Fact is there is the business of video games, which is fine (to an extent), and now Blizzard (and everybody else) wants to inject business INTO video games. You can't sit there with a straight face and say video games are going to be better for it. The golden age of games is gone because development moved from the garage and basement to the office complex. Business is the cancer of the arts, and wherever there is money to be made there business will spread.
I played Diablo because I loved doing so, not because I expected a paycheck out of it. You can be damned sure with real money on the line Blizzard is going to keep an iron fist around "the economy" of Diablo III. At the end of the day it's going to be silly "oldtimers" like myself getting the short end of the stick, individuals who were under the impression that playing a video game was its own reward.
Steam + PSN: PHJF