Diablo 3

[Shepard]

Diablo III auction house now allows gold trading
Golly Blizzard, don’t sit on your hands or anything. Just days after promising and then enabling commodity trading on Diablo III’s auction house, the publisher has added gold trading to its offerings. So, yes, you can buy in-game cash with real money now. Since your mind has just been blown by legal and possibly even profitable gold farming, there’s room to put in some new things, like a warning that buying gold from any external service is strictly forbidden. Not to mention totally redundant.

[game over]

Diablo 3 Unauthorized Grey Market RMAH Announced
Last week Blizzard's CEO, Mike Morhaime, went on and on in this long textual damage control post to calm the angry masses. There was no holding back in what was said in the article, especially regarding Mike defending the RMAH and always-on DRM. Another added reason of why I said what was said is because of this news we're reporting on today: a third-party, unofficial, unauthorized company is opening their own real-money auction house to undercut Blizzard's real-money auction house.

Now here's one of the reasons why I called Mike a liar: Read what he stated in the post last week...

Regarding the real-money auction house, our primary goal for including this in the game was to provide convenience and peace of mind for those players who might otherwise turn to third-party services to buy items. Black market trading sites can put accounts at risk and create many customer service challenges. We felt that the players themselves also deserved the opportunity to benefit from the extra loot they found, as opposed to having all of the benefit go to the black market/illegal trading organizations.


Supposedly, the real-money auction house would stomp out the need of black and grey market auction houses. But guess what? They're still around and thriving just as much as ever. Blizzard is just now competing with and fueling these guys without actually solving anything other than reaping benefits from an RMAH.

A new site has made their presence official as an RMAH grey market alternative, as reported by Business Wire. The Hong Kong-based site gives users the ability to buy, trade and sell without all the restrictive fees of Blizzard's Real-Money Auction House. As stated in the press release...

Among the numerous outstanding players in Diablo 3, casual gamers find it hard to keep up. Thanks to the wide range of items available at [removed], every player is now able to stand the pace.

An order is easily placed and desired items quickly delivered: Pick an item in the online shop, pay for it and receive it directly ingame. [removed] customers are not restricted to pay with credit card or PayPal as it is the case with Blizzard, but have a variety of payment options at their disposal, including Ukash or Paysafecard.

Players can depend on strokes of luck or take the easy way and get the outstanding Diablo 3 items at [removed].


The site is calling its service "The Prime Auction House Alternative", which would give players the impression that the grey market alternative could get them the items they need while paying less real-life money then what would be required for Blizzard's real-money auction house. Effectively, it means that Blizzard hasn't stomped out the black market item trade, they're simply competing with it for revenue.

Realistically, an "official" RMAH doesn't do anything to the black market. Players will go to the black market regardless. The best way to compete with the black market is to keep the gold auction house and make it as convenient as possible. It would also be in Blizzard's best interest to make in-game trading more secure, especially player-to-player trades and have the option to buy non-transferable virtual gold from Blizzard's own cash shop. Those two options alone provide a safe, convenient, easy method for players to gather items, trade items and even purchase the funds necessary to acquire high-valued items. But right now, Blizzard's player-to-player trading is riddled with scammers and exploiters, so the auction house and grey market item providers come across as looking more enticing for players.

Adding a Real-Money Auction House created a lot of problems, including grey areas of Blizzard's own region policies that has resulted in many players losing money and items and not having their real-life money reimbursed nor having their items restored, as indicated in recent cases we've posted on the site here and here.

The RMAH just provides Blizzard with a revenue incentive that would usually go to the grey and black market sites and it has little to do with actually protecting consumers, considering that there will always be a black market. Wanting to profit from those trades just makes Blizzard look greedy, especially considering that a cheaper, more consumer friendly alternative was just outlined two paragraphs above.

I won't be listing the actual website links for this new grey-market auction house. This news piece was just further proof that Blizzard's RMAH was never meant to stop unauthorized player trading, it was just designed so that the company could profit from it. The sad part about is that in the end, only legitimate consumers are the ones who had to suffer from it, especially regarding the forced always-on and all the compromised accounts that followed thereafter, as well as players who have been unduly banned with little or no explanations.

On the upside of all this corporate and black market greed-mongering, there are at least a group of honest players trying to use the official RMAH for good and have decided to donate money to various charities from earnings gathered from the Real-Money Auction House. So far they've raised $1073.25 for a wide variety of charities. You can check out their listing and what's been donated by visiting their forum thread here.

[Shepard]

Diablo 3 exploit makes Wizards immortal



Diablo 3 players have discovered an exploit that apparently renders Wizards invulnerable forever. Kotaku spotted a note on the Blizzard forums describes how triggering two skills in quick succession can put the wizard into god mode. The exploit was posted publicly ten hours ago, in which time a number of live streams have popped up showing naked Hardcore Wizards rolling through Hell and Inferno, farming all sorts of goodies without difficulty.

There haven’t been any blue posts from Blizzard employees, but expect this to get hotfixed pretty fast. We’ll have to wait and see if Blizzard roll back the profits of those caught farming.

[Shepard]

Diablo 3's long-term planning failures
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/07/27/diablo-3s-long-term-planning-failures/

[Shepard]

Preferred Stats slots to be bumped from 3 to 6 in Diablo III Auction House
Blizzard community manager Lylirra has said the number of auction house filters in Diablo III will be bumped from three to six in a future update, an addition players have been requesting for months.



“We’re looking to bump the number of Preferred Stats slots from 3 up to 6. We’re also looking to bump the number of digits in the “Min Value” window from 3 to 5 (so you can search for Preferred Stat values higher than “999″),” Lylirra wrote on the Diablo III forums.

Also being considered, is the ability to cancel auctions without bids, and the additional AH option may come as soon as patch 1.0.4.

“We definitely want to provide players with the option to cancel an auction (at any point after it’s posted) so long as it does not have any bids. Right now, we’re looking at this for 1.0.4, but that of course may change depending on implementation and testing,” said Lylirra.

[Shepard]

Patch 1.0.4 Info Coming Soon



The Diablo III developers have been hard at work on some exciting new features and updates for the game. Many of you have asked for more details, and we're busily preparing several developer blogs filled with information on what's coming in patch 1.0.4. In the meantime, here's an overview of the information we're planning to share here on the Diablo III community site in the not-too-distant future.

Please keep in mind that this list isn't set in stone, but it should provide a useful preview of what we'll be revealing in the days ahead.

System Changes, by Wyatt Cheng
Senior Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng is preparing a high-level summary of some of the system changes planned for 1.0.4.

Legendary Item Improvements, by Andrew Chambers
Senior Game Designer Andrew Chambers is working on a blog detailing all the ways we’re making Legendary items stand out.

Magic Find Update, by Jay Wilson
Following up on earlier discussions, Game Director Jay Wilson will be providing an update on how Magic Find is evolving in patch 1.0.4.

Class Changes, by Wyatt Cheng
Wyatt will also be providing a preview of the changes we’ll be making for each class in 1.0.4 (and the philosophy behind those changes).

Patch Notes, by Lylirra
Of course, this is all building up to the actual patch 1.0.4 release, and we’ll be releasing the full patch notes shortly before the update goes live.

We're also planning to run some interviews and developer chats surrounding patch 1.0.4, and we’ll be sharing those on the Diablo III front page. Be on the lookout, as we'd love to get you involved in any live chats we host.

As always, your constructive feedback is very much appreciated. Stay tuned for the updates to follow!

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/6294649845

[Shepard]

Diablo 3's Jay Wilson Tells Diablo 2 Designer, Fans To F*ck Off
When you make a masterpiece that gamers love and enjoy, the one thing that usually follows that masterpiece around are fanboys and admirers. Diablo II has a lot of fanboys and admirers. Diablo III was made by a different group of people and abandoned a lot of what made Diablo II a masterpiece. So when the Diablo II designer, David Brevik, echos comments made by the community on why people dislike Diablo III, the lead designer of Diablo III, Jay Wilson, said to “F*ck that loser.”

Quick history lesson: Blizzard North designed Diablo I and Diablo II. They departed from Blizzard back in 2005 and eventually went to work on Torchlight. Blizzard South took over for development for Diablo III and bam, we have Real-Money Auction House: The Game.

Now here's where things get ugly. In an interview with Inc Gamers, Diablo II designer David Brevik speaks truth. In fact, he speaks about the very thing that a lot of gamers feel are wrong with Diablo III, including the auction house, saying...

[Blizzard South] made some decisions with the loot system that were very different than the way that we did it in Diablo 2 and I think that obviously the community has been upset with some of the decisions they made. Having all of your powers work off your main weapon and things like that, to having blues that are more powerful than yellows. Eventually the auction house and how that worked, even something as simple as when you equip an item and it’s bound to your character permanently would have totally changed the dynamic of the game.

The entire interview is superb. Absolutely superb. Brevik keeps it civil but poignant, making points and bringing out things that gamers have been complaining about and suggesting to Blizzard to fix on the forums since the release of Daiblo III.

Now check out this image of Facebook chatter from the Blizzard South group and Jay Wilson's now meme-worthy “F*ck that loser.” comment courtesy of user Auto_Aim.



And Mr. Hughston, the tone irritates you because it's your conscience feeling burdened by this little thing called “Truth”. Don't worry, after you bask in the glory of greed long enough you'll get to a point where you'll be just like Bobby Kotick, a guy who regularly walks by homeless, legless children begging on street corners and he completely ignores them while saying to himself “I have no conscience. I embrace the Dark Side.”

Despite Blizzard North not being a part of Diablo III's design, Brevik was actually happy about it. Why? Well, with Blizzard South taking over the reigns it brought to light why people loved Blizzard North so much...

...it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was and how unique and special that group was. I am hoping that, as this happens very often in the industry, you see it with Call of Duty and things like that , when the people leave the game changes and it shows how critical people are in this industry.

The real kicker is that everything Brevik says is true and the criticisms have real-world reactions to them, specifically with the player drop-off rate, which was reported by several different independent firms at being close to 65%. Blizzard blamed the drop-off on a lack of end-game content, but I'm sorry, if you lose that many gamers within a two-month span and the general consensus amongst Diablo II fans and the lead designer is that your game is decent but heavily flawed, you need to come off your high-horse and realize that there are no long-term sales for a game like Diablo III unless you get to fixing.

I'd also like to point out that ARPGs and loot-grinding games don't need end-game content to keep players playing...heck, Borderlands, Torchlight and Diablo II are proof that as long as the loot is interesting and the grind is fun, gamers will keep lootin' and grindin'.

Of course, the other problem is the always-on DRM and the accompanying Real-Money Auction House -- both of which have caused Blizzard a number of legal problems in France, Germany and Korea -- and are the prime culprits for a lot of the outrage. That's not to mention all the other people who have had their accounts banned and their money usurped by shady Real-Money Auction House policies and still have no resolution to their problems.

Ultimately, I disagree with Jay Wilson. Despite selling 10 million copies on name alone and having a bunch of websites that don't really mean much anymore when it comes to representing the interest of the gaming community give your game high scores, there's still the reality that a lot of gamers aren't happy and everything that's wrong with the game stems from a problem Blizzard doesn't want to fix.

Jay Wilson saying to Brevik to “F*ck that loser” is basically Wilson telling the entire Diablo III community to go “F*ck off”. I'm also inclined to side a bit more with the guy who made Diablo a legendary name as opposed to the guy who helped bury that name under Real-Money Auction House: The Game.

[Shepard]

Diablo 3 adds high-level 'Paragon' system featuring 100 new levels



To combat the lull some players have encountered once they have reached level 60 in Diablo 3, Blizzard is adding a new layer of upgrade levels.

This new layer – called the 'Paragon System' – adds 100 additional levels for players to push through once they have reached Diablo 3's current level max. Coming in update 1.0.4, all experience earned after level 60 will be put toward the new Paragon levels. Each new level in Paragon gives players a boost in core stats (dexterity, strength, vitality, and intelligence) in amounts similar to standard levels along with a 3% boot in magic and gold find.

"It can be demoralizing to play for an hour, not get any drops, and also be out a big chunk of gold from repair costs. Your play session may not only end without an upgrade, it can wind up being a net loss," game director Jay Wilson wrote on the official blog post revealing the changes. "We know that a lot of you out there are level 60 – maybe on multiple characters – and this system provides a way to make progress every time you log in to the game."

Under the new system, Nephalem Valor bonuses give players a 15% boost in experience toward Paragon levels per stack. In comparison to Diablo 2, Wilson says that reaching the maximum Paragon level approximates the "long-term investment required to get a level 99 character" in the franchise's previous installment.

Blizzard's goal with Paragon is to have top-tier players slowly "transition away" from their reliance on magic find on items in a way that wouldn't "flip the entire game end-over end." Once 1.0.4 hits, magic find will be capped to 300% before Nephalem Valor, meaning players will hit the cap once they reach Paragon level 100 – which will allow players to slowly remove those items over time.

No date for the update has been revealed ... but as someone stuck at 60, I can confirm that it's not soon enough.

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/08/20/diablo-3-adds-high-level-paragon-system-featuring-100-new-leve/

[Shepard]

Diablo III: Paragon Patch Commentary

[Shepard]

Diablo III Patch 1.0.5 is Live
The latest major patch adds new systems and class changes.

Blizzard has updated Diablo III to version 1.0.5. After applying the patch you’ll find a number of class changes along with new systems including monster power and the Infernal Machine. The systems will let you customize monster health and damage to essentially fine-tune the degree of Diablo III’s difficulty, as well as fight uber variations of Diablo III’s bosses.



Amongst many other changes, Blizzard also doubled the chance for legendary and set items to drop, which should be good news for anything still hacking and slashing through the Inferno difficulty setting in search of the perfect set of gear.



https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/7528695/Patch_105_Now_Live-10_16_2012