Diablo 3 is fundamentally broken

[Bolty]

You're arriving at the conclusion that others have before as well. I've argued that the fundamental design of the game is to get players using the Auction House, and by extension, the Real Money Auction House, because the only character progression that exists in the game is gear. There's nothing else.

It doesn't sink in until you've hit 60 and you're in Inferno difficulty. And even then, it might not sink in until you see Some Other Guy™ playing alongside you, who is the same level, with the same skills, and is basically the same exact character as you - but he/she does twice as much damage, can survive packs of mobs that sneeze on you and you die, and generally makes you irrelevant. And the only difference between you and them is that they spent a few hours on the Auction House buying and selling gear.

If you mostly play solo, you can be generally immune from that. But then you'll get to some point in progression (say, Inferno Act II, where there's a gigantic jump in difficulty), and realize that you can only progress through hundreds of hours of farming gear. You will either like this setup, or you won't. To each their own.

And before I'm accused of being a total hater, please note that I'm still playing Diablo III and still having fun. I just don't particularly like how the "end-game" is designed, which will severely impact the long-term playability of the game for me personally.