All of those people who are upset and cancelling their preorders should contact various government agencies to get them to look into it.
Examples, IRS for tracking profits for taxing. Mention the 3Billion dollars and they might prick up. IIRC, that reporting people who aren't paying the correct amount of taxes sometimes can get you a percentage of the money recovered.
Department of Justice: Taxes for players making profits. Is the auction house some kind of internet gambling? You don't know, so they might have to check it out.
Congressman: Use their online website and tell them your issues with it.
If you are going to do this, at least play hardball.
Would be interesting to see how much Blizzard pays in taxes. Everyone they employ, all the money they make... Its probably pretty staggering, and they also probably have lobbyist on the payroll.
I'm all about taxing the crap out of companies that charge high dollar amounts for digital goods they can just copy and paste. Not so much about harming my fellow gamers who may end up subsidizing their gaming expenses with a system like this.
Plus, I am sure you haven't kept track or claimed every cent you ever earn in interest, were given for birthdays, graduations, drinks people may of bought you at bars, etc etc etc.
Just like the $400 dollar exception limit on private gains, there are limits to gifts too.
"I swear -- by my life and my love for it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." - John Galt
Was only a matter of time when the greediest game company in the world joined the bandwagon.
And to this I say:
The market exists. Someone will make the money. Would you rather it be the game maker or a third party company?
I would prefer game maker fight with this activities even if that means some third party will make money out of it.
Beside chinese farmers will still make money out of it. If you think Blizzard had done it becasue of any other reasons than to make money you're naive.
I know for a fact that they did it to make money. Blizzard is, after all, a corporation. They are not a nonprofit...Their goal is to make money for their shareholders.
Believe it or not, but "fighting" said third parties takes considerable time, effort, and money. Instead of fighting them, Blizzard is essentially eliminating their profits while taking a very minor share for themselves (remember, they are charging a very small amount for auctions, not a percentage).
Small fixed amount to list item , then % of amount you got for sale and then % if you want to transfer moeny to paypal/bank/whatever else.
I know that fighting take time , money , effort ,etc BUT I am a player and I do care what is important to ME not to game company.
I know of course they care what's good for company and not me but hell why shoud I care? They certainly don't.
So I won't buy D3 and any game that implement system like that.
More I will disencourage anyone who from buying D3.
If you're thinking that Ah will eliminate 3rd party profits you're living in a illusion. Chinese farmers and stuff like that will BE on D3 AH and will make lots of money out there.
People can simply buy gold from the other auction house and then use that in the "normal" auction house. This will inflate the prices so much that unless you buy money you will never find upgrades.
This gold you talk about must have magically appeared in the seller's pockets because, unless I'm mistaken, it was already part of the economy prior to being sold on the auction house.
The player selling it had to farm it up in the first place.
Of course it was, where did I say it wasn't.
Your argument was that there are 2 auction houses , so you don't need to participate in RMT....well you will be forced to when the prices inflate when people with legally bought Gold come in and inflate every price on every single item. It always happens in MMO, it will happen in Diablo III too. Not to mention that all the best items will simply go to the other auction house.
All of those people who are upset and cancelling their preorders should contact various government agencies to get them to look into it.
Examples, IRS for tracking profits for taxing. Mention the 3Billion dollars and they might prick up. IIRC, that reporting people who aren't paying the correct amount of taxes sometimes can get you a percentage of the money recovered.
This is essentially Ebay in a video game. It would be the item seller's responsibility to report any profits they make to the IRS - Not Blizzard's. So far, based upon what we know, Blizzard is facilitating the sale. They are not paying the sellers.
Department of Justice: Taxes for players making profits. Is the auction house some kind of internet gambling? You don't know, so they might have to check it out.
See above. The auction house is not a game of chance. You either make the highest bid or you don't.
Congressman: Use their online website and tell them your issues with it.
If you are going to do this, at least play hardball.
All of those people who are upset and cancelling their preorders should contact various government agencies to get them to look into it.
Examples, IRS for tracking profits for taxing. Mention the 3Billion dollars and they might prick up. IIRC, that reporting people who aren't paying the correct amount of taxes sometimes can get you a percentage of the money recovered.
This is essentially Ebay in a video game. It would be the item seller's responsibility to report any profits they make to the IRS - Not Blizzard's. So far, based upon what we know, Blizzard is facilitating the sale. They are not paying the sellers.
Department of Justice: Taxes for players making profits. Is the auction house some kind of internet gambling? You don't know, so they might have to check it out.
See above. The auction house is not a game of chance. You either make the highest bid or you don't.
Congressman: Use their online website and tell them your issues with it.
If you are going to do this, at least play hardball.
Blizzard gets a small percentage of the selling price when something is bought. Unless I misunderstood. I think that is what they mean in regards to Blizzard and taxes.
All of those people who are upset and cancelling their preorders should contact various government agencies to get them to look into it.
Examples, IRS for tracking profits for taxing. Mention the 3Billion dollars and they might prick up. IIRC, that reporting people who aren't paying the correct amount of taxes sometimes can get you a percentage of the money recovered.
This is essentially Ebay in a video game. It would be the item seller's responsibility to report any profits they make to the IRS - Not Blizzard's. So far, based upon what we know, Blizzard is facilitating the sale. They are not paying the sellers.
Department of Justice: Taxes for players making profits. Is the auction house some kind of internet gambling? You don't know, so they might have to check it out.
See above. The auction house is not a game of chance. You either make the highest bid or you don't.
Congressman: Use their online website and tell them your issues with it.
If you are going to do this, at least play hardball.
Blizzard gets a small percentage of the selling price when something is bought. I think that is what they mean in regards to Blizzard and taxes.
I heard you get a few free postings each month, but i didn't hear anything about getting some free purchases as well.
Hmm...
"I swear -- by my life and my love for it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." - John Galt
Blizzard gets a small percentage of the selling price when something is bought. I think that is what they mean in regards to Blizzard and taxes.
That could be true, but being a financial analyst myself, it is extremely extremely unlikely that a company wouldn't "remember" to pay taxes on these earnings.
Systems are in place that are very very detailed to capture the correct amount of taxable income.
Also, in the article detailing the auction house, Blizzard states that they DO NOT get a percentage of the selling price.
The system works as follows:
Seller lists item - Blizzard collects a very small listing fee
Buyer buys item - Blizzard collects a small, fixed sale fee
Seller decides to cash out - Blizzard takes a percentage of the cash out (unknown amount) - A third party (Paypal maybe?) takes a small percentage
Before I heard about this crap I was definitely going to buy D3. Now, I'm almost certain I will never buy it.
Please don't tell me that I could play the game and never use the cash auction house...I know this.
I'm not playing it out of principal. I mean, developers used to actually CARE that in-game items/gold being exchanged for cash didn't corrupt the game. That's apparently gone now. Now it's just how can we make the most money possible, with no regard to the integrity of their game.
Before I heard about this crap I was definitely going to buy D3. Now, I'm almost certain I will never buy it.
Please don't tell me that I could play the game and never use the cash auction house...I know this.
I'm not playing it out of principal. I mean, developers used to actually CARE that in-game items/gold being exchanged for cash didn't corrupt the game. That's apparently gone now. Now it's just how can we make the most money possible, with no regard to the integrity of their game.
lol. How cute! You actually blame the developers for the RMT abomination. Developers had nothing to do with RMT and have fought against it for 10+ years, but the players and RMTs have pushed and pushed until this obvious paradigm shift has occurred.
Whether or not Blizzard chose to embrace RMT it was going to exist in their game. They had a choice whether to waste millions in a futile attempt to curb RMT, or regulate the changes that have occurred in the video game market against their own will. There is obviously only one route they could take, and now the players act suprised when it occurs. Too funny.
If I were them I would be investing in gold . I doubt there will be many people playing mmos in the coming years the way things are going . Most of them will be more worried about food and a roof over thier heads . :P
This idea would have been better suited for WOW and titan. No offline is what many of my D3 friends are pissed about. I wasnt going to play D3 anyways but was intreested in modding until now.
Before I heard about this crap I was definitely going to buy D3. Now, I'm almost certain I will never buy it.
Please don't tell me that I could play the game and never use the cash auction house...I know this.
I'm not playing it out of principal. I mean, developers used to actually CARE that in-game items/gold being exchanged for cash didn't corrupt the game. That's apparently gone now. Now it's just how can we make the most money possible, with no regard to the integrity of their game.
lol. How cute! You actually blame the developers for the RMT abomination. Developers had nothing to do with RMT and have fought against it for 10+ years, but the players and RMTs have pushed and pushed until this obvious paradigm shift has occurred.
Whether or not Blizzard chose to embrace RMT it was going to exist in their game. They had a choice whether to waste millions in a futile attempt to curb RMT, or regulate the changes that have occurred in the video game market against their own will. There is obviously only one route they could take, and now the players act suprised when it occurs. Too funny.
I don't blame the developers for RMT existing, much like I don't blame the US government for drug trafficking existing. I blame the developers for deciding to endorse RMT and profit from it.
You say that the "players" have pushed and pushed for RMT. And I'm sure some have. But the majority??? I don't think so. I'm a player and I HATE RMT.
It's like saying "LOL, the people of country X have pushed for crack cocaine for so long, and you blame the government for legalizing and taxing it??"
Before I heard about this crap I was definitely going to buy D3. Now, I'm almost certain I will never buy it.
Please don't tell me that I could play the game and never use the cash auction house...I know this.
I'm not playing it out of principal. I mean, developers used to actually CARE that in-game items/gold being exchanged for cash didn't corrupt the game. That's apparently gone now. Now it's just how can we make the most money possible, with no regard to the integrity of their game.
lol. How cute! You actually blame the developers for the RMT abomination. Developers had nothing to do with RMT and have fought against it for 10+ years, but the players and RMTs have pushed and pushed until this obvious paradigm shift has occurred.
Whether or not Blizzard chose to embrace RMT it was going to exist in their game. They had a choice whether to waste millions in a futile attempt to curb RMT, or regulate the changes that have occurred in the video game market against their own will. There is obviously only one route they could take, and now the players act suprised when it occurs. Too funny.
I don't blame the developers for RMT existing, much like I don't blame the US government for drug trafficking existing. I blame the developers for deciding to endorse RMT and profit from it.
You say that the "players" have pushed and pushed for RMT. And I'm sure some have. But the majority??? I don't think so. I'm a player and I HATE RMT.
It's like saying "LOL, the people of country X have pushed for crack cocaine for so long, and you blame the government for legalizing and taxing it??"
Possibly, but the negative effects of cocaine on the general population is much greater than the negative effects of RMT. At a certain point you have to determine if the negative effects outweight the cost to fight back, and in this instance its a pretty simple choice.
You aren't buying anything directly from Blizzard though. It's just like EBay.
yes its just like Ebay but no AAA online game has taken it to these extremes before
even money grubbing SOE, who already did this on EQ2 w LiveGamer, has it limited to only 2 servers
if its not bad -- why not bring this to WOW too ?
They yet may. Chances are they are still experimenting?
Venge
edit - however chances are they won't add it to WoW as it represents a kind of major change to the way the economy runs. Soe taught us that major game changes have to be dealt with fairly delicately.
Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it is bad.
edit - however chances are they won't add it to WoW as it represents a kind of major change to the way the economy runs. Soe taught us that major game changes have to be dealt with fairly delicately.
easy fix - launch new servers
thats what SOE did for it
D3 auction house allows selling Gear and ingame gold for cash
SOE's partnership w Live Gamer also lets you sell characters beyond that (but limited to only 2 servers)
is this what players want ?
an ingame ebay to use RL cash to buy gold / gear / characters in all games ?
as long as the seller "earned it"
the people buying the stuff sure as hell didnt earn it
All of those people who are upset and cancelling their preorders should contact various government agencies to get them to look into it.
Examples, IRS for tracking profits for taxing. Mention the 3Billion dollars and they might prick up. IIRC, that reporting people who aren't paying the correct amount of taxes sometimes can get you a percentage of the money recovered.
This is essentially Ebay in a video game. It would be the item seller's responsibility to report any profits they make to the IRS - Not Blizzard's. So far, based upon what we know, Blizzard is facilitating the sale. They are not paying the sellers.
Department of Justice: Taxes for players making profits. Is the auction house some kind of internet gambling? You don't know, so they might have to check it out.
See above. The auction house is not a game of chance. You either make the highest bid or you don't.
Congressman: Use their online website and tell them your issues with it.
If you are going to do this, at least play hardball.
Blizzard gets a small percentage of the selling price when something is bought. Unless I misunderstood. I think that is what they mean in regards to Blizzard and taxes.
Remember that is a small percentage of the 3 Billion or in other words a significantly huge ammount compared to what the average joe player might earn in a month.
Before I heard about this crap I was definitely going to buy D3. Now, I'm almost certain I will never buy it.
Please don't tell me that I could play the game and never use the cash auction house...I know this.
I'm not playing it out of principal. I mean, developers used to actually CARE that in-game items/gold being exchanged for cash didn't corrupt the game. That's apparently gone now. Now it's just how can we make the most money possible, with no regard to the integrity of their game.
lol. How cute! You actually blame the developers for the RMT abomination. Developers had nothing to do with RMT and have fought against it for 10+ years, but the players and RMTs have pushed and pushed until this obvious paradigm shift has occurred.
Whether or not Blizzard chose to embrace RMT it was going to exist in their game. They had a choice whether to waste millions in a futile attempt to curb RMT, or regulate the changes that have occurred in the video game market against their own will. There is obviously only one route they could take, and now the players act suprised when it occurs. Too funny.
I don't blame the developers for RMT existing, much like I don't blame the US government for drug trafficking existing. I blame the developers for deciding to endorse RMT and profit from it.
You say that the "players" have pushed and pushed for RMT. And I'm sure some have. But the majority??? I don't think so. I'm a player and I HATE RMT.
It's like saying "LOL, the people of country X have pushed for crack cocaine for so long, and you blame the government for legalizing and taxing it??"
Possibly, but the negative effects of cocaine on the general population is much greater than the negative effects of RMT. At a certain point you have to determine if the negative effects outweight the cost to fight back, and in this instance its a pretty simple choice.
I grant that cocaine has a more negative impact on our society than RMT. But the analogy still stands in that they're profiting from something that is essentially bad.
When I played WoW, RMT obviously existed in the form of all the gold selling sites, and I'm sure many players patronized these sites, otherwise they would not have existed. But I never bought gold from one of these sites, and my bet would be that the majority of the players did not either. After all, no one ever complained that Blizzard was banner gold sellers/buyers.
It was pretty well understood that buying farmed gold for real money was a bad thing for the game. Blizzard even called it "corrupting the economy." Consequently, gold sellers and probably buyers were thought of as "bad" by most of the community. They participated in an activity that was harmful to the game. It was a PERMENANTLY bannable offense.
The D3 auction house is basically catering to these people. It's a complete 180 from Blizzard's previous policies. "Hey remember when we banned you for buying gold??? That's water under the bridge now! Come to our fabulous new auction house!"
It just shows that Blizzard is a really unprincipled company. I seriously hope that Torchlight 2 kicks D3's butt.
All of those people who are upset and cancelling their preorders should contact various government agencies to get them to look into it.
Examples, IRS for tracking profits for taxing. Mention the 3Billion dollars and they might prick up. IIRC, that reporting people who aren't paying the correct amount of taxes sometimes can get you a percentage of the money recovered.
This is essentially Ebay in a video game. It would be the item seller's responsibility to report any profits they make to the IRS - Not Blizzard's. So far, based upon what we know, Blizzard is facilitating the sale. They are not paying the sellers.
Department of Justice: Taxes for players making profits. Is the auction house some kind of internet gambling? You don't know, so they might have to check it out.
See above. The auction house is not a game of chance. You either make the highest bid or you don't.
Congressman: Use their online website and tell them your issues with it.
If you are going to do this, at least play hardball.
Blizzard gets a small percentage of the selling price when something is bought. Unless I misunderstood. I think that is what they mean in regards to Blizzard and taxes.
Remember that is a small percentage of the 3 Billion or in other words a significantly huge ammount compared to what the average joe player might earn in a month.
Before I heard about this crap I was definitely going to buy D3. Now, I'm almost certain I will never buy it.
Please don't tell me that I could play the game and never use the cash auction house...I know this.
I'm not playing it out of principal. I mean, developers used to actually CARE that in-game items/gold being exchanged for cash didn't corrupt the game. That's apparently gone now. Now it's just how can we make the most money possible, with no regard to the integrity of their game.
lol. How cute! You actually blame the developers for the RMT abomination. Developers had nothing to do with RMT and have fought against it for 10+ years, but the players and RMTs have pushed and pushed until this obvious paradigm shift has occurred.
Whether or not Blizzard chose to embrace RMT it was going to exist in their game. They had a choice whether to waste millions in a futile attempt to curb RMT, or regulate the changes that have occurred in the video game market against their own will. There is obviously only one route they could take, and now the players act suprised when it occurs. Too funny.
I don't blame the developers for RMT existing, much like I don't blame the US government for drug trafficking existing. I blame the developers for deciding to endorse RMT and profit from it.
You say that the "players" have pushed and pushed for RMT. And I'm sure some have. But the majority??? I don't think so. I'm a player and I HATE RMT.
It's like saying "LOL, the people of country X have pushed for crack cocaine for so long, and you blame the government for legalizing and taxing it??"
Possibly, but the negative effects of cocaine on the general population is much greater than the negative effects of RMT. At a certain point you have to determine if the negative effects outweight the cost to fight back, and in this instance its a pretty simple choice.
I grant that cocaine has a more negative impact on our society than RMT. But the analogy still stands in that they're profiting from something that is essentially bad.
When I played WoW, RMT obviously existed in the form of all the gold selling sites, and I'm sure many players patronized these sites, otherwise they would not have existed. But I never bought gold from one of these sites, and my bet would be that the majority of the players did not either. After all, no one ever complained that Blizzard was banner gold sellers/buyers.
It was pretty well understood that buying farmed gold for real money was a bad thing for the game. Blizzard even called it "corrupting the economy." Consequently, gold sellers and probably buyers were thought of as "bad" by most of the community. They participated in an activity that was harmful to the game. It was a PERMENANTLY bannable offense.
The D3 auction house is basically catering to these people. It's a complete 180 from Blizzard's previous policies. "Hey remember when we banned you for buying gold??? That's water under the bridge now! Come to our fabulous new auction house!"
It just shows that Blizzard is a really unprincipled company. I seriously hope that Torchlight 2 kicks D3's butt.
So you're making the assumption that buying gold is bad. Why? Because in the past we viewed it as a bad practice. I agree, in the past I viewed it in a negative way as well, but video games are evolving and so do some of the principle that we use to govern them.
Take a step back and ask yourself why you believe RMT is immoral.
Lets look at D2 for instance. Certain gear was necessary to run ubers or fight DClone. If I wanted to try that and experience a part of the game I purchased, but didn't have time to do 10,000 farming runs necessary to acquire that gear, I would be out of luck. Now, through this brilliant paradigm shift, I can experience that portion of the game by paying a little extra cash. Is that bad? Some may view it as bad, but this just give more players more ways to enjoy the content of the game, without actually changing the content of the game.
Before I heard about this crap I was definitely going to buy D3. Now, I'm almost certain I will never buy it.
Please don't tell me that I could play the game and never use the cash auction house...I know this.
I'm not playing it out of principal. I mean, developers used to actually CARE that in-game items/gold being exchanged for cash didn't corrupt the game. That's apparently gone now. Now it's just how can we make the most money possible, with no regard to the integrity of their game.
lol. How cute! You actually blame the developers for the RMT abomination. Developers had nothing to do with RMT and have fought against it for 10+ years, but the players and RMTs have pushed and pushed until this obvious paradigm shift has occurred.
Whether or not Blizzard chose to embrace RMT it was going to exist in their game. They had a choice whether to waste millions in a futile attempt to curb RMT, or regulate the changes that have occurred in the video game market against their own will. There is obviously only one route they could take, and now the players act suprised when it occurs. Too funny.
I don't blame the developers for RMT existing, much like I don't blame the US government for drug trafficking existing. I blame the developers for deciding to endorse RMT and profit from it.
You say that the "players" have pushed and pushed for RMT. And I'm sure some have. But the majority??? I don't think so. I'm a player and I HATE RMT.
It's like saying "LOL, the people of country X have pushed for crack cocaine for so long, and you blame the government for legalizing and taxing it??"
Possibly, but the negative effects of cocaine on the general population is much greater than the negative effects of RMT. At a certain point you have to determine if the negative effects outweight the cost to fight back, and in this instance its a pretty simple choice.
I grant that cocaine has a more negative impact on our society than RMT. But the analogy still stands in that they're profiting from something that is essentially bad.
When I played WoW, RMT obviously existed in the form of all the gold selling sites, and I'm sure many players patronized these sites, otherwise they would not have existed. But I never bought gold from one of these sites, and my bet would be that the majority of the players did not either. After all, no one ever complained that Blizzard was banner gold sellers/buyers.
It was pretty well understood that buying farmed gold for real money was a bad thing for the game. Blizzard even called it "corrupting the economy." Consequently, gold sellers and probably buyers were thought of as "bad" by most of the community. They participated in an activity that was harmful to the game. It was a PERMENANTLY bannable offense.
The D3 auction house is basically catering to these people. It's a complete 180 from Blizzard's previous policies. "Hey remember when we banned you for buying gold??? That's water under the bridge now! Come to our fabulous new auction house!"
It just shows that Blizzard is a really unprincipled company. I seriously hope that Torchlight 2 kicks D3's butt.
So you're making the assumption that buying gold is bad. Why? Because in the past we viewed it as a bad practice. I agree, in the past I viewed it in a negative way as well, but video games are evolving and so do some of the principle that we use to govern them.
Take a step back and ask yourself why you believe RMT is immoral.
Lets look at D2 for instance. Certain gear was necessary to run ubers or fight DClone. If I wanted to try that and experience a part of the game I purchased, but didn't have time to do 10,000 farming runs necessary to acquire that gear, I would be out of luck. Now, through this brilliant paradigm shift, I can experience that portion of the game by paying a little extra cash. Is that bad? Some may view it as bad, but this just give more players more ways to enjoy the content of the game, without actually changing the content of the game.
I don't think buying gold or in-game items is immoral for the player to do, but I do think it's generally bad for the game.
Look at WoW...the whole game is built off of accomplishment, especially the end-game. It's all about raiding enough times to get that uber item, or gaining enough IN GAME gold to purchase it. When you get that item, you feel proud. You actually accomplished something, and now you will perform better because of it. You will also be more desirable for other players to group with because of this.
Now imagine that you can just buy whatever you want with real money. So instead of raiding for weeks on end to get your uber items, you can just shell out $40 and have them in a hot minute! This completely TRIVIALIZES the accomplishments of the people that actually WORKED for their items. After all, those items they raided months for could have just been instantly bought for $40. What's the point of even trying at that point? May as well just shell out the dough or, even better, not even bother playing (my personal choice).
Okay, so if you accept that RMTs are generally bad for the game, then consider their morality from the developer's perspective.
A game developer that decides to profit from RMTs is endorsing and profiting from something that is BAD FOR THE GAME. This is immoral in my book. They are basically making the players pay for something that will hurt the game overall.
Gamasutra articles tend to be solid, and only rarely miss the mark.
Gamasutra blogs are written by any armchair designer with the motivation to post. As such they can be frequently wrong or trollish (see: just about anything Ian Bogost writes there.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Can I play this by myself online or with a friend and not take part in this aspect of the game. This only involves the ladder thing right so if I am not interested in PvP and only want to play the story and go on and play with a couple of friends will I be affected by this real money auction thing ?
Comments
Would be interesting to see how much Blizzard pays in taxes. Everyone they employ, all the money they make... Its probably pretty staggering, and they also probably have lobbyist on the payroll.
I'm all about taxing the crap out of companies that charge high dollar amounts for digital goods they can just copy and paste. Not so much about harming my fellow gamers who may end up subsidizing their gaming expenses with a system like this.
Plus, I am sure you haven't kept track or claimed every cent you ever earn in interest, were given for birthdays, graduations, drinks people may of bought you at bars, etc etc etc.
Just like the $400 dollar exception limit on private gains, there are limits to gifts too.
"I swear -- by my life and my love for it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
- John Galt
Small fixed amount to list item , then % of amount you got for sale and then % if you want to transfer moeny to paypal/bank/whatever else.
I know that fighting take time , money , effort ,etc BUT I am a player and I do care what is important to ME not to game company.
I know of course they care what's good for company and not me but hell why shoud I care? They certainly don't.
So I won't buy D3 and any game that implement system like that.
More I will disencourage anyone who from buying D3.
If you're thinking that Ah will eliminate 3rd party profits you're living in a illusion. Chinese farmers and stuff like that will BE on D3 AH and will make lots of money out there.
Of course it was, where did I say it wasn't.
Your argument was that there are 2 auction houses , so you don't need to participate in RMT....well you will be forced to when the prices inflate when people with legally bought Gold come in and inflate every price on every single item. It always happens in MMO, it will happen in Diablo III too. Not to mention that all the best items will simply go to the other auction house.
blizz isn't looking for a slice of the cake, they are about to bake their own
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Blizzard gets a small percentage of the selling price when something is bought. Unless I misunderstood. I think that is what they mean in regards to Blizzard and taxes.
I heard you get a few free postings each month, but i didn't hear anything about getting some free purchases as well.
Hmm...
"I swear -- by my life and my love for it -- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
- John Galt
That could be true, but being a financial analyst myself, it is extremely extremely unlikely that a company wouldn't "remember" to pay taxes on these earnings.
Systems are in place that are very very detailed to capture the correct amount of taxable income.
Also, in the article detailing the auction house, Blizzard states that they DO NOT get a percentage of the selling price.
The system works as follows:
Seller lists item - Blizzard collects a very small listing fee
Buyer buys item - Blizzard collects a small, fixed sale fee
Seller decides to cash out - Blizzard takes a percentage of the cash out (unknown amount) - A third party (Paypal maybe?) takes a small percentage
Blizzard's worst nightmare.
Torchlight 2 is coming in 2011, with:
*Oflline play
*Mods
*No auction house
WOW. I mean..WOW.
Before I heard about this crap I was definitely going to buy D3. Now, I'm almost certain I will never buy it.
Please don't tell me that I could play the game and never use the cash auction house...I know this.
I'm not playing it out of principal. I mean, developers used to actually CARE that in-game items/gold being exchanged for cash didn't corrupt the game. That's apparently gone now. Now it's just how can we make the most money possible, with no regard to the integrity of their game.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
lol. How cute! You actually blame the developers for the RMT abomination. Developers had nothing to do with RMT and have fought against it for 10+ years, but the players and RMTs have pushed and pushed until this obvious paradigm shift has occurred.
Whether or not Blizzard chose to embrace RMT it was going to exist in their game. They had a choice whether to waste millions in a futile attempt to curb RMT, or regulate the changes that have occurred in the video game market against their own will. There is obviously only one route they could take, and now the players act suprised when it occurs. Too funny.
If I were them I would be investing in gold . I doubt there will be many people playing mmos in the coming years the way things are going . Most of them will be more worried about food and a roof over thier heads . :P
This idea would have been better suited for WOW and titan. No offline is what many of my D3 friends are pissed about. I wasnt going to play D3 anyways but was intreested in modding until now.
I don't blame the developers for RMT existing, much like I don't blame the US government for drug trafficking existing. I blame the developers for deciding to endorse RMT and profit from it.
You say that the "players" have pushed and pushed for RMT. And I'm sure some have. But the majority??? I don't think so. I'm a player and I HATE RMT.
It's like saying "LOL, the people of country X have pushed for crack cocaine for so long, and you blame the government for legalizing and taxing it??"
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Possibly, but the negative effects of cocaine on the general population is much greater than the negative effects of RMT. At a certain point you have to determine if the negative effects outweight the cost to fight back, and in this instance its a pretty simple choice.
yes its just like Ebay but no AAA online game has taken it to these extremes before
even money grubbing SOE, who already did this on EQ2 w LiveGamer, has it limited to only 2 servers
if its not bad -- why not bring this to WOW too ?
EQ2 fan sites
They yet may. Chances are they are still experimenting?
Venge
edit - however chances are they won't add it to WoW as it represents a kind of major change to the way the economy runs. Soe taught us that major game changes have to be dealt with fairly delicately.
easy fix - launch new servers
thats what SOE did for it
D3 auction house allows selling Gear and ingame gold for cash
SOE's partnership w Live Gamer also lets you sell characters beyond that (but limited to only 2 servers)
is this what players want ?
an ingame ebay to use RL cash to buy gold / gear / characters in all games ?
as long as the seller "earned it"
the people buying the stuff sure as hell didnt earn it
EQ2 fan sites
Remember that is a small percentage of the 3 Billion or in other words a significantly huge ammount compared to what the average joe player might earn in a month.
I grant that cocaine has a more negative impact on our society than RMT. But the analogy still stands in that they're profiting from something that is essentially bad.
When I played WoW, RMT obviously existed in the form of all the gold selling sites, and I'm sure many players patronized these sites, otherwise they would not have existed. But I never bought gold from one of these sites, and my bet would be that the majority of the players did not either. After all, no one ever complained that Blizzard was banner gold sellers/buyers.
It was pretty well understood that buying farmed gold for real money was a bad thing for the game. Blizzard even called it "corrupting the economy." Consequently, gold sellers and probably buyers were thought of as "bad" by most of the community. They participated in an activity that was harmful to the game. It was a PERMENANTLY bannable offense.
The D3 auction house is basically catering to these people. It's a complete 180 from Blizzard's previous policies. "Hey remember when we banned you for buying gold??? That's water under the bridge now! Come to our fabulous new auction house!"
It just shows that Blizzard is a really unprincipled company. I seriously hope that Torchlight 2 kicks D3's butt.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Exactly...ever see Superman 3
?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salami_slicing
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
So you're making the assumption that buying gold is bad. Why? Because in the past we viewed it as a bad practice. I agree, in the past I viewed it in a negative way as well, but video games are evolving and so do some of the principle that we use to govern them.
Take a step back and ask yourself why you believe RMT is immoral.
Lets look at D2 for instance. Certain gear was necessary to run ubers or fight DClone. If I wanted to try that and experience a part of the game I purchased, but didn't have time to do 10,000 farming runs necessary to acquire that gear, I would be out of luck. Now, through this brilliant paradigm shift, I can experience that portion of the game by paying a little extra cash. Is that bad? Some may view it as bad, but this just give more players more ways to enjoy the content of the game, without actually changing the content of the game.
I don't think buying gold or in-game items is immoral for the player to do, but I do think it's generally bad for the game.
Look at WoW...the whole game is built off of accomplishment, especially the end-game. It's all about raiding enough times to get that uber item, or gaining enough IN GAME gold to purchase it. When you get that item, you feel proud. You actually accomplished something, and now you will perform better because of it. You will also be more desirable for other players to group with because of this.
Now imagine that you can just buy whatever you want with real money. So instead of raiding for weeks on end to get your uber items, you can just shell out $40 and have them in a hot minute! This completely TRIVIALIZES the accomplishments of the people that actually WORKED for their items. After all, those items they raided months for could have just been instantly bought for $40. What's the point of even trying at that point? May as well just shell out the dough or, even better, not even bother playing (my personal choice).
Okay, so if you accept that RMTs are generally bad for the game, then consider their morality from the developer's perspective.
A game developer that decides to profit from RMTs is endorsing and profiting from something that is BAD FOR THE GAME. This is immoral in my book. They are basically making the players pay for something that will hurt the game overall.
Are you team Azeroth, team Tyria, or team Jacob?
Gamasutra articles tend to be solid, and only rarely miss the mark.
Gamasutra blogs are written by any armchair designer with the motivation to post. As such they can be frequently wrong or trollish (see: just about anything Ian Bogost writes there.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Can I play this by myself online or with a friend and not take part in this aspect of the game. This only involves the ladder thing right so if I am not interested in PvP and only want to play the story and go on and play with a couple of friends will I be affected by this real money auction thing ?