DiabloFans

Logged in for the first time in 6 months to post this response,

"No shit?"

But he did say that the team is working on a viable solution, without giving any other details about what that would be like.

AH Free Ladder? I'd play that

Thank you captain obvious Jay Wilson.

Captain Obvious strikes back!
To be fair, it is nice they admit their mistake. Even though, a former lead designer admitting anything isn't so useful.

Start again...

All legendaries/crafts become BOA and all have way better base rolls than rares
New Currency introduced
Let AH exist but BIS are what you find/craft not what you buy from the auction houses.

BOA is not a bad system in my opionon and as at least I would feel more attached to the legendaries I found myself..

In the leadup to D3's release, I was a massive booster of the AH idea. I thought it would be so cool to have a broad market where we could conveniently buy and sell drops, I thought it would combine wonderfully with Diablo's infinite variety of random loot.

Like Jay Wilson, I was very, very wrong.

Millions of players + infinite random loot + no binding of gear + no gear sink (except in hardcore) + ultra-convenient auction house does not combine well.

As Tyreal would say to Jay Wilson ..

'You cannot judge blizzard. I am blizzard itself! The AH was made for more than this! To protect the innocent! But if our precious money grab binded you to inaction...then you will no longer stand as our brother. (Tyreal slays Jay Wilson)

The AH itself isn't the issue, the AH is a very good addition to the game. The problem was balancing drops around the existence of the AH, making it more or less mandatory for character growth. What really doesn't make sense is how Wilson openly said on more than one occasion that drops were balanced around the existence of the AH, yet now says that they didn't expect the majority of players to use it?

Quote from CheehC

As Tyreal would say to Jay Wilson ..

'You cannot judge blizzard. I am blizzard itself! The AH was made for more than this! To protect the innocent! But if our precious money grab binded you to inaction...then you will no longer stand as our brother. (Tyreal slays Jay Wilson)

Translation:

"I hate companies that make games in order to turn a profit boo hoo."

well said i think, even though he is not the director, it was good to see numbers and stuff being mentioned. Shows the game was very well designed that this many people are playing it.

Its awesome too how he was comparing the 3 mil players every month to the people screaming their lungs out on the internet... so many headless chickens on fire when there is diablo talk, and i mean you, yes you.

imo;The system that diablo has for AH is good, hopefully it will be fixed/reset/built upon with the release of expac and will need more features ;D

Dear Jay Wilson, Here is the simple solution to the AH issue. Make a Ladder mode with no AH. Want AH? Dont play Ladder.
We want items to mean something again. The game should be based around farming not if I have X gold I can get X gear piece. You said I have no idea how many players like the system or hate it. Give us a choice rather than forcing Ah on the players.

Jay Wilson @Angryrobotics
@Joerosa That's exactly what I said in my talk. I'll pass your idea on to the dev team.

There you guys go

Quote from Laevus

I'm actually considering buying a second copy of D3 just so that I can have an account of characters that never uses the AH. However, I'm not sure I'd trust my own discipline with it since it's just so damned convenient, but I would really love a game mode that removes AH access, that's for sure.

hey i actually did that with my friend.

we leveled characters to 60, without AH, MP10 all the way. YOU CAN control yourself if you want to. try it. its actual fun.

He actually said something very similar to that. He said that they had to "have in mind" the AH when messing around with the drop rates.

Quote from anotherdeadhero

But he did say that the team is working on a viable solution, without giving any other details about what that would be like.

AH Free Ladder? I'd play that

No, pretty sure he's talking about adding more gold sinks like they mentioned in the itemization blog. It's been hinted you might be able to spend money to modify items like by rerolling stats.

Shut the fuck up Ghom Wilson. You're not going to be able to save face by now finally agreeing with what we've been saying since before the game launched.

Quote from nadenitza

They know they f'd up big time, doubt that a closure will occur tho. More like balancing the game around loot hunt but with all the repetitive and linear level design even that will die a swift death IF they don't make some adjustments to "actual random map generation and content". The AH is a good trade platform but itemization just bitch-slapped the crap out of it.

what? lol i didn't understand a word you just said. just glued some words together to sound smart.....
you cant even support ur argument sadly.
The game is THAT horrible that your still supporting it! GJ!

You see...the AH made it easy to buy/sell/trade etc. The thing is, it made it too easy. So easy in fact that it cut right through the very lifeblood of the game...the item hunt.

If they took out the AH, I'd quit. I'm sorry, but I HATED Diablo 2's system. It was all either people begging for frees, dupe trading, scamming, or trade channels, and it was a MESS. D3 was the only Diablo game where gold mattered, that had a genuine system where you could actually get something for your hard work, and you weren't just "farming Meph/Pindleskin" all frelling day. I'm under the assumption anyone that's for the old system also used bots, as well. I know folks that used them, that and map hack, because it WAS the only way to get drops in the game. D3 is a massive improvement on the system, and the hardcore babies whining about the AH are likely the unpleasable mass that could never be pleased no matter what.

I do however see inherent problems with the system. The game is balanced around you always having Yellows in your possession, rather than blues. D2 did this much later than D3 did, probably figuring you'd have better gear earlier. Also, it felt like drops were tweaked to be very low during that time, you couldn't gear up without the AH, and the massive increase to repair costs made it impossible to get repaired without spending money to get more gold (protip: I quit after I couldn't repair my gear. Returned half a year later.). It did, however, stop real gold traders, and I see a LOT less spam in that game than any other game. Why? Because they can't beat the current system. There are no customers that would risk it since it was part of the game, and funding the devs.

You can scream, and whine, and cry about the AH. But I think the AH made the game better. It made the game a hell of a lot less of a mess, it made it so people could get money for their hard work, and it made it so Blizz also got a cut of what was sold, funding game development. I'm also someone that said that Torchlight 2, Path of Exile, etc... would blow this game out of the water. They sucked something violent, either because you could never GET gear/trade (PoE), or because the game was so broken with useless skills and hackers/cheaters (Torchlight 2). All I want from Blizz is an offline mode, so I can mess around should I ever lose my net. That's all. I want to be able to boot this game up years after the servers are gone and have fun, like I do with D1 and D2 (which technically aren't dead, but you get the point). Let's hope they listen.