Despite reaping the benefits for over a year now, Blizzard has decided that ultimately, the real money and gold powered auction houses have done more harm than good and removed a lot of the real gameplay from Diablo, where you grind, get loot and that lets you grind more powerful enemies for better loot. With that in mind, the developer/publisher plans to remove the auction houses... in March 2014.
There've been problems with the auction house before, where accounts were hacked and items stolen, or gold duplicated to the point where it became valueless and Blizzard had to set a minimum price for the commodity. Weirdly though, Blizzard believes instances of game account theft could go up after the closure of the auction houses, since there is less of a chance of people being able to sell items of value in-game, nefarious individuals will seek to do so out of game and will need to steal accounts to do it.
"Like it or not our players, or some of our players, attribute real world value to the items," said new game director Josh Mosqueira. "So [if you don’t have an] item auction house, you’re going to see a lot of account compromises.
"In fact in the territories where we do not have an auction house, the ratio of account compromises is [higher] than the rest of the world. So the primary [idea] of the auction house is definitely making sure that players can trade without worrying that [their accounts] will get compromised."
On top of no auction houses, Blizzard will be introducing the new expansion, Reaper of Souls, which will add unlimited levelling - um, yey? - a new Crusader class and of course, new foes to battle in Act V of the Diablo III story.
So what do you guys think now that the auction house has its demise dated for all to see? Is it good for the game or do you not care?
