Levit0
Over the course of the past year, it’s become increasingly difficult to look at Diablo 3 in any sort of way aside from a negative light. Most of the complaints were thrown at the game’s required online connectivity and Real Money Auction House, well it looks like former Diablo 3 game director Jay Wilson shares those feelings now. At this year’s GDC, Mr. Wilson was part of a panel called Shout at the Devil: The Making of Diablo III where he voiced his displeasure specifically with how the Gold and Real Money Auction House have impacted players experience with the game.
Prior to this Jay Wilson and Blizzard always explained that the in game auction house was put in the game to protect their player base. Diablo 2 was rampant with item selling websites that would frequently steal player’s credit card and account information. So the alleged reason Blizzard implemented the auction house was to try and prevent theft by 3rd party item selling websites. In the GDC panel, Mr. Wilson said it was “the wrong solution”.
Later he then went on to say “It’s not good for a game like Diablo. It doesn’t feel good to get items for money, it feels good to get items by killing monsters,”. Many people (myself included) shared the opinion that Mr. Wilson now does long before the game came out. The in game auction house ruined the core experience of what made prior entries in the Diablo series great, the element of building your character through items you found and traded with other players was removed entirely. The game was initially designed to force a lot of players to buy gear on the auction house in order to progress on the harder difficulties. That may not be the case now after various patches and nerfs, but it certainly was in the beginning.
For Blizzard and Mr. Wilson, it seems as though hindsight is indeed 20/20.
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