If you're a regular reader, I apologize for the repetition in advance. Some of it you'll recognize, but there's a lot of new stuff.

The reason I'm doing this is because there's a lot of information scattered throughout the blog, and I wanted to make ONE POST that consolidated everything. So, I'm putting all of the pieces together here to create one comprehensive article of arguments that I can "sticky" to the front page.

The following is supporting evidence why I am fully convinced that the South Korean RMAH problems are the primary reason for the initial (and continued) delay of the Diablo 3 release.

Importance of Korean RMAH

On September 22, Blizzard management rushed to Korea to address sudden issues within the GRB approval process dealing with concerns over the RMAH and gambling.

Immediately the day after (September 23), Mike Morhaime published the “Soon” Was Too Soon -- Diablo III to Arrive in Early 2012 announcement.

This is key. Michael Morhaime, the Chief Executive Officer of Blizzard Entertainment made an unscheduled and rushed visit to Korea because of concerns regarding the RMAH & Gambling aspect of the game. He was also there with Robert Bridenbecker (VP of Online Technologies), Blizzard Korea Directors, and probably many other Senior Managers.

When the CEO of a major corporation gets involved in something, that's because it's extremely important and critical to the business (as well as the future of the business.)

Employees at the Blizzard US office very rarely even see Mike. He gets paid over $750k per year, and doesn't care about little things like rune decisions, polish, or minor bugs. His concerns consist of important and high level business decisions.

He didn't field questions by conference call, he didn't attend via video conference, he didn't get the Directors in Korea to handle it.. he jumped on a plane and traveled for over 15 hours.

So, the GRB delay was very very important to Blizzard. And when the CEO is involved, it's of the highest importance.

Immediately the day after, the release in all other countries was delayed. This was only made available in Korean newspapers, no one knew about this in NA/EU until I had made others aware of it. Unless Mike had jumped on a plane immediately after the press conference, there's a very strong chance that the Global Delay announcement was even made by Mike (remotely) while he was still physically located in South Korea. :)

So, yes. The decision to have the RMAH in the Korean game is EXTREMELY important to Blizzard and it did effect the launch in all other regions.

Battle.net Blogs & Articles

When that "Soon Was Too Soon" article was posted, did you know that this was the only time that Mike had ever published an article himself on the Battle.net front page?

Most articles are prepared well in advance; several days to several weeks. Upcoming announcements, new features, new contests.. all of these are published by "Blizzard Entertainment" and prepared many days ahead of time. They typically wait until certain days, do some last minute checks, and then click "Publish".

This was a very last minute post, made by Mike the CEO himself. Not only was this totally out of character, but so was his posting time: 5:30AM.

Even the "Diableard Challenge" was cancelled, because everything by this point was completely up in the air and they had no idea what the new worldwide release date was going to be now.

We Have Been Given More Time

In this blue post, Blizzard confirms that because of the delay, they now have more time to add new features and services.

..the fact that some changes or features were added only after the announcement of the postponement of the game in 2012.

Having moved the release date, our development team has been available to the additional time they are using is to finish the game, but also to add items that were not able to be included with the old date of issue (or better with the old forecast).

Having more time means having more content.

Unfortunately, there comes a moment when we must draw a sharp line and decide that the game should be released and that some features or changes are not necessary.

Consider this very carefully and use all the powers of logic at your disposal.

The game was delayed. They now have time to add new features, new content, fix bugs, polish the game, adjust runes, balance characters.

Do you see the logic here? The runes, bug fixes or polish did not come BEFORE the delay, nor did they CAUSE the delay. There was "A DELAY", but now they have time to work on the runes, bugs, balancing, and polish. They also have more time to add NEW FEATURES and NEW CONTENT.

This means that it's NOT the runes, bugs, balancing, tweaking, or polish delaying the game. "Something else" delayed the game, but now they have time to work on all of those things.

And if they have so much extra time available to add NEW FEATURES and NEW CONTENT, doesn't that just speak volumes that there was nothing actually holding back the game? This means that the game was practically done, because now they can add NEW stuff. Because things are so open ended with the release date, they have so much extra time available that they can just add new features, services, and content.

If the game was delayed because of game-play issues, they would have been given extra time to correct those issues specifically. That's when they enter "crunch time", and work hard to get rid of those last minor issues. They wouldn't be using that time to add brand new features and content that would add new bugs, new balancing issues, and other new problems. No, they said that because of "THE DELAY", that they now had time to add new stuff. And because they made the distinction, "THE DELAY" has nothing to do with the game or game-play elements itself. That just leaves an external factor (or factors), without actually stating specifically what it is.

This should all be common sense.

Sometimes They're Not Good Sources

The best time to get useful or honest quotes or information from Blizzard is when the source is not paying attention, when they're answering another question (to which you can glean other information from), when they're caught off guard, or when they let something slip accidentally.

This is why a lot of the best or unannounced information comes from live interviews, unedited videos, or posts from Blizzard employees who reside outside of the US. Employees who work at Blizzard HQ are more careful about what they say or release. Those in other countries; not as much. (Where did that gigantic Product Slate, Subscribers, and Financials leak come from? Oh right, China.)

When a source is discussing a particular subject, they're very careful about what they say. They'll review their post, word and re-word it, and be very careful to make sure it's as ambiguous as possible. And when Bashiok is involved, his answers are very specifically ambiguous and open to interpretation. When he types, there's no commitment and no clear confirmation or denial. Just like any good politician. :)

You've seen this sort of ambiguous Blizzard response in the past. For example, in regards to the "rumors" that "Mists of Pandaria" was going to be the name of the next WOW expansion pack, and that the Pandaren were going to be in the game, Tom Chilton (Game Director and Lead Game Designer for World of Warcraft) said that this belief was only speculation and "wildly overhyped." And that, "if you look at traditionally how we've handled that race it's been in those secondary products because we haven't realized it in the world. Most of the time when we do anything panda-related it's going to be a comic book or a figurine or something like that."

Many users and gaming sites took this as a DENIAL that MoP was the next expansion pack or could have possibly involved the Pandaren in any way. Smarter people knew, though, that he was neither confirming nor denying anything. You might as well have just ignored everything he said, because he wasn't telling you anything.

Here is Bashiok's primary RMAH Korea post that he and others frequently link back to:

Thank you for voicing your concerns, Starbird. I realize you and many other people are excited to play the game, and are probably feeling a bit let down that we haven’t yet announced a release date. While you bring up a number of points of speculation, I just want to cut right to it and state that the reason we don’t have a release date yet is because the game isn’t yet where we want it to be in terms of our quality standards. We aren’t holding it back on account of any one piece of the game, or for any other outside factors. While it is indeed playable from beginning to end, we’re still actively working on many individual game elements and the ways that they interact with one another, with a great deal of iterative tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting going on. We’re going to continue beta testing, and before too long that’s going to include a large influx of new invites.

Much of this iteration obviously takes place behind closed doors, so I can sympathize with the concerns about the lack of visible progress, and the sentiment that we should just go ahead and ship the game. Until we’re able to reveal more of the results, I can only assure you that we are indeed working on critical game systems that directly impact the core of the experience.

I also realize a lot of people were hoping for a release date announcement at the VGAs. We’re simply not going to be able to dispel or comment on release date rumors and speculation every time someone expects an announcement. We’ll be announcing a release date when we determine the game is ready, and not holding it back just to line it up with any particular game-industry event.

The bottom line is that development of our games and preparations for release are long and complicated. We’re just as excited to get the final version into your hands as you are to play it, but making sure it lives up to our quality standards will always be the most important factor in that process.

What does he really say here though?

He says,

• that they don't have a release date because it's not ready yet.
• that they're not holding it back on account of only 1 piece of the game or 1 piece of some outside factor.
• that they're actively working on tweaking, balancing, polishing, etc. (But, all of that stuff that have been given extra time to work on since "the delay".)
• that he can only assure you that they're were working on game systems.
• that they'll announce when they're ready.
• and that development time of games is long and complicated.

He doesn't confirm or deny anything; he says nothing. This can't be used as a source of information for anything, other than that they're working on the game still.

He even used a thesaurus for describing "the great deal" of the so many things going on in the development process: "tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting". That's the same thing! Seriously.. look up a thesaurus.. other than "testing", everything he said was the same thing but described differently.

And then there's this post from Bashiok later:

"I don't know what translation you're reading but no where has it been stated the release of the game on a whole is delayed because of a GRB rating. Might it delay the game in Korea? I suppose no one knows, but we still have some time since the game is not finished. We're playing internal builds, the entire game, we'd know if it was. I'd know."

What interests me is that he deleted it shortly after posting it. Read it over.. what is so seriously wrong with the post that he had to delete? Is it abusive or rude? Nope. Is he trolling? Nope.

Perhaps the problem with his post is that it wasn't ambiguous enough. :)

He says,

• Blizzard has not stated anywhere that the global release is delayed because of the GRB rating.
• the global release of the game is NOT DELAYED "ON A WHOLE" because of Korea.
• No one knows if the GRB rating in Korea will delay the game in Korea.
• They still have some time since the game is not finished.
• They're playing internal builds and the "entire game." (Hey, I thought it wasn't finished?)

It's perfectly honest and truthful to say that the SK Ratings issue is not the reason for the delay of the game AS A WHOLE. For example, the SK issues might be the leading reason, might have caused the delay, but it's not the reason for the current delay. Right now, it's 99% of the reason, and 1% of the reason is all of the new bugs and features that they have added since the delay. It's all about wording. There's nothing dishonest or incorrect about what Bashiok is saying at all.

In either scenario though, you can't take it as a confirmation or denial.. it's too ambiguous.

After all, ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.

And what kind of actions have been taken? The Book of Cain was postponed, even though it was published, done, and ready to ship. Forum posts were deleted (it's the deleted posts that are the most important). New forum pages were created. CEO and managers took an emergency trip to Korea. Every announcement or delay comes right after updates from the GRB. Timing of the delay announcements, and everything else listed in this post.

The Plot Thickens

So, here's a direct link to the original Bashiok post (mentioned above) that was deleted. As you can see, #225 and #227 are there, but #226 is gone.

If you go to the Diablofans Blizztracker, the full original entry is archived there.

But look at D3SANC's entry for Bashiok's post. (Scroll to the very bottom.)

No, you're not losing your mind. Bashiok's post has been heavily edited, with a significant portion of the original post cut out.

The thing is.. this is a deleted post, it's doesn't exist. Why would D3SANC go back and edit it to remove that certain paragraph from the post. The whole thing was deleted, they should have just removed the entire entry so that they're properly mirroring the forums.

I'm not sure what's going on here, so I asked D3SANC for a clarification. Apparently, they answer their emails within a couple minutes or it might take a couple hours at the very most. It's been a couple days now, and still nothing.

It's not unusual for Blizzard to ask fan sites to remove information that they don't want users to know about. But at this point, I have no explanation for why the entry was edited or cut out.. so, I have my suspicions but that's all they are.

Blizzard Wants It To Be A Global Release

If you are committed to a global release, then it has to be released in all countries simultaneously correct? If one country is having problems, then it needs to be delayed for all other countries.

During their Q2 2011 Financial Results in August, Activision Blizzard described Diablo 3 as a "global release". This is wording that has never been used before to describe any of their past games. It was announced publicly and to their shareholders.

They even developed a global version of the game. Back in October 2011, Robert Bridenbecker (VP of Online Technologies) described the game as their first "region free" game. As Robert explained, "When you buy Diablo 3, you're buying Diablo 3." You can play it anywhere in the world, it's not region locked, and players can select any server they want, and any language they want.

This game can be bought in any country and you can play it in any other country you want. When (or if) the Digital Pre-Downloads go up, it's going to be a worldwide global launch whether Blizzard actually wants it to or not. But, of course, it makes perfect sense for Blizzard to launch globally since they're producing a region free game.

In their "Soon is Too Soon" news release, they made a global announcement ("As we're announcing globally today..") In this announcement, they state that they were originally targeting the game for end of 2011 (end of Nov release date). This wasn't a specific country or regional announcement like they've done for WOW, Starcraft, and all previous games, this was a GLOBAL announcement and a global change that all countries needed to be aware of.

In that same announcement, they also stated that "Blizzard will use the additional time to extend the Diablo III closed beta test." Additional time to add more new services and features.. and more stalling to keep players busy. (More on this later.)

Zhydaris of Battle.net EU stated that they are intending on having a global release.

Blizzard Korea officially described Diablo 3 as a "Global Version" in their application for consideration.

Blizzard wants this game to be a global release. It's being developed as a global game, it's being sold as a global game, it's being described as a global game in official documentation, and Blizzard has described their intention to make it a global game. This piece alone, skipping all other supporting evidence, should be enough to show that Blizzard wants the game to launch simultaneously worldwide.

It could have still been launched globally this past November, if they had cut out the RMAH completely from the Korea launch knowing that there would have been issues with their new legislation. Instead, they delayed it, then they missed including RMAH related documentation in their approvals submissions, delayed again, then they offered to remove only the cash-out feature only, and it was delayed yet again. They really want a paid RMAH system within the Korean Diablo release.

* UPDATE

On January 4, an official news source confirmed that Blizzard is committing to a global release (spokesperson from Blizzard was quoted.) They also confirmed that Blizzard is planning on a simultaneous global launch, that it will be a region-free game for the first time in it's history, and because of this the Korean GRB's decision is preventing the launch in other countries. This is from an official news source that is held to journalistic standards.. not an anonymous forum post, not a blog, not a fan/gaming site.

Runes, Bug Fixes and More Layers of Polish

These are apparently the biggest issues holding back the release and what many users are constantly reiterating.

The list seems a awfully light don't you think? THESE are the reasons for the delay? That's it? What doesn't make sense is that the beta was already polished, there were very few bugs (and minor ones at that), and the rune system was ready.

Starcraft 2, on the other hand, was delayed because WOTLK was taking up the majority of the development team's time, Blizzard didn't want it to conflict with the MF2 launch, there were still stability issues (plus bugs & polish just like D3), and because the Battle.net service and the technology was not prepared. It was officially delayed because "essential" and "integral" parts of the game and Battle.net were missing.

However, Diablo has been delayed for several months because they still need to fix their runes, bugs, and add more polish. That must be a LOT of work.. the entire development team must be working on it. Gosh golly.. you know, they might even need to bring in more workers from other departments to help out. And, of course, Blizzard would never launch a game that has bugs in it.. World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 have never had ANY bugs since launch. Melting videos cards was a "feature."

If they've been polishing the game over the past 5 months, as Bashiok has stated, why is it taking so long.. and where exactly IS this polish? I had thought polish were last minute additions and graphical tweaks to clean everything up. But, they're adding new features and new content.

If this is true that they're applying more layers of polish, it means that retail will be far more polished than the beta. How much do you want to bet it will still look the same?

How about the bugs? When the beta first came out, users were very impressed on how well polished and bug free the game was. Bugs only started happening AFTER Blizzard started adding new features (like Simple ToolTips) which only came AFTER some unknown delay. They were given more time to add new content, new assets, and new features that were all supposed to be added post-retail. So, the bugs you're seeing now are the ones that were supposed to be there a few months after launch. Except, there probably would have been more emphasis on correcting them more quickly. As beta players are seeing, the minor bugs currently in the beta are being fixed very slowly or not being fixed at all. Are they game breaking bugs? Nope. Game frequently crashing? Nope. Minor bugs? Yup. I'm willing to bet too that many of the beta bugs will also be present in retail. The same thing happened with all of their other games.

And finally, how about the big one: runes.

Jay Wilson already said that the Rune system was good enough to ship as is. The team has been experimenting with different rune systems, and Jay said that they're trying about 2-3 different ideas. If they're ready and the dev team likes them, they'll see how the players like them. However, they're just ideas and they are not a deal breaker. Jay said;

"The system is already cool as it is, so if it does work (the new rune system), we'll just leave it as it is."

Jay made it clear that the rune system would not hold back the release. They just have many options available right now, but they like the old system. They would like to test out new things, but most of these changes will be done post-retail just like the WOW talent system. How many iterations and tweaks has the talent tree undergone since launch?

During an October 22 2011 interview with Jay Wilson and David Adams, Jay confirmed that the rune system WILL NOT hold back the game release and that the team working on the runes just has the luxury right now to play around with different versions. At the 6:10 mark, Jay says that runes is not a big thing and not the "final thing" that they're finishing up. What they are finishing up for the release, however, are "mostly the game wide polish, bug fixing, and some technology.. online technology.. things like that." You should watch this portion of the video and see his mannerisms while trying to explain what's holding back the game. :)

On November 29 (last month), even Bashiok wrote that they'll go back to the original "totally awesome" system if they don't like the testing results of their other ideas. (This echoed exactly what Jay Wilson had stated months earlier.)

"We actually have moved on from the previously discussed unattuned system. We've been trying many different ideas out, but we're not quite comfortable enough with any of them yet to invite you in and see what you think.

Let me also say that the old system wasn't broken, per-se, it just had a few issues we thought we could resolve. Runestones are a huge part of Diablo III, and we think it's worth trying out some alternatives and see if we can't improve it. But if all of our experiments fail we can easily go back to the original system, and it will still be totally awesome."

Basically, they scrapped the unattuned system, they're experimenting with other new systems, but the old system is great and it's their primary fallback. The old system is also "totally awesome". Runes are ready, they're not going to hold back the game.

So what's left? Runes are done. There's no more polish needed. Bugs are new, but there's little time spent on them and they're only here now because they were given more time due to some other external delay. If that's the case, then the delay couldn't possibly be related to the bugs, polish, or runes.

More Stalling

(Much of this you can find in earlier posts.)

* Diablo 3 was supposed to be released late November.

* During Blizzcon 2010, Jay Wilson originally expected that the D3 beta would run for "six months" before release but this wasn't the beta you have now. It was going to be at least the first 3 acts.

* During Blizzcon 2009, users were able to play through the full Act 1 and Act 2, Act 3 was revealed, Act 4 was kept as a surprise for release, and in 2010 they were able to play the PVP portion. Based on Blizzard comments at the time, players were expecting that the beta would be Act 1, Act 2 and possibly a portion of Act 3 (since Jay Wilson confirmed that Act 4 would be the smallest Act.) Even Bashiok said in April 2011 that the beta would consist of the first 3 acts: "You’ve actually seen some of the first three Acts already, and we probably won’t be revealing too much more than what we’ve already shown." The last act(s) and additional difficulty levels were going to be "a surprise" saved for the retail.

* In 2011, the beta was shortened to a 2-3 month testing period and just a fraction of Act 1 because they only needed to test servers, network, and the new auction house systems. The plan was to release it before Christmas.

* Now, shouldn't the small beta size also be a major clue as to how much progress was really made to the game? The game was done, it was ready, they didn't need the full game to be tested by users for feedback, and instead they just released a very small tech demo. That's just how complete the game really was.

* On September 22, Blizzard C-Levels rushed to Korea to deal with the fallout of the GRB approval process and their questioning about the gambling aspects of the RMAH.

* On September 23, Blizzard immediately published their "Soon Was Too Soon -- Diablo III to Arrive in Early 2012" announcement. Coincidence? :)

* Right after Blizzcon, even the Book of Cain was suddenly pushed back from it's November 15 release date to an undecided time. This happened even though the Book of Cain was done, published, stocked, and ready to ship. Several copies were also sent out months before release to reviewers. This left many people completely baffled as to why it was pushed back.

* The GRB's "final decision" was about 1 week away. On Nov 21, Rob Pardo tweeted "time to get serious and work hard on Diablo 3" possibly indicating that they were getting close to crunchtime.

* On November 30 (or possibly Nov 29), Blizzard received an update from the GRB that they were still in deliberations and a final decision would probably be made by January.

* Suddenly, there was a huge explosion of Diablo information.

* On November 30, Blizzard announced the official release date (Dec 13) for the Book of Cain following several date changes over the previous months.

* On December 1 (the day after), the Global RMAH testing was announced. Blizzard also started releasing information on items and Artisans and new pages were published. All within a very short period of time, almost as if they were just waiting for weeks for someone to finally click "Publish."

* The "Day In a Life" series was originally supposed to be 3 interviews. After this announcement, the page was redesigned, new content was uploaded, and it was expanded to 5 employee interviews instead of 3.

* On December 5, Blizzard Korea also made an official update on the Korean Battle.net site about the delays of the game and the status updates on rating approvals. They stated that the Diablo 3 release was being held back because of issues with the GRB.

* On December 8, AUS Beta Key contest announced. Contest expires on Dec 31.

* On December 9, Blizzard finally revealed the long predicted "Battle.net Balance" system and that it would be rolled out within a few weeks (ie, 2-3 weeks time).

* On Friday Dec 16, Blizzard received notification from the Korean GRB that more information was needed. The hearing was schedule for Dec 21 for their answer, however it was cancelled and postponed until Blizzard could provide proper data. (They were given 7 days to reply.)

* On Monday Dec 19, this news made front pages of Korean news sites.

* On this same day, a major wave of opt-in beta keys went out. The next day, Blizzard announced a new US-based beta giveaway which overlapped with the last week of Facebook giveaway. Also, the number of keys available didn't match per capita with the AU/NZ beta key contest. It expires Jan 23 2012. (More stalling.)

* On Dec 22, the SK GRB received Blizzard's resubmission for a rating, however they are excluding the "cashing-out" function of the Real Money Auction House this time around. Players will still be charged money, however, but the money will be stored as Battle.net Bucks instead which can only be used for Blizzard goods and services.

* The GRB's next "final decision" is scheduled for Wednesday, January 4 2012.

* On January 4 2012, Jay Wilson tweeted "Asia is not holding us back. You'll know soon enough." The first time a senior manager commented on the SK Release Debate.

* Since polishing is obviously not the hold-up, the only other public item they have announced are runes. Runes should not cause any delays though. They have multiple iterations of the rune system, and I don't think it has anything to do with the how they designed them but rather how they will be used. Because runes are item drops, and their rarity can be controlled, I suspect that the Diablo team might be trying to monetize runes. If there are rare item drops, they can be sold on the RMAH. This makes runes very restricted for the development team and it does not leave them many options for innovation. Because of this problem, there's a very good chance that itemized runes will be removed (ie, they can no longer be sold on the RMAH), and simply changed to skill "level ups" like in World of Warcraft. By using this approach, they can spread out skill level ups from 1-60 but find another way to monetize "runes" such as +skill gear like in Diablo II. I will discuss this topic in another future post, because there are many problems having item-based skills.

* "Final decision" postponed again. They'll be meeting to "finalize" again on Friday, January 6 2012. (Which was postponed again too.)

* On January 5 2012, Bashiok stated that they are not in a polishing stage yet.

It's making sure everything is perfect. We're not really in a strictly polishing phase yet though, although certainly that's true for some areas of the game. Still, we're in the process of working on some rather large game system changes, some of which we'll be sharing shortly before or with the next beta patch.

For several months, Bashiok and other Blizzard employees have been stating that they have been polishing the game, which is the cause of the delay, and that they're in it's final stages. However, now Bashiok has re-clarified that they're in fact, NOT in the polishing stage and that they're adding large game system changes.

* On January 5 2012, Bashiok also confirmed that they're now planning for a release in First Quarter 2012. Previously, they planned on a release at "the end of 2011".

* On January 7 2012, I noticed an explosion of new information, and due to this, I suspected that something must have happened internally with the GRB or Blizzard revised their submission again to remove the RMAH entirely.

* On January 12 2012, that game was approved by the SK Game Ratings Board. It also came with the revelation that Blizzard had submitted a THIRD revision of the game that no one knew about. This third revision removed the RMAH entirely. (The first version had the full RMAH, second version had RMAH only for B.Net Credits, and the third version apparently only has the Gold Auction House.)

* Considering how extremely important the SK RMAH was, prompting visits from C-Level Executives and even revisions to the Ratings Submission, it is highly unusual that Blizzard now wants to remove the RMAH completely. If SK was not a concern and it did not impact other countries, they could have just launched the game in every other geography but without selling it in SK at all. But instead, they removed a critical piece and all signs point towards a global release.

* Also on January 12 2012, Zarhym stated that Jay Wilson will be posting a large status update on the state of the game and beta. It will be posted late in the week (meaning Friday, January 20th) followed by an update to the beta servers.

* On January 13 2012, Bashiok released information about the Korean server that contradicted information provided by The Korean Times and the GRB.

With an NA account you'll be able to play everywhere, but you'll only be able to use the currency-based auction house in NA.

Just for normal play, imagine it like Diablo II. On every region you have access it's a completely separate database, different gold auction house, and you have a different set of 10 characters available. Each region is a separate 'realm' of the game.

We'll have more information about the whole cross-regional play closer to launch.

Sorry, it's a bit confusing to explain even though it's extremely simple and obvious in practice.
Pretty solid, of course nothing is guaranteed.
Yes the whole point is you can change regions in-game.
You're welcome. :)

I'm unaware of all the regional breakdowns. I'd wait for the more info I referenced.

Hrm. Well Korea still has a currency-based auction house, there's just no current cash out functionality. They can buy and sell items and still build up their Battle.net balance to buy Blizzard goods and services from the store.

Deleting my response until I can verify what actually occurred. Maybe I'm incorrect in my understanding of what was submitted for approval.

So, I was right, they have an auction house that uses Battle.net balance, which is separate from the gold auction house. There are some details I'm still fuzzy on because the Korea Battle.net balance works a bit differently from ours.

In any case, it won't be the currency-free option you're looking for.

This thread is broken, IMO. If you have a specific question or topic to discuss please create a new thread for that specific topic. Also! Stop getting so angry.

Thread was locked for several hours, but then the thread was suddenly deleted shortly after.

* On January 19, Jay Wilson's post finally went live to the anticipation of many. Users were led to believe that the post would detail a complete explanation of the major jobs that they have been working on since "The Delay" in September 2010. It was meant to justify why the SK issues had nothing to do with the delay. Instead, they were surprised when they were confronted with a simple bug patch list of minor tweaks that were already completed and ready for the next beta patch. What was supposed to be an explanation of the long delay was instead an update of the minor changes that they had been working on over a few weeks.

* It has been 7 weeks now, and the Battle.net Balance feature has still not rolled out. It was supposed to be rolled out within 2-3 weeks of December 9, 2011. Considering JW's post and the lack of RMAH progress, this leads me to believe that the current delay is quite possibly related to the B.Net Balance / RMAH / PayPal integration. There may even be problems that PayPal is experiencing; for example, they would be the ones facing prosecution and taking the risks if the game is declared illegal gambling (the SK issues may have raised concerns.) This current delay might also have to do with a new D3 version being prepared for South Korea since Cash Trading is no longer permitted. (I have talked about this before, and what to expect if the game goes live but the RMAH is removed.) I'll know more once the game goes live though.

* On January 31, 2012 the new Battle.net Terms of Use (which included the new Diablo 3 and RMAH updates) were finally published for NA & EU. However, the document shows a Last Revised date of December 10, 2011.

* On Monday, Feb 6 it was predicted that there would be a big announcement released, the Battle.net Balance finally launched, PayPal finally integrated allowing purchases and payments, and all of this would logically be accompanied by a Release Date announcement (since Monday, before the Shareholders Meeting was the most logical.) A Release Date announcement was made, just not the kind that everyone was hoping for. Previously, I had stated that if a release date announcement was not made by the Monday, then the chances of a Q1 release quickly diminishes, meaning a Q2 release.

* On Feb 9, Bashiok confirmed that they decided that week to delay to Q2 instead, meaning that a Monday announcement was highly likely. On Feb 18, the week following the Shareholders Meeting, a Blizzard leak confirmed that they already had a Release Date set, meaning that they could have announced it right before the investor's call.

* On Feb 17, it was revealed that the entire game was overhauled because Listing Fees had to be removed from the RMAH. This was a huge financial loss for Blizzard, and the only reason for making this change was because of Illegal Online Gambling concerns. By removing Listing Fees, they removed the player's monetary risk and avoided future legal complications.

* On Feb 18, Blizzard also revealed a major overhaul to the Rune System (which was blamed for the past several months of delays), which was changed due to the major overhaul of the RMAH and complications trying to monetize the items. They are no longer monetizing Runes, and a trend is emerging showing that all of these delays simply relate back to the RMAH and gambling.

* On March 15, Blizzard has finally announced the official Release Date (May 15, 2012). They have also confirmed that the game is indeed a global release (all countries will be able to play it on the same day) and it is a region free game.

Frequently Asked Questions

I'll leave this space open for FAQs. As the game and announcements progress, or if I realize that I missed anything in the post above, I'll update this document.

Q: Even Blizzard's new submission has the RMAH. Why can't they just leave the RMAH completely out of Korea so that it can finally launch?

A: Even though Korea represents a major portion of their sales and RMAH usage (they're in the top 10), it's not just about the money. If Korea does not have the RMAH implemented, it's going to be a logistical and account management nightmare for Blizzard. The game is region free, and Korean players could use the RMAH in other countries. Blizzard would then be supporting illegal gambling (and for minors.) It would be very bad for the company. It's much easier for them, and more lucrative, to wait. Their last resort is not to release D3 in Korea, and therefore make it illegal for users to play the game. That way, Blizzard is not held liable for user's actions, and the government must regulate it's use on their own.

Q: Why doesn't Blizzard just tell everyone what's going on?

A: Are you kidding me? "Hey, this game is being delayed because of one country. We really want the game there, because we make more money and it's easier for us so that we don't need to create a lot of new security systems. You could have been playing this game in November 2011, but this is all about us, not our players." Yeah, that will go over really well.

Q: Will I be a total douchebag if I don't read anything you've written, but then attempt to refute one of your claims and use that as proof that everything here is incorrect?

A: Yes. Only weak and unintelligent individuals will try to take one small part of a massive list of arguments, try to disprove it, and then use that single reference as "proof" that everything else is null and void.

"You misspelled 'their'. How can I take any of this seriously? Since the spelling is wrong, the argument is wrong, and therefore EVERYTHING written is wrong. QED."

Q: Wow, you collected a lot of stuff. It looks like Blizzard employees release a great deal of information about their games and inner-workings that no one knows about in the US. Where can I find this stuff myself?

A: First, go to "http://translate.google.com". Here are some sites to get you started:

http://kr.battle.net
http://eu.battle.net
http://thisisgame.com
http://diablo3.playforum.net
http://www.inven.co.kr

Q: Hey, you missed that really important post where you or someone else discussed X and how it impacted Y. Can you please add it to the list?

A: Sure, just leave a comment with links, sources, proof, etc. If I missed anything, I'll add it to the list.

Q: There are some posts on the EU Battle.net forums from blue that mention a "global launch." What's all that about?

A: No one is supposed to know about that, and blue isn't supposed to be talking about it or mentioning it. A "global launch" for Diablo 3 hasn't been officially announced yet and Blizzard won't be announcing it until they get full approval from Korea. Blue forum posters shouldn't be assuming it will be a global launch, after all. That's the plan, but if it gets rejected, it won't be a simultaneous worldwide launch.

Here are the first two parts of the series to bring you up to speed:

Power Creep in Pandaria -- Part 1
Power Creep in Pandaria -- Part 2

It was only supposed to be two parts, but I realized another trend while writing those original posts. This was originally supposed to be an addition to Part 2, but it ended up getting so "textful" (as things often do here), that I just decided just to create a new post. :)

The Death Knight

The topic of content consumption got me thinking that this is probably the main reason why Blizzard abandoned the Hero Class format.

Because the Death Knight class started so high level, it skipped all of the starting zones and content. Blizzard would later realize that this was a mistake, and it's probably the reason why they'll never do it again. Their decision, after all, wouldn't have had anything to do with the DK skills or abilities since they can easily be scaled or balanced.

Players liked the idea of skipping a lot of the beginning content, but it didn't benefit Blizzard in the end so that same mistake can't be made again. (In any of their games FYI.)

And the timing seems to work out well too. When WOTLK first came out, they didn't understand the issue of content consumption (or maybe they didn't think it would become an issue due to the wealth of creative material they had already amassed.) It wasn't until mid-to-late WOTLK did they start making changes and adding new features to re-use older content. Then, Cataclysm came out and the entire expansion pack was ALL ABOUT reusing old content. To make their intentions ever more clear; it introduced the new Archaeology Profession. :)

A Belated Solution

There's actually still a way to correct this "failure" and it might be really fun for users and Blizzard alike.

Basically, create an "Origins" story for the Death Knight class where you start at level 1 and show their progression and character development from a simple peasant to a Death Knight.

Since you don't want to take away the instant 55 Level Up, this could be a completely optional "Starting From The Beginning" feature.

For example,

• You create a new character and select the DK class.
• You are then given an option for your "Starting" pre-DK class (e.g. a Warrior, Mage, etc.)
• After some introductory in-game cinematics, or even a brief Level 1-5 tutorial stage, you're given the option to "Skip To Your Rebirth?". (The Origins story stops here, and you just jump to the main DK story.)
• If you continue the "Origins" story, you're locked in.
• You start out as a "Farmer" Class earning a meager living on a farm. :)
• You level the temporary "Farmer" Class until 10, at which point you join the military or a resistance, and you switch to the early level "Starting" class you had previously selected. (e.g. You train to become a Warrior, Mage, Rogue, whatever.)
• Blizzard could have a lot of fun with a temporary 1-10 "Farmer" class too.
• At this point (Level 10), you can start doing normal quests and such that have already been created by Blizzard. But, now there will be new customized quests only available for your character that develop the back story. Even every 10 levels there could be missions or special quests that work into the main lore. (Like going off to war, war campaigns, secret missions, rising through the ranks in the "Military" or "Resistance", your family, new lore discovered, etc.)
• As you rise through the ranks, it finally culminates at your death (at Level 50 or 55) by the hands of the Undead. At which point the main DK story kicks in.

This gives Blizzard an excuse to use some of their old lore and back-history on the Death Knights that they haven't used yet.

Plus, they're not creating a whole series of new quests just for the "Origins" story, but rather bits and pieces here and there (like every 10 levels). Less development time.

Players will go through all old content again, which is what they want. But, they will still have the option of jumping right to their Level 55 DK if they want to.

To encourage players to follow the "Origins" path instead, though, they can offer special bonuses that are made available during the story line: special gear with really cool aesthetics (they will be farmed for transmogrification), new pets (which players will jump at the chance for upcoming Pet Battles), vanity stuff, new achievements, or trinkets that have special visual effects.

I suppose the "Origins" path could also be made available as DLC.. especially with the new Battle.net Balance. :)

If not, at least Blizzard could use it as a test to determine if other "Origin" features could be successful for other classes (Rogues assassinating their way to the top of their Rogue guild before getting kicked out). In order to experience the "Origins" story, players must create a new class. Players may or may not like this, but it would definitely be very cool for the DK class. And, having special bonuses for following this path, however, might encourage many players to do it. Especially the ones who haven't created alt characters yet, which Blizzard already knows.

What do you think? If you guys really like the idea, drop some hints with Blizzard. :)

I think it would be a lot of fun, plus it addresses a lot of the issues they're trying to fix.

Here's something interesting.

So, you've already seen the BattleTag™ announcement. And you'll notice the TM symbol attached to every little instance of BattleTag™.. so it's a trademark owned by Blizzard right?

Apparently not. UBISOFT ENTERTAINMENT owns that trademark. :)

It's an old filing (2010-06-09), and there hasn't been much activity until just this week. Oddly coincidental.

They filed an "Intent-to-Use" report with the US Patent and Trademark Office, which was just received 2 days ago. So, UBISOFT wants to start using their "BattleTag"/"Battle Tag" trademark too.

There's also another older trademark for BattleTag by another business, but it's just for wireless devices. The UBISOFT one is for entertainment services, computer games, LAN services, etc.. so it matches with what Blizzard wants to use their Trademark for. And, UBISOFT owns the TM in Europe too.

I guess this leaves a few possibilities:

1. UBISOFT is a typo in TM database. (Very very doubtful.)
2. Blizzard bought the TM from Ubisoft, and the changes aren't visible in the TM DB yet.
3. Blizzard is getting a "BattleTag" trademark instead of "Battle Tag". Still, a punch in the face to Ubisoft since they intend on using it too.
3. Ubisoft is going to make a stink about the trademark (TM infringement). It's too similar: "Battle Tag" vs "BattleTag". And, it would be funny if they use it themselves in the same way Blizzard intended.
4. Blizzard might change the Battle Tag name to something else.

Blizzard would have known all about the Ubisoft TM well in advance, though, before using the name.. so I wonder what's going on?

Blizzard is also using both wordings "BattleTag" and "Battle Tag" in their posts (Ex 1 & Ex 2) about the service. And, Blizzard users aren't making the distinction either (so this "confusion" could actually help Ubisoft if there was a legal case.)

Seems awfully coincidental too that Ubisoft wants to suddenly start using the trademark.

There's also a 5th possibility.. but I don't even want to consider it. It's too scary.

Why Are They Doing This?

The rate of content consumption is also a quality vs quantity struggle. Content consumption is harmful to Blizzard and it needs to be regulated and controlled. Right now, it's very important to slow it down and get older content consumed again. Blizzard wants to deliver higher quality content, at a slower rate, rather than quantity (bad quality at a higher rate.)

High leveled players will start visiting older dungeons and raids again, because the item drops will be useful again. They want players to re-consume old content so that they don't have to put out as much anymore, or at such a high rate. It's basically a way to buy them time to produce higher quality future content.

The Item Squish will get players progressing more slowly in higher tiered dungeons and raids. Because of the difficulty to progress, it slows down our growth rate to match content delivery. It doesn't, though, make dungeons more difficult to complete.. this isn't about making dungeons harder (that was an attempt made by Blizzard, but it failed), it's more about "not jumping ahead" too quickly to new content.

The Item Squish is really smart from a business standpoint and for future planning. I hope that other MMORPG developers don't make this same mistake, and you can be confident that Diablo 3 and Titan won't be making this same power creep mistake in their own expansion packs.

• This change starts setting a new pace for players that Blizzard wants. Players are consuming content too quickly, and Blizzard needs to slow them down.
• This gets players prepared for future games and expansion packs. After MOP, expansion packs will debut with a smaller number of zones and dungeons, so that they can be added as major content patches later when Blizzard is ready.
• It's possible that MOP might be the last major Expansion Pack, and future "expansion packs" will be more DLC (smaller Digital Download only mini expansion packs.)
• Old content is no longer wasted and unused.
• Players now have more to do, and more options available. This is the big one: giving players more options, rather than being stuck with the same dungeon run over and over.
• Content is no longer skipped over, and players must progress through Blizzard's content at a certain rate (more lore delivered this way too.)
• This gives players the impression that Blizzard is "constantly delivering" and "updating" the game. They cut out content that should have been released in the expansion pack, but instead release it in smaller bits at a time.
• Players are happy that there's a constant flow of new content to consume, even if they don't realize they're being fed with smaller portions.
• Originally, Blizzard was going to deliver monthly major content, which didn't work out for obvious reasons. It's an old sore spot that they're finally able to address.
• Slowing down consumption gives the artists and designers more time to create new content. Less stress, and less time needed to figure out how to ramp up item stats for new dungeons, encounters, or expansion packs.

Blizzard Already Doing The Prep Work?

In the past, Blizzard has already tried several methods to get players re-visiting old content:

• The Cataclysm expansion pack itself.
• Adding Heroic difficulty levels to dungeons.
• Dailies and Seasonal Events that require traveling all over the World of Warcraft.
• The Archaeology (/spit) profession.
• Transmogrification.
• Exploration (hidden gems) and Exploration Achievements.
• Lore quests that sent you to many destinations.
• Special Events that only take place within older Dungeons.
• "Path of Titans" was meant to do this too, but it was cut.

The idea was to make more "new options" and "new places" available but by re-using all older content that might have been skipped, run through too quickly, or just unnecessary (like old items.) Blizzard is trying to re-use everything in the game to avoid hard questions about content delivery and so that hard work isn't wasted. It's also a really cheap way to avoid costs, resources and work. Doing this saves them a TON of money.

They also tried different ways of extending longevity and controlling content consumption:

• Leveling restrictions. Once you hit 80, you HAVE to move onto CATA or else you receive only 10% experience gains.
• Making dungeon encounters difficult in the beginning, and then nerf them later.
• New Dungeons rolled out more slowly. Less zones/dungeons in Expansion Packs. Introduced as Major Content Patches after 2-3 months.
• PVP Seasons, locking in items until Blizzard is ready for the next round of consumption.
• New Talent Changes to shake things up, make things new/novel again.
• And of course, all of the obvious stuff to keep players busy, like professions, auction house, exploration, achievements, pet battles, seasonal events, etc.

Even with the Item Squish, even though it's "just an idea", they've already made arrangements to start getting players prepared for it (and for internal testing purposes):

• Ghostcrawler's Forum Post, of course, making everyone aware.
• Creating items that have scaling stats like Heirlooms. This means that full fledged Level-Scaling throughout the whole game is possible. In my opinion, this ruins games. It's a very lazy way of thinking, so I wouldn't be surprised if Blizzard actually imposed this on users one day.
• Buffs, Spell Damage and Mana Utilization is all based off percentage calculations (of base numbers) now instead of fixed numbers in the past.
• Changing Tool Tips to get players familiar with "Costs 20% of Base MP" calculations. So, when the change comes.. all of the Ability Tool Tips and Descriptions still stay the same. :)
• Another New Talent System (skill based rather than number manipulation.)

(Note: I haven't played the game in many years now, so if there are any other pieces you've noticed in-game that relate to this, let me know and I'll add it to these lists.)

Other Alternatives

The big problem with the Item Squish is the feeling of being nerfed. It doesn't matter if everything else is normalized, once those big numbers disappear there's going to be a lot of rage.

Role Playing Games are all about creating a better player (better than everyone else), so it's very important to give them a feeling of progression and a godlike sense. Everyone wants to a god, after all. :)

This is a problem that only affects high level players though. There's an alternative option available where high level players stay the same (still godlike), the power creep issue is fixed, and you can make low level players feel better about themselves.

The "Item Inflation" Method

What you do is eliminate the power creep between Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria, so no huge item stat increase between the transition. This just leaves power creep issues which span from Vanilla to Cataclysm. During those phases you create an Item Inflation.

So, something like this:

What happens here is that everything scales properly from Vanilla all the way to the end of MOP. But, new characters will start out with (what they think is) uber awesome gear stats, but mobs are also adjusted so they still take the same length of the time to kill.

High level players stay the same, and low level players feel awesome again. Big changes are going to happen anyways, but at least in this scenario, high level players are happy, there's no mass exodus, and Blizzard receives the same result: no more power creep.

Even Ghostcrawler's "large number calculations" don't even need to be used in this approach; because of the relative progression, large numbers can just be "displayed" for users to see, but they're actually represented by smaller numbers (and smaller calculations) on the back-end. Having uneven exponential growths in their numbers, like how it is now, is what led to their problems. Not that any of this should have been a problem in the first place.. even 2 trillion isn't exactly a very big number for modern computers.

The Future

Because of this approach Blizzard is taking, you can start to make assumptions about their future games and expansion packs. For example, there won't be "uber items" available within Diablo X1 or Titan expansions. They also plan on leaving out a ton of content so that it can be added later as a major content patch.. new dungeons, mobs, bosses, or rares added to Diablo later for example.

This gives Diablo 3 the impression of frequent content addition, even though all of it was originally intended in the first full package. Titan will be the same. New expansions will have, say 2-3 "dungeons", and 4-5 new "dungeons" will be added for the following 2 years before the next expansion pack.

Blizzard wants players to keep reusing old content over and over and over. They'll find new methods to get you revisiting older content (e.g. difficulty levels.) This is almost how Diablo 3 was completely designed from the ground up. :)

With Item Squishing or Inflation, because dungeons take longer to progress, Blizzard can start introducing even newer ways to get players visiting older dungeons. For example, rare spawns with high-level stats that appear in older dungeons. So, a Level 90 might visit Level 75-80 Dungeons, take a long time to beat the dungeon, only so that there might be a chance of a rare boss appearing that carries Level 90 items. WOW players will roam for rares, just like in Diablo 3.

Oh, and one interesting note about Item Squishing.. it's going to bring back the good old days of bugs and exploits. :) There are a lot of mobs, abilities and items to go through.. and some will be missed. So, there might be a mob with an uber-damaging ability still based on old calculations, or a special item/gear piece missed that still has uber-stats. A lot of unchanged "bugged" stuff is going to make it's way through, and they'll be exploited quite a bit. :)

They would have to make the change during a quiet period.. so, months before launch or months after launch. With my Item Inflation method, though, there's less likely chance of exploitation, because bugged items can only be underpowered and they would really only have to specifically focus on boss skills. :)

I'm switching gears here for a moment, because I really wanted to talk about Mists of Pandaria and one potentially significant upcoming change.

Two months before Cataclysm came out, TOD made a post about Cataclysm "Repeating the Past". His idea was trying to make items from Classic Dungeons (and the Dungeons themselves) useful or novel again, and in general, to get players using older dungeons again because they were practically empty with the introduction of new expansion packs. After all, it's a shame that all of that immense work had went into designing the art and media, only to be abandoned at the onset of the next expansion pack release.

"With scaled gear, you can still have the same old equipment look (with or without a slightly different name) but with different stats scaled for the player. They've already been doing this experimentation with heirlooms, so it shouldn't be that hard to do it with old instance drops."

Remarkably (maybe even suspiciously) clairvoyant of the new Transmogrification system, wouldn't you say? That post is also relevant for another issue.

Transmogrification is one of Blizzard's latest attempt to get players revisiting classic dungeons, and to bring in diversity and novelty once again to the game. But Mists of Pandaria will also be introducing (maybe) a new fix to correct the power creep issues and to make all older items, dungeons and quests viable and even fun again.

Blizzard is calling this "The Great Item Squish (or Not) of Pandaria". It's an older post and you've probably read it already.

All of the discussions I've seen about this potential update is "Me me me. How does this effect me?" They want to talk about it's impact and how it affects players. No one is talking about WHY they're doing it. Even Ghostcrawler never fully explained why they're doing it.. only that "because the numbers are too big" and that "users might not like it."

So, what are the real reasons then? We know that the change must be financially motivated.. so what are the reasons from a business perspective? That's what I want to talk about. :)

A Quick Recap

Blizzard wants to fix the power creep issue through two "options":

Option 1

The first option was Ghostcrawler's "Mega Damage solution". It basically means following the same route they've already been taking, but to change the appearance of the big numbers because they take up too much space on the screen.

In regards to these "big numbers", Ghostcrawler wrote;

"Now there are some very real computational limitations. PCs just can’t quickly perform math on very large numbers, so we’d have to solve all of those problems as well."

I hope no one actually bought this. He's talking about "big numbers" like 150,000 instead of 20,000. We're not talking about calculating monster prime numbers that are 2^32,123,456-1 digits long. It sounds like an old man trying to describe these new fancy com-pu-ter ma-chines. :)

None of this really matters though. He kept this part of his post really short, exaggerated the issue, and tried to shrug the whole thing off as a ridiculous "alternative option". This means that he has no intention of even considering this and the team has already set their sights on the Item Squish option.

This is like when you go to your parents and ask them for something ridiculously overpriced, so that when they say no, you can "reluctantly settle" for what you really wanted in the first place.

The "Mega Damage solution" is not really a serious option.

Option 2

This is the Item Squish. I trust that you already understand what they're planning on doing.

Basically, they're going to take gear stats and "even everything out" so that it's a consistent power growth from Vanilla all the way to Mists of Pandaria without any major "bursts" in item power. The term "Green is the new Purple" will no longer apply to future expansion packs.

They want to make growth rates more like this:

Fig. 5. Item level vs. character level before and after ‘squish’. Brown = vanilla. Green = BC. Blue = LK. Red = Cat
And, of course, users are split on this potential update. Mostly because players will feel as though it's a major nerf.

But, it's not just the players and their items getting the "nerf", mobs and bosses will also be adjusted accordingly. You'll still be healing and damaging at the same percentiles as normal, but you'll just see smaller numbers on the screen.

However, they will be making it so that soloing old content will be much harder, but you'll receive viable awards based on the difficulty level. Because there will be a marginal difference between level 85 and 90, you can still run CATA dungeons (and even WOTLK dungeons) for gear that can be used in level 90 encounters.

Everything in the game will be changed relatively, and they want the entire game back to how it was with "expansions" within Vanilla (ie, major content updates like dungeon additions).

Understanding The Problem

I think it's a very good idea for the Item Squish, and it's something they should have done a long time ago. They probably started to realize the implications by late mid-late WOTLK.. it definitely wasn't during TBC. :)

What it comes down to is a problem of content consumption versus our need for growth.

Blizzard spent a lot of time building dungeons, raids, instances, and scripted events. During Vanilla, most players on average had visited all of the dungeons/raids and rather frequently. They consumed the content slowly, at the pace the Blizzard preferred.

Once TBC rolled out (and follow up expansion packs), there was no more need to visit old dungeons, and they would just skip ahead to end game content. Older dungeons didn't need to be visited anymore, especially with players carrying you through pre-raid or end game content. Dungeons, raids, and capital cities became ghost towns. (Something that wasn't a good impression for new players, which is why they made capital cities central quest hubs again.)

Since players grew faster than they could consume content, Blizzard was (is) always under increased pressure to produce new content for us.

And, there's a finite limit to the amount of content they can provide for us before it just become recycled garbage. Everything needs to be slowed down, from player growth to player consumption to content creation to creative process and resources.

It was really fun in the beginning, but they burned through so many ideas (i.e. dungeon designs, art, audio effects, encounters, mobs and bosses) that they're now realizing that they need to start saving up this content for future use and not allow it to be consumed so quickly.

There's also the issue of creative burnout, something also experienced in the music and book industry. The video game industry is not immune from writer's block. If things move too quickly, and they don't keep filling up their "creativity pool" (for future expansion packs and games), then their games start getting repetitive or boring, and they have to resort to common world objects for creative inspiration, like using every kind of animal as a race, mob or boss. I can't remember.. did they already do a Cow Boss, Lobster Boss, Bird Boss, Snake Boss, Tiger Boss, or Panther Boss? :)

More to come..

Here's something Lon-ami alerted me to that I didn't know about.

It actually relates to some of my earlier posts (and comments) where I was expecting Diablo 3 to have regional payment restrictions.. even though it's a region free game.

Usually games are region-locked, and can only be installed or used in certain countries. Diablo 3, however, will be region free. You can buy it in China, and then play it in Australia and on Australian servers.. or play it anywhere else you want, who cares. :)

Apparently, Blizzard had already addressed this a long time ago (2009) by way of a minor forum post. This was actually a pretty big deal, with long reaching and long lasting impacts, and it appears that Zarhym intentionally kept it was a "minor" update on the forums to keep it low key.

These were just virtual items, and there were no legal restrictions in place preventing them from selling these "region free" virtual products in any region that players selected. Locking them down to specific regions was a decision made by Blizzard, and it was completely unnecessary UNLESS they wanted more money (players could no longer shop around for better pricing) AND/OR they had future plans to eventually convert the Pet Store into a "Blizzard Store" where they where they could also sell other stuff (like games, expansion packs, digital downloads, or game time) instead of just virtual pets. :)

I don't use this word too often, but that move was just plain greedy.

Most players didn't even know about the cross-region pricing differences, and hardly any players even took the time to take advantage of it. Even with such a small number of players actually buying virtual pets cross-region, and most not even knowing about it, Blizzard still wouldn't leave it alone. They needed to tightly squeeze that sponge just to get a little more water out of it.

This is the main reason why they'll never adopt a global payment system like PayPal. That is, unless, they can develop a new method to truly lock players down to their regions and prevent users from shopping around in other countries. Blizzard wants all players to use their own local payment methods and only purchase "local" games, forcing you to pay more.

You know what's funny about the Diablo RMAH? Blizzard is encouraging players to engage in a global market of selling items back and forth between regions. It's perfectly okay for users to engage in cross-region sales, as along as Blizzard prospers. But if Blizzard sells something to you, it's locked down regionally and players will, on average, pay the absolute most for the product. :)

Yesterday, Blizzard announced their new BattleTag service.

What is a Battle.net BattleTag?
A BattleTag is a unified, player-chosen nickname that will identify you across all of Battle.net – in Blizzard Entertainment games, on our websites, and in our community forums. Similar to Real ID, BattleTags will give players on Battle.net a new way to find and chat with friends they've met in-game, form friendships, form groups, and stay connected across multiple Blizzard Entertainment games. BattleTags will also provide a new option for displaying public profiles.

It sounds all very simple, nothing harmful about it.

Now, internally, this was already being used (every user had a unique ID), but Blizzard had no financial use for this information other than internally to Battle.net. They're making it so that their customers can see this unique identifier for themselves now, use it to communicate, and so that they spread the ID around the internet and to other social sites. :)

Right now it's "optional", but they'll eventually make it mandatory for all players.

It has been received very well, players are saying that it's what Real ID should have been, and many are even calling it "Real ID 2.0".

You'll probably notice a very strong connection of this new development to this older post too: "You Are Being Prepared"

This new service, though, is more of a "Real ID 1.5". It's just another stepping stone for player acceptance, and eventually leading to something even bigger that players aren't aware of.

Having one nick name (across Battle.net, games, Blizzard websites, and community forums) is definitely very useful.. for Blizzard friends only. But remember that there's always another purpose. Even though it's not your real name, you've been handed a mandatory unique identifier that's now public facing. :)

Players, will of course, have fun with their new nickname and also start to use it to identify themselves on webpages and forums that are outside Battle.net. Players will use this "unique code" on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks. Who knows where else this will be shared. (Also, you'll notice in their announcement that Blizzard will be creation optional Public Profiles for users, much like Facebook.)

These are just some of the first steps getting more players integrated with Facebook directly, or more importantly, finding a way to link Battle.net players to external websites and social networks. Don't be surprised if a new application is created for Facebook that displays your Blizzard gaming details using your BattleTag.

And, speaking of Facebook applications, remember that they have full access to everything to type. It doesn't matter what security or privacy settings you have.. if you write a confidential secret message to a friend, Facebook has complete access to it, and their marketing partners (Blizzard) will have access to it.

This BattleTag is useful to some players, but it's even more useful to Blizzard marketing (for the future purposes of targeted advertising) because it acts as a tracking ID: *1-12 max characters* # *4 digits*

Consider how useful that unique identifier is when web crawling or data mining. In Twitter for example, you can search for "@name" to find everything they've posted, who has messaged them, what their Facebook profile site is, what Forums they're on (if they share their Twitter account), if they're on Yelp, if they use those "Check In" services (so that you know where they are, what restaurants they go to), etc.

All of this can be fully automated.

Here's a very simple example too. On the first day of the announcement, several MMO-Champion users already posted their new BattleTags. "buggerlugs#2442" was one of them. There are 60 different players in the US called Buggerlugs and 68 in the EU. Out of 128 players in NA/EU alone, I now know exactly which "Buggerlugs" is the same one who posts on the MMO-Champion forums. Just knowing this alone is scary. But I also know that he's a male, complains about WoW every chance he gets (but can't stop playing), thinks that Blizzard Artists are cheap, I'll know what other games he plays when the service goes fully online, I know that he's very likely from the UK, and he really doesn't like the US (he finds it hilarious to make fun of Americans.)

Now, if he had a FB profile and I had a partnership with Facebook (like Blizzard does), I would also have full access to his profile and every private little message he's ever written (or even deleted). I would know where he lives, other sites he posts on, his family (and how to get his family playing Blizzard games), his likes and dislikes, nearby stores or restaurants, what he wants for Christmas, everything he's said about Blizzard (which he thought was anonymous), etc.

Even without a FB profile (or a partnership), all it takes is one slip up to link together dozens of "anonymous profiles" to one single person. This is what the internet does. So.. really, how is this any better than Real ID?

And all of this was done very smart this time around. Players are very positive towards this new change, they're welcoming it, encouraging others to use it ("BattleTags" sounds awesome), and they'll never be aware of how it will be used eventually to bombard them with suspiciously specific advertisements in the future. :)

I think a lot of this will be very useful for Titan, if they can search for and use this information properly Many companies have tried and failed on this front, and everyone thinks they can do better (things tend to get overcomplicated). There may even be ads on their Blizzard public profiles and remember too that the Blizzard/Facebook partnership goes both ways.. that is, Facebook ads using Blizzard data. Data from either FB or Blizzard can be used by either parties or even by affiliates (in any case, it will always be a win-win situation).

Blizzard (Italy) Confirmation Regarding Delay

Here's a very interesting post in the Italian (Battle.net EU) forums.

Basically, the users are talking about the delay of the game due to the RMAH, and a government in another region causing the delay of the game.

Then, Blue posts the following (translated):

"I can tell you that immediately after the delay of the game, it was decided that we no longer speak about possible release dates until we actually have an exact date with 99.99% confidence.

When we do finally announce the release date, you can be confident that it won't be delayed any longer. (Subject to natural disasters, emergencies, blah blah blah.)"

So, Blizzard has just confirmed what I've been writing about. They have no idea what the release date is yet, that it was put up in the air after the unexpected delay, and they don't know what the release date is because it's based on the decision of another government in another region questioning the RMAH. :)

* UPDATE:

Some more related information has been found thanks to our loyal readers. Here's the specific post, and it's full of interesting (new) information. I really like this Blue. :)

If you go through all of the blue posts in this thread, Zhydaris basically says that because of the Diablo 3 delay, the development team has been given more time to add new features and make changes that weren't supposed to be done until after retail.

Before Gold, there's another very important date, which they internally call the "Content Lock" stage. Simply put, that's the day that they finalize the list of features that are present in the game and complete before Gold.

Because the release date has been moved to an undetermined date, the development team can now add additional features like the Simple Tooltips (which were supposed to be added post-retail), and they can also add new features, new items, updated item affixes, balance skills, change graphics of items, etc. But, all of the changes they're making right now were supposed to be done after launch. :)

Having "more time now means having more content", even though the game was finished.

I talked about this before actually.. like how most player balancing, quest fixes, items, and tuning were done after the WoW Expansion Pack releases, and very little changes were made during the beta.

There's another really fun quote in there too. They are aiming for a global release (like what I speculated) and Zhydaris said that although older Blizzard games (region-locked) may have had regional legal issues, they did not impact other regions. But, he/she never denied that the current Diablo 3 (region-free) is being delayed due to one region. It was actually just like "Tom Chilton's denial"; "Well.. if you look at traditionally (or historically) how we've handled that.." Brilliant. :)

Top Posts on the Diablo Forums

On the major forums (especially the US), you'll notice that Blizzard has been addressing many concerns and questions on the forums.

They'll spend a lot of time defending the new Simple Tool Tips feature, they'll address questions about the Book of Cain delay, they'll talk about how "diablo looks like 2008 game", they get involved in troll posts, they'll keep talking about inferno being soloable, they'll talk to people who are refusing to use the RMAH (on strike), they'll talk about the RMAH or AH bugs, and they'll even address mass layoff rumors on the forums.

But, for some reason they're avoiding the TOP POSTS on the forum that ask if Diablo 3 is being delayed because of Korea.

They'll talk about everything else, even the RMAH, but they're not touching the subject of Korea approvals holding back the game. It's what they're not doing that interests me. :)

Oh, by the way, there are no current plans for Daily Quests in Diablo 3. Something that blue just posted.

Interplay VS Bethesda Progress

The Interplay vs Bethesda trial (fight over rights to Fallout) started yesterday morning, and the trial is expected to last 2 to 2 1/2 days. So, keep watching the headlines on DuckAndCover and we'll probably find out more about the battle either today or tomorrow.

I'm really excited about this. I've been leaning towards Interplay during this battle, but only because I still remember Interplay as the "Brian Fargo Interplay". Unfortunately, it's now the "Caen Brothers Interplay", and knowing their poor decision making skills, I'm inclined to believe that Interplay has just been performing a whole Dog & Pony Show. I think that their real intention is to hold the Fallout IP hostage after winning their legal battle, so that they can sell it back to Bethesda at a substantially higher price (or even sell to a competitor who might be interested in a post-apocalyptic MMO.) :)

I think they'll also sell off all of their other highly valuable IPs too. The next couple days will be very exciting indeed.

Why You No PayPal Blizzard??

Blizzard post regarding payment methods for Digital Downloads, confirming what I wrote the other day. (Thanks Ichigo!)

BlackReaper4: "PAYPAL,Paypal...EU can't use paypal to buy CD keys add subscription etc"

Nakatoir: "We are always looking into new payment methods to use, if a certain payment method is not available in a particular region, there is a reason for it. If we are able to make a certain payment method available, then we will try our best to make it so."

This is their standard response. And they say they're always looking for new payment methods.. and yet, they haven't changed in years. Regarding the "reason for it" (e.g. not using PayPal, even though they're partnered that their systems are fully integrated together), it's because they want players to be restricted to their own regions to buy games where they pay the most. Even for region-free games. So, I'm not going to be shocked if Diablo 3 can't be sent as a gift during the opening month, even though every other game can.

Blizzard/NetEase Rumors

Apparently, there's a rumor going around that Blizzard might be ditching NetEase (whose contract will be expiring next May) and they're shopping around for another service provider in China. (Thanks again Ichigo!)

Tencent, although very big and may have offered a handsome deal to Blizzard, has a lot of competing games, their own (and possible problematic for Blizzard) QQ Coins currency system, and current Chinese players prefer NetEase, so they're not the most ideal candidate. This rumor could just be a power play by Blizzard to update their NetEase contract for a better deal on Blizzard's end. :)

Blog Direction

Just a heads up that when Diablo 3 finally goes live, the blog will be taking a slightly different direction. I intend to focus on practical applications within Diablo 3.. specifically gold making strategies, even though they'll be rather difficult to make. I might take it in some interesting directions though that others might not have considered.. at least I'm hoping.

I'll still have some speculative or theoretical discussions about Titan and their future paid services though. Maybe even some progression into Guild Wars 2 once the game is finally out.

Diablo's New Anniversary

December 31st is Blizzard's "new" Diablo Anniversary, so you can expect something nice to happen that day. Apparently, it was just a coincidence that there was a ton of "Diablo News on November 30". November 30th just happened to coincide with Blizzard receiving a major update from the GRB. Still.. a very nice and convenient coincidence. (Those happen a lot here.) :)

The Blizzard_ANZ Twitter contest also ends on December 31, 2011 at which point the beta key winners will be announced. By then, the D3 beta would have been running for 4 months, and will be running at least another month (for a total of 5) for those beta key winners.

Jay Wilson originally expected that the Diablo 3 beta would run for 6 months ("six months before we release", quoted often by other blogs).. but that was for the FULL game. They changed it into the much shortened tech demo (a fraction of Act 1) that we see now, and planned on a 2-3 month release date so that they could release before Christmas. That's just how excellent the progress on D3 was, why they admitted to their intention for a Christmas release (the game was done), and how their plans were ruined due to the unexpected Korea GRB troubles.

This beta key contest is just another way to keep players busy and occupied until things get settled. (If things are approved by Jan 10th, they'll have a short beta period.) :)

* UPDATE: Bashiok later tweeted that they would have the anniversary activity during the following week, instead of on the anniversary day.

Here's that video from yesterday I mentioned that you should check out. It's called "Unethical Game Design", and it's a pretty good watch whether you apply it to WOW or Diablo 3.



Even Activision and Blizzard have teams of psychologists working for them that perfect methods of behavioral addiction in video games and encourage compulsive behavior. They try to avoid the label "Psychologist" though, often they're grouped into "Marketing & Promotion", "Business Intelligence", or "Statistics and Data Analytics". Internal Psychologists for employees are rare, but they would probably be grouped under "Human Resources" since they would be providing services for employees, rather than analyzing customers.

(Most large game companies do this by the way.)

You can use some of my earlier search methods to find these employees yourself if you want. For example, you'll find employees doing jobs called "Data Visualization Analysis", "Business Intelligence", "Localization Analyst" or "Statistics Analysis" and yet they don't have mathematics or business backgrounds.. but they do have Masters and Ph.D's in behavioral psychology, community/organizational psychology, consumer psychology, and experimental psychology.

They're like the fabled "Fraud Manager" positions (which were renamed to "Finance Services" or something else to cover their purpose). They don't exist. ;)

One day, Achievements won't be enough in Call of Duty and they'll need to come up with new ways to keep players addicted. (Blizzard is introducing "Pokemon" Pets for example.)

Some of you wanted to know why I have been questioning if Digital Downloads will be available for Diablo 3 or not. So, I thought I would explain this further.

At Blizzcon, it was already announced that WOW Annual Pass members will receive a Digital Copy of the game, much like Cataclysm, and they can play it immediately upon the game's launch.

However, this has only been made official for WOW Annual Pass members. There hasn't been any word on a Digital Download for everyone else yet (AFAIK).

Digital Content

Activision Blizzard has heavily been pushing Digital Content delivery and it's critical to their revenue and growth (in less than 5 years, digital revenue could overtake their retail revenue). So, it makes perfect sense for D3 (and all future games) to be available for digital pre-download.

If Digital Downloads are available to all customers, it "should" be announced pretty quickly after the release date announcement (or even on the same day.) And, the Digital Pre-Download "should" be made available at least 1 month before the official release date. (Users will also need at least 1 month to prepare their B.Net/PayPal integration as well. The B.Net Balance will be available towards the end of December and if things go well with the GRB, the B.Net PayPal integration will be announced early-mid January along with the release date.)

On A Related Note..

The new RMAH/B.Net Balance system is currently holding back the announcements of other Digital Content and Paid Services as well. After the RMAH is established, Blizzard will roll out the Map Marketplace (Arcade) where players can also sell maps or mods for "nominal fees."

So, while Diablo 3 users are selling items on the Auction House and building up a B.Net Balance account, Starcraft 2 players will also be doing the same.

After all of this money starts flowing into player's B.Net Balance accounts, that's when Blizzards strikes. :)

Examples include, but are not limited to; new Blizzard Store items, new Paid Services, a lot of new virtual items, Blizzard-made SC2 maps and content, DLC, sale promotions (cheaper games that can only be bought from the Blizzard store), classic games finally available, and eventually a full integration of Activision's suite of games. These announcements are all being saved up for a later time.

Players will be able to make money playing D3 or SC2, and buy the latest COD game from the "Activision Blizzard Store" or whatever they re-brand the Store or Battle.net as. Not only that, but all of Activision's paid services and DLC will also be made available. (They might even have transferable credits between the Activision and Blizzard "Stores", for another "nominal fee".)

Second Guessing Digital Downloads

The reason why I'm second guessing Digital Downloads for Diablo 3 is because it's a delicate and complicated bitch. Diablo 3 is their first "region free" game and they're being really quiet about it.. so there must be a reason.

I think that Blizzard wants Diablo 3 to seem like a normal region-locked game, so that players follow the same purchasing patterns.

You see.. when you buy Diablo 3, you can buy it anywhere in the world, and play it anywhere in the world. This means that Australians could purchase the Digital Copy in the US and save themselves $40 or more. Any other countries with ridiculous prices could also purchase the digital version from the cheapest country they can find. :)

There's a lot about this subject but there's no nice way of organizing it, so I'll just use bullet points for easier reading:

• If Blizzard were to make this publicly known right now, players could just cancel their pre-orders and wait for the Digital Download instead. They would be screwing over their retailers.
• Blizzard also doesn't want WOW Annual Pass members to know this, because they're already "purchasing Diablo 3" based on their own region's monthly fees. These players don't know they can get a much better deal waiting for the Digital Download. Blizzard wants to make sure as many players are locked in as possible before revealing just how cheap Diablo 3 will really be since you can purchase it from any region.
• When (if) Blizzard does announce the full Digital Pre-Download, I suspect that they'll keep it very simple, low key, and leave out certain details. They'll just say "go into your Battle.net account to see the price and order the game", but they won't remind you that it's a Region Free game, they won't share regional prices, and they'll ban discussions about how you could just create a new B.Net account in a different region to buy it.
• This is also why they restrict your purchasing methods. Even with this whole PayPal & Blizzard partnership and systems integration, have you ever asked yourself why they still haven't allowed PayPal for Blizzard Store purchases?
• I'm predicting that the new Battle.net Balance will allow a "wide variety of debit and credit cards", but they still won't let you charge it up with PayPal (under certain conditions). Even though PayPal is fully integrated with their system already. If they prevent you from using a global-friendly payment system, they can charge you extra for "regional purchases".. even though they're not actually region locked games. To bypass this, they could make a deal with PayPal and use their own systems to restrict purchases regionally (even though this isn't the systems original intention), that way PayPal can be used, but heavily restricted.
• I also suspect that you won't be able to purchase and give the gift to a friend. The digital version of Cataclysm (and other games) are transferable right now, meaning that they're not locked to a Battle.net account. Diablo 3 will probably be different on launch day.
• All of this is connected and Blizzard has thought well and hard on this. (I've only thought on it while typing this, so I can only imagine what a team of marketing professionals and seasoned businessmen have considered.)

I suspect that they're going to make it as hard for you as possible to take advantage of this region-free special bonus. There will be restrictions in place for an unrestricted game (yes, that's weird and unfair if true). And, I suspect they won't let people really know about the "region free" aspects of the game until sometime AFTER the launch date.

This is why I'm curious how they're going to handle this. If Digital Downloads are available before the launch, they have to cover up a lot of things.. which is why there's a small part of me questioning DD's even though it makes sense to release them just like Cataclysm. :)

This is why I'm thinking that the Digital Download might be delayed or rushed in the sense that people won't be given the same amount of time they were for the Cataclysm DD. The idea is to give gamers no time to think about it and to act quickly (while also not being told the whole truth.)

It's much like the limited time offer for the WOW Annual Pass. Gamers rushed out to purchase the package without considering the consequences, and now forums are filling up with posts of regret.

If you want to break it all down: I'd say that 80% of me believes that the Digital Pre-Download will be available at least 1 month before the release date but details will be kept very low key, and the region-free aspects will be left out (and moderated on the forums). The other 20% of me suspects that there might be something strange about this release like a condensed "act fast" time frame. It wouldn't make logical sense (for the customer) for the Digital Download to be made available after the launch, after all. I'm certain, though, that there will be some kind of restrictions in place preventing as many users as possible from taking advantage of better pricing.