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Blizzard Working to Integrate AH and ArmoryFollow

#1 Feb 02 2010 at 1:35 PM Rating: Excellent
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Blizzard's working to integrate the Auction House and the Armory. The story's on the front page, and here's Bornakk's post:

Bornakk wrote:
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.
#2 Feb 02 2010 at 1:47 PM Rating: Good
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Been hoping for something like this, especially on the armory iphone app, since chances are good that if I'm by a computer that can access the armory, it is my computer and I could just as easily access WoW itself.
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#3 Feb 02 2010 at 2:08 PM Rating: Excellent
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191 posts
So it's come to this, a premium service in a game that is already pay to play.

I imagine they will make it so anyone can check auctions from a computer or phone app, but only people who subscribe to the "premium" option will be able to post auctions anywhere at anytime. I don't think Blizzard has fully thought out the consequences of this.

It will allow players who choose to pay real life money to have an advantage over those who don't, possibly even allowing them to control the markets on the AH and manipulate prices to their will. While this is free market capitalism in action, they fail to realize that free market capitalism simply doesn't work on such a small scale, and especially when there is no alternative product. If Jimbo sells Frost lotus for 50 gold a stack, and can buy out anyone who posts it for lower and re-post for 50 gold a stack, I can't say "Well I'll just buy generic brand Frost Lotus for cheaper if I want to", no, the market for that item is tightly controlled and set in stone. Why would anyone hold on to frost lotus and sell to someone looking to buy cheaper when Jimbo will buy it from you right now for 40 gold or whatever? Jimbo literally has an unlimited opportunity to scan the auction house and squash any competition. In the real world he couldn't do this simply because there would be far too many people out there offering similar products, and in WoW there is no "close enough".

tl;dr:
this could very well have a serious impact on server economy, unless blizz decided to expand AH's to battlegroups, which has problems all its own.

Wut?: Premium services in a pay to play game? For shame blizz, for shame.



Edited, Feb 2nd 2010 2:10pm by SteveTheEaterofCakes
#4 Feb 02 2010 at 2:29 PM Rating: Excellent
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4,074 posts
It's a cute idea. I am sure I know some people who wouldn't mind pretending to read urgent emails during meetings while actually doing auctions. But it seems a little much, somehow. If I'm in a position where I can appropriately check my auctions, I can just do so in-game. If I'm not, do we really need people ignoring their families in restaurants because they have to know right now if their Titansteel sold? Not that I know anyone who would do that. <hides husband's iPhone>
#5 Feb 02 2010 at 3:00 PM Rating: Decent
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3,157 posts
Edit: NM

Edited, Feb 2nd 2010 2:01pm by jaysgsl
#6 Feb 02 2010 at 3:01 PM Rating: Decent
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1,888 posts
Freaking finally. I always wondered why the hell they wouldnt do it. You log-in on armory, have access to your bag and bank, put things to sell, browse things to buy.
It would make mouch easier to make money for those of us that cant play in a daily base.
#7 Feb 02 2010 at 3:11 PM Rating: Good
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2,101 posts
I wonder what kind of restrictions they will have on this, if any at all.

I can see it now.

Running H:Pit. Killed some trash, oh cool I just won the battered hilt.
"AFK a moment please".
Tab out, or turn on my iphone.
Two pulls later "hey guys, you know that hilt that I just won, yeah when I went afk I put it on AH, and I just checked again and it sold for 10k"
#8 Feb 02 2010 at 3:49 PM Rating: Excellent
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1,264 posts
Steve... wrote:
It will allow players who choose to pay real life money to have an advantage over those who don't...


This was my first reaction, as well. I don't particularly think it's a good idea because I don't like the idea of a premium service that potentially has such a big impact on game-play.
#9 Feb 02 2010 at 3:55 PM Rating: Excellent
It will be fun to see what we can do for free.

Lacking the Auctioneer addon, it wont see much use by me. I'm all about special searches and volume buying.
#10 Feb 02 2010 at 4:04 PM Rating: Good
SynnTastic wrote:
I can see it now.

Running H:Pit. Killed some trash, oh cool I just won the battered hilt.
"AFK a moment please".
Tab out, or turn on my iphone.
Two pulls later "hey guys, you know that hilt that I just won, yeah when I went afk I put it on AH, and I just checked again and it sold for 10k"


While an extreme (and hopefully unlikely) example, I can't help but return to the anti-greed bandwagon.

Admittedly I disliked (and still do for the record) the costs of the cosmetic non-combat pets Blizz started selling a few months ago. To me, that was a simple sales gimmick/"product" to get more cash.

This new service, which obviously requires a bit of programming and such, understandably requires an investment in creating it. But I can't help but have concerns over the idea in general:

-Account hacking. Can't use the Auction House without logging in right? I can see account hacking as only getting worse. Folks will use other computers (at work, friend's, coffee shop wi-fi, etc) which could provide a user with increased risk of keyloggers, from a computing environment they are not controlling the security of.

-Item tracking. Increased AH traffic cause any problems? Account restoration investigations could potentially take longer?

Bleh. The service would be a nice utility, for those that would use it. But all my dislikes for it atm are based around scumbags making the game worse by using it.
#11 Feb 02 2010 at 4:05 PM Rating: Excellent
Oh great, yet another distraction for me at work! I already read these and other forums, now I can day trade the AH all day long.

I can feel my work productivity approaching zero as I type this....
#12 Feb 02 2010 at 4:38 PM Rating: Excellent
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11,852 posts
azwing wrote:
Steve... wrote:
It will allow players who choose to pay real life money to have an advantage over those who don't...


This was my first reaction, as well. I don't particularly think it's a good idea because I don't like the idea of a premium service that potentially has such a big impact on game-play.


It's not much of an advantage, but it is nevertheless greedy to create yet another service not covered by our "premium" $15/month. Whatever, the corporates have been making decisions for WoW for years now. It's not surprising.
#13 Feb 02 2010 at 8:52 PM Rating: Good
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1,175 posts
I like this idea but also hate it for many of the same reasons discussed earlier. The negatives far outweigh the positives, so let's put some restrictions on this before (ab)use of it gets out of hand:
• Read-only access to the auction house. Add in completed, running and expired auction listings (since last traditional login) in XML sorted by item and status (sold, expired, bid, no bid).
• No mailbox access.

This would then improve the ability to use 3rd party programs to track auction sales, which I'm sure Blizzard does not want, unless they're willing to change all that.
#14 Feb 02 2010 at 9:16 PM Rating: Good
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4,297 posts
what percentage of the game population actually have an iphone and will use it to check the ah?

people complained about raids being targeted to too small a portion of the players.
#15 Feb 02 2010 at 9:57 PM Rating: Excellent
Jordster, Tarutaru Murder Suspect wrote:
azwing wrote:
Steve... wrote:
It will allow players who choose to pay real life money to have an advantage over those who don't...


This was my first reaction, as well. I don't particularly think it's a good idea because I don't like the idea of a premium service that potentially has such a big impact on game-play.


It's not much of an advantage, but it is nevertheless greedy to create yet another service not covered by our "premium" $15/month. Whatever, the corporates have been making decisions for WoW for years now. It's not surprising.


I agree entirely. Sounds like another greedy way to make more money over the subscription fee. incoming more noncombat pets for $10 a piece.
#16 Feb 03 2010 at 3:06 AM Rating: Good
I certainly wouldn't do it unless Norgana created a version of Auctioneer that works outside of the game. Analyzing AH data can be done by hand, but if that's what's available outside, then it's much easier to log on to perform the scan.
#17 Feb 04 2010 at 8:57 AM Rating: Excellent
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First facebook integration and now this.

The motorboat is revving it's engine. The shark is swimming into the bay. Blizzard is putting on the water skis. It's all in place now.
#18 Feb 05 2010 at 2:36 AM Rating: Good
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3,114 posts
#19 Feb 05 2010 at 1:22 PM Rating: Good



What's sad is that with autofollow and just a couple more buttons, that could totally work.
#20 Feb 09 2010 at 5:01 PM Rating: Decent
I'm all about new stuff, as long as there is a reason for it. I would like to see more interactivity on the iPhone app.

Edited, Feb 9th 2010 5:17pm by moparchris
#21 Feb 09 2010 at 5:15 PM Rating: Decent
It's not that bad, not a Fonzie moment anyway. There is nothing wrong with the game evolving like this. My computer at work is blocked from almost everything on the internet, especially anything to do with games. An iPhone app is great for me to play with on my downtime. It is an optional feature, so you don't have to mess with it at all.
#22 Feb 09 2010 at 5:29 PM Rating: Decent
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240 posts
Personally, when I am not sitting in front of my computer, I like to be disconnected from WOW mentally. Being able to access the AH from my phone is just another unnecessary time sink.
#23 Feb 10 2010 at 8:48 AM Rating: Decent
Quote:
Personally, when I am not sitting in front of my computer, I like to be disconnected from WOW mentally. Being able to access the AH from my phone is just another unnecessary time sink.


That is a good point.

Did I hear that this was going to be a "premium" service, as in paid?
#24 Feb 10 2010 at 10:20 AM Rating: Good
Strangely enough, this is very close to a dream I had in 2005, before I had any actual involvement with iPods, WoW and such. That dream was about playing WoW on an iPod, and it was so awesome that I still remember it four and a half years later.
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