This humble sum is ~ $50 at current beta market value
This article isn’t going to be a full blown Diablo 3 gold guide. A single article isn’t enough for that. I do intend to craft a Diablo 3 gold guide in the future but, right now, the beta market is too erratic and subject to change (it is beta after all). Any lessons I fleshed out in a full guide will become dated more quickly than when the game is ‘live’ and more stable. So why have I chosen to name this article the way I have? Well, I believe it’s very important that those players not in the D3 Beta are given guidance about Diablo 3 gold and I believe every little helps – even if it’s conjecture.
There’re a few reasons that I think this is important but I’ll limit myself to one for today: It is my belief that a lot of players approaching the Diablo 3 RMAH with an eye to making profit (or just to have fun) have experience with World of Warcraft. If I said that the majority of Diablo 3 players will have played Wow I don’t think I’d be taking a huge gamble. These players will need to make some adjustments in their perception of gaming gold when playing Diablo III. They will need to do this as fast as possible – pre-launch isn’t too early.
We're not in Azeroth any more
Those players from a Wow background will have some preconceptions about how Diablo III gold should work. After all, it’s another online multiplayer fantasy game using gold as a currency among NPCs and within a market connecting lots of players.
In Wow gold had two main ‘functions’. It was needed for purchases like spells, training, repairs, and other expenditures that went into Blizzard’s systems (via NPC – these are known as ‘gold sinks’). These still exist (in different forms) in Diablo 3. It was also used to purchase stock from the auction house. The stock was something you’d sell for a profit, albeit a profit in gold – which we now know had few uses.
Gold could not move between players over the auction house. Gold, by itself, had no real value unless you purchased from a gold selling site illegally, in which case you were gaining gold by spending money, it wasn’t a two way street. If you had nothing to spend it on, or grew bored with the game, gold revealed itself for what it was: a decoration or measure of skill on the auction house. Like a high score on an arcade game that only you play. As a result, a lot of Wow veterans, experienced with large sums of digital lucre, will have a cavalier attitude to in-game gold. Diablo 3 gold is different in a few ways but the outstanding difference for me (and many) is that you can sell your gold for real money. This, without exaggeration, changes everything.
There’s another point to consider. Gold is a dual currency (or tri-currency if you accept battlenet balance as a separate entity from real money) in Diablo 3. Furthermore, there are two auction houses at play in game, the Diablo 3 real money auction house and the Diablo III gold auction house. Gold and items feature in both of these, money does not. Diablo 3 Gold is a currency that splashes and leaks throughout the total Diablo 3 economy. It will bought by players with a greater battlenet balance than gold balance; by players with no spare time but spare real money; and it is sold by those with lots of gold to spare or to mitigate fees (more on this in a future article).
And how about we who wish to make a profit from the Diablo 3 RMAH? How will we use gold? This is where my often advocated principles of flexibility and preparation will reward you handsomely. You’ll find yourself buying and selling gold for multitudes of reasons, probably more than you can predict right now. Gold is going to be a very important currency in Diablo 3′s auction houses.
I’ll cover gold more fully as I begin to build content for a Diablo 3 gold guide. My brain will dwell on material that may suit a blog publishing before being finalised in something more formal. For now I want to leave you with this parting piece of advice. Diablo III gold is both currency and product in this game. Because of this it is my belief that it will trump Wow gold in terms of importance, in terms of flexibility and in terms of value. Those of us who amassed great gold fortunes in World of Warcraft may have some unlearning to do as well as learning!
Ray
