Diablo® III

LOL BLIZZARD U MAD THAT PEOPLE ARE MAKING A KILLING OFF YOUR GAME?

Some dude on this other forum I post on made 1.2 grand on the RMAH so they decided to go ahead and ban him because apparently you can't use a REAL MONEY AUCTION HOUSE as an INVESTMENT VEHICLE when they allow you to TRANSFER THE MONEY TO A PERSONAL PAYPAL ACCOUNT.

Don't believe me? It's right here:

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/legal/d3rmah_tou.html

"You will not:
(iii) use the Auction Houses as an investment vehicle;"

Congratulations on permanently losing me as a customer. I'm not usually one to make a big deal like this but this is a joke.

It's not that they don't want people to make money off of it, they seem to want to avoid people only "playing" the RMAH as opposed to D3.

For something to constitute an investment vehicle, usually that requires an initial investment which one hopes will result in a more valuable return. More specifically, an investment vehicle generally deals with investments of money that result in money returns. So you can invest time/gameplay and get money without invoking this part of the ToU.

Oddly, you could seemingly also buy with gold and resell for money without violating the ToU (though there are ways that could go badly too).

The term in the ToU is broad/vague enough give Blizzard enough room for some discretion in determining what constitutes an investment vehicle or not.

The real point is, you can sell things on the RMAH sure. You can even buy something, use it a while, and resell it... at a higher price even. But once you start buying low and selling high, flipping items on the RMAH, you run into the risk of violating this section of the ToU.

Other than that, you can do whatever and enjoy your money from sales.

What did blizzard think would happen when you have a real money trading market??

Greed begets more greed.

This post makes me feel better about only making $4.99 so far off the RMAH.

I'm actually completely OK with this.

People that play the auction house piss me off. They jack up prices for nothing more than their own personal gain. It !@#$s up the economy and value of the items up for sale.

I'm actually completely OK with this.

People that play the auction house piss me off. They jack up prices for nothing more than their own personal gain. It !@#$s up the economy and value of the items up for sale.

Actually *as I eat my bowl of Nutrigrain* ... you're wrong.

People that play the AH will *crunch* generally lower prices of items.

Allow me to elaborate:

Player 1 finds a really nice item after farming all day, finally getting the reward he was seeking: "Yea!" - he posts the item on the AH for 5 million.

Player 2 comes along, has a quick scan of the AH, finds an identical item to that of Player 1's item, listed at 500k - "oh snap!" quickly buys it up. (Sellers loss, buyers gain, the item's price in the economy is currently floating around 5 mil anyways!)

Player 2 then checks similar auctions, see's the item posted by player 1 at 5 million and says "Nah.. I want mine to sell first" and undercuts Player 1 by 500k. He has no regret doing this, only took him 5 minute of scanning the AH to pick up the item.

Player 2 then goes about his day. *crunch*

.. those are some good Nutrigrain.

Pull your head out of your asses for a second and think about what this clause is actually meant for. Blizzard doesn't really give a !@#$ if you sell some good items and make good money out of it, because they get a 15% cut of what you are making and profit immensely from volume alone. The clause is likely to be there to prevent someone with deep pockets going into the RMAH and sweeping all the top tier items, then reselling it at a higher value (~18%+ over their purchase price to break even). This is absolutely necessary and I'm glad they have it there.

It's not that they don't want people to make money off of it, they seem to want to avoid people only "playing" the RMAH as opposed to D3.

For something to constitute an investment vehicle, usually that requires an initial investment which one hopes will result in a more valuable return. More specifically, an investment vehicle generally deals with investments of money that result in money returns. So you can invest time/gameplay and get money without invoking this part of the ToU.

Oddly, you could seemingly also buy with gold and resell for money without violating the ToU (though there are ways that could go badly too).

The term in the ToU is broad/vague enough give Blizzard enough room for some discretion in determining what constitutes an investment vehicle or not.

The real point is, you can sell things on the RMAH sure. You can even buy something, use it a while, and resell it... at a higher price even. But once you start buying low and selling high, flipping items on the RMAH, you run into the risk of violating this section of the ToU.

Other than that, you can do whatever and enjoy your money from sales.

It's for his own good. Blizzard wants people to enjoy its games in every way possible, but doesn't want to be responsible for creating deadbeats. Doesn't want market manipulation. Doesn't want a few to hurt the experience of the many. 1200 bucks are you kidding me? Just what this generation needs. Kids committing all their time to gain knowledge of diablo 3 items to trade, making 1200 bucks in a market that will be gone within 2 years guaranteed. Why not just get an education, spend a few months to get your series 87 and gain knowledge of say, natural gas or precious metals, or fixed income derivatives, and trade those instead? A simple long position of 100 NGN.12 contracts, even with no arbitrage, last month woulda netted you 250k. 1200 bucks. Banned boohoo, they'll just buy a new copy and continue making MAD PAPER AT A BMW DEALERSHIP THANK YOU APEX. The state of mind of my fellow gamer is unfathomable.

What did blizzard think would happen when you have a real money trading market??

Greed begets more greed.

I mean the "reasoning" provided was that it would help minimize the number of unauthorized gold/item sales. Sad thing is, maybe some are not making as much money as they used to... but still seems like bots are rampant all over the AH's.

As it stands, it feels like those behind the bots are able to dictate market prices to a degree with the volume of items/gold they have. The market could even out, but it'll take some doing. Have to make flipping gold ah -> rmah unprofitable for them.

Anyway, Blizzard probably thought it might be a simpler fix... and they thought "at least we'll be getting 15% of this !@#$show through some quasi-regulation."

You're right though, they knew that people would want to flip items in the RMAH. That's why the provision is in the ToU -- to limit how much greed may be begat.

06/28/2012 10:23 AMPosted by Bnetplayer

they'll just buy a new copy and continue making MAD PAPER AT A BMW DEALERSHIP THANK YOU APEX.

I see what you did there... :D

I guess I should read the TOS better, I didn't realize that stipulation. I am not never using the RMAH. Only thing that would make me use it at this point is if i could use it in the blizzard store, which they don't allow for whatever stupid reason.

GG on screwing yourselves with D3 Blizzard.

GG.

Innerestin'.

I would never use the RMAH anyway so my interest is purely philosophical here--why would Blizzard make a rule against using RMAH as an investment vehicle. My guess is they're avoiding some kind of liability issues?

This investment vehicle thing . . . for a while I was stunned by just how many posters apparently have no idea what an investment vehicle is, nor why Blizz would even include that clause is the first place . . . and then I remembered that the majority of posters here are likely <18.

06/28/2012 10:29 AMPosted by Scatter

they'll just buy a new copy and continue making MAD PAPER AT A BMW DEALERSHIP THANK YOU APEX.

I see what you did there... :D

:P Hi there New Yorker.

What is the real reason this guy was banned? Let's see the language in the original e-mail. Otherwise this smells like trolls. I don't think his banning has anything to do with that clause.

30% cut on all cash transactions
Complete Obfuscation of seller/buyer ID
Nerfs at anytime
Ban for using the RMAH "too much"

Sign me up, k

Quote this a million times people.

I'm actually completely OK with this.

People that play the auction house piss me off. They jack up prices for nothing more than their own personal gain. It !@#$s up the economy and value of the items up for sale.

Actually *as I eat my bowl of Nutrigrain* ... you're wrong.

People that play the AH will *crunch* generally lower prices of items.

Allow me to elaborate:

Player 1 finds a really nice item after farming all day, finally getting the reward he was seeking: "Yea!" - he posts the item on the AH for 5 million.

Player 2 comes along, has a quick scan of the AH, finds an identical item to that of Player 1's item, listed at 500k - "oh snap!" quickly buys it up. (Sellers loss, buyers gain, the item's price in the economy is currently floating around 5 mil anyways!)

Player 2 then checks similar auctions, see's the item posted by player 1 at 5 million and says "Nah.. I want mine to sell first" and undercuts Player 1 by 500k. He has no regret doing this, only took him 5 minute of scanning the AH to pick up the item.

Player 2 then goes about his day. *crunch*

.. those are some good Nutrigrain.

Or player #2 sees the 5m price tag and thinks, "hey I got time, i'll sell it for more than that!" Prices it at 5.5m and leaves. *crunch*