I guess there's a few ways of looking at the RMAH in Hardcore, but over-all I think it will be a good thing. It really just depends on your view of the game and the length of time you plan on playing it.
I mean, D2 is over ten years old now, and I still fire up a copy for some fun every now and again. Will you be playing D3 in 2 years time? 5 years? 10 years?
I actually look at the RMAH as a cool thing for a long term player. Hardcore especially. Not so you can cheat your way to the top, but so you can sell some of that random crap that you don't want. I also think that I probably will buy a few items from the RMAH. Not now, no way. But in 3 years time, when I've finished the game with every character class (including expansions) and want to try out some of those really wacky builds that require some pretty specific items to actually work.
There is also the fact of those legendary items that are just too cool to not pass down. Sure, you can just give them to someone, or even sell them in the game gold auction house, but selling them for real cash would be fun as well. If it was a feature in D2, how much do you think a +3RS, +3SM, +2AD, 1 socket (jewel of envy from memory) wand would be worth for for a necro in the RMAH? I had one that I passed down to a mate after using it for my necro, and he passed it to his friend, who then sold it for some gems (the git). You could use it at level one, and it would probably be your wand for half the game. Sometimes I would be happy to buy a wand like this to jump start a character, it just let's you fly through a lot of the initial stuff, but I'd be happier to sell it for a bit of real cash after my character had used them up. I'd be even more happy if the had the name-your-item quest in D3, so everyone would know you got it legit, but someone else bought it. Then you could have some heirloom style items, non-unique/non-runeword items, that slowly build up their own rep. Especially with youTUBE vids etc. I'd be pleased as punch if I saw my items stomping the ubers in a video.
I guess what I'm saying, is what's the harm in selling some items? You don't have to buy any if you don't want to. I'm not talking chinese-game-farms where it will be your (and some very cheap worker's) main source of income, just a way of getting a bit of cash that you'll mostly use to buy other stuff later-on for niche character builds. What's the difference from trading in game or any other form of jump starting characters. It's hard not to in public games, or even private ones. Is having a healer along in your party cheating? It helped you heaps. Have you broken some strange arcane rule of harcore hardcoreness? What if you were the healing orientated character? Or a buffer/de-buffer? Have you totally destroyed other character's 'l33t skills and rep in HC? No? You still grabbed a character boost and probably ran through a couple of acts really quickly and easily. You didn't use RL cash, you didn't pay anyone. You horrible slave driver, you. What's worse? Paying someone for their time or not? Laughing at cashed up RMAH buyers dieing early on? Having elitist views of just how the game should be played regardless of the reality of the matter? It's hard to say what is worse............... They're all pretty insignificant and merely an end user's viewpoint.
Let's get down to another fact as well. Blizzard has become HUGE since the days of D2. WOW gave them the idea that people will pay to play, but in return they'll keep the game going, forever if necessary, as long as the cash keeps rolling in. We WANT them to have a revenue stream from D3. Or else they won't do squat to support it. I'd like to still be playing D3 in a few years to come, even if it did take a RMAH tax on some of the HC items I hocked to get another expansion/bug-fix-release/server support in five years time.
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I mean, D2 is over ten years old now, and I still fire up a copy for some fun every now and again. Will you be playing D3 in 2 years time? 5 years? 10 years?
I actually look at the RMAH as a cool thing for a long term player. Hardcore especially. Not so you can cheat your way to the top, but so you can sell some of that random crap that you don't want. I also think that I probably will buy a few items from the RMAH. Not now, no way. But in 3 years time, when I've finished the game with every character class (including expansions) and want to try out some of those really wacky builds that require some pretty specific items to actually work.
There is also the fact of those legendary items that are just too cool to not pass down. Sure, you can just give them to someone, or even sell them in the game gold auction house, but selling them for real cash would be fun as well. If it was a feature in D2, how much do you think a +3RS, +3SM, +2AD, 1 socket (jewel of envy from memory) wand would be worth for for a necro in the RMAH? I had one that I passed down to a mate after using it for my necro, and he passed it to his friend, who then sold it for some gems (the git). You could use it at level one, and it would probably be your wand for half the game. Sometimes I would be happy to buy a wand like this to jump start a character, it just let's you fly through a lot of the initial stuff, but I'd be happier to sell it for a bit of real cash after my character had used them up. I'd be even more happy if the had the name-your-item quest in D3, so everyone would know you got it legit, but someone else bought it. Then you could have some heirloom style items, non-unique/non-runeword items, that slowly build up their own rep. Especially with youTUBE vids etc. I'd be pleased as punch if I saw my items stomping the ubers in a video.
I guess what I'm saying, is what's the harm in selling some items? You don't have to buy any if you don't want to. I'm not talking chinese-game-farms where it will be your (and some very cheap worker's) main source of income, just a way of getting a bit of cash that you'll mostly use to buy other stuff later-on for niche character builds. What's the difference from trading in game or any other form of jump starting characters. It's hard not to in public games, or even private ones. Is having a healer along in your party cheating? It helped you heaps. Have you broken some strange arcane rule of harcore hardcoreness? What if you were the healing orientated character? Or a buffer/de-buffer? Have you totally destroyed other character's 'l33t skills and rep in HC? No? You still grabbed a character boost and probably ran through a couple of acts really quickly and easily. You didn't use RL cash, you didn't pay anyone. You horrible slave driver, you. What's worse? Paying someone for their time or not? Laughing at cashed up RMAH buyers dieing early on? Having elitist views of just how the game should be played regardless of the reality of the matter? It's hard to say what is worse............... They're all pretty insignificant and merely an end user's viewpoint.
Let's get down to another fact as well. Blizzard has become HUGE since the days of D2. WOW gave them the idea that people will pay to play, but in return they'll keep the game going, forever if necessary, as long as the cash keeps rolling in. We WANT them to have a revenue stream from D3. Or else they won't do squat to support it. I'd like to still be playing D3 in a few years to come, even if it did take a RMAH tax on some of the HC items I hocked to get another expansion/bug-fix-release/server support in five years time.