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"When I was at Blizzard," said Wilson, "the reason for doing the real-money auction house was to ensure security. The reason was Diablo 4 Gold. We didn't imagine that we'd earn any money off it. One of the biggest issues with Diablo 2 was item duping and duping hacks along with all that gold selling, as well as all those things."
According to Wilson stated, Blizzard's strategy to solve this issue with Diablo 3 was to take the control of the market for trading. This apparently was also the main reason behind Diablo 3's requirement for an ever-on internet connection. Wilson states that when you make an offer to an offline client, the hackers "got you." Always available and the auction house were Blizzard's unsuccessful attempts to manage issues that plagued Diablo 2.
However, shortly after its launch in 2012 Diablo 3's auction house was recognized as one the most flaws of the game, being endlessly mocked and criticized by the players. However, removing it wasn't an easy task and it wasn't because of technical problems. Instead, the reason it was delayed until 2014 removal was because Auction house features were an enticement feature of the game printed on all its retail boxes, and there were some legal concerns about cutting it off.
"The reason we couldn't get rid of it the moment we realized that it was a problem was legally, we were not sure that we would be able to because it was listed on the box," said Wilson. "So we took a long time to try and work out the legal issues, and we decided 'OK, we think it's worth the effort even if we end up with an action, but it's not that bad.'"
When all has been done Wilson says the auction house didn't achieve Blizzard an ounce of money in the first place, and says that if it made more than 10 or 15 million dollars, Wilson would have been "surprised." Even though that might sound like a big amount however, this former cheap Diablo 4 Gold designer countered that World of Warcraft makes that amount of money each and every few hours or that's about it. Another designer in the room joked that, in the usual fashion, you "always just make lawyers accountable." This is why the public was not thrilled and it didn't make much profits. It was a complete waste of time for all concerned!
According to Wilson stated, Blizzard's strategy to solve this issue with Diablo 3 was to take the control of the market for trading. This apparently was also the main reason behind Diablo 3's requirement for an ever-on internet connection. Wilson states that when you make an offer to an offline client, the hackers "got you." Always available and the auction house were Blizzard's unsuccessful attempts to manage issues that plagued Diablo 2.
However, shortly after its launch in 2012 Diablo 3's auction house was recognized as one the most flaws of the game, being endlessly mocked and criticized by the players. However, removing it wasn't an easy task and it wasn't because of technical problems. Instead, the reason it was delayed until 2014 removal was because Auction house features were an enticement feature of the game printed on all its retail boxes, and there were some legal concerns about cutting it off.
"The reason we couldn't get rid of it the moment we realized that it was a problem was legally, we were not sure that we would be able to because it was listed on the box," said Wilson. "So we took a long time to try and work out the legal issues, and we decided 'OK, we think it's worth the effort even if we end up with an action, but it's not that bad.'"
When all has been done Wilson says the auction house didn't achieve Blizzard an ounce of money in the first place, and says that if it made more than 10 or 15 million dollars, Wilson would have been "surprised." Even though that might sound like a big amount however, this former cheap Diablo 4 Gold designer countered that World of Warcraft makes that amount of money each and every few hours or that's about it. Another designer in the room joked that, in the usual fashion, you "always just make lawyers accountable." This is why the public was not thrilled and it didn't make much profits. It was a complete waste of time for all concerned!