Monday, March 26, 2012

PvP will be good for business

A few days ago I was talking about Diablo 3's PvP controversy and my conclusion was that I don't care about PvP at all and wouldn't give a hoot if it wasn't included in the game, yet I wouldn't mind it as long as it didn't affect PvE due to balancing.

Now that I'm actually playing the beta, I've had a greater opportunity to see things in perspective. Part of the pleasure of playing Diablo 3 will be the Real Money-making aspect. Hey, why not make a quick buck while enjoying your favorite game, right? Nothing wrong with that.

Until now I was looking only at the PvE aspect of the game. I figured that people will buy better gear so that they can equip their characters in order to perform better in PvE. Because, after all, the Diablo series is built around the PvE aspect.

But then I realized that, in fact, there will be plenty of people for which Diablo 3 will be the next e-sport. For these people, PvE is just a stepping stone to the real meat of the game: Player versus Player combat. Maybe some of them will enjoy leveling their characters but I'm sure many more will see this as an annoying phase that must be done with as soon as possible.

What happens when these people reach level 60 and want to jump right into PvP arenas? If they don't spend significant time farming Hell and Inferno to gather powerful equipment, they'll get thrashed immediately. So a lot of them will be eager to spend their hard-earned dollars on the RMAH. From what I understand, e-sport fanatics tend to spend a lot of money on the stuff they like. I'm betting that Diablo 3 will be no exception.

This has made me change my stance a bit. I still don't care to participate in PvP but I welcome it wholeheartedly now. I'm also fairly certain that in a couple of months after the game is released, when the PvP patch is implemented, there will be a flurry of activity on the RMAH. Keep an eye out for that. I know I will.

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