Backed up by paypal screenshots, corresponding sales in the Real Money Auction House and a big fat bank account, Reddit user WishboneTheDog is making a very solid case for proving that they’ve made over $10,000 since the auction house went live two months ago. All this without botting, scamming, exploiting or doing anything someone might throw an accusing finger at and call cheating. Impressive.
Even more impressive is that, in the AMA underneath the post, WishboneTheDog has some interesting observations to be made about Diablo 3, specifically where it’s going, where it is, and the state of its economy right now.
The biggest of these is that the economy is slowing down, with items that used to take hours to sell and make a profit now taking days or even a week or so. It’s not just that there are less people buying as they complete the game, decreasing demand, but the fact that there’s no item sink in the game, meaning that everything that drops is now permanently a part of Diablo’s ecosystem, and so supply is constantly inflating.
Not only this but PvP, the promised feature that has yet to even have a release date, let alone be part of the game, is still not present, meaning that there’s no arms race between players to outequip and outpower one another. On top of that, Wishbone reckons “that the endgame of Inferno should have been more difficult, not more gear taxing. It is my opinion that Diablo 3 is too gear dependent. Gear should make the trip easier, but it shouldn’t be the only barrier. If diablo has a huge gear check and a huge skill check, he would be considered an endgame.” And it’s the lack of endgame that echoes what players have been complaining about to Blizzard.
It’s just a player’s opinion, but devoting quite that much time to make quite that much money lends you a little credence, at the very least. Perhaps they even qualify as a ‘market expert’, but I always thought they were someone who could absolutely nail the rhymes that sell fruit.
Once Blizzard announce PvP, the economy should pick up more than a little, and if items start to get a little more powerful, then the supply issue should solve itself. But as for now, things are moving towards the trickle end of the spectrum in terms of the Real Money Auction House, rather than the torrent they started with. As Steve’s breakdown of the Hamburger prices shows.