If the unified cry of "It's about time!" is to be believed, apparently the Diablo 3 auction house is closing next year. If my kids weren't trying to nap I can assure you I'd be joining their triumphant cries.
Diablo 3 is a hack n' slash RPG developed by Blizzard. In the game you're constantly leveling up your character and acquiring new gear, all to let you replay the game and beat it on a steeply-progressing difficulty curve. The staple of the Diablo franchise is the constant quest for finding the best pieces of randomized gear, and it's something that has kept some people playing the previous game for 13 year.
The auction house was a new addition to the recently released Diablo 3, and it is something that seriously crippled the state of the game. Rather than spending hours grinding for gear, followed by the necessary bragging rights attached to a good piece of gear, people could circumvent the entire process and bid on pieces of gear for in-game gold or real cash. From the few discussions I followed, this did a number of things to the game.
- New Diablo players had no desire to beat the game several times. The Diablo that veteran gamers had applauded for years had lost its luster because working for gear wasn't a driving factor.
- Players paid a few bucks to ignore hours and hours of gameplay, essentially paying more to enjoy less of the game.
- Players felt no sense of pride in having good gear because their efforts matched those who paid money not to have to play the game.
- Prices in the auction house were unstable at best, making it practically unusable for players who might have wanted to use real money.
- Because real money was involved, players were required to be connected to the internet to play the game lest someone cheat to create a powerful item.
- While more of a conspiracy theory, the system was designed to let Blizzard get their own revenue from the auction fees, thereby warping the entire loot system because they needed to make gear so hard to attain that the AH was required at higher levels.
Along with the removal of the AH, a new loot system is being implemented to make up for the vacuum its absence will leave. While I haven't followed the story too closely, I must say that I want to applaud Blizzard's decision. While implementing it was a bad idea in the first place, Microsoft has taught us that fans appreciate a reversal of poor decisions. I don't know that it will get me to play again because I got tired of the same levels over and over, but if World of Warcraft hadn't sapped my tolerance of monotony I would be all-in for buying the next expansion.
The AH never made sense to me anyway. You guys know my feelings on pay-to-win business models, and the general vibe from those games never meshed with the otherwise great game of Diablo 3. PtW games always have a sense of "rat bastardness" to them, making you shake your fist at the game developers for hooking you in this far and feeling like you have no choice but to pay lest all your time be for naught.
Diablo didn't feel like the type of game that should have a monetary system, nor did the end result of "winning" seem worth the money. In traditional games there's always new stuff hidden behind a cash wall. New dungeons, class abilities, etc. But with Diablo the only thing you really got by paying money was the ability to beat the same enemies on a higher difficulty. It always seemed to be such an odd thing, and those stubborn people who insisted on trudging on without paying were penalized by having relevant item drop slow to a trickle at best.
So I say good riddance to a silly idea. I hope Blizzard has learned from this. I'm not wholly opposed to a "cash shop" in a game, but let's make some sense out of what people are being charged for.
See you tomorrow!
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