DiabloFans

I did some quick research on sales in my town. We have a population of only about 1,300 people and at out local gamestop (midnight release) there is an estimated 100 people who will show. On our most recent census, I think there around 300 families (averaging in 3 people per family) and that means about 400 other people who are living alone or with non-family members. There are about 520 housholds total.

Anyways my point being, 1 in 13 people in my town are coming to the MIDNIGHT release, and a memeber of 1 in every 5.2 housholds . Not to mention some of the people toward the edges of town are closer to other Gamestops. Obviously these numbers don't include pre-orders from any other websites either.

I know no one cares but I think it is kind of interesting.

I personally like this new style of Diablo. Much more scary in a more sinister kind of way, rather than a brute force kind of way. It's like this version of Diablo has more ways to kill you than just strength alone. I don't know, I would like either form.

Here is my attempt. Simple, yet classy.

I really dislike how there are so many class specific items, it seems like every other item someone picks up is class specific. I don't see why a WD can't use a wand, or a wizard use a crossbow, it doesn't make sense to me at all. It is not game breaking or anything, I just think it is pretty lame.

Boobs

Hey guys, I wanted to start a fun thread to talk about three things.

1. What is your LEAST favorite part of the game you have seen so far? (talk about something that isn't a toggle option)

2. What toggle options will you turn off? Or what do you want to be a toggle option, so you can turn it off?

3. What is your FAVORITE part of the game so far?

4. What is your biggest concern?


1. For me, the mouse icon is just too bland. I'd like to see a gauntlet or something. It's not game breaking or anything, I just think a gauntlet or something would add a little flavor.

2. I will be turning of the floating text like "snared" and the damage. To me it just seems annoying, but I can see why people would like it. I will also be turning off (or toning down) the low health red glow effect. and probably the red outline on mobs. I don't particularly dislike any of those features and I think they are good editions to the game, but I personally don't want them.

3. I love the look and the feel of the game. The game feels very dark and gloomy. I love the feel I get when watching it, and the fact that it makes me want to search every corner of the map for a random event or something exciting. The classes all work really well and fit the feel of the game.


4. Idk what class to play, they all look so cool!!

+1


Metaphorically, my computer is a Barbarian, and those system req. are a fallen, in Act I, normal mode...

If you punch someone, is there a chance you might proc poison nova?

I haven't been on here in forever, but I am getting on just so I can help everyone not worry about the AH situation so much.

The number one reason not to worry about it is that you can sell your gold for real money. How does this fix the problem? Well, if people are only selling the best items of the RMAH but all you have is gold, just sell that gold for real money, then buy the item. The item being sold on the RMAH will sell for an equal amount of real money that it would cost in gold, SO if you don't have enough gold to covert to money to buy the item, you wouldn't have been able to afford it anyways. (Example: lets say the conversion rate of real money/gold is 100g = $1. I am selling the Wand of Death for $5, that would be 500g on the IGG AH. So if you have 500g, sell it for $5 and but my wand or if you have $5 and not 500g, then buy 500g for $5 and buy my wand for IGG, it works either way.) This, to me, ends all reasons to dislike the RMAH system. Farming sites would have existed and the same thing would have been happening, this just makes it safer and better.


The things I am least excited about are the no skill points. Sure, I like that I can switch my build around but I think the respec system would have been better if they could just figure out a way for the lower level skills to scale at higher levels so they are useful. That way everyone wasn't respeccing as soona s they got a new skill.

Also, I am strongly against the selling of characters on the AH, people should at least have to play the game. Maybe you can only buy a character off the AH if you have already leveled one of your own to level 60? Even then it just sound stupid.

Oh, also I liked the sound of the arena style PvP more than the death match PvP, but I haven't played it and they have and if they think it is more fun, it probably is. As for being more casual, I don't mind that, although i would like to see some sort of PvP ladder or at least see everyones wins/loses but it's not game breaking and I'm sure forums will hold tournaments...DF PvP Tourny? Sign me up. I'll put some gold into the pot!

I think I would just die, or survive and become part cyborg

Quote from OmniNom

I love that everyone's argument against soulbinding is "it's from WoW" even though there are tons of reasons why it would make the game better, the biggest of which are that the economy would be much more stable and inflation would be vastly reduced.

As if soul binding is a WoW-only mechanic, and as if it mattered if it was.

Ignorance and blind hate trump logic and reason every time.

Specific bosses in Diablo 3 don't have a loot table like 'MMO's have.

The reason is in diablo. Lets take all the loot in wow and cram it in diablo. Go try and get a specific item off him now. It's not like in wow where one boss might have 10 items and 4 drop every single time.

So I will say it again, this isn't wow. This is diablo. Shit, even getting a good item off a boss will be rare.

I can tell you have never played earlier versions of diablo before.

Go try and "farm" a wind force in diablo 2, come back in one year when you still don't have it.

Finding items in diablo is like trying to farm shadowfang in wow, hope that clears it up for you.

Found this on IGN.com while looking up stuff for GW2. Didn't see it in any of the news sections.

http://www.ign.com/v...or-inferno-mode

my stash certainly wont miss runes

Hello.

Whats your top 5 "wanna see in Diablo 3"?
Even if there is a "No Go!" on the request.

I hope to see MANY diffrent answeres.

Thanks!

Fooly Cooly is one of my favorites for sure.

Put together a post for you on "Diablo 3 10 Principles of Magic Finding" on the concept of using real world economics hope you enjoy it.

Mankiw’s 10 Principles of L00t

From the little I remember about my college exploits, I deduce that I took economics. Now, I’m not much of economist, but I think the approximately 10 million SoJs in my Diablo 2 account qualify me to talk a little about how trade will work in Diablo 3.

So I dusted off the old Econ notes in the hopes of setting out some of the fundamentals of the Diablo item game. Mankiw is a Harvard econ professor famous for creating a “top 10” list of sorts – 10 of the most important and basic tenets of economics.

I’ve added the ultimate Diabolic twist to each one, providing some of the basics to optimizing your magic finding, wealth building, and auction success.

Some of these are pretty elementary concepts, while others provide some surprising insights into things like the hardcore economy. Hopefully it will be helpful to see these Diablo tips framed in terms of real economic principles. And, just maybe, they’ll help you do better in Economics than I did…

Mankiw’s principle #1: People face tradeoffs

This rule sets the foundation for rational economic thought. If everyone could have everything they wanted all the time, there would be no need for trade. (Also, Diablo would be less fun.) But that’s not the case – you face tradeoffs.

Classic example: Someone offers you a “free” Mountain Dew. But it’s not actually free – you must sacrifice something in order to drink it. Like the time you had been planning to spend eating that Slim Jim that rolled off your desk back during Act 1. Or the peace of mind that comes from knowing your man-pearls won’t be diminished by the Yellow #5 and/or trace amounts of radon in the Dew.

Even “free” things have costs. And if you want to get rich, you have to be savvy to this.

tip: Don’t waste your time on small beans, even if it seems like you’re getting “added value”.

When I played Diablo 2 as a young whirlwind Barbling, I always cleared out every level, killing every monster, stomping every barrel, and selling every last cracked sash. My thought was “hey, I want to be as rich as possible, so I should take full advantage of every opportunity I have to make gold.

This was economically irrational thought. I wasn’t taking into consideration the cost of taking the time to kill those low-level monsters and sell those crappy grey items. I was actually sacrificing something very valuable (the ability to be killing high level monsters and getting high level loot) to milk every ounce out of something that wasn’t very valuable.

Just a few minutes of forging ahead would have been much more valuable.

#2 The cost of something is what you give up to get it

The first principle is about seeing that there are hidden “opportunity costs” to every action.

The second principle is about is assessing and prioritizing them. Rational economic thinkers will do whichever action benefits them the most. Imagine that everything you like (e.g., eating food) has a point value. To get those things, you have to do something you don’t like (e.g., going to work) and that costs points. Economists say that rational people only do an action where the points you gain outweigh the points you sacrifice.

What I want to emphasize is a sort of sub-principle concerning “sunk costs.”

Let’s say you’ve bought non-refundable tickets to see your favorite band. Usually, you value their shows at 70 points. Four months later, the show rolls around, but it’s raining, you have a pounding headache, and you know that if you go, you will have a lame experience, worth 0 points.

Most people would probably go to the show because they don’t want to “waste” their tickets, but an economist would tell you to stay home. If you just stay home and watch TV, even if you only get 2 points worth of pleasure out of it, that’s still better than the 0 you’d get from going to the show.

The price of the tickets is a sunk cost, and as such, should not influence decision-making. The money is gone either way, and isn’t going to change how much fun you have, so you might as well just take the action that is going to give you the most points.

tip: Don’t worry about wasting effort.

Here’s an example. You are doing boss runs that are taking you an average of 10 minutes. Nine minutes into one run, in the room before you reach the boss, you encounter a nasty pack of immunes that will be so hard to defeat that you could just be logging out and completing a new run.

In this case, realize that the past 9 minutes were a sunk cost. You’re not going to efficiently capitalize on them either way, so there’s no point not wanting them to “go to waste.”

#3 Rational people think at the margin

This principle builds off the first two. If you are a rational economic thinker, you will do what is best for you. But “what is best for you” changes dynamically.

The marginal gain associated with taking an action is the value you experience each subsequent time you take the action. For instance, if you drink one Mountain Dew, you might get 6 points of value out of it. It tastes good and you get a caffeine kick. But when you drink a second one, you might only get 3 points of value – the sugar starts being overwhelming and you’re not thirsty anymore. The third one might actually have negative value.

Rational economic thinkers re-evaluate how much value they get out of “the next one” of something, and accordingly adjust their willingness to make sacrifices to take that action.

tip: Abandon activities as they become inefficient.

Don’t just play and sell. Think about how each “next step” you take is going to contribute. Are you best served by running through inferno again? Maybe you can make the most money by scrounging mydiablo3auction.com for cheap crafting materials and rolling high-level recipes.

Or maybe – just maybe – you should spend the next hour sleeping so you don’t keep getting killed by fallen shamans…

#4 People respond to incentives

This one is simple: People are motivated by what they value, and thus will pay more for things they value more.

Obviously this means that extremely valuable things will fetch higher prices from everyone. But it also means that people’s individual tastes will influence prices.

tip: Don’t underestimate person-to-person trade.

The auction house does a pretty good job of standardizing prices – meaning that everyone’s peculiarities get averaged out to make for stable prices. But you can identify opportunities to get better-than-market value for an item where your buyer values it unusually high. One way to do this is via person-to-person trade where prices don’t get standardized.

Likewise, you can often acquire items for better prices in person-to-person deals where the seller doesn’t value them as highly as the market would.

Note that I’m not saying you should take advantage of noobs. People’s willingness to sell under or buy over market value sometimes stems from lack of information, but sometimes it comes from the fact that transaction costs can be high. Even economic experts will trade away commodities at sub-market value prices if the difficulty/expense of trading at fair value is not worth it.

#5 Trade can make everyone better off

Classic example: If I grow just apples, my diet will lack protein, and if I only raise cows, my diet will lack vitamins. But if I grow apples and raise cows, my farming operation will be less efficient. Now… if I grow apples and you raise cows, and then we go halfsies, both our operations will be efficient and both of us will have a balanced diet.

One of the ways markets breed efficiency is by having a large volume: I grow apples, you raise cows, the next guy is a doctor, the next guy makes tools, etc. The more people there are to peddle your goods to, the better your chance to .

tip: Preach it wide, brother.

This tip is the counterpoint to tip #4. Whereas person-to-person trade can help you find special values, generally speaking, you want to find the biggest audience possible. If you’re selling, this means there are more likely to be people willing to pay at least a fair price for your goods. If you’re buying, it means there is more likely to be someone with what you want, period.

A good community is key to good trading. Especially for high-volume hardcore traders, this means finding a better way than bumping into the occasional trader. You need a broadcast channel.

Say, I know of a place like that…

#6 Markets are usually a good way to organize economic activity

In order to understand this principle, consider the comparison between capitalism and communism.

In a free market, people directly reap the benefits of their labor. They realize that their output of goods and services will directly equate to a higher standard of living, so – responding to incentives – they produce more goods and services.

In a communist system, the wealth you generate gets partly redistributed to others. Since the work you do is less closely related to your standard of living, there is less incentive to produce goods and services, so fewer of them get produced overall.

tip: The Diablo 3 market should flourish, and you can definitely benefit from it.

Diablo 3 market is just about as free it gets. That means the effort you put into item finding will be yours and yours alone. It also means the economy should be strong and stable, so you can invest time and money in Diablo 3 and be relatively confident – at least insofar as this economic principle is concerned.

#7 Governments can sometimes improve market outcomes

There are, however, examples where markets fail to maximize results. An example is pollution. Most major companies could make more money if they were allowed to pollute freely. Their costs would go down, and in fact, prices would go down, so consumers would be benefited as well.

Obviously, however, this would ruin the environment in the long term, and the benefits would be outweighed by the costs of health risks and depleted natural resources.

This is where governments step in. By regulating pollution, they harm the company and the consumer in the short term, but keep the market healthy in the long term.

tip: Realize that Blizzard WILL “regulate the economy.” Item patches, drop rates, and similar influences will all hit Diablo 3 at some point.

This is a good thing. It will make the game healthy and keep players interested.

But realize in advance that you can count on this, and plan around it. If there’s something exploitative going on like a dupe method, realize that Blizzard can easily correct it. Don’t sink a lot of resources into something that might vanish in a puff of smoke with the next patch.

#8 A country’s standard of living depends on its ability to produce goods and services

Standard of living is a calculation that measures death rates, poverty levels, and other factors to determine how much “value” a population is receiving.

Economists say that a country’s standard of living is determined by its inhabitants’ ability to “produce large quantities of goods and services per unit of time.” Or, as Sanctuary economists say, a monster’s standard of living is inversely proportionate to your ability to acquire loot.

Translation: this game is about producing items. Killing monsters, killing other players, and even acquiring more items – everything people want to do depends on items.

In D2, the item game had a huge hole in it: Caster classes basically didn’t need items. Obviously they played better with great gear, but you could easily have fun in hell without really participating in the economy. This was one of the many reasons the economy failed in that game.

The same won’t be the case again. Almost every damage-dealing skill in this game is calculated on weapon damage, and the game is clearly being designed to be totally item-centric.

tip: Realize that items are going to be more central than ever. There is going to be more money to be made on D3 than D2 by far.

Use that to your advantage. Any way you can “game” this aspect of the system is invaluable. If you can be the first to identify a powerful PvP that is centered on a specific legendary set, you can potentially make a good chunk of change by investing in it.

#9 Prices rise when the government prints too much money

This principle describes inflation.

This is how it works: When an influx of money gets pumped into the economy, there is “too much money chasing too few goods.” This means that prices go up, despite the value of goods remaining the same.

How can this principle affect you?

tip: Hardcore items have the potential to fetch higher prices than their softcore equivalents.

Here’s why. More goods = lower prices. The Diablo 3 developers have talked at length about systems to take gold and items out of the economy: repair costs, death durability hits, and the crafting system all serve to make both gold and items more scarce.

But hardcore has the ultimate “gold sink” – perma-erasure of all items upon death. This means that “goods” are going to be disappearing from the economy much faster than in softcore.

Now, removing goods from an economy is not the same thing as adding cash, but it can lead to the same effects. The end result of removing these items? Higher prices. And that makes sense – after all, with items disappearing, you would expect them to be rarer, and thus more valuable.

#10 Society faces a short-run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment

As inflation rises, employment rises.
Reducing inflation creates a temporary rise in unemployment.
Or to put it another way, when the market’s ratio of cash to goods goes up, the ability to make money off selling goods temporarily rises.

Let’s build upon our inflation principle.

Mankiw’s principle tells up that inflation and unemployment have an inverse relationship. As inflation rises, unemployment falls. At least temporarily.

To translate this rule into the Diablo economy, think of goods as items, and “jobs” as the ability to get paid for finding items.

When the ratio of cash to items is very high, there will be more “employment” — which really just means you ability to get paid for producing items goes up. Assuming cash flow is stable, we can safely say that adding items to the economy makes it easier to make money off Diablo.

tip: Influxes of items lead to more short-term opportunities.

This might come as a surprise. It sounds like the opposite of principle #9, which said that removing items from the economy would make the remaining items rarer. But both can be true. Remember principle #10 describes short term opportunities.

And you can see how this might work. When a crop of new players joins the game and starts “creating” thousands of drops that didn’t exist there before, the market shifts and there are more opportunities to sell.

10 principles

Hopefully these tips will help you understand how to interpret Diablo 3’s item game from the perspective of a market participant. There are going to be lots of opportunities to make some money on this game, and hopefully these tips will provide a solid fundamental basis for doing just that.

Source: Official Diablo 3 Website

Diablo III - Aesthetic Artifacts
Call forth glowing angel wings, unfurl an exclusive banner, and dye your armor sets with the Bottled Cloud or Bottled Smoke items.

Banner, wings, and exclusive "bottled cloud" and "bottled smoke" dye..

All aesthetic, all badass

Edit - fixed my link

Quote from d3maniac2012

so all the people "flaming" about PVP when it comes to diablo keep referring to people who play PVE (which is what diablo is 99% based upon) "carebears" and saying its because of "scripted fights". so considering diablo has most of the game randomized... items monsters ect. and the choice of billions of different skill combo's. how is PVE in diablo "scripted" and how is someone a "carebear" for playing PVE? also it seems like people are calling people "scrubs" now instead of noobs? I've only been out of the gaming scene a few years but wow... any info would be appreciated thanks.

You will see the same think from the Hardcore people who will say that anyone who doesn't play hardcore is some kind of carebear or something. It's because they have an inferiority complex and try to build themselves up by putting other people down. There's no right or wrong way to play one of these games, if you like PvP, play that, if you like Softcore, play that. Heck, if what you enjoy is playing each class through normal difficulty and then quitting, that's fine too. It's a game people!