Did you hear that? That’s the sound of a giant falling to its knees!
The thunderous occurrence originated from the mouths of John Hight (production director for Reaper of Souls) and Josh Mosqueira (game director for Diablo 3) in the early afternoon hours of September 17 in the year 2013 on the planet Earth.
Meeting a wall of disbelief to signs of actual grief from the bewildered community, the trumpets of the high heavens have blasted forth to announce the complete removal of both the real money and gold auction house systems from the game on March 18 2014 – no doubt to address the challenges both systems birthed relating to the longevity of Diablo 3 which was released on May 15 2012 to a considerably disappointed fan-base displeased with the taste and smell of a casino that has emanated from the title ever since.
Within the two minute and four second video presentation, found here, both directors lay down a quick case as to why the auction house experiment succeeded and, in a large part, failed by fouling the fundamental idea and appeal of the long running Diablo franchise – killing monsters for the chance to obtain powerful items without having to spend real money or lengths of time flipping pages in search for the best deal.
It appears that Josh, John, and the Diablo community in a large part have realized, finally, why no first party option to sell loot for real world currency is the best foot forward to propel this third installment into the future, and an ideal way to house the anticipated loot 2.0 system (soon) with the Reaper of Souls expansion on the horizon next year.
It has yet to be addressed if adequate attention will be focused on re-vamping chat lobbies to support a new style of player-to-player trading or not since, admittedly, there will be a hole in the place of the soon-to-be doomed auction houses. But as said in the video we will find out more at Blizzcon in November as well as in the months ahead.
Is this a sign of redemption for Blizzard?
What are yours thoughts on this surprising update?
