You level up characters get them geared, sell gear/characters on auction house = ++ $$, - your time = you have no good characters. Lets say you leveled up 3 chars, sold 2 because barb is your favourite.
Your barb is still in shit because you invested less time in him, and if you use money genereted from other 2 characters sold to buy your barb gear, well you've just swapped time spent leveling chars for time spent farming items which is all the same, except you have less experience with barb and probably lost out on this transaction (1-60 is certainty all you need is time, whilst that mega axe every barb wants can take million runs and not drop thus its value on AH reflects that)
If you buy characters, and gear, spend shitloads of money and now theres nothing really left to do with your best geared barb, wizard and monk.. so you level up an assassin yourself.
AH is a good tool to accopmany your game, balance out/convert your drops. Thats how it should be used by everyone. Not used to skip the whole game or parts of it. Players who extensively use AH like that won't enjoy the game as much me thinks.
You have a very good point there at the end about the RMAH being used as a supplement to the gameplay experience for most players. It basically just enhances item trading buy allowing players to interact where their interests cross. With a pure trade system you have to find somebody that not only has the item you need but wants something that you have. Through an auction house or cash system, you can instead trade your item for cash and then trade cash for what you need.
There will be players that use the RMAH as more than a supplement and try to really play the markets and make some money playing the game, but the majority will likely use it as you describe.
Also worries about this as its tough to get fast internet here in China, and even if I did there will be a lot of lag playing on US servers.
actually you'd have just about as much lag as someone half way in the atlantic ocean. You'd connect directly over the pacific to blizz LA servers, so i guess you'd have a better ping then someone in say italy or russia.
Unfortunately due to the great Chinese firewall, I have to connect through a VPN. So my connection will go to my vpn in San Francisco, back to China, THEN to the Blizz servers. Sucks to be me.
It will definitely be possible to make good money play Diablo 3, but not by grinding or farming. You have to know what your comparative advantage is, which will be playing the markets and arbitrage.
Really? Arbitrage? In a video game?
Part of me is disgusted with this idea, but part of me really hopes that perhaps we'll teach a bunch of 15 year old boys how the world economy works and about supply and demand and market research, arbitrage, risk/reward, etc. without even having to try. The best lessons are those we learn when we don't know someone's trying to teach us something.
I also just noticed that the link to the Wiki shows screenshots of the various AH interfaces. It appears you can sell gold on the RMAH, but it also appears you can sell gold on the GAH, which makes no sense at all. Anyone have any thoughts on that from the screenshots?
Yeah this will be a great opportunity for people to learn economics, markets, and finances in an environment that you don't really expect to gain that sort of knowledge. You are spot on that this type of learning is often the most effective.
You're right it doesn't make sense to sell gold on the GAH. I'm sure that will be fixed or we are seeing it wrong.
Uhm, actually by default the cash goes to your bnet account e-balance, and if you choose to set it up, a third party provides the transfer between Blizzard and your bank account or whatever. Whether that's PayPal or someone else hasn't been announced yet. But you're 100% wrong, your e-balance CAN be cashed out. It can also be used to buy blizzard games online.
I figure that the $40 I paid for D3 preorder will more than likely be covered whenever I decide to sell my characters, gold and items. I mean, it feels weird talking about this since it's legal. In WoW, I sold my accounts after I was done with each of them, mostly just to cover the cost of playing the game. Feels a lot better quitting when you're up like $30-$40 net after a year or two of playing.
My understanding was that you had to choose between e-balance or cash-out and that any account that opted for cash-out never maintained a balance after that opting.
The e-balance could be used on blizzard products and AH items, but could not be turned into cash as far as I am aware.
I don't believe it is a one time choice. I'm pretty sure you decide transaction to transaction. I'm sure there is a toggle or something or a "Remember this choice" feature to make that less annoying though.
Time is money my friend. Spending 200 hours to make back the $60 you paid isn't exactly "efficient". Is the game free at this point? Sort of.. you earn the money back but spend your time. I feel like only the tip top tier of players will really make the game profitable (earning a livable wage from D3). This requires great knowledge of mfing/farming AND trading/D3 markets.. Not realistic for the vast majority of players. In any event, the rmah is one of the most exciting features for diablo 3 and I can't freaking wait!!! Words can't express my excitement for this game.
I can't wait either. Hopefully my site can help people gain that great knowledge of trading and markets that you talk about so that even the average gamer will be able to make a little money playing the game we love.
I've always been the kind of guy who picks up every grey item, which I know is actually less profitable then charging headfast towards the next boss for a much more rare item, but... I just have a hard time leaving even a little coin on the floor :-)
Knowing myself, my goal is to try and sell in-game gold on the RMAH, and use that as my main way to earn back my $60 :-) Even if its a silly goal, I think making the game pay for itself/getting to play for free is what a lot of people will be aiming to do.
Your goal will definitely be possible, but your best option is not farming and selling gold. You just don't have a comparative advantage there. You will be better served playing the markets and currencies to make your money back. Check out an article about this here.
It will definitely be possible to make good money playing Diablo 3, but not by grinding or farming. You have to know what your comparative advantage is, which will be playing the markets and arbitrage.
There will be no way that the gold will be linked between SC and HC. Since the value of gold will be tied to real money in SC and will be the only currency in HC, there will be a large difference in the value of gold between the too. Gold will be much more valuable in HC and allowing players to transfer from SC would ruin that.
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You have a very good point there at the end about the RMAH being used as a supplement to the gameplay experience for most players. It basically just enhances item trading buy allowing players to interact where their interests cross. With a pure trade system you have to find somebody that not only has the item you need but wants something that you have. Through an auction house or cash system, you can instead trade your item for cash and then trade cash for what you need.
There will be players that use the RMAH as more than a supplement and try to really play the markets and make some money playing the game, but the majority will likely use it as you describe.
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Unfortunately due to the great Chinese firewall, I have to connect through a VPN. So my connection will go to my vpn in San Francisco, back to China, THEN to the Blizz servers. Sucks to be me.
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Yeah this will be a great opportunity for people to learn economics, markets, and finances in an environment that you don't really expect to gain that sort of knowledge. You are spot on that this type of learning is often the most effective.
You're right it doesn't make sense to sell gold on the GAH. I'm sure that will be fixed or we are seeing it wrong.
I don't believe it is a one time choice. I'm pretty sure you decide transaction to transaction. I'm sure there is a toggle or something or a "Remember this choice" feature to make that less annoying though.
I can't wait either. Hopefully my site can help people gain that great knowledge of trading and markets that you talk about so that even the average gamer will be able to make a little money playing the game we love.
Your goal will definitely be possible, but your best option is not farming and selling gold. You just don't have a comparative advantage there. You will be better served playing the markets and currencies to make your money back. Check out an article about this here.
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