Diablo III Wild Speculation and Rumor Mongering Abounds

[Lakov_Sanite]

Asia - No real-money auction house available at launch

 

I lol'd...hard

[Ghambit]

My plan: 
I'm not even going to enter a dungeon, I'll just sit in town spamming meta-charisma and play the AH-RMT game till I've got the phattest lootz for every character I can think of.  Once people start running Inferno-endgame I should have enough gold to buy whatever I want from them.  It is at this point I enter the game on hardest difficulty solo, raping and pillaging as I go.  Perhaps popping in to help weakling PUGs that reached further then their quality would allow.

I mean, why even loot-whore when I can pay other people to be my bitches rather than be one myself?  Not only that, but the time spent loot-whoring is better served playing the RMT-game since it's fuckin linked to PAYPAL.  I could quit my job!   

Asia - No real-money auction house available at launch

 

So like I said.  I could quit my job!
Especially since there wont be any RMT-AH jobs farmed to Asia for pents.  A fresh economy to bubble-ize! mwahahahah.  Sorry. 

[Segoris]

Here are the fees for selling items from that link:

Auction House Fees Before you post your auction, you’ll see any fees that apply to your listing displayed in the center section of the Sell tab. These fees will only be charged if your auction successfully sells, and will automatically be deducted from the item’s final selling price.

For Equipment (weapons, armor, accessories, and other unique items)
•Transaction Fee (Gold Auction House): 15% of final sale price
•Transaction Fee (Real-Money Auction House): $1.00 USD per item / $1.00 AUD per item
•Transfer Fee (when sending proceeds to PayPal or other authorized payment-service provider): 15% of amount being transferred

For Commodities (gems, materials, dyes, pages, recipes, and other non-unique items)
•Transaction Fee (Gold Auction House): 15% of final sale price
•Transaction Fee (Real-Money Auction House): 15% of final sale price
•Transfer Fee (when sending proceeds to PayPal or other authorized payment-service provider): 15% of amount being transferred

Seems a bit high for RM-AH/Paypal fees (since I was expecting 7-8% fees, 10% at most), but we'll see how that goes. Smart move on Bliz using the $1 only for equipment items since that may persuade some people to sell more expensive items for Bliz-Bucks, keeping all the money in-house.

[Xanthippe]

Asia - No real-money auction house available at launch

 

Well, now, how can I buy all my crap from Chinese farmers when they aren't even allowed to sell in my home market anyway?

Nobody cares about the poor Chinese farmers 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Diablo3 could swigle-handedly rid america's debt to china this way....

[Bunk]

Every real-money auction house will offer players the ability to store auction earnings in their Battle.net Balance up to the maximum permitted Battle.net Balance. As an advanced feature, players in certain regions will have the additional option to have the proceeds paid to their PayPal account instead of storing the earnings in their Battle.net Balance. Players must choose which method they wish to use prior to posting an auction, on a per-auction basis.

So no storing money online and cashing out, you have to set it to send it directly to Paypal every time. Interesting.

[Segoris]

Interesting - max balance from FAQ:

Is there a cap on how much I can have in my Battle.net Balance?
 
If you choose to receive your auction proceeds in the form of Battle.net Balance, there are a few limits you should be aware of. Once your Battle.net Balance reaches $250 USD or above (or equivalent local currency), you will not be able to post new Battle.net Balance auctions until you bring your balance below that amount. In certain cases where your Battle.net Balance significantly exceeds this maximum  (as the result of a series of especially high bids for items you posted, for example), you will need to create a PayPal account in order to receive proceeds (in regions where available), and will be instructed to contact customer service for further assistance.
 For information related to PayPal account balances, please check with PayPal. Back to top

[K9]

The Americas   U.S. Dollar (USD), Mexican Peso (MXN), Brazilian Real (BRL), Argentine Peso (ARS), Chilean Peso (CLP), Australian Dollar (AUD)

Europe:   British Pound Sterling (GBP), Euro (EUR), Russian Ruble (RUB)

They managed to support crap currencies like the Argentine Peso, but not the Norwegian\Danish\Swedish Kroner(s)?

[Merusk]

It's all about the banking & gaming laws of each country, I wager.

[K9]

Ah, that would be a reasonable explanation.

[Paelos]

The $250 limit is ridiculous. That should be $1000 easily.

[Merusk]

That's *definitely* banking laws.  They don't want to turn in to a money laundering system and keeping the amounts low makes it more difficult and keeps them out of the regulator's line of sight.

[Ghambit]

Are the currencies region-locked or can I choose which currency to use at time of purchase/sale?    Might be some currency-meta in there.  Also given the ingame gold prices will likely fluctuate more slowly relative to Forex RL currencies, one could surmise a profitable double-dip if you buy the same amount of gold with cheap currency.
Speaking of which, your acct. isnt region-locked, but your chars., items, etc. will be locked to a region.  So you can play with other people, but not with a char. from a diff. region.  RMT-AH is locked to home region though.  Booooo.

Best site I could find so far with D3 Market Support:
http://diablo3markets.incgamers.com/

[Segoris]

I thought I read that you could change your currency at the time of the auction. Though, one thing to know, the faq is saying that each currency has its own AH. Meaning items sold/bought with USD will only see the USD AH, and so forth.

Here is something else I just glanced over that may give more info (link to the regional page on the FAQ)

Which real-money auction houses will I have access to?
Players have access to real-money auction houses in their “home” game region only, as determined by the country of residence registered to the player’s Battle.net account. In addition, players in certain countries may only have access to a subset of the real-money auction houses in their home game region. Players in all three game regions will have access to the gold-based auction house for the region in which they’re playing.
By default, the Diablo III auction house system will automatically determine the most appropriate real-money auction house for you and display that in the auction-house selection interface. Players interested in participating in auction houses for other currencies available to them (as determined by the country of residence register to their Battle.net account) can do so via an advanced feature in the game’s option menu.
To determine which real-money auction houses you have access to, refer to the table for your home region linked below.

The Americas  - home game region for players in North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia
Europe  - home game region for players in the European Union, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, and Middle Eastern countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates

[Ghambit]

Ahhh, that sheds some light and makes sense.  But, it says nothing of IP-secured transactions, only battle.net ones.  So, if I make a battle.net acct. based in a country with weak currency relative to USD (and high playerbase), what's to stop me from 'stacking the deck?'

For instance, say I make inflated gold in the USD RMT-AH on my US battle.net acct.  Then sell it in paypal.  I then hop over to my LatinAmerica battle.net acct. and buy twice the gold (deflated) with the same paypal money, and so on.  I'm effectively twice as rich ingame.  Even IP-based, I could always proxy or call a foreign friend.   I'll loan him real-monies at say a 30% rate so he can buy/sell gold at twice the yield in his currency or vice versa, depending on the markets.

Heck if I farm loot/gold in both sectors and play them relative to their real-life currencies, the game gets even more interesting.  One could when the peso is weak(er) to the dollar buy a lot more gold in the latin AH if the gold market reacts slowly.  Then when the bump occurs, dump the gold on the latin market for more pesos then when you bought into, wait for the US AH gold to deflate in response and get back into the US market.  Rinse, wash, repeat.

If the transaction fees cover the fluctuations though it wont be worthwhile.

Anyways, I've read hints of entire "managed funds" being worked into this game and people playing it strictly for the economy aspects.  And with that I'm sure there will be economics studies done on the matter.  Fact is, there's not been this grande of a game with a real money AH.  It's new territory, and will be interesting to see what happens.  I assume EVE-isk is the next closest playerbase-wise? With Entropia and SecondLife taking the lion's share of large singular real estate transactions.

[Yegolev]

I think turning cash into pretend swords and back into cash is very close to laundering.

[Ghambit]

I think turning cash into pretend swords and back into cash is very close to laundering.

Pretty much the basis behind the american economy.   

[Lantyssa]

Maybe, but it'll be interesting to see if it's profitable.

[Bunk]

That 15% fee to cash out on top of the 15% or $1 fee for selling each item will probably deter that. Still, you will certainly have people trying to make a living off of it.

[Xanthippe]

Will this RMT auction house end up with items costing either $100 or $1? I wonder.

Also, suppose the best sword in the game goes for $100 or $1000 or whatever. Then Blizzard introduces newer phatter lewt, so it's no longer the best sword in the game, and now it's only worth $10.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens.

[Merusk]

The lawsuits are going to be amazing when they materialize, I'll grant you that.

I'm still puzzled how it's not gambling.

[Malakili]

The lawsuits are going to be amazing when they materialize, I'll grant you that.

I'm still puzzled how it's not gambling.

I'm not sure I understand how it is gambling? 

[Lakov_Sanite]

Also this already exists in games, run by chinese farmers mostly but there's already auction house style sites for online games all over the place. None of this shit is new, it's just never been official until now.

[Samprimary]

The lawsuits are going to be amazing when they materialize, I'll grant you that.

I'm still puzzled how it's not gambling.

because the game itself is a flat fee, different from having to slot money for every given opportunity to have the RNG drop you some winning prizes.

[Merusk]

Also this already exists in games, run by chinese farmers mostly but there's already auction house style sites for online games all over the place. None of this shit is new, it's just never been official until now.

Which is what changes the rules and what it's considered.  

If I sell you something I made, that's one thing.  If I sell you a chance at it, it's something else entirely.   If someone else sells that random chance I don't have any liability of their actions.  

If they'd taken the route of selling the gear flat-out for cash, great.   They didn't go that route.  You get a chance at the loot, one they set on their end and control access to.  That loot has real cash value - and that value is acknowledged and facilitated by the game developers.

You say it's nothing new, but it is because of the random chance associated and the taking-on of the liability on Blizzard's part.

People make bets in the office all the time. Doesn't mean "it's nothing new" if I the company decides to pay me to facilitate that. I'm now a bookie, different rules.

The lawsuits are going to be amazing when they materialize, I'll grant you that.

I'm still puzzled how it's not gambling.

because the game itself is a flat fee, different from having to slot money for every given opportunity to have the RNG drop you some winning prizes.

This makes more sense as to why it's not... but what if the buy-in is just really, really low for your game of chance?  If I sell raffle tickets for 1/100 of a cent, is it not covered by gambling laws?

[Ragnoros]

Someone will make a lot of money off this game. Protip, it won't be Ghambit. (It will be Blizzard) At a dollar a pop they will be making an absolute killing of the AH. With luck they actually invest a reasonable portion back in the game with patches, xpacks and the like. But realistically, moneyhats for all!

Having thought it over, while initially I disliked the high fee I think in the long run it will be good to discourage or outright destroy any attempts to actually accomplish what Ghambit is describing, as well as general market manipulation. That and the $250 cap, good luck running your money laundering/currency exchange empire in $250 dollar increments.

[Xanthippe]

The lawsuits are going to be amazing when they materialize, I'll grant you that.

I'm still puzzled how it's not gambling.

I don't understand how buying some sword in the AH is buying a chance at something. If you win the bid, you get the item.

Or am I completely misunderstanding what you are saying?

[Malakili]

The lawsuits are going to be amazing when they materialize, I'll grant you that.

I'm still puzzled how it's not gambling.

I don't understand how buying some sword in the AH is buying a chance at something. If you win the bid, you get the item.

Or am I completely misunderstanding what you are saying?

I think I've figured out that he means that because all items will have a real  money value (due to the RMAH), that random loot is like gambling  you kill the boss, maybe you get nothing, maybe you get the big $250 unique item.     But that still seems off to me, because you aren't paying to do that boss run, you are just paying to buy the game.  Its not like you are putting a coin in to pull the proverbial lever, you're just paying to get in the door and then whatever you do on your own time is up to you.

[Paelos]

I don't really think there will be that many $250 items.

[Ingmar]

Random loot isn't gambling any more than opening a pack of MtG cards is gambling.

[Malakili]

Random loot isn't gambling any more than opening a pack of MtG cards is gambling.

Agreed, and in that case you really ARE paying per shot.  In Diablo you just pay the once up front and get access to as many "packs" as you have time to open.  It doesn't seem like it should run into legal problems for this to me, but I'm no lawyer.

I think the train wreck that will inevitably be people spending big money and ending up unhappy for whatever reason is going to be a much more interesting story to watch.

[Ragnoros]

Random Tidbit from Jay Wilson.

Early on, there were a few of us that were really hot on doing an Illusionist. It was a really interesting kind of pet class. But then a bunch of people said it kind of sounded like the “fairy” class – not in a positive manner! – so that kind of dropped off.

Man that would have been awesome!
Expansion class please!

[Lantyssa]

Stupid reasoning for dropping a class idea.

[ezrast]

I hate pets, but it does make me want to play a Diablo-ized version of a mesmer.

[Malakili]

Random Tidbit from Jay Wilson.

Early on, there were a few of us that were really hot on doing an Illusionist. It was a really interesting kind of pet class. But then a bunch of people said it kind of sounded like the “fairy” class – not in a positive manner! – so that kind of dropped off.

Man that would have been awesome!
Expansion class please!

"A bunch of people" independently said an illusionist sounded like a fairy class?  I don't even...