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The Director of Diablo Immortal, Wyatt Cheng, recently decided to set the record straight in regards to the controversial Auction House feature in Diablo 3. The Auction House in Diablo 3 was a feature that was included in the PC version of the game, which allowed players to purchase items for either in-game coin or real money.
The Auction House drew considerable criticism from both fans and critics alike, many arguing that the game was designed in a way to force players to use the feature to obtain gear and items in order to survive Diablo 3’s higher difficulties. While Blizzard has stated that the Auction House was implemented as a way for players to securely obtain items without having to turn to third-party trades, it was eventually removed in 2014, as developers believed its existence impaired Diablo 3’s loot-based gameplay. Along with the removal of the Auction House, a new loot system was introduced titled Loot 2.0, which overhauled the game’s item drops, offering players loot that was more suited to their class.
In a post on his Twitter, Wyatt Cheng, the Director of Diablo Immortal, and previously a developer for Diablo 3, spoke about the development process of Diablo 3 and the inclusion of the Auction House feature. Cheng stated that he wished to “set the record straight” with regards to fans believing that the game was designed to force players to utilize the Auction House. Instead, Diablo 3 was created similarly to its predecessor, in which players were required to grind for loot in order to progress through the higher difficulty levels. He added that the Auction House feature did not exist during the studio’s internal testing, and that the public testing phase of Diablo 3 was not long enough, as testing stopped at the end of Act 1, nor did it have enough participants.
While Blizzard has stated that there won’t be an Auction House feature in the franchise’s sequel, Diablo 4 will feature microtransactions, which it's been said will be purely for cosmetics. Lastly, Cheng ended his post by reiterating that Diablo 3’s gameplay was not created around the use of the Auction House, but rather that the tuning of the game’s loot and difficulty meant that players were driven to use the feature, which was an easier choice than to farm items.
Wyatt Cheng’s post gives fans a brief glimpse into issues that game developers often grapple with during a title’s development and release, once again showing that players may not always utilize features in the way initially intended. While it remains to be seen whether Blizzard’s next entry in the series will suffer less troubles, gameplay footage from Diablo 4’s Blizzcon spotlight seems to indicate that the developers are dedicated to not repeating past mistakes.
Diablo 3 is available on PC, Mac, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
Source: Wyatt Cheng/Twitter