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Note: This is gonna be a provocative post for some of you. There's no -1 button here, so be prepared to have an open mind or rather stop reading ;-) It's also very long, probably too long, so kudos to the 1-2 people that are gonna read the entire thing.

I've been thinking a lot about the three things mentioned in the thread title (itemization, AH, online-only mode) that were constantly subject of all debates over the past 15 months. As I like to discuss, I don't mind changing my opinion; I've voted for and against the AH, I feel both dislike but also understanding for the online-only mode, and I've argued about itemization a lot. So, let's get started and take a look at itemization, re-visiting the discussion.

Itemization

For quite some time, I agreed to it being the #1 reason why D3 is just a good game, but not yet an awesome game. But there were certain things in the past that made me re-think this attitude. It may have started with this thread, where we had a heated debate about D2 vs D3 itemization. When someone posted this old D3 loot rant picture (which upon first sight a year ago I was in agreement with), I felt that it missed the point and didn't really do the view of loot any justice - neither for D2, nor D3. Then came the RoS announcement and first details on Loot 2.0, and all the discussion about the new "build changing items". In particular itirnitii's thread in our wizard forum about the Serpent's Sparker not really being build-changing struck me. Is it really build-changing? After Travis posted that they changed it to affect the Hydra spell, it is indeed. But will every legendary item change a specific spell in similar fashion? I can't believe that, as there are currently 113 active and 75 passive skills in the game. To some extent, these "build-changing" affixes will have to be more abstract and general.

Either way, there are already a few items that are "build-changing". Sever, for example, in combination with monk's Exploding Palm, is a lot of fun (this is what I and my friends have been doing last week, blowing up 2-3 MP10 elite packs at once). You have to adapt your build and gear since the main damage is not coming from your spells, but from Sever's+EP's explosion. Another, obvious build-changing legendary is Thing of the Deep, in my opinion one of the nicest and funniest items currently in the game. There's also the range of legendaries to entirely remove the Zombie Dogs cooldown, the legacy Natalya's set that allows for almost unlimited use of Vault, or the 4-piece bonus of the Inna's set (I just love this set, as it allows me to completely disregard the resource cost for Sweeping Wind when creating my build). Of course, none of these items or set bonuses is as "game-changing" as the idea of Serpent's Sparker, but then again, I don't think they'll create one for every spell (as much as I'd like them to). The important takeaway is: these already existing items still change the way we think about our character, play style, and choice of skills.

So, what does this have to do with the removal of the AH? Bear with me, I'll get there soon.

Many of you will probably say "yeah, you highlighted some of the most prominent examples, but there's still a few dozens of skills that are not affected by any items". This is true to some extent. But there are certainly more builds and skills that could be affected than there currently are. One of my favorite bookmarked D3 URLs is this list: http://telparia.com/d3/eqAll.html (thanks to the creator: Sembiance). Whenever I mess around with new builds, I open this URL, CTRL+F and search if there are any legendary affixes that support this spell. And there are more than you think. For example, did you know that Mara's Kaleidoscope supports 58 different spells? Of course, no one uses it, because it can't roll trifecta. But it has the potential to be game-changing. Another example is Slorak's Madness - for a while, back when any Chantodo's Will was too expensive for me, it was an awesome crit chance boost for my CMWW wizard. Of course, no one actually cared about it, because it could barely roll 1000 DPS. But that's exactly the crux: Can't roll trifecta. Not enough DPS. Too expensive. That leads us to...

The Auction House

I already posted my story why I eventually decided to like the AH removal in Tecnorobo's thread yesterday. In short, after playing D1 and D2 self-found (trading with friends) I was indifferent about the AH, but was kind of forced into using it to close the gear gap to my friends, and eventually became hooked on it like so many others. And as we all soon discovered, new drops weren't looked at with regard to "does this improve my character?" but rather "how much gold is this worth on the AH?". This is the major difference between Diablo 1/2 and Diablo 3 - items not as an upgrade for you or your friends, but as a vehicle to get more money and eventually progress with help through the AH. Even if such a build-changing legendary dropped, first thing many players do is to check its price. Even if one decides to keep it for itself, it's nice to be able to say "I found an Echoing Fury today that is worth 1.5 billion, so I boosted my DPS quite a bit!". Besides, I wonder if anyone in Diablo 3 (except for self-found players) ever changed their build after finding a legendary. I wonder if anyone owns an item of which they don't know the gold value. And this is exactly why Blizzard decided to remove the AH.

So, you've waited long enough, what does this have to do with the itemization? Well, in my opinion, the auction house is much more than just the perfect distribution system (I drew a comparison to volcanoes in a different thread). It's also an annotated price list for items, a value-sorted inventory of loot currently in the game. I read a post recently (can't find it) of someone saying that in order to find out what the best items are, he just changes all parameters on the AH search. As soon as prices go through the roof, you know that an item is good. This highlights the innate problem of how we currently think about items in D3: an item's value is not simply determined by how much it can improve your character, but how much it's worth. This is, in my opinion, the most profound difference between D2 and D3 (unless you were a trade forum tycoon in D2). Furthermore, the very design of the AH interface (search up to 6 attributes) forces us into the stat-driven thinking. Pick your affixes, pick your price, and I'll tell you what you get. Your build? I don't care.

To phrase it more directly: In my opinion, the fact that in every second of the game you constantly evaluate your loot and compare your equip to that of others kills much of the fun. Character comparison in Diablo 2 was quite difficult and not as ubiquitous as in D3 now. I'm not just talking about Diabloprogress or D3up, websites that allow you to quantify and compare your characters; it's also the indirect comparison through every item slot whenever you search for upgrades on the AH. You're usually not looking at one item in isolation, but you are also constantly reminded how much better you could be if you could just afford this other item further down the list with 1.5% crit chance or 30 allres more.

Therefore, I believe the removal of the AH is more important for D3 than the introduction of Loot 2.0.

Sure, we can and probably still will compare our characters on websites like D3up, Diabloprogress, or simply the armory. We will still (at least for a while) think if we could sell this item for a few bucks, especially if we don't need it for one of our own characters. But in the long run, those that enjoyed self-found in D1 and D2, might come back to it. All these build-changing legendaries mentioned above are nice to have, but I'm not sure they're necessary. If you enjoy playing Hydra, you want to get a Serpent's Sparker. With a completely random system as implemented in D3 currently, you won't be able to specifically farm it (I hope they change this). I'll admit: If they enable my D2 Blizzard sorc by introducing an item that allows for Blizzard to stack again, I'll trade everything I have for that. But at least I have to put in some effort as well - find good items myself to trade it for, and find someone on the trade channels of official forums who agrees on a trade. It's not as simple as clicking on the and buy it for a few million gold, without social interaction. That brings me to my last point... "no offline mode".

The online restriction

I have mentioned a couple of times in other threads that I feel with all the people who live in countries or areas with bad internet connectivity. I really do (used to live there for quite some time as well). For you it really sucks. But just as for the AH, this is a design decision with trade-offs, and the pro's outweigh the con's. Now, many people say the online restriction was introduced because of the AH, specifically the RMAH. This is true, because if you allow an offline mode, people get access to stored character data but also the client-server-interaction when it comes to combat and drops. This opens the door for all sorts of hacks, as you can try to inject code (remember, offline, no Warden to detect this). Once you know how it works, you do the same stuff with the online version, intercept the packages being sent to the server and tell the game that you didn't just loot another pair of Frostburn Gauntlets, but a nifty crit chance Mempo. Eventually, cheats and dupes kill the economy, and since it's connected to real money currently, this must not happen.

Now, as the AH is removed, eventually the price tags on items will disappear (hopefully). People will go back to either self-found or trading through other means. So, let's just lift the online restriction as well, will you? Blizzard's answer is no. And while the rationale provided is quite short, lifting the online restriction would just give up all the benefits the D3 community gained through the AH removal.

• If you play self-found in RoS, an offline mode would mean you could easily cheat by copying save games or using a trainer (just look at the console version to see how cheats were released even before the official release of the game). Telling self-found offline players to stay away from these trainers or not to dupe their amazing Echoing Fury to give it to all their other characters is the same as telling people now to "not use the AH". Many people choose the way of least resistance and the way to quickest progress for your character. After 100 hours of farming without a drop, you resort back to the AH (now) or copy that awesome rare sword from your friend's save game (future offline mode). The result is the same: you spoil the fun and decrease the chance to find an upgrade yourself. You become decoupled from your character, RPG-wise.
• If you want to trade items in RoS, an offline mode would be terrible for you. Dupes everywhere, like in D2. If you stay legit, you risk trading your own earned loot against a duped item. How does that make you feel? Running around in cheated clothes? Not to mention the inflation - we saw this in a nutshell when gems dropped to 1 million last October for a week. A very small window of opportunity for cheaters opened, and within a few hours the economy went havoc.

Bottom line, the online restriction ensures that after the removal of the auction house Diablo 3 offers a good gaming experience. It is crucial for the success of Loot 2.0. It's crucial for the economy (this affects only those who like to trade). It sucks for the group of self-found players with bad internet connectivity. But just like the removal of the AH, there are always trade-offs: the AH tycoons and people who liked to spend hours on "playing the AH" won't like this change.

TL;DR: The removal of the AH will not be helpful for the success of Loot 2.0, it makes the difference between success and failure of RoS. At the same time, removing the online restriction would jeopardize this success immediately.

Hey, congratz for staying with me until the end! ;-)