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Posted 05/15/12 01:47:00 pm This isn't the first time I've seen Blizzard defending their Real Money Auction House. I addressed the issue back in August when it was first announced and had many a lively discussion,including with Blizzard employees. Their argument has always been:"this isn't about exploiting people, this is about giving them aservice they want." I'm sure the cigarette industry has the same argument when theysupply people with cigarettes: we're not forcing them to smoke, they just really like it! So what if we make a bitof money on the side for providing them with smokes? Arguably, I shouldn't be bothered by D3's RMAH. I won't buyanything from it, and I won't play multiplayer with people who do,so why should I care what other people do with it? I think what I don't like about this system is that it follows inthe footsteps of cigarettes, alcohol, gambling, and lotteries: itexploits the uneducated, the unintelligent, the easily decieved andthose prone to addiction. The RMAH is there to tempt and tormentthose those who find its allure difficult to resist; it's there tosupply a vice to those who eagerly look to trade away their dignityfor exclusivity or entertainment. Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House is predicated on the illusionof real value of items in a game, value partially enforced by theplayer's desire to perceive the game's space as real, but alsoenforced by the fact that Blizzard forced the game into an onlineonly space, limiting the influence players can have with theirgame. In sharp contrast, Diablo I and II's value was left to individualplayers to dictate. If you wanted to play online and engage in thatillusion, you could; but you could also play offline or on LAN andconstruct your own value, including through modifications, cheats,duplication exploits, and the like. Ultimately, while the first twogames sacrificed value for fun, Diablo 3 sacrifices fun forenforcing a singular illusion of value. In Diablo III, Blizzard has taken away the power to customize theexperience. Or, rather, they've locked that power away behind amoney barrier in the RMAH. By locking that customizability away,Blizzard can try to convince people that these game items havevalue. Furthermore, they can entice people with the illusion ofprofitability: that they could make money playing the game andselling virtual goods! Certainly, there will be a few winners inthat proposition; no doubt we will soon read articles about thosefew people who make lots of money. But for those few wins, the gameindustry as a whole takes a serious loss. It seems hypocritical for us to be concerned about exploitativepractices in social games, to the point of regulation that leads some developers to pre-emptively halt these kinds of things, while eagerlyembracing the opportunity to buy and sell items in a game for realmoney, with the game's developer skimming all the profits. It seems to me that Blizzard has found a wonderful way to makemoney by selling people something they used to get for free, andpeople are embracing it because it's wrapped up in all the wonderand mystique of randomization and chance. It's like if a grocerystore stopped letting people pick the food they wanted to buy, andinstead offered them a parcel of random food items. Don't like whatyou just bought? No problem! We'll let you sell that food to otherpeople and we'll only take a small cut! What people need to realize is that Diablo 3's RMAH isn't muchdifferent from a casino: the money you can make selling stuff isnever more than the money other people spend buying it. If everyone goes into Diablo 3 thinking they'll make a mint on the RMAH, noone will. Oversupply, underdemand, and all that. One person's luckat selling something comes from someone else giving in to thetemptation and buying it. The bigger worry is that people will hone in on video games asvehicles for satiating their lust for gambling. Games used to beabout having fun, about going on adventures, about grand exploitsand tall tales. And now they're all about money? How long before the AAA games industry spirals down the same pit ofdepravity to join the social games we loathe so dearly?. I am an expert from infraredinteractivewhiteboard.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Wireless Usb Transmitter And Receiver , Electromagnetic Interactive Whiteboard Manufacturer, Electromagnetic Interactive Whiteboard,and more.
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