When the auction house feature arrived for Blizzard’s Diablo III, a hot bundle of controversy also arrived with it. The auction house essentially allowed players to put items up for auction for in-game gold or real world currency. Sounds nice enough, right? However, this seemed to defeat the purpose of dungeon-crawling and obtaining these items for yourself. Suffice to say, players were unhappy with how easily some of the game’s best items could be obtained, and many felt the game had strayed from its roots and what made the Diablo series great.
Thankfully, the in-game auction house is dead and gone. While it had been known for a while that the auction house would be closed, the deed is done. Any players with items and gold still in the auction house have until June 24th to withdraw it, otherwise they will lose it forever. This may abandon the convenience of obtaining the best items easily, but many would argue that you would have then cheated yourself out of the satisfaction of working towards a great goal, and isn’t that what video games are all about? Nevertheless, players won’t have to worry about it any more. The Diablo III playing field is once again leveled and the challenge is back for many in full force.