Diablo 3 - Auction House Closed in March

Couchpotato

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Blizzard came out with a surprise that the much debated Auction House will be shut down permanently in March.



When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. But as we've mentioned on different occasions, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.With that in mind, we want to let everyone know that we've decided to remove the gold and real-money auction house system from Diablo III.

We feel that this move along with the Loot 2.0 system being developed concurrently with Reaper of Souls™ will result in a much more rewarding game experience for our players.

We're working out the details of how the auction house system will be shut down, but we wanted to share the news as soon as we made the decision in order to give everyone as much advance notice as possible. Please note that the shutdown will occur on March 18, 2014. We will keep everyone informed as we work through this process.
More information.
 
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And they said Blizzard doesn't learn from their own mistakes. I'm very pleasantly surprised by this turn of events. I would've imagined they would never take it down, considering it makes them money. Cool stuff. Now the Loot 2.0 will really come into fruition. Can hardly wait for the expansion also. :)
 
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It took this long for this to be implemented while D2 fans knew that this was a bad idea way back when it was announced.
 
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It took this long for this to be implemented while D2 fans knew that this was a bad idea way back when it was announced.
Activision wouldn't allow them to it was as simple as that. The last interview a month back with Josh Mosqueira said it would never happen. I wonder what made them change their mind.

Now just get rid of that constant online requirement as it's not needed now. A man can dream can't he.:biggrin:
 
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Activision wouldn't allow them to it was as simple as that. The last interview a month back with Josh Mosqueira said it would never happen. I wonder what made them change their mind.

Now just get rid of that constant online requirement as it's not needed now. A man can dream can't he.:biggrin:

That would really be surprising indeed, if it happened. But the way the game seems to constantly be going back an forth to the server, I doubt it be that easy to pull off technically. Unless it was architecturally designed to accommodate this from the get-go. (from what I heard even the pirated version of D3 has to ping-pong with a virtual server app on the client) Plus it's DRM for them, as it is for SC2.

But it would be nice. And come to think of it, the console version does this. So, then the client code must've been written loosely coupled to the server, if they could release a console version that doesn't talk to a server. Maybe it's not that far-fetched after all.
 
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The AH was never the problem.

The problem was weak itemization and the lack of viable non-AH play in Inferno at release for most classes. The easiest way to provide the latter, would be to have a non-AH checkbox upon character creation - with adjusted loot tables for that kind of play. Then non-AH characters could exchange items as per usual - outside the AH market.

I really liked the concept of the AH - and the prospect of not relying on endless grinding for that one specific item that will never drop. I don't particularly enjoy playing the trading game in chat channels for that purpose, but I guess that's what people prefer.

Also, I quite liked the idea of making some money on the side by selling cool items.

Oh well.
 
I too think this is a lost opportunity for a killer trading system.. Poorly implemented and now it has to go..

too bad. It really seems the majority want it gone..
 
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Well, maybe they'll say bye bye auction house... hello Flea Market or some such a stunt... wouldn't be the first time...
 
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it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.
Could not have been figured out before. Millions had to be invested just to find out the obviious.
A safe way not to admit a failed attempt at monetization.

the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades.
No. The driving goal was to take a cut in what was supposed to be a lucrative market, adding revenues to the already collected milking.

Right now, there are dozens of trade platforms that did not exist when D2 was released. That and the fact it is illegal to sell an item...

But better to botch an entire game rather than let people trade by themselves.
 
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oh yah... diabwow
how they're going to solve the wow factor? diablo2 feel didn't even come close to wow. and this one feels so MMORPG. but for a first run it was fun.
 
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I do not think for a second that Acti-Blizz would get rid of something willingly that creates considerable revenue for them. Like it was mentioned above, a month ago they said AH removal on PC will never happen. Something must have changed, I'm guessing it became somehow irrelevant, or un-economic to upkeep, otherwise Activision would never have allowed the complete removal.

Also, consider the tremendous backlash they got when PC owners found out that console owners will have lots of the features PC owners wanted from the beginning (no AH, local coop, better loot system, etc). They felt betrayed, having already payed for the product and only getting a lesser version. I guess they added things up and decided to transform their not-so-glorious revenues from the RMAH into some hard goodwill currency with the PC gamers. That, combined with the fact that the expansion is coming up, could lighten up people who are now fallen out with the game and make them buy again.

The important thing now is that instead of playing Auction House 3, people can try to find gameplay fun (not that it's there, but it's up to them).
 
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Worked fine for those of us who play hardcore. I can imagine it's a bag of stupid in softcore though.
 
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I liked AH, was nice to sell items for buck, and buying some cool items that i was too lazy to grind. Oh well, back to trade chat...
 
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About "Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.".
Could not have been figured out before. Millions had to be invested just to find out the obviious.

Obvious? For me the major error of D3 is to have design the game with that in mind. And the result is awful:
- Stupid difficulty step to push players into grinding items.
- Destruction of classes with the result of erasing the builds.
- Minor and mostly failed randomization.

Fights, drops, random quality and classes builds, that is the core of the Diablo game play. But apparently they need invest some more billions to finally learn it.

Otherwise about the AH, I wonder if it's not a false problem. It's not D2 time, it's more than a decade later. Most chance that a huge black market will take the place and Blizzard won't be able to do anything against that. It could even lead them on lawsuit against them for license abuse.
 
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Every outcome is obvious after it has occurred, since we have the luxury to filter out all the signs that pointed to a different one. If I keep predicting the failure of every new idea I am often going to be right (and when I'm wrong I may as well forget about my prediction like everyone else would have).
 
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