Too many sellers, not enough buyers

Revisiting this month-old necro'd thread to respond to some of the new comments:

Haro wrote: 2 years ago

Simply a numbers game...

This is where I think a lot of people look at the site differently to the way I look at the site.

A lot of people think that I set out to 'compete' with other sites like d2jsp and Traderie. They mistakenly think that it was my aim to monopolise or dominate 3rd party trading stuff online. Many people think that I treat this site as a commercial venture, or a 'numbers game', in which I am actively competing for the users etc with the other trading sites.

So let me just put the record straight - to me diablo2.io is not about the numbers. I don't compare its traffic numbers to other sites, and I don't stop people from posting links or talking about other sites - because I do not consider myself to be 'competing' with them. This place is first and foremost my Passion project - I've been building nostalgic Blizzlike forum communities for years and it's what I love to do. I didn't come at this whole project with the intention of trying to build 'the best' trading site. I just wanted to build something unique.

A bit more on wanting to build something unique: I have made a point of not personally developing or encourage 'duplicate' things here on diablo2.io. That's why you don't see a drop calculator here (Silopsen), or a skill point planner/build planner/armory tool (Maxroll), or any high-quality curated 'guide' style content being pushed (Maxroll/IcyVeins/Purediablo/YouTube/Twitch). These things have been perfected already by the D2 community, so from the very start I set myself limits as to what I would try and build, so that the tools I offered here on this site would fill in gaps where something was needed, and not duplicate features already fit for purpose elsewhere.

When the first leaks came out about a possible 'D2 HD' remake in early 2020, I set out to make (yet another) D2 site, but was determined that this time I'd make something useful that isn't already done to Death. Saw that no-one had made an interactive relational game database yet, so I built it and with the help of the community here populated it. It was a unique feature that no-one had made for D2 yet. I also wanted a fully-featured forum as well, so eventually what the site came out as was a database/forum hybrid that actually was unique and gave people something new and useful. Trading was not talked about much during these early days.

Just before the game launch, there weren't actually any good non-RMT alternatives to d2jsp and people were crying out for an alternative on reddit and other circles. The site here had already been active for 3 months before trading was even whispered about. I knew then as I do now that d2jsp is an incredible website with a 20 year legacy as testament to its success, and that it doesn't force you to RMT - you can use it just like you can here with in-game exchanges. But equally, I knew that a lot of D2 players were also wanting to use something new and without the connotations of jsp's somewhat tarnished reputation.

Some people made a few half-ass attempts at web apps, some made bits of the toolset, but not all of it etc. So I saw a chance to make something unique again that would be helpful to people, and rather than building bits and pieces I went and I built the whole thing. The actual game's design itself had a very clear message about making things more 'accessible', and in that Spirit I saw my opportunity to build something unique that people would want to use, that could integrate with the forum and database functionality already standing on their own here.

During this time, Traderie already existed and was already a hugely popular non-RMT trading platform for all of the most popular games. Squishguin started building it at around the same time I did with d2io, but no-one knew that it would have a D2R section until around launch-time, which is when I put the first trading features here as well. This coincided with the same time that I put the first trading features here on the site; my version of what I thought people would want to see. So I couldn't have foreseen the overlap in the kinds of features offered by the two sites.

Nonetheless, I still think that the site here retains unique features that still haven't been replicated elsewhere. Take the price checker/history tool for example - still the only transparent, data-driven way players have to assess the 'value' of their items without anyone's advice. It all integrates with the DB and the forums and the general site, so I'm really happy with what I made, and I think it stands apart from other platforms in many regards. The trade stuff I put up was based on what people told me they wanted to see - and the feedback/bug reports forums show that I have always done my very best to put those ideas and changes into force.

The point I'm trying to drive home here lads is that I built this site to offer something unique to D2 players - an integrated database, community, and (later on) a trading platform, which at the time was designed just for the people already active here, not the no.1 google spot. As time has gone on, people like to draw comparisons between this place and sites like Traderie/JSP, as if they are trying to out-do each other, as if from the very start that they were racing to build features for traders. It's just simply not that at all - we are just indie developers who decided to make coincidentally similar things, release them at around the same time, unbeknownst to each other.

What turned out was two sites with a similar audience, but built slightly differently. Traderie has incredibly granular searching options, a much better 'general browsing' experience, and also a much larger audience of hardcore players due to the streaming publicity it gets. Sure, it got a big boost from already being a successful trading platform, sure, there was an successful marketing campaign influencers at the start, but the real reason that people use Traderie is because it is better suited to their needs. Simple as that. I am not so conceited to think any otherwise - and I never have been. It's a better trading platform with better features.

I am on good terms with Squishguin, the owner and developer of Traderie. We talk occasionally on discord voice about our sites, the game, web development stuff etc. I am a huge fan of what he created. So I just want to dismiss this 'idea' that I am somehow competing with him, or other websites, to try and 'gain' as many users as possible. It's not like that, it never was like that. I just built what people asked me to build at the time, to the best of my ability, in the way that I thought it best with my time and skills.

I don't care if people use JSP, and I've never had a problem with them or the site. Njaguar (the developer/main owner) is a bit of an enigmatic character and though I haven't had a chance to speak to him myself yet, I know that I would enjoy the opportunity to do so. I don't care that a lot of people use just Traderie. I don't care if they use a combination of jsp/traderie/d2io/purediablo/trading discords. I've had people say to me 'well if you don't build X feature like so-and-so, I'm leaving for Y platform'. This doesn't matter to me - because what I've created here is still unique, and useful to people - and I can see that the people who do use this site really enjoy using it, so I'm happy.

It makes me even happier to know that some people consider it their 'preference' - that's just gravy on top for me. My creative goal has been fulfilled - to create a site that offered things to D2 players that no-one else had done yet. People use the site here for various things, all of them in some respects different to the way it has been done before. That's good enough for me. It's been a Dream come true to operate a fan site like this for the game I have loved since I was a teenager.

I will always continue to promote other great tools and resources outside of this site and this community. We let people talk about the advantages of other trading platforms, we let people link to tools and resources on other sites (see the sticky in forum for example) - the aim of the site was help D2 players no matter what or where that help came from. Not to build an awful clickbait ad-generating revenue site 'at odds' with the alternatives, banning mentions of 'competitors' etc.

So please guys, remember that. We are all here because we love the game Diablo 2. I'm thrilled that my creation helps people enjoy D2 more, and I hope that the design and policy of the site continues to encourage people to use other tools as well as the ones available here. I know I can be incredibly defensive and stubborn sometimes when responding to criticism, but just know that I don't concern myself with where people are trading as much as people think I do... this is my creative jam, my desire to make unique projects as discussed, and it is what it is - there shouldn't be any expectations for me to develop features that are equivalent to what is available elsewhere.

Edit: also to the guy complaining about the GUI - it is intentionally made to look like it was 20 years old. This is a style direction I've always used to great success when making sites for classic era games like WoW Classic and D2R. For many it goes hand in hand with the nostalgia for the game itself, and helps people feel more immersed. That's what I hope anyway - if you think it sucks, then you think it sucks, fair enough and I don't feel the need to try and make you think any differently on it.