I’m curious also to see depending on RMAH popularity how it could affect the ongoing discussions regarding taxation of digital products. A number of states already have statutes enacting sales tax on digital goods. If people start making money from selling items on the RMAH will the government get smart to it and look to increase the opportunity for taxation (and revenue) of these transactions.
Also, the specific state sales tax laws depends on the state the transaction is taking place in, so is it the state that the item seller resides in, or just matters what state Blizzard is based out of and it adopts those laws. And then you have completely different digital taxation laws in the US and the EU, so does Blizzard have to be compliant with all of them?
And besides sales tax on every transaction, if you make some money on the RMAH, then by law you have to report it on your income taxes at the end of the year. How many players earning money on D3 will be doing that? This has the potential to be a huge red IRS bullseye… unless of course Blizzard has already looked into this pre-release and taken care of all tax issues for itself and its players using the RMAH.
How borderlands did it was by never taking himself serius, maximizing fun. You want to play offline? Thats ockay, you want to play online? Thats ockay, you advance in multiplayer? You also progress in singleplayer. D3 only have one type of damage that matter, but borderlands had different types, like poison or fire, that acted different and had different weaknes, even inmune mobs. D3 dont have mobs inmune to fire or poison, so wen you get a weapon with poison damage is meaningles. Visually weapons where afrcted by stats. Faster weapons had more bullets shot on screen, mosters had differen dead animations based on the elemental damage. On d3 speed diferences are not noticeable and few kills produce diffeent deads… Only skills produce different obituaries, weapons kill the same way. Both are excellent games.
I don’t understand who is buying the stuff on the RMAH personally.
I can see making rare micro purchases in games, maybe paying a couple dollars for some high level armor or maybe even a bit more for a cool looking social item (pet) you won’t replace, but paying a few dollars for some rare or something this early in the game’s life?
Not to mention the insane ones. Every idiot out there has items listed at hundreds of dollars.
All of the worlds wealth stems from the production of commodities. Without that that wealth, there is no money for magic swords. Market forces would ensure that those will always be getting produced, the amount of wich determines how many actors, gamers and poodle haircuts we can afford.
Functionally it’s the same as the “non-productive” and “doesn’t benefit society” work actors do. All they produce is entertainment for someone else, after all.
Yeah – pro athletes too. The market will support what it will support; I don’t see it as a huge deal.
I’m actually hoping to sell enough on the RMAH so I can pay for my wow account month to month. I think selling various yellows at 1.00 a pop will help.
Sorry but no way. Simple supply/demand would prevent this. That would keep jobs in line with societal “needs” for the most part. Do you really believe farming items in PC games is going to crash the economy because so many people would be playing games?!?
I think the objection is that, if governmental entities don’t take an interest in things like the RMAH, then income in virtual space is untaxed. So it amounts to a massive subsidy to virtual employment, with distorting but not apocalyptic effects on the economy.
Well, speaking only for the U.S., wouldn’t already be illegal to make a livable income in the buying and selling of virtual goods, and not report that on your tax returns?
Probably. I guess eventually the government will be getting information from Blizzard and the operators of other such marketplaces, and linking that up with real identity.
You can’t use your Blizzard Bux to pay your WoW subscription. See here. So if you really wanted to do that you’d have to transfer it to your PayPal account, which means you’re losing 1.00 and 15% off each transaction. Or something like that.
Blizzard solely owns everything that exists on their servers - from a legal standpoint they own your characters and your items and your gold. What’s happening in the RMAH isn’t a “sale” in the traditional sense of the word - a sale would imply either party had an actual stake of ownership in the good being transacted.
What’s really happening is Blizzard is selling the buyer the use of the digital item and then paying the seller a commission out of the purchase price, keeping a portion of the proceeds for themselves. This leaves the Sales tax burden on Blizzard and puts the income tax burden on the seller. Above some threshold Blizzard really ought to issue a 1099 and report the income to the IRS, although I question if they are going to bother.
It’s more that they’ve created a form of online gambling where they’re taking a huge rake, and couched it as a part of their multiplayer online video game. It really will not surprise me if they get in trouble with the law at some point over this.
Dammit, I made like 50 spacebucks on the AH. I thought at the very least I could buy junk from the Blizzard store. I guess not since I didn’t select the paypal option.
