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Diablo III Reminder: Auction house closes June 24
Last year, Blizzard announced their intention to close the Diablo III real-money auction house. On March 18th of this year, Blizzard mostly completed that task and removed players' ability to bid, buyout, and list items on that auction house. However, since then, players have still been able to claim gold and receive items from the "Completed" auction house tab. They will remain able to do so until next week, in order to allow adequate time for players to retrieve anything they may have won or sold. On June 24th, the shutdown of the Diablo III real-money auction house will be complete, and the real-money auction house will be gone in its entirety. Any items or gold that may be yours will be lost forever, so if you have any of these things lingering in what remains of the Diablo III auction house, now is the time to claim them.
Diablo III shows off expansion gameplay as the auction house closes
Are you ready to continue the adventures of John Diablo as he fights the nefarious forces of Reaper McSoul? Probably not, as that's not even close to the plot of the Diablo III expansion Reaper of Souls. A new gameplay trailer for the expansion has just been released and is available past the break, showing off the new regions, new abilities, and the new class. The expansion launches next week, so you don't have to wait long to try all of this out for yourself. The game's real-money auction house has also finally breathed its last today, with the service currently shut down in the Americas. This goes hand-in-hand with the features of Reaper of Souls that are designed to keep loot drops more relevant and interesting for players. If the trailer is any indication, there are still plenty of demons to be slain -- you just won't be dropping real money to do any of that.
Blizzard to shut down Diablo III auction house
The auction house in Diablo III has been plagued by various issues basically since the game's release, however, Blizzard's announcement today that they are going to close both the gold and real money auction houses entirely still comes as a bit of shock. In the video embedded above -- and echoed in a Diablo official blog post -- Diablo III's Production Director John Hight and Game Director Josh Mosqueira state that Blizzard has come to the conclusion that the auction house system in Diablo III undermines the game's core gameplay, which is to kill monsters and get loot. This is ostensibly the driving factor behind axing the systems entirely. A new system, coyly referred to as "Loot 2.0," is in the works for Diablo III: Reaper of Souls, and they hope that the changes will result in a much more rewarding experience for Diablo players. If you're an avid auction house user you don't have to scramble just yet to get all your ducks in a row before the shut down. We've been given six months' notice, so mark your calenders. The Diablo III auction houses will close their doors for good on March 18, 2014. Until then, it's business as usual.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls loot designed to make auction house a 'last resort'
There's been no love lost between Diablo III players and the game's real-money auction house. And while Blizzard Entertainment has no plans to remove RMT from Diablo III, the studio's upcoming Reaper of Souls expansion features a redesigned loot system built to get players out of the trading game and back into the grind. In an interview with PC Gamer, lead content designer Kevin Martens explained that the team likes trading between players but lamented that the auction house has become the primary method through which players obtain items: It is fun to go buy something instantly, the instant gratification feel, that sugar high; however, it's not the core fantasy, it's not the most fun, and by the endgame, for a variety of reasons, [players] tend to check the auction house first and play the game second. According to Martens, the looting and enchanting systems in Reaper of Souls are designed to "cut the legs out from the auction house" and to create an environment in which "the most fun way to play the game becomes the best way to play the game." Lead writer Brian Kindregan echoed Martens' sentiments, noting, "We want the auction house to be your last resort, right?" For more information on Reaper of Souls, check out Blizzard's Gamescom 2013 presentation and the new cinematic trailer, posted last week.
The Soapbox: Diablo III's auction house ruined the game
After his departure from the Diablo III development team, Game Director Jay Wilson released a statement that the introduction of an auction house "really hurt the game." While players predicted doom the moment the Real Money Auction House was announced, Jay argued that the gold auction house was equally to blame for the game's fall from grace following its absolutely stellar launch sales. I don't normally agree with what Jay has to say on Diablo III, but in this case he does have a very valid point. Diablo II was consistently popular for over a decade thanks to its immense replayability. At its core, D2 was a game about building new characters and gearing them up by any means necessary. Every enemy in the game was a loot pinata just waiting to be popped, and players farmed endlessly for a few sought-after unique items. You almost never found an item that was ideal for your particular class and build, but you could usually trade for what you needed via trade channels and forums. Blizzard claimed that the auction house was intended just to streamline this process, but when Diablo III launched, it was clear that the entire game had been designed to make the auction house almost necessary for progress. The fault here lies not just with the concept of an auction house but with the game designers. That's right: I'm here to argue not only that Jay Wilson was right about the auction house ruining Diablo III but also that it was his own damn fault.
Diablo 3 Auction House back online sans bug, exploiters punished
Diablo 3's Auction House is back online after Blizzard took it down earlier this week, following an update bug that allowed players to duplicate trillions in gold. Blizzard found the bug, exterminated it, and will now donate all proceeds generated from the exploit to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. Blizzard will not roll back the servers across the board, but will instead target specific accounts that used the exploit, banning or rolling back those users depending on their activity. "Only a relatively small number of players had the billions of gold necessary to exploit the bug, and only 415 of those players chose to use this exploit for personal gain," Blizzard Production Director John Hight writes in the Battle.net forums. As of yesterday, Blizzard had recaptured 85 percent of the erroneous gold and was working to track down the remaining currency.
Diablo III's auction house 'really hurt the game'
Diablo III's joint in-game gold and real-money auction house has played a fairly major role in the game since its launch. Remember that one time when a guy used the real-money side of things to bank a cool $10,000? That apparently wasn't really what Blizzard foresaw when creating and implementing the auction house. According to former Diablo III Game Director Jay Wilson, the auction house "really hurt the game." Apparently, Blizzard anticipated that very few players would make use of the auction house and that item prices would limit the number of transactions going on. That, uh, wasn't the case. Nearly every one of Diablo III's roughly 3 million monthly users make use of the auction house, and item trading has "damaged" the item rewards in the game. Without giving up any juicy details, Wilson has mentioned that the team is working on a viable solution to the current problems posed by the auction house.
Diablo 3 Director Jay Wilson: Auction Houses 'really hurt' game
Former Diablo 3 Game Director Jay Wilson admitted during a talk at GDC 2013 in San Francisco that both of Diablo 3's Auction Houses (both the real-money and the in-game gold item auction house) "really hurt the game." Wilson said that before Blizzard launched the game, the company had a few assumptions about how the Auction Houses would work: He thought they would help reduce fraud, that they'd provide a wanted service to players, that only a small percentage of players would use it and that the price of items would limit how many were listed and sold.But he said that once the game went live, Blizzard realized it was completely wrong about those last two points. It turns out that nearly every one of the game's players (of which there are still about 1 million per day, and about 3 million per month, according to Wilson) made use of either house, and that over 50 percent of players used it regularly. That, said Wilson, made money a much higher motivator than the game's original motivation to simply kill Diablo, and "damaged item rewards" in the game. While a lot of the buzz around the game attacked the real money Auction House, "gold does much more damage than the other one does," according to Wilson, because more players use it and prices fluctuate much more."I think we would turn it off if we could," Wilson said during his talk. But the problem is "not as easy as that;" with all of Blizzard's current players, he says the company "has no idea" how many players like the system or hate it. Blizzard, Wilson said, doesn't want to remove a feature that lots of players will be unhappy to see go. But he did say that the team is working on a viable solution, without giving any other details about what that would be like.
5 things Blizzard has done I thought they'd never do
Transmogrification. That's the first and biggest thing Blizzard did that I thought they would never do, frankly. I not only never believed they'd do it, I didn't want them to do it. I argued against it. And now it's probably my favorite part of the game, bar none. It turns out I absolutely love playing dress up with orcs. And while transmog is my number one choice for this list, it is by far not the only surprise Blizzard has given me over the years. So what else surprised me? What else did they do that I didn't see coming? To be honest, there are so many that narrowing it down to five is a bit hard for me. I never expected playable pandaren, for one thing. That's not going on the list, but it did surprise me. I'm going to do five aside from transmog, because I natter on about that one a lot.
Blizzard shows parental controls for World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and StarCraft II
MMOs and other online games have such a wide appeal that they attract players of all ages. Some MMOs simply add a minimum age requirement to the signup process and advise parents not to let their children play, but others implement strict parental controls. Blizzard recently released a new video explaining the parental controls that parents can use to monitor and control their childrens' play time in World of Warcraft, Diablo III and StarCraft II. Parents can use the system to limit the total number of hours an account can play each day or week or even schedule specific play times on a calendar. The controls can also limit the use of RealID and voice chat and even mute all of the game's chat channels if necessary. Parents can also disable Diablo III's real money auction house and use of the Blizzard forums. WoW Insider suggests that parental controls may actually be equally useful to students who need to limit their play time or any player who might want a weekly report of his activity. Read on to see the full video and find out how to use parental controls on your child's Battle.net account.
Guide to microtransactions in WoW and the Diablo 3 Real-Money Auction House
Since the advent of gold sellers, players have discussed the ethics of buying gold with real currency, as well as what would if Blizzard started selling gold. Then came the Guardian Cub, and suddenly Blizzard was allowing gold buying and selling via a vanity pet. Later, Blizzard hit us with the announcement that Diablo III would have an auction house that uses real money. Now that the Real-Money Auction House has been launched, the debates have heated up. This guide is to help you decide, debate, or deliberate about real money in Blizzard games. Real-money transactions for WoW The implications of a real-dollar auction house What WoW can learn from other transaction models, part 1 and part 2 Guardian Cub pros and cons WoW's immune system and the gold selling virus Blizzard responds to Guardian Cub controversy Guardian Cub pet available for purchase How much is a Guardian Cub worth? Guardian cub taking a bite out of third-party gold sales
Diablo III pulls trigger on NA real-money auction house
While Diablo III released weeks ago, Blizzard's held off from launching the game's controversial real-money auction house in North America for its own reasons. All must be good on the studio's end, however, because the auction house has gone live in the game as of today. Unlike the traditional in-game auction house, the real-money variant deals in actual currency (such as USD). Players can sell their hard-won goods for cash, which can then be either spent on the auction house, sent to their own personal PayPal accounts, or converted to Battle.net Balance credit. The real-money auction house requires additional setup if the players have not attached a PayPal or authenticator to the account. Blizzard does take its cut, and business must be good: There are reports of items going for over $200 already.
Diablo 3 players in the U.S. region can now use the Real-Money Auction House
The Real-Money Auction House is now accessible to the Americas via Battle.net balance or approved payment services for some currencies. The U.S. dollar, Australian dollar, and the Mexican peso are all supported, with the EU region and more currency from the Americas to be implemented soon. The long-delayed RMAH will now allow players to purchase and sell in-game items using their region's currency. Your home game region will affect which RMAH you will have access to, so if you have created characters to play outside the country registered to your Battle.net account, you will not be able to use the RMAH for those characters. Only equipment such as armor and weapons is available on the RMAH at this time. Commodities will be added at a later date. In some cases, items may be held for processing. Most items purchased will be available immediately, however. Using the Battle.net Balance for your Real-Money Auction House transactions requires that you have an authenticator or mobile authenticator on your account. Furthermore, if you choose to use PayPal (not available in all regions), you must use the Battle.net SMS Protection feature. To access the RMAH, go to your Campaign Screen in Diablo III and select Auction House. Then press the button that shows your region's currency. You can toggle back and forth between the gold AH and the Real-Money one. The entire announcement from Blizzard is after the break.
Diablo 3's real-money auction house requires an authenticator
Diablo 3's real-money auction house is set to go live tomorrow, and when it does, it will require players use an authenticator for an "added layer of account protection," Battle.net's Meozeldian wrote. The authenticator, which comes in a physical version for $6.50 or as a free mobile app, will be required for anyone to add funds to a Battle.net balance.Those who have already added funds to their Battle.net accounts will be able to use those without an authenticator, but from today on, all new additions will only work with an authenticator attachment.Blizzard has previously suggested all players use an authenticator to prevent hacking, but this is the first feature for which it is a requirement. As this is to protect players' real money, it's difficult to find the rule egregious, especially as Blizzard generally handles thousands of hacks per day, and the mobile authenticator is entirely free.
More details on Diablo III's real-money auction block
It's controversial, it's unique, and it's still not actually running in the game proper. It's Diablo III's real-money auction service, and it's getting a new wrinkle added: In order for players to use the service, they'll need to have an authenticator attached to their accounts. This is being done to help ensure that the auction house is as safe as possible for all players. It also means that players will need to accept a new set of agreements when the feature finally goes live. Community manager Kaivax has also chimed in on the real-money auction house, noting that it's possible that the feature will launch with only item-trading functionality rather than allow players to buy and sell commodities. This is largely based on trying to ensure that the latter market remains active and fair for all players, and if the team decides to go this route, the commodity functionality will be added at a later date.
Authenticator now required for Diablo's Real-Money Auction House
In order to use the Real-Money Auction House in Diablo III (which can be used to fuel your WoW subscription), you need to have a Battle.net balance set up for buying and selling items. Because Blizzard is understandably concerned about account security, an authenticator or mobile authenticator is now required in order to add to your Battle.net balance. Transferring proceeds from the RMAH to your B.Net balance will also require the use of an authenticator. The RMAH has yet to be implemented in Diablo III, but some players have already added money to their balance in preparation for its launch. Those players will be still be able to use it to pay for eligible purchases or to use in the RMAH without the added security, but adding to the balance from now on will require adding an authenticator to their accounts. I think that preparing beforehand for the inevitable attempted account incursions is a very responsible move on Blizzard's part. This move is good for the players, as well as good for their customer service department, I'm sure. The full announcement is after the break.
The Lawbringer: Diablo sells lots, Blizzard dodges another bullet
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, and esoteroic topics that slip through the cracks. Blizzard has been off to a pretty good start with Diablo III, selling who-cares-at-this-point millions of copies of the game people have been waiting over a decade to get their hands on. The craziest part about the whole thing is that it lived up to the hype -- a new Diablo game that felt like a Diablo game. Good for you, Blizzard! That's not what today's Lawbringer is about, no sir or ma'am. I've got a few topics I'd like to ramble on about today. You know those days in high school when the teacher was inbetween lesson plans and they just sort of rambled to you for that one day that they had set aside in case Federico didn't understand the "green light" symbolism in The Great Gatsby? That story happened, but I changed the names to make it more funny to the people who get the joke. Great way to start off this edition, right? Make the most inside-baseball column on WoW Insider get a little more in-jokey. Mat, you sure know how to hook 'em. No, wait, stay. I've got lots to say about Diablo III, the potential issues with the real money auction house, and my own thoughts on the cross-realm compromise and dodging the dreaded "merge." I think you'll have plenty to say in the comments after today's topics -- they are some of my favorites.
Diablo 3 patch incoming, real-money auction house still without launch date
Blizzard has made a quick update on its forums for Diablo 3 today, saying a post-launch patch could be ready as soon as next week. The patch, along with a number of server updates and other incoming fixes, will "further address client issues and apply additional bug fixes." One of the biggest issues is that, while the servers were bobbing up and down like buoys in the ocean last week, lots of players weren't able to earn achievements. Blizzard says it's still working on a solution.Meanwhile, the real-money auction house has yet to be given a release date. It was supposed to be online earlier this week, but was pushed back after launch last week, and is now delayed indefinitely. "More information soon," says Blizzard.Finally, Blizzard claims it's following the security concerns of players closely. According to the company, there is no "server spoofing" going on, official Blizzard servers themselves haven't been compromised, and Blizzard Authenticators are still the best way to keep an account secure. There's no word on the PvP update or any post-launch content yet – Blizzard's main goal at this point is to make sure the game is running steadily and securely.
Blizzard talks Diablo III hotfixes, delay of real-money auction house
In a post on the official Diablo III forums earlier today, Community Manager Nethaera addressed a few of the concerns that have been brought up in the game's momentous first week. Neth first linked to an up-to-date list of hotfixes that have been implemented thus far. For the spoiler-wary among you, be warned that if you haven't completed the game on Normal difficulty, some of the hotfixes might be spoilerific. Now that you're thoroughly warned that there may be spoilers, head on over to the list of hotfixes if you dare. Neth also advised players that additional server maintenance will be required in time and that there's a game patch inbound for sometime next week. She also took the time to address the real-money auction house. Although Neth states that the service is "coming soon," it's been delayed due to post-launch difficulties. The team apparently needs "a bit more time to iron out the existing general stability and gameplay issues" before the real-money auction house is ready for launch. Players shouldn't expect the auction house to be ready in May despite initial plans for it to go online on the 22nd, and there wasn't a solid date to look forward to. Neth went on to assure players that neither D3 nor Battle.net servers have been compromised, despite all the hubbub about security concerns that's been filling the air the last few days. In all of the individual Diablo III-related compromise cases we've investigated, none have occurred after a physical Battle.net Authenticator or Battle.net Mobile Authenticator app was attached to the player's account, and we have yet to find any situation where a Diablo III player's account was accessed outside of "traditional" compromise methods (i.e. someone logging using an account's login email and password). She reminded players to exercise constant vigilance by practicing smart password management, scanning for malware and viruses regularly, and generally being savvy.
Diablo 3 review: Hitting the jackpot
Hack-and-slash action RPGs, pioneered by Blizzard's Diablo, are essentially slot machines. You click the mouse, and every time you do there's a chance you'll get the loot you want . Yes, the trappings of role-playing and combat mechanics are there, weaker in some cases and stronger in others, but in terms of brain chemistry you're playing for the jackpot.As anyone who's been to Vegas will tell you, there are different kinds of slot machines. There's the rickety old unit sitting in the gas station near the airport. And there's the junky Jokers Wild machines blinking and chirping in that one casino downtown, where the air smells too much like your grandmother's bathroom.And then there are the machines in that one room in the Bellagio, where velvet seats wait underneath crystal chandeliers. That's where the shahs from Dubai come to play with thousand dollar tokens, where pretty ladies serve you drinks as you play, and where a private concierge will happily help you order up a steak, buy a Brooks Brothers suit, or get you anything else you might want. Blizzard's Diablo 3 is that Bellagio room, high stakes and luxurious and ready to cater to your every dungeon crawler need.%Gallery-137262%
