Diablo III gold and real money auction houses are shutting down

Shawn Knight

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Blizzard recently announced plans to shutter both the gold and real money auction houses in Diablo III. The decision comes as the company prepares to release the game’s first expansion – Reaper of Souls – which features a revised loot system, among other things.

In a blog post on Battle.net, Diablo III production director John Hight said they initially designed and implemented the auction houses to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. Despite the benefits of the system and the fact that many people around the world use it, Hight said it ultimately undermined the game’s core task of killing monsters to collect loot.

I was immediately turned off by the idea of the auction houses when I first started playing the game. Just as Hight said, having the ability to obtain the best gear money can buy certainly takes away from the fun of hunting down loot on your own. I stayed away from the shops as long as possible but eventually I had to cave in as the group I played with online all had very high level gear and I didn't.

Loot drops in the revised system known as Loot 2.0 will be less frequent as to not constantly fill a player’s bag with items they don’t care about. Instead, drops will be better suited to the class they drop for and the odds of getting a worthwhile item will also increase.

The company is currently ironing out the details but the auction house shutdowns will occur on March 18, 2014.

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People are acting like it will change the whole damn world. Sure I guess the RMAH move is fine but removing GAH isn't such an amazing move as many have become dependent on it. Not only that, at least gold is of some sort of use. The crafting system is **** anyway so now even gold will be absolutely useless unless it is used in crafting some way or another.

Then there is the whole 3rd party websites which haunted D2. You will see these scammers making a return, casual players will get fked over. Either sell through the trade chat or scam websites. Would be ideal to have some sort of "Trusted Seller" status on the D3 forums and ingame. But on other hand no one is forcing you to trade with possible scammers.

It was fun hanging in the loby, chatting and using the AH at the same time. Oh well, Loot 2.0 is coming anyway.

Hmmm... I wonder how much they will charge for Reaper of Wallets.
 
I have found the Gold auction house to be wonderful at time, frustrating at others. Never tried the RMAH. Loot 2.0 will have to be much different than the current loot system, otherwise, only a handful of people will roll useful gear. Gold wont be useless IF they update the crafting system to make it more worthwhile. Right now the crafting system sucks. Its super expensive and does not give you viable gear. Also, rumor has it the repair costs for gear are going back up so gold will still be of use.
A simple trade system would still be nice.
 
As always you cant please everybody.
crafting has its own merits since its also by chance you can get a great item.

anyway 3rd party trading was always cheap than AH anyway.
 
If they improve the loot that drops instead of filling your bag with pointless items I'm all for it. Finding loot in Diablo 3 wasn't as fun as it should have been
 
As always you cant please everybody.
crafting has its own merits since its also by chance you can get a great item.

anyway 3rd party trading was always cheap than AH anyway.

AH was a safer bet and a decent system, they should have never put it in tbh.

Crafting is simply terrible, it's the worst loto ever.
 
I've played the diablo series since beta. The RMH and GMH were ideas that just didnt work for this franchise. The servers are wastelands as a result, I think Blizzard finally saw the light and is trying to make that wrong a right.
 
If the loot 2.0 will be like the console version then it will be vastly improved (for crafting too). Every single item I crafted along the way was exactly the stats I needed and almost always an upgrade over current items.

Also I found anywhere from 17-20 legendaries while leveling through normal and nightmare mode on my witchdoctor with about 80% of them being stat specific to my character along with 1 full set and 1 piece from a barbarian set.

Overall the console version could even be looked at as a little excessive for loot drops as my character felt completely overpowered throughout leveling pretty much 1 shotting everything and downing elite mobs in 3-5 seconds.

IMO the auction house was never the problem. The problem was that Blizzard (in their extreme lack of thought process) felt the need to nerf loot drops just because there was an auction house.

Then they state how loads of people are using the auction house and of course this is true because while you play you find items that are completely opposite stats that they should be and also 3-5 levels lower then you.

All they had to do was keep the loot drops nice and high and leave the gold AH there. Less people would need to frequent the AH because they would be getting good drops for themselves but the AH would be a place to dump extra gear you don't need and pickup that final set piece you just can't find!

Overall I think it was a mistake right from the start to lower drops just because there was an AH (forcing people to use it) and now they go the other extreme and remove the AH and add better drops. They should have hit a middle ground and just dropped the RMAH and improved loot drops leaving a gold AH for safe and easy trading.

And 1 final thought. I know many people loved the ladder system in D2 and are excited for it to come to D3. I am not. This ladder system is what made me grow tired of D2 always having to start over to play on the populated new ladder area and knowing that down the road those characters would be tossed as well just made me lose interest.

It would be far better if every ladder season they just added a new tier to the legendaries like they did when they improved them and the old ones were renamed yaddayadda (legacy). Now they should do the same thing with each ladder season and just call them (S01) (S02) etc..

And instead of making characters obsolete forcing you to start over (which is very lame) they can just make the ladder track the experience you have earned (account wide) and the leaderboard use that data allowing you to keep using your ever so loved characters you put time into already while you search for the new more powerful legendaries.

On a final note... 2 nights ago I was lucky enough to run into a rare mob named Jay Wilson and I got an achievement for killing him. This is the closest form of justice any Diablo fan will ever get.
 
This is a good thing, guys!

Once I hit level 60 I quickly realized that there's nothing that matters more than gold. The loot system is way too random, so you'll never gear up very far on your own killing and looting. It's all about the gold and the auction house. Farm up 1 mill gold and you can get some pretty awesome items, which is cool enough, but it changes everything about the game.

I've always stacked Magic Find on my items when playing Diablo 2, and I did the same in Diablo 3 until I realized how pointless it was. I swapped it all out for Gold Find and commenced the farming. After about a week I had managed to get 30+ Paragon Levels and I had bought gear on the Gold Auction House that allowed me to farm MP4-5 solo.

At this point I need a ridiculous amount of gold to upgrade a single item, and by ridiculous, I mean 20-60 millions Gold, or even billions! It takes me the better part of a day just to farm 1-2 mill, so this is just stupid. I thought these people were insane or just stupid kids with no realistic idea of an item's worth, but that was before I checked the Buy Gold option on the Real Money Auction House. I think it was something like 45 mill Gold for 1.5€. It's so disgustingly cheap! And still there are 3rd party goldsellers trying to invade my friend's list every time I log on!

I literally feel stupid for just playing the game, seing how fast and easy people gear up and blow past me. It's like I'm old and infirm, with teenagers racing in circles around me, calling me a gimp and telling me to go buy some real gear. However, I don't care! I simply will not ruin the game for myself, as ALL my friends have! They're not even playing the game anymore because they bought their gear with Real Money, went on to farm MP10 for a few days and then realized there was nothing left to do. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!

The Gold Auction house is only necessary because the loot system is so stupendously random. Imagine if you played a Barbarian and every item that dropped had Strength on it, and no other main stats (apart from Vitality). You'd have a much better chance of getting something worthwhile, you'd have less use for an Auction House and you'd actually have to play the game! Oh, shock or horror! Play the game? Am I crazy?

The entire point of a game such as Diablo 3 is replayability. That's why there's randomly generated levels and loot. It keeps it interesting. But when you can just go to the Auction House and buy everything you want for a pittance of real money or even gold, then you'll be done with the game much faster, and that's the end of replayability.

Now, having said that, I must admit I find it fun to surf the Gold Auction House and look for good deals. It's like a minigame within the game, and it can be a lot of fun. The problem is that the economy has been completely ruined because of various hacks, cheats and then the Real Money Auction House.

Gold should be worth something. On that point I think we all agree. And if the only thing you'll use your gold for it upgrading gems, crafting and repairing gear, then it's not really worth a lot anymore. However, that's what it was like in Diablo 2 and it wasn't all that bad. It kept me focused on playing the game. I think we should give Blizzard a chance to show us what they intend for the future of Diablo 3 before we go on a bender. They might just add some new features like Diablo 2's gamble option, or other stuff that increases the value of Gold again. Granted there would have to be a somewhat improved reward system behind it. Either way, let's just see what they bring to the table.

Item selling and trading will become a pain in the behind, and there will be a lot more spamming as a result of Blizzard taking out the Auction House system. I can see both pros and cons when it comes to the Gold Auction House, but the Real Money Auction House is ruining the game, and I can't believe Blizzard added it to begin with. It's the dumbest move they've ever made, apart from the always-online DRM.

Everything Blizzard has said about why they added the Real Money Auction House is a load of crap. It's a moneymilking scheme and nothing more. Making transactions safe and secure for players? Sure, sure. They just wanted to corner the market on goldselling and such. Get their slice of the cake. Now they've finally realized that it's been hurting the game, so they're finally removing it. It's the best move they've made in the history if Diablo 3. Anyone who can't see that must not have thought it through properly.
 
So how much gold should we keep on hand?
I mean should I keep 1,000,000 gold or 1,000,000,000 gold?
How much is TOO much?
 
Hmmm...I don't have much of an opinion on this subject. I have played only once (was fun!!!) But I need to get the game myself so I can get a good feel on it.
 
Imagine if you played a Barbarian and every item that dropped had Strength on it, and no other main stats (apart from Vitality). You'd have a much better chance of getting something worthwhile, you'd have less use for an Auction House and you'd actually have to play the game! Oh, shock or horror! Play the game? Am I crazy?

Except, the other stats are useful as well. Intelligence to a lesser degree, but dexterity increases your chance to dodge which equals your character taking no damage. I think you'll find high vitality doesn't work well as you can't possibly tank inferno mp3-10. Better off with lots of life on hit, critical hit damage and chance, strength and some dexterity to dodge. (Unless using the revenge skill)
 
The problem here is NOT the AH, it is the loot drop / crafting system!

I have 5 characters, all at Paragon 10 or higher (40 highest) so I've played a bit. In my hours with the game I have not had one drop that would have been beneficial for me to use. Out of 30+ crafts, I have one item that is usable! With my 60 (40) barbarian on 5 valor my magic and gold find are over 400% and still nothing great crafting or dropping - come on!

The first time I played the game I tried to do it without the AH. I couldn't do it. I stalled on Nightmare level! I got to a point where the drops absolutely did not keep up with what was necessary to continue playing. After a visit to the AH, voila, I could compete again.

The reason the AH is so popular is that it is necessary to play the game - the odds of something good / useful dropping or being crafted are ridiculously low. If the rolls for good things would be vastly improved I think that alone would have undermined the popularity of the AH and its abuse.
 
RMAH was the reason I kinda lost intrest...it really did ruin the game for me. I'm glad Blizzard has come to it's senses.
 
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