Very cool, looking forward to more information on this.

about time!!

time to get rich at work!

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Q u o t e:
and we won't release it until it meets the quality standards that we've set for our other features and services

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Oh? What about in-game voice comm?

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Q u o t e:
Since the launch of the World of Warcraft Armory, we've been regularly releasing updates and new features designed to help players stay connected to the game even when they're not logged in. Today, we wanted to give you a heads-up about a new service now in development that will let players access the Auction House directly through the Armory website or Armory App for iPhone or iPod touch.

While there are still plenty of details to be worked out, we're designing the service to offer auction functionality similar to what's available in-game. Players have been requesting -- and we've been hoping to implement -- a feature like this for a long time, and we're excited that the Armory and the game have evolved to a point that makes it possible.

This is a fairly complex service to develop, due in large part to its unprecedented integration with the game, so we don't have an exact release date yet. It's important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we'll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized. As with all of the services we offer, we plan to integrate the Auction House and Armory in a way that won't disrupt the gameplay experience, and we won't release it until it meets the quality standards that we've set for our other features and services. You may be seeing bits and pieces of the Auction House service pop up in the test builds we use for the public test realms as we go through the process of internal testing. We'll have more info to share with you here and at http://www.WorldofWarcraft.com as we get closer to release.

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This is just asking for bots..

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Q u o t e:
It's important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we'll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized.

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Hrm.



If this is "premium" as in "extra money cost", if it included more character slots per server I'd be all over it. Otherwise, yeah no.

Wow. Now this is awesome.

Wait a sec...

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Q u o t e:
It's important to note here that certain elements of the service will be premium-based, which we'll go into more detail on once the service functionality is finalized.

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What is premium?

Allowing the AH to be available outside the game is a really bad idea. The AH will be consumed wholly by goldfarming bots running 24/7.

So much for having a newb-friendly economy on any server.

This can only unbalance the game.

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Q u o t e:
Wow. Now this is awesome.

Wait a sec...



What is premium?

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Q u o t e:
Allowing the AH to be available outside the game is a really bad idea. The AH will be consumed wholly by goldfarming bots running 24/7.

So much for having a newb-friendly economy on any server.

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It's a fine idea, the only question is whether or not it will be implemented responsibly. I fully expect to see limits on the number of purchases and sales being able to be done in any given unit of time. That should prevent it from being abused.

We also don't know what the premium they mentioned is going to be yet, it will at least be a one time fee. Now, if I were Blizzard, I'd probably do something like buying a certain number of AH usage credits for a fee. You buy 100 AH credits, and you're able to purchase or sell 100 items with it. That would be another way to prevent it from being abused, and would be pretty fitting with Blizzard's typical business model. I don't think I could see myself paying for a credit system like that, but I'll wait to see how the feature turns out before I make any firm judgements. If they want me to pay for it, it has to make my life dramatically more easy, and I don't know if they could do that, aside from implementing something like Quick Auctions into their service. Something that allows me to post items in bulk based on a filter that I can set by hand. If they did that, and then made it so that items that did not sell were automatically placed into my inventory or bank, I'd be very tempted by it.

wow. really?

Awesome!!!

A premium means you will have to pay more for the service (i.e. it's not included with your usual subscription fee to play the game).

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Q u o t e:
A premium means you will have to pay more for the service (i.e. it's not included with your usual subscription fee to play the game).

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And to note, if this is how this works, the only positive thing isn't this system itself, but hopefully in the future(EXPANSION PLZ) of paying slightly more for more character slots. Or not forcing someone who has the game to have to buy every expansion + a normal sub if they had to get a second account for more slots.



This is only necessary of course because Blizz still refuses to have a item system that doesn't require a bank character slot.

So, when can we expect to purcharse new, naked, max-level characters of any class we choose from the store, or triple specs?

We all know the game is heading there anyway. Why postpone in fear of the community's outcry when you know they're not going to cancel and you could be milking them right away?

You guys know there are other phones besides iPhones? How much effort would it REALLY take to port that stuff to Android?

Interesting, guess we'll have to see how things pan out.

Well until we know more about what exactly we'll be capable of doing with the service and what the service fee is and the like, no sense in getting in a panic just yet. If the service DOES allow quite a bit of freedom in that being at work or school still allows you to watch and maintain auctions as if you were in game, I can definitely see many interesting scripts being run on the side that would be very difficult for Blizzard to regulate that could do bad things to the economy. You could have gold selling companies going nuts with various things and you could have a few enterprising individuals wreaking even more havoc than they already do all by themselves. It is very difficult for a lone individual to monopolize an economy on a big server because he simply can't sit all day at the AH all the time but if some web based program can operate much of the leg work for him or her... ick...

On the other hand, being able to watch prices like an actual stock market and buy and sell and the like adds a really cool level of depth to the game. I also think the premium being added is appropriate as there is ZERO reason to even touch the AH for many players that are either self sufficient or have no desires to min/max with consumables or w/e and still be able to play the rest of the game. This is akin in my mind to something like paying a small fee to get cooler looking guild tabards and possibly a dedicated slot for recruitment in a special forum (kind of like the EJ forums) or the like, nothing that really affects anything in game but would be something some people would be interested in doing for various reasons.