All good demons go to... um... sequel? - Diablo 3 Announced

[Alan_Friesen]

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.

Blizzard takes $1.00 per transaction, so $2.00 a pop would do it.

[MikeJ]

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.

[Razgon]

Blizzard takes $1.00 per transaction, so $2.00 a pop would do it.

wow - they’ve made another money-making machine then? I am very impressed by their management, I must admit.

[Charlatan]

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.

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.

[Reldan]

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.

[Reldan]

wow - they’ve made another money-making machine then? I am very impressed by their management, I must admit.

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.

[Destarius]

Not even remotely. Borderlands weapons had all kinds of madcap options like shotguns firing missiles, never having to reload, extra elemental damage that actually mattered (unlike in D3 where it’s just flavour), etc

Basically some of the guns could be very much out of the ordinary.

Don’t forget bullets which bounced off the ground, or missiles that multiplied in mid-air etc etc. SOOOOOOOO fun.

[Thongsy]

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.

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.

[RichVR]

Blizzard takes $1.00 per transaction, so $2.00 a pop would do it.

In my case $2.00 and a $5.00 buy out. Why not?

[MrPerson]

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.

I too had assumed anything in the blizzard store was fair game for blizzardbucks.

[mouselock]

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.

Man, I wish Vegas would go ahead and install the slot machines where all I have to do is pay $60 once and I can keep playing as long as I want and maybe I’ll even hit a jackpot.

I think the restrictions all over the place on sales are silly, and not being able to use the “locked to blizzard” dollars to actually pay for a WoW subscription is completely asinine, but I can’t really fault the fact that the game also throws in this outside chance of making some amount of money off of things, no matter how much of the take Blizzard keeps for itself.

[Murbella]

Beat nightmare finally. End boss dropped 3 blues, level 41, level 44, level 44. I was not thrilled to say the least.

[Misguided]

Beat nightmare finally. End boss dropped 3 blues, level 41, level 44, level 44. I was not thrilled to say the least.

That’s about right. Personally I think the Act bosses should drop rates the first time you defeat them in each difficulty, but they made the deliberate decision not to do that. I beat Nightmare at 51 on hardcore, but frankly, I think that’s a few levels high, so 44 seems reasonable (given drops are typically a bit below you).

[Daagar]

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.

I don’t see the connection to gambling. It is a cash shop, where players are ‘stocking the shop’ vs. Blizzard just planting the items there. There is no (intentional) risk involved - you see the item you are purchasing, and will receive said item. Unless the in-game blacksmith starts taking real money, of course. The only gamble might be praying Blizz doesn’t nerf your item, or tweak the game in some way that renders your uber item useless.

[Thongsy]

That’s about right. Personally I think the Act bosses should drop rates the first time you defeat them in each difficulty, but they made the deliberate decision not to do that. I beat Nightmare at 51 on hardcore, but frankly, I think that’s a few levels high, so 44 seems reasonable (given drops are typically a bit below you).

That’s probably about the right level, maybe one too high since you need to be level 50 to enter Hell. So if you were to beat it at 44 you would need to grind away 6 levels of experience before you could move on.

[ShivaX]

That’s about right. Personally I think the Act bosses should drop rates the first time you defeat them in each difficulty, but they made the deliberate decision not to do that. I beat Nightmare at 51 on hardcore, but frankly, I think that’s a few levels high, so 44 seems reasonable (given drops are typically a bit below you).

They said they’re probably going to change that for the lower difficulties irrc.

[Murbella]

So why did they junk the idea that the first boss kill gave decent drops? Killing the end boss for the first time and getting low level blues is not exactly a “WOW” feeling.

[maxle]

So why did they junk the idea that the first boss kill gave decent drops? Killing the end boss for the first time and getting low level blues is not exactly a “WOW” feeling.

It was discussed in the AMA, if you want to go looking for it. The guy who made the call (Wilson, I think) has since been persuaded it was a bad call and they’ll be changing it so that first kills give rares in Nightmare and Hell. They didn’t say when, though they did say it would be after 1.0.3

[Pogo]

That’s about right. Personally I think the Act bosses should drop rates the first time you defeat them in each difficulty, but they made the deliberate decision not to do that. I beat Nightmare at 51 on hardcore, but frankly, I think that’s a few levels high, so 44 seems reasonable (given drops are typically a bit below you).

Jay Wilson said that was his decision and that they’ll probably change it back so that you’re guaranteed a couple rares on your first boss kills in subsequent difficulties.

[Quaro]

Kripp’s strategy tips for the RMAH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VexciAhxCeU