Blizzard kills Diablo III's RMT to appease South Korea

To add to my previous comment and address the black market / taxable income concern.

If Blizzard is adding a feature to exchange real-money, you can be damned sure they're going to be 100% compliant with tax regulations around the world. If they send more than the minimum reported income to a person within an annual period, I can guarantee a 1099 will be issued and the recipient will be responsible for paying tax on that income.

It's said on the official website that the "cash out" feature will be handled by a third party payment service. So it seems that Blizzard will delegate the complicated responsibilities of financial/tax obligations to other company(ies) that are already established for handling them.

Ultimately if an end-user doesn't pay taxes on their earnings (whether from Blizzard through "cash out" transactions in D3, or from their job), responsibility falls on them.

Also to address another point, individual one-on-one auction trades in the game don't need to be tracked and reported as earnings - only "cash out" transfers when users convert their battle.net virtual currency to real currency (for a fee).

That just shot the shit out of Blizzards freemium/Premium model.

So... how do I get a copy of the korean version? Seriously, I'd actually buy this game if they dropped the RMT AH. (I can overlook/ignore all the other negatives)

You guys know there will be server realms for the different regions, right? Everyone asking about getting a copy of the Korean version, you can buy your copy local and create a profile to play on the Korean realm, RMT-free!

If you do wish to partake in "cash out" transactions then you need to play on the realm for your country. But otherwise Blizzard has published that they endorse people playing on different realms.

So they don't need to drop the RMT feature in your country for you to avoid it!

Actually I take that back.. it's just the "cash out" operation that's restricted from South Korean players, not the entire real-money auction house.

They can still earn battle.net currency and use it to buy other Blizzard games/products, or use it towards other items in the RMAH, they just won't be able to exchange it for real cash.

Oh dear lawdy, there are plenty of reasons to hate Blizzard, this isn't one of 'em.

RMT will create "addicts"? Gee, I'm thinking the actual game itself would, rather than a minor economic activity that is optional. Most people are addicted to the actual, core aspect of the game itself - downing whats-his-name-who-will-be-the-final-boss, for instance, rather than playing Mr. Monopoly with the auction house.

Pay-to-win? Anyone who actually follows the news will know that PvP gear is excluded from the RMT. And is there really a competition for a "Diablo world first"?

And finally, please divest yourself from thinking "derp, Blizzard is a money-grubbing company". Well yes, that is true - they all are. Even the sainted Trion Worlds is, and don't fool yourself into thinking that they would put "gamers first" ahead of profits. Must be nice to still living a sheltered life, but I'm too old and cynical to believe that a wide-eyed, passionate developer is doing this solely for the joy it brings. Life's not a Santa Claus movie, guys.

If this is gambling then anyone who invests in the stock market is gambling. Instead of investing, so instead of using a investment firm for my retirement I should use a bookie.

Someone who buys something at a yard sales, because they think it is undervalued and can be sold for more on eBay is gambling.

Just because you don't like something don't give you the right to use some poor way of defining it, because you think that angle might give you a chance to get it removed from the game.

Watching people who want this feature removed from the game latch on to this is pathetic.

+ a little 1?

read my previous post! ;)

This whole economic talk is just ignorancy...not referring to your point.

I remember when a friend of mine said "I dont buy gold with money, its just stupid"

I told him, why u go fishing for? He said; its my hobby. I said well, wow is my hobby... How much did you pay for your fishing rod..He said 300$. I said how much you pay for bait...He said "I like the live good stuff, i get mine fresh for about 50$ for a morning's worth.. How often you fish? 2 times a week 3 if I can...sigh... point made..

I said, I pay 15 a MO for wow and I bought 10k gold for 30 bucks..I dont waste gass to drive anywhere, dont worry about any other expenses except internet... I LoL'ed when he couldnt argue with me....

I have made more money off WoW than he ever did from fishing and I got my enjoyment out of it.

Regulated, illegal, what have you... Black market trading I.E. player auctions etc.. in the end bring money back to the economy!!!

If I have a full time job making 30 bucks an hour, and only have time to play on weekends..I can buy a lvl80 account from my cousin who spent 3 months getting ALL epics for 150 bucks. = I just spent 5 hours in getting a lvl 80 account with all epics..just so I could pvp or w.e my heart desired.

What is my cousin gonna do with the money he earned... go out spend it in games.. movies ...AMERICA!? lol... pay for more wow time since he got bored of a lvl 80 and start over??..

Bottomline. PEOPLE will pay for a shiny axe who tears shit up.
Why? well why not!! this is my hobby and metaphorically speaking, I would like to have a bigger boat to catch bigger fish!!!)..

Who am I to deny you of taking your girl to a movie? Why dont you produce your own fucking movie and edit it and but it in a reel and have her watch it!?! doesn't sound much fun anymore does it? LoL..

I see a lot of comments, but no real understanding of what the issue was.

The issue is that people pay for the game (money in).
People have a chance to win an item (drops)
People can redeem the winnings for money (auction house).

By allowing the players to 'cash out' they have in effect made the game itself a form of gambling. This did not apply to other games, because there was no legal method to cash out (i.e. the reason why you can not sell gear, characters, etc).