Person gets mad and claims that Blizzard pulled a Bait and Switch on them. This brings buyer's remorse and the player might try to seek action against blizzard. Would they win? probably not, but let's assume this happens en mass..
Baits and switches are illegal. They shouldn't use that technique.
You're asking "If Blizzard is really shady, evil, and willing to act illegally, should the AH go down?"
If they slightly nerfed my firebat spec, and strengthened other ones that's fine. I predict that will happen. I really don't even see how they could make me require different stats specifically. If they somehow managed to require DIFFERENT stats than I currently have for another spec, I may or may not aspire to get those stats over time in order to use that spec. As long as my current firebat setup still works overall, I'm not worried about it. It's not impossible to keep multiple specs strong.
Firebat spec shouldn't be at risk of eventually imploding all together and becoming gratuitously bad. If it did for some reason (and it simply should not), I shouldn't have to rearrange my entire item build because of it.
Remember, we have to relate this to the AH. Every single tiny aspect needs to be COMPLETELY related specifically to the AH.
I mean, how different can items REALLY get at a primordial level. You need some HP, some resist, some of your main stat, some crit, some crit damage, some attack speed maybe. Specialization should exist, but it shouldn't be black and white, it should be should be marginal and I think it is. At that level, you can afford to wiggle your items around a little bit for different builds.
Just to supplement what Shaggy and Kage are saying, remember too that Blizzard makes a profit off these RMAH exchanges. So if they are profiting off someone who spent $250 on an item (about $40 of it going to Blizzard) and then they want to nerf the effect that item provides, that person is then mad at Blizzard and has a pretty valid complaint, even if they were prior warned. Then people criticize Blizzard for just trying to steal their money and it's just not worth the hassle for them, especially when they just want to make the game better and balanced without their hands being tied.
Put a "subject to change" clause and it's all on the buyer. Then after that, don't make ridiculous changes, try to keep the game constant enough and not make poor decisions that need to be dramatically remedied. Don't make big ass mistakes, Blizzard.
Hell why do you think there's so many whirlwind barbs out there?
Because it's a good spec, they should bring other specs in line over time. How does that affect the AH? We are talking about it relating to the AH.
The downfall seems to be buying these very specialized items, and I think that's a risk that people need to be responsible for.
One With Everything has yet to be fixed because people have geared their toons around it (read: bought items).
I haven't even seen a OWE monk in a long time. I'm pretty sure it's not the dominant build anymore or at least it's not the only choice.
Why do you think Archon and WotB haven't seen a patch so that they don't have 100% uptime?
I don't know what WotB is, but I know that Archon is also not the only build you can use, I don't think it's the most common either.
I don't know what CMWW is either, but it they continue to keep strong skills strong, and bring others in line in order to have more total options, I am all for it. No one is forcing you to switch spec or gear. And, I actually see a lot of variation in builds for all classes except witch doctor. Every other class has a bunch of builds that are VERY functional.
Critical Mass and One With Everything are two very prominent abilities that haven't been touched because people have bought gear to make them work to ridiculous levels.
Critical strike is good for everybody. Having absurd amounts of critical strike might be a little odd, but those players knew what they were getting into. They were buying some pretty specialized items. A lot of item sets can work for multiple builds. You shouldn't mention the few exceptions. Very few. Again, I put all the blame on people who consent to buy very specific items especially if it's clearly broken like black items.
Like I said, I don't even think OWE is all that prominent anymore, anyways. If someone uses it, and it functions well for them I'm happy for them. If it needs to get nerfed slightly to be more fair and be brought in line, then that's life.
Black weapons were not fixed because of the fact that people had invested in them as superior items.
They didn't have the balls to nerf items and their associated players that were clearly and LITERALLY broken? That's their problem. If someone really invested in a broken exploit, I believe that is their fault entirely.
Blizzard has admitted that drop rates had to be lowered to accommodate the fact that the auction house exists. So many people would have such a fast easy way to trade and acquire gear through a hyper-efficient method they could not let things drop as well as they should have.
What';s the downside? So, droprates were too high and they lowered them. Doesn't change the fact that I've found countless items myself and used them to add to my total worth.
I don't think it's the norm to completely drop everything you've been working on and change spec /build / class when a patch augments a playstyle.
I am a witch doctor player for the most part, and I have little interest in the other classes. If witch doctors become the weakest overall class, I wont simply reroll and I have very rarely heard of people rerolling in similar situations COUNTLESs times. I think a few people DO reroll, but not majority.
This could be rerolling classes, item builds, strategies. People like to maintain what they are familiar with it it's at all possible.
The point is, without an in game auction house, Blizzard does not endorse it and doesn't have to balance the game around it.
I still don't see any examples of game-changing occurrences that related to the AH whatsoever. If a self-found person abused attack speed when it was overpowered, they got nerfed too. If someone spent money on a clearly imbalanced mechanic, that's their problem. They DID nerf attack speed, so they are clearly willing to do it, they just want to direct the anger of people who abuse broken mechanics to another place.
I mean, tell me a change they couldn't do because it would upset AH users too much.
If they don't like the idea of meddling with things that people spent real currency on, then they should remove the RMAH, not the normal AH.
Trading will always be faster just due to the nature of skipping past the RNG aspect of loot, but playing self-found has never been a crippling choice like it's been in D3.
I don't think I would have been able to make a powerful D2 characters with self-found items, in a million years. Perhaps your experience was different.
... but now, maybe, self-found can get to 90, 95 with some more farming effort, and can do it faster than before.
If being entirely self-found at a time when trading still totally exists can get you 95% of the way to the maximum "strength," I think that's a little off. If trading exists at all, and I'm not so sure it will, it must be mathematically the best way to get what you ultimately want. You shouldn't have a "95%" chance of getting a PERFECT item. If I can achieve 95% by being self-found in the same amount of time as a person who trades a lot, I will certainly not trade AT ALL. I am willing to be 5% weaker for simply not having to deal with whatever mess that comes post-AH. If it's like D2, I would love to avoid it all together for only a 5% strength loss.
The game still functions fine, the IAS stat still works, its just not the 'be all end all' stat it was back then. This fix made loot more interseting (relativly) becuase now if your gear didn't have IAS you might not care as much. Gear choices opened up rather than being closed off.
If anything is ever seeming "too good," I can sense it. When this happens I usually expect that it will be dealt with. For example, right now I think witch doctor firebats are too damn strong and are too dominant that other builds get no use for the most part.
If I spent a ton of real-world money on a firebat witch doctor, it would be my own fault when it inevitably gets nerfed because I expect it. I guess everyone shouldn't be expected to have this "sense," but actually, to some degree I think it is mandatory.
I'd like to see your demographic numbers because I've played the exact same way with my friends. I'm 90% self found or crafted, I was able to wade through MP5-7 roughly.
That's a big achievement and I bet you are a rare case. You did yourself a dis-service by not using the AH, however. It's a useful tool.
But why does that have to be the goal? What's wrong with the other MPs if they offer you a challenge and good loot to find? I think that's the crux the matter.
Well, the general argument against the AH is it's ease of making someone very powerful. MP10 is this games final challenge, for the most part, and uber bosses on MP10 also.
The AH simply doesn't get you to this final goal as quickly as people make it sound. What other end-goal is there? It's THE hardest thing, and it is therefore the benchmark. If someone had the goal only to beat normal difficulty, they could argue that it's too easy to achieve that goal, but that's just not the standard.
I will say that I was proud when I got to MP8 and all of the earlier ones. I was proud that I earned it, etc. But, I am the most proud for being able to tackle MP10. If you only want to achieve 80% of the goal, that's fine too, I don't judge. But, on average, only achieving 80% of a goal is faster.
Quote from Blizzard:
But as we've mentioned on different occasions, it became increasingly clear that despite the benefits of the AH system and the fact that many players around the world use it, it ultimately undermines Diablo's core game play: kill monsters to get cool loot.
I don't really understand this, because as I say, I had to work pretty hard and find a lot of valuable gear to progress up to where I am.
You could possibly get that 1 billion gold item now for just a few items if you find the right person that happens to need your items. A free market with a gold standard is fine usually, but right now because it's so easy to get to, it makes a game about random loot lose the randomness.
The 1 billion item is worth such for a reason. If some fool trades you said 1 billion item for a bunch of invaluable and common stuff, that's their own prerogative. Ultimately, the items have an innate value due to their rarity and strength. Rare + strong items are the most valuable, period.
About the random loot, I disagree because every item in the game will be found a LOT cumulatively. If there's something you want, someone is 99% guaranteed to have it, and even more likely, a lot of people will have it.
The BEST gear is always going to be highly valued and hard to come by even with the AH, but the AH pretty much created this system where anything other than the best stats were devalued and people could pick up really amazing gear on the cheap.
If all the players are cumulatively finding these high-demand items, their value goes down. That pool of cumulative players is always there. Removing the AH doesn't change that. However, without the convenient AH interface, you are going to have a very hard time getting the consensus about what things are worth and how many of these items are "out there." You will have to "poll" a lot of people and spend a lot of time finding out what people think about an item. If you don't extensively do your research, you will be getting improper values for your items, and paying improper values for other peoples items constantly.
Additionally, perfect items aren't the only good ones. My Skorn isn't perfect, but its pretty darn good. For my resources, it was an appropriate buy. If someone else had more gold, or had real money to spend, I'm sure they could get an absolutely perfect one, and that doesn't bother me in the slightest. Kudos to them for getting the gold legitimately, or kudos to them for having a job where they get disposable income in real life.
The idea is the better gear you have, the less upgrades you'll find. This is supposed to happen over time to increase longivity of the game, but with an AH you reach this point much quicker than you would on your own and it makes the game feel worse when you run out of stuff to find.
I've found a few things over the hours that I've played which I do indeed use myself. I've also found countless (COUNTLESS) items that I've sold to other people and added to my cumulative value. You don't run out of things to find. If I find a Skorn that's almost as good as mine, I still call it a victory. Someone will want it. I don't get mad because it's not an upgrade to my setup.
You know, you could've saved a lot of time if only you had disclosed that you were coming from a WoW mindset. This is not an MMO, man, and the developers don't want it to be, just face it. It just happens to be played online.
In this context, I don't see how it matters what kind of game it is. If the rule-makers of Chess wanted to change things dramatically, and it favored a certain playstyle significantly, that would still be inappropriate of them.
I don't think you understand, man. The fact that those types of deals are no longer officially supported by Blizzard means that they completely disregard them when coming up with changes and fixes to the game. They don't have to withhold changes because they're worried people who have payed real money for items will get upset. I mean, people that spend real money will still be upset when their gear is suddenly devalued, but when the RMAH shuts down it will no longer be Blizzard's problem, because your real money purchase will no longer be sanctioned by Blizzard.
It's incredibly liberating.
It's my opinion that if they need to keep changing things in a game-breaking way, they are doing something wrong already. It is and was fairly rare in WoW that something changed so drastically that the entire paradigm was changed. Some classes could get buffed pretty significantly, but it wasn't like the difference of Legacy Legendaries to current Legendaries.
If I do get a good item in the future (whether I bought it with real money or not) and they nerf it to a game-changing degree, I will be really disappointed regardless of the existence of an AH.
To me the point of the game is to get items from drops. If that's inadequate, then the blacksmith will help you out. I only play with friends, and we don't even really trade. If good items drop that they can use, I just give it to them, and vice versa.
Honestly, I really don't get this insane need to trade every second drop with people out there that you don't know. I regard rares as upgrades/salvage material and legendaries as upgrades/trophies. So I really don't understand this mentality.
I don't know if you play on console or something, because on console apparently it is easier to earn your own items. But if youre on PC you are in a very small demographic of people. A tiny demographic.
There's almost no way in hell that you could tackle MP10 inferno all the way through by only earning your own items.
Right now it's TOO EASY to get those perfect stats and gear that you want.
I don't think so. Youre looking at 1billion+ gold for "the best" gear. 300million can do you pretty well and get you up to MP10 probably. If you try to earn either of those numbers by yourself with no RMAH, it's pretty damn hard and time consuming. If you choose to spend ~$5 you can give yourself a really solid boost, and I don't really see a problem with that. If someone is "okay" with taking shortcuts, then let that be their business. I bought a very small amount of gold myself on the RMAH and I take pride in what I have legitimately earned since then. 90% of my current items are self-earned now. That gives no real status to anyone but myself. It's largely in your own mind: your sense of pride and sense of achievement.
As for a "computer" telling me what things are worth, I don't really see it that way. I see a very reasonable inflation rate in the items and prices from the release of this game to now. Items I sold for 20million+ months ago are now 1million or less. Big deal? I've gotten items since then that CURRENTLY sell for 70million etc. And I earned them myself. When I find those kinds of items I see it as a victory regardless of the item being for MY current character- I don't know why they think that's part of the whole thing (the item being for you).
By using the inefficient trade-chat and public game trading method you are really screwing up your potential for progress. By having less of a pool of demand, you are going to have a LOT of trouble getting what you deserve for an item, and there's too much luck involved.
If I tried to sell my Skorn right now by avoiding the AH entirely, I know it would be a big pain in the ass to get what I really deserve for it. First of all, it would be very hard to find someone looking for a lifesteal/intelligence Skorn, VERY hard. Then, out of that tiny pool of people, the chances of any of them really knowing the value of it are low just like there's a low chance of some idiot over-paying me for it.
An AH presents comparisons (among many other things). "Ah, these are all typically selling for around X price, so I can be confident in it's value."
As for balance changes (I already said something about this but...) if they decided to nerf the balls out of my current Skorn tomorrow, even though I didn't pay real-money for it, I'd still be fucking furious. I worked really hard to get that decent Skorn, and if they trivialize or take that away from me in any way, I'm not going to be happy.
They need to let the game be somewhat persistent and constant and not be fucking with significant shit all the time.
If WoW was like: "Okay today Warriors are good, but next fucking week, Warlocks are going to be good and everything else is gonna literally blow." People would be upset. They tried to make WoW constant enough that you generally get "what you've worked for." They have definitely made some significant nerfs in the past, but it was never something that COMPLETELY ruined/changed the game for me. In WotLK I played a pvp-unholyDK at the height of their strength, and then they nerfed Scourge strike etc. I was pretty significantly weaker, but I didn't NEED to reroll. I still did pretty fine HOWEVER:
***If they one day nerfed my Skorn down to legacy values, that would be a ridiculous...RIDICULOUSLY significant change. And that HAPPENED in Diablo 3, it just happened in reverse. There is PRECEDENT for that level of change. THEY need to work on not doing that, not relieve themselves of some amount of the blame when they make such huge changes.***
"Hey, there's no AH/RMAH anymore, we can just do anything we fucking want MREHEHEE!!!" We don't want this.
Blizzard said they didn't fix black damage weapons (bug) because people invested a lot in them. (I also suspect the 2nd socket in Manticore to be a bug that was never fixed because they didn't want to piss off buyers, but that's just my opinion !)
I dunno, that may be a failure of the D3 crew. Blizzard has never been shy about punishing people for the use of un-intended mechanics before, and I agree with that.
In Diablo 3, though, the economy aspect has become so central to the game that every drop gets a price tag even before you evaluate its potential use for your or your friends' characters. That ruined the game, imho. Well, at least for some people, probably not for D2JSP/AH tycoons.
I don't think there's any middle-ground. Items all either have a price tag, or no price tag at all. If money/trading helps you kill monsters faster, it's going to be important to you. There's no way around that.
The options I see are:
Trading exists with a convenient trading interface (AH)
Trading exists with no convenient trading interface (trade chat?)
No trading at all.
Additionally, I think the D3 crew didn't like the fact that people could get a real "shortcut" in their gear improvement simply by spending a very marginal amount of real-world currency. If trading is possible, Chinese farmers etc. are GOING to find a way to sell them for real world currency. They really can't stop that kind of thing
I think you're asking the wrong question. It should be:
Q: "What changes could have ruined the game?"
A: "Focusing on the 'economy' aspect."
The fact that people in D3 talk and are worried about the "economy" highlights one of they key issues. This game is about killing monsters and acquiring loot, not about playing a virtual "economy" and getting rich.
So, another person for no trading at all? As soon as there is trading (at all) there is economics.
No, you're supposed to be a super-human entity that slays demons for a living. Now get out there and slay some demons, god damn it!
So, we won't trade at all in loot 2.0?
You're misunderstanding. He meant that too many good changes to the game were scrapped/delayed/overlooked because they would supposedly "ruin the economy".
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Baits and switches are illegal. They shouldn't use that technique.
You're asking "If Blizzard is really shady, evil, and willing to act illegally, should the AH go down?"
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Firebat spec shouldn't be at risk of eventually imploding all together and becoming gratuitously bad. If it did for some reason (and it simply should not), I shouldn't have to rearrange my entire item build because of it.
Remember, we have to relate this to the AH. Every single tiny aspect needs to be COMPLETELY related specifically to the AH.
I mean, how different can items REALLY get at a primordial level. You need some HP, some resist, some of your main stat, some crit, some crit damage, some attack speed maybe. Specialization should exist, but it shouldn't be black and white, it should be should be marginal and I think it is. At that level, you can afford to wiggle your items around a little bit for different builds.
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Put a "subject to change" clause and it's all on the buyer. Then after that, don't make ridiculous changes, try to keep the game constant enough and not make poor decisions that need to be dramatically remedied. Don't make big ass mistakes, Blizzard.
Because it's a good spec, they should bring other specs in line over time. How does that affect the AH? We are talking about it relating to the AH.
The downfall seems to be buying these very specialized items, and I think that's a risk that people need to be responsible for.
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I haven't even seen a OWE monk in a long time. I'm pretty sure it's not the dominant build anymore or at least it's not the only choice.
I don't know what WotB is, but I know that Archon is also not the only build you can use, I don't think it's the most common either.
I don't know what CMWW is either, but it they continue to keep strong skills strong, and bring others in line in order to have more total options, I am all for it. No one is forcing you to switch spec or gear. And, I actually see a lot of variation in builds for all classes except witch doctor. Every other class has a bunch of builds that are VERY functional.
Critical strike is good for everybody. Having absurd amounts of critical strike might be a little odd, but those players knew what they were getting into. They were buying some pretty specialized items. A lot of item sets can work for multiple builds. You shouldn't mention the few exceptions. Very few. Again, I put all the blame on people who consent to buy very specific items especially if it's clearly broken like black items.
Like I said, I don't even think OWE is all that prominent anymore, anyways. If someone uses it, and it functions well for them I'm happy for them. If it needs to get nerfed slightly to be more fair and be brought in line, then that's life.
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They didn't have the balls to nerf items and their associated players that were clearly and LITERALLY broken? That's their problem. If someone really invested in a broken exploit, I believe that is their fault entirely.
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What';s the downside? So, droprates were too high and they lowered them. Doesn't change the fact that I've found countless items myself and used them to add to my total worth.
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I am a witch doctor player for the most part, and I have little interest in the other classes. If witch doctors become the weakest overall class, I wont simply reroll and I have very rarely heard of people rerolling in similar situations COUNTLESs times. I think a few people DO reroll, but not majority.
This could be rerolling classes, item builds, strategies. People like to maintain what they are familiar with it it's at all possible.
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I still don't see any examples of game-changing occurrences that related to the AH whatsoever. If a self-found person abused attack speed when it was overpowered, they got nerfed too. If someone spent money on a clearly imbalanced mechanic, that's their problem. They DID nerf attack speed, so they are clearly willing to do it, they just want to direct the anger of people who abuse broken mechanics to another place.
I mean, tell me a change they couldn't do because it would upset AH users too much.
If they don't like the idea of meddling with things that people spent real currency on, then they should remove the RMAH, not the normal AH.
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I don't think I would have been able to make a powerful D2 characters with self-found items, in a million years. Perhaps your experience was different.
If being entirely self-found at a time when trading still totally exists can get you 95% of the way to the maximum "strength," I think that's a little off. If trading exists at all, and I'm not so sure it will, it must be mathematically the best way to get what you ultimately want. You shouldn't have a "95%" chance of getting a PERFECT item. If I can achieve 95% by being self-found in the same amount of time as a person who trades a lot, I will certainly not trade AT ALL. I am willing to be 5% weaker for simply not having to deal with whatever mess that comes post-AH. If it's like D2, I would love to avoid it all together for only a 5% strength loss.
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If anything is ever seeming "too good," I can sense it. When this happens I usually expect that it will be dealt with. For example, right now I think witch doctor firebats are too damn strong and are too dominant that other builds get no use for the most part.
If I spent a ton of real-world money on a firebat witch doctor, it would be my own fault when it inevitably gets nerfed because I expect it. I guess everyone shouldn't be expected to have this "sense," but actually, to some degree I think it is mandatory.
That's a big achievement and I bet you are a rare case. You did yourself a dis-service by not using the AH, however. It's a useful tool.
Well, the general argument against the AH is it's ease of making someone very powerful. MP10 is this games final challenge, for the most part, and uber bosses on MP10 also.
The AH simply doesn't get you to this final goal as quickly as people make it sound. What other end-goal is there? It's THE hardest thing, and it is therefore the benchmark. If someone had the goal only to beat normal difficulty, they could argue that it's too easy to achieve that goal, but that's just not the standard.
I will say that I was proud when I got to MP8 and all of the earlier ones. I was proud that I earned it, etc. But, I am the most proud for being able to tackle MP10. If you only want to achieve 80% of the goal, that's fine too, I don't judge. But, on average, only achieving 80% of a goal is faster.
Quote from Blizzard:
I don't really understand this, because as I say, I had to work pretty hard and find a lot of valuable gear to progress up to where I am.
The 1 billion item is worth such for a reason. If some fool trades you said 1 billion item for a bunch of invaluable and common stuff, that's their own prerogative. Ultimately, the items have an innate value due to their rarity and strength. Rare + strong items are the most valuable, period.
About the random loot, I disagree because every item in the game will be found a LOT cumulatively. If there's something you want, someone is 99% guaranteed to have it, and even more likely, a lot of people will have it.
If all the players are cumulatively finding these high-demand items, their value goes down. That pool of cumulative players is always there. Removing the AH doesn't change that. However, without the convenient AH interface, you are going to have a very hard time getting the consensus about what things are worth and how many of these items are "out there." You will have to "poll" a lot of people and spend a lot of time finding out what people think about an item. If you don't extensively do your research, you will be getting improper values for your items, and paying improper values for other peoples items constantly.
Additionally, perfect items aren't the only good ones. My Skorn isn't perfect, but its pretty darn good. For my resources, it was an appropriate buy. If someone else had more gold, or had real money to spend, I'm sure they could get an absolutely perfect one, and that doesn't bother me in the slightest. Kudos to them for getting the gold legitimately, or kudos to them for having a job where they get disposable income in real life.
I've found a few things over the hours that I've played which I do indeed use myself. I've also found countless (COUNTLESS) items that I've sold to other people and added to my cumulative value. You don't run out of things to find. If I find a Skorn that's almost as good as mine, I still call it a victory. Someone will want it. I don't get mad because it's not an upgrade to my setup.
In this context, I don't see how it matters what kind of game it is. If the rule-makers of Chess wanted to change things dramatically, and it favored a certain playstyle significantly, that would still be inappropriate of them.
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It's my opinion that if they need to keep changing things in a game-breaking way, they are doing something wrong already. It is and was fairly rare in WoW that something changed so drastically that the entire paradigm was changed. Some classes could get buffed pretty significantly, but it wasn't like the difference of Legacy Legendaries to current Legendaries.
If I do get a good item in the future (whether I bought it with real money or not) and they nerf it to a game-changing degree, I will be really disappointed regardless of the existence of an AH.
I don't know if you play on console or something, because on console apparently it is easier to earn your own items. But if youre on PC you are in a very small demographic of people. A tiny demographic.
There's almost no way in hell that you could tackle MP10 inferno all the way through by only earning your own items.
I don't think so. Youre looking at 1billion+ gold for "the best" gear. 300million can do you pretty well and get you up to MP10 probably. If you try to earn either of those numbers by yourself with no RMAH, it's pretty damn hard and time consuming. If you choose to spend ~$5 you can give yourself a really solid boost, and I don't really see a problem with that. If someone is "okay" with taking shortcuts, then let that be their business. I bought a very small amount of gold myself on the RMAH and I take pride in what I have legitimately earned since then. 90% of my current items are self-earned now. That gives no real status to anyone but myself. It's largely in your own mind: your sense of pride and sense of achievement.
As for a "computer" telling me what things are worth, I don't really see it that way. I see a very reasonable inflation rate in the items and prices from the release of this game to now. Items I sold for 20million+ months ago are now 1million or less. Big deal? I've gotten items since then that CURRENTLY sell for 70million etc. And I earned them myself. When I find those kinds of items I see it as a victory regardless of the item being for MY current character- I don't know why they think that's part of the whole thing (the item being for you).
By using the inefficient trade-chat and public game trading method you are really screwing up your potential for progress. By having less of a pool of demand, you are going to have a LOT of trouble getting what you deserve for an item, and there's too much luck involved.
If I tried to sell my Skorn right now by avoiding the AH entirely, I know it would be a big pain in the ass to get what I really deserve for it. First of all, it would be very hard to find someone looking for a lifesteal/intelligence Skorn, VERY hard. Then, out of that tiny pool of people, the chances of any of them really knowing the value of it are low just like there's a low chance of some idiot over-paying me for it.
An AH presents comparisons (among many other things). "Ah, these are all typically selling for around X price, so I can be confident in it's value."
As for balance changes (I already said something about this but...) if they decided to nerf the balls out of my current Skorn tomorrow, even though I didn't pay real-money for it, I'd still be fucking furious. I worked really hard to get that decent Skorn, and if they trivialize or take that away from me in any way, I'm not going to be happy.
They need to let the game be somewhat persistent and constant and not be fucking with significant shit all the time.
If WoW was like: "Okay today Warriors are good, but next fucking week, Warlocks are going to be good and everything else is gonna literally blow." People would be upset. They tried to make WoW constant enough that you generally get "what you've worked for." They have definitely made some significant nerfs in the past, but it was never something that COMPLETELY ruined/changed the game for me. In WotLK I played a pvp-unholyDK at the height of their strength, and then they nerfed Scourge strike etc. I was pretty significantly weaker, but I didn't NEED to reroll. I still did pretty fine HOWEVER:
***If they one day nerfed my Skorn down to legacy values, that would be a ridiculous...RIDICULOUSLY significant change. And that HAPPENED in Diablo 3, it just happened in reverse. There is PRECEDENT for that level of change. THEY need to work on not doing that, not relieve themselves of some amount of the blame when they make such huge changes.***
"Hey, there's no AH/RMAH anymore, we can just do anything we fucking want MREHEHEE!!!" We don't want this.
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I dunno, that may be a failure of the D3 crew. Blizzard has never been shy about punishing people for the use of un-intended mechanics before, and I agree with that.
I don't think there's any middle-ground. Items all either have a price tag, or no price tag at all. If money/trading helps you kill monsters faster, it's going to be important to you. There's no way around that.
The options I see are:
Trading exists with a convenient trading interface (AH)
Trading exists with no convenient trading interface (trade chat?)
No trading at all.
Additionally, I think the D3 crew didn't like the fact that people could get a real "shortcut" in their gear improvement simply by spending a very marginal amount of real-world currency. If trading is possible, Chinese farmers etc. are GOING to find a way to sell them for real world currency. They really can't stop that kind of thing
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So, another person for no trading at all? As soon as there is trading (at all) there is economics.
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So, we won't trade at all in loot 2.0?
What changes could have ruined the economy?