Post 60-- There's No Joy in Victory

[Roland]

Wishful thinking. It will never happen so long as Blizzard keeps their RMAH model.

Somehow I knew someone was going to say that. You don't understand. It *creates* a market for crafting materials, so you can sell stacks of crafting materials and gold on the RMAH just as well as you can sell actual items. Nothing about the RMAH prevents this.

And in what way are crafting materials even remotely as costly as items? They're not, quite simply. Before they (essentially permanently) took commodities off the AH you could buy Tomes of Secrets for ~140 gold a pop. Other Inferno level crafting materials weren't much worse. So for a pittance of gold you can churn out some of the best gear in the game... and do nothing with it but use it? No, Blizzard wants their cut. They're not going to alienate their biggest source of revenue (top-end items) just to appease a weak economy. Do they want a complete lack of economy? Absolutely not. That doesn't mean they want to neuter their own money making. They're a business, and they're looking to profit. It's a reinvention of the free-to-play idea, only instead of charging you directly for items they take a cut of what the players are getting.

It's an interesting concept Mongo, but for one I don't think it has any place in a Diablo game (this isn't an MMO), and for another I don't think you'll ever see it in D3. There's so many reasons against it, and hardly any for it. So, as I said - wishful thinking (for some). Seriously, if you want to play a game with a REAL economy that has 100% player involvement go play EVE Online. Diablo doesn't have it, and probably won't ever.