How can you balance an economy?
In the early 2000s when Diablo II came out, the internet was not so connected.
People would farm items and sell them on eBay for real money (the black market). This was against Blizzard’s terms of use.
We know why people spend money to buy virtual goods.
Say someone spent 500 hours for a virtual good. And you want it. What would you be tempted to do? You take your savings (labor from the past) and exchange it for those 500 hours. Spend money to save time.
In Diablo III, the developers tried to go behind the players’ back to benefit from this player activity. They designed a real-money auction house and made Blizzard the middleman.
Of course! People will love this!
Yu-kai actually knew people who worked to make hundreds or low thousands of dollars each month as a side business. Essentially, they were mining Diablo III for virtual goods.
Biggest Fail in Blizzard’s History?
But this was one of the biggest fails in Blizzard history.
Apparently, the real money auction house was destroying the game.
How could this be?
The failure of the real money auction house resulted because of CD2, the LACK of CD2.
If you can buy something, it takes away from the struggle and strategy to attain it, and actually detracts from its value.