Making a living through Diablo (Probably Not)

Diablo III; you can't wait for it, I can't wait for it, pretty much anyone who plays games can't wait for it.  Blizzard is now showing that not only are they making a game with the devil in the details, but that they may be the devil themselves, if not just as evil.  Diablo III is going to have a real money auction house.  Players can find objects in the game and sell them to other players for real cash.  Why have they done this and why is it evil? I'll get to that in just a moment.

Image from G4TV.com - The FeedThe big question is:  Why do this? As stated by Blizzard it is because Diablo is a game about trading. The loot tables are random so when you find that one epic you need, it is a little more epic.  This also means that it is pretty hard to find exactly what you want without trading another player, something that really sucked in Diablo II.  Now if players get an epic item they can't use, they can place it on the auction house for gold or cash and make a profit in game or out.  This is a great move on Blizzard's part as it reduces the third party companies that you might give your account info to.  It also means they have control over the transactions. To top it off they make money when you sell an item for real money.  They will take a "nominal fixed fee" from each transaction that can differ depending on if the item sells or not.  Then the money you make can be used for Blizzard items (your WoW subscription for example) or pay a another fee to get it as actual cash.  SEE, they just made money off of you twice!  Three times if you count that you bought the game from them.

How is it evil? Simple, people are stupid.  Sorry to break it to you like that.  Someone is going to hear how so and so made enough money to quit their job from selling things in Diablo III.  They are going to do the same thing, but with one minor difference.  The idiot will make no money at all.  Now they are jobless and need cash, so what do they do?  Sell themselves on Colfax (Denver joke, if you live here you will get it).  They will keep this up until they make enough money from the auctions to support themselves, which they won't.  Blizzard has inadvertently doomed this poor soul to a life of prostitution because they thought they could make a living on the Diablo III auction house.  Why do I think there are people like this?  Because of people like these.

So when will this downfall of humanity happen?  We don't know.  Beta testing has started though, so the end of society as we know it may soon be at hand.