Hello Medium, welcome to my first article exploring potential possibilities in improving user enjoyment through decentralized applications. Recently I’ve been theorizing more about how Enjin and its ERC-1155 token can be used to create game design principles that allow a higher level of enjoyment from users. I believe Enjin has a strong case to partner with Blizzard on being a part of their Diablo series’ item loot system - in particular, the upcoming Diablo 4.

In this post, I will review Blizzard’s initial exploration into the Auction House concept and how we can use Enjin to create a superior version with some modifications to how the trade can interact with the core gameplay.

In another blog post “Diablo III’s failed Auction House: Why true ownership won’t save your game”, Adoragoh makes some excellent points about what the auction house was and why it ultimately failed and was taken down in Diablo 3. Please give it a read - it’s rather interesting and is accurately reflective of my own experience playing D3. I’ll be basing some recommended solutions on several related points.

How the Auction House ruined early D3…

The main reason the auction house ruined early D3 gameplay was that it became a shortcut path to playing the game more efficiently than actually playing the game itself to progress. Fighting monsters was really just to acquire more loot to sell, to get funds to scour the AH to find better equipment which was inevitable when creating a rather good global marketplace that allowed players to browse quickly enough. The story of the game and the struggles leveling up based off of your own accomplishments were supposed to be focal points to the experience, and instead, all I remember was trying to get the best loot possible via the AH.

Another interesting point was made in the comments about security being the downfall of the D3 AH, while referring to WoW’s implementation as successful because it did not have such problems in place. This is true that we should have a secure and unhackable protocol which fortunately the Ethereum blockchain takes care of here.

Proposed Solution and Redesign of how “AH” interacts with Core Principles of D4

Seasons and why they are an optimal fit for rarity and competition

One of the most interesting ways ERC-1155 tokens can create a higher perceived level of value is through the recurring seasons where users start a new character and compete against other players to be the best within this limited timeframe. This is the ideal time to create a supply of legendary and set items throughout the game as players scour the maps and monsters to acquire them. In this timeframe, there’ll be a true understanding of how rare it is to find something and use it for the goal of competing against other players and acquiring EXP and rewards that also help your non-seasonal account.

We can either (1) create the limited item supply once the Season starts or (2) we can decide to convert the acquired non-blockchain based items into ERC-1155 once the Season ends and then the user can use them in their non-seasonal accounts and other trade at that point. The second option may be more enticing in allowing randomness to occur before immortalizing the assets post-season.

We can make seasons the main entree for users playing D4, who are trying to acquire new and interesting items that wouldn’t have been acquirable in normal gameplay. And since seasons naturally produce unique items already, it is a perfect match in creating a limited supply of sought after items that have history and can be used in general game play afterwards with less stakes involved.

Let’s limit “Auction House” (or general trading via Enjin’s marketplace) to only maxed-out level non-seasonal accounts. Instead, all Seasonal players and below level 70 characters can only equip items acquired through p2p trading when actually meeting them within the game like how Diablo 2 and Runescape worked. Any items acquired through means of a global trade market, which will exist through Enjin’s marketplace, will not be equip-able by these characters.

This does several things:

Part of the issue with the global AH is that it provided too much efficiency in acquiring the best items available, ruining the natural progression of a game. One of the charming factors of previous games is actually finding a good deal by naturally stumbling upon another character selling a great find. This is reminiscent of how barter and trade would’ve worked in these non-technologically developed worlds anyway.

For Seasonal characters, players can focus purely on the core gameplay and competition with out trade being a factor.

For non-maxed out characters, they will also have to do the same.

Only maxed-out non-seasonal characters can enjoy the perks of using acquired items through Enjin’s marketplace to push their gameplay further by completing a greater number of G-Rifts, which I think is fine given that it’s a stage of the gameplay where it’s not about the story anymore — it’s about pushing the bounds of a character’s success given resources/items beyond what they acquired either themselves or natural p2p trade.

Conclusion

By executing the above strategy, we avoid two of the biggest problems with items that have perceived in-game value, which are the (1) head start that veteran players can have where they acquire the most valuable resources in a game far ahead of new entrants, until it is not satisfying to play any more, and (2) pay2win aspect that some RPGs deal with, which is also frustrating for players who are trying to enjoy the game for the purity of competition and fairness.

By all means, non-seasonal gameplay can house both of these ‘problems’, but that is fine because it separates what players are looking for, which is (A) the pursuit of fair competition from an equal starting point and (B) the pursuit to be amongst the all-time best.

In summary, the way Diablo 3 is structured currently allows seasons to distribute new, unique items, while general non-seasonal gameplay is where rewards are aggregated and can be enjoyed. Going forward with Diablo 4, we can utilize Enjin to immortalize these rewarded assets in a manner so that Blizzard does not have to assume the responsibilities of maintaining a centralized exchange that is at risk to security vulnerabilities, and instead can depend on Enjin’s marketplace to manage these transactions. If they would like an in-game view to only Diablo specific items in the Enjin marketplace, that can be easily done. Additionally, Blizzard should apply in-game item equipment restrictions based on level and whether the character is seasonal or not to decide who has incentive to participate in that global market. This will prevent real money trading from overwhelming gameplay progression when it matters, specifically when it is seasonal and/or pre-max level. In creating this holistic system, Diablo 4 may be able to demonstrate a truly successful implementation of real money trading applied to in-game assets.

Side Note:

It is interesting that the D3 Auction House and D3 seasons never had a chance to interact with each other.