Because where there’s black-market RMT - there’s room for all kinds of fraud and security concerns. While they aren’t directly Blizzard’s problems if the user breaks TOS that way - indirectly it affects Blizzard a lot. Such things lead to bad user experience, put dirt on the companiy’s name in the eyes of the consumer, even if Blizzard was completely and totally in the right.
On the other hand, officially supported RMT in a premium product, like the infamous Auction House in Diablo - creates another kind of bad rep, because users start complaining that the game is P2W and what did they pay $60 for?!
Furthermore, allowing item trade inevitably dilutes the experience of some users and makes them quit your game faster, and with much inferior experience.
For example, currently, your friend can level you up and boost you to torment 13 in a matter of 2-3 hours. This is a shortcut, but when I used it a few times - I found that I wasn’t enjoying the gameplay on that character. You either always follow that killing machine that your friend is - then what’s the point? Or you leave their game and find yourself being instantly downgraded a lot, with bad-matching gear and unbalanced character strength.
In the end, there’s downsides no matter how you look at trade. Allow it or deny it - people will complain.
The company can only chose a lesser evil, which they did. Lack of trade does limit freedom, but at least it doesn’t break gameplay and doesn’t leave many openings for fraud.
What is really boring and un-rewarding game play is finding an item with great rolls, but you have one that is slightly better. That potentially OP item is now just trash. As for not killing stuff for their loot, how do you get stuff to trade unless you actually play the game and kill monsters for their loot to trade in the first place? (Talking actual trading and not RMT).
With trading, there is a much wider range of items that have value. I can find something cool I don’t need and trade for something I do rather than just salvage the item for parts. If the RNG gods don’t bless me, I can build up value on smaller items then trade for the big item I want.
With BOA, it is either an upgrade or trash. You quickly run into a case of diminishing returns as upgrades are fewer and farther in between, hoping that the rng gods will bless you because that is the only way to get an upgrade. My season ends about 1-2 weeks in because of this, and for a lot of people, it is the same.
As for RMT, Blizz needs to find a way to seriously mitigate it. While I have no problem with people buying and selling items for cash, the spam bots, account thieves, and scam artists are very, very annoying. They could mitigate some of the RMT damage by having tiered items where items from 1 tier can be traded for items from the same tier. This would cut back on the PTW and RMT because the person they are trading with would have to put in the time to find something of actual value to complete the transaction. Another option would be for them to actually police their own game.
Trading should be a viable option for gearing in D4, so should SSF for gearing. There are ways to make it viable and fun for both groups, the Dev’s just need to put in a little work to make it happen.
3rd party websites selling things for real money has only a very small presence in D3, thankfully. Just look at Borderlands 3 where the problem is much more severe. It’s also worth pointing out that those websites are always against the T&Cs of a game and using or participating in them is a bannable offense.
And no, the fact that they exist does not justify having open trading. That is the same logic as thinking that a ‘death day’ like in the film The Purge is justified because crime happens sometimes. Open trading is justified when there is a sufficient demand for it from legitimate players, but not when it’s there because some people break the rules for a profit.
I would guess that most of the people who want to play, enjoy, and progress in the game would love to see an end to bots and the constant spam of “buy X at X.X”.
Allowing trading between players can potentially reduce that. We know that any item can drop from anywhere. Surely the item that I most want for my character can drop from a random barrel or other breakable, and the chances might be higher for that perfect unique/legendary/mythic item from the big bosses, but it’s rng. Items of equivalent value may drop, but I never find that specific one. I might find 5 of something else, though I only need 1 maybe 2. If the extras are equally cool, trading them for things that rng just failed to select should be okay. Maybe someone else found five of what I’m looking for but hasn’t gotten this thing yet.
Now you need a good trading system that people can’t manipulate and cheat like I believe was an issue in D2.
Another option: A NPC vendor that can transmute those extras. Missing the chest piece for that set, but have 3 of the boots? Take it to a vendor specializing in magic that can convert an item piece to a different piece from that set. Costs resources + gold, but you have a chance to get what you need without a 3rd party site or “go grind more”, “grind harder”. Got 5 of the same legendary as a ‘max level’ item? Convert to random different legendary of equal level. Essentially, reroll the rng. It coughed up a legendary, great, but not something you needed a fifth one of. Try again, and again. Might burn through gold and gems/runes/whatever but you’ll get something more satisfying eventually, and maybe not have to do 300 runs on X boss.
PoE is basically a solo game ( dispite being online only) with no leaderboard, barely anyone pvp or play in group, so the context is different.
Also the content are never so hard and competitive that there are huge incentives to buy gears with real money.
You can make a “‘destroy all contents” build using 2-5 Ex budget which can be gather within 2-3 weeks or less if lucky. Last league that I played. I got 2 ex before I hit act 6. Make a full CI conversion by level 75 or so, and immediately hit 6k CI. Eventually I hit 10K CI at level 95. I bought fancy 3-5 ex Watcher eye that make sure I have so much energy recharge that only one shot mech can kill me. Within 1 month you can get super deck out gear and currency to make another super deck out char. Why bother to pay real money?
Yes there is a level to 100 ladder which barely anyone take seriously.
Forum and/or Player input, or the existence of bots, or any negative effects to the game or its players didn’t have anything to do with the closure of the Auction Houses.
Let me tell you what really happened.
Here are some conversations about the subject from February 2014, starting with the inception of Account Bound items:
Q: So what is it exactly that BoA will achieve for Blizzard?
The sole purpose of BoA is to eliminate the third-party real money sales of virtual items created by Blizzard. The IRS wants Blizzard to track and tax these real money sales and profits, and with private users on the Americas server, Blizzard would have to provide sales transaction records, collect taxes, and make payments to the IRS on the profits of individual players and Blizzard as a whole.
The bookkeeping and data management nightmare, and the human resources and monetary cost of complying with this requirement is more than Blizzard cares to bear. That’s the reason they are shutting down the Auction Houses, and that is why all desirable items, including gold [and now everything except Common and Magic items, and Rare items that have not been modified in any way], will be account bound on pickup. This is also the reason for including the shutdown of the gold auction house. Gold can’t be traded.
Q: One could make a persuasive argument that they’re only focusing on the illegitimate.
Persuasive, but incorrect. BoA and the closure of the Auction Houses had nothing to do with third-party sites ruining anyone’s game, or even the impact it had on gameplay or players at all; it wasn’t done to improve the game or gameplay, nor due to pressure from Self-Found fanatics or the “Pay to Win” opponents.
It was all about minimizing Blizzard’s financial exposure to the IRS, and to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN, for the black market real money sales of virtual items).
Q: I call BS. Source?
There are a number of regulatory publications, but you can start with the most important one:
The most pertinent part of this Guidance lies in the first paragraph, which in substance says that Blizzard is an MSB (Money Services Business) - an administrator, an exchanger, and a money transmitter - under FinCEN’s regulations, and therefore is subject to MSB registration, reporting, and recordkeeping regulations.
The issue is far-reaching, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, is not joking about it. Notice the publication date on the Guidance; March 18, 2013. Blizzard had one year to comply with the registration, reporting, and recordkeeping regulations, or close the Auction Houses.
And to save money, on March 18, 2014, they closed them.
As I keep saying, BoA and the closure of the Auction Houses were not about gameplay or gamers, it was all about reducing financial exposure for Blizzard and its shareholders.
Except that even when the drop rates were low, none of the items were exciting to find, remember its not just about uniques/legendary’s, its supposed to be about rares as well and D3 screwed up on that end so when those low drop rates were in place in D3V the rares that you were supposed to find that were exciting like they were in D2 were not there.
And yet POE has 10x the players yet RMT isn’t as bad there cause you can’t RMT the best crap due to the systems in the game a drop may be good but can only further be better via the upgrading/rng system.
As for items being to high on POE define high priced cause last i recall god tier items i.e 100% the best you can ever get and maybe 0.1% of the community will ever obtain due to the complex systems in POE and RNG a casual should never be able to afford said item.
D3 at the very start was quite the same the AH worked wonderful except that the god tier items before ROS were exactly god tier and so dam rare that you’d never see a trifecta amulet unless you bought it off the AH. there was only 3 ever looted ingame in the millions of amulets ever looted or crafted.
the system isnt poor the players are it’s quite the same in the world world.
And last i recall RMT are currently bigger in ROS ever since they removed trading now people straight up sell 120+ grift runs gem runs etc. yeah removing the AH/Trading sure hurt it…not really it only improved it…
I much prefer D3V because atleast back then the community of streamers used to do legendary give aways which was pretty damn huge till blizzard nerfed it cause people whined they coulden’t buy good loot off the auction house.
Trading is mandatory in a game like POE because items are super uber rare … you have 0.0000000000000001% chance to get the item you need for your build.
Diablo give you all you need in 1 hours of playing. ( of course you still need to farm to get better item but your build work right away )
There’s nothing wrong with it and they could shut down those black markets easily. But they’ve become super greedy and want all the money in the world and would rather not have to deal with it so they’ve opted out of having the option to trade items and have a functioning economy in any of their games anymore. It’s also why wow’s gold inflation is insane and makes no sense.
They’ve always done power leveling for money this is not different. What is different is the market dried up for most forms of item selling and spamming. You can no longer sell game currency directly so they can’t guarantee what you’ll get on a guided run. Also guilds are giving away free the same services the criminals are selling. It’s not hard to find a speed rifter to tag along with as long as you’re honest with them about what you’re doing and do your part. Last you recall is woefully out of date. Do you play this game? I’m too lazy to look.
Perhaps because the only iteration of Diablo that is a mindless grind – the very same iteration that flopped horrendously, made people leave the franchise in droves, and has since become a meme – is Diablo 3? Definitely not difficult to grasp.
( of course you still need to farm to get better item but your build work right away )