4 ms·

The fact that the diablo economy has reached the point where users are running around with 6 billion gold shows its been broken for much longer.

apetresc 13y ago
Why? It's just a matter of scale. Until very recently, Romania's currency was such that most middle-class families had 8-10 digits in their bank account at any given moment, and the economy is relatively healthy. Good items sell for hundreds of millions. The number of zeroes doesn't matter, as long as the balance between items and monetary value is stable.
- falcolas 13y ago
  "The number of zeroes doesn't matter, as long as the balance between items and monetary value is stable." And you're not just starting the game. The way that D3 drops work, the first few times you're visiting the auction house, it's to buy, not sell (unless you get very lucky). The game was also balanced around the auction house - meaning fewer high quality items drop, with the belief being that you're selling those few high quality items & kitting yourself out from the auction house. When I first played, the difference between playing with just the drops I got versus kitting myself out from the auction house were vast. Some people might enjoy the challenge of just playing with dropped gear, but just as many do not.
  - zplesivcak 13y ago
    " The game was also balanced around the auction house - meaning fewer high quality items drop, with the belief being that you're selling those few high quality items & kitting yourself out from the auction house." AFAIK, Blizzard collects interest on each real money transaction, so if they're optimizing for maximization of that interest (I'm assuming they do) they aren't minimizing occurrence of the rarest of the items. They should behave like diamond cartel...
- illuminate 13y ago
  "The number of zeroes doesn't matter" Did in this particular case ;)
- seanalltogether 13y ago
  I think that's just it, the prices haven't remained stable, the economy just undergoes constant inflation as the amount of overall money keeps piling up. Meanwhile new characters still begin with nothing and earn gold at the same rate as players did when the game first launched. Compare this with World of Warcraft where they deliberately built in mechanisms to keep destroying money through consumables and bind-on-equip items.

apetresc 13y ago

Why? It's just a matter of scale. Until very recently, Romania's currency was such that most middle-class families had 8-10 digits in their bank account at any given moment, and the economy is relatively healthy. Good items sell for hundreds of millions. The number of zeroes doesn't matter, as long as the balance between items and monetary value is stable.

falcolas 13y ago
"The number of zeroes doesn't matter, as long as the balance between items and monetary value is stable." And you're not just starting the game. The way that D3 drops work, the first few times you're visiting the auction house, it's to buy, not sell (unless you get very lucky). The game was also balanced around the auction house - meaning fewer high quality items drop, with the belief being that you're selling those few high quality items & kitting yourself out from the auction house. When I first played, the difference between playing with just the drops I got versus kitting myself out from the auction house were vast. Some people might enjoy the challenge of just playing with dropped gear, but just as many do not.
- zplesivcak 13y ago
  " The game was also balanced around the auction house - meaning fewer high quality items drop, with the belief being that you're selling those few high quality items & kitting yourself out from the auction house." AFAIK, Blizzard collects interest on each real money transaction, so if they're optimizing for maximization of that interest (I'm assuming they do) they aren't minimizing occurrence of the rarest of the items. They should behave like diamond cartel...
illuminate 13y ago
"The number of zeroes doesn't matter" Did in this particular case ;)
seanalltogether 13y ago
I think that's just it, the prices haven't remained stable, the economy just undergoes constant inflation as the amount of overall money keeps piling up. Meanwhile new characters still begin with nothing and earn gold at the same rate as players did when the game first launched. Compare this with World of Warcraft where they deliberately built in mechanisms to keep destroying money through consumables and bind-on-equip items.