PC Gamer reported on the development this morning.
The sale on third party websites of rare items generated by Diablo II's random loot slot machine was par for the course for the duration of that game's heyday, and some of those sites are still up and running. The forthcoming sequel aims to legitimize what players were already doing in a scam-free environment. The move also, arguably, legitimizes third world sweatshop item farming, with an attempt by Blizzard to claim what it sees as its share of that grey market business.
The immediate implications:
Diablo III is to feature "always online" DRM, and modding of any kind will be forbidden under the new game's Terms of Service and EULA, to discourage cheesy duplicating of valuable items.
In the article cited above, Executive Producer Rob Pardo asserts that this sort of thing will never come to WoW, due to the fact that the rarest and most valuable items available in that game bind to a character on pickup and cannot be traded.
Possible complications include the question of precisely how players will be affected by state laws regarding taxation of online income, particularly since cash earnings from the auction house will, by default, go toward credit on the player's Battle.Net account like a coupon, with only the option to cash out via other services. State laws concerning online gambling may come in to play as well, since each item put up for sale is essentially an attempt to cash one's chips at the casino.
The forum moderators at WorldofWarcraft.com have already had a pretty busy day in the light of the news, and I imagine this year's Blizzcon will be a particularly lively one.
