Is Remote AH an Ingame Advantage?

Q u o t e:
The slippery slope is getting less and less slippery by the day.

I think it can be argued that having access to the auction house 24x7 is surely an advantage to those who are willing to pay for it. Those who don't pay for it are surely at a disadvantage in so far as money making is concerned, among others I'm sure will arise.

Seriously though, I think you've primed the pump enough here Blizzard, just start selling gear and get it over with.

First off, no correlation can be made here between the idea of releasing a Remote Auction House feature and that of releasing epic equipment for sale. The ground is still quite firm on that slope.

Second, a player who has more time in a week to play the game than you has an advantage over you by this same standard. Someone that has an hour or more a day to use the Auction House than you do has an advantage, and they're not even charged extra for it. The Remote Auction House provides no in-game functionality that isn't already available to every single player as often as they can or want to use it. The only difference now is that, for an additional monthly fee, players can use the Auction House in a remote fashion without having to log into the game client.

Q u o t e:
I'm not sure how many time Blizzard has to say they won't sell gear before people will believe them.

It's a legitimate concern. I'd share it if I weren't confident about our commitment to our players and our ultimate goal of creating epic games with incredible support and bonus features. Some players fear this happening so much though, that they almost wait for it to happen. With nearly any announcement we make about additional features or flavor items which have a cost associated, this is then seen as a sign of the slippery slope, no matter how large the leap to an adequate assertion may be.

Our core philosophy has not changed and we feel we're being very reasonable about the products and premium services we're offering. They allow us to maintain a strong company, afford and maintain state-of-the-art tools and hardware, keep some of the most talented staff in the gaming industry around, and continue making great games. :)

Q u o t e:


Of course the general community shouldn't know the exact particulars, but my main worry is the security of the app and how Blizzard will protect such an app from being exploited by botters. I can envision people writing non-itunes apps that would automate AH functions. They might have the Blizzard app and their jailbroken app controlling the Blizzard app, it would just run all day long unattended and controlling the economy it's connected to. I'm not so much worried about a random user who just likes to check on things on their phone. I'm much more worried about how it would be protected against automation from 3rd party apps.

We will have measures in place to detect this sort of activity.