Diablo 3

Well. Alright. Regarding the D3 "Cash Auction House" (CAH) I just sort of figured I can explain this in a short and concise manner, unlike my usual long winded explanations. There are two points I want to discuss: the player's conceptions, and Blizzard's lies.

Now, as much as I like Athene and his Together To The Top (TTTT) movement, I am really disappointed he hasn't caught onto Blizzard's ruse with their CAH. Now, people are going to swarm into this game trying to get cash off this game, this is pretty much undeniable at this point, a cash incentive for playing is a great marketing strategy. This works in the favor of more hardcore players, who have the ability and patience to grind out dozens of boss runs farming for gear... at least initially. The problem with the CAH is that it's going to attract the attention of entrepreneurs who will try and use the system for mass financial gain. Most people refer to those people as "Chinese Gold Sellers". The CAH will be flooded with items after not too long. A huge player base trying to cash in, on top of the competitive slashing of prices will inevitably result in everything save for the rarest of items to be dirt cheap. Incidentally, this works in Blizzard's favor, since it can be used as a marketing tool for more casual players who would rather buy than grind. Even if D3 sucks as a game, you can bet that it'll do well simply because of everyone trying to get their hand in the cookie jar. The thing is, Blizzard knows this.

Blizzard has gone on the record as saying that the CAH concept was "simply a feature to help players", and "they'd be surprised to break even on the CAH alone". Frankly, that's bullshit. The way Blizzard is taking a cut from the CAH is by a small flat rate with each transaction. What this means is that they'll only make money off of the quantity of transactions, rather than taking a percentage of the total cash moved. Anyone with a basic knowledge of player behavior in MMOs will understand that that system, on top of the inevitable devaluing of gear, that this is the best model for Blizzard to get behind for profitability. The only way a percentage of sale model would work is if Blizzard made items so prohibitively rare, that their price could never drop to an unsatisfactory amount. That model, however, would drive would-be auctioneers away.

A plethora of slightly sub-optimal items for the endgame at a rare-ish drop rate, coupled with a set of ultra rare "best" items, will make for the most addicting and profitable recipe.

As a note that supports my case, keep in mind that Blizzard removed skill points in favor of skill-altering items. That means every time there's a new flavor of the month build (or shit, even a classic example of Blizzard being bad at balancing), guess what gets sold en masse, and guess who profits directly. This is, of course, only pointing out a new feature, if you look at their main website you can see a plethora of items that will most likely end up cheap and be sold in large quantities (Players will have many ways to customize and build each of the five character classes, including charms, traits, enhancements, gems, armor, weapons, dyes, skills...) (http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/world/systems/runestones.xml) I will forever contend that Blizzard's handling of Diablo 3 is just another example that they will go at great lengths to squeeze every last cent out of their customers.

As a final disclaimer, I make no claims regarding the quality of Diablo 3 as a game. I have no opinion about the potential enjoyability of its gameplay. I do, however, refuse to buy the game because of Blizzard's business practices, and that's the only message I want to spread.