Blizzard Removing the Diablo 3 Auction House

[Kushan]

I know there is a few Diablo 3 players around here. Best news I've seen regarding D3 in awhile. From what little I've seen, the auction house less loot system on the console versions seems far superior to the current PC model. I really had no problem with the AH itself as a concept. In theory it was meant to cut down on the unsecured third party sites that were used in D2 to sell items. The problem I had with D3 was the loot system itself. Stats are so random that you have to use the AH at higher levels in order to obtain gear. Not sure how random the stat variance on the console version is, or how it determines stars on items. Wonder if there was a way for them to have kept the AH and to simply have rebalanced the loot system for those that still want to trade or sell their gear.

When we initially designed and implemented the auction houses, the driving goal was to provide a convenient and secure system for trades. 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. With that in mind, we want to let everyone know that we've decided to remove the gold and real-money auction house system from Diablo III.

We feel that this move along with the Loot 2.0 system being developed concurrently with Reaper of Souls™ will result in a much more rewarding game experience for our players.

We're working out the details of how the auction house system will be shut down, but we wanted to share the news as soon as we made the decision in order to give everyone as much advance notice as possible. Please note that the shutdown will occur on March 18, 2014. We will keep everyone informed as we work through this process.

Josh Mosqueira and I wanted to provide everyone with a little more information behind this decision, so please have a look at the video, and stay tuned to this site for further updates in the months ahead.

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/10974978/

[Huw the Poo]

A good move, but too little, too late (for me).  The main reason I didn't buy it was the always-online requirement.  I've already decided to get a console version.

[smittyohio]

A good move, but too little, too late (for me).  The main reason I didn't buy it was the always-online requirement.  I've already decided to get a console version.

I'm loving the PS3 version....  The loot is meaningful to progression, and I don't feel artificially gimped.   When a legendary drops, as long as your class can use it, it most certainly will have good stats.  I'm only just now starting Hell level, so it remains to be seen if this continues.  In the PC version, I limped along bargain shopping on the AH to get to inferno.  But once I got on Inferno, I was toast without doing a full blown AH run.  The gear you got playing through Hell level was not even close to sufficient, unless you farmed for countless hours.... And even then it was much more efficient to just AH shop.

[Nefaro]

The biggest problem with their AH system was that the idiots tailored the loot drops to force you to use the goddamn thing. 

Oh how infuriating it is to constantly get item drops that are ten fookeen levels below yours!  Which forces you to go trade them so you can purchase something closer to your own level from the AH.  Even if it only cost you game currency, it was still utterly ridiculous!

I'm surprised they're finally moving in the direction to fix it.  Must've lost a lot of players after the initial onslaught, and their shitty action-house-pushing loot drop system was definitely a major reason I stopped playing. 

[Gusington]

I don't know...the few times I used the auction house I liked it...it gave some good access to some phat lootz.

[Bison]

Hmmm....I fail to see how this is going to help anything.  The AH is still open for 6 months and it does nothing to address the lack of any real randomization of the levels.  That has always been the issue for me.  I really like the game.  I really don't care if some idiot wants to pay real money for a piece of randomized loot from a virtual world.  But the complete lack of level randomization really kills the replay value.

[Nefaro]

I don't know...the few times I used the auction house I liked it...it gave some good access to some phat lootz.

Phat Lootz of a level you should already be finding on your own. 

IIRC, after the first 15 levels or so, everything I found was way too far below my character level to be useful to me.  I was better off just crafting plain 'ole green ones, few & far between, because they were better than the more rare ones I'd find that were 10 levels below.  And the crafted ones were spaced rather far apart in levels, too, so you'd have to level quite a bit to get the next one for the same location ::)   

There's only one purpose this kind of loot drop "randomization" serves.   Forcing you to use the AH to keep your character(s) properly outfitted for his level.

Meh.  I'll take Torchlight 2's gameplay over D3 any day.