than it did in D2. if gold is really worth something in D3 then i see it being mostly item for gold.

i would like to see some form of AH set up in D3 having to go game to game asking players or spamming the chat should be a thing of the past by now

[Rothas]

Yeah, there is no way that items will be traded through player to player like in D2. They really have to make some kind of auction house or something since even browser based games have little auction houses these days. It will be interesting how they will make it happen tho, will it be within some menu in bnet or will there be some "trade district" inside the game where you can browse all the sell orders made by other players. I think that Caldeum could be the perfect place for it, it certainly looks fairly wealthy place. Here's some quote from D3 official website:

"Caldeum was once the proudest city in all of Kehjistan, the trade capital of the entire world."

Altho there's also mentioned that Caldeum is in pretty bad shape now, slums and all.

[theeliminator]

Any AH trade is gold only. But there are some trades outside the AH that are items for item.

I wonder if they will make just a few "Auction" servers where players can go and sell their items in an auction house. I do agree with placing the AH in Caldeum.

[SeCKSEgai]

Being familiar with the binding system in WoW and the AHs, the big difference in WoW is that you place so much for focus on one or two characters, whereas in D2 people are very likely to play multiple classes.

I would definitely like to see a blend of the AH system with D3 - having to rely on runes as currency is a pain, especially as their value can fluctuate. Gold sinks can help regulate the huge influx of gold (like epic mount costs in WoW), although not quite sure what would become the d3 equivalent.

My favorite thing about the AH is that it was active when you weren't, and short of the rarer items, you would generally have other sellers' prices to base your own on.

[blackbisket]

in wow almost all trading was done in the AH so it was item for gold however gold had more of a point than it did in D2. if gold is really worth something in D3 then i see it being mostly item for gold.

i would like to see some form of AH set up in D3 having to go game to game asking players or spamming the chat should be a thing of the past by now

I agree an Auction House system would be nice for D3 as you can lose the spamming and all that from D2, but your right on about it not working it gold it of little meaning (I do fill with respects and artisans gold will have more meaning in D3).

[sinter]

I too think that they should make some kind of AH for Diablo 3. I can see it working with gold AND item for item trades. I think the gold part of the AH will work exactly like WoW - you put a price on ur item and if some1 likes it they buy it.

The item for item part of the AH could work like this:
You put the item u want to trade in the AH interface and then go kick some demon (or angel) butts. Meanwhile a Player who was looking for the exact same item u offered wants to get it. So he picks an item of his he wants to trade and makes you an offer. A few more players like your item and want it so they make offers too. Then you go back to town to turn in some quest and check the AH NPC (or whatever it is) and see the offers. Most of them you dont like at all because your item is worth a lot more, but then u see one that you really like so you agree to trade and the system switches your item and the item you want.
Mbe it'll be possible to offer somebody more then 1 item if the item you want is better then the things u have.

[Apocalypse]

I agree an Auction House system would be nice for D3 as you can lose the spamming and all that from D2, but your right on about it not working it gold it of little meaning (I do fill with respects and artisans gold will have more meaning in D3).

i also think gold will have more of a meaning which is very good. i never bothered trading in D2 but i used the AH on a daily basis in WoW so i really hope for one in D3