De flesta av dem som någon gång har spelat Diablo 2 på internet har säkerligen också stött på så kallade spambots.

Det är datorstyrda karaktärer som bland annat skickar automatiska meddelanden om föremål som ligger för försäljning på någon internetsida.

Detta går givetvis emot Blizzards policy och sägs vara en av anledningarna till introduktionen av auktionshuset för riktiga pengar (RMAH) i Diablo 3.

Beslutet att införa en styrd marknad för försäljning av abstrakta föremål i ett spel har givetvis skapat många diskussioner och fått stark kritik av många.

En av Blizzards Community Managers skriver om varför Blizzard valde att införa ett sådant system i Diablo 3. För den som vill läsa mer så finns hela forumposten på Incgamers.

The reason for the RMAH being implemented is not because we want to force you all to use it, this is because we want to give you a safe, secure and Blizzard supported way of selling and buying Diablo items using real currency. If you choose not to use it because you feel it would have an ill-effect on your gameplay or for any other reason, then you do not need to. I do not feel that there is a requirement to segregate players who choose to and do not choose to use this service as it might diminish player experience or cause other problems. For example, if your friend wants to use the RMAH and you don’t, then you cannot play with them 

It is our goal with all of our games to ensure that players have a highly enjoyable experience when playing. Due to this, we will not remove the gold Auction House, so that people can play the way they want to. One of the most important parts of the Diablo series is to obtain the best possible gear. In the past, some players would use external and potentially dangerous methods to perform real-money transactions for gear and gold in Diablo such as third-party real-money-trading organizations.

The transactions between these third-party organisations and players generally went awry, and led to a poor player experience as well as a large number of customer-service issues such as scams and item or account theft. Because we feel that it would be best to offer players an in-game and Blizzard certified way to perform these transactions in a safe and secure manner, we decided to implement the RMAH.

So just to re-iterate, even in Diablo 1 and 2, players were buying gear and gold with real-world currency, it’s just more visible and safe now. It will be no different than in the past, in that you do not have to use real money at all to improve your character, however if you do decide to, it will now be much more safe and secure.

I hope this explains why we don’t want to remove one Auction house or the other, nor segregate the player bases.