Diablo 3 Director was oblivious to market forces and human nature.

Lesson learned. Diablo 3 Director Jay Wilson: Auction Houses 'really hurt' game

Wilson said that before Blizzard launched the game, the company had a few assumptions about how the Auction Houses would work: He thought they would help reduce fraud, that they'd provide a wanted service to players, that only a small percentage of players would use it and that the price of items would limit how many were listed and sold.

But he said that once the game went live, Blizzard realized it was completely wrong about those last two points.

As someone who is still a very regular player of this game, I can attest to having to be as good at the actual game as I am at the "other game" known as Auction House. You have to be aware of market trends, player habits, and timing item sales before new patches go live. Sounds like options trading, doesn't it?

This is why I was very happy about the latest patch which introduced new crafting recipes and materials that allow for uber gear, but not being allowed to sell those items in the Auction House. Literally within hours of the new patch's release, several items' prices crashed, others skyrocketed, and the commodities market (crafting materials and gems for socketing) was reset into a whole new environment. I loved it: watching futures, options, and commodities trading affect prices in real time.

I'm not surprised that this idea of limiting exceptional crafted items to personal use occurred after Jay Wilson stepped down. Also, there are now wholly new markets in lower player level gear in the Auction House for veteran players trying out new classes. This is closer to what Wilson was hoping for, instead of what he got in the first few months of Diablo 3's release.

Oh, and yes, I am still an uber, uber video game playing geek, if you needed to be reminded.