Difference between revisions of "Auction House"

Revision as of 14:14, 1 August 2011

An Auction House is an in-game mechanism to allow for easier trading of items for items or money. Diablo II did not include this sort of feature, but many other MMORPGs do, notably World of Warcraft. Diablo III will feature an Auction House (AH), which comes in two main varieties: the gold-based Auction House will allow players to sell items, crafting materials, and even their characters for gold. The RMT (Real Money Transaction) Auction House will allow the sales of the items listed prior, but the caveat is that they are for real-world currency. Namely, Euros, Dollars, Rubles, etc. Real-world money transactions within this wiki entry will be referred to as RMT, or “currency” transactions.

The benefit of an auction house is that players can put items up for sale in an automated system. They need not be present to sell their item or spam ads about their item in the chat channels. It's also easier to find items you want to trade for, since other players don't have to be online for you to see "WUG".

The Auction House is restricted between SC (Softcore) characters, and HC (Hardcore) characters. The AH was revealed during the late-July 2011 Press Event, and the first images and information about it were released on the first of August of the same year.

The Auction House(s)

As stated, the Auction House system is divided into RMT transactions (of which Blizzard will assign a fee for every listing, whether the item or character is sold or not), and gold transactions (which will also be assigned a fee, albeit one that doesn't cost the player real-world money, just gold).

Interface

The same item showing gold and RMT sales.

The Auction House is available for use during any point in time, including in the Battle.net menu, the game's main menu, the lobby, and also in-game.

The items for sale are listed by category, and each category has their own set of variables that the player may choose to search for. For instance, if a player is seeking a weapon with lifesteal, they will be able to specifically search for that mod.

In addition to this, Blizzard has also implemented a system where the player may select a character of their own choosing, and the auction house will perform a "smart search" based on the items they have equipped, and what could conceivably be an upgrade for them. The efficacy of this system is as yet unproven, as an "upgrade" for a specific build can be quite hard to define.

Your auction house history is also tracked through the battle.net client, showing the player what they bid, what they won, what they lost, etc.

Bids and Buyouts

Much like an auction house found in any other game (or on online sites such as ebay), a player may choose to bid on an item, or to pay the full buyout. The seller can place a minimum bid on the item, which is the minimum they are willing to accept for it (whether it is gold or an RMT transaction). They can also place a buyout on an item, where the purchaser may choose to simply pay an up-front cost in order to secure the item without needing to watch the auction, hoping they aren't outbid.

Hardcore versus Softcore

Trade in the Auction House is separated between game modes. Hardcore characters cannot use the softcore auction house, and vice versa. In addition to this, hardcore characters may only use the gold-based auction house. Any and all items, including characters for sale, may only be purchased with gold.

Auction Storage

Items that will be put up for auction, or items purchased at auction, are sent to and from the shared stash. The shared stash itself can be increased in size by purchasing larger tabs (with gold this time, not currency).

Seeing as how the Auction House can be accessed at any point in time, inside the game or in the battle.net client, a player can choose to send an item directly from their inventory to the auction house. The item will be removed from their inventory, and if it sells, then it is removed from the system entirely. If an item does not sell, it will be returned to the player via their stash.

Preventing Item Flood

Item flood was a long-time worry for specualtive Diablo fans when faced with the prospect of an Auction House. Item flood consists of a player putting up junk items that had little-to-no value in the auction house in bulk, effectively flooding the market with things that nobody would conceivably want, making searching a difficult and frustrating prospect. Blizzard has decided to initiate a fee for each item listed, whether it is gold or currency, and this fee is taken out regardless of whether or not the item sells. A similar system is used in the gold-based auction house for World of WarCraft and it is fairly effective; in that game, the listing fee is a proportional percentage of the vendor worth of the item in question, believed to be roughly 25%. For low-level items, this isn’t as much of an issue as the fee is fairly small (and nobody bothers to put them in the auction house because they simply won’t sell), however the fees for expensive weapons and armor can often add up. This also helps to prevent players from grossly overpricing their goods in the auction house. While it will be the players who define the worth of an item, there’s always that one oddball in the bunch who thinks a quiver of arrows should sell for at least five million gold.

In addition to this, there may be a gold surcharge for selling an item in the Diablo III auction house, but this has yet to be seen. It has been an initiative in WoW since the AH’s debut, and this acts as a gold sink. Up to 10% of a seller’s winnings in the AH would go to the gold sink, as a fee for using the auction house.

Face-to-Face Trading

It was widely speculated (and even assumed by some) that the trade system within Diablo III, which was a mystery until mid-2011, would feature face-to-face trading as in Diablo II, or a bartering system of one sort or another. While this eventually was seen to be false, it isn’t unlikely that players will find themselves trading items directly with other players. Perhaps it could be two players who happen to find good drops for each other in a game, friends or guildmates playing together, or someone within a chat channel advertising their goods.

It is extremely likely that gems will find a home within a bartering or face-to-face system that will be built up by the players, along with other common (yet randomized) items like Runes. It is assumed that the game will support this with at least a simple trade window and chat channels dedicated to trade.

Method Behind the Madness: Why RMT?

Blizzard has always staunchly opposed real-money transactions for a variety of reasons. One of the reasons which hits close to home for the company who created battle.net, which is plagued by all manner of hackers, dupers, botters, and spammers, is that they are unable to control the legitimacy of the items being sold on third-party websites, they cannot control the security behind the transaction, and they are, to put it bluntly, not profiting from people who are buying and selling “their” virtual items.

This entire subject is rather a moral and ethical, not to mention ‘’legal’’, quagmire. Yet, Blizzard has always opposed these transactions for the reasons listed above, and others. Their reasoning for finally allowing it, in their own game no less, is twofold: they are able to control the transaction, and they are also able to profit from it. A player will no longer feel the need to go to unreputable websites which may contain malicious software that steals their personal or account information. All of these transactions now take place within the game’s client.

This isn’t to say there aren’t many questionable activities that may occur in an RMT auction house, however. With the success of World of WarCraft, Blizzard has become a rather large market for gold farmers, scammers, and spammers. With the ability to directly make money from what they are already (illegally) doing, it is extremely likely that if Diablo III is successful, it will attract these less-than-savory elements.

RMT Transactions and Keeping a Secure Account

With battle.net, the newest version of it, all of the metaphorical eggs are in a single basket: a player’s account, their personal information, their game keys, their digital rights, their payment information is stored within a single account. It has become rather commonplace for accounts to be “hacked” or stolen or, as Blizzard likes to say, “compromised”. With the advent of an RMT auction house, the implications of a “compromised” account are incredibly dire. It remains to be seen how secure this RMT auction house system is.

It is always wise for a player to follow proper security guidelines to make sure they do not have their account stolen. Blizzard offers authenticators for sale which enhance security a great deal, and it is also well advised that a player doesn’t wander to unreputable websites or other areas of the internet which may hold some malicious intent, including clicking links or banner ads for hacking or cheating advertisements.

More information on keeping a battle.net account secure can be found on Blizzard’s official customer support website.

Blizzard’s About-Face on RMT

Blizzard has made their stance clear throughout the past ten years or so on RMT transactions, and it has never really been a secret affair. Here is a direct quote (amongst many) from the company in 2007, pertaining to World of WarCraft[1]:

The game's Terms of Use clearly states that all World of Warcraft content is the property of Blizzard Entertainment, and Blizzard does not allow 'in-game' items to be sold for real money. Not only do we believe that doing so would be illegal, but it also has the potential to damage the game economy and overall experience for the many thousands of others who play World of Warcraft for fun ... While we can understand the temptation to purchase items for real money, we feel that players can find ample equipment and money for their characters within the game through their own adventuring and questing.

However, in the official FAQ for the Auction House, Blizzard stated:

We’ve always tailored our business models to match what we’ve felt would be most appropriate and effective for each game and in each region, and that’s the case with Diablo III as well. The item-based nature of Diablo gameplay has always lent itself to an active trade-based ecosystem, and a significant part of this trade has been conducted through unsecure third-party organizations. This has led to numerous customer-service and game-experience issues that we’ve needed to account for. Our primary goal with the Diablo III auction house system is for it to serve as the foundation for a player-driven economy that’s safe, fun, and accessible for everyone.

The foundation behind the currency auction house appears to be Blizzard giving up the legal battle against RMT agents around the globe, and may signify a shift in the paradigm for the rest of the North American industry. It remains to be seen specifically what impact this will have not only on Diablo III and Activision-Blizzard, but PC gaming in general, and the business models the companys whom make the games choose to pursue.

Development of the Trade System

The trade system was one of the largest mysteries behind the game up until the press event in July, 2011. A bartering system or an auction house were largely the chief speculations, but only one could come out the victor. Below is text dedicated to the time when the auction house system was unknown, including developer quotes and interviews.

Blue Comments Prior to Announcement

Jay Wilson commented on trading in an interview from BlizzCon 2009. [2]

We haven’t made a decision about something like an auction house, but we want a better trading system than the one in Diablo II. It could take the form of an auction house or it could take the form of a new trade system that is easier, facilitating trades through Battle.net. That could be another way that players could trade items without having to actually go into the game. We haven’t made a decision on any of that, but we are going to do something to that end. We consider it really critical to the game.

Prior to that, in January 2009, Diablo 3 Community Manager Bashiok weighed in on the whole issue of Diablo 3's economy and trading mechanisms. [3]

Just a couple of my own cents on the system. First off we really don’t have a solid plan for any sort of external trading system, that is anything beyond being in the same game with the person. We know we’d like something like that though if at all possible.

Foremost – spamming is bad. I think trade channels usually suck because of the requirement to spam. The amount of time and effort spent just to get your items noticed borders on brain-explosiony. Throw in the lack of easily gauged economy and you’re usually left out in the dark, laughed at, ripped off, etc. Your suggestion seems to mix the idea of an auction house and trade channel, in that you can use a channel in-game to spam, and then have some sort of UI to trade the item. That definitely solves one issue, which is needing to leave the game and just sit in a chat channel. What it doesn’t solve is needing to sit in a chat channel and spam. Sure, you could probably play and spam the channel every once in a while but it’s really not the cleanest approach. You’re still spamming a chat channel, you’re still limited to the people that want to see that spam (ie not many).

Since you brought it up let’s move on to the World of Warcraft’s auction house. World of Warcraft did not invent the auction house trading system. It may have certainly refined it, but an irrational hatred of the game that some of you seem to have really shouldn’t translate to game systems that aren’t original to it. There are some major advantages to an auction house similar to WoW’s. You don’t have to be present being the biggest and best. You can be playing with friends, PvPing, asleep, at school or work, and someone has the ability to see your items, and you have a greater chance to sell/trade them. You don’t have to spam a channel, you don’t have to even be online and playing. That’s HUGE, and really the main reason so many people use trading systems such as websites and forums for Diablo II. You want to focus on playing the game or not playing the game, not sitting around hoping someone wants your item.

It also helps form a visible and easily identified economy. I’m a new player, I got a sword I think it’s probably pretty nice, I can go on an auction house and search for it or similar swords and get an idea of how much it should sell for. In this case being in a trade channel is no better whether it’s in-game or out of game. What you’d probably end up with is people still going to forums and more static styles of trading found on websites, but even then any unified sense of economy is spread thin. Maybe that’s not such a bad system in itself, and an official trading site could work. Of course what you lose either way though, auction house or website, is in-game player interaction. Which is what I assume you’re striving to keep.

When it comes down to it, any change or addition or removal of any systems have to be weighed. Do the positives outweigh the negatives?

I’ll go back to what I said at the beginning and state we don’t know what if any types of trading systems will be in the final game. Maybe there won’t be, it may be that eventually we settle on leaving it Diablo II style. We have some ideas of what would be cool, but at the end of the day we’re not going to do anything that isn’t far and away a more positive change for the game.

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
+[[File:Ah-rmt-gold-sale-item.jpg|thumb|450px|The same item showing gold and RMT sales.]]
 The Auction House is available for use during any point in time, including in the [[Battle.net]] menu, the game's main menu, the lobby, and also in-game.
 The items for sale are listed by category, and each category has their own set of variables that the player may choose to search for. For instance, if a player is seeking a weapon with [[lifesteal]], they will be able to specifically search for that [[mod]].
@@ Line 25: / Line 27: @@
 ===Bids and Buyouts===
 Much like an auction house found in any other game (or on online sites such as ebay), a player may choose to bid on an item, or to pay the full buyout.
@@ Line 61: / Line 62: @@
 It is extremely likely that [[gem]]s will find a home within a bartering or face-to-face system that will be built up by the players, along with other common (yet randomized) items like [[Rune]]s. It is assumed that the game will support this with at least a simple trade window and chat channels dedicated to trade.
 ==Method Behind the Madness: Why RMT?==