Geoff
Sir "Let's Play"
In response to what Jay WIlson said...no. Building the game around needing to use the auction house was a mistake. I wasn't someone who delved into mechanics, but from what I understood, the game was made so that items would be so rare that you would just eventually go to the AH.
The way I saw it, the AH was added in to keep people from using other sites and possibly getting their money stolen. Obviously that was a decent idea, but the implementation was horrible.
Expanding on Force's question, would any Ex-Diablo 3 players here return if the AH was removed? Personally, I think if someone just spent time looking at the AH for their items instead of killing and looting for it, then they aren't diablo players. Why? Because you could do the same in D2 but that doesn't mean everyone did. >_>