(06-10-2012, 07:48 AM)FoxBat Wrote: Of course, wanting expensive defensive gear to be desired by ranged characters is clearly being done solely to boost auction sales. And upping repair costs is to just encourage you to buy gold.. I'm wondering what wouldn't be interpreted as a sign of greed at this point.
Yeah, it's already been reported on this forum by someone who isn't raging all the time that even chain-dying in Inferno isn't expensive to repair at the moment. Of course they want to curb that as a tactic. We already know they're aware of the spike damage and some of the out-of-control affix combos. We'll just have to see what they change about them.
As far as the RMAH and greed: You can look at it two ways, depending on your preconceived notions. You can look at it as a huge money grab by Blizzard, especially when they take a cut of what people make from it, or you can look at it as them supplying the means for interested parties to make a modest amount of money using their factory and their supplies, and also their storefront. If you owned all the means of production and the building in the real world, wouldn't you expect a cut of the proceeds? I would.
Of course, if they didn't have an RMAH, none of those people could make a cent, let alone keep 70-85% of the price of items that come from a game Blizzard owns, on an AH they own and pay the costs to run. Any money made from the RMAH by individuals is basically free money from playing a video game. I find it pretty hilarious that the company that built the factory that made it possible is 'greedy' for wanting a cut.
As many have pointed out, if Blizzard didn't run it, various other 'someone elses' would, and I doubt as much profit would be made by people other than those various other entities as will be made on Blizzard's RMAH by individual players. Also, if Blizzard wasn't running it, security costs/restore costs for Blizzard would be higher because of people going to those other shady places. It's a no-brainer from a business standpoint. Save security costs, and get a cut, too.
I still disagree that anyone is *forced* to use the AH. The AH is the defacto way to trade items between people w/o making trading games and the like. Just as in D2, no one has to trade to play the game. To get BiS gear quickly, yes, you'll need to trade, as you would have had to in D2. In D3, that's using the AH, rather than making a trading game. You can always post trades on a forum somewhere if you want to do it the old way. I've seen several places facilitating that. Regardless, that's a *choice* that a person can make. Trade for the gear, or farm it yourself, same as it's always been.
I simply would prefer to see more real discussion and less 'omg this game is broken' rage. If it's really that bad, then why waste time on it?
--Mav