Gold for Cash
The Diablo 3 RMAH is now selling gold:
That balance is from selling items, for the record.
After clearing Act 2 Inferno with an average elite group success rate of 76%, I found my Nephalem stacks falling off as I repeatedly lured elites away from the exits to stages in Act 3. Any semblance of self-respect vanished after I spent more than an hour and 120,000g in repairs just making my way across The Keep Depths Level 2. Yes, a single, nondescript floor. The “Checkpoint!” pop-up honestly felt like a level-up or Achievement. And I suppose it was both.
I have heard grumbling about stealth buffs to elemental damage in one of the 1.03 hotfixes, but given I was already running around with 900+ resistance – way above the recommended level that people who kill Inferno Diablo use – and the fact that Ghom was physically impossible (a friend cheese-Barb’d it for me), I decided to book it back to Act 1. Let me tell you: after my experiences in Act 2 & 3, Act 1 was clown shoes. Even after stacking 150% Magic Find, the only things that kill me are the Arcane beams and unfortunate Freezes when I am not paying attention.
I bring all this up as a way of saying that I have been farming Act 1 basically once a night for the past week or so. The route I take is TryHard‘s, completing it in about ~40 minutes and netting ~140,000g in gold drops and vendor loot. There are usually about a half-dozen rares that are sellable in addition to that, although until recently I was not particularly successful. Now that I have a firmer grasp on which combinations/stats are more valuable…
This is more like it.
…but today all of this has changed for me.
That 722,500g is no longer a means of purchasing a better weapon with more Life on Hit for progression… it’s $2.24. Nor is the 900+ DPS 1H weapon I snagged for a 1.5 million gold bid (a true steal) actually 1.5 million gold – it’s a somewhat ludicrous $4.65 cash shop transaction. That I did not whip out my credit card is irrelevant; like most AH goblins, I have preached the opportunity cost hymn too much to ever look at such things differently. Given that I could use the weapon to help clear Act 3 and then resell it for 3 million, perhaps it is more like a loan. Or a Vegas gamble at the nickle slots.
One final thing I want to mention, is the somewhat bizarre realization I had earlier tonight when examining the RMAH for signs of weakness. The minimum buyout price over on the cash side of the AH is $1.25. That means, on the low-end, every single item over there is the equivalent of at least 403,225g. I can assure you that the vast, vast majority of items over there are not worth 403,225g. Nor is the 300k-400k gold Blizzard transaction fee.
I almost wonder if opening up gold purchases will (ironically) kill the cash part of the RMAH.
Posted on July 13, 2012, in Diablo and tagged Act 1, Act 3, Gold, Gold Selling, Inferno, RMAH. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
In An Age 
After your first few posts about Diablo 3, I never would’ve thought you’d still be playing and (gasp) using the RMAH almost a month after I quit out of boredom and irritation.
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Believe me, neither did I. It was pure, mindless tedium from Normal all the way to Act 1 Inferno. Now? Well… now I have iTunes going in the background and space out in the same way I did back when grinding Honor for alts back in Wrath.
Plus, hey, now I occasionally get to chat with people who still play WoW.
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I’m afraid you are correct…the gold selling function of the RMAH has basically broken the whole thing. Smart people will buy gold for money and then use that to buy items in the gold AH. Well, I guess smart people won’t spend money on virtual items, but that’s another matter.
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If you’re going to cite opportunity cost then you should be comparing playing Diablo 3 with comparing just about any other game where the opportunity cost is 50 cents an hour that you could have made had you been playing D3. For most of us D3 won’t be about making money but will instead be about having fun playing the game. If you’re not doing that then you should play a different game unless you really need that 50 cents an hour.
I still find D3 an utter blast. I also think there are some people making very nice real life profits from it. But we’re not but still it shouldn’t bother us that we’re not, any more than it should bother us that we play TSW for zero cents an hour.
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There is a logical limit to opportunity costs, I would argue, drawn around the game itself. Elsewise, the real opportunity cost is overtime at my job, picking up a second job, playing the stock market, etc.
Point being, if you are playing Diablo 3, you are playing the auction house. If you are playing the auction house as of Thursday, you are playing the Real Money Auction House. Even if you never press the Cash button, you are playing with things that can be (and are) sold on the other end of that screen. It may be that someone never knew how much an amulet or ring was worth in dollars, but gold is right there in your face: between $0.25 and $0.31 per 100,000g.
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