But Blizzard does have a track record of being able to maintain a game through lots of updates and expansion packs (WoW). We'll see if they can hold out on abusing their power too much. I would much rather see the RMAH for characters only, but Blizzard obviously has incentives to do otherwise.

with as much monitoring and policing they have to do with diablo, why do you expect them to NOT make it profitable by introducing the RMAH?? I would rather them have a RMAH and add new content consistently as well as trying to keep up with hackers and so forth.

If there's going to be a real money market for these virtual items, which clearly there is, I don't get why Blizzard shouldn't get a cut versus some secondary site.

i dont think anyone is saying they shouldn't

Also, the markets will even out. Lots of people want nothing to do with the RMAH, so items will be put on the gold auction house as usual. Lots of people didn't ever use D2JSP on diablo 2 so I'm sure there will be a fair chunk of the population that doesn't use the RMAH. Heck a few of the guys I clear ponies and act 4 inferno with put everything up on the gold AH.

I just want to see a decent item up for sale in the gold auction house. I'm not lucky enough to get good drops or at least those worth money to use for rmah. They screwing the casual gamer. Im just just using Diablo to wait guild wars 2 at this point. Their money making machine is killing the casual gamers IMO.

Soo Ive been looking at gear on both extensively, and the truth is the better items, at least for demon hunter, are all over the gold auction house. They are at some high prices, but I just don't understand how you can possibly say there are no good items on the gold AH. I have found way more weapon selection on the gold AH vs the other.

The only annoying thing is having to search two separate databases to look at items. I've decided I'm going to start straying away from the RMAH and just use gold. I started selling a few items that were meh and somehow made a few million. Don't underestimate what you can sell. The market is inflated so you can also get a lot of gold even for meh gear.

My opinions...

-Content in D3 lacks hard. "Finishing" the storyline content in 3 days? Please.
-The game is clearly a gear grind by design.
-Why didn't they just make it an MMO? It's 90% there.
-The ONLY thing that makes this even remotely work is the AH. Therefore the game seems to be designed around the RMAH. The thing is, many hardcore gamers won't think twice about spending a fair amount of cash on their characters. I sold an original EQ cleric account for $500 back in, uh, 2002? So what do you do when someone has geared their character to pretty much best-in-slot by spending a few thousand dollars? How do you keep that guy playing?

In my experience the only way to keep people playing for a long time is to introduce new expansion packs or content. This is difficult based on their somewhat "closed" storyline and narrative. So content becomes...more gear.

The way you keep people playing (and keep making money without monthly subs) is the RMAH in perpetuity. Add more gear, tweak the game to make it harder, rinse, repeat. So the gear you buy now - with real money - will be worthless soon enough.

I'm pretty disappointed with the whole venture.

@k2Aggie

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-Content in D3 lacks hard. "Finishing" the storyline content in 3 days? Please.
-The game is clearly a gear grind by design.
-Why didn't they just make it an MMO? It's 90% there.
-The ONLY thing that makes this even remotely work is the AH. Therefore the game seems to be designed around the RMAH. The thing is, many hardcore gamers won't think twice about spending a fair amount of cash on their characters. I sold an original EQ cleric account for $500 back in, uh, 2002? So what do you do when someone has geared their character to pretty much best-in-slot by spending a few thousand dollars? How do you keep that guy playing?

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Have you never played a Diablo game? You don't play a racing game and get mad that you can't jump out of your car and steal someone else's. If you want to do that then play GTA.

I can understand certain criticisms about games, but I can't for the life of me understand criticizing a game for ACTUALLY BEING the game it is. If you don't like dungeon crawling games...then don't play one.


[This message has been edited by jlb2957 (edited 6/19/2012 12:49p).]

Any chance they add some new areas to explore in a more sandbox manner? even some generic "go here, kill some worms" quests would change things up a bit here and there.

They will add new acts down the road just like they did with the Lord of Destruction expansion to D2 (800x600 FTW)... Generic sandbox quests, I'm guessing no, but you never know.

I'm just glad that 1.03 is out today, hopefully fixes some of the glaring issues right now (ie. rare drops, etc).

Patch is live!

HUGE list of changes is here:
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/06/19/diablo-3-servers-back-online-1-0-3-patch-makes-significant-chan/

[This message has been edited by wee_ag (edited 6/19/2012 2:13p).]

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/6457499/Patch_103_Now_Available-6_19_2012#blog

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The rewards provided for replaying quests have been reduced

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what does this mean

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Have you never played a Diablo game? You don't play a racing game and get mad that you can't jump out of your car and steal someone else's. If you want to do that then play GTA.

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I guess? I've played darn near every MMO or fantasy based RPG that has come out since Diablo and Ultima Online.

How long did it take you to finish Diablo? Diablo II? DIII was, for me, 3 days. A typical RPG "dungeon crawl" day is much, much longer than that for the main campaign. 40, 50, 60 hours is pretty standard. Dragon Age, Amalur, recent titles that had WAY more play time than D3.

So what do you play a dungeon crawl game for? Typically, you play to

1) kill monsters in a dungeon
2) get gear / loot
3) advance your character
4) complete some sort of epic story / campaign

Ok, that's fine. D3 does all of the above, but let's be honest...there's not very much depth to it. They have potentially the richest RPG world / franchise to play in and they give us a game that has 7-21 hours of content? After that it's grinding.

Grinding typically has been the area of MMO games. You counter the grind with the reward of being in a positively social environment with (usually) worlds rich in content and secondary activities.

What's the point of grinding in D3? Particularly once you hit 60?

i really wish there was character advancement beyond 60

the attack speed nerf is causing all the DHs to cry murder

has anyone logged in and checked what their DPS has dropped to?

what im reading about repair costs is concerning me. I'm used to dying all the time in Inferno, its just part of playing it.

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I'm used to dying all the time in Inferno, its just part of playing it.

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Agreed. I am the Leroy Jenkins of our group usually. If I was more worried about dying, I would bust out my hardcore character.

Don't know how I feel bout that changes especially the ias nerf and increased repair bill. We'll see when I get to play tonight.

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What's the point of grinding in D3? Particularly once you hit 60?

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What's the point in any MMO? Epeen and pixels.

Once PvP is implemented, then that will be another reason for grinding, the same with any MMO.

I would much rather come home from work, jump on to do some monster slaying for a bit, then jump off as opposed to the monotonous dailies/raids of WoW. I personally wouldn't want to play a 10 Act Diablo game. I would get worn thin and tire of the length.

It's just not the type of game I play to be immersed in the world. I play it to destroy monsters and get loot. If I want to immerse myself in a digital world and RP, then I'm going to jump on Skyrim.

I'm not "fan boying" over this game, because I think there are many problems with it. I just don't personally agree with your argument.

Once PvP is enacted, I see the RMAH taking off as the epeen battles and bragging rights get real.


Personally, I hate the RMAH and usually try to give my rares away to group first and then auction off for gold. Still trying to find my first legendary item.

You don't agree with my point that Diablo ~20 hours of content when most single player RPGs have 2-5 times as much?

Take away the AH and no one is playing this game after hell. It would be prohibitively difficult to find the right gear.

So...the game is fixed about the AH. We are not playing because its particularly fun, or challenging, or whatever. Just to grind for gear so we can...replay the same levels we did 3 times already, only with monsters that hit harder on inferno.

I guess time will tell. My suspicion is that this game won't have the longevity their other titles have.

And the "point" of any game? Epeen and pixels? For me...not really. I prefer MMOs to any other game type because of the social interaction...not role playing or making friends per se. I love raids and large guild runs, or even a really good 5 man. I like the challenge of figuring out bosses and learning how to be "good" at my character.

D3 is not that fun in those regards. What is the advantage grouping? Particularly with people you don't know? Your MF and GF are averaged over the group (oops). If they suck, they're a huge detriment to an already prohibitively hard / broken game mechanic. So most people play solo or play with friends they had before the game. It's a poorly executed semi-MMO, without any of the benefits of a true MMO.

I am really disappointed. But I don't see why you take offense to my disappointment. Just offering my opinion. For what it's worth, the first run through was fun, and I really liked it. It was just way too short for the seemingly endless wait for the game and the price tag.

I agree that I'd rather see a longer streak of unique content. I'm still having fun playing, but I don't know how long that will last.

You do realize you are describing diablo 2 in a nutshell and it was one of the most successful PC games of all time??


Also, you are comparing this to single player RPGs that are of course supposed to have more content because once you beat it, that is all there is to it. Diablo 3 has a massive online community that keeps you sucked in trying to have the best of the best gear. They they will probably have multiple expansion packs, so this is just one large chunk of the story, not all of it.

As someone else said, I'm not exactly sure what you were expecting out of a Diablo game. This has more story than diablo 2, diablo 1 barely had a story. Both were quick games. Both were repetitive (and IMO, MMOs are just as repetitive). Both were gear grinds.

battle.net in diablo1 was singularly unique among any gaming/social experience i've had. despite all the cheating, it was the best. and it had a great story, they are still going off the original happenings in tristram to this day for crying out loud

[This message has been edited by reb, (edited 6/19/2012 5:44p).]

hell it even has a musical throwback to the original town music!

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You do realize you are describing diablo 2 in a nutshell and it was one of the most successful PC games of all time??


Also, you are comparing this to single player RPGs that are of course supposed to have more content because once you beat it, that is all there is to it. Diablo 3 has a massive online community that keeps you sucked in trying to have the best of the best gear. They they will probably have multiple expansion packs, so this is just one large chunk of the story, not all of it.

As someone else said, I'm not exactly sure what you were expecting out of a Diablo game. This has more story than diablo 2, diablo 1 barely had a story. Both were quick games. Both were repetitive (and IMO, MMOs are just as repetitive). Both were gear grinds.

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Exactly...this is why I fail to understand his point. *****ing about a Diablo game being a Diablo game is just ridiculous.

I played both and don't recall finishing them saying "wow, that was short". Of course, I only played D1 a little on battle.net and I don't recall playing D2 on bnet at all.

How about this - I don't think this is the best Diablo ever. And that is disappointing.

I don't think him wishing that it was longer is an unreasonable thing. I don't know about being longer than D1 or D2. I can't really remember because it has been so long. Everything in this game seems like it was made for expansion packs and the AH. It just feels somewhat incomplete, but I can't put my finger on why.

who sorta wants to bang leah

Edited for spoilers. Oops.

[This message has been edited by K2aggie07 (edited 6/19/2012 10:32p).]

^^SPOILERS!!

This thread, lol. (Especially the 2nd post)

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5889229319

magic find and gold find are averaged among the group?

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This thread, lol. (Especially the 2nd post)

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5889229319

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I loled

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The rewards provided for replaying quests have been reduced

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This means having a friend power level you on Act 4 quest 1 for example will take longer.

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Take away the AH and no one is playing this game after hell. It would be prohibitively difficult to find the right gear.

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Without the AH, the game would have to be setup differently to support the trading community that D2 had. One of the funnest elements of the game I thought.