The Future of Item Selling
As we all know, the purchasing and selling of digitized goods is a huge problem in Blizzard games, particularly Diablo II and World of Warcraft. With Diablo III on the horizon, I am curious as to how Blizzard may deal with this problem. As there are no plans for having absolutely BoE/BoP items, anything can easily be traded in-game, or sold on a third party website for cash. Some may argue that it's fair because the hardcore players can obtain items by playing, while the casual players, who still want epic gear, can spend a few bucks and be just as good. Others would say that purchasing items isn't fair in the least bit, because they spend countless hours farming for all that epic gear, that others may be able to get by spending 10 minutes and using a credit card. To resolve this issue, Blizzard could go about it a few different ways...
Blizzard-Hosted Store: Instead of having Blizzard attempt to crack down, or ignore item stores, they could simply open up their own "official" store, where everyone could potentially purchase items from. If item selling is going to be going on, Blizzard could use the money from this store to put into the game, to help make the game better for us. So in a sense, you'd be paying extra for some possible cool future things in D3.
User-hosted Stores: Blizzard could allow users to open up their own stores, to gain profit from. Assuming there will be no botters, these users would have to farm gear to sell themselves, so their countless hours of grinding and farming will earn them some cash.
No Stores: You would prefer Blizzard cracked down on all possible item store attempts and forced users to either trade for, or farm items.
Vanity Items only: The purchasing of only items, such as dyes, etc, that make you visually cooler, but do not affect gameplay whatsoever.
In-Game Gear: Players could purchase any item in the game that can also be found via farming, allowing casual players to be just as good as hardcore players.
Top Tier Gear: You would prefer the only way to obtain the top tier gear is to purchase it from the store, not allowing it to drop in-game.
Other: Perhaps you've come to a conclusion we haven't thought of. If so, please explain in the comments below.
All that in mind, we want to know, what is your position on Item Selling in Diablo 3?
In our previous poll, we wanted to know how you decided which class to play. The results showed "playstyle" as the biggest factor, with a majority of the votes. After playstyle, "archetype" and "skills and traits" tied for second place, with just barely a quarter of the votes that playstyle had.
This is all assuming that store items only exist in the store, and in game items only exist in game. Along the lines of the purchasable mounts in WoW. Again, I don't see how so many people are so strongly against the ability to buy items that have absolutely no effect on gameplay. Let some suckers buy them, and that will mean D3 is more of a success for Blizzard, which means we'll probably get more frequent/better content. I'm not saying that buying some vanity item from the store would be a good decision, obviously it would be a waste, but who cares if Blizzard gives some people the ability to spend more money on the game? Especially considering everyone will know that the person spent money on it, so it will just make them look dumb.
Well I would like to think that too but the delays on SC2 and D3 were/are probably thanks to WoW. The each have their own dedicated teams true but it is obvious where priorities lie. So while they have resources, these resources are far from unlimited. They make games yes but they do so to get money. Having the biggest margin of profits will dictate how much they are willing to spend in manpower and which project should get the nod.
The lateness of the latest patch for D2 was entirely due to WoW and we can anticipate similar events for D3.
All of that to say that stores as some means of 'constant' revenue for blizzard might ensure more content and on a more regular basis for D3.
Of course, the other side of the coin might be that the stores don't generate enough and what goes in there is basically insufficient to warrant the advantage mentioned above.
So ya, instead of whining because you won't get to wear the magical penis of doom that some other ass bought from a store, you should contemplate the resulting possibility of getting more frequent updates for D3 to enjoy yourself with.
Also, stop menstruating all over the place. You are making a mess. We get it- you are against stores.
With all that said, I am still against stores but even the implementation of the latter won't stop me from enjoying D3.
Quoted for truth.
All I'm saying is, I believe being able to purchase items from an official store does the following:
1. Has an impact on the economy in some way.
2. Makes players look cool because they bought some item from the Blizzard store (when that item could have been an in-game-only item where that person would have to earn that prize).
3. Make Blizzard look like a buncha sleezy basterds.
I don't like it.
There is absolutely NO reason to prevent vanity items from being sold by blizzard. None. Whatsothefuckever.
Vanity Items (for non english speakers) is being defined as different clothes, some pet that cannot do anything but follow you, some set of wings, or a lame looking guitar skin to disguise your weapon.
Purchasing said items have absolutely no effect on gameplay other than allowing customization... the same customization most diablofans scream as necessary.
So freaking what if your broke-ass cannot afford it. So what if you cannot give your female barbarian angel wings. Who cares... you get the benefit off some nerdy girl who decided to actually purchase it, and therefore prolong the life of Diablo 3.
As for other items sold in game store, I still see no problem with it. As long as you do not have to pay for actual patches or content. Dungeons and Dragons Online does a decent F2P system other than expecting you to pay for new zones, classes, races, etc (i'd rather this be in expansions than new content that has to be purchased every 3 months).
Way to flaunt your immaturity and ignorance of the issue at hand. This has nothing to do with people being poor or not. If Blizzard implements a store, then future Blizzard installments will follow the same route, and perhaps be completely pay2play. Once Blizzard dips its hands into greed, there's no turning back. That's fine if you have a deep craving to get milked by Blizzard; there's WoW for a reason. The rest of us want to keep the Diablo series as money-free as possible.
Also, there's no need to impose yourself on others. We all know that people who act big online and insult others are miserable themselves in real life. In fact, I bet that the majority of people on this forum who don't support stores are wealthier than you. So please stop generalizing and assuming that everyone who are against a Blizzard store are poor. You can take your condescending attitude elsewhere.
That has got to be the stupidest thing I've heard all year.
Wow. The short-sightedness of that astoundingly moronic statement is overwhelming.
I've been sitting here for 2 minutes trying to think, if Blizzard generated infinite money from an item-selling store, what could they *possibly* do to make Diablo 3 better? Nothing. Can you think of anything?
A item-selling store will utterly destroy the game such that no amount of money can possibly fix it up. It's the point of no return.
There are many reasons that there should not be a vanity store. From a pragmatic point of view, it is possible to turn a vanity store into a gold selling store, and indeed people attempt to do this in WoW. Blizzard sells vanity pets and mounts, you pay money for a code to add these items to your account. People in WoW sell these codes for gold. In effect, they are buying gold for money, from Blizzard (money -> code -> gold).
But the strongest argument against a vanity store is basic fairness. Vanity stores, and any stores that sell in-game things for money, destroys the integrity of the game. It is fundamentally not fair that after purchasing the game you're not allowed access to all the features of the game, including vanity features.
I would argue that it is better for Blizzard to raise the price of the game than to offer a vanity store, because at least everyone will have the same access to everything in the game.
Customization is essential in RPGs, which is why it is incredibly unfair to force people to buy these vanity features, if they want them, instead of having these features be part of the game that everyone can access, without additional charge. The fact that customization is such a core component of RPG games only makes vanity stores even more unacceptable.
I agree complete with that statement. This would make the game feel like one of those cheap free-to-play MMO games that people play online for about 1 week before they realize that you have to pay for this and that ... etc. I admit that if this was to become the norm for the game, I would have to take off my Diablo-for-life fanboy hat.
I think that the "No Store" option is best, but probably pretty hard to maintain with the number of hackers out there seeing the potential for money to be made. I would be fine with the "Blizzard Store" or "In-Game Store" (what we have now), as I can ignore those credit-card warriors if need be.
Just look at the people who buy the mounts in WoW. Sure, they look cool, but no one is like OMG YOUS A BOSS. Its not like you got some insanely cool mount drop from a tough boss, which would cause people to actually look and be amazed. If anyone does think you look cool, within five seconds of finding out how they too can look cool, they'll see that you paid for your vanity item, and move on.
We're not talking about big items here. It would be things like you can pay to get a Navy Blue dye when an end boss gives you Cobalt. Even if someone paid for the Navy, everyone would recognize that the Cobalt is more of a status symbol and would therefore want it more. Even the people who paid for the dyes would probably want the ones you get from boss drops, and if they're really that concerned about dyes (or some other vanity item) then I'm sure they'd be much more willing to drop large amounts of gold than spend real money.
Blizzard already, in some people's eyes, looks like a 'buncha sleezy basterds' because they make people pay monthly for WoW and also have extra vanity items you can pay for (mounts, pets, etc.) The fact of the matter is they made a few million dollars on the Celestial Steed (or whatever it was called.) You can't (or at least I can't) blame them for taking advantage of people willing to shell out unnecessary monies. And just go look at the response to the Celestial mount. No one is saying anything but "You dumb sons of bitches, you paid $25 for that?!!??!?!"
Considering all this. I really think that there will be some kind of a shop in D3 where one will be able to spend real money for electronic goods in D3. Looking at WoW and SC2, there could be vanity items shop (non-combat familiars, dyes, glows, taunts, emotes), there could be applications for iPhones and stuff like that, maybe even remote Auction House like there is one in WoW. Personally. I don't like any of this, if it was up to me, I wouldn't put anything of this in the game. But I'm afraid some of this stuff will be part of D3, whether we like it or not.
Oh the irony.
You accuse someone of short-sightedness when you've shown that you are clearly unable to factor in how more money *can* lead to the improvement of D3?
I am not saying it will but you need to be pretty thick-skulled to be unable to grasp such a simple concept.
Fairness? In terms of looks and features that don't influence the killing power of your character? Remind me again why you play diablo? Oh ya, to show everybody you are wearing the coolest armor and weapons. Even if that was your primary reason, is it so difficult to grasp why vanity items will never have the same bragging value as a farmed rare item?
I think this is the strongest piece of evidence that your brain might not be functioning properly. Do you realize this will make the game even more inaccessible? How much can you raise the price to cover what you get through a vanity store?
Only if you have some serious character flaws, will you feel 'forced' to buy vanity items. You are conveniently choosing to ignore all those relevant customization features like runes and thousands of builds available to whine about how you won't be able to wear a magenta-colored headgear unless you shell out a few bucks. It's time you return to our universe because there's some serious problem of tunnel-vision in yours.
You again? All your 'contribution' in this thread so far has been about how anybody not having the same opinion as you is stupid. I strongly advise you stop with that bullshit. There are actual valid arguments on both sides- possible advantages and disadvantages.
A stubbornly unilateral approach like yours- with complete disregard and utter contempt for what the other side has to bring- is what constitute the very essence of stupidity.
Fair enough but you can do so in a civilized manner. An extremely important point you might have overlooked all this time- the overwhelming MAJORITY of people are against stores; which made your post about how out of place you felt in this community rather comical.
Not everybody is gonna agree with you- a sad fact of life.
If finding that some are for the idea of stores upsets you so much, then these kinds of discussions are unfortunately not for you.
Couldn't have said it better.