After wallowing in indifference towards Diablo 3 for a while I can finally see a tiny light at the end of the tunnel. Blizzard has announced that they are working on some nice changes for the Auction House. Instead of pasting that stuff here, I'm going to direct you to Incgamer's post.
Lately I haven't even bothered to sell stuff on the AH. I suspect that the market is shrinking and sales aren't as forthcoming. But then again, I don't have so many items to sell because I haven't been playing seriously over the past weeks. The changes that they are proposing, though, are very exciting and exactly what I would have done to improve the AH. Here's my take on this.
Increase the attribute filters from 3 to 6
This change can't come soon enough. Everybody has been asking for more filter slots from the beginning. It will make searches so much more precise.
Cancel auctions without bids
Something that I was dearly hoping for. If I could just cancel my bid-less auctions I would be so much happier. I could lower my buyout successively and re-post if the item doesn't sell, perhaps once a day.
Detailed stats in the auction log
I can't believe how nearly useless the auction log is currently. There's no way to tell what stats the items you sold or bought in the past had. You can't tell what price your unsold items were posted at. It's really frustrating because it makes it hard to price your items correctly in the future, unless you keep detailed spreadsheets of every item sold.
One other thing that I'd like to see
While these changes are leagues ahead of what we already have, and should have been in the game from the beginning, I'm still hoping for one extra thing. I would like the ability to use the AH in game. I know that Blizzard said that the AH interface has no place in the world of Sanctuary but that's bullshit. No one cares about the thin story of D3 anyway. So why not make it convenient for us to use the AH without having to leave a game if we don't want to? It would be nice to keep those NV stacks, right? The way I propose they do it is to be able to access the AH only in town. This way there won't be any possibility of being killed by monsters due to inattention.
D3 was released in an unfinished state but these AH improvements go a long way towards making the game better, even if it won't be perfect. This patch can't come soon enough.
Showing posts with label real money trading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label real money trading. Show all posts
Friday, August 3, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Ka-ching!
Apparently Blizzard read my whiny, ranting post the other day and decided to bribe me. After the big IAS nerf I decided to (what the hell) spend some more gold to re-equip my Monk. 1.7 million gold later I found myself with the same DPS I had before the nerf: around 17K. I also switched from using the Scoundrel to the Enchantress and DPS went up to 18K. OK, I was back on track to farming Fields of Misery on Inferno.
So there I was, minding my own business, killing shit in one of the random dungeons that spawn in that zone, namely Scavenger's Den, level 2. I had 4 stacks of Nephalem Valor (for a total of +131% Magic Find) and I just killed a champion group (or was it a rare elite?). The final monster dies and I do a double take when I see what drops:
Yup, a legendary crossbow. I pick it up...
and identify it...
Hmm, not bad. It would make a nice weapon for my Demon Hunter when he hits 60. On the other hand, I had just picked up from the AH for 200K a bow with more DPS, but also with a lot of life leech on it. What if I sell the Hellrack?
About 12 hours later this is what I see in my AH log:
I posted it for $8.48 and ended up with $7.48 after Blizzard's cut. Also notice the other sales that happened in fairly close succession. Pretty good, I'd say. You may think I'm a fool for selling it for such a low price but I did my homework before that. There were better legendary bows on the RMAH for less than $10 and I wanted to sell this quickly. I decided to price it comparably to other bows in that range. Mine had pretty good stats for a Hellrack so I guess that's why it sold so quickly. Could I have sold it for $1-$2 more? Maybe, but it's impossible to know. When they allow us to cancel auctions I will price items more conservatively.
I have three additional reasons why I decided to get rid of this legendary bow quickly. One is that $7.48 will buy me a hell of a lot of gold (if I so desire) once gold buying is enabled. Second is that Hellracks go for about 500K-600K gold, which is pathetic. $7.48 >>>>>>>> 600K gold. Third is that Blizzard will buff legendary items in a future patch. I don't want to risk waiting until that patch, when my own Hellrack becomes worthless.
The point is that whatever you may think about this sale (too high or too low), I am happy with it. It's my highest sale so far, by far. This brings my total to over $11. Yes, it's a pathetic amount but I'm not gonna pay my bills with RMAH money. Instead, I just might use it to buy a really good item or two in the future. I have a feeling that actual money will be a lot more valuable and stable than gold.
Finally, here's a little tip. I have this nasty trick that I use to boost my Magic Find. A bazillion other players use the same trick so I'm sure you are aware of it, and it's "nasty" because Blizzard doesn't really like it but there isn't much they can do about it. I have an extra helm in my inventory with +32% MF. Just before killing the last boss or champion I will swap my usual DPS helm with the MF one. Simple but apparently effective.
So that's it then. All you gotta do to make money on the RMAH is to bitch about Diablo 3 and Blizzard will read your post and give you some nice legendary drops to appease you. I kid, of course, but the funny thing is that something similar used to happen to me in WoW. After a long hiatus or a loss of enthusiasm I would get some really nice drop, when I least expected it. Pure coincidence, all of it. Don't count on this method kids.
So there I was, minding my own business, killing shit in one of the random dungeons that spawn in that zone, namely Scavenger's Den, level 2. I had 4 stacks of Nephalem Valor (for a total of +131% Magic Find) and I just killed a champion group (or was it a rare elite?). The final monster dies and I do a double take when I see what drops:
Yup, a legendary crossbow. I pick it up...
and identify it...
Hmm, not bad. It would make a nice weapon for my Demon Hunter when he hits 60. On the other hand, I had just picked up from the AH for 200K a bow with more DPS, but also with a lot of life leech on it. What if I sell the Hellrack?
About 12 hours later this is what I see in my AH log:
I posted it for $8.48 and ended up with $7.48 after Blizzard's cut. Also notice the other sales that happened in fairly close succession. Pretty good, I'd say. You may think I'm a fool for selling it for such a low price but I did my homework before that. There were better legendary bows on the RMAH for less than $10 and I wanted to sell this quickly. I decided to price it comparably to other bows in that range. Mine had pretty good stats for a Hellrack so I guess that's why it sold so quickly. Could I have sold it for $1-$2 more? Maybe, but it's impossible to know. When they allow us to cancel auctions I will price items more conservatively.
I have three additional reasons why I decided to get rid of this legendary bow quickly. One is that $7.48 will buy me a hell of a lot of gold (if I so desire) once gold buying is enabled. Second is that Hellracks go for about 500K-600K gold, which is pathetic. $7.48 >>>>>>>> 600K gold. Third is that Blizzard will buff legendary items in a future patch. I don't want to risk waiting until that patch, when my own Hellrack becomes worthless.
The point is that whatever you may think about this sale (too high or too low), I am happy with it. It's my highest sale so far, by far. This brings my total to over $11. Yes, it's a pathetic amount but I'm not gonna pay my bills with RMAH money. Instead, I just might use it to buy a really good item or two in the future. I have a feeling that actual money will be a lot more valuable and stable than gold.
Finally, here's a little tip. I have this nasty trick that I use to boost my Magic Find. A bazillion other players use the same trick so I'm sure you are aware of it, and it's "nasty" because Blizzard doesn't really like it but there isn't much they can do about it. I have an extra helm in my inventory with +32% MF. Just before killing the last boss or champion I will swap my usual DPS helm with the MF one. Simple but apparently effective.
So that's it then. All you gotta do to make money on the RMAH is to bitch about Diablo 3 and Blizzard will read your post and give you some nice legendary drops to appease you. I kid, of course, but the funny thing is that something similar used to happen to me in WoW. After a long hiatus or a loss of enthusiasm I would get some really nice drop, when I least expected it. Pure coincidence, all of it. Don't count on this method kids.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
It's raining legendaries
Well, chance is fickle indeed. I played Diablo 3 for a month for countless hours, leveled my Monk to 60, grinded a lot of Hell and a tiny bit of Infeno with > +100% Magic Find and I never saw a legendary item drop. And then, on my noob Barbarian I get 2 legendaries a few days apart, with 0 Magic Find (read that again: ZERO MAGIC FIND). A few days ago I got this legendary amulet. Today, at level 51, I got this sword in Act 1 Hell from a random elite boss:
The Ancient Bonesaber of Zumakalis. Now the first question that needs to be asked is who the hell is Zumakalis? Leaving that aside (because we all know it's some random name that Blizzard slapped on this item), the second question is what to do with this sword?
To me this looks like a very good weapon for a Monk. At level 45 120 DPS is not too shabby. Slap a Ruby on it and you cat get a lot more out of it. Attack speed is decent and it looks like there's quite a bit of life leech on it. That's cool. My Barbarian certainly can't use it at level 51 because it isn't itemized for Barbarians and besides he's already got a more powerful weapon, and my Monk is 60 so it's definitely useless to him. The only remaining option is, of course, to sell it.
Luckily, the RMAH is now functional so I can make some good money with this sword. Or can I? Though I was kinda expecting it, I was dismayed to find out that I can get somewhere between $1.70 and $2.00 for it. Oh, minus Blizzard's $1 fee, that would be in fact $0.70 or $1.00 tops. Yikes! Of course, I understand that this is simply a leveling weapon that will be replaced as soon as possible so it can't hold its value very well. On the other hand it has to be better than the yellow weapon I sold the other day for $1.25.
The sad truth is that competition on the AH is bound to be fierce and people will undercut each other viciously. Now, of course, I could try to sell this on the Gold Auction House but I would get between 50K and 70K for it. Not too tempting. That would value gold at 29K-35K per $1 (before Blizzard's tax) or ~70K gold per $1 after Blizzard's tax. It is obvious to me that even after Blizzard takes their cut, I'd still be better off selling this for the minimum of $1.70. I highly doubt you'll be able to buy less than 100K gold for $1 when commodity auctions are enabled. In fact I predict that prices will go down to 1M / $1 or even less, but that's another story.
So it's settled then, I'm going to try to sell this for a maximum of $2. It's sad but necessary. I can't let it gather dust in my inventory because I can't use it (unless I decide to level a second Monk but I doubt that will ever happen).
I've read a blog post somewhere (sorry, can't remember the blog) where the poster argued that it might be better to keep legendaries unidentified in your inventory until the big "legendary patch" is released (probably 1.1), which buffs legendaries going forward. But this assumes items are assigned attributes at the moment of identifying them, and not when they drop. That's certainly possible but we don't know that and I simply don't want to risk waiting until this item is completely worthless.
Should I sell it then after gold trading is enabled? That would allow me to value this item better in terms of gold per dollar. What do you think?
The Ancient Bonesaber of Zumakalis. Now the first question that needs to be asked is who the hell is Zumakalis? Leaving that aside (because we all know it's some random name that Blizzard slapped on this item), the second question is what to do with this sword?
To me this looks like a very good weapon for a Monk. At level 45 120 DPS is not too shabby. Slap a Ruby on it and you cat get a lot more out of it. Attack speed is decent and it looks like there's quite a bit of life leech on it. That's cool. My Barbarian certainly can't use it at level 51 because it isn't itemized for Barbarians and besides he's already got a more powerful weapon, and my Monk is 60 so it's definitely useless to him. The only remaining option is, of course, to sell it.
Luckily, the RMAH is now functional so I can make some good money with this sword. Or can I? Though I was kinda expecting it, I was dismayed to find out that I can get somewhere between $1.70 and $2.00 for it. Oh, minus Blizzard's $1 fee, that would be in fact $0.70 or $1.00 tops. Yikes! Of course, I understand that this is simply a leveling weapon that will be replaced as soon as possible so it can't hold its value very well. On the other hand it has to be better than the yellow weapon I sold the other day for $1.25.
The sad truth is that competition on the AH is bound to be fierce and people will undercut each other viciously. Now, of course, I could try to sell this on the Gold Auction House but I would get between 50K and 70K for it. Not too tempting. That would value gold at 29K-35K per $1 (before Blizzard's tax) or ~70K gold per $1 after Blizzard's tax. It is obvious to me that even after Blizzard takes their cut, I'd still be better off selling this for the minimum of $1.70. I highly doubt you'll be able to buy less than 100K gold for $1 when commodity auctions are enabled. In fact I predict that prices will go down to 1M / $1 or even less, but that's another story.
So it's settled then, I'm going to try to sell this for a maximum of $2. It's sad but necessary. I can't let it gather dust in my inventory because I can't use it (unless I decide to level a second Monk but I doubt that will ever happen).
I've read a blog post somewhere (sorry, can't remember the blog) where the poster argued that it might be better to keep legendaries unidentified in your inventory until the big "legendary patch" is released (probably 1.1), which buffs legendaries going forward. But this assumes items are assigned attributes at the moment of identifying them, and not when they drop. That's certainly possible but we don't know that and I simply don't want to risk waiting until this item is completely worthless.
Should I sell it then after gold trading is enabled? That would allow me to value this item better in terms of gold per dollar. What do you think?
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Welcome to the 25 cent club
Apparently there's a thing called "the 25 cent club". It refers to those who sell (or have sold) items on Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House for the minimum amount of $1.25. After Blizzard's cut of $1 per sale (this only applies to items, commodities have a different tax structure), you are left with $0.25. But this is only if you choose to have your money deposited in your Battle.net account. For Paypal deduct an additional 15%.
Well, quite unexpectedly, I had my first sale on the RMAH today. I placed a new batch of items last night and one of them (some rare leveling weapon with decent stats) sold. I posted all items for the minimum $1.25 buyout because I wasn't very optimistic that any of that crap would sell. I simply took a shot in the dark. Besides, the RMAH is convenient for extra storage, if nothing else. Cancelled auctions go to that temporary limbo space which can hold 50 items. And if they happen to sell, hey, that's a bonus.
As you can see, I'm not one of those who only think of ways in which to make real money on the AH. I've got better things to do. One of them is to simply have fun playing the damn game. You know, killing shit and stuff. Which leads me to refer you back to my Make $1 an hour playing Diablo 3 post.
It's no accident that it is my most popular article. Though there are blogs and bloggers who hope to make 10-20 times that amount in an hour, most people realize subconsciously that it is unrealistic for everybody to earn that much. Hence, the much more modest amount that I proposed. Sure, there will be people who will make a lot more than you or I. But they are enjoying the AH aspect of D3 while you and I are enjoying the gameplay. The way things are moving, though, I'm afraid that even my $1/hour figure was perhaps too optimistic. I'd be content to make this guaranteed amount. If nothing else, I can cover some additional expenses.
It baffles me that people are - allegedly - spending hundreds of dollars on the recently-opened RMAH for a single item. Looks like there are either too many idiots or too many millionaires, or both, in this world. I kind of understand the logic of paying for a virtual item that would take you 10 hours of play to find, with real money earned in one hour. But even then, I would ask, are you telling me that you are paying not to have to play the game? I thought that was the entire point of this game: to kill endless hordes of monsters in the hopes of getting a rare and valuable drop.
To each their own. Maybe I'm the idiot for not seeing the true rationale behind paying so much money for virtual items but it would take a lot to convince me of the benefits. $250 can buy a hell of a lot of real stuff.
So how about you? Sold any stuff for real money lately?
Well, quite unexpectedly, I had my first sale on the RMAH today. I placed a new batch of items last night and one of them (some rare leveling weapon with decent stats) sold. I posted all items for the minimum $1.25 buyout because I wasn't very optimistic that any of that crap would sell. I simply took a shot in the dark. Besides, the RMAH is convenient for extra storage, if nothing else. Cancelled auctions go to that temporary limbo space which can hold 50 items. And if they happen to sell, hey, that's a bonus.
As you can see, I'm not one of those who only think of ways in which to make real money on the AH. I've got better things to do. One of them is to simply have fun playing the damn game. You know, killing shit and stuff. Which leads me to refer you back to my Make $1 an hour playing Diablo 3 post.
It's no accident that it is my most popular article. Though there are blogs and bloggers who hope to make 10-20 times that amount in an hour, most people realize subconsciously that it is unrealistic for everybody to earn that much. Hence, the much more modest amount that I proposed. Sure, there will be people who will make a lot more than you or I. But they are enjoying the AH aspect of D3 while you and I are enjoying the gameplay. The way things are moving, though, I'm afraid that even my $1/hour figure was perhaps too optimistic. I'd be content to make this guaranteed amount. If nothing else, I can cover some additional expenses.
It baffles me that people are - allegedly - spending hundreds of dollars on the recently-opened RMAH for a single item. Looks like there are either too many idiots or too many millionaires, or both, in this world. I kind of understand the logic of paying for a virtual item that would take you 10 hours of play to find, with real money earned in one hour. But even then, I would ask, are you telling me that you are paying not to have to play the game? I thought that was the entire point of this game: to kill endless hordes of monsters in the hopes of getting a rare and valuable drop.
To each their own. Maybe I'm the idiot for not seeing the true rationale behind paying so much money for virtual items but it would take a lot to convince me of the benefits. $250 can buy a hell of a lot of real stuff.
So how about you? Sold any stuff for real money lately?
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Wanna buy some gold?
Over the past week I've been watching in horrified fascination how the black market for Diablo 3 gold evolved. I can't help noticing. I like to join the Trade chat channel because occasionally I see a good deal. I have yet to buy something that was advertised there, but I remember the days of WoW when you could get your hands on some very sweet deals if you paid close attention to Trade.
Unfortunately, just like in WoW, the chat channels are flooded with gold spammers. I hate these guys and what they represent with a passion. I'm not going to judge the players who buy gold from these sites (though my opinion of them isn't very high) but the spammers and gold sellers are baaaaaad.
It's about damn time Blizzard released the Real Money Auction House. The economy will go to shit if they don't do it soon. Already gold is losing value with each passing day. On the other hand more and more people are farming Inferno which makes for cheaper high-end items so these two cancel each other out to some extent.
What's interesting (and maybe worrisome) is that the unofficial price of gold has been dropping a lot over the past week. When I first noticed the spammers, they were offering 1 million gold for $30. Prices dropped successively to $25, $20, yesterday $15 and now a little over $13.
I wonder how far they will continue to drop. I wonder what the "official" rate will be during the first day the RMAH is released. I wonder how far the rate will drop during the first 24 hours, and then again during the first week. I wonder at what level it will stabilize. I really, truly, honestly hope it won't be something like $1 for 1 million gold. If that's the case, I might be tempted to just pull out my wallet and buy myself some Inferno farming equipment.
I always thought that I wouldn't spend a single cent on the RMAH. But if gold prices are low enough, it might make more sense to simply buy my way into Inferno instead of approaching it the hard way. I think I would hate myself if I did that.
Any thoughts?
Unfortunately, just like in WoW, the chat channels are flooded with gold spammers. I hate these guys and what they represent with a passion. I'm not going to judge the players who buy gold from these sites (though my opinion of them isn't very high) but the spammers and gold sellers are baaaaaad.
It's about damn time Blizzard released the Real Money Auction House. The economy will go to shit if they don't do it soon. Already gold is losing value with each passing day. On the other hand more and more people are farming Inferno which makes for cheaper high-end items so these two cancel each other out to some extent.
What's interesting (and maybe worrisome) is that the unofficial price of gold has been dropping a lot over the past week. When I first noticed the spammers, they were offering 1 million gold for $30. Prices dropped successively to $25, $20, yesterday $15 and now a little over $13.
I wonder how far they will continue to drop. I wonder what the "official" rate will be during the first day the RMAH is released. I wonder how far the rate will drop during the first 24 hours, and then again during the first week. I wonder at what level it will stabilize. I really, truly, honestly hope it won't be something like $1 for 1 million gold. If that's the case, I might be tempted to just pull out my wallet and buy myself some Inferno farming equipment.
I always thought that I wouldn't spend a single cent on the RMAH. But if gold prices are low enough, it might make more sense to simply buy my way into Inferno instead of approaching it the hard way. I think I would hate myself if I did that.
Any thoughts?
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Dissecting the RMAH fees
I was going to make a detailed explanation of my understanding of the RMAH fees but others have already done my work for me. It seems I was right. If you plan to cash out (into Paypal) you will be taxed twice. Items will be taxed $1 + 15% while commodities will be taxed 15% + 15%.
Here's a link to a forum thread showing a table with various amounts and the final, taxed amount. There's also a link to a Google docs spreadsheet which lets you play with your own values.
Furthermore, Diablofans has created a small web app that allows you to calculate the various amounts with your own input.
When Blizzard announced the RMAH fees, a lot of people were confused, me included. They should have done the right thing and posted, at the very least, a concrete example of how these fees would work. Instead, they used ambiguous language that could be interpreted in different ways. When I sat down and read carefully through the description, I concluded that we will be taxed twice if we cash out.
Because Blizzard has failed to give us any examples, I will give you a quick one, assuming you didn't check out the links I provided.
Items (weapons, armor, unique items in general)
Selling price: $100
Fee: $1
Profit: $99
------------------------------
Paypal fee: 15%
Profit after cashing out to Paypal: $99 * 0.85 (or 15%) = $84.15
Commodities (gold, crafting mats, gems, pages of training, non-unique items in general)
Selling price: $100
Fee: 15%
Profit: $100 * 0.85 = $85
------------------------------
Paypal fee: 15%
Profit after cashing out to Paypal: $85 * 0.85 = $72.25
As you can see, at a $100 price point, it is more profitable to sell items rather than commodities. The problem is that commodities are more abundant and common, while items are not. You will find an item worth selling for a high amount once in a blue moon, but you will always have commodities to sell, if you wish, for smaller amounts.
The forum thread I linked at the beginning better illustrates the fact that, while the profit percentage stays the same for commodities (72.25%) regardless of the amount, it starts very low (17% for a $1.25 item) and goes up to 84.66% for a $250 item.
Speaking of which... the maximum you can sell an item for is $250. Which is a bit sad. I was hoping for a higher ceiling, at least $500, preferably $1000. While I don't entertain any illusions that I will ever sell such an item, there will be people who will find very rare items and will be forced to compete with inferior items at the $250 ceiling. Even if their uber-item will sell instantly, they could have got a lot more for that item if the ceiling was higher. I'm afraid that 3rd party sites which sell items will sprout and flourish just like they did for Diablo 2.
With this, I'm hoping that the RMAH fee structure is cleared once and for all.
Addendum
Here are some quotes from Blizzard that should clarify things even more, although the language isn't 100% clear in this case either.
Link
Here's a link to a forum thread showing a table with various amounts and the final, taxed amount. There's also a link to a Google docs spreadsheet which lets you play with your own values.
Furthermore, Diablofans has created a small web app that allows you to calculate the various amounts with your own input.
When Blizzard announced the RMAH fees, a lot of people were confused, me included. They should have done the right thing and posted, at the very least, a concrete example of how these fees would work. Instead, they used ambiguous language that could be interpreted in different ways. When I sat down and read carefully through the description, I concluded that we will be taxed twice if we cash out.
Because Blizzard has failed to give us any examples, I will give you a quick one, assuming you didn't check out the links I provided.
Items (weapons, armor, unique items in general)
Selling price: $100
Fee: $1
Profit: $99
------------------------------
Paypal fee: 15%
Profit after cashing out to Paypal: $99 * 0.85 (or 15%) = $84.15
Commodities (gold, crafting mats, gems, pages of training, non-unique items in general)
Selling price: $100
Fee: 15%
Profit: $100 * 0.85 = $85
------------------------------
Paypal fee: 15%
Profit after cashing out to Paypal: $85 * 0.85 = $72.25
As you can see, at a $100 price point, it is more profitable to sell items rather than commodities. The problem is that commodities are more abundant and common, while items are not. You will find an item worth selling for a high amount once in a blue moon, but you will always have commodities to sell, if you wish, for smaller amounts.
The forum thread I linked at the beginning better illustrates the fact that, while the profit percentage stays the same for commodities (72.25%) regardless of the amount, it starts very low (17% for a $1.25 item) and goes up to 84.66% for a $250 item.
Speaking of which... the maximum you can sell an item for is $250. Which is a bit sad. I was hoping for a higher ceiling, at least $500, preferably $1000. While I don't entertain any illusions that I will ever sell such an item, there will be people who will find very rare items and will be forced to compete with inferior items at the $250 ceiling. Even if their uber-item will sell instantly, they could have got a lot more for that item if the ceiling was higher. I'm afraid that 3rd party sites which sell items will sprout and flourish just like they did for Diablo 2.
With this, I'm hoping that the RMAH fee structure is cleared once and for all.
Addendum
Here are some quotes from Blizzard that should clarify things even more, although the language isn't 100% clear in this case either.
Link
LinkAs others have pointed out there's a $1 transaction for any item such as armor, weapons, etc. which is only taken if the item sells. So that's the flat $1 fee for those types of items, and honestly I would personally expect most people to be interested in both selling and buying these types of character improvements.
Separately, there is a 15% transaction fee for any commodities (again, only if they sell), which are items that stack such as gems and gold. We take a percentage due to the way commodity sales work. You can put up 50,000 gold for sale, and because people can buy portions of commodity auctions, one person may buy 10,000, another may buy 30,000 and maybe nobody buys the remaining 10,000. Instead of charging $1 per transaction, which certainly wouldn't be fair to the seller in the case of commodities as they have no control over how many different people may buy from their auction, we go with a percentage. If that original 50,000 goes up for say $5, there would be a $0.45 fee on the 30,000, and a $0.15 fee for the 10,000, totaling a $0.60 fee for the sales that occurred.
Just to be triply clear, these fees only happen if the item sells. Putting an item or stack of items up to see if it/they will sell doesn't have any inherent risks, and is a good way to get some Battle.net Balance built up. You can sell items you don't want, and then get something to spend on something you do want.
PayPal will not charge any fees for transfers to them. You'll pay a 15% transfer fee to move any funds to your PayPal account, and then whatever you do with the money after that is between you and them. But the transfer to PayPal is 15%, and that's it.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Uh-oh no RMAH at launch
By now most of you must have heard that the Real Money Auction House won't be available when Diablo 3 launches. That's a bummer. Apparently it will be patched in roughly a week later.
This creates a bit of a problem for those of us who were hoping to capitalize on the initial rush of players willing to buy their way to greatness by buying gold. At this point it's hard for me to calculate the implications of this move. I can't even predict what might have happened if the RMAH was in the game from day 1. There are too many variables and too much unpredictable player behavior to account for, not to mention the fact that nothing like this has been attempted before and none of us knows with certainty how players will react in a real-life situation.
What this new development changes for me is that, instead of selling my gold for real money during the first days, I will simply save it for the following week. When the RMAH is added, I should have a large amount of gold waiting to be sold. The obvious problem is that everyone else will do the same thing. This could cause an instant collapse of gold prices, the moment the RMAH opens. It might also mean that demand for gold won't be as high as it would have been during the first few days, because every player in the game is reduced to a common denominator. We all start at 0 gold and need to fight our way up. After a week, most players will have earned enough gold on their own to afford an expanded stash, crafting mats, artisan training and even some equipment, without the aid of the RMAH.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I have a feeling that this is only going to hurt those of us who were hoping to take advantage of the initial rush. It won't destroy us, obviously, but I think profits won't be as high as we hoped. Either way, I'm not devastated. I can't wait to play the damned game and this RMAH "fiasco" won't change my feelings for D3.
This creates a bit of a problem for those of us who were hoping to capitalize on the initial rush of players willing to buy their way to greatness by buying gold. At this point it's hard for me to calculate the implications of this move. I can't even predict what might have happened if the RMAH was in the game from day 1. There are too many variables and too much unpredictable player behavior to account for, not to mention the fact that nothing like this has been attempted before and none of us knows with certainty how players will react in a real-life situation.
What this new development changes for me is that, instead of selling my gold for real money during the first days, I will simply save it for the following week. When the RMAH is added, I should have a large amount of gold waiting to be sold. The obvious problem is that everyone else will do the same thing. This could cause an instant collapse of gold prices, the moment the RMAH opens. It might also mean that demand for gold won't be as high as it would have been during the first few days, because every player in the game is reduced to a common denominator. We all start at 0 gold and need to fight our way up. After a week, most players will have earned enough gold on their own to afford an expanded stash, crafting mats, artisan training and even some equipment, without the aid of the RMAH.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I have a feeling that this is only going to hurt those of us who were hoping to take advantage of the initial rush. It won't destroy us, obviously, but I think profits won't be as high as we hoped. Either way, I'm not devastated. I can't wait to play the damned game and this RMAH "fiasco" won't change my feelings for D3.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Open beta gold auctions
As most of you know (and if you don't, what planet are you from?) this weekend is open beta for Diablo 3. Blizzard is stress-testing their servers and what-not by giving access to everyone for a couple of days.
Last night I decided to take a look at the Auction House and see what's going on there. The last couple of patches reset by Beta Bucks back to 50 so I did a small experiment to see if I could sell any gold. In about 10 minutes, before going to bed, I increased my virtual money from 50 to over 184.
I started by selling gold on the Real Money Auction House (RMAH) in 1000G increments. The price was high, about 11-12BB / 1000G. As you can see, I sold a bunch of gold in this manner.
This is nothing out of the ordinary. Anyone can do it. What some people fail to do, and it's all to my advantage, is to check the price of gold before posting it. A savvy auctioneer will always do that. After all, you wouldn't want to sell your gold for 1/10 of its real worth, would you?
Apparently, some people are ignorant (and I won't call them idiots at this point because I don't know their circumstances) and that's just what they do. As you can see from the screenshot, I didn't just sell gold. I also bought under-priced gold.
Several batches were posted for 3.24BB, 1.50BB and even 1BB / 1000G. Come to papa! I bought all of that vastly under-priced gold and posted it back for the "correct" price.
This is a very neat way to make lots of BB. Unfortunately, this is just beta. People's behaviors will be skewed and biased since every beta tester got 50BB for free and Beta Bucks hold no value in real life. In the full game things will change. Real money will hold a higher value and people won't be so careless about spending it.
My point is that in the actual game I don't expect to make >$150 in just 10 minutes of play. It would be amazing if life worked like that but I'm trying to be realistic here. In the full game there will be dozens, hundreds or even thousands of smart people attempting to do the same thing I did last night. This means that it will be extremely hard to buy out really cheap gold because it will be instantly snatched by the person lucky enough to click the Buy button first. Even $15 in 10 minutes is a stretch. $1.50 is a more realistic amount. And that's only in the first few days, or first week. After that, gold prices will plummet.
I can almost see this as a game in itself: keep refreshing the price of gold and the moment a good deal appears, snatch it immediately! I have a feeling that the Auction House has a potential to become almost as addictive as playing the game itself. I just hope that Blizzard fix some of the AH interface and performance issues.
Last night I decided to take a look at the Auction House and see what's going on there. The last couple of patches reset by Beta Bucks back to 50 so I did a small experiment to see if I could sell any gold. In about 10 minutes, before going to bed, I increased my virtual money from 50 to over 184.
I started by selling gold on the Real Money Auction House (RMAH) in 1000G increments. The price was high, about 11-12BB / 1000G. As you can see, I sold a bunch of gold in this manner.
This is nothing out of the ordinary. Anyone can do it. What some people fail to do, and it's all to my advantage, is to check the price of gold before posting it. A savvy auctioneer will always do that. After all, you wouldn't want to sell your gold for 1/10 of its real worth, would you?
Apparently, some people are ignorant (and I won't call them idiots at this point because I don't know their circumstances) and that's just what they do. As you can see from the screenshot, I didn't just sell gold. I also bought under-priced gold.
Several batches were posted for 3.24BB, 1.50BB and even 1BB / 1000G. Come to papa! I bought all of that vastly under-priced gold and posted it back for the "correct" price.
This is a very neat way to make lots of BB. Unfortunately, this is just beta. People's behaviors will be skewed and biased since every beta tester got 50BB for free and Beta Bucks hold no value in real life. In the full game things will change. Real money will hold a higher value and people won't be so careless about spending it.
My point is that in the actual game I don't expect to make >$150 in just 10 minutes of play. It would be amazing if life worked like that but I'm trying to be realistic here. In the full game there will be dozens, hundreds or even thousands of smart people attempting to do the same thing I did last night. This means that it will be extremely hard to buy out really cheap gold because it will be instantly snatched by the person lucky enough to click the Buy button first. Even $15 in 10 minutes is a stretch. $1.50 is a more realistic amount. And that's only in the first few days, or first week. After that, gold prices will plummet.
I can almost see this as a game in itself: keep refreshing the price of gold and the moment a good deal appears, snatch it immediately! I have a feeling that the Auction House has a potential to become almost as addictive as playing the game itself. I just hope that Blizzard fix some of the AH interface and performance issues.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
My beta auction house strategy
After playing with the Auction House in the beta for a couple of weeks, I have developed somewhat of a tentative strategy for making both gold and money, or rather Beta Bucks (BB). I will admit, I'm a little bit disappointed at this stage but I realize that the full game will be much different from the beta.
For one thing, the Auction House itself (whether gold or real money) is filled with bugs and errors, not to mention the fact that the interface is a complete mess. I am confident that Blizzard will clean this up by launch. After all, the Real Money Auction House is going to be their main revenue generator. They better not mess this up.
One of the biggest problems with the beta interface is that it's very hard to find items. Other bloggers have already mentioned this but it bears repeating: you are presented with a series of dropdowns which are supposed to "assist" you in finding items appropriate for your characters but this only serves to muddle things up. The most basic of elements, the free text search box, is missing. Until they implement that I'm afraid people will have a hard time finding the stuff they need.
A free text search box is the most basic of search tools. Only after that should dropdowns, checkboxes and other filters be added. I would be very happy to have something very similar to the WoW AH, with some refinements.
Another big problem with the beta AH is that results, although sorted by DPS, are still not sorted properly. Furthermore, when sorting by one of the headers, the list of results gets messed up.
But enough about the AH issues. I'm here to tell you how I made a bunch of fake money, aka Beta Bucks, BB or Bobby Bucks. It's not a large amount and I'm sure others have made a lot more than this. In my defense, I didn't set up to make tons of money. I mostly had fun killing monsters, with a little AH experimenting in between. Here's what I discovered.
Crating is useless
I am aware that some bloggers are apparently making lots of gold by selling crafted items. I tried that and it didn't work. Most of the time the attributes on crafted items are just not good enough, so I always end up salvaging the freshly-crafted item.
My opinion is that there's no point in wasting time crafting stuff in the beta. I'm sure the situation in the full game will be completely different but right now there are easier (and less time-consuming) ways to make a little money.
The Gold AH (GAH)
I'm sorry to say this but blue items are very poor sellers. I don't understand how people manage (or do they?) to sell blues for thousands of gold. Yeah, I get that some of these items have rare combinations of attributes on them but in the beta there simply isn't enough variation for these items to prove truly valuable. And besides, even with crappy gear monsters are still very easy.
I haven't tried selling any rare items on the GAH because I couldn't spare any.
What did sell on the GAH is Subtle Essences. I sold every single Essence I had. Instead of trying (and failing) to sell blues, I simply disenchanted each and every one of them and sold the Essences for gold.
The Real Money AH (RMAH)
It seems that no one will buy blue items on the RMAH. It's understandable. I didn't try selling any rares but I've noticed that people will bid on them if the starting bid is low. I have bid on a couple of them myself.
Crafting materials, likewise, do not sell so don't bother.
What does sell, of course, is gold. If you check the price for 1000 gold and then price your own gold at or below that price (don't go down more than 1 cent), it will sell. Using this method I sold tens of thousands of gold. On a couple of occasions I couldn't post the gold fast enough, as it was snatched immediately.
One other thing that worked was that I kept an eye out for under-priced gold and bought all of it. Several times I found gold at 3BB/1000 gold and once I found several stacks of 1000 gold for only 1BB. Later on I sold that at over 6BB.
That's about it. In summary:
- farm gold while having fun killing monsters (wear +Gold gear)
- salvage all blue items
- sell Subtle Essences on the GAH
- sell rares on the RMAH but set a low starting bid
- sell gold on the RMAH
- buy under-priced gold and sell it for its normal price on the RMAH
Using this strategy I made somewhere north of 500BB, perhaps 700 or so. I could have made a lot more had I farmed more, but I didn't. I also bought a couple of rare items that were decently priced, so that ate into my balance.
In the retail game I won't bother with crafting, at least not until I reach level 60 on my main character and not until gold and mat prices stabilize.
One quirky thing that I noticed in the beta is that apparently there's a 500BB limit. I might have read something to that effect but I don't remember if, when and where. Take a look at the screenshot below.
Notice the total at the top. It says 498.64. The proceeds from the sales highlighted with red simply disappeared. They never went into my balance. I assume that's because of the 500BB limit. All those sales that I highlighted would have pushed my balance over 500. For that reason, the game simply swallowed the proceeds and I never saw them reflected in my balance.
The sale at the top, for only 4BB was intentionally under-priced, so I could test if the system was actually eating my money. The 4BB went, indeed, into my balance and that's how I ended at 498.64.
The 500BB limit is the only explanation I can find for this situation. That, or there's a serious bug in the system. Has anyone else met with the same problem? How, then, are people expecting to sell items for more than 500BB or even thousands of BB?
This has to be fixed in the retail game. I mean, seriously. Just imagine: you already have $400+ in your balance and you hit the jackpot. Some random monster drops this super-duper-uber item that you manage to sell for $1000. But the game eats the difference between the selling price and the amount required to fill the gap to $500. Ouch!
This is not, I repeat, NOT, by any means the be-all end-all of money making strategies in Diablo 3. It's just a small experiment I made, to see if I can get comfortable with a particular strategy. While it isn't very ambitions, this strategy at least allows me to spend a minimum amount of time on the AH and instead spend most of it playing, not messing around with crafting or playing the market. Anyway, thoughts and ideas are much appreciated.
For one thing, the Auction House itself (whether gold or real money) is filled with bugs and errors, not to mention the fact that the interface is a complete mess. I am confident that Blizzard will clean this up by launch. After all, the Real Money Auction House is going to be their main revenue generator. They better not mess this up.
One of the biggest problems with the beta interface is that it's very hard to find items. Other bloggers have already mentioned this but it bears repeating: you are presented with a series of dropdowns which are supposed to "assist" you in finding items appropriate for your characters but this only serves to muddle things up. The most basic of elements, the free text search box, is missing. Until they implement that I'm afraid people will have a hard time finding the stuff they need.
A free text search box is the most basic of search tools. Only after that should dropdowns, checkboxes and other filters be added. I would be very happy to have something very similar to the WoW AH, with some refinements.
Another big problem with the beta AH is that results, although sorted by DPS, are still not sorted properly. Furthermore, when sorting by one of the headers, the list of results gets messed up.
But enough about the AH issues. I'm here to tell you how I made a bunch of fake money, aka Beta Bucks, BB or Bobby Bucks. It's not a large amount and I'm sure others have made a lot more than this. In my defense, I didn't set up to make tons of money. I mostly had fun killing monsters, with a little AH experimenting in between. Here's what I discovered.
Crating is useless
I am aware that some bloggers are apparently making lots of gold by selling crafted items. I tried that and it didn't work. Most of the time the attributes on crafted items are just not good enough, so I always end up salvaging the freshly-crafted item.
My opinion is that there's no point in wasting time crafting stuff in the beta. I'm sure the situation in the full game will be completely different but right now there are easier (and less time-consuming) ways to make a little money.
The Gold AH (GAH)
I'm sorry to say this but blue items are very poor sellers. I don't understand how people manage (or do they?) to sell blues for thousands of gold. Yeah, I get that some of these items have rare combinations of attributes on them but in the beta there simply isn't enough variation for these items to prove truly valuable. And besides, even with crappy gear monsters are still very easy.
I haven't tried selling any rare items on the GAH because I couldn't spare any.
What did sell on the GAH is Subtle Essences. I sold every single Essence I had. Instead of trying (and failing) to sell blues, I simply disenchanted each and every one of them and sold the Essences for gold.
The Real Money AH (RMAH)
It seems that no one will buy blue items on the RMAH. It's understandable. I didn't try selling any rares but I've noticed that people will bid on them if the starting bid is low. I have bid on a couple of them myself.
Crafting materials, likewise, do not sell so don't bother.
What does sell, of course, is gold. If you check the price for 1000 gold and then price your own gold at or below that price (don't go down more than 1 cent), it will sell. Using this method I sold tens of thousands of gold. On a couple of occasions I couldn't post the gold fast enough, as it was snatched immediately.
One other thing that worked was that I kept an eye out for under-priced gold and bought all of it. Several times I found gold at 3BB/1000 gold and once I found several stacks of 1000 gold for only 1BB. Later on I sold that at over 6BB.
That's about it. In summary:
- farm gold while having fun killing monsters (wear +Gold gear)
- salvage all blue items
- sell Subtle Essences on the GAH
- sell rares on the RMAH but set a low starting bid
- sell gold on the RMAH
- buy under-priced gold and sell it for its normal price on the RMAH
Using this strategy I made somewhere north of 500BB, perhaps 700 or so. I could have made a lot more had I farmed more, but I didn't. I also bought a couple of rare items that were decently priced, so that ate into my balance.
In the retail game I won't bother with crafting, at least not until I reach level 60 on my main character and not until gold and mat prices stabilize.
One quirky thing that I noticed in the beta is that apparently there's a 500BB limit. I might have read something to that effect but I don't remember if, when and where. Take a look at the screenshot below.
Notice the total at the top. It says 498.64. The proceeds from the sales highlighted with red simply disappeared. They never went into my balance. I assume that's because of the 500BB limit. All those sales that I highlighted would have pushed my balance over 500. For that reason, the game simply swallowed the proceeds and I never saw them reflected in my balance.
The sale at the top, for only 4BB was intentionally under-priced, so I could test if the system was actually eating my money. The 4BB went, indeed, into my balance and that's how I ended at 498.64.
The 500BB limit is the only explanation I can find for this situation. That, or there's a serious bug in the system. Has anyone else met with the same problem? How, then, are people expecting to sell items for more than 500BB or even thousands of BB?
This has to be fixed in the retail game. I mean, seriously. Just imagine: you already have $400+ in your balance and you hit the jackpot. Some random monster drops this super-duper-uber item that you manage to sell for $1000. But the game eats the difference between the selling price and the amount required to fill the gap to $500. Ouch!
This is not, I repeat, NOT, by any means the be-all end-all of money making strategies in Diablo 3. It's just a small experiment I made, to see if I can get comfortable with a particular strategy. While it isn't very ambitions, this strategy at least allows me to spend a minimum amount of time on the AH and instead spend most of it playing, not messing around with crafting or playing the market. Anyway, thoughts and ideas are much appreciated.
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
About cheating, RMAH and gold find
I just read three articles from different Diablo blogs in quick succession and they raise some very interesting issues. I have decided to respond to each of them in one large post of my own.
Cheating in Diablo 3
Meldora brings up the controversial topic of cheating. Will it be possible to cheat in Diablo 3? Meldora makes some very good points in the article. You should really check it out.
My opinion is that, generally, it is very hard to cheat in server-side games like WoW and Diablo 3. The reason for this is that the important calculations take place on the server, which only tells the client what to do. In other words, the server is the one that feeds the client (the player's computer) with information.
This is how I imagine things work. When you kill a monster, the client sends a message to the server: "player hits monster", along with the player's coordinates. The monsters are generated on the server side so their coordinates are already known. When a monster moves, coordinates are sent to the client which updates the graphics based on that.
Next, the server looks at the player's coordinates, pulls up the character's and monster's stats, calculates if there's a hit, whether it is a killing blow, and so on. In the case of a killing blow, the server sends the message to the client: "monster dead", along with a list of items that drop. The client draws the death animation and displays the items. This system can't be fooled easily because the loot was determined on the server and it was also stored on it. The server merely sent a list of item names (with their stats), and not the item itself, to the client.
This is an overly simplified and likely flawed description of how the server-client architecture works in MMOs such as these. However, the point is that the client has no means of duping items simply because the client doesn't have the capability to generate items. It can only read what the server feeds it.
In Diablo 2 the situation was different. Diablo 2 was a standalone single-player game, with an online multiplayer component. The client definitely had the ability to generate items and perform calculations, and there's no disputing that. For that reason, people were able to manipulate certain flaws in the system such that they could dupe items locally and then transfer them to other players they met online.
So my thought is that it will be practically impossible to dupe items in Diablo 3. Some beta testers have reported being able to dupe items by mistake but it seems that it was an issue with the Auction House, meaning that the duping most likely occurred on the server side, something that can be instantly corrected by Blizzard.
However, there might be other forms of cheating that players can engage in. Meldora mentions one of the most notorious: teleport hacks. These hacks also happen in WoW and other MMOs and the reason they are possible is because they are done by manipulating the player coordinates which are generated by the client. In essence, this allows the character to "teleport" or instantly move to any location on the map
I'm sure Blizzard is taking steps to combat this but short of strongly encrypting the client, I don't see how they could do it. Someone is bound to find a way to exploit this. Now, while in WoW teleport hacks were useful for the quick farming of resource nodes, I'm not sure what use they'll be in Diablo 3, since the point of the game is to kill monsters and not to run as fast as possible through the content.
Finally, there's the issue of botting. Botting in online games has always been controversial. It allows a player to program a character to automatically go through a series of complex, pre-programmed motions, killing monsters, farming nodes, fishing and so on, over and over again. I believe botting is unethical because it allows someone to make large sums of virtual currency while they are away from their computer.
Botting can be very detrimental to Diablo 3, when we consider the Real Money Auction House. This would, potentially, allow unscrupulous individuals to essentially create money out of thin air. I really, really hope that Blizzard will make botting impossible, though I fail to see how. They haven't succeeded so far in WoW and there's nothing to suggest they have a secret weapon against it.
So there you have it: some of the ways in which people could cheat in Diablo 3. Make no mistake, Blizzard will take cheating very seriously, much more than they did in WoW, because when there's real money at stake, there must be no way to tamper with that, otherwise we'd all be able to dupe the money in our bank accounts.
Will You Spend Any Money on the RMAH?
The second article is written by Oligopoly where he discusses whether players will spend real money on the RMAH or not.
Essentially players fall in two groups: those who plan to profit off of the RMAH and those who are eager to spend tons of cash to equip their characters.
From what I've heard, there are still players of Diablo 2 who spend hundreds of dollars for virtual items. That's crazy man! But that's just my opinion, one that is not widely shared. It's their money and who am I to tell them how to spend it?
I find myself on the other side of the fence, the side that wants to profit from this. My goal is to have lots of fun and also make some pocket change on the side. I don't think I'll be sweating it too hard but if the opportunity arises, I won't hesitate to make a buck on the RMAH.
Will I buy items from the RMAH? Most certainly not. I'm a thrifty person in real life and this is one area where I won't be spending my hard-earned money (of which there isn't a lot to start with). On the other hand, if I can see a good deal and I know for sure that I'll be able to turn around and sell it back for a profit, I will do it. But I won't load money into my account for that purpose. Anything I will accrue will be through sales of my own stuff.
Will there be more sellers than buyers? That's a very interesting question and it will become clearer in the months which follow the release.
How to Get +2,324% Gold Find
The final article, and one of the most fascinating, is again by Meldora. In it, he (she?) corrects the previously estimated figure of 541% maximum Gold Find that a character can potentially equip, to an even more astounding figure of 2,324%!
Wow, I was truly speechless when I read that. Now, of course, some assumptions are made, and chief among them is that the numbers that were data-mined from the beta are accurate and will scale accordingly to higher difficulties.
Somehow, even though this number looks very juicy, I doubt that Blizzard will allow that. There must be something wrong with those numbers. Either they are not final or Blizzard is toying with us.
Just imagine what you could do with +2300% GF! You wouldn't even have to farm Inferno or Hell. That's because you would be gimped to such an extent by wearing only GF gear that you wouldn't be able to survive those higher difficulties.
Instead, how about going back all the way to Act 1 in Normal? Gold drops in the beta, currently, can reach 90G. with +2300% GF that would balloon to over 2100 gold per drop! That's insane! Now, imagine if you increased the difficulty to Nightmare. You'd end up getting thousands of gold per drop.
Is this scenario realistic? Depends. Perhaps gold costs at max level and Inferno are astronomical. Maybe gold really is needed in huge quantities at these difficulties. Maybe a death will cost 1 million gold in repairs. But I tend to doubt that. Dealing in huge amounts of currency is never a good thing. It's better to keep gold relatively scarce instead of having to deal in billions of gold.
My take on this is that something must be wrong with those numbers. It's not the data-miners' or the theorycrafters' fault. It's simply something that, at this point, hasn't been made entirely clear and isn't even in finished stage. Perhaps that amount is indeed possible, in theory. What if, in practice, it will be virtually impossible to acquire the perfect combination of items that will make it possible? We shall find out. And it will be an exciting journey of discovery.
Cheating in Diablo 3
Meldora brings up the controversial topic of cheating. Will it be possible to cheat in Diablo 3? Meldora makes some very good points in the article. You should really check it out.
My opinion is that, generally, it is very hard to cheat in server-side games like WoW and Diablo 3. The reason for this is that the important calculations take place on the server, which only tells the client what to do. In other words, the server is the one that feeds the client (the player's computer) with information.
This is how I imagine things work. When you kill a monster, the client sends a message to the server: "player hits monster", along with the player's coordinates. The monsters are generated on the server side so their coordinates are already known. When a monster moves, coordinates are sent to the client which updates the graphics based on that.
Next, the server looks at the player's coordinates, pulls up the character's and monster's stats, calculates if there's a hit, whether it is a killing blow, and so on. In the case of a killing blow, the server sends the message to the client: "monster dead", along with a list of items that drop. The client draws the death animation and displays the items. This system can't be fooled easily because the loot was determined on the server and it was also stored on it. The server merely sent a list of item names (with their stats), and not the item itself, to the client.
This is an overly simplified and likely flawed description of how the server-client architecture works in MMOs such as these. However, the point is that the client has no means of duping items simply because the client doesn't have the capability to generate items. It can only read what the server feeds it.
In Diablo 2 the situation was different. Diablo 2 was a standalone single-player game, with an online multiplayer component. The client definitely had the ability to generate items and perform calculations, and there's no disputing that. For that reason, people were able to manipulate certain flaws in the system such that they could dupe items locally and then transfer them to other players they met online.
So my thought is that it will be practically impossible to dupe items in Diablo 3. Some beta testers have reported being able to dupe items by mistake but it seems that it was an issue with the Auction House, meaning that the duping most likely occurred on the server side, something that can be instantly corrected by Blizzard.
However, there might be other forms of cheating that players can engage in. Meldora mentions one of the most notorious: teleport hacks. These hacks also happen in WoW and other MMOs and the reason they are possible is because they are done by manipulating the player coordinates which are generated by the client. In essence, this allows the character to "teleport" or instantly move to any location on the map
I'm sure Blizzard is taking steps to combat this but short of strongly encrypting the client, I don't see how they could do it. Someone is bound to find a way to exploit this. Now, while in WoW teleport hacks were useful for the quick farming of resource nodes, I'm not sure what use they'll be in Diablo 3, since the point of the game is to kill monsters and not to run as fast as possible through the content.
Finally, there's the issue of botting. Botting in online games has always been controversial. It allows a player to program a character to automatically go through a series of complex, pre-programmed motions, killing monsters, farming nodes, fishing and so on, over and over again. I believe botting is unethical because it allows someone to make large sums of virtual currency while they are away from their computer.
Botting can be very detrimental to Diablo 3, when we consider the Real Money Auction House. This would, potentially, allow unscrupulous individuals to essentially create money out of thin air. I really, really hope that Blizzard will make botting impossible, though I fail to see how. They haven't succeeded so far in WoW and there's nothing to suggest they have a secret weapon against it.
So there you have it: some of the ways in which people could cheat in Diablo 3. Make no mistake, Blizzard will take cheating very seriously, much more than they did in WoW, because when there's real money at stake, there must be no way to tamper with that, otherwise we'd all be able to dupe the money in our bank accounts.
Will You Spend Any Money on the RMAH?
The second article is written by Oligopoly where he discusses whether players will spend real money on the RMAH or not.
Essentially players fall in two groups: those who plan to profit off of the RMAH and those who are eager to spend tons of cash to equip their characters.
From what I've heard, there are still players of Diablo 2 who spend hundreds of dollars for virtual items. That's crazy man! But that's just my opinion, one that is not widely shared. It's their money and who am I to tell them how to spend it?
I find myself on the other side of the fence, the side that wants to profit from this. My goal is to have lots of fun and also make some pocket change on the side. I don't think I'll be sweating it too hard but if the opportunity arises, I won't hesitate to make a buck on the RMAH.
Will I buy items from the RMAH? Most certainly not. I'm a thrifty person in real life and this is one area where I won't be spending my hard-earned money (of which there isn't a lot to start with). On the other hand, if I can see a good deal and I know for sure that I'll be able to turn around and sell it back for a profit, I will do it. But I won't load money into my account for that purpose. Anything I will accrue will be through sales of my own stuff.
Will there be more sellers than buyers? That's a very interesting question and it will become clearer in the months which follow the release.
How to Get +2,324% Gold Find
The final article, and one of the most fascinating, is again by Meldora. In it, he (she?) corrects the previously estimated figure of 541% maximum Gold Find that a character can potentially equip, to an even more astounding figure of 2,324%!
Wow, I was truly speechless when I read that. Now, of course, some assumptions are made, and chief among them is that the numbers that were data-mined from the beta are accurate and will scale accordingly to higher difficulties.
Somehow, even though this number looks very juicy, I doubt that Blizzard will allow that. There must be something wrong with those numbers. Either they are not final or Blizzard is toying with us.
Just imagine what you could do with +2300% GF! You wouldn't even have to farm Inferno or Hell. That's because you would be gimped to such an extent by wearing only GF gear that you wouldn't be able to survive those higher difficulties.
Instead, how about going back all the way to Act 1 in Normal? Gold drops in the beta, currently, can reach 90G. with +2300% GF that would balloon to over 2100 gold per drop! That's insane! Now, imagine if you increased the difficulty to Nightmare. You'd end up getting thousands of gold per drop.
Is this scenario realistic? Depends. Perhaps gold costs at max level and Inferno are astronomical. Maybe gold really is needed in huge quantities at these difficulties. Maybe a death will cost 1 million gold in repairs. But I tend to doubt that. Dealing in huge amounts of currency is never a good thing. It's better to keep gold relatively scarce instead of having to deal in billions of gold.
My take on this is that something must be wrong with those numbers. It's not the data-miners' or the theorycrafters' fault. It's simply something that, at this point, hasn't been made entirely clear and isn't even in finished stage. Perhaps that amount is indeed possible, in theory. What if, in practice, it will be virtually impossible to acquire the perfect combination of items that will make it possible? We shall find out. And it will be an exciting journey of discovery.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Hyperinflation in D3?
Watching the gameplay videos coming out of the beta, especially recent ones, lead me to ask myself if inflation, or even hyperinflation, might be a problem in Diablo 3.
A few patches ago there was a time when gold was fairly scarce and people were afraid that it would become very valuable due to the short supply.
There are still a lot of gold sinks, what with artisan training, repair costs and buying items and mats from the auction house. Yet, the last patch has made me wonder.
As you might know, gold drops have been altered in patch 14 and stack sizes have a much larger range. I've seen countless instances of 60-90 gold drops in the new areas that were discovered by beta testers. Those areas are barely more advanced than what's currently in the beta. This means that at a very low level players are already finding tens of gold in a single drop.
Contrast this to Diablo 2. If you remember, gold drops were rather small even at high levels. If we can get 90 gold in early Act 1 on Normal difficulty, I wonder how much will drop in Act 4 in Inferno, or even Hell. 500-1000 gold?
If that's the case, gold might end up not being too valuable after all. An important gold sink for most players will be the training of artisans. But if gold is so abundant, artisans will be trained in very short order and without a lot of effort.
In the end it's not really about inflation, but rather about the value of gold. In Diablo 2 players quickly reached a point where gold wasn't very valuable anymore, causing them to turn to alternative currencies such as Stones of Jordan. Will the same thing happen in Diablo 3? We shall see, but early indications point towards an over-supply of gold. Having said that, I won't be surprised if Blizzard has other gold sinks up their sleeves.
A few patches ago there was a time when gold was fairly scarce and people were afraid that it would become very valuable due to the short supply.
There are still a lot of gold sinks, what with artisan training, repair costs and buying items and mats from the auction house. Yet, the last patch has made me wonder.
As you might know, gold drops have been altered in patch 14 and stack sizes have a much larger range. I've seen countless instances of 60-90 gold drops in the new areas that were discovered by beta testers. Those areas are barely more advanced than what's currently in the beta. This means that at a very low level players are already finding tens of gold in a single drop.
Contrast this to Diablo 2. If you remember, gold drops were rather small even at high levels. If we can get 90 gold in early Act 1 on Normal difficulty, I wonder how much will drop in Act 4 in Inferno, or even Hell. 500-1000 gold?
If that's the case, gold might end up not being too valuable after all. An important gold sink for most players will be the training of artisans. But if gold is so abundant, artisans will be trained in very short order and without a lot of effort.
In the end it's not really about inflation, but rather about the value of gold. In Diablo 2 players quickly reached a point where gold wasn't very valuable anymore, causing them to turn to alternative currencies such as Stones of Jordan. Will the same thing happen in Diablo 3? We shall see, but early indications point towards an over-supply of gold. Having said that, I won't be surprised if Blizzard has other gold sinks up their sleeves.
Friday, February 17, 2012
New AH changes make me happy
Today Blizzard announced some changes to the way the auction houses (gold and real money) work. Here they are.
The old system had a listing fee, except for an undisclosed number of free auctions every week. I was uneasy at the idea that I might have to limit my postings because, especially at the beginning, I would be very cautious not to waste money posting stuff over and over again.
Now that there is no more listing fee (and obviously the concept of free weekly auctions is out of the picture) we can all breathe a sigh of relief. We can post items (and gold) at our own leisure provided we can sell it for minimum 1.50 bucks (this will probably translate 1:1 into dollars or whatever real currency you're using).
An even bigger advantage for me (and others like me) that these changes bring is the limit of 10 auctions that run at any given time. This change alone should do a great job in limiting what farmers and especially speculators can post. This, to me, is amazing.
From a personal point of view, I can't stand speculators. Speculators are a necessary byproduct of a free market and we can assume that the Diablo 3 RMAH will be quite free once the rules imposed by Blizzard are obeyed. I won't play Diablo 3 with the purpose to make money. Instead, I will play it for fun, with the hope that occasionally I can make an extra buck by selling some rare item that I don't need. Speculators, however, can ruin the game for me and those like me by artificially raising AH prices (buy low, sell high and all that).
Now, the playing field is leveled for everyone. No matter how much you play the market, you still won't be able to post more than 10 items at a time. Of course, the hardcore people will get past this limit by purchasing additional accounts which should place a financial limit on how much of these accounts they can buy. But perhaps Blizzard will prevent this by imposing a 1 person - 1 account rule.
Softcore players who are reluctant to try their luck on the Real Money Auction House won't have any barriers now to posting items because they won't lose anything if the item doesn't sell. We can all continue to post that item over and over again until it sells (or we get tired of posting). This makes it possible to make a few bucks at any time during the game, whether you're level 1 or 60, without any financial risk.
The 10 auction limit will also put a damper on some people's dreams of hitting the mother lode by flipping hundreds of dollars worth of items a day. In the vast majority of cases that won't happen, unless, I repeat, they can juggle a dozen or more different accounts.
As for the transaction fee, I couldn't care less, especially if it is a fixed amount. It's not like I'm investing any resources in making that money. I play the game anyway for fun so any drop that I can sell is pure profit. Whether it's $0.25 or $1 is irrelevant.
I doubt these will be the final AH changes until release. Blizzard still has their work cut out for them. For my part I can't wait to give the new-and-improved AH a whirl.
To me, this is excellent news. Chief among them is the combination between removing the listing fee and limiting the number of concurrent auctions to 10.
- Listing fee is being removed.
- Transaction fee is being increased to 1.25 Beta Bucks.
- Minimum listing price is being raised to 1.50 Beta Bucks.
- You will be limited to 10 active auctions per auction house.
The old system had a listing fee, except for an undisclosed number of free auctions every week. I was uneasy at the idea that I might have to limit my postings because, especially at the beginning, I would be very cautious not to waste money posting stuff over and over again.
Now that there is no more listing fee (and obviously the concept of free weekly auctions is out of the picture) we can all breathe a sigh of relief. We can post items (and gold) at our own leisure provided we can sell it for minimum 1.50 bucks (this will probably translate 1:1 into dollars or whatever real currency you're using).
An even bigger advantage for me (and others like me) that these changes bring is the limit of 10 auctions that run at any given time. This change alone should do a great job in limiting what farmers and especially speculators can post. This, to me, is amazing.
From a personal point of view, I can't stand speculators. Speculators are a necessary byproduct of a free market and we can assume that the Diablo 3 RMAH will be quite free once the rules imposed by Blizzard are obeyed. I won't play Diablo 3 with the purpose to make money. Instead, I will play it for fun, with the hope that occasionally I can make an extra buck by selling some rare item that I don't need. Speculators, however, can ruin the game for me and those like me by artificially raising AH prices (buy low, sell high and all that).
Now, the playing field is leveled for everyone. No matter how much you play the market, you still won't be able to post more than 10 items at a time. Of course, the hardcore people will get past this limit by purchasing additional accounts which should place a financial limit on how much of these accounts they can buy. But perhaps Blizzard will prevent this by imposing a 1 person - 1 account rule.
Softcore players who are reluctant to try their luck on the Real Money Auction House won't have any barriers now to posting items because they won't lose anything if the item doesn't sell. We can all continue to post that item over and over again until it sells (or we get tired of posting). This makes it possible to make a few bucks at any time during the game, whether you're level 1 or 60, without any financial risk.
The 10 auction limit will also put a damper on some people's dreams of hitting the mother lode by flipping hundreds of dollars worth of items a day. In the vast majority of cases that won't happen, unless, I repeat, they can juggle a dozen or more different accounts.
As for the transaction fee, I couldn't care less, especially if it is a fixed amount. It's not like I'm investing any resources in making that money. I play the game anyway for fun so any drop that I can sell is pure profit. Whether it's $0.25 or $1 is irrelevant.
I doubt these will be the final AH changes until release. Blizzard still has their work cut out for them. For my part I can't wait to give the new-and-improved AH a whirl.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Magic find or gold find?
From the information I've seen coming out of the Diablo 3 beta and from reading various blogs, I have started to form a vague picture of how I will make some gold (and ultimately money) in D3. Just as in WoW, if you want to make lots of money fast, you will need to use multiple strategies and you will need to diversify. You also need to identify the most lucrative and straightforward ways of reaching your goal.
My main goal in Diablo 3 will be to have fun but I believe even more fun can be had if a little profit can be made from playing the game. Hence, there's nothing wrong with making a little money off of it.
After I get the hang of things, most likely after I have decided on a favorite class, I will use two similar but slightly different ways in which to make gold. I intend to test both of these methods for a period of time and figure out which is more profitable. There will be other strategies that I will try but these two are very simple concepts.
Once I decide on a "main" character, I will deck them out in 1) gold find and 2) magic find gear and see which one is better at farming. My strategy will be to pick a character who's really good at kicking butt, most likely a Barbarian or Wizard and farm lower level areas with it. The lower areas are very important because I will trade all my character's survivability for MF or GF. One thing that I might keep is a weapon with good damage but otherwise it's all gonna be gold- and magic-find gear.
Considering that I won't be able to assemble all that gear from the very beginning, I estimate that my experiment will start later, after I have leveled my character a bit. Depending on how easy it is to level a character, I might decide to go all the way to the maximum level of 60, before going back to lower areas so I can test my two methods.
Gold is slated to be valuable in D3, thanks to its scarcity, which should make it a very good commodity to trade on the Real Money Auction House. There is much less risk involved with selling gold than with selling regular items. Same goes for selling crafting materials. Gold and crafting materials can be considered "currency", hence they are less volatile and generally a good investment.
Gold find gear will allow me to get more gold from monsters and it's going to be interesting to calculate how much gold an hour I can make from farming and how much real money I can sell it for.
Gold can also be used for other purposes, such as buying blue/yellow gear and salvaging it for materials, provided that selling those materials is more profitable than just selling the gold in the first place. But this method is for later. Initially I will focus only on selling the gold directly.
Magic find gives monsters a higher chance to drop magic gear. This gear can be used in two ways: 1) either sell it directly, either for gold (which can, in turn, be sold for real money) or directly for real money, provided the item is valuable enough
2) or salvage it for materials.
I am certain that most (> 90%) of items found in this manner will go to the salvage bin but that's ok because, once again, materials are "currency" and they will sell very well on the "stock exchange", either for gold or real money, depending which is more profitable.
I will test both methods for set intervals. I was thinking about alternating them every week. It is important to test for longer periods of time, several months in fact, because prices, especially during the first few months of D3, will be skewed.
So which method (if any) will you try? Honestly I am more excited about magic find, provided that this type of gear really works as expected. While gold find is easy to gauge (because you can clearly see that you are getting larger gold drops), it's harder to judge if magic find has any effect, unless you start logging each piece of gear that drops, which I will actually be doing.
While these two strategies are very simple, I believe that experimentation is key, in any game, not just Diablo 3. I just hope they release the damn game this year!
My main goal in Diablo 3 will be to have fun but I believe even more fun can be had if a little profit can be made from playing the game. Hence, there's nothing wrong with making a little money off of it.
After I get the hang of things, most likely after I have decided on a favorite class, I will use two similar but slightly different ways in which to make gold. I intend to test both of these methods for a period of time and figure out which is more profitable. There will be other strategies that I will try but these two are very simple concepts.
Once I decide on a "main" character, I will deck them out in 1) gold find and 2) magic find gear and see which one is better at farming. My strategy will be to pick a character who's really good at kicking butt, most likely a Barbarian or Wizard and farm lower level areas with it. The lower areas are very important because I will trade all my character's survivability for MF or GF. One thing that I might keep is a weapon with good damage but otherwise it's all gonna be gold- and magic-find gear.
Considering that I won't be able to assemble all that gear from the very beginning, I estimate that my experiment will start later, after I have leveled my character a bit. Depending on how easy it is to level a character, I might decide to go all the way to the maximum level of 60, before going back to lower areas so I can test my two methods.
Gold is slated to be valuable in D3, thanks to its scarcity, which should make it a very good commodity to trade on the Real Money Auction House. There is much less risk involved with selling gold than with selling regular items. Same goes for selling crafting materials. Gold and crafting materials can be considered "currency", hence they are less volatile and generally a good investment.
Gold find gear will allow me to get more gold from monsters and it's going to be interesting to calculate how much gold an hour I can make from farming and how much real money I can sell it for.
Gold can also be used for other purposes, such as buying blue/yellow gear and salvaging it for materials, provided that selling those materials is more profitable than just selling the gold in the first place. But this method is for later. Initially I will focus only on selling the gold directly.
Magic find gives monsters a higher chance to drop magic gear. This gear can be used in two ways: 1) either sell it directly, either for gold (which can, in turn, be sold for real money) or directly for real money, provided the item is valuable enough
2) or salvage it for materials.
I am certain that most (> 90%) of items found in this manner will go to the salvage bin but that's ok because, once again, materials are "currency" and they will sell very well on the "stock exchange", either for gold or real money, depending which is more profitable.
I will test both methods for set intervals. I was thinking about alternating them every week. It is important to test for longer periods of time, several months in fact, because prices, especially during the first few months of D3, will be skewed.
So which method (if any) will you try? Honestly I am more excited about magic find, provided that this type of gear really works as expected. While gold find is easy to gauge (because you can clearly see that you are getting larger gold drops), it's harder to judge if magic find has any effect, unless you start logging each piece of gear that drops, which I will actually be doing.
While these two strategies are very simple, I believe that experimentation is key, in any game, not just Diablo 3. I just hope they release the damn game this year!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Diablo 3 will kick WoW's ass
This post is written in reply to Markco's challenge for his January blogging carnival. The topic is "Will Diablo 3 make more money than World of Warcraft thanks to the RMAH?"
First, let me start off by saying that Diablo 3 is no longer at the forefront of my imagination right now. There's no fresh news to digest, no beta key and no hope that it will be released earlier than March.
Having said that, I still think about it occasionally, but perhaps not often enough, as can be inferred by my lack of posting. As such, Markco's blogging carnival is very useful for taking me out of my apathy.
The question he poses is a bit too general to answer with precision. I mean, I have no doubt that Diablo 3 will make more money than WoW. The question is, what kind of money and for whom?
While WoW only deals in 1 type of currency, gold, Diablo 3 will have 2 currencies: gold and real money. In WoW, gold is useless outside of the game. It has no real value in the real world because you can't use it to buy bread, for example. Yes, there are unofficial ways of trading in gold but that's not the scope of this article and not something I'm interested in. I used to cheat in games when I was a little kid and knew no better. I feel that cheating only helps to spoil the game and make it boring, quickly.
Diablo 3's gold would be just as useless as WoW's, except that this time around real money is involved. Since there will be an official exchange rate between real money and gold, the latter will obviously have real value outside of the game.
Whether the total amount of gold in Diablo 3 will be higher than that in WoW remains to be seen but I tend to believe that it will surpass it greatly. Leaving aside the fact that you can't draw a parallel between Diablo 3's and WoW's gold (they are both called "gold" but there is no relationship between them), with time Diablo 3 will most likely circulate more gold than WoW. First, Diablo 3 is the future while WoW is in decline. Second, it will be much easier for people to make gold in D3 than in WoW, simply for the fact that it drops in large quantities from monsters. In WoW there are plenty of poor people who have barely managed to save 1000 gold but in D3 you will make lots of gold as long as you keep playing the game. Besides, D3 is not really a social game where you can gather around with your friends and shoot the breeze. You log in to kill shit, not to sit and gossip or whatnot.
Moving on to real money, of course D3 will make more than WoW, for the simple fact that real money doesn't exist in WoW's economy. The first cent made by someone on the RMAH will automatically surpass WoW. I realize that this is a bit tongue-in-cheek but it's simple logic.
Those who will make real money in D3 will, first of all, be the ones who choose to trade on the RMAH. There will be plenty of people who will stay away from the RMAH, whether on principle or because they don't have money to spend on virtual items. But for those who will actively engage in real money trading, there are profits to be made.
There is also potential for loss. You could list your stuff multiple times on the RMAH without it selling, but still have to pay listing fees. If you are careless, that could certainly happen. But it doesn't have to. Remember that Blizzard will offer a number of free listings per week to everyone. That, alone, is great news because it allows people to participate in the RMAH risk-free. Those who just want to test how the system works can do so without fear of losing money.
I think that's great. Diablo 3 won't replace your full-time job but it can be a very satisfying hobby which not only offers tons of fun but also helps you make a little money on the side. At the very least, if you can cover the cost of the game, you are still a winner. And hey, even if you don't wish to partake in the RMAH, D3 will be just as fun to play.
First, let me start off by saying that Diablo 3 is no longer at the forefront of my imagination right now. There's no fresh news to digest, no beta key and no hope that it will be released earlier than March.
Having said that, I still think about it occasionally, but perhaps not often enough, as can be inferred by my lack of posting. As such, Markco's blogging carnival is very useful for taking me out of my apathy.
The question he poses is a bit too general to answer with precision. I mean, I have no doubt that Diablo 3 will make more money than WoW. The question is, what kind of money and for whom?
While WoW only deals in 1 type of currency, gold, Diablo 3 will have 2 currencies: gold and real money. In WoW, gold is useless outside of the game. It has no real value in the real world because you can't use it to buy bread, for example. Yes, there are unofficial ways of trading in gold but that's not the scope of this article and not something I'm interested in. I used to cheat in games when I was a little kid and knew no better. I feel that cheating only helps to spoil the game and make it boring, quickly.
Diablo 3's gold would be just as useless as WoW's, except that this time around real money is involved. Since there will be an official exchange rate between real money and gold, the latter will obviously have real value outside of the game.
Whether the total amount of gold in Diablo 3 will be higher than that in WoW remains to be seen but I tend to believe that it will surpass it greatly. Leaving aside the fact that you can't draw a parallel between Diablo 3's and WoW's gold (they are both called "gold" but there is no relationship between them), with time Diablo 3 will most likely circulate more gold than WoW. First, Diablo 3 is the future while WoW is in decline. Second, it will be much easier for people to make gold in D3 than in WoW, simply for the fact that it drops in large quantities from monsters. In WoW there are plenty of poor people who have barely managed to save 1000 gold but in D3 you will make lots of gold as long as you keep playing the game. Besides, D3 is not really a social game where you can gather around with your friends and shoot the breeze. You log in to kill shit, not to sit and gossip or whatnot.
Moving on to real money, of course D3 will make more than WoW, for the simple fact that real money doesn't exist in WoW's economy. The first cent made by someone on the RMAH will automatically surpass WoW. I realize that this is a bit tongue-in-cheek but it's simple logic.
Those who will make real money in D3 will, first of all, be the ones who choose to trade on the RMAH. There will be plenty of people who will stay away from the RMAH, whether on principle or because they don't have money to spend on virtual items. But for those who will actively engage in real money trading, there are profits to be made.
There is also potential for loss. You could list your stuff multiple times on the RMAH without it selling, but still have to pay listing fees. If you are careless, that could certainly happen. But it doesn't have to. Remember that Blizzard will offer a number of free listings per week to everyone. That, alone, is great news because it allows people to participate in the RMAH risk-free. Those who just want to test how the system works can do so without fear of losing money.
I think that's great. Diablo 3 won't replace your full-time job but it can be a very satisfying hobby which not only offers tons of fun but also helps you make a little money on the side. At the very least, if you can cover the cost of the game, you are still a winner. And hey, even if you don't wish to partake in the RMAH, D3 will be just as fun to play.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Why Beta Bucks are not like real money
Blizzard has started testing the Real Money Auction House in the public beta last week and I'm a bit late to the party in commenting about this new development. While testing how the auction house works with real money is a positive thing, I doubt it will show the whole picture.
Blizzard has loaded up testers' accounts with what they call Beta Bucks, a virtual currency that's supposed to simulate actual money. I don't see any other way in which they could have publicly tested this feature. However, bear in mind that those 50 Beta Bucks are universal across all geographical zones, meaning that people in the US got 50 BBs, people in Europe got 50 BBs, people in Brazil got 50 BBs and people in Asia got 50 BBs.
It's quite obvious that in reality these Beta Bucks aren't equal to actual money. In fact, we can view them as just another virtual currency, same as gold, or, if you will, a type of super-gold. From what I understand, the gold AH is not enabled in this iteration of the beta. This, unfortunately, prevents testers from experimenting with the relationship between gold and Beta Bucks (or real money if you will). At the same time, this consists one of the reasons why I don't think Beta Bucks will be an accurate indicator of how people on the actual RMAH will behave.
The second reason has to deal with human nature. Consider these cases:
a) give someone the option to spend $50 of their money on virtual items, if they want to. Most people would think twice before doing that. Some would spend just a small amount. Some would even decline to spend a single cent.
b) give someone $50, tell them they can only spend it on virtual items. Everyone would spend that cash since at this point it acts exactly like virtual currency: it has no value in the real world. However, some people would be more selective in what they would buy with that money.
c) give someone 50 Beta Bucks (or Beta Ducks or whatever) and more people would spend it with abandon, especially if they know that later they might be given some extra Ducks when they run out. Yes, apparently Blizzard hinted at that.
My point is that people's behavior will change depending on how they got their hands on that money. People are more likely to spend virtual currency that doesn't have any value in the real world, even if they have worked hard for it. They are even more likely to spend the same virtual currency if they got it for free. They are less likely to spend real money that they've worked hard for. They are more likely than that to spend real money that they got for free.
While testing the auction house with something that resembles a real currency is better than not testing it at all, we need to keep in mind that people will behave differently when they need to spend their own money. Because this is something that hasn't been attempted before in an online game, the real RMAH testing will come in the months following Diablo 3's release.
Blizzard has loaded up testers' accounts with what they call Beta Bucks, a virtual currency that's supposed to simulate actual money. I don't see any other way in which they could have publicly tested this feature. However, bear in mind that those 50 Beta Bucks are universal across all geographical zones, meaning that people in the US got 50 BBs, people in Europe got 50 BBs, people in Brazil got 50 BBs and people in Asia got 50 BBs.
It's quite obvious that in reality these Beta Bucks aren't equal to actual money. In fact, we can view them as just another virtual currency, same as gold, or, if you will, a type of super-gold. From what I understand, the gold AH is not enabled in this iteration of the beta. This, unfortunately, prevents testers from experimenting with the relationship between gold and Beta Bucks (or real money if you will). At the same time, this consists one of the reasons why I don't think Beta Bucks will be an accurate indicator of how people on the actual RMAH will behave.
The second reason has to deal with human nature. Consider these cases:
a) give someone the option to spend $50 of their money on virtual items, if they want to. Most people would think twice before doing that. Some would spend just a small amount. Some would even decline to spend a single cent.
b) give someone $50, tell them they can only spend it on virtual items. Everyone would spend that cash since at this point it acts exactly like virtual currency: it has no value in the real world. However, some people would be more selective in what they would buy with that money.
c) give someone 50 Beta Bucks (or Beta Ducks or whatever) and more people would spend it with abandon, especially if they know that later they might be given some extra Ducks when they run out. Yes, apparently Blizzard hinted at that.
My point is that people's behavior will change depending on how they got their hands on that money. People are more likely to spend virtual currency that doesn't have any value in the real world, even if they have worked hard for it. They are even more likely to spend the same virtual currency if they got it for free. They are less likely to spend real money that they've worked hard for. They are more likely than that to spend real money that they got for free.
While testing the auction house with something that resembles a real currency is better than not testing it at all, we need to keep in mind that people will behave differently when they need to spend their own money. Because this is something that hasn't been attempted before in an online game, the real RMAH testing will come in the months following Diablo 3's release.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Diablo 3's RMAH - money maker or not?
I wrote this post in response to Diablo 3 gold guide's blogging carnival challenge for December. The topic is "Why do you believe or don't believe the RMAH will be a money maker in D3?" It's interesting and challenging to write for a set subject so here's my attempt at answering this question.
First, we are talking about the RMAH (Real Money Auction House) and not the gold auction house. It's a given that gold can be made on the gold AH. The same people who were poor in WoW will be poor in D3, in terms of gold, while the rich ones in WoW will probably be rich in D3 as well, provided they apply the same effort.
Now that we have the gold AH out of the way, the RMAH is trickier to predict at this point in time. From the look of things, Blizzard hasn't even got this component working properly and that's one of the reasons while Diablo 3 is being delayed. Predicting how real money trading will work is a bit of a hit and miss. There are some reasonably things we can expect, based on historical precedent and general gaming experience.
My short answer to this question is yes, there is money to be made with the RMAH. What I can't put my finger on is the actual amounts. I have two major points I'm basing my argument on.
1. Historical precedent
Some very good evidence pointing towards the RMAH being a money maker is the fact that many 3rd party sites which sold items spawned around Diablo 2. People were paying tens and hundreds of dollars for rares, legendaries, gems, runes and so on. They were willing to trust shady 3rd party sites and shady eBay sellers and they were also happy to spend those huge amounts of real money just so they could equip their characters better. The funny thing is that many (if not most) of those items were dupes, and not even the real thing.
Blizzard is both shrewd and crafty: they know that people will flock around the RMAH like there's no tomorrow. That is, if they can provide the safe and secure trading facility they have been promising us.
Moving from unauthorized 3rd party sites to an official venue will probably completely eliminate such sites, though I wouldn't be surprised if some people will still try. But I believe that the majority of players (those who pay for the game at any rate) will use Diablo 3's RMAH. Now when I talk about the "majority" I mean those who are willing to spend real money on items.
I am willing to bet that offering a secure venue for item trading will entice even some of those who have never considered spending real money on virtual items to engage in a little bit of buying. I am one of those. When I first heard about the RMAH I thought I would never buy an item for real money. Now, I'm not so sure. Under the right circumstances I just might.
Consider this simple example: if I find a severely underpriced item, say, the Sword of Uber-Awesomeness which is an extremely rare legendary, posted for $10, you can bet that I will buy it right there and then. And then I'll re-post it for $200 or whatever it is really worth. The original seller will make a paltry $5 or $8 or whatever is left after fees, but he will make some money and I will make even more money.
2. Blizzard is behind the RMAH
We need to keep in mind that Blizzard is the massive force that drives the RMAH. They came up with the concept and are betting big on it. This is going to be a solid part of their business model, going forward. It wouldn't surprise me if they implement a RMAH in World of Warcraft within the next 1-2 years and their next MMO, Titan, is almost certain to have it.
The RMAH will be Blizzard's sole revenue after the game is initially sold and they need the money to keep the servers running and continue developing the game. Diablo 3 doesn't have monthly fees and Blizzard needs a constant stream of revenue. They have done their homework and already know what level of trading to expect from players. They will do everything possible to make the RMAH work. This includes making it enticing to as many people as possible. If only for the fact that Blizzard won't allow this to fail, I am confident there is money to be made.
Having made these points, there still remains the question of how much money is there to be made in Diablo 3? It depends on how much time and effort each individual is willing to put into it. Do you simply want to have fun playing the game? Guess what, you can have your cake and (almost) eat it too. In a previous analysis I pointed out that even if you make as little as $1 an hour playing Diablo 3, you will still make a tidy sum that adds up over time and essentially allows you to get paid to play.
First, we are talking about the RMAH (Real Money Auction House) and not the gold auction house. It's a given that gold can be made on the gold AH. The same people who were poor in WoW will be poor in D3, in terms of gold, while the rich ones in WoW will probably be rich in D3 as well, provided they apply the same effort.
Now that we have the gold AH out of the way, the RMAH is trickier to predict at this point in time. From the look of things, Blizzard hasn't even got this component working properly and that's one of the reasons while Diablo 3 is being delayed. Predicting how real money trading will work is a bit of a hit and miss. There are some reasonably things we can expect, based on historical precedent and general gaming experience.
My short answer to this question is yes, there is money to be made with the RMAH. What I can't put my finger on is the actual amounts. I have two major points I'm basing my argument on.
1. Historical precedent
Some very good evidence pointing towards the RMAH being a money maker is the fact that many 3rd party sites which sold items spawned around Diablo 2. People were paying tens and hundreds of dollars for rares, legendaries, gems, runes and so on. They were willing to trust shady 3rd party sites and shady eBay sellers and they were also happy to spend those huge amounts of real money just so they could equip their characters better. The funny thing is that many (if not most) of those items were dupes, and not even the real thing.
Blizzard is both shrewd and crafty: they know that people will flock around the RMAH like there's no tomorrow. That is, if they can provide the safe and secure trading facility they have been promising us.
Moving from unauthorized 3rd party sites to an official venue will probably completely eliminate such sites, though I wouldn't be surprised if some people will still try. But I believe that the majority of players (those who pay for the game at any rate) will use Diablo 3's RMAH. Now when I talk about the "majority" I mean those who are willing to spend real money on items.
I am willing to bet that offering a secure venue for item trading will entice even some of those who have never considered spending real money on virtual items to engage in a little bit of buying. I am one of those. When I first heard about the RMAH I thought I would never buy an item for real money. Now, I'm not so sure. Under the right circumstances I just might.
Consider this simple example: if I find a severely underpriced item, say, the Sword of Uber-Awesomeness which is an extremely rare legendary, posted for $10, you can bet that I will buy it right there and then. And then I'll re-post it for $200 or whatever it is really worth. The original seller will make a paltry $5 or $8 or whatever is left after fees, but he will make some money and I will make even more money.
2. Blizzard is behind the RMAH
We need to keep in mind that Blizzard is the massive force that drives the RMAH. They came up with the concept and are betting big on it. This is going to be a solid part of their business model, going forward. It wouldn't surprise me if they implement a RMAH in World of Warcraft within the next 1-2 years and their next MMO, Titan, is almost certain to have it.
The RMAH will be Blizzard's sole revenue after the game is initially sold and they need the money to keep the servers running and continue developing the game. Diablo 3 doesn't have monthly fees and Blizzard needs a constant stream of revenue. They have done their homework and already know what level of trading to expect from players. They will do everything possible to make the RMAH work. This includes making it enticing to as many people as possible. If only for the fact that Blizzard won't allow this to fail, I am confident there is money to be made.
Having made these points, there still remains the question of how much money is there to be made in Diablo 3? It depends on how much time and effort each individual is willing to put into it. Do you simply want to have fun playing the game? Guess what, you can have your cake and (almost) eat it too. In a previous analysis I pointed out that even if you make as little as $1 an hour playing Diablo 3, you will still make a tidy sum that adds up over time and essentially allows you to get paid to play.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Welcome to the Diablo 3 stock exchange
Blizzard's latest beta patch has been released and there's some very good news regarding the Auction House. This proves, yet again, that Blizzard is taking this whole auctioning concept very seriously and they are still tweaking it to make it work well. Here's the relevant quote:
Stackable items can now be purchased and sold on the gold Auction House. These items can be purchased in any quantity provided that the quantity is available for sale, and will pull from multiple auction listings if needed.
I'm bad at economics, I will admit that, but this immediately brought to mind a stock exchange model for the Auction House. If you are confused by Blizzard's statement, I believe I know exactly how this will work. It's quite intuitive actually.
The main thing is that this works on items which stack, such as crafting mats and gold, possibly potions as well. This should work on both the Gold and Real Money Auction Houses. Let's say you have the following stacks of Common Scraps posted on the AH (for this example I will use gold prices but it could just as well translate into actual currency):
Qty Item Buyout price each Buyout price total
--- --------- ---------- -----------
2 Common Scraps 10 gold 20 gold
15 Common Scraps 10 gold 150 gold
10 Common Scraps 11 gold 110 gold
5 Common Scraps 12 gold 60 gold
20 Common Scraps 12 gold 240 gold
8 Common Scraps 13 gold 104 gold
25 Common Scraps 14 gold 104 gold
50 Common Scraps 14 gold 700 gold
...
Notice that items will always be ordered by default by lowest price per item. I don't know if that's the case now and I don't care. That's the way it should be. Price per unit (as well as total stack price) should always be shown prominently on any Auction House. Notice that this is not currently the case on WoW's AH. You still need addons to tell you that.
Player X comes along and he needs 40 Common Scraps. He enters the quantity that he requires in a box and the game automatically calculates the total he must pay starting with the lowest priced item. The following calculations will happen behind the scenes:
2 Common Scraps @ 10 gold = 20 gold
+
15 Common Scraps @ 10 gold = 150 gold
+
10 Common Scraps @ 11 gold = 110 gold
+
5 Common Scraps @ 12 gold = 60 gold
+
8 Common Scraps @ 12 gold = 96 gold
----------------------
Total: 40 scraps @ 436 gold
Once these items are purchased, the Auction House will be updated as follows (provided no new items have been added in the meantime which undercut the lowest price):
Qty Item Buyout price each Buyout price total
--- --------- ---------- -----------
12 Common Scraps 12 gold 144 gold
8 Common Scraps 13 gold 104 gold
25 Common Scraps 14 gold 104 gold
50 Common Scraps 14 gold 700 gold
...
As you can see, items that are stackable are sold in the order of the lowest price per item. If someone needs 5 items and the lowest priced auctions are all stacks of 100, that's not a problem. While in WoW you would be forced to find a higher priced stack of 5 (or a non-ideal stack of, say, 10), Diablo 3's Auction House simply subtracts 5 items from the first stack of 100 it can find, and leaves a stack of 95 items on the market.
I find this a great concept for several reasons. First, it will be easy for everyone to buy stackable items at the lowest price per item. Second, it won't be possible anymore to trick people into buying overpriced stacks because they didn't pay attention to the price per item. This can be a bad thing for those who like to exploit this oversight but I have never been a big fan of this, even as a seller. Third, items will always be ordered by price so there's no ambiguity there. Fourth, and more importantly, it should help stabilize the market and - hopefully - will prevent massive undercutting by eliminating the importance of stack sizes. A 1-stack auction will have the same "weight" as a 100-stack auction. The deciding factor will be price per item. Fifth, I believe sellers won't have to undercut each other so drastically. Yes, undercutting will still play a big role but now everybody has the same chance to sell their items. Sixth, I also believe that turnover will be quicker, as the cheapest items will always sell quickly without requiring so much undercutting from everybody.
In all, this is a great update to Diablo 3's Auction House but it's nothing less than what I was expecting from Blizzard. Diablo 3's Auction House will be a big improvement over WoW's, from the very start. When real money is involved, that's the way it should be.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Blizzard's investor call and us
Yesterday was another of Activision-Blizzard's investor calls and while not a lot of light was shed on Diablo 3's release date, we can draw at least one tentative conclusion from the discussions. The folks at Blizzard bragged how the Real Money Auction House would bring them some nice profit margins.
Why should we care about that? Well, if it's good for Blizzard, it's good for us, both in the short and long terms.
If Blizzard is very optimistic about the RMAH, that means they are expecting a lot of activity. A very active market is preferable to a torpid one. It means that goods move easily and they don't spend a lot of time on the virtual "shelves". Blizzard already knows what items will be traded on the auction house and I can infer from here that they are trying to make those items very desirable for trading. Of course, that's my take on it and I might be proven wrong, but why would they expect so much activity if their items were boring as opposed to very desirable? It stands to reason that Blizzard will do all they can to facilitate lots of trading on the RMAH. After all, not only have they invested heavily in the concept but this will be their only income from Diablo 3 in the foreseeable future.
For us players, this could potentially mean 2 things in the short run: a) exciting items that drop from monsters or that we can buy from other players on the RMAH (or even the gold auction house) and b) the possibility of easily selling our own items thanks to a very lively market.
In the long run, if the Real Money Auction House turns out profitable, this can mean all sorts of things. First, it will help run Blizzard's servers. Yeah, I know, we wouldn't care about that if the game could be played offline, but there's nothing we can do at this point. Second, it will help Blizzard make improvements to the game. Third, if the RMAH concept becomes successful, we are guaranteed to see this paradigm in future games, not only from Blizzard but from other developers as well. Fourth, well, in the very long run this real money trading concept that once alienated and frightened us might turn out to be a way of life and something that's widely accepted in the gaming and entertainment community.
My take is that Blizzard's optimism regarding the Real Money Auction House should easily translate into our own. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, right?
Friday, November 4, 2011
Make $1 an hour playing Diablo 3!
There's a lot of speculation involving the potential amounts that a player can make playing Diablo 3, and rightfully so. This is the first time in gaming history that such a system is introduced to a game. We are all understandably excited, and dollar signs are shining in our eyes. While some bloggers are touting $25 an hour, I prefer to lower my expectations by a fair bit.
Many of those who know Markco won't dispute his $25/hour claim. I'm a bit sceptical at this time because we just don't know what to expect from the Diablo 3 economy. From what I gather, the Real Money Auction House won't even be enabled when the game ships initially. So there will be a while until the D3 economy builds up.
Now, if there's anyone who can make $25 an hour, that would be Markco. Let's not fool ourselves: most of us won't be able to match him. Though I was pretty good at making gold in WoW, I'm not half as good as Markco. As a result, I don't even expect to make $10 an hour in D3, much less $25. Consider that the economy will be more hardcore in D3 than in WoW due to the simple fact that there's real money involved. I like to think of the Diablo 3 economy as more savage but also more realistic.
So how much IS it realistic to expect per hour from Diablo 3? I prefer to start low and move on from there. As such, I think that $1 per hour, is more realistic and should also be attainable by a fair number of players.
If you think this is incredibly (and insultingly) low, it depends. Very few people (if any) would work for $1 an hour in the Western hemisphere. On the other hand, very few of us make any money when having fun. In fact, it's usually the other way around: we tend to spend money to have fun. So why would you scoff at $1 an hour? How many hours have you played WoW, for example? I've been playing since 2006 and have racked dozens, if not hundreds of days played. Unfortunately I can't verify that because I'm not playing WoW anymore but if someone had paid me $1 per hour playing that game, I would have easily made over $1000, essentially playing WoW for free AND making some extra cash on top.
I hope we can now agree that $1 an hour playing Diablo 3 is starting to look good. If I still haven't swayed you, also consider the following: $1/hour translates roughly into $100 a month, or $1200 a year. How is that?
$100 / month = $25 / week =~ $3.6 / day =~ 3.6 hours / day played on average to make $100 a month
Do you play roughly 3 hours a day on average? I certainly did, when I was playing WoW. On the weekends I played a lot more, sometimes up to 8-10 hours. Looking at these numbers I find it easy (and plausible) to arrive at the $100 / month amount.
There's usually a "but" involved and this time there's no exception. Not everyone has the luxury of playing >3 hours a day on average. Some work long hours, some have kids, some have a "life" (whatever that is, haha), some have a wife (hey it rhymes!) and so on. If that is the case, you certainly won't be making a lot of real money in the little spare time you can allocate to D3. Even then, $1/hour is attainable. It will take you longer to reach $100 but you will get there eventually.
Another caveat is whether you enjoy the game or not. If you love D3, I'm thinking that ANY money you make will be a nice bonus. If you're only playing the game to make some extra money, you will probably resent the miserly hourly amount, unless you're a RMAH wizard or something.
Your first $100 earned in Diablo 3 will get you this: a free copy of Diablo 3 AND a free copy of Diablo 3's first expansion.
An extra $100 a month or $1200 a year, just from having fun in a game, means a great deal to me. It means, for example, a brand new gaming computer which would be hard to justify otherwise.
We also need to keep in mind that $1 an hour for someone in the US is vastly different (and inferior) than for someone in, say, China. It's a matter of perspective but I can guarantee you that *someone* on this planet will be incredibly happy to earn this hourly wage.
My point is that you shouldn't dismiss the possibility of making only $1 an hour by playing Diablo 3. If you can reach $25/h, more power to you but you need to realize that only a small fraction of the money-making elite will come close to that amount. It is simply not feasible for all of us to reach that pinnacle. I would rather set my expectations low and build them up from there, than set them unrealistically high and then end up disappointed when they don't materialize.
Having said that, the joke will be on me if I can't even manage $1 per hour. But hey, I've set the bar low enough that I won't be too frustrated if that happens.
Many of those who know Markco won't dispute his $25/hour claim. I'm a bit sceptical at this time because we just don't know what to expect from the Diablo 3 economy. From what I gather, the Real Money Auction House won't even be enabled when the game ships initially. So there will be a while until the D3 economy builds up.
Now, if there's anyone who can make $25 an hour, that would be Markco. Let's not fool ourselves: most of us won't be able to match him. Though I was pretty good at making gold in WoW, I'm not half as good as Markco. As a result, I don't even expect to make $10 an hour in D3, much less $25. Consider that the economy will be more hardcore in D3 than in WoW due to the simple fact that there's real money involved. I like to think of the Diablo 3 economy as more savage but also more realistic.
So how much IS it realistic to expect per hour from Diablo 3? I prefer to start low and move on from there. As such, I think that $1 per hour, is more realistic and should also be attainable by a fair number of players.
If you think this is incredibly (and insultingly) low, it depends. Very few people (if any) would work for $1 an hour in the Western hemisphere. On the other hand, very few of us make any money when having fun. In fact, it's usually the other way around: we tend to spend money to have fun. So why would you scoff at $1 an hour? How many hours have you played WoW, for example? I've been playing since 2006 and have racked dozens, if not hundreds of days played. Unfortunately I can't verify that because I'm not playing WoW anymore but if someone had paid me $1 per hour playing that game, I would have easily made over $1000, essentially playing WoW for free AND making some extra cash on top.
I hope we can now agree that $1 an hour playing Diablo 3 is starting to look good. If I still haven't swayed you, also consider the following: $1/hour translates roughly into $100 a month, or $1200 a year. How is that?
$100 / month = $25 / week =~ $3.6 / day =~ 3.6 hours / day played on average to make $100 a month
Do you play roughly 3 hours a day on average? I certainly did, when I was playing WoW. On the weekends I played a lot more, sometimes up to 8-10 hours. Looking at these numbers I find it easy (and plausible) to arrive at the $100 / month amount.
There's usually a "but" involved and this time there's no exception. Not everyone has the luxury of playing >3 hours a day on average. Some work long hours, some have kids, some have a "life" (whatever that is, haha), some have a wife (hey it rhymes!) and so on. If that is the case, you certainly won't be making a lot of real money in the little spare time you can allocate to D3. Even then, $1/hour is attainable. It will take you longer to reach $100 but you will get there eventually.
Another caveat is whether you enjoy the game or not. If you love D3, I'm thinking that ANY money you make will be a nice bonus. If you're only playing the game to make some extra money, you will probably resent the miserly hourly amount, unless you're a RMAH wizard or something.
Your first $100 earned in Diablo 3 will get you this: a free copy of Diablo 3 AND a free copy of Diablo 3's first expansion.
An extra $100 a month or $1200 a year, just from having fun in a game, means a great deal to me. It means, for example, a brand new gaming computer which would be hard to justify otherwise.
We also need to keep in mind that $1 an hour for someone in the US is vastly different (and inferior) than for someone in, say, China. It's a matter of perspective but I can guarantee you that *someone* on this planet will be incredibly happy to earn this hourly wage.
My point is that you shouldn't dismiss the possibility of making only $1 an hour by playing Diablo 3. If you can reach $25/h, more power to you but you need to realize that only a small fraction of the money-making elite will come close to that amount. It is simply not feasible for all of us to reach that pinnacle. I would rather set my expectations low and build them up from there, than set them unrealistically high and then end up disappointed when they don't materialize.
Having said that, the joke will be on me if I can't even manage $1 per hour. But hey, I've set the bar low enough that I won't be too frustrated if that happens.
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