I...could....not...agree...more(!). The concept of the AH being not just a trading house between players for within-game found/crafted items, but purchased items (and gold as well....) with real world cash has totally screwed this game to death. The fact the there are players out there with widely-varying amounts of personal discretionary real world cash to spend in the AH, has totally shown what out-of-control inflationary funding input can do to social organizational structure. When I first started playing D3 last year, I was shocked to see some incredibly worthy items for sale for several million gold in the AH, compared to the pitiful street value offered by the in-game merchants. Just checked a few days ago, and now these same items are selling for hundreds of billions in gold, and the pitiful in-game merchant's street value for the same items has remained unchanged.

This is absolute insanity, it's completely driven by the corporate greed of Blizzard, and that is why I am refusing to play the game anymore.

I haven't even bought it yet. I usually wait a couple of months before buying a game to ensure that the bugs are minimized that the right patches have been applied. Based on many of the comments on game play difficulty versus the cap level of 60, and some of comments regarding the Auction House, I'm not sure I'm going to play it yet.....