Paranoia is a skill

[BCS]

Base stats increase on their own and what skills you get and when is regulated by levels. Nothing about the character you make is permanent; skills can be swapped around at will(Traits were supposed to be permanent, but were replaced by passive skills that also can be swapped at will).

Two identical level characters of the same class will have exactly the same both primary and secondary stats, as well access to exactly same skills.

Only way to customize your characters is with a) Equipment and b) Skill runes. Both are items.

Diablo 3 is a 100% item-based game.

In a 100% item-based game, items are everything. In a game where drops can be as rare as thousandth of a percent, trading with other players is essential.

Enter Auction House. Trading with other players made quick, easy, painless and secure. How nice of Blizzard - and it's player-to-player trade, not developer-to-player, so game economy remains unscathed. A multiplayer game with MMO-like economy; example to the Industry.

But here's where it gets deliciously devilish: Item Flood Prevention.

To prevent item flood and scams in the Auction House, all traded items sold with real money will be taxed. It might be a solid number. It might be % of the value of the item sold. No matter. Where will this money go?

Blizzard.

Create a heavily item-based game.
Let players trade items, getting a cut for every item traded.
And best of all, pretend all of it was done with gameplay balance/accessability, player security and convenience in mind, keeping the image of a friendly company providing free services like Battle.net.

Blizzard.
You sick bastards.
I salute you.

[GuardianHadriel]

It is a clever and presumably very thought through way of designing a sequel to Diablo II.

Let's just hope it turns out good.

[Moonfrost]

Customization isn't about permanent choices, it's about your choices. Skills and passives are a very important part of that.

[vileguy]

Customization isn't about permanent choices, it's about your choices. Skills and passives are a very important part of that.
People keep neglecting this fact. The value of customization is that you choose how you want to play and what makes you different. People are going to settle into the 6 abilities they like and use those for quite a while. It doesn't matter that you're allowed to change, because any time you do change, you're still playing a customized build that you identify with.

[Scorch Hellfire]

(Traits were supposed to be permanent, but were replaced by passive skills that also can be swapped at will).

Um, no... Traits would have had a respec mechanic just like skills would have had if they were all still point based...

[Kornkills]

At least we dont have to farm meph diablo and baal to respec, then put 550 attributes into vit, and 105 skills into the same build with 1 or 2 different skill points alotted

[BCS]

Customization isn't about permanent choices, it's about your choices. Skills and passives are a very important part of that.

Choices without consequences are meaningless. Without permanence, there are no consequences.

But this is not what this thread is even about. It's about Blizzard making money off Auction House transactions and how the game is designed so that the players will use the Auction House as often as possible. Ergo, Diablo 3 is a microtransaction money-making machine while still keeping up the disguise of a pay-once play-forever retail product.

[HardRock]

Choices without consequences are meaningless. Without permanence, there are no consequences.

True, but there are consequences to choosing your skills in D3, since you can only choose 6 active and 3 passive ones at a time.


Diablo 3 is a microtransaction money-making machine while still keeping up the disguise of a pay-once play-forever retail product.

It's both. You can obtain your items however you like, be it by farming, trading with other players directly or using one of the AHs. It's your choice if you decide to use the RMAH.

[Moonfrost]

Choices without consequences are meaningless. Without permanence, there are no consequences.
Of course there are consequences, just not permanent ones. Permanence isn't the only way to make consequences matter. If it was then games wouldn't have save/load or respec features.


But this is not what this thread is even about. It's about Blizzard making money off Auction House transactions and how the game is designed so that the players will use the Auction House as often as possible. Ergo, Diablo 3 is a microtransaction money-making machine while still keeping up the disguise of a pay-once play-forever retail product.
You're reaching the right conclusion but from the wrong end. You're saying that the RMAH is the cause and the trading is the effect, but it's the other way around. People have been using dubious third party sites to trade D2 items for real money for over a decade because the game itself didn't support such trades - that's the cause. The effect is the RMAH because Blizzard realized the same thing would happen to D3, so they decided to provide players with a better and more secure trading environment and earn a cut of those transactions in the process, potentially putting those (presumably illegal) third party sites out of business.

So in essence, the RMAH exists because people want it to, not because Blizzard does. The game probably will be a microtransaction money-making machine, but not because that's all Blizzard ever intended in the first place.

[jamesL]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSbSueq_KSY&t=0m42s

[Wolfpaq777]

But this is not what this thread is even about. It's about Blizzard making money off Auction House transactions and how the game is designed so that the players will use the Auction House as often as possible. Ergo, Diablo 3 is a microtransaction money-making machine while still keeping up the disguise of a pay-once play-forever retail product.

You can choose not to use the RMAH.

You can choose to farm the items yourself.

You can choose to use the gold auction house.

You can choose to play hardcore and have an exclusively gold AH.

You can use your weekly free RMAH posts to gain virtual currency without spending a penny beyond the 1 payment to buy the game.

Think a little in the future before making posts like these.