Please have a read before posting your knee-jerk reaction. Thanks.
The Current State of Affairs:
- Paragon Levels has given players a definite goal to work towards, although the prospect of minute increases of MF/GF past a certain Plvl becomes rather grindy. It is definitely a step in the right direction.
- The Auction House is stagnant. There is too much of a value gap between "great welfare rare" to "desired roll legendary". I'm pretty sure Blizzard is looking at their AH and RMAH transaction volumes and scratching their heads.
- The upcoming patch is a great step. It gives players a much less predictable means of progress, almost to the point of gambling when it comes to creating the rings. This makes people keep coming back for that kick of adrenaline when the ring is being made.
The Auction House is the main attraction of Diablo; that there is a market value for your gear setup that is supported by a robust system. This is also the main product differentiation from other titles such as Torchlight.
I believe it is a big mistake for blizzard to not create a market for Keys or Organs (I'd say organs is the better route). The ability to channel transactions towards an item (the ring) which is account bound is key to resurrecting the AH. It means more gold supply (think money supply in economics) because the ubergeared will bring out their gold to buy the parts, the not-so-ubergeared has a way to earn some gold to upgrade their other gear. In the long run the ubergeared will continue to roll rings, and the market will have a base-line value of gold which is not (as) liable to depreciation as the current oversupply of rares and legendaries. (In case you didn't understand that last sentence: the rings themselves are still account-bound and will not flood the market).
My proposal:
Organs should be Auctionable.
MP10 Should not be a 100% guaranteed drop of keys/organs. Improved yes, not 100% drop. This defeats the purpose of having the MP slider because people will see MP10 as mandatory (isn't this what we are trying to discourage?)
Now here are some possible arguments against this idea and my response to them:
1. We want to move this game away from the "pay-to-win" motto.
Realistically with the introduction of MP the concept of "win" is relative. Someone not-so-geared can still feel success at a lower MP. Sure a rich person will roll maybe 10 times as many rings as your average player under my system...but after their first "good" ring they will keep doing it just in the hopes of getting something better. So all that gold they are spending is going down the sink. Which is exactly what the AH needs.
2. More can be added here in future edits.
While players are busy being excited about how they are going to get their first ring on the PTR, this is the real question Blizzard needs to ask themselves:
The Hellfire Ring will be a huge (and excellent) timesink...why not make it a money sink as well?
If you can auction the organs then the uber geared players will farm them first (they will not have any organs to buy because none exist on the ah yet)
After they craft a few they will turn around and sell them on the ah to the solo players for 10's of millions of gold.
That price would plummet rapidly over the first week and average out to something obtainable to the average players.
The average players would never need to actually kill the ubers to get the ring they just have to farm some gold wait a month and get their welfare best slot in game legendary.
I would like to see a million gold craft cost on it, that would be a money and time sink.
If I could auction them I would craft 2 rings (one for me and one for my follower) take the week off of work and just farm them as long as the prices stayed high. I can safely and quickly farm Mlvl 5 on the ptr, not as good as the streamers a little slow (about 1/2 there speed) but still would probably be making bank.
As it stands expect the streamers to sell mlvl10 runs for 20-50 mil
Now here are some possible arguments against this idea and my response to them: 1. We want to move this game away from the "pay-to-win" motto.
Realistically with the introduction of MP the concept of "win" is relative. Someone not-so-geared can still feel success at a lower MP. Sure a rich person will roll maybe 10 times as many rings as your average player under my system...but after their first "good" ring they will keep doing it just in the hopes of getting something better. So all that gold they are spending is going down the sink. Which is exactly what the AH needs.
To be fair, I think I speak for a vast majority of the playerbase when I say that we want at least a couple things that can't be bought in this game.
There's something different about things that can't be bought for gold/RM on the AH. The feeling is just different.
The average players would never need to actually kill the ubers to get the ring they just have to farm some gold wait a month and get their welfare best slot in game legendary.
To be fair, I think I speak for a vast majority of the playerbase when I say that we want at least a couple things that can't be bought in this game.
There's something different about things that can't be bought for gold/RM on the AH. The feeling is just different.
Have a think about it again. You are buying a chance to roll another ring. You are not buying the ACTUALRING with the stats you want. I'm advocating for a market an OPPORTUNITY, not an item. There will be a difference between what your average player considers to be a "good enough ring", to what your OCD godly considers to be...actually their rings can never be "good enough". Having a market will sort this out.
Getting a best in slot is very rare. The streamers can tell you they can identify 200 rings, and someone they know identifies 1...and guess what? That 1 ring is better than the 200. Having a market for JUST the components does not affect this variation - in fact it encourages it.
Allowing Auctions of components gives everyone an option to CHOOSE how many times they would like to roll the rings, and let me REPEAT NOT CHOOSE what ring they are going to actually get.
As it stands expect the streamers to sell mlvl10 runs for 20-50 mil
Thank you. This is the perfect reason why a market for Organs is superior to no market.
If I could auction them I would craft 2 rings (one for me and one for my follower) take the week off of work and just farm them as long as the prices stayed high. I can safely and quickly farm Mlvl 5 on the ptr, not as good as the streamers a little slow (about 1/2 there speed) but still would probably be making bank.
The two of you should step back for a second, and stop thinking about what YOU would do, or what YOUR feelings are.
You might get a fuzzy feeling that you rolled a decent ring on your first attempt, and then gloat in front of others, but what's really going to happen is:
You are a reasonably casual player. You have your decent ring, GREAT! Back to Paragon leveling....boriiiing! Back to borderlands?
You are a hardcore player. You have made quite a few rings....everyday you continue to do runs in the hope of a better ring...
What I'm suggesting is not for the benefit of your sentiments, but what is better for the longetivity of this game, and this game's defining product feature (because Torchlight has almost everything else D3 has).
But I still stand by my point. There's just something about having a thing in-game that you know can't be bought directly with absolutely 0 effort for gold or real money. I even think it's partially what makes people feel good about TL2 not having an AH/RMAH.
Having at least something in the game that can't be directly bought without putting a single minute in it is a good thing in my book, and something a lot of us wanted. I'm glad this is it. I won't miss it not being on the AH, even if I actually have the gold to buy it.
What about taking a step back and just allowing KEYS to be traded?
After all to converting from keys to organs requires a concerted effort involving at least 5 stacks and 1 run of MP10, more if not MP10.
I'm not really pushing hard for it to happen, because I am perfectly capable of obtaining my own rings, but don't sit in front of the game all day to play the market. I'm just saying giving these rings an "indirect" gold value can only help with the one thing that allows D3 to stand out from competitiors - a comparison of gear values.
I guess the argument really is:
Does Blizzard want to follow player sentiment and do something TL2 does well, in an attempt to reconcile its playerbase?
or
Does Blizzard want to stick to its guns and work on the longetivity of the Auction House, which in turn complements all the other epeen stroking features such as Profile that D3 already has?
My stance is that the current crop of gamers is very promiscuous...nothing really will hold their attention for a long enough period of time. Also the current generation gamers are very social networking conscious, and are eager to show off and gloat their "achievements".
So after playing TL2 and repeatedly enchanting your items...what then? Make a youtube video to show off?
Diablo has an intrinsic system (the market) in place which makes players feel invested, but again that could be just me?
I guess maybe keys would be ok, since it should be easy enough to find the wardens and kill them.
And I totally get your argument about e-peen and profiles and all. And I actually think it's something a lot of people enjoy in a lot of games nowadays. I kinda like it in D3, I'm not ashamed to show my profile and my weak heroes as long as I'm having fun with them
My whole point though was that once there's enough of those keys, to the point they're being sold by 50-100k each (and farmed accordingly by a ton of people wanting a piece of the pie), a lot of players (me included probably) will just go into the AH and buy them all with 1 click.
And the current system takes into account one of the biggest complaints from the playerbase: that playing the game and having the rewards from actual gameplay is a lot more enjoyable than shopping at your local grocery store at the AH. I'd say 80%+ of the complaints on the official forums right now are related to loot, how people can't drop what they want to like ever, no matter how hard they try, and that's mostly because of how easy it is to find awesome gear in the AH (that is no BoA/BoP/BoE, so their values will always drop given enough time).
I'd personally love to save some time being able to buy these on the AH, having limited time to play (compared to when I was younger and didn't work), so I'm actually with you on this one, but I also fully understand why they chose the current system to be the way it is.
It's essentially a way of saying "look, you guys want to play and get rewarded, and you don't wanna hear from others 'use the AH correctly newb' as you've heard in the past months when you said Inferno was hard; it's ok, we'll give that to you". It's probably their way of apologising to many, that's how I see it. All the while helping guys like me who will never throw 150 mil on a Leoric's Signet to work towards something that will help with the insane paragon grinding
I'd actually impressed that we are having a constructive discussion.
that playing the game and having the rewards from actual gameplay is a lot more enjoyable
This is a solid point and now I look at it, there is no issue with Blizzard encourage us to hunt for it ourselves on release, and then a couple months down the track when something else is new, allowing trading of the keys. I actually think that's probably what will happen.
The Current State of Affairs:
- Paragon Levels has given players a definite goal to work towards, although the prospect of minute increases of MF/GF past a certain Plvl becomes rather grindy. It is definitely a step in the right direction.
- The Auction House is stagnant. There is too much of a value gap between "great welfare rare" to "desired roll legendary". I'm pretty sure Blizzard is looking at their AH and RMAH transaction volumes and scratching their heads.
- The upcoming patch is a great step. It gives players a much less predictable means of progress, almost to the point of gambling when it comes to creating the rings. This makes people keep coming back for that kick of adrenaline when the ring is being made.
The Auction House is the main attraction of Diablo; that there is a market value for your gear setup that is supported by a robust system. This is also the main product differentiation from other titles such as Torchlight.
I believe it is a big mistake for blizzard to not create a market for Keys or Organs (I'd say organs is the better route). The ability to channel transactions towards an item (the ring) which is account bound is key to resurrecting the AH. It means more gold supply (think money supply in economics) because the ubergeared will bring out their gold to buy the parts, the not-so-ubergeared has a way to earn some gold to upgrade their other gear. In the long run the ubergeared will continue to roll rings, and the market will have a base-line value of gold which is not (as) liable to depreciation as the current oversupply of rares and legendaries. (In case you didn't understand that last sentence: the rings themselves are still account-bound and will not flood the market).
My proposal:
Organs should be Auctionable.
MP10 Should not be a 100% guaranteed drop of keys/organs. Improved yes, not 100% drop. This defeats the purpose of having the MP slider because people will see MP10 as mandatory (isn't this what we are trying to discourage?)
Now here are some possible arguments against this idea and my response to them:
1. We want to move this game away from the "pay-to-win" motto.
Realistically with the introduction of MP the concept of "win" is relative. Someone not-so-geared can still feel success at a lower MP. Sure a rich person will roll maybe 10 times as many rings as your average player under my system...but after their first "good" ring they will keep doing it just in the hopes of getting something better. So all that gold they are spending is going down the sink. Which is exactly what the AH needs.
2. More can be added here in future edits.
While players are busy being excited about how they are going to get their first ring on the PTR, this is the real question Blizzard needs to ask themselves:
The Hellfire Ring will be a huge (and excellent) timesink...why not make it a money sink as well?
Quadbox MP7 Ubers Video Thread
My Youtube Channel
After they craft a few they will turn around and sell them on the ah to the solo players for 10's of millions of gold.
That price would plummet rapidly over the first week and average out to something obtainable to the average players.
The average players would never need to actually kill the ubers to get the ring they just have to farm some gold wait a month and get their welfare best slot in game legendary.
I would like to see a million gold craft cost on it, that would be a money and time sink.
If I could auction them I would craft 2 rings (one for me and one for my follower) take the week off of work and just farm them as long as the prices stayed high. I can safely and quickly farm Mlvl 5 on the ptr, not as good as the streamers a little slow (about 1/2 there speed) but still would probably be making bank.
As it stands expect the streamers to sell mlvl10 runs for 20-50 mil
To be fair, I think I speak for a vast majority of the playerbase when I say that we want at least a couple things that can't be bought in this game.
There's something different about things that can't be bought for gold/RM on the AH. The feeling is just different.
Have a think about it again. You are buying a chance to roll another ring. You are not buying the ACTUALRING with the stats you want. I'm advocating for a market an OPPORTUNITY, not an item. There will be a difference between what your average player considers to be a "good enough ring", to what your OCD godly considers to be...actually their rings can never be "good enough". Having a market will sort this out.
Getting a best in slot is very rare. The streamers can tell you they can identify 200 rings, and someone they know identifies 1...and guess what? That 1 ring is better than the 200. Having a market for JUST the components does not affect this variation - in fact it encourages it.
Allowing Auctions of components gives everyone an option to CHOOSE how many times they would like to roll the rings, and let me REPEAT NOT CHOOSE what ring they are going to actually get.
Thank you. This is the perfect reason why a market for Organs is superior to no market.
The two of you should step back for a second, and stop thinking about what YOU would do, or what YOUR feelings are.
You might get a fuzzy feeling that you rolled a decent ring on your first attempt, and then gloat in front of others, but what's really going to happen is:
You are a reasonably casual player. You have your decent ring, GREAT! Back to Paragon leveling....boriiiing! Back to borderlands?
You are a hardcore player. You have made quite a few rings....everyday you continue to do runs in the hope of a better ring...
What I'm suggesting is not for the benefit of your sentiments, but what is better for the longetivity of this game, and this game's defining product feature (because Torchlight has almost everything else D3 has).
Quadbox MP7 Ubers Video Thread
My Youtube Channel
But I still stand by my point. There's just something about having a thing in-game that you know can't be bought directly with absolutely 0 effort for gold or real money. I even think it's partially what makes people feel good about TL2 not having an AH/RMAH.
Having at least something in the game that can't be directly bought without putting a single minute in it is a good thing in my book, and something a lot of us wanted. I'm glad this is it. I won't miss it not being on the AH, even if I actually have the gold to buy it.
What about taking a step back and just allowing KEYS to be traded?
After all to converting from keys to organs requires a concerted effort involving at least 5 stacks and 1 run of MP10, more if not MP10.
I'm not really pushing hard for it to happen, because I am perfectly capable of obtaining my own rings, but don't sit in front of the game all day to play the market. I'm just saying giving these rings an "indirect" gold value can only help with the one thing that allows D3 to stand out from competitiors - a comparison of gear values.
I guess the argument really is:
Does Blizzard want to follow player sentiment and do something TL2 does well, in an attempt to reconcile its playerbase?
or
Does Blizzard want to stick to its guns and work on the longetivity of the Auction House, which in turn complements all the other epeen stroking features such as Profile that D3 already has?
My stance is that the current crop of gamers is very promiscuous...nothing really will hold their attention for a long enough period of time. Also the current generation gamers are very social networking conscious, and are eager to show off and gloat their "achievements".
So after playing TL2 and repeatedly enchanting your items...what then? Make a youtube video to show off?
Diablo has an intrinsic system (the market) in place which makes players feel invested, but again that could be just me?
Quadbox MP7 Ubers Video Thread
My Youtube Channel
And I totally get your argument about e-peen and profiles and all. And I actually think it's something a lot of people enjoy in a lot of games nowadays. I kinda like it in D3, I'm not ashamed to show my profile and my weak heroes as long as I'm having fun with them
My whole point though was that once there's enough of those keys, to the point they're being sold by 50-100k each (and farmed accordingly by a ton of people wanting a piece of the pie), a lot of players (me included probably) will just go into the AH and buy them all with 1 click.
And the current system takes into account one of the biggest complaints from the playerbase: that playing the game and having the rewards from actual gameplay is a lot more enjoyable than shopping
at your local grocery storeat the AH. I'd say 80%+ of the complaints on the official forums right now are related to loot, how people can't drop what they want to like ever, no matter how hard they try, and that's mostly because of how easy it is to find awesome gear in the AH (that is no BoA/BoP/BoE, so their values will always drop given enough time).I'd personally love to save some time being able to buy these on the AH, having limited time to play (compared to when I was younger and didn't work), so I'm actually with you on this one, but I also fully understand why they chose the current system to be the way it is.
It's essentially a way of saying "look, you guys want to play and get rewarded, and you don't wanna hear from others 'use the AH correctly newb' as you've heard in the past months when you said Inferno was hard; it's ok, we'll give that to you". It's probably their way of apologising to many, that's how I see it. All the while helping guys like me who will never throw 150 mil on a Leoric's Signet to work towards something that will help with the insane paragon grinding
This is a solid point and now I look at it, there is no issue with Blizzard encourage us to hunt for it ourselves on release, and then a couple months down the track when something else is new, allowing trading of the keys. I actually think that's probably what will happen.
Cheers for the discussion.
Quadbox MP7 Ubers Video Thread
My Youtube Channel