Congratulations

I've watched some of his videos before, this guy is VERY intelligent, in my opinion. I mean... he makes a great point... Blizzard found a legal way to print money.

I don't even have to make any more arguments regarding my view on the current Blizzard situation... I can just paste the link to this video. Nothing more can be said, really. If you argue with what this guy says... well, good for you, but it is what it is.

God I wish there was a way to pay British people to think about things we care about and share our opinions with us.

Storm, Earth and Fire... Heed my call!

Seriously, when I first read the news, I was like - ok, a $ auction house, not a big deal, but now that I've read the comments and listened to the CynicalBrit video, I think we need to send an exorcist in the Blizz HQ. Seriously, how more greedy can you get?

About the skills - I'm fine with that, I prefer switching skills over and over until I find the right combo for me than to make 10+ chars to make the proper build or to ress the stats over and over. Besides, I won't have much time anyway cuz I need to study hard.

As far as I, and all of you, of course, are concerned, I think that PoE will be the better option in every single aspect - it will run smoothly on my 3 year old PC, it's free and gives a ton more of customisation, has decent graphics and that cool gothic dark atmosphere. And GGG even said in the FAQ that they will support the game and make content for it for at least 10 friggin YEARS ahead! SO props for that devs. Very impatient to get into your beta, will love to help you out sort the bugs and such. As for Diablo III - I thought I will buy it for sure but now I just don't know nor care.

Hey guys post on this vid about PoE being another d3 alternative. I bet it could help get PoE some extra players!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBrESZJlNvQ&feature=feedu

He knows of grim dawn but not poe!

I like Blizzard's decision TBH. I have a greater interest in playing POE than I do Diablo 3. They have made it much easier for me to have my friends joining me here.

first of all english is not my native langauage. i apologize in advance for bad grammar, etc...

i am in no way a blizzard fanboy BUT...

let's don't call it ARPG, call it D(iablo-like)RPG.
Blizz invented this genre with D1 and pushed it even further with D2.

call me naive but i don't think blizz wants to destroy their own brand.

they are pushing it further (into 2011).
people complain about the d3 drm in almost every forum that slightly deals with diablo like games or computer games in general. hm... i guess those people had to be online to do these posts.
if you don't like drm because you can't pirate the game, hey, that point goes to you ;)

when i first heard of the RMT AH i was shocked as well.
but read everything carefully.
you will be able to use it without spending even 1 cent on it.
if you do so wisely you will end up being able to buy all of these nice items those rich kids may buy.
if you don't do so, and only an ingame currency AH would exist, you would fail at it as well.
so no items for you, cause you don't have the gold for it.
hm... i guess there might be some d3 gold sites, so maybe you could get your gold there but... ;)
besides that, maybe the rich kid could get this awesome sword earlier than you could, maybe blizz gets some peanuts for these auctions.
but why do i always have to care about other people?
first of all it's my toon i play with.
as i don't have to push real money into the game in order to use the RMTAH i'm fine with it.
in fact the money blizz may (or may not) make with my auctions is not even mine then!
it's that rich kids money.
so this rich kid just paid my e-balance. maybe at some point in the game he pays a nice candle light dinner for me and my girlfriend, would this dinner be less enjoyable because the same transaction also throws some pennys into blizzards big wallet?
i guess people complainig about these rich kids would also call them cheater in d2.
you had to do tons of farming for your uber gear, and they were just buying it, without any skill.
would this change in d3 if the RMT would not be available?
i think not.
you would be angry anyway, maybe i would be too.
but now, as you keep on playing, you will find those uber uniques you don't need for your char(s).
now its time to get paid for your anger about "cheaters".
now they don't pay any 3rdparty cheatingsite.
they pay you! think about it.
they pay you for a game you are playing.
first they paid your e-balance while you were leveling and they were greedy enough to buy your lvl 12 unique staff, so with enough of that balance you don't have to care about any fees blizz or some 3rd party company might want to claim.

non-casual hardcore player will not even face the RMT AH.
until now the option blizz put into d3 won't really break the game.
as you could even sell gold for money i think the prices on both AHs could be more or less even.
if it turns out to be really that bad and rich-kid-enjoyable-only™, there will be enough time to complain about it.

anyway...
you may consider blizz this BIG BAD COMPANY that cares a shit about their customers, about their games, about everything but their own money.
...hm... who invented this nice game people liked so much, guess its name was diablo, or something like this?
ok, ok, i know, i cannot compare blizz (199x) with blizz/activision or blizz 2k11.
but we're actually living in 2011.
complaining about the fuel prices nowadays and living in dreams of how fabulous everything was 20 years before will only end in an episode of depression.

when i look at blizzard games especially diablo 1+2 i don't only see hardcore ARPG games. i see this diablo genre that tried to be more than a niche game like action, RPG, strategy. it combined many different elements not just to be fun, but also to get a bigger playerbase.
so diablo was fun to people who usually didn't play RPGs or action games.

back to 2011:
the overall pc games playerbase has changed. there are casual gamer. like it or not. and blizz is trying to make a game that even appeals to them. imo it's not much different than the attempt to combine genres back in d2 times.

i have no clue how to program pc games, but i think i can compare it to music as i am a musician.
when i make music first of all i'm doing it all for myself.
(there are people doing it just for their pockets, but almost everyone will be able to unmask them as their music is lacking a soul)
i feel good when i get positive feedback. i would never sell myself but if you're not living in your own isolated world, chances are good that the world that surrounds you influences the way you make music.(but maybe that's just the case for me).

so i think when you start programming games, you want to make something thats fun.
maybe you want to do some hardcore gamer kind of software, once again demon's souls comes to my mind.
maybe you just want to program something for a wider playerbase.
but you definitly want to create something people can enjoy while playing it.

now there is d3.
do you only play it because you want to show off your big e-peen?
then (imho) the problem is on your side not on blizzards.
could you only have fun with a game when you could reach something noone else can reach?
then maybe d2 was your game but d3 won't be.
i think this could be a problem if you would not have any alternative.
but let's have a look at POE!
why complaining about d3 at the POE forum that blizzard ruined the game?
in fact blizzard only ruined your expectation.
but i guess that's ok.
it's blizzards game and not yours.
they can do with it whatever they want,
as you wouldn't want someone to tell you how to live your life.

when i remember the time d1 and d2 were released i remember having lots of fun.
in these days online flatrates were not very common in germany, and as i didn't have an internet connection anyway i spent most of the time with singeplayer games and some LAN sessions now and then.
i didn't even think about block-chance-calculators, uber builds, or even the possibility to plan my gear ahead in time even before i started playing.
i was just playing this game, having lots of fun.
then, as time passes by, and i started playing online games in general, something has changed.
for almost any game out there you could find informations to min/max your playstyle.
and i admit, i started doing so.
was it satisfying?
yes it was/is.
is it fun?
hm...to be honest... i don't know.. of course i still enjoy it. but i think the fun lost "something of its innocence".

i think d3 might find a way to take away the stress off of my shoulders to min/max in advance.
i will just start playing.
if something doesn't work for me, i will try another approach, without having to start all over again.
it's easy, maybe lazy or relaxing. i think it's ok.
it's not something i will want to do everytime i want to play an ARPG. but it will defintitly find a place in my life.
so if it works out to be a game like this,
i thank the guys who programmed it for giving me such a piece of "innocent" software. :)
...but just because i know that POE still keeps waiting for me to login!

this world is darker, more dangerous, maybe even smarter. i can hardly wait to get my fingers on this.

so in the end i think all of us should try to enjoy the games we play.
if we don't like the core game mechanics of some games or genres, is it worth to waste time complaining about things that probably won't be changed at all?

it's 2011: there's more than the diablo brand on the ARPG market.
let's support GGG to make the best game they could. for them AND for us.

ihmo that's a much better use of our time and energy!

Whoooa, that's a long post.

Easy there, tiger...

wow...quit reading halfway through...

So I watched that CynicalBrit video, and here is why he's wrong:
He talks about people undercutting other people's prices by a cent or so, and about not being able to get refunded the listing price. Which in itself is "fricking horrible"

Apparently he forgot the part where you get a few free listings, on top of that there's nothing that's forcing you to use the RMAH, to pretend that the only way you can stay on top of the trading scene is by using it is idiotic.

He talks about the several fees Blizzard charges, big deal. He doesn't know how much they're charging, and again, you don't even have to use the RMAH.

He mentions some things from WoW that are "essential to enjoying the game" which is bullshit. Faction transfers and server changing are luxuries, far from essential to enjoying the game.

Then he goes on a rant about content. Last I heard Diablo 3 is free to play online, I'm not entirely positive that a $60 one time fee would cover not only the development costs, but the costs to keep the servers up with all the data they're storing, patches, etc.

and "buying power" people have always been able to do this in D2 through unofficial services, so completely irrelevant point. Not to mention it's trading with a different currency, it's not like Blizzard just has the items available in the auction house, they still have to be found.

At least he's intelligent enough to realize Activision has nothing to do with these decisions.

He also said Blizzard borrowed ideas from the modding scene of D2, which I'm skeptical of cause he didn't even use any examples.