As we all know, Diablo III will feature an auction house from which you can purchase virtual items for real world money. You'll also be able to sell your items to other users for their hard-earned cash, and receive real world money in the process.
Apparently some people think it's a bad move for Blizzard, but I don't really share that doubt. And while a Blizzard 'controlled' auction house does not seem so terrible to me, I do think it could really get out of hand.
 
From what I've read, I don't think the auction house is such a bad idea. I mean, it's not like people weren't selling WoW items/gold on eBay right? So I think it wouldn't be terribleto make it more accessible and more, let's say, "legal". If people want to spend their real world money on virtual items, I don't see a problem; besides, Diablo III's multiplayer is not really a competitive one, so even if someone has better gear it doesn't really affect you that much.
 
Some people might say that Blizzard might use this opportunity to dominate the auctioning portion of Diablo III - sell powerful items for the lowest price or make the cash-out fees very high, for example - but I doubt they will. Blizzard is waaaaay too smart to screw with their fanbase like that. They are probably the company that would make this kinda auction house accessible, good, and fair.

However...

You'll also be able to sell your items to other users for their hard-earned cash, and receive real world money in the process.

 
Yes, Diablo 3 players will be able to spend real money on in-game items, but rather than a traditional item store, Blizzard plans to create a system wherein players sell items to each other -- the eBay of Sanctuary, if you will. Players will be able to put items up for sale in each of the game's various regions around the world (with a different real-world currency for each), and other players will be able to spend real money to buy them, with the real-world money going back to the original item owners.

I don't want to point out the obvious, but Blizzard is owned by  Activision.  If your fear is that Activision will abuse the possibilities of this, then such worries automatically fall on Blizzard's shoulders as well.

Pretty much agree with you OP. Though a mishandled "Real Money" auction house would end up hurting the game company more than the player base. A bad auction house can make rare stuff easy to get and make game balance a nightmare to the degree of bad Korean free to play MMOs. That and the cost of implementing the software and any fees for a third party to manage this stuff seems to risky for anything other than Diablo. I don't think Activision (or any other publisher) would want to put this haphazardly in any game.

I don't think it's any worse than a free-to-play system like Lord of the Rings Online. Honestly though, it's too early for me to judge one way or the other, so color me curious. I don't exactly think it's the right direction for games to go in, but we'll see.

I see your concerns..but I don't see that happening. Some companies might want to try, but no way that would go over with anybody. Word would get around and the game would sell like shit. The only reason this is going to work is because the players can profit if they choose and aren't just spending more.

Also, as much as people like to scream Activision whenever Blizzard charges for something, I believe that blizzard is still in almost 100% control of everything they do. They still have yet to charge for anything that enhances play beyond pure aesthetic items(unless you count expansion packs). When they start charging me for that sweet sword that doesn't drop off anything or for that really cool dungeon with some rare loots then I'll believe that Activision is corrupting them.

Other companies abusing this is definitely something to be concerned about. As for the game itself, I'm worried that no one will use the "classic" Auction House and every "purple" item will be sold for real money.

So its okay that Blizzard does it but not okay that other companies will do it? Im glad some Blizzard fans are being honest about their arbitrary distinctions.

The bigger issue in my mind is that by having RMTs against ToS like in WoW it automatically pushes most people away from it, for fear of bans, etc. Ths limiting total amount of RMTs and their impact on game balance and economy. Sanctioned RMT is basically alowing this practice into general pop, making them a large and significant part of the economy, thus forcing a change in game prices and player to player transactions. For example if there was no RMTs allowed I would buy a sowrd of ass kicking for 10 gold. Now I might not be able to buy it at all, since most sellers will want $.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

@imsh_pl said:

You'll also be able to sell your items to other users for their hard-earned cash, and receive real world money in the process.

You...you mean to say that I'll be able to legally sell virtual items for real money to suckers?...This game is gonna be awesome.

"Chinese gold farmer" will always undercut you, he has more time since it's his job and his labour costs significantly less. You won't be able to make much.

So its okay that Blizzard does it but not okay that other companies will do it?

I'm sorry, but are you saying within all your text that you aren't really worried about Blizzard doing it, but anyone else 'including' Activision are likely the ones to be worried about?  You do know you are talking about the same company that thought Real ID was a good idea right?  No matter how you slice it the opinion is coloured with some bias, whether intentional or not.
 
I'm not saying this will 100% fail at all (we can only guess after all), but I will have to remain sceptical to this and the general direction Diablo 3 is headed.  However wondering if the game will sell is a pointless waste of time. I'll be surprised if they don't sell millions of copies at the end of the day, even with these changes and additions to the game.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

You...you mean to say that I'll be able to legally sell virtual items for real money to suckers?...This game is gonna be awesome.

"Chinese gold farmer" will always undercut you, he has more time since it's his job and his labour costs significantly less. You won't be able to make much.

Players will be able to put items up for sale in each of the game's various regions around the world (with a different real-world currency for each), and other players will be able to spend real money to buy them, with the real-world money going back to the original item owners.

Imma' make back the money ah paid for it!

I'm sorry, but are you saying within all your text that you aren't really worried about Blizzard doing it, but anyone else 'including' Activision are likely the ones to be worried about?  You do know you are talking about the same company that thought Real ID was a good idea right?  No matter how you slice it the opinion is coloured with some bias, whether intentional or not.
 

@imsh_pl said:

@Tennmuerti said:

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

You...you mean to say that I'll be able to legally sell virtual items for real money to suckers?...This game is gonna be awesome.

"Chinese gold farmer" will always undercut you, he has more time since it's his job and his labour costs significantly less. You won't be able to make much.

Actually I'm pretty sure that the auction house will be divided by region - the article I linked says that

Players will be able to put items up for sale in each of the game's various regions around the world (with a different real-world currency for each), and other players will be able to spend real money to buy them, with the real-world money going back to the original item owners.

So this might mean that he still has a chance against the Chinese gold farmers ^_^

Region segregation is excedingly easy to circumvent. All you need is a proxy and apropriate region account key.

Gold, items and characters are constantly sold on US and EU WoW servers, by the stereotypical "chinese gold farmer"

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

@Tennmuerti: Tis better to make little, than nothing at all. I mean hell, I'll spend huge amounts of time playing the game, might as well make money off of it.

What I am saying is that if you have a job, hell even flipping burgers at a McDonalds, you would still make way more money/time, then you ever could selling items on the AH, simply because the money/time value of the person actually farming them is incredibly small. For an average dude in US or EU with a job it is way easier to work for like an extra hour and have the money equivalent of many hours worth of work needed to obtain something in game. For example you make $10 an hour. So an hour of your time is worth $10. A dude working in China earns lets say $1 per hour. If it takes you say 5 hours of farming the last endgame boss to drop a Sword of Bitchslap it is way way easier for you to just work for half an hour more and not spend your entire evening killing the same boss over and over. See where I'm coming form?

This model has been proven in WoW time and time again. If 1000G costs $10 a person would rather buy it then play for a week killing the same monsters or doing the same quests for a week.

@TheDudeOfGaming: @imsh_pl: Which is where the fact that it is against ToS comes in. It scares most people into NOT buying shit from gold farmers for fear of being banned and other repricussions like being scammed. If such gold-to-money flow is sanctioned by Blizzard then all barriers are removed.

It's a greedy move, but that's how Activision rolls.  The game will probably still be really good.  Blizzard is not your friend.  Buy the game or don't.
 
@YoungFrey: 
Item drops are unique to each player.  No one can see or touch what drops for you unless you pick it up and then drop it again.

@valrog said:

@Tennmuerti: I'm pretty sure Blizzard would know if someone was using a Proxy.

1. It's not as simple as that, i don't want to start writing paragraph long arguments on use of proxies in this thread. There are a multitude of very secure encrypted proxy solutions, far beyond the simplistic functionality a browser provides.
2. Blizzard knowing using a proxy doesn't mean shit, quite a lot of people use proxies all the time playing WoW for example, legitimate players that need to reduce their latency for example. Unless they start blanket denying everyone who uses a proxy access it won't do any good.

 
@YoungFrey: Item drops are unique to each player.  No one can see or touch what drops for you unless you pick it up and then drop it again.

 
There will be almost no point to resisting this system because of the rather ingenious way Blizzard has set it up. It isn't necessarily a "pay to play" system. Pay to play means to get the good stuff you have to open your wallet to the developers and they in turn sell you what you need/want to get ahead. 
 
Blizzard has created the first, "let it ride and play" system and it maybe a win for everyone. Well, maybe 'win' isn't a good choice of words but at least it appears to be a better nickle-and-dime model than EA or anyone else has come up with.  
 
Typically, in pay-to-play games, those unwilling to open their wallets for virtual goods had one choice - grind out every ounce of gear you want. Sometimes you are not even give that choice because the good stuff is held only by the developers.  
   
This is where Blizzard's system is different. The PLAYERS themselves control all the goods along with the sales and profit from those goods. 
 
Those opposed, myself included, to paying for in-game gear have a new option. Sell the loot you find for cash, let that cash ride, and use it to buy the gear you want. They are basically replacing in-game gold with real world cash but unlike other games, Blizzard will give you the opportunity to earn that cash right within the game. 
 
There will always be an abundance of aholes willing to pay to 'be cool'. Blizzard has come up with a way to let those aholes pay into the system while not punishing everyone else.
 
Sure, it is a slippery slope. The temptation, and I am sure ease, of adding a 'few' of your own dollars in the mix could make it all go downhill. Inflated prices could spell a quick end to earned enough in-game cash to afford items. If successful or not, it also sets a precedent open to abuse and misinterpretation by other publishers or even future Blizzard games. 
 
And yes, Blizzard gets filthy rich off it in the end but at least there is a little piece of mind in knowing that there is another way to make your way in the world without feeding the internet your credit card and hoping a pile of gold coins shows up in your avatars mailbox. 
 
This time Blizzard has made gold farming not only legit but required, and all proceeds benefiting them.
 
 
 
 
hARDcORE or nothing  for me though.

Juat want to let you know that it's an awesome idea.

@imsh_pl said:

@ShiftyMagician said:

I'm sorry, but are you saying within all your text that you aren't really worried about Blizzard doing it, but anyone else 'including' Activision are likely the ones to be worried about? You do know you are talking about the same company that thought Real ID was a good idea right? No matter how you slice it the opinion is coloured with some bias, whether intentional or not.

Oh yeah, because that Real ID system is just terrible. I mean, I have to have my name shown on B-net all the time, that's ridiculous!

Oh wait. I don't.

That's because they changed it due to the backlash. Their original intent was to convert everyone over to Real ID.

I think the real money auction house is cool on the one hand because I might be able to make some money off it but on the other hand who will use the gold auction house anymore if you can sell everything for real money? Also complete noobs will be able to spend a few dollars to get the most epic equipment ever and you who spent a week farming items will look like a douche for not spending those 4 bucks.
So I am not sure if that was such a good idea...