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General: Blizzard Grabs for Cash

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  • StormwindStormwind Member Posts: 60

    I do not play anything from funcom .. that is another company that has taken my money too many times and provided me something in return NOT as promised.  So now they never get more from me .. they can do what they like but My money is something they will NEVER get again if I can help it.

    Add another game company to that list for me after reading about this. 

    No matter how you try to color it What Bilzzard does is News.   But thank you for pointing out others that are going down the same road.  I will add them to my Ignore list as well.  

    Please keep sharing any others you can think of that use the same plan to Bilk people of hard earned cash.

    Look to the stars to know HE is with us. HE hung them as markers, of times and of seasons.

  • ThomasN7ThomasN7 87.18.7.148Member CommonPosts: 6,690

    Bots, gold farmers, cheaters and hackers will all come to Diablo 3 now to exploit the RMAH and try to steal your 3rd party real money account. Not to mention the RMAH now ruins the integrity of the game.

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  • TerranahTerranah Member UncommonPosts: 3,575

    Games used to be about fun, but more and more companies are becoming more brazen about their get rich schemes at the players expense.

     

    I guess what they are doing is the result of some creative thinking. It will be interesting to see how it progresses.  I think at some point the tax man cometh though, and we the consumers and these greedy companies will only have themselves to blame.

  • RaventreeRaventree Member Posts: 456

    The only thing that worries me about this is that if people can sell things for real world money, why would they bother selling them for game currency?  I wonder if items will all end up being sold for real money so the ability to buy them for game currency will suddenly begin to decrease and then eventually simply go away.  Not only that, but then this new real money auction house will spread to other games like a cancer when all gaming companies see they can get a cut of the profits for very little work. 

    A worst case scenario is that playing MMOs becomes less of a time sink for people and more of a persistent money sink.  You want that item?  Oh, well it isn't available for game currency because the seller is only offering it for real money.  You want those other 10 items?  None of them are offered for game currency, so get out your wallet, biatch.

    Initially it sounds like you can buy items for either game currency or real money, but how long will that last when there is the potential to make a real profit?

    Currently playing:
    Rift
    Played:
    SWToR, Aion,EQ, Dark Age of Camelot
    World of Warcraft, AoC

  • RequiamerRequiamer Member Posts: 2,034

    Originally posted by Raventree

    The only thing that worries me about this is that if people can sell things for real world money, why would they bother selling them for game currency?

    Ye the naive people will probably do that. To watch it in the rl money auction few second later probably. I just don't understand very well how this can work effectively, apart if they put some server or items not sellable in the real money auction.

  • sldropsldrop Member Posts: 112

    Originally posted by Azrile

    A lot of uninformed people posting here

    1.  Diablo2 had an ingame currency that nobody wanted.   You could offer your entire ´bank´to a player to buy a single item, and they would laugh at you.  It isn´t a MMORPG, so the ingame currency was useless as a tool

    2.  Diablo2  Anyone who played seriously already did off-site auctions for real money. There were a couple that were reliable, but mostly it was hit or miss.  If you had a high powered item you didn´t need, you had three choices.   Vendor it for ingame currency you don´t need for anything... Sell it to a player for ingame currency you don´t need or finally, go to some off-the-wall website prone to hacking and try to sell it for real life money

    3  Diablo2  An ingame AH using ingame currency is worthless.  As stated, ingame currency has NO value.. everyone is rich already and there is nothing you can buy with it.

    4.  This is EBAY with an ingame UI.   Blizzard is taking a small cut, paypal will take a small cut, but the money is going to other players.  Blizzard is NOT selling high level items for real money

    5.  Where is the outrage about other companies?   Does everyone know that Funcom recently launched a new ´hardcore´ pvp server, and at the same time offered high end epic gear available for purchase with real money?   I find it funny that Blizzard is allowing a system where players can buy and sale items to each other safely ingame and people have a fit and articles get written.. but other games offer pay2win pvp items and it never gets mentioned.

    Oh yeah.. this is mmorg.com

    I only played d2 at medcore at best

    1) its true u only need gold for fix and pots. But there wasnt so much ideas back then.  Im sure Bliz can find a lot of way to make player use gold.(like WoW)

    2) i usally tarde items for other items. You can also save the items for your alts. You shouldnt sell items for money. Thats just dumb. You play for fun not to make money.

    3) Bliz shpuld add some Value to the gold!!

    4)Ebay for  not real items are dumb. All you buying is icons, that can go away when bliz say so

    5) The pay2win games are mostly crap. Most of those game are F2P with P2W cash mall. Bliz is going this road and it suck. 

    Still my guess is Bliz using D3 as a testing ground... if they can get Ebay into D3 i bet its going to be in WoW next. Next thing you know bliz going to allow people to sell gold/Char/account for real money. 

  • VorthanionVorthanion Member RarePosts: 2,749

    I won't be a part of it.  This will be the first Blizzard game that I will never buy.  It was already bad that they required online access for a single player game in order to play Starcraft, now we have that and real money auctions, no thanks.

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  • TokyojoeTokyojoe Member Posts: 49

    Have you noticed greed creeping into WoW? I mean more so than usual and fairly recently. About the time that WoW started selling items like the my little pony $25 dollar mount,the old,original ceo of Blizzard had stepped down. He was an old school gamer. Universally liked and respected. An original designer of the game. Then there was a corporate merger. He was replaced by a Wall Street-type ceo who,by some accounts,doesn't even play the games he controls. Developers say this online. Google this guy and read for yourself. Don't take my word for it. You will immediately be presented with  references to his greed He once said in an interview,right after the great recession started,that he wished he could jack the price of all games up,he nervously said later ,after the hate mail began to pile up,that he was just kidding. Nobody laughed. He presided over Cataclysm,which seems to be referenced by a lot of players recently leaving that game. Games have always been about money....but the fun used to hold its own against the money and greed. Feel Wall Street's filthy,evil hand reaching into your games?

    I may know the least here,but I am the loudest about what I do know.

  • VorthanionVorthanion Member RarePosts: 2,749

    Wall Street has been trying to find ways of monopolizing the cash cow that is the internet.  It's why they have been so adamant about killing the Net Neutrality bill, without it, businesses get to decide who gets bandwitdth and who doesn't, where the bill says that all bandwitdth is equal.  Blizzard is going to get into trouble if hey keep this guy, I guarantee it.  This industry makes money b y entertaining people, not by ripping them off with virtual goods for money.

    image
  • RevivialRevivial Member Posts: 194

    I love the idea of the RMAH system, and am kind of excited i might be able to tell my girlfriend I made some money playing video games today, without breaking any tos.

     

    I never cared for the repetitive grind in Diablo.  I never played through the D1 or D2 more then once.  Now I might be more inclined to do so, if it means money i can use on the new SCII expansion, or other blizzard products.

    (Some of those plushies they have would make great gifts, and if i can get them just from playing D3 all i can say is, Hell yeah!)

    "I swear -- by my life and my love for it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
    - John Galt

  • TadzioTadzio Member UncommonPosts: 103

    It's a very good idea imo, I fully support this.

    Its really a matter of having legal RMT vs having illegal RMT.

    RMT won't go, if you dont want to use this AH, then don't - they're giving you second AH for gold (in game currency)

     

    Either way, in under 3 months chinese stuff will flood all the servers and you will be able to equip whole character for 2-3 bucks lol.

  • Deathwing980Deathwing980 Member UncommonPosts: 80

    Yeah... NOPE NOT BUYING IT, i've lost all hope in MMO games today... Even if Blizzards Diablo is an Server based client side.... oh wait thats diablo 2... diablo 3 is now only their side...

     

    with the introduction of a system where they will use real money instead of in game money and then take more money from us for posting items in the auction house i feel like the gamers in general are only seen as money bags, todays economy has FUCKED US TO BEGIN WITH... how the hell are we going to be able to keep games like these around if they only want our money and dont give two shits about everyone else..

     

    ive stop subscribing to games because i have no money to pay for them... id love to go back to RIFT and EVE and PLANETSIDE but unfortunately the amoutn of money im making here is limited and college BILLS are rising due to the UNITED STATES FUCKING UP AGAIN....

     

    Blizzard really has sold out on us, its a wonder why the WoW community hasnt gone to shit... wait it has xD

     

    anyways, my point being....

     

    Thinking that real money will solve everything... Micro Transactions, no matter how you say it is PAY TO WIN no matter what, and since Blizzard has deemed Diablo 3 to be the next Pay to Win game... They will most certainly do that to the next MMO they are releasing... on top of Starcrafts next expansion costing another 60$ for a shitty campaign expansion and a reskin of the tech trees.... ok, now youve got my wallet... BULLSHIT You do, you've just angered me and caused me to see that you've literally only care about the $$$ more now than you have back in the original days of gaming when you asked only for our support.

     

    *sigh* i know im going to take flak for this but whatever... hit me with your best shot, for i have no hope for anything in the gaming industry now (and im freaking entering it... god its depressing)

  • ZolgarZolgar Member Posts: 533

    [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!!

     

    And this time it won't be just bots, but every player and their cousin that's trying to make a quick buck.

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  • SpallieroSpalliero Member Posts: 147

    Fremium. At least that's the ingame consequence, pay to win. Win what though? I'm not sure.

     

    Simple numbers say that Activision/Blizzard will make millions off of this plan. It's like they are offering an in game ATM, and they take a little off the top everytime.

     

    Lookout EA/Bioware, I can imagine Riccitiello's conference calls, talk about evil.

    Sic Luceat Lux

  • XzenXzen Member UncommonPosts: 2,607

    I know a few people that made a living out of hunting rares in Diablo 2. If people are going to do it anyway making it easier and legal to do so doesn't hurt anyone. If you don't want to pay real world cash then put on your + rare drop% gear and go get it.

  • SiveriaSiveria Member UncommonPosts: 1,421

    Originally posted by Bastyani



    I quit Lineage 2 for the very same reason. Farmers simply camped and owned places where best items (and most expensive) dropped so they could sell them on Ebay.



    What will prevent farmers now to camp places like that to collect all the best items and sell them regulary (this time) on market. And believe me, there is no guild that can fight off these farmers as I'm talking about 100+ organised people who work for their *BOSS* in some shady place.



    People will buy the game. Firstly because it Blizzard and secondly because its probably good.



    But once  realising they cant get items they want simply because of farmers, unless they say hello to the little thing called Mastercard or Visa. Rage quit is inevitable.



    Blizzard, wake up! You are going the wrong way! Billions aren't good enough for you? You want trillions?


     

    You do relize that although this is online online it is not a MMO, the worlds are not persistant, its most likely like diablo 2 where you go into Bnet and can create your own solo game with a password no one else can get into. Either way I am just thinking this is blizz's way to nickle and dime people, and you will still see items on blackmarket sites, maybe even moreso, since its in the game blizzard won't really notice as much. If u can avoid a few dollar fee by listing it on a forum etc someone will do it. So really IMO this is just another way for blizz to nickle and dime their playerbase, as if they don't do this enough with world of farmcraft. I do not like this idea at all, No offline play, forced online, and I bet the drop rates will be so astronomically low that your pretty much forced to use the RMT AH to get anything decent. I see no reason why people can't be allowed to play it off line, there is no valid reason at all, since the chars on Bnet are saved on Bnet servers and not locally, so its not like they can intermingle. In my eyes its just blizzard forcing people to be exposed to their nickle and diming.

    Because of the no offline play, no lan online play using local chars, I have gone from highly intersted to "meh i'll wait and see" Plus I heard D3 is horribly dumbed down compared to diablo 2, which alot of devs seem to be doing look at Dragon age 1 compared to 2. 2 Is massivly dumbed down. Thankfully I didn't waste a cent on that garbage YAY torrents but thats another matter. Besides I bet the pirates will figure out a way to hack the D3 client so it thinks the users pc is the server, seen them do this for other games. One way or another offline play will eventually come, and so will mods.

    Being a pessimist is a win-win pattern of thinking. If you're a pessimist (I'll admit that I am!) you're either:

    A. Proven right (if something bad happens)

    or

    B. Pleasantly surprised (if something good happens)

    Either way, you can't lose! Try it out sometime!

  • redpinsredpins Member Posts: 147

    How many bots will plague the online spawns? How will they compete with tousnads of gold farmers now going to camp such spawns and make epic hacks that will ensure they win? They can't, and they knew it. Instead, let the gold farmers bypass that, hack up the game, and they can now let Blizzard make a 10%~30% margin off that. The downside is that they don't need to bypass the Blizzard fees, they can almost now legally hack the game til either everyone buys from them and joins them or everyone quits. I smell ultimate money grab before problems ruin Diablo 3.

    Don't try to say "antihack will beat them." It won't, and now I have confirmed that I will not buy a copy or play, unless someone wastes money on it for me. I will not buy this game for $60 just to be cool. You can, I won't. Maybe at $30 like Warhammer, but not $60. If  I want to get outbeat by botters and hackers I'll go play another game. And if you didn't know, there are loads of active and premium SC2 hacks, including some which still work. Don't try to justify or reason that Diablo 3 will be any different. You just need a good flashdrive and a autobot and you can join the elite 3% of Diablo 3, GOLDFARMERS. It's not a doom and gloom message but one for you to wake up, be cautious, and then see what you can do about it.

    I struggle not with life, money, emotions, and world, but against old mindsets and selves to be proven obsolete in a age and time of rapid changes. Go create fun, so you can have fun.

  • CeridithCeridith Member UncommonPosts: 2,980

    Originally posted by Robokapp



    Originally posted by Zolgar

    [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!!

     

    And this time it won't be just bots, but every player and their cousin that's trying to make a quick buck.

     o...kay. competitive markets driving prices down? sounds horrible.

    you'd rather pay 39.99 for it?


     

    If you're just throwing money at the game, yeah it's great. If you're trying to sell anything yourself, you're not going to make much of everything. Which is the entire point, is that the gold farmers, hackers, and botters are the ones who truly profit from this system. The average gamer is still screwed no matter what.

  • ZolgarZolgar Member Posts: 533

    Originally posted by Robokapp

    Originally posted by Zolgar

    [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!! [Sword of Ultimate Doom and Death] on AH! You buy now for only $19.99!!!!!

     

    And this time it won't be just bots, but every player and their cousin that's trying to make a quick buck.

     o...kay. competitive markets driving prices down? sounds horrible.

    you'd rather pay 39.99 for it?

    Now, I know you're a Blizzard Hammer Legion Member, but do try and pay attention. It wasn't the price I was talking about, but the Spam. Hence why I repeated it a few times.

     

    And competetive prices? Seeing as how there are THREE transaction fee's (put it in the AH, once it sells, and to transfer your money), chances are these prices won't drop to low prices much at all, especially when the Asian farmers run the AH (which they eventually will), in order for them to make some sort of decent profit. Because of these fee's, there will be a set minimum price basically.

     

    EDIT: That's not to say that D3 won't be a solid game otherweise. Because I'm sure it will. Blizzard does make great solid, quality products. Plain and simple. I just feel that major problems lay in wait with this decision.

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  • Deathwing980Deathwing980 Member UncommonPosts: 80

    Originally posted by Robokapp

    Originally posted by Ceridith

    If you're just throwing money at the game, yeah it's great. If you're trying to sell anything yourself, you're not going to make much of everything. Which is the entire point, is that the gold farmers, hackers, and botters are the ones who truly profit from this system. The average gamer is still screwed no matter what.

     affordable items for cheap cheap prices? he dosnt sound screwed. he sounds like he's getting good gear for a good deal.

     

    your point is playing the game not making a living off of it, right?

    I prefer my old fashion fight and keep fighting till it drops, diablo was fun that way because the dungeons always changed... its just going to turn into a fucked up game in a fuck up company... so yeah.. no 60$ from me and no 60$ for any other game from them unless they GET THEIR HEADS OUT OF THEIR MONEY GRABBING ASSES!

  • WSIMikeWSIMike Member Posts: 5,564

    I won't be buying it.

    FFS... Since when did "ways to make money by playing games" become as important - if not more important than - "playing games to have fun"?

    What the hell is going on with the gaming industry? Every time you turn around, it's something about another company finding a way to bring real money into it.

    It's as though their first and foremost concern is "What can we do to continue milking more money from the players after they've bought the game...?", rather than "What new and creative things can we do to keep the player entertained and wanting to play even long after they've bought the game?"

    Just like TV and Movies... Corporate greed has found its way to destroy gaming by turning it into nothing more than attempts at new ways to make them more money. We used to be "gamers" for whom companies were trying to make genuinely fun games, to make them money and keep them in business. I'm sure even Blizzard remembers things working that way. Now we're just piggy-banks from which they're trying to find new ways to get more $$$ from.

    It's freakin' disgusting.

    You make a good game, people will buy it, you make money. Simple.

    Games weren't broken before. There was no need to bring real money into the equation. People played and enjoyed games just fine as they were for decades. This whole RMT love-fest exists for one reason and one reason only: Corporate Greed.


    "If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road,
    and the cash shop selling asphalt..."
    - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops

    image

  • bumfmanbumfman Member Posts: 276

    The reason they wont allow off line single player is so that items wont be duped and sold, staying online will be an easy way for them to see if anyone is trying to do it.

    I understand the reason for that part, but i still dont like not being able to play single player without interwebs.

    It just feels like another lost freedom.

    Work hard Play Harder

  • CeridithCeridith Member UncommonPosts: 2,980

    Originally posted by Robokapp

    Originally posted by Ceridith

    If you're just throwing money at the game, yeah it's great. If you're trying to sell anything yourself, you're not going to make much of everything. Which is the entire point, is that the gold farmers, hackers, and botters are the ones who truly profit from this system. The average gamer is still screwed no matter what.

     affordable items for cheap cheap prices? he dosnt sound screwed. he sounds like he's getting good gear for a good deal.

     

    your point is playing the game not making a living off of it, right?

    My point is that anyone who wants to play the game legitimately and trade fairly is pretty much screwed.

    Gold & item farmers, botters, hackers, all working to undermine the economy so they can profit. The average gamer will be hard pressed to keep up with the item inflation through legitimate gameplay, because of the flood coming out of the 'for profit' segment that doesn't 'play fair'.

    Unless players intend to play in a vaccuum and disassociate themselves from the rest of the player population, they will forever be gimped compared to those who do pull out their credit card. Now some people are perfectly fine with playing a game like that. For me personally, I'd rather just play a game that still adheres to keeping the spirit of the game alive.

    Blizzard just keeps making Torchlight 2 look better and better.

  • CeridithCeridith Member UncommonPosts: 2,980

    Originally posted by WSIMike

    I won't be buying it.

    FFS... Since when did "ways to make money by playing games" become as important - if not more important than - "playing games to have fun"?

    What the hell is going on with the gaming industry? Every time you turn around, it's something about another company finding a way to bring real money into it.

    It's as though their first and foremost concern is "What can we do to continue milking more money from the players after they've bought the game...?", rather than "What new and creative things can we do to keep the player entertained and wanting to play even long after they've bought the game?"

    Just like TV and Movies... Corporate greed has found its way to destroy gaming by turning it into nothing more than attempts at new ways to make them more money.

    It's freakin' disgusting.

    You make a good game, people will buy it, you make money. Simple.

    I understand why game deveopers have fallen into this. They're under the sway of their corporate overlords who only care about profit. It's sad though because a lot of companies that used to be about making quality games have been overcome with the same corporate greed that they tried to get away from.

    What I truly don't understand though, is the gamers that defend it. It's like they want to be treated like dirt and forced to pay more money for a sub-par quality product. A lot of these companies, Blizzard included, don't care how much you enjoy their games, so long as they get your money. They're not your friend, they're not trying to do you any favors, and they don't care if you're happy. All they care about is that you keep opening your wallet for them. I don't know whether to laugh at or pity the people who jump to the defense of the big name developers.

  • LawlmonsterLawlmonster Member UncommonPosts: 1,085

    My whole problem with this is that Blizzard is taking the "can't beat them, join them" approach, rather than actually getting rid of the problem. Instead, they realized the potential to make money from people like gold farmers, and are taking advantage of that. This just reinforces, to me personally, that Activision is indeed calling the shots in their relationship, and that bottom lining really is what this industry has been reduced to.

    "This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)

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