Lol. Whether you are excited about Diablo 3 or not, this is the best rant ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDYjljdje-g&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDYjljdje-g&feature=player_embedded
All I can say is wow. Imagine if NetHack had microtransactions!
Personally, I would refuse to play any $60 on release game that had microtransactions on top of real DLC of the typical form of additional levels, characters, etc... Charging $10 for a 3d model that has a couple of real in game stats is too much. As Thormodr implied, that's Ramen money.
That's obviously why they have the online requirement. It's not for the piracy, but so they can prevent you modding stuff into your game and playing with others with it, so instead they can charge you $10 a gimmick item. I wouldn't consider Diablo 3 with microtransactions unless they made it free2play.
No one is forcing you to use the RMAH but you will be constantly thinking about it. That's the point. It'll always be in the back of your mind.
The Blizzard that you have today is not the Blizzard of Diablo I and II days. You can have faith in them if you want. I am not interesting in a cash grabbing AAA company like that. I'll stick to the middle market.
If you are a university student or you live in a country like Thailand for example, $10 is a big deal. Maybe you work part time and are going to night school already. You want to play a game to relax and unwind. Now it becomes a financial decision when you get a good item drop. That's lame.
I have more than enough money to buy whatever I want in the game as well. That isn't the point though. I am not rewarding Blizzard for their greed and for introducing something very ugly into the game.
Bottom line, there are plenty of other reasons not to buy this game but this is the final straw and it broke the camel's back as well.
Torchlight II will be more than sufficient for me and Runic Games has integrity. Nice to see they haven't forgotten their roots.
If your parents are floating you for every expense to the point where you don't have to even think about finances, then you're not mature enough to be on the Internet.
It's true in a way that you can choose not to participate. But you have to basically actively choose not to participate every time a potentially worthy item drops down. So it is a pretty harassing thing if you ask me. Not everybody thinks the same way.
That being said, I guess a lot of this will depend on the value of the items. If 99% of items are not excruciatingly rare, I don't think many of them will sell for more than 5$, but we'll see. If it all dabbles in small numbers like that, who cares about this auction house. I can safely ignore it. The only time when it might come into play is if I am a lucky person who gets an item worth 100$. Although I'd probably sell it if there are really people who are gonna buy it. It's kind of sad in a way, it means that I won't get to play with the rarest items in the game, because I'm a sane person who would sell it and not pay 100$ for something like that. Thank you insane people.
Anyway, it'll all depend on how prices settle. But I suspect most of the items most of us will dabble with will go for worthless prices.
Again, would you find 20 bucks laying on the ground as you walk 'harassment'?
Again, I dont see the problem here. Yo buy a game for $49.99. You play a bit. A $100 dollar value item drops. You decide to sell it on the AH. You profit.
There's not a maturity test for being on the net. However, there is a fiscal one. You can either afford it or you cant.
I agree that there is no reason to complain about making 100$ randomly. But I'd rather keep it to finding them on the streets like you say. There is a large portion of the players that don't like the fact that a portion of the game may now be reserved for people who are crazy and will shell out 50$ to buy an item.
This happens because, if you are a normal person, and you get a super rare drop, you sell it.
Whereas in previous game there was theoretically no monetary value attached to it and you could just be happy that the game rewarded you with rare in-game stuff, use it in game, you know, game with it.
I say theoretically becuase there were third party websites. But there was no way in hell I was going to give these guys my credit card info even to sell a 100$ item. So it didn't really apply. Now it's ubiquitous.
EDIT: I guess the conclusion is that I don't mind making money off the game (if that somehow is possible), but I DO think it denatures the gameplay itself, for the worse, and we'll see to what extent depending on what the prices look like.
If you want to play Diablo III, be my guest. I am making a personal choice as well not to support them, as all this would do is encourage other companies to do the same.
The game will be monetized and I simply can't accept that. It's bad for gamers everywhere.
You are also incredibly naive if you think that the RMAH isn't going to affect you. It will affect all parts of the game. Mark my words.
According to you, the demographic of "who can afford it" is wildly different than what most video game companies are targeting. Hey, if Blizzard doesn't want people in, or fresh out of, college (traditionally considered the prime demographic for their games) to play Diablo 3, all power to them.
Except thats already been a reality of the gaming world when item dependent MMOs and such came out.
(...)
If thats your belief, then you need to regard every game since Everquest or Ultima Online as 'denatured', because what you complain about started then and has been ongoing ever since.
WoW has become a pile of steaming dung since 3.0.Actually, I dont think there is any way anyone could call WoW anything but a great game and probably the most successful online game in the history of gaming.
The RMAH is a simple exercise in "If you can't beat em, join em." Blizzard can't stamp out gold sellers, but they can certainly legitimize selling gold and in-game items and get a cut of the action. It is, after all, their game - they probably don't like other people making money off their product, and you can bet they're looking for ways to make even more money out of it themselves.
Did anyone here play Everquest 2? (That's an MMO, similar to WoW.) Back in the day, Sony Online did the same kind of thing that Blizzard is doing here, but on a limited scale; they launched a couple of "Exchange" servers where items and gold could be bought and sold for real-world currency. In that regard it was at least an opt-in (because you had to transfer to or start characters one of those Exchange servers), but I don't like that the RMAH is always on for everyone and there's no opting out. The RMAH will exist whether you use it or not; people will be fighting for loot drops they can't even use because those drops can easily sold for real-world currency. I'm waiting to see how the drops are allocated (NBG rolls or what?) before I pass judgement, but this news definitely dampens my enthusiasm.
Don't worry. Diablo 3 will be great. This person has never let you down, right?
Just because things exist doesn't mean we should just turn them into mainstream and accept them as ethical and having their places in our lifestyle/hobby. Right-wingers of all people should agree with that, what with their opposition to legalizing a bunch of crap.
For the record, no, I don't consider someone who passes on an opportunity to make 100$ just to keep some imaginary sword in a game as quite normal. Maybe that's because I'm in contact with real life in my daily job.
WoW has become a pile of steaming dung since 3.0.
Sure it's still very successfull, but as The Sims and Independence Day has proved, "successfull" doesn't mean "good".
Played EQ2 for awhile w/friends and never used the auction system once.
You opt out of the AH system by not using it. Simple.
Since I have no idea who that guy is, all I have to say is that Blizzard certainly hasnt let me down and I think their games from over the last 20 years speak for the company quite well.
Except this isnt 'legalizing a bunch of crap'. Its a business model, and ALL it does is it takes a reality of the gaming industry and implements it to their control. I dont see a problem with that.
And your not the final arbiter of what normal is or isnt for an online gaming community. Sorry.
WoW is also quite dated, but its still 'good' enough to still be the best MMO in the industry. Nothing has come along thats the proverbial 'WoW killer' yet. Fwiw, I always have hopes that the 'next big thing' will indeed meet the hype, but so far they always seem to fall short.
In the last cycle of videogames you spent $50 on a game, played it and took it back to the shop for credit. Today, we’ll (charge) $100 for a guitar. You might add a microphone or drums; you might buy two or three expansions packs, different types of music. Over the life of your ownership you’ll probably buy around 25 additional song packs in digital downloads. So, what used to be a $50 sale is a $500 sale today.
Kotick noted that in the past he changed the employee incentive program so that it "really rewards profit and nothing else." He continued, "You have studio heads who five years ago didn't know the difference between a balance sheet and a bed sheet who are now arguing allocations in our CFO's office pretty regularly. ... We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."
Why am I not surprised?
Starcraft 2 didnt seem destroyed.
So.....
Like I said, until I start really seeing evidence of released blizzard games being substandard, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt they have earned from me for the last 20 years.
What? By the fact that i'm more interested in the end result of a game as opposed to hand-wringing and going henny penny over it when it still has a long way to go prior to being released?
Ah well. I say again...I dont see any of the things you guys are crying about here as huge detriments to the game. I guess only time will tell, eh?
Activison, the king of DLC, will continue to have a big impact on future blizzard products. (im scared for diablo) They're in this industry for the money, not to make amazing games that will be remembered for decades to come.
Blizzard said they would never open the way for people to pay real money to get an ingame advantage. Mounts and pets provide no advantage. Pets are just cosmetic so you look cooler. Players can get mounts easily in the game as soon as they get the right level, and buying a special mount doesn't let players avoid the level restriction. So premium mounts are just cosmetic as well. Blizzard hasn't broken their promise to not allow real money -> ingame advantage transfers.
Activision wants Blizzard to capitalize on all of it's products. They've already done it with WoW by adding a pet store where you can buy pets and mounts (which Blizzard stated early on that they would NEVER do), and now they're slapping a price tag on an online Auction House that can be used outside of the games.
So far, it's *kinda* only been restricted to WoW, I'm not sure how far it will go.
Read the bolded part. Blizzard has always HATED the idea of getting extra rewards, even if pointless and does nothing to effect balance. Regardless of what the community wanted, it's Activision that pushed them to do this. I won't be surprised if they force Blizzard to begin selling weapons and armor.
And what they could do to SC2 and D3 makes me shudder.
Except this isnt 'legalizing a bunch of crap'. Its a business model, and ALL it does is it takes a reality of the gaming industry and implements it to their control. I dont see a problem with that.
And your not the final arbiter of what normal is or isnt for an online gaming community. Sorry.