Blizzard and item selling websites
- Thread starter henden
- Start date
henden said:
The short answer is, Not directly, No.
The long answer is that some of these sites get a lot of business, which creates a flurry of activity for D2. Whether new people join the game because they can shell out 10 bucks and be godly, or whether sellers have to keep buying new copies over and over because they frequently get reported and get their cd key banned or they just want to run more bots, its all more buying. Although the existence of these sites is not good for the game and a good many people quit because of it, the ones that quit are the ones that buy 1-3 cd keys in their lifetime. Whereas, the ones that run or use these sites are a bunch that spends money. I wouldn't be suprised if a good item seller would easily have bought 20 copies over his career, easily financed by his profits from D2.
That is the crux of it. The people that engage in this kind of cheating are the ones that buy 3, 4, or even 5 copies a month, each! Whereas, us legit players don't make a blip in the sales chart, so a business minded person would pragmatically go with what makes him more money. Obviously this item selling business is not enough to make everyone want to leave the game and damage the size of the community enough to effect a trend on the charts. So, if I were them, I'd leave well enough alone and let things go. Continue bannings, continue adding new content to keep people interested, and let the money roll in. When some cheat or another becomes disruptive enough that it'll eventually make the size of the community shrink, I'd do something about it. However, until then, I'd just "do my best."
But then, this is all just my personal opinion on the matter.
Why would the shop owners buy so man copies? They arnt the one duping. They are just the merchants that pass along the dupes.
Most of them play diablo normally like the rest of us. They just blend in with the high elite cause they can pretty much have anything they want. Never heard of one that bought alot of CDs.
Most of them play diablo normally like the rest of us. They just blend in with the high elite cause they can pretty much have anything they want. Never heard of one that bought alot of CDs.
BattleQueen
New member
Online item trading is already a sizeable industry. The big stores actually pay real money to hardcore gamers all over the world to play the game 24/7 & find/farm items. But that's old news really. I'd be surprised if a Blizzard-subsidiary is not already running online stores. Call it 'online supply chain management' or whatever... After all, getting paid for providing desired goods is legit business, since even bits of codes can give some measure of satisfaction to the buyer. Nuff said. :lipsrsealed:
BattleQueen said:
I have played several MMORPGs that are paid for by "item shops". The game is free to play, but the company sells items on their site that you can buy. Do you really think a wildly successful company like Blizzard would risk their reputation by knowingly letting duping occur so that they can make more money? Make no mistake, if such a thing were true Blizzard would a lot of business if it were found out. If they really wanted to make money by selling items, they would be up front about it.
I'm inclined to believe that they find item selling benificial as well. Diablo II is still alive today because it is a game which appeals to the greedy who NEED every item and FAST. WoW was designed much the same way. I think Blizzard realizes that the droning masses would not be as attracted to a 6 year old game if it were actually hard to play. Notice that a detectable maphack will earn you a ban the instant you load them up, but bots, which are detectable from the moment you connect to them to the moment you close them, are left mostly untouched. I'm positive that botters are tagged for mass banning, but in the meantime they can do it to their heart's content, whereas maphack users may find themselves SOL any moment.
However, at the same time, the duping is probably causing more profit loss for Blizzard than it draws in due to the massive and unmitigated lag it's causing.
estrellas said:
I find it incredibly hard to believe that a game that was designed to be playable on dial-up will continue to have lag problems even after everyone's bandwidth has quintupled at least, both server and client sides, when everyone switched over to broadband. That is assuming that some reprogramming is done both server-side (server will be down for maintanence) and client-side (new patch). I'm usually very pragmatic about the way Blizzard do things and rarely blame them for much, but this specific part of the situation is inexcusable.
With a little work, D2 can be pretty much one of the least laggy online games there are, simply because it was programmed to allow you online-play with very few packets sent back and forth.
Zodijackyl
New member
WebDragon said:
No matter how often they patch dupe methods, etc. somebody will find new ways to lag the servers in an attempt to dupe. On top of this, plenty of morons use gmercs for dueling and just mfing (which is incredibly lazy and unecessary), which makes me think of a ten year old kid jumping up and down, smacking his mouse to equip and unequip his mercs gear. They usually carry lots of gold though, which makes them prime PK targets in games named "gmerc choas-##"
Zodijackyl
New member
Don't try PKing CS with a barb, you'll die to Iron Maiden (classic players know this very well 
)
I recommend a blizz sorc or hammerdin w/ nigma.
)I recommend a blizz sorc or hammerdin w/ nigma.
Xenon[XoA]
Banned
Another variation's to strap on sorb and jump em while they're prebuffing-the ones who sit outside river wp. If they're using a script, they may forget to turn it off and panic -moving the mouse off the merc and over free space- as you pop out the wp. Free gmerc gear + gold. Tppk works too - iceblast i like, and just have a friend go collect while you wait out the 10 second wp/hostile timer.
Zodijackyl
New member
Xenon[KoA] said:
I love when players rush to throw on sorb gear and they drop their gear by accident then die.
On classic, a player who was banned from here (from the classic forum) demanded a duel with me, then called some backup, so I called in a friend, and while he was switching to a 3soc saph shield (the classic lamer CR gear) he dropped his good shield. Free for me, and lots of gold.
I haven't had any idiot drop gmerc gear yet, but I'm going to throw my LR and FR charms from smiter/hdin together and go PK some more once east is back up and hope for free gear. They deserve it about as much as people who get jacked in xfer1///1
Zodijackyl
New member
sirwhere said:
People don't like to put time into a game sometimes, often people are just too lazy to PvM and just want to duel, and they figure they can buy items and it'll make them good at dueling. Some people just can't level from scratch (I'm good at it
), but usually it's due to the buyer being lazy or unwilling to MF. Also why you'll see level 70s using godlies, but having no PvP skill whatsoever, or a terrible newbie build (fanatacism hammerdin!)Xenon[KoA] said:
I'm liking the sound of this more and more. I was planning to get them before they glitched their merc, that way it would be even safer. They usually do it for a minute, and I should be able to get to them within 10 seconds of them starting. Why do they do it out of town? Can it only be done there?
My barb already has max fire and lightning resists, and he has a Dwarf and a Wisp in stash, so...
sirwhere said:
Instant gratification + culture of self-entitlement. I discussed this in another thread.
Xenon[XoA]
Banned
Out of town, means ppl can't trade with you, or attempt to trade with you. It closes the inventory window, or the merc equip window - and can cause ppl to drop gear if careless.