I really haven’t had time to express my thoughts about Diablo 3s' auction houses, but here we are and now is just as good of a time as any. Just to make sure we are on same page, there are two auction houses in Diablo 3. One where you can trade in-game goods for gold, in the other one you can sell your items for [real-world] dollars. This exchange will possess a level of oversight from Blizzard, but transactions will occur through a third-party (think pay-pal).
Since Blizzard's announcement, there have been a good number of people having some kind of issue with the idea of the auction houses. I’m not going to say a huge number of people are against it - just because people have the ability to change their minds, and it’s been a while since this subject was breaking news. Most of the concerns I've found have been players saying that this will make earning the items in question obsolete. In other words, all the leveling, grinding, and commitment, would be worthless. I definitely believe you should earn your stuff, but remember that sellers are going to have to work hard in order to get these items to sell.
Lest we forget, adult life is very busy. So, not only do I agree that this might lower the amount of people who will try to "earn" these items, but I also agree that this will possibly open up Diablo to the casual crowd, the people who might not have the amount of time commitment to achieve such things. I can't be the only one who's going to be getting swamped with school-work over the next couple of years. So I’m not the only person who will probably use either auction house. It’s not that I don’t have the level of commitment. I would work hard to get special weapons or items of that nature no matter what the game, but at this point in time I have a life to attend to.
Similarly, Diablo 2 came out in 1996. The people who played it then and were in their early twenties could possibly be thirty-something’s now who want to play Diablo 3. But now they have families and jobs that could prevent them from playing all-night long in order to get that epic item. The auction houses can allow these players to get that item they want, but without sacrificing an aspect of their personal life (Work, marriages, et cetera).
I’m no Richard Branson, but I've always been in want of more income ... and a toilet that looks out to sea. So when something like this crosses my path my eyes light up with dollar signs. Not only do I get to play games, but I also have a reason to get these items and play for hours on end - it's like there would be a sense of fulfillment for me wasting my time. My reaction to this was similar to the one I had when I first heard of Second-Life and its’ economy, which was essentially me saying: "Wait, you can make money off this … seriously?” Aside from finding a ***-house, this seems like a pretty fun way to make a little extra cash. If I get Diablo 3, who knows? I might use this aspect of the game to put some loose change in my pocket.
Ultimately my only concern is the bandwidth of users selling their loot in the auction house. If it’s' a robust system and there are proper requirements for selling items, then that'll be perfect. But if it ends up like a bad corner of EBay - with everyone selling the first piece of crap they come across - then I believe most users will be turned off to the idea of it. A few things that would make me consider this prospect further would be: A. More Data, B. a Release Date, and C. the Community’s Reaction to Item Value. Most of the mentioned concerns can only be resolved after the game is released, so for now we'll just have to wait.
In the meantime, I applaud Blizzard for looking into alternative ways to recoup the costs of making these huge products. Other companies also find different ways to make money. For example, Apple takes 30% from everything sold on their platforms whether it’s an iOS app, eBook, or anything. "Free-to-Play" (FTP) is becoming very popular with games that wouldn’t make it in the paid market, and games [especially MMO's] that are nearing the end of their shelf-life have renewed themselves via the FTP market (Ex. Team Fortress 2, LOTR Online).
Then you have a company like Zynga who raked-in a cool $850 million in 2010 - all off of games that people didn’t have to pay a cent to play! Anyways,I’m glad to see Blizzard making strides into the future, its definite proof that the industry is advancing with the rest of the world. I just hope other developers and publishers follow suite and do something similar with their games and their business strategies in the future.
-Wayne Strickland