Players will be able to purchase gold, weapons, armor and runestones on their current Battle.net accounts, but Blizzard says there will be no "Game play affecting" items available for this type of trade. At the time of this writing Blizzard has no plans to post items directly and will leave the item trading up to the players. Players can use the earned income to make more in game purchases, subscription time for World of Warcraft or cash it out into real world money using the unannounced third party company.
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"Trading is not very good in Diablo, and yet it's a game about trading," explained Wilson. "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." Says Jay Wilson, the Games Lead Designer. |
Similar to World of Warcraft's Auction House, using the real currency Auction House, Blizzard will charge a "nominal fixed transaction fee" (unspecified amount at this time) for each transaction. The AH Tax if you will. Players will also be charged a fee when they withdraw money from their Battle.net account.
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"If we make money on it that's great, we're a business, we want to make money. But not at the expense of the customers - but because we've offered them something that was worth their money." |
So what do you guys think? Game Breaking? I personally don't think it will be. There are currently services that do the exact same thing now. It would be nice to have a secure and safe way, hosted by Blizzard, to buy and sell items. The players have asked for this for a long time on the forums, and Blizzard is giving it a try. Will it be successful, that remains to be seen. For the full details check out the overview on their website.
