Last night The New England Institute of Art held it's SIGGRAPH event. After the event the presenters visitors and students (of age) went for a beer nearby. While there we talked about Diablo III as quite a few people around the table are playing (when not designing their own games). The topic of Verisimilitude in Diablo 3's Auction house came up, and in retrospect I think the problems with D3 can really be summed up nicely as 'violations of verisimilitude'. Let me explain why...
Friday, July 27, 2012
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Diablo 3 Commodity App
What am I working on?
My last post was about the VERY few apps in iTunes specifically for the Diablo III Auction House. By the way, if I missed an important one, post a comment and link to it. I'll take a look at it and add it to the list. There seems to be a great many apps for the perfect build, dps, lore... But what about tracking all that Auction House Data?
My last post was about the VERY few apps in iTunes specifically for the Diablo III Auction House. By the way, if I missed an important one, post a comment and link to it. I'll take a look at it and add it to the list. There seems to be a great many apps for the perfect build, dps, lore... But what about tracking all that Auction House Data?
Thursday, July 12, 2012
4 useful Diablo III Apps
Although Blizzard tried for simplicity there is still a lot of complexity in Diablo 3. Layered simplicity can still be overwhelming. Add to that 'the invisible hand of the market', and you have a recipe for confusion. App Developers can offer little ways to cut down on the confusion. Although few have stepped up to the plate and made an app.
At the moment there are 4 apps (only 4) specifically related to the Diablo III Auction House up on the iTunes App store. Before you plunk down your $.99 (no doubt earned from the RMAH), you want to know what they do and if they are any good. Here is a review of each.
At the moment there are 4 apps (only 4) specifically related to the Diablo III Auction House up on the iTunes App store. Before you plunk down your $.99 (no doubt earned from the RMAH), you want to know what they do and if they are any good. Here is a review of each.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
My week in Diablo 3
After posting regularly for a while, I hit the wall. Actually not a writing inspired wall, but rather the Inferno ACT 1 wall. A solid stone curtain wall of frustration and self doubt. It took me a week or two of grinding to get exactly nowhere with gear. Culminating in 5 or six wasted attempts at killing The Butcher, with help, for the first time last night. In reality I could not get past Araneae the Spider Queen alone. A friend hopped me from there to the end of Act I. Despairing and assuming the worst (that I'm bad at this game), I decided to do something really weird. I decided to ditch my Rare level 60 gear and start buying Magic items.
The plan was this: Stop with the hodge podge of weird attributes on the gear. Most of the gear was in the direction of +damage and + life with some additions to various resistances and resist all... But it really wasn't cohesive. Start buying Chromatic [Item] of Valor instead. Cohesive armor that increases resistance to all, and Vitality. Markco has a more nuanced approach to it, but I'm going dead simple.
Playing as the Barbarian means that three of my abilities have life gain Skill Runes associated with them. Frenzy, Rend, and Revenge are the three main attacks. Which basically spams life gain as I attack. So far I have replaced 5 items and have done a single farming run, with success. I need to do a few more farming runs tonight.
Another trick I picked up. Selling unidentified items. Especially ilevel 63 items. Sell them in trade chat for 250,000 to 275,000 gold. I love this because it's way more then I can get for putting them up on the AH. I HATE trying to price and sell items let alone try and flip them. Having always been better on the buy side of the equation means I'm way better at generating cash from commodities. Unidentified items are basically reduced to a commodity. Like selling a Magic: the Gathering booster pack. You're selling the hope. Most people don't get that the odds are stacked against them. That I can sell!
I have got some new things to try, and a new plan, which means I'm a lot more excited about this weeks round of farming then last weeks.
The plan was this: Stop with the hodge podge of weird attributes on the gear. Most of the gear was in the direction of +damage and + life with some additions to various resistances and resist all... But it really wasn't cohesive. Start buying Chromatic [Item] of Valor instead. Cohesive armor that increases resistance to all, and Vitality. Markco has a more nuanced approach to it, but I'm going dead simple.
Playing as the Barbarian means that three of my abilities have life gain Skill Runes associated with them. Frenzy, Rend, and Revenge are the three main attacks. Which basically spams life gain as I attack. So far I have replaced 5 items and have done a single farming run, with success. I need to do a few more farming runs tonight.
Another trick I picked up. Selling unidentified items. Especially ilevel 63 items. Sell them in trade chat for 250,000 to 275,000 gold. I love this because it's way more then I can get for putting them up on the AH. I HATE trying to price and sell items let alone try and flip them. Having always been better on the buy side of the equation means I'm way better at generating cash from commodities. Unidentified items are basically reduced to a commodity. Like selling a Magic: the Gathering booster pack. You're selling the hope. Most people don't get that the odds are stacked against them. That I can sell!
I have got some new things to try, and a new plan, which means I'm a lot more excited about this weeks round of farming then last weeks.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Blogging a game idea.
In a previous post a closed economy fantasy game design was suggested. This post is going to follow up on that idea and flesh it out a little more. First we'll recap the basics, then flesh out the game a little more. Feel free to add feedback, suggest additions, etc.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Weekend Selling Report
Just got back from a mini vacation. With a number of Diablo III gold auctions of commodities having completed over the weekend I was excitedly expecting to see some gold waiting or me.
Instead I found 10 items in my auction log. Not one success. Complete and total failure. Could this be dumb luck, or does it prove that you simply cannot ever place a bet over the weekend. Is this proof that you must actively manage selling every single thing you put in the AH? While one try does not prove anything there most likely won't be many times in the future where I'll need to make such a bet.
The big problem with the plan is that it violates 'buy low; sell normal'. It was a bad idea from the beginning because you have no way of know what 'normal' will mean in the future. It would have been better for me to dole out those items over the course of the few days before the weekend before prices rose... I still would have made profit, because all items were acquired well below 'normal'. It just would not have been as much gold as what I was guessing the weekend high would be.
Live and learn. And listen to Markco.
Instead I found 10 items in my auction log. Not one success. Complete and total failure. Could this be dumb luck, or does it prove that you simply cannot ever place a bet over the weekend. Is this proof that you must actively manage selling every single thing you put in the AH? While one try does not prove anything there most likely won't be many times in the future where I'll need to make such a bet.
The big problem with the plan is that it violates 'buy low; sell normal'. It was a bad idea from the beginning because you have no way of know what 'normal' will mean in the future. It would have been better for me to dole out those items over the course of the few days before the weekend before prices rose... I still would have made profit, because all items were acquired well below 'normal'. It just would not have been as much gold as what I was guessing the weekend high would be.
Live and learn. And listen to Markco.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Weekend Selling Strategy.
Here's a problem. Most of my gold is currently locked up in commodities and I'm about to take a vacation for the weekend. How am I going to move all these goods that I've gathered through the week?
I have collected 8 Fiery Brimstone (to experiment with). Currently they are going for around 83,000 each. I acquired them for 50,000, each, or less . One was actually a drop from a Rare salvage! I would like to double my investment.
I want them to sell near the top of the market, but I don't know what that is. I have to place my bets now, because I'll have no access to D3 until Sunday Night/ Monday Morning.
Most of my auctions are going to be devoted to commodities this weekend. Two auctions of 8 total Fiery Brimstone. Another 4 auctions of 200+ total Exquisite Essence. And maybe one or two of Iridescent Tears to get ride of them.
5 Fiery Brimstone for 100,000 gold each. 3 Fiery Brimstone for 90,000 gold each. Basically I'm assuming that FB are going to hit 100k at some point this weekend and they will get purchased. Why that assumption? Path 1.0.3 decreased the drop rate, and the increased activity over the weekend. More people can play, so weekends are a good time to sell.
Granted, it's a total guess on my part about the price going that high. And we know how well that guessing worked out in the past. I'll report back Monday about how it went.
D3 Commodities 6/21/2012
Exquisite Essence: 1935 gold
Iridescent Tear: 214 gold
Fiery Brimstone: 81505 gold
Tome of Black Smithing: 44 gold
Tome of Jewel Crafting: 1087 gold
Tome of Secrets: 530 gold
I have collected 8 Fiery Brimstone (to experiment with). Currently they are going for around 83,000 each. I acquired them for 50,000, each, or less . One was actually a drop from a Rare salvage! I would like to double my investment.
I want them to sell near the top of the market, but I don't know what that is. I have to place my bets now, because I'll have no access to D3 until Sunday Night/ Monday Morning.
Most of my auctions are going to be devoted to commodities this weekend. Two auctions of 8 total Fiery Brimstone. Another 4 auctions of 200+ total Exquisite Essence. And maybe one or two of Iridescent Tears to get ride of them.
5 Fiery Brimstone for 100,000 gold each. 3 Fiery Brimstone for 90,000 gold each. Basically I'm assuming that FB are going to hit 100k at some point this weekend and they will get purchased. Why that assumption? Path 1.0.3 decreased the drop rate, and the increased activity over the weekend. More people can play, so weekends are a good time to sell.
Granted, it's a total guess on my part about the price going that high. And we know how well that guessing worked out in the past. I'll report back Monday about how it went.
D3 Commodities 6/21/2012
Exquisite Essence: 1935 gold
Iridescent Tear: 214 gold
Fiery Brimstone: 81505 gold
Tome of Black Smithing: 44 gold
Tome of Jewel Crafting: 1087 gold
Tome of Secrets: 530 gold
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