The Diablo 3 economy will be remarkably different than WoW for several reasons. Among them will be the fact that everything after level 60 will be exchangeable and will never be bound to a character. The difference between a character who just beat the game on Hell difficult and reached level 60 and a character who just beat it on Inferno difficulty will be nothing but gear and skill. This gear can be quickly transferred from one character to another. This has several important implications we should be aware of.

First off, the fact that characters are easy to level to 60 (they will be) and that their gear is completely transferable is going to create a sense of completion unlike that of World of Warcraft. Instead of building characters you’ll be able to build item sets. You’ll buy new slots in your shared stash and amass sets of items for different classes. Some classes will be able to share some gear, like Witch Doctors and Wizards. This will be the gear that has both Magic Find and Gold Find on it along with Intellect and a few casting stats. Once you store this gear in your stash or put it away for another day you’ll be able to pull it back out any time you want and forever. This is going to make the game gear oriented (duh) and make players want to collect more than one set at a time. It reminds me of TCGs where you spend tons of time building decks to play in certain circumstances. Gear is king in Diablo 3.

This is also going to apply to gems. Many players are going to refuse to let go of their prized gems. If for no other reason except “I might use this some day on my Barbarian.”

Second, this is will make security a serious issue. I have no idea what Blizzard plans to do to account for the increased demand to steal character’s inventory. In World of Warcraft you might have the most epic character in the world but if a hacker got his hands on it all he could do was vendor the major soulbound gear, sell some trade goods and steal your gold. Because gold was never turned into real money, legally, Blizzard would be able to reinstate all of your gear in a few hours.

In Diablo 3 the threat of getting your stuff stolen is going to be serious business. If a hacker gets a hold of your account information (which seems to be relatively easy these days) they will be able to steal all of your progression past level 60. They will be able to trade and eventually sell items for real money. Fortunately, real names will be attached to these accounts along with real PayPal accounts. PayPal transfers can be reversed but will Blizzard reverse auctions? If I have my Helm of I’mTheBest stolen and sold on the auction house for 10 billion gold and then the gold is distributed to 20 different accounts where it’s eventually turned into real money, what will Blizzard do then? Take the Helm of I’mTheBest away from the player I sold it to and restore his money?

Finally, this advancement aspect is going to create an environment where itemization, as in wow, continues to become less and less exclusive between expansions. As players play more, they will find more gear and that gear will enter into the economy reducing the price of equivalent gear. This is going to make it very important to items and gear quickly, especially soon after the game releases. There is a small chance that Blizzard implements the appropriate gold sinks to counter inflation, but it’s going to be extremely difficult.

Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.