The Auction House III: Evil is Back

[Roland]

No, try reading the disclaimer and EULA section on hardcore, they're not liable for jack.

What Foxbat said. EULAs don't mean jack until they're proven in a court of law, and even then that varies from state to state (California, for example, has much more inalienable consumer protection rights than most other states). I'm no lawyer, but I guarantee you having a RMAH for HC characters would get them into trouble. It doesn't always matter if a lawsuit has merit or not; they still have to challenge it, and it's bad publicity.

If they left the skill runes in, it would be a pretty valid argument for monetization. Also, the stated timeframe of the change is incorrect and seems somewhat telling.

I'm sorry, were you in the beta when they made the changes? No? They took runes out as items around mid- to late-February. The Beta ended beginning of May. That's just over 2 months time. So, explain to me again how the "stated timeframe of the change is incorrect?" And "seems somewhat telling?" Of what? Do some research before you start to question someone, and when you do at least make your arguments understandable.

Changes like that take hundreds of man hours at my development level, and in Blizzard's case, thousand+.

Your point is what, exactly? That it didn't happen? Or that it didn't happen when I said it did? Both are wrong, regardless. The only possible point you could be making is that the timeline of when the changes were made, in comparison to the build we were currently beta testing, was off. I personally have no way of verifying that, but I guarantee that's the case. I'd be surprised if the beta wasn't 2-3 builds behind what was going on internally. Even so, what difference does it make how many man hours it takes to make such drastic changes? They made them, at the last minute (however relative). Simple facts. Diablo was built with monetization in mind, period. That doesn't make the AH, nor the RMAH, evil. At least, not so long as it doesn't get in the way of the actual gameplay - which skill runes as items certainly would have. I have no problems with Blizzard's current goals of monetization for Diablo, but don't kid yourself that it's not a HUGE goal for them. WoW is declining (not failing, declining - big difference). Titan is still quite a ways off. They needed something to bridge the gap. Diablo III RMAH is it. Love it or hate it, it's a legitimate business strategy for Blizzard, and so long as it doesn't get in the way of the actual gameplay I have no qualms with it.