Diablo III auctions "a design decision"

By Oli Welsh Published 1 August, 2011

Lead designer defends real money trading.

The creation of Diablo III's real money auction house for trading items was "definitely a design decision" rather than a commercial one, according to the game's lead designer Jay Wilson.

The auction house, fully integrated with the game, makes Blizzard the first mainstream gaming company to officially permit, and enable, players to sell in-game items to one another for real-world currency - a common practice currently dominated by grey-market 'gold farmers'.

Blizzard will profit from the auction house, collecting a flat-rate fee for every item listing and sale. But Wilson told Eurogamer that its creation was motivated by a desire to give players a service they wanted and improve their experience with the game.

"It was definitely a design decision," he said. "Certainly there's an economic element to the auction house for us, but it came first and foremost as: what do we want to do for the players? What service can we possibly offer that would make the game experience better?

"If we make money on it that's great, we're a business, we want to make money," he added. "But not at the expense of the customers - but because we've offered them something that was worth their money."

Wilson said that the lack of a proper trading system had been "a massive, gaping hole" in the Diablo games to date. "Trading is not very good in Diablo, and yet it's a game about trading. Trading is the way you get the best items in Diablo. And yet there was no trading mechanism to speak of... We wanted to focus on filling that hole."

He denied that the introduction of real-money trading had influenced the game design at all. "We really feel that the auction house is the best design for the existing item system we already have," he said. He was also sceptical about the idea that the ability to sell items for real money would change players' relationship with the game.

"I actually don't think it's going to change players that much, because it's already true," he argued. "In Diablo II, items have a real monetary value, it's just a little bit more difficult to do it. For the community that is hardcore enough to get those items, the value of them is very real.

"I think there's a perception issue where people might think it's going to be different, but I think in actuality it's no different than the way things are right now - other than it's more secure, it's easier, it's more fun, it's more integrated into the game."

Wilson believes that only very high-quality items from long-term players will be listed on the auction house, but he admits that no-one knows for certain what the consequences of launching the service will be.

"One of the reasons I'm really excited about this feature is, we don't know exactly what's going to happen. That, for us, is very cool. We haven't been in that position for a while where we were going to put something out there that felt very new to us, like new ground. So we're very excited to see what happens."

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 10 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Brainz #1 10 months ago

    i love Diablo and i really do like Blizzard but what i dont like the way gaming is heading nowadays. I just dont buy the
    "creation was motivated by a desire to give players a service they wanted and improve their experience"
    statement.
    Guess it was more: "Activision asked us to get even more money out of our AAA titles and we came up with this idea ..."

  • paketep #2 10 months ago

    I've heard the "this is what the players want" BS with B.Net 2.0. That's definitely not what we wanted.

    Unless they auction LAN support, and CHEAP, they aren't getting squat from me.

  • Flipper79 #3 10 months ago

    When Blizz asked the players what they want, were these players dressed as chinese prison guards by any chance?

  • Subdominator #4 10 months ago

    So the best items won't probably even be found as loot, they will be sold by Blizzard. Incredible Sword of Pwnage, only 19.99 and in limited quantities. You gotta love the digital distribution era.

  • barkertron #5 10 months ago

    On the one hand I quite like the idea that if I played the game enough, it could almost pay for itself as I sell off all my fantastic gear at the end. On the other hand, I am no fan of microtransactions and it does seem like the developer here is protesting a bit too much. Come on, don't insult us by insisting that financial motivations had nothing to do with it, it's painfully obvious that cash is a serious incentive for building this kind of thing. It just makes you look insincere and a little bit evil when you claim it's all for the good of the players.

  • Buran #6 10 months ago

    Utterly PATHETIC what happened to Blizzard since the Activision merge.

    Some people still will have the nuts to defend a devastating decision that turns from a game that rewards personal effort into a game that rewards your wealth... Is sad that such kind of people exist.

  • Vortextk #7 10 months ago

    Aww, all the ignorant whining is adorable guys, keep at it.

    My friend bought shit for his d2 characters. Every single channel was filled with spam bots. There were dozens of websites offering leet gears for real world money. It, was, everywhere. And it was black market then and hard to be safe about. TONS of people were doing this. I don't need specific facts as sheer numbers of people selling 10 years after the release of the game is evidence of that. It's like spam e-mails. If they NEVER worked, you'd stop getting them, but they do. The consumers were there, blizzard just wanted to be fair and didn't realize the market for it at that time.

    I'd rather see richie rich give his dad's money to blizzard than some chinese sweatshop, which will still happen unfortunately but atleast a cut will go to blizzard.

  • Kaonazhie #8 10 months ago

    The fact that they are saying it's a design decision and not a commercial one means that it is a commercial one. It's like when a mother looks at her child and he goes "I DIDN'T BREAK THE WINDOW." Before she even notices it.

    Of course, I don't mind, as I was never a fan of Diablo. I'll take Dark Alliance 3 thanks, hey-o.

  • Inmediasress #9 10 months ago

    @Vortextk
    Why do you think that the Chinese farmers will be gone???
    Why do you think they won't spam you with shit or undercut prices or just simply fuck up everything just like before?

  • butler` #10 10 months ago

    i still don't like the fact that, working 9-5, i can just come home from work and buy the best items in the game with 0 effort, from some 19 year old uni drop out that's playing 18 hours a day.

    it might help kill of all the black market trading, and give blizzard a (not particularly well-needed) boost in profits, but it just doesn't feel right.

    it's backwards, somehow.

  • Stoatboy #11 10 months ago

    They could always have designed it so that they didn't take a cut of the money. I'm guessing they designed the in-game currency auction so that they don't take a cut, so clearly there was some dedicated thinking time given to the issue of making lots of cash out of the real money auction, rather than it all being about providing the gamers with what they wanted.

  • FortysixterUK #12 10 months ago

    Lead designer defends money trading:-
    "We want to rip the gamer off as much as possible and stop them really ever owning the game".

  • Vortextk #13 10 months ago

    Never said it would be gone moron, said it was there, it makes no sense for blizzard to not get in on the action. It's already been done for 10 years on d2, it'll be done on d3. There is no argument against it, none of you have shit to say. I don't LIKE it, but it's how the game has been for a decade if you atleast that old, they're designing it how the players have played d2. Buying shit for real money. Deal.

    To butler, every single mmo you play online, you face that reality. Even tiny crap games you don't think anyone gives two cents about. Little online game I played with peak players at 500+? Yeah, black market trading for real cash. Just because it wasn't in your face doesn't mean a ton of people weren't doing it. Complain to your fellow gamers, it's their fault for buying all these years.
    Edited by Vortextk at 01/08/11 @ 10:53

  • CaptainTrips #14 10 months ago

    The thing is, this was going to happen whether Blizzard introduced it into the game themselves or not. There was a HUGE black market for rare items in Diablo II, and there is no way that was not going to be true for Diablo 3 if they wanted to maintain the spirit of the original game.

    All this design decision does is legitimise the (entirely optional) process of buying in-game items, and remove the chances of people being ripped off from less than savoury internet auction sites. Not sure how I feel about Blizzard taking a cut of the profits though, but I guess it's to be expected...

    Neg away people, neg away... ;)
    Edited by CaptainTrips at 01/08/11 @ 11:23

  • arcam #15 10 months ago

    All this design decision does is legitimise the (entirely optional) process of buying in-game items

    It doesn't just legitimise it, it encourages it.

  • Firann #16 10 months ago

    I'd like to point out that Blizzard isnt the first company to have this. SoE has the Player Exhange thing where you can sell and buy stuff for RL money, and has had it for a while now.

    I guess Blizzard realised that if they didn't put this store, people would still buy the items so what they did is provide a "solution" so they can at least make a profit from this. I can bet you that this is going to go live on all their games that have tradeable items/currenct i.e WoW, Titan etc etc. Can't see it working for SC2 because there is nothing to trade. I defenetly see them implementing it in WoW.

    At the end of the day people are doing it now. If you don't care for such transactions then this doesnt affect you. If you participated in these before then it got safer for you.

    Also about the people whining about always online. Did you really except it not to be always online? Thats how SC2 works. You can still go offline if you don't have a connection but you can forget earning achievements and using the other B.Net 2.0 services!

  • Tangled #17 10 months ago

    I was a bit stunned by it, but then I remembered a colleague that sold a Diablo 2 weapon for 500$. So the market was already in place, it's just Blizzard moving to take a share of it in exchange for bigger convenience.
    There was an even bigger market for leveling chars, but I guess the skill resets will eliminate the need for it.

  • arcam #18 10 months ago

    Thats how SC2 works. You can still go offline if you don't have a connection but you can forget earning achievements

    So it's not like SC2 then? I don't care about achievements, I just want to play the game.

  • Tangled #19 10 months ago

    Oh, and soon we'll be able to have a world where a million people farm Diablo items for sale and spend the money on WoW items, and another million that farm WoW items and buy Diablo loot from the first group. Human productivity at it's finest.
    Edited by Tangled at 01/08/11 @ 12:02

  • Gitsmith #20 10 months ago

    This is great news; i was looking for another job...

  • Silvervein #21 10 months ago

    "If we make money on it that's great, we're a business, we want to make money," he added. "But not at the expense of the customers - but because we've offered them something that was worth their money."

    I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this statement. The blatant, poor quality lies in there make me cringe. I guess they regard their customers much like a herd of sheep: rather brainless. It's sad, really.
    I'm just curious how will the sales of diablo 3 on pc look like.

  • cobaltfram #22 10 months ago

    A design decision, in the same way having your way with a pig is an agricultural one.

  • Lamb #23 10 months ago

    So can I level up my weapons and armor then sell them? If I had a £ for every time I did that!!! :D

  • hiddenranbir #24 10 months ago

    This is what the players that went and used ebay (which blizzard summarily banned) want.