Blizzard has been banning players for getting angry about the RMT AH, but I found this one interesting Blizzard response regarding the RMT AH.


Blizzard claims that Diablo 3 and its RMT is a free market, there is no gambling, there are no risks associated with the RMT system, lottery tickets in RL can only be bought if you exchange money directly for them, and that their current RMT system has been thoroughly researched and approved by their legal department.

But, this is what is really happening:

* Diablo 3 has listing fees, auction cuts, and cash out fees.
* Auction cuts and cash out fees are not related to chance. They only happen after a successful transaction.
* The listing fee, however, is a gamble every time you post an item. There is a risk that you might not sell the item.
* If your auction does not sell, you lose money. This is a game of chance, there are high stakes in volume, and you are gambling with your money.
* The game is all about volume. Blizzard stated that Diablo 3 was "item centric". There are high stakes and losses associated with high volumes of transactions.
* Blizzard is making most of their profits from listing fees.
* If there was no listing fee, there would be no gambling or "games of chance".
* These aren't 1-10 day EBay auctions or 24-48 hour WoW auctions. These auctions are very short. The shorter the time span; the less likely chance of finding a successful buyer. When you only have 30 minute (or 60 max) auction intervals, you will be hard-pressed to win.
* You are also paying higher listing charges for longer auction periods.
* Auction Houses are regional so there will be millions of players that can be involved in random undercutting of items leading to the house (Blizzard) winning. Item drops are randomly created, meaning that the AH posts are also random in nature.
* It's not a free market when the supply and demand is controlled by a governing body.
* The retailers example is also a poor analogy. When you buy milk from a store, the retailer doesn't charge you a fixed fee, and then check to see if there's a random chance of milk being available because milk is delivered randomly.

Because of the listing fee, it's a game of chance every time and Blizzard has created a brilliant method of indirect gambling to avoid licensing.

By changing loot tables and random chance algorithms, Blizzard can alter volume. Volume or rarity = more listings = gambling by the players (but this is not a gamble for the house) = more listing fee revenue (the house always wins)

Selling an item is a game of chance, there's high risk involved, there's monetary loss involved due to random chance, and it's gambling. If the Auction House is changed so that there is only a cut after a successful auction, then it is not gambling. On a related note, EBay charges insertion fees, however the fee is refunded if your item does not sell.

Even if you're dealing with pennies per transaction, it's still gambling. In the case of Diablo, though, you're dealing with greater volumes of transactions. The game is "item centric" after all with massive quantities of loot dropping from the heavens with random real money value.

I must have missed this, but apparently the new Diablo 3 RMT Auction House transactions "will be managed by a yet-to-be-announced third party vendor." [LINK]

During their other interviews with GamePlanet, Blizzard spokespersons were very careful not to mention the word PayPal when speaking about RMT.. but they were perfectly casual about comparing their new system to EBay. In the other news releases from August 1st I don't recall them mentioning PayPal either.

What do you think?

If they are getting into bed with PayPal, it would certainly explain how they got PayPal to hunt down and kill all of the RMT competition out there. There must have been something more to that story. Can't wait to see who the third party vendor will be, but my money is on PayPal. :)

There's been some speculation about Diablo 3 launching on November 15, 2011. The reason for this is because Chris Metzen had said "The Book of Cain" would be released simultaneously to the launch of D3. And, Amazon.com accidentally posted a release date of Nov 15 for the book. Sources? [LINK 1] [LINK 2]

But while you're speculating, please remember the following releases;

Nov 01 Uncharted 3
Nov 08 COD: MF3
Nov 11 Minecraft
Nov 11 "Scrolls" Skyrim
Nov 15 Saints Row The Third
Nov 15 Assassin's Creed: Revelations

There's a LOT of competition around the 11/11/11 date, and Blizzard wouldn't risk releasing their game around such other high profile games. I think it would be safe to assume that Blizzard won't be releasing any games around the 12/12/12 period either.

Based on everything I've read about D3, here's how I'm expecting the Diablo 3 expansion pack announcement at BlizzCon 2013 to go;

DIABLO 3 EXPANSION PACK UNVEILED

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for the first expansion pack to Diablo 3, its award-winning online action role-playing cash grab game.

Unveiled at the company’s seventh BlizzCon® gaming festival, Diablo 3: Raging Mists of Travincal will bring sweeping changes to the world of Sanctuary. Players will be able to adventure as one new playable race, the taxman, and take on new challenging zones that have twice the amount of item drops.

“In addition to the new referral systems, Diablo 3: RMT will add new features and a large amount of new items and loot for players to sell,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re excited to be offering a first glimpse of RMT for attendees of BlizzCon, and we look forward to sharing more information with everyone as development progresses.”

There are a couple new zones and stuff, maybe some new quests, but all of that is insignificant compared to the major enhancements we have made to the game. This is what our players wanted, not what we wanted. New features coming with the game’s first expansion include:

• One New Playable Class: The Taxman
• More Loot: Monsters and bosses will be dropping twice the amount of items and gold now. All players can now sell even more stuff!
• Casino: The much anticipated in-game casinos have been constructed at 30 locations in Sanctuary. Players wanted it, players get it! To avoid any possible gambling legislation issues, please do not refer to this as "gambling". These are skills-based virtual games and there is no actual gambling taking place.
• Increased Storage Cap: More space for all of your items! Every player will now be provided a 400% increase to their storage space and bags.
• Increased Gold Cap: To meet the demanding requirements of players that are having a hard time selling their gold. Fret not, even though there are 1 million players competing with you, it will eventually sell. This is the Blizzard Promise™.
• Gold and Cash Arena: Implemented by popular demand! New interfaces available for PVP players who want to set stakes and cash limits for matches. Spectators can also participate by betting for real money!
• Paid Pet Fights: Pit your pets against other in the Pet Cash Arena! For a nominal fee, new combat pets can be purchased in the Blizzard Store.
• Pet Upgrade: Coming soon, players can upgrade their non-combat pets into an Arena-only combat pet for the small price of $25. Feed them, raise them, level them, turn them into fighting machines in brutal dog-eat-dog cage matches.
• Stables: The world of Sanctuary now offers mules that can be purchased or rented, and follow you on your adventures. Mules cannot be mounted, but the extra storage space for all item drops will be invaluable!
• New Banners: For those that want to show off the number of items sold, and how much you have profited!
• New Achievements to Unlock: Examples such as "Millionaire", "Billionaire", "Greed is King", "Always Be Closing", "Pickpocket", "Auction Sniper", and "Time is Money.. Friend."
• Referral System: When you get your friends to join, you will immediately receive a payment of 50,000 gold. Also, for every direct referral, you will receive a small percentage cut of their of the Auction House sales. For any indirect referrals (your friends make more referrals), you will be a smaller cut from those indirect friends as well. All of this cash will be trickling to you! (Note: This is not a pyramid scheme. This is the Blizzard Promise™.)
• New Features: Blizzard is now implementing a new method to deal with the massive influx of gold beggars and solicitation since the launch of Diablo 3. All players will be placed in wealth brackets, where lower brackets cannot communicate with you. You can talk down to them, but the poorer classes will be unable to speak up to you. For a nominal fee, all players can purchase a service that upgrades them to a higher level class of Trade Chat and provide a 200 yard knockback effect to lower class players in your immediate presence.
• New High-Level Content: Explore newly opened parts of the world that are offering even more items and drops that can be sold.
• Mining Profession: Master a new profession to unearth valuable minerals and sell for more gold. Convert that gold into cash!
• Improved Random Loot Generator: Creates even more random drops of unique items that can be sold for profit on the Auction House.
• More New Paid Services: Only because you demanded them! For a small fee, Hardcore Players can be resurrected with all original equipment at time of death. We also have a new Gold and Cash Mobile Auction House to monitor your listings on the fly. Paid Mobile Chat to chat with friends, invite them to join the game and make easy cash!
• Improved Authenticators: Our new version provides twice the amount of protection! It costs twice as much, but it's worth it. Since account hacking is on the rise, we are also implementing two new in-game authentication methods (free of charge) in addition to your personal authenticator.