Diablo 3 Release Date

I'm intrigued by how the "everyone can buy and sell their items for real money in the AH" thing. Since Hardcore mode has more item sinks than the normal game mode, there's a decent chance that item values (of "fixed" items by some metric) could stabilize at some non-zero value in it.

I strongly suspect it'll be ruined by bots, but who knows? Perhaps a large part of the 12-year development cycle that wasn't spent on the storyline went toward some impressive anti-OCR botting measures.

I really hope they made the best anti bot stuff there is. I don't wanna have them infest diablo III as well

I know for a fact that some people already have functional AutoIT bots, and I suspect at least one person at Zelaron is using one. Possibly two.

Chruser, Hardcore mode does have an item sink built in, but it also has a separate auction house last I checked. It also will not have a RMAH based on my most recent information. I do suspect that eventually the AH will be flooded with cheap items because of the constant influx of items compared to the relatively small outflow. The fact that items don't soulbind means they pretty much never go away other than when someone quits the game (assuming they don't give away their items/account) or when someone sells/salvages an item. Perhaps Blizzard will incentivize salvaging set/unique items.

Chruser, Hardcore mode does have an item sink built in, but it also has a separate auction house last I checked.

Did I state that they would allow items to transition from one to the other?

It also will not have a RMAH based on my most recent information.

Sad. I hope your information is wrong.

Did I state that they would allow items to transition from one to the other?

Nope, but your supposition that the item sink of hardcore would balance the market would seem to imply that that was what you were suggesting. Otherwise hardcore isn't even going to change the softcore market, regardless of whether or not the auction house is separated. Hardcore would only serve as an item sink for hardcore items, doing nothing to help the fact that softcore items are flooding the market.

Nope, but your supposition that the item sink of hardcore would balance the market would seem to imply that that was what you were suggesting. Otherwise hardcore isn't even going to change the softcore market, regardless of whether or not the auction house is separated. Hardcore would only serve as an item sink for hardcore items, doing nothing to help the fact that softcore items are flooding the market.

Since Hardcore mode has more item sinks than the normal game mode, there's a decent chance that item values (of "fixed" items by some metric) could stabilize at some non-zero value in it.

If I thought there was going to be a way to freely transition items between SC and HC, I would probably not have stated "in it". After all, there would be no effective difference between the values of items. I agree that such a system would not be economically stable.

That said, even if Blizzard does implement a RMT auction house for HC mode, I don't really think character death is going to provide enough of a sink for item values to stabilize. I'd like to be wrong, though.

(Once "play" becomes "work", maybe that says something about the inverse.)

I honestly don't see people spending much money on a RMAH for hardcore. It would be kind of stupid to spend a bunch of money twinking out your character only to lose it all when you die.