THE STATE OF PLAY: HOW CASUAL CAPITALISM WORKS

There's a lot of talk on forums and websites about how hard it is to get 'decent gear', or for that matter, the money for the gear. You look around for your Best In Slot offerings, and a half baked Mempo Of Twilight   with barely any crit runs you up to several hundred MILLION in gold. People start spending days trying to snipe thousand-gold bids that some drunk guy mistakenly posted after his last frat party, fail, and start crying on the forums about how the auction house has ruined Diablo 3.

I'm sorry, people, but it ain't that hard.

So I have spent an hour or so in a single day browsing the AH, but just because I like seeing what's on sale for any given item I've been thinking about. I'm not even talking about endgame gear like a Witching Hour or a rare quinfecta ring; just random things I'd like to try builds with, like a Dawn for a stunlock demon hunter, or a Last Breath for a CC-heavy witch doctor idea I've been having. I've got a decent feel for the market, but I've spent nowhere near enough time on it to be an expert. That's because I didn't feel like I needed to.

Now, I've heard a LOT of complaining about how playing the AH has become a necessity - I've never understood that. You don't like the AH, then don't use it. Personally, I'm happy that there's a place where I can drop good gear that I don't need. No more spamming the chat rooms in Bnet a la D2, no more of the tense circling or the click-trade-and-run tricks scammers used to pull. Praying to the gods for the EXACT drop you need isn't exactly the best way to get your gearset completed. It took my werewolf druid SEVEN years of playing before I finally dropped my BiS socketed Windhammer. If I have to pay 500 million to save myself seven years, then I'm all for it. Instead of seeing the AH as a hindrance, use it to your advantage. Take a couple minutes between runs to price check on what you're selling or what you're seeking. Don't have enough gold? Keep farming. You could spend hours glued to the screen for that perfect deal, but then don't come complaining that you don't get to actually play enough.