Bashiok's response to the user was:
Official Blizzard Quote:
Hah. No it won't. All of the issues that exist in Diablo II that essentially force people to use these kinds of sites in order to establish a base economy and help concentrate the playerbase to a centralized trading location will all be completely unnecessary when we achieve our economic and trade goals with Diablo III.
Other users then continued to ask Bashiok how they planned to control the economy rather than letting these other sites control it. They wanted to know what Blizzard had in mind to control item trade.
Official Blizzard Quote:
We've always said we intend to have some type of in-game auction house type feature.
That alone would remove almost all desire to alt+tab and trade outside of the game. People use these sites because they centralize the trading community, and they establish a base currency. If there's no reason for people to leave the game, then they won't. It's as simple as that.
Bashiok continued to reply to another question concerning the economy in-game. The question of ladder resets existing in Diablo III was asked. Ladder resets exist to essentially wipe the economy of high end items to reset the economy.
Official Blizzard Quote:
There's no reason for Diablo III to have ladder resets. They're a quick and dirty method of resetting the economy to 0 in Diablo II. It works. For a while. Then the great purging begins again.
And for anyone still worried about the economy in Diablo III, it appears that the team is more than capable of correcting a problem that exists in a game that is over ten years old.
I think you're referring to actual sites where you pay for items with real money, the original post from my understanding is referring to trading sites where you trade for items with virtual forum gold (aka JSP, there I said it lol). Diablo 3 is going to have features that will make those trading for forum gold websites obsolete. Which is awesome imo, nothing against those websites but if it can all be done ingame to begin with then that's unreal. I can't wait for the d3 trading/economy.
The websites you're talking about where ppl buy with real money are probably going to still be around, but only idiots pay for items with real money to begin with lol so if they want to then let them.
... text based in the chat ??? in 2010 ? lol
AHAH yes I agree, but I hope Blizzard will counter that.
Yes I strongly agree !! I hate when the first amount of gold you found is 10. Damn cut the zero on everything...
Lol. Yes xD
It's been a confirmed currency, not the confirmed currency. Item trading will still be an accessible option, so there will probably be multiple other ones created by players as the game gets older, like gems and such, I'd imagine.
I think even gems will have gold currency so we don't need to know what's the value equality of an items when every items are converted in gold when traded...
for example, in WoW, every player needed bags. Only tailors could make these bags. So for a tailor to buy anything, they did not trade their bags for items. Instead, you go to the AH, sell your bags, take the gold from that and buy a different item.
It is actually how the economy in the world works. We all essentially still live in a bartering system. We each provide services or goods in exchange to get different services and goods. However, rather than worrying about everybody willing to trade for your specific work, we have a unified form of currency in which everything is converted into so we can trade equally between everyone.
I disagree, they trade their items away for a medium currency so they can more easily buy the items they can use. You don't have to worry about the person who has the item you need, needing the item you have to trade. you sell your item, you buy your item. It is quicker, easier, and more accessible. I don't see anyone saying "NO, I am not trading this item for gold, I want this axe for my skill rune." Not using gold as a medium currency only limits the amount of people you can trade with.
At first, nobody has money so everything on the AH has to have a reasonable price if you expect someone to buy it. As the game gets older and people's gold starts increasing, so do the prices of items. It basically makes the gold in the game to work off of a percentage rather than a set price like merchants have. And percentages are great when dealing with things that can increase exponentially and last for so long.
Another great thing is that prices are community driven. You can't put up an item for 1,000,000,000 gold just because, the price has to be reasonable for people to buy it. And it is the community that decides what is a reasonable price.
"We have people in-house with doctorates and degrees in statistics and economic analysis and all the know how to pull it off. I think we'll be ok."
Aren't these the same kinds of people who run the actual economy? How are things working out?
Thx for explain it more clearly than me !!
Why ? you'll use this gold to buy exactly what you want !!
Why do simple when you can do complicated ?!
"want only items that they can actually use. " So with your gold buy it... I'm sure you'll be able to sort items of your level... I don't know why you absolutly want trade an items for an items without knowing if the trade is fair and have a equal value ?!
I personally hate forum gold and shit. What i do like is forum trades. I got a sword, you got a shield, lets trade.
Oh and i have full confident in Blizzard's capability of making a good economy system.
Hopefully they can learn from their mistakes. After all, history is much more instructional than inspirational.