It's obvious that blizzard made low drop rates too kinda force people in to using AH.
This maybe true but we must also consider the fact that having too low drop rates during release is better than having too high drop rates. So it is better that Blizzard originally made it really hard to find really good items than what it would been if really good items had dropped all time. Of course, one can accuse Blizzard of being slow to repair the situation as it has taken them five months to reach patch 1.0.5 which seems like it could be the "final solution" to the drop rate problem for non-AH users and those who don't have a lot of time to use for farming. But they have already made adjustments in previous patches and I really think slow and gradual increase of drop rates is better than a huge change all at once.
I think we should all just wait and see how things go after 1.0.5 hits live servers. I actually started my first HC character and I plan to kill Inferno Diablo with no AH with the help of the monster nerfs at MP 0 and the increased drop rates.
HC is honestly much more enjoyable to me currently.
It's obvious that blizzard made low drop rates too kinda force people in to using AH. What they should do remove RMAH increase drop rates. Since only because you find a legendary it doesn't mean it's any good.
And if they increase the drop rates on items overall, then they can start making ladder reset. Because what I feel then is that you don't feel to bad about loosing all your gear when you know it's easier to get back.
Why should they remove the RMAH? I'm one among many people who enjoy to have the option to sell stuff we find? Dont like it? dont use it? Because you dont like it? Why should that prevent those, who do like it from using it? What gives you the right try enforce what "YOU" like/dislike uppon others? What makes you think your that special???
Edit: Oh and if you dont like Diablo 3 as its been designed. Well then DON'T play it. Nobody forces you to play a game your clearly dislike.
I had varying success on the AH but to be honest a game that's supposed to be pick up and play, hand and slash, action rpg is just getting bogged down with the AH.
Having to leave the game to get to the AH, the inefficient design of it, and the lack of freedom when using it make the AH system incongruous and tedious.
The fact that using it greatly improves your ability to progress through the game, and hence making it almost essential unless you wish to spend a very long time grinding and farming, means you waste a lot of time you could have been smashing, refining AH search parameters.
I've lost a lot of interest in this game. I only come here because I truly and honestly hope that it becomes something I would like to play in the future.
Why do people come here and the official forums to complain instead of just playing something else? Because, like me, they truly, honestly hope that this game changes enough to emulate what they, and I, loved about its predecessors, and at the moment, they, and I, don't believe it is that yet.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"For the price of one bullet you can eat 4 hotcakes." - Vash the Stampede.
It's obvious that blizzard made low drop rates too kinda force people in to using AH. What they should do remove RMAH increase drop rates. Since only because you find a legendary it doesn't mean it's any good.
And if they increase the drop rates on items overall, then they can start making ladder reset. Because what I feel then is that you don't feel to bad about loosing all your gear when you know it's easier to get back.
Why should they remove the RMAH? I'm one among many people who enjoy to have the option to sell stuff we find? Dont like it? dont use it? Because you dont like it? Why should that prevent those, who do like it from using it? What gives you the right try enforce what "YOU" like/dislike uppon others? What makes you think your that special???
Edit: Oh and if you dont like Diablo 3 as its been designed. Well then DON'T play it. Nobody forces you to play a game your clearly dislike.
You are the most blind person in this post. Stop telling people they should just stop playing the game, instead be constructive.
We are giving very reasonable feedback on the system, and guess what, blizzard is listening to us.
And like I have constantly said in this thread, the AH isn't the issue. The issue is the drop rates, which blizzard is fixing.
Also yes, I would like to see a ladder. Essentially it would be a SC server (or an HC ladder also) with no RMAH. Leave the RMAH to the people who don't understand that this is a game and earning money from it should not be the end game. The players in HC already realise this. Prices on the ladder server would not be so rediculous, since gold would not be inflated to the extent it is on the normal servers.
That is not a suggestion, is a fact. I got my WD with "decent" gear, I got 25k dps, ~350 AR and 50k hp. I can barely survive Act 3, it is not enjoyable, I die twice or more when I find elites. Im paragon 8, since paragon 0 I didnt find a single useful item, not for my WD or for any other class I have. And when I say non-usable items, I mean bows with only +int, WD daggers with +str and no int, a decent rolled item but with 320 dps, etc etc etc.
Once you identify your 567th rare and are all the same.. well, you quit. But, if you want to have a coherent item, you have only one way to do it -> AH.
You're going to think I'm an ass, but so be it. If you're only pLvl 8 at this stage your issue is efficiency in farming and nothing else. Your pXP belies the underlying premise that you'd have us believe that you're killing tons and tons of monsters. You're not. The best way to get loot in Diablo (1, 2, LoD, and 3) has been to kill tons of monsters. You're not doing that. You need to up your efficiency and you need to do it severely.
It's obvious that blizzard made low drop rates too kinda force people in to using AH.
I very much disagree with this. Droprates are of a huge concern in ANY system where there is no item decay (outside of HC characters dying and people quitting the game). No matter what the mechanism for item exchange is, eventually the market becomes completely saturated with items. Now you may tell me that the AH allows people to trade far more efficiently and you may be right about that, but there is no way that you, I, or Blizzard could ever quantify that either, so it's nothing more than a gut feeling and certainly not a point that could be linked as causality.
So I think it's pretty absurd to blame the AH for droprates. If the AH didn't exist they'd still have to balance the droprates around the fact that we can trade items and then the same zealots would kick up a shitstorm on the forums that they're "forced to trade" because "droprates are based on trading."
How about a separate mode (in addition to SC and HC) with no AH, all gears are account bound and no trade, and legendary drop rate is 10 times higher. I wonder how many people will choose to play on that mode.
How about accept that there is an auction house? and if you can't accept that. Be glad there is other games ie Torchlight 2, games that may suit you more.
How about a separate mode (in addition to SC and HC) with no AH, all gears are account bound and no trade, and legendary drop rate is 10 times higher. I wonder how many people will choose to play on that mode.
I've seen this suggested a lot.
Do you honestly think Blizzard would offer this mode at this point in the games life? It's on the same level as them adding LAN games or single player mode... it's simply not something they will add.
At lot of people are missing the point. I don't think any sane person who understands anything about this game says that it would be better with no AH even though you can still trade stuff. Removing AH and letting you still trade will just make the current situation 100 times worse. Instead of spending 50% of your time on the AH, you'd have to spend 95% of it trading if not more. That is if you want to be efficient, which is something most would want in a game where efficiency is the only real goal as stated by the developers. They are too incompetent/ignorant to give us real challenges, while keeping efficiency as an important factor without discouraging us from taking on said challenges.
Changes to drop rates or affix rolls of any kind will fix nothing. They will change the difficulty of the game, which won't matter much as it just changes how easy it is (it is already quite easy). However you will still need to spend a huge portion of your time on the AH (or trading if AH didn't exist) in order to be efficient. There is no fix for that other than adopting a WoW-like system, which they wouldn't do - Some argue because of RMAH, some (and Blizzard) would argue that it's what players want and is more D2-style (which may be the real reason but a pretty stupid reason in my opinion).
In the end the problem is not the AH itself, but rather the fact anything can be traded.
As for finding your own upgrades on a regular basis, unfortunately no matter what they do this is not going to happen. If you keep finding upgrades on a regular basis your stats will eventually explode beyond all proportions. The rate at which you find upgrades has to decrease the longer you play. No way around that unless they want to allow you to get infinite power. This doesn't have anything to do with AH, trading, or even how loot works at all. It's a fact that won't be changed in any way whatsoever. Then again, I think what people complain about more is that they can't find "upgrades that would make them as godly as the top players" often, which is not the same argument, but then again if the whole purpose of the game is upgrading your gear to massively increasing rarity levels so that you always have something to upgrade, then you simply can't be allowed to find such items on a regular basis, because then they won't be so godly anymore.
Do you honestly think Blizzard would offer this mode at this point in the games life? It's on the same level as them adding LAN games or single player mode... it's simply not something they will add.
^ true, I don't think they would implement that even in an expansion.
I think this thread has run it's course and has turned into a flame war. Mods?
People are still extremely interested in discussing AH issues. As long as there's still interesting arguments being thrown around we'll allow people to talk about it.
And to encourage that I'm leaving a friendly reminder here to the people poking each other (you know who you are): stay on topic and cease the personal attacks, or I'll be forced to give out infractions. Thank you.
1, It affects me because i as a player Cannot trade with other players items for other items. Or find upgrades.. Why? Because for one its not secret that the RNG right now sucks big time, and that with botters running the AH and Blizzard doing nothing to stop it pumps to much money into the economy which means upgrade i want to buy cost 300m or 100m I can understand 100m But anything higher then that is just plain ludacris
Isnt Ludacris the name of a rapper or something like that?
How about a separate mode (in addition to SC and HC) with no AH, all gears are account bound and no trade, and legendary drop rate is 10 times higher. I wonder how many people will choose to play on that mode.
Changes to drop rates or affix rolls of any kind will fix nothing. They will change the difficulty of the game, which won't matter much as it just changes how easy it is (it is already quite easy). However you will still need to spend a huge portion of your time on the AH (or trading if AH didn't exist) in order to be efficient. There is no fix for that other than adopting a WoW-like system, which they wouldn't do - Some argue because of RMAH, some (and Blizzard) would argue that it's what players want and is more D2-style (which may be the real reason but a pretty stupid reason in my opinion).
In the end the problem is not the AH itself, but rather the fact anything can be traded.
As for finding your own upgrades on a regular basis, unfortunately no matter what they do this is not going to happen. If you keep finding upgrades on a regular basis your stats will eventually explode beyond all proportions. The rate at which you find upgrades has to decrease the longer you play. No way around that unless they want to allow you to get infinite power. This doesn't have anything to do with AH, trading, or even how loot works at all. It's a fact that won't be changed in any way whatsoever. Then again, I think what people complain about more is that they can't find "upgrades that would make them as godly as the top players" often, which is not the same argument, but then again if the whole purpose of the game is upgrading your gear to massively increasing rarity levels so that you always have something to upgrade, then you simply can't be allowed to find such items on a regular basis, because then they won't be so godly anymore.
Agree with this.
I also notice that some people are extreamly impacient on getting the godly items. But as it is now i dont feel it is extreamly different as it was back in D2. Sure in D2 you got dropped shitty legendaries ALL the time, but the usefull ones were quite difficult to get. In my YEARS of playing i got dropped with no more than 5 of the extreamly rare ones, and many more that were usefull in almost every build (like stormshield or shako) but everyone had one of them. Maybe people are anger because there aren't "best possible items" that are easy to get now, like those 2 where.
If anyone played D2 back then (probably between 10 and 25 years old) could recall farming for HOURS!. Now diablo 3 is no different, you must farm for HOURS to get good stuff, but now the majority of the diablo saga playing base are on their 25+ years old and have less free time on their hands. (just a conjeture).
And the end game is the same as D2, first equip and tune your main char, then get an mf set for the best mf class (nobody even discussed what class is best for mf), then get good stuff for your secondary class, then get decent/godly PvP gear for all classes, then repat on hardcore.... thats diablo style replayability. Maybe people are now stuck with only one class that is already tuned and therefore they dont get upgrades.
EDIT:
Adding to the itamization duscussion: How about making items to have depreciation of their value by making them "breakable" for practical purposes. Something like the item can always be repaired but by incresed costs. So the items have a counter (n) that states how many times it was repaired, hence the repair cost could be (n) x (original repair cost) or something like that. (or logaritmic, so the repair costs dont get out of hand too fast)
this could make the auction house not to get flooded with godly items, making new mid-range items more appealing.
Basically if you let people get the best loot easily, they will complain that they finished the game too fast and there is nothing to do anymore. If you don't let them get the best loot easily, they will complain it is taking them too long to get the best loot.
Only solution is to have more interesting stuff in the game beyond just getting more loot (and paragon levels just don't cut it as they're just a mean to get more loot).
The "get more loot to defeat greater challenges which will give you more loot which will then let you defeat even greater challenges etc etc" kind of loop is what could really save this game. That way they can make it so that the better loot we have the more difficult the game becomes (as we go into a higher difficulty to get the even better loot) but there's always something you can progress into other than just making the same boring game even more boring as your gear is improved.
I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue, will speak to the OP, from the position of pure reason! (this kind of starting seems popular here)
firstly, i DON'T vocally dislike AH, this is first time I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue (this gets more fun with each use), speak of this
thesis HAS TO rely on diablo2 experience, as only reasonable and comparable example.
if we accept that games were plagued with similar amount of bugs/imbalances at start, which is questionable, on to the points,
Diablo 2:
1. gold was nearly worthless addition - you could buy basically nothing, repair/revive, or lost it partially upon death - hardly a pressing matter
2. as a result, items eligible for trade had no known prices - some sites kept unreliable statistics of approximate value od high level uniques expressed in runes, but rares value couldn't be quantitized
3. as a final result, no initial abuse/exploit could be of great significance, much less game-breaking
Diablo 3:
1. gear is necessary
2. more often than not, gear is bought with gold
3. there were, and are, many ways in exploiting/abusing gold income - some removed, but mostly not
4. initial discovery/knowledge of abuse lead to person(s) in question massing unhealthy amount of gold
5. unlike Diablo 3, this affects AH, and consequently game itself, to a great extent
6. it is crucial if the item prices are controlled by item-sniping bots, a group of AH moguls, or similar - crucial from normal, honest players point of view
7. this is also a reason for majority of people to demand a higher drop rates, which are too high anyway - being able to see hundreds of items player desperately wants but which are out of his financial reach leads to natural frustration
8. in Diablo 2, about same number of same item (hundreds) wouldn't even be noticed, therefore causing no discontent
9. furthermore, there is no signs that AH is recovered, and honestly 1.05 patch notes does not give me much confidence over it, but i prefer to see it in work first
10. supposing 1.05 or following patches does not bring any solution, AH will remain a constant source of abuse/following frustration
11. unlike dave's god, i'm unable to see any real way to fix it, except a very radical ones (like killing an astrounaut? no, way past that stage...)
To the OP:
I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue (each time, yes), have a fair questions for you!
"What are YOUR oppinions on AH and conclusions after this thread?"
your avatar (as well as manner of speaking) indicates an educated person, reasonably old and prone to drinking problems (a speculation, but the glass IS in your hand). surely, you have to have an opinion over this. mind to share it with us?
I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue, did it for you, it would be nice to return a favour
I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue, will speak to the OP, from the position of pure reason! (this kind of starting seems popular here)
firstly, i DON'T vocally dislike AH, this is first time I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue (this gets more fun with each use), speak of this
thesis HAS TO rely on diablo2 experience, as only reasonable and comparable example.
if we accept that games were plagued with similar amount of bugs/imbalances at start, which is questionable, on to the points,
Diablo 2:
1. gold was nearly worthless addition - you could buy basically nothing, repair/revive, or lost it partially upon death - hardly a pressing matter
2. as a result, items eligible for trade had no known prices - some sites kept unreliable statistics of approximate value od high level uniques expressed in runes, but rares value couldn't be quantitized
3. as a final result, no initial abuse/exploit could be of great significance, much less game-breaking
Diablo 3:
1. gear is necessary
2. more often than not, gear is bought with gold
3. there were, and are, many ways in exploiting/abusing gold income - some removed, but mostly not
4. initial discovery/knowledge of abuse lead to person(s) in question massing unhealthy amount of gold
5. unlike Diablo 3, this affects AH, and consequently game itself, to a great extent
6. it is crucial if the item prices are controlled by item-sniping bots, a group of AH moguls, or similar - crucial from normal, honest players point of view
7. this is also a reason for majority of people to demand a higher drop rates, which are too high anyway - being able to see hundreds of items player desperately wants but which are out of his financial reach leads to natural frustration
8. in Diablo 2, about same number of same item (hundreds) wouldn't even be noticed, therefore causing no discontent
9. furthermore, there is no signs that AH is recovered, and honestly 1.05 patch notes does not give me much confidence over it, but i prefer to see it in work first
10. supposing 1.05 or following patches does not bring any solution, AH will remain a constant source of abuse/following frustration
11. unlike dave's god, i'm unable to see any real way to fix it, except a very radical ones (like killing an astrounaut? no, way past that stage...)
Lol well lets leave pure reason for Kant and Descartes.
Your spot on with your analysis of Diablo 2. The money in diablo 2 was worthless and it was difficult to know what an item was worth thus the many guides which attempted to describe the values which items normally went for from their experience. The AH resolves these issue by making a gold a mandatory commodity of exchange through the use of the AH. Now we know what our items are worth and gold can be used to make easy trades because it is the only viable currency of exchange in the AH.
However i disagree with 7-8. Not that they are incorrect just they the do not entirely capture the issues that players have with the auction house. Players are not just concerned with acquiring items, they are concerned with the WAY/means by which items are acquired. As many people have attested in this thread they have a STRONG preference for finding their own items as opposed to acquiring them through a pseudo vendor-which the AH essentially is.
Thus while i think its right that some people do look at the awesome legendaries and feel frustrated at being unable to afford them. that is not the only issue which people have with the auction house.
The Demand for increased drops is a function both of people desires to have good items, but also to acquire them in certain way. Therefore 7 is false as a great deal of people will be more satisfied with Diablo 3 if drop rates increase---which they are in 1.05.
Will this solve the problem entirely?---No, but will it make the game better for some people?--yes
Prices on the AH will decrease, assuming a stable player base. Clearly some people wont like this, but for those of us who enjoy finding items more than buying them we will be happier.
Of course it's not really the AH that is the problem, and more that the best way to get items is via trading, be it through the AH or other alternatives (which would have become the "new AH" in terms of complaints if the AH never existed).
The problem isn't the AHs - it is that the entire focus of the (end) game is to herd you into using them.
Blizzard knew they wouldn't match up with the legacy of the series, and knew that there's no way it would ever be as profitable as a subscription game. So they made it a guinea pig/economics experiment.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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HC is honestly much more enjoyable to me currently.
Why should they remove the RMAH? I'm one among many people who enjoy to have the option to sell stuff we find? Dont like it? dont use it? Because you dont like it? Why should that prevent those, who do like it from using it? What gives you the right try enforce what "YOU" like/dislike uppon others? What makes you think your that special???
Edit: Oh and if you dont like Diablo 3 as its been designed. Well then DON'T play it. Nobody forces you to play a game your clearly dislike.
Currently played toon: https://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Rage-2973/hero/97362116
Having to leave the game to get to the AH, the inefficient design of it, and the lack of freedom when using it make the AH system incongruous and tedious.
The fact that using it greatly improves your ability to progress through the game, and hence making it almost essential unless you wish to spend a very long time grinding and farming, means you waste a lot of time you could have been smashing, refining AH search parameters.
I've lost a lot of interest in this game. I only come here because I truly and honestly hope that it becomes something I would like to play in the future.
Why do people come here and the official forums to complain instead of just playing something else? Because, like me, they truly, honestly hope that this game changes enough to emulate what they, and I, loved about its predecessors, and at the moment, they, and I, don't believe it is that yet.
You are the most blind person in this post. Stop telling people they should just stop playing the game, instead be constructive.
We are giving very reasonable feedback on the system, and guess what, blizzard is listening to us.
And like I have constantly said in this thread, the AH isn't the issue. The issue is the drop rates, which blizzard is fixing.
Also yes, I would like to see a ladder. Essentially it would be a SC server (or an HC ladder also) with no RMAH. Leave the RMAH to the people who don't understand that this is a game and earning money from it should not be the end game. The players in HC already realise this. Prices on the ladder server would not be so rediculous, since gold would not be inflated to the extent it is on the normal servers.
You're going to think I'm an ass, but so be it. If you're only pLvl 8 at this stage your issue is efficiency in farming and nothing else. Your pXP belies the underlying premise that you'd have us believe that you're killing tons and tons of monsters. You're not. The best way to get loot in Diablo (1, 2, LoD, and 3) has been to kill tons of monsters. You're not doing that. You need to up your efficiency and you need to do it severely.
I very much disagree with this. Droprates are of a huge concern in ANY system where there is no item decay (outside of HC characters dying and people quitting the game). No matter what the mechanism for item exchange is, eventually the market becomes completely saturated with items. Now you may tell me that the AH allows people to trade far more efficiently and you may be right about that, but there is no way that you, I, or Blizzard could ever quantify that either, so it's nothing more than a gut feeling and certainly not a point that could be linked as causality.
So I think it's pretty absurd to blame the AH for droprates. If the AH didn't exist they'd still have to balance the droprates around the fact that we can trade items and then the same zealots would kick up a shitstorm on the forums that they're "forced to trade" because "droprates are based on trading."
It's a neverending cycle of displeasure.
Accept, Adapt or find something else to play
Currently played toon: https://eu.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Rage-2973/hero/97362116
I've seen this suggested a lot.
Do you honestly think Blizzard would offer this mode at this point in the games life? It's on the same level as them adding LAN games or single player mode... it's simply not something they will add.
LOL at that...
I dare you to reply saying it was before 1.03 even, I double dare you Motha**cka!!!
Changes to drop rates or affix rolls of any kind will fix nothing. They will change the difficulty of the game, which won't matter much as it just changes how easy it is (it is already quite easy). However you will still need to spend a huge portion of your time on the AH (or trading if AH didn't exist) in order to be efficient. There is no fix for that other than adopting a WoW-like system, which they wouldn't do - Some argue because of RMAH, some (and Blizzard) would argue that it's what players want and is more D2-style (which may be the real reason but a pretty stupid reason in my opinion).
In the end the problem is not the AH itself, but rather the fact anything can be traded.
As for finding your own upgrades on a regular basis, unfortunately no matter what they do this is not going to happen. If you keep finding upgrades on a regular basis your stats will eventually explode beyond all proportions. The rate at which you find upgrades has to decrease the longer you play. No way around that unless they want to allow you to get infinite power. This doesn't have anything to do with AH, trading, or even how loot works at all. It's a fact that won't be changed in any way whatsoever. Then again, I think what people complain about more is that they can't find "upgrades that would make them as godly as the top players" often, which is not the same argument, but then again if the whole purpose of the game is upgrading your gear to massively increasing rarity levels so that you always have something to upgrade, then you simply can't be allowed to find such items on a regular basis, because then they won't be so godly anymore.
People are still extremely interested in discussing AH issues. As long as there's still interesting arguments being thrown around we'll allow people to talk about it.
And to encourage that I'm leaving a friendly reminder here to the people poking each other (you know who you are): stay on topic and cease the personal attacks, or I'll be forced to give out infractions. Thank you.
Isnt Ludacris the name of a rapper or something like that?
I WILL!
Agree with this.
I also notice that some people are extreamly impacient on getting the godly items. But as it is now i dont feel it is extreamly different as it was back in D2. Sure in D2 you got dropped shitty legendaries ALL the time, but the usefull ones were quite difficult to get. In my YEARS of playing i got dropped with no more than 5 of the extreamly rare ones, and many more that were usefull in almost every build (like stormshield or shako) but everyone had one of them. Maybe people are anger because there aren't "best possible items" that are easy to get now, like those 2 where.
If anyone played D2 back then (probably between 10 and 25 years old) could recall farming for HOURS!. Now diablo 3 is no different, you must farm for HOURS to get good stuff, but now the majority of the diablo saga playing base are on their 25+ years old and have less free time on their hands. (just a conjeture).
And the end game is the same as D2, first equip and tune your main char, then get an mf set for the best mf class (nobody even discussed what class is best for mf), then get good stuff for your secondary class, then get decent/godly PvP gear for all classes, then repat on hardcore.... thats diablo style replayability. Maybe people are now stuck with only one class that is already tuned and therefore they dont get upgrades.
EDIT:
Adding to the itamization duscussion: How about making items to have depreciation of their value by making them "breakable" for practical purposes. Something like the item can always be repaired but by incresed costs. So the items have a counter (n) that states how many times it was repaired, hence the repair cost could be (n) x (original repair cost) or something like that. (or logaritmic, so the repair costs dont get out of hand too fast)
this could make the auction house not to get flooded with godly items, making new mid-range items more appealing.
Only solution is to have more interesting stuff in the game beyond just getting more loot (and paragon levels just don't cut it as they're just a mean to get more loot).
The "get more loot to defeat greater challenges which will give you more loot which will then let you defeat even greater challenges etc etc" kind of loop is what could really save this game. That way they can make it so that the better loot we have the more difficult the game becomes (as we go into a higher difficulty to get the even better loot) but there's always something you can progress into other than just making the same boring game even more boring as your gear is improved.
firstly, i DON'T vocally dislike AH, this is first time I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue (this gets more fun with each use), speak of this
thesis HAS TO rely on diablo2 experience, as only reasonable and comparable example.
if we accept that games were plagued with similar amount of bugs/imbalances at start, which is questionable, on to the points,
Diablo 2:
1. gold was nearly worthless addition - you could buy basically nothing, repair/revive, or lost it partially upon death - hardly a pressing matter
2. as a result, items eligible for trade had no known prices - some sites kept unreliable statistics of approximate value od high level uniques expressed in runes, but rares value couldn't be quantitized
3. as a final result, no initial abuse/exploit could be of great significance, much less game-breaking
Diablo 3:
1. gear is necessary
2. more often than not, gear is bought with gold
3. there were, and are, many ways in exploiting/abusing gold income - some removed, but mostly not
4. initial discovery/knowledge of abuse lead to person(s) in question massing unhealthy amount of gold
5. unlike Diablo 3, this affects AH, and consequently game itself, to a great extent
6. it is crucial if the item prices are controlled by item-sniping bots, a group of AH moguls, or similar - crucial from normal, honest players point of view
7. this is also a reason for majority of people to demand a higher drop rates, which are too high anyway - being able to see hundreds of items player desperately wants but which are out of his financial reach leads to natural frustration
8. in Diablo 2, about same number of same item (hundreds) wouldn't even be noticed, therefore causing no discontent
9. furthermore, there is no signs that AH is recovered, and honestly 1.05 patch notes does not give me much confidence over it, but i prefer to see it in work first
10. supposing 1.05 or following patches does not bring any solution, AH will remain a constant source of abuse/following frustration
11. unlike dave's god, i'm unable to see any real way to fix it, except a very radical ones (like killing an astrounaut? no, way past that stage...)
To the OP:
I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue (each time, yes), have a fair questions for you!
"What are YOUR oppinions on AH and conclusions after this thread?"
your avatar (as well as manner of speaking) indicates an educated person, reasonably old and prone to drinking problems (a speculation, but the glass IS in your hand). surely, you have to have an opinion over this. mind to share it with us?
I, HAL9000, an AI went rogue, did it for you, it would be nice to return a favour
Lol well lets leave pure reason for Kant and Descartes.
Your spot on with your analysis of Diablo 2. The money in diablo 2 was worthless and it was difficult to know what an item was worth thus the many guides which attempted to describe the values which items normally went for from their experience. The AH resolves these issue by making a gold a mandatory commodity of exchange through the use of the AH. Now we know what our items are worth and gold can be used to make easy trades because it is the only viable currency of exchange in the AH.
However i disagree with 7-8. Not that they are incorrect just they the do not entirely capture the issues that players have with the auction house. Players are not just concerned with acquiring items, they are concerned with the WAY/means by which items are acquired. As many people have attested in this thread they have a STRONG preference for finding their own items as opposed to acquiring them through a pseudo vendor-which the AH essentially is.
Thus while i think its right that some people do look at the awesome legendaries and feel frustrated at being unable to afford them. that is not the only issue which people have with the auction house.
The Demand for increased drops is a function both of people desires to have good items, but also to acquire them in certain way. Therefore 7 is false as a great deal of people will be more satisfied with Diablo 3 if drop rates increase---which they are in 1.05.
Will this solve the problem entirely?---No, but will it make the game better for some people?--yes
Prices on the AH will decrease, assuming a stable player base. Clearly some people wont like this, but for those of us who enjoy finding items more than buying them we will be happier.
Of course it's not really the AH that is the problem, and more that the best way to get items is via trading, be it through the AH or other alternatives (which would have become the "new AH" in terms of complaints if the AH never existed).
Blizzard knew they wouldn't match up with the legacy of the series, and knew that there's no way it would ever be as profitable as a subscription game. So they made it a guinea pig/economics experiment.