17,263
edits
Changes
Gold
,→The Economy
<blue>We're designing a stable economy, we have the knowledge and experience to do so. We have people in-house with doctorates and degrees in statistics and economic analysis and all the know how to pull it off. I think we'll be ok.</blue>
===Inflation===
Inflation is caused by a general increase in the amount of gold in the economy. It is inevitable in video game economies, as players learn how to play better and thus gain gold more quickly. Inflation is thus natural and expected, and not in of itself a bad thing. The developers merely need tools to control the rate of inflation, and ways to keep gold useful and valuable.
This was not the case in Diablo II, as gold became largely useless at high levels since it was overly-abundant, and there were few things worth spending it on. The Diablo III developers have learned that lesson, and with much experience in MMORPGs since Diablo II, including World of Warcraft, they designed Diablo III's economy to be more flexible and resilient.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blizzard-posts-on-rmah-issues]
<blue>Inflation in a particular currency is fine, and for things to increase on price depending on demand is good, however as you are asking about; we do not want worthless currency.
Take for example (excuse the comparison) WoW, gold is heavily inflated but people still use it for everything, just more of it. We have many tools to ensure gold remains a worthy currency in comparison to the RMAH and vice versa. Do not worry, we will be very carefully keeping an eye out for problems with inflation and one AH becoming less valuable. We have many knobs and controls at our disposal to ensure that everything works out fine! </blue>
The Diablo III developers have said that there will not be hacking and duping in Diablo III, and that they'll be able to apply the lessons they've learned in keeping WoW largely cheat-free. Most fans wish them the best of luck with that, but as successful as hackers have been in ruining the economy of most online RPGs, the [[D3 Team]] clearly has their work cut out for them.
==Third Party Trading Sites==