If You're Not Playing Diablo III Hardcore, You're Doing it Wrong
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In Hardcore, there will be no real-money auction house. If you were looking for a clear sign from Blizzard's game designers (rather than Activision's beancounters) that Hardcore was the way to go, this has to be it. In Diablo II, the online economy in normal mode swiftly went to the dogs--but in Hardcore, it kept going in a sensible way for much much longer. This will be the case in Hardcore as the real-money auction house is too big of a draw for those looking to exploit the system, and the risks of losing a high-level character too great to allow for botting of inferno boss runs.
It also keeps the playing field level. I have no interest in paying real money for my Diablo items, and don't want to be in the same world as the vast majority of those who do. Of course there will still be a black market--though I suspect IRC and dodgy Usenet groups might not be as much of a tool for the black marketeers this time around--but it'll be marginalised, as it should be.
Hardcore may seem like a fool's errand or a hiding to nothing, but it really is the best way of playing the game. It will show you what gaming is meant to be like--you will feel terror like you never have before, and satisfaction unlike anything else you've felt in gaming for a decade.
