Korea May Ban D3 over Real Money Trading
Posted 26 September 2011 by FluxFmulder dug up an interesting article from the Korea Times, about the apparent problems Diablo III is going to have getting cleared by that company’s Game Ratings Board. Games can not be sold in Korea without a rating, and another recent title was denied due to a similar real money item selling system.
Thankfully we don’t need translation, since the article is in English.
When does video gaming become gambling? To critics, it is the moment players start spending real money. Blizzard Entertainment, one of the world’s leading video game companies, plans to introduce a real-currency marketplace in Diablo III, the much-awaited second sequel to the megahit series of the same name. In a country where young people play games for hours in “PC bang” or Internet cafes, the prospect of a government approving such a trading platform seems out of the question to many.
…The issue of gambling, illegal for Korean nationals, is a sensitive one, especially after a 2005-06 nationwide scandal over the Sea Story game machines that first passed the regulatory body inspection but were removed after the police discovered excessively speculative and addictive behavior among the players. Due to this controversy, the watchdog and approval committee was created in the Game Rating Board.
…The country’s attitude toward gaming involving cash transactions has irked Blizzard’s local staff who are reluctant to deal with the controversy expected with the introduction of the auction house but are forced by headquarters to launch the feature, an industry source familiar with the matter said.
…“We’ve heard speculation comparing item trading to some form of gambling, but in gambling you’re putting something at risk to win,” said Morhaime. “Items” are won by individual players during the game when they complete a mission. Critics say they come through a randomized selection process, which is based on uncertainty like a card game, but Blizzard says it is a product of the player’s efforts. “(In Diablo III), you’re not risking anything. You’re just investing your time (to win items to sell). It is an important distinction.”
This issue came up during recent podcasts about the Real Money Auction House and Diablo III’s economy, and in both instances no one took the “finding a good item you can sell for $ = gambling” argument seriously. As Morhaime said in the quote, a key element of gambling is that you’re risking something for a potential payoff. Unless someone can argue that your purchase price (or hourly fees, in Korean baangs), or the time you spend finding items = paying to gamble, and that’s a pretty tenuous argument.
Obviously the Korean game rating board might feel differently, and you have to wonder how that will impact Blizzard’s profit projections in that market, if they have to strip out the RMAH in Korea. Also, might this set a precedent for other countries less accommodating to online gambling-like activities?
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I’m moving to Korea.
why are you moving to Korea? You cant make your own decisions?
No… because in Korea people can’t buy their success in video games.
I’m sorry to hear that other people’s decisions that have little effect on you is the deciding factor in this decision to move to another country.
I am a racist asshat.
they will just have a version without realmoney AH, if they rates it that way.
Awful comment. Minus 100.
Make racial slur, get voted up +8. Stay classy, gamers.
anyway to possibly ban that ip? kthnx
HAHA, Bliazzard can [perform an obscene sexual act].
F U
That is all.
1:) Anyone complaining of “Chinese” farmers can see now what might happen in china.
2:) Anyone in Korea has my sympathy over this.
3:) Trust me you don’t wanna move there
ES_Revenge – Dude, really?? You’ve gotta say that?
And it’s got 6 up votes. Not surprising really. Gamers being gamers.
Translation: Korean officials want to get paid so they can look the other way.
ridiculous
True predator, have you ever been to Korea? Korea is great. And those PC bangs are awesome
I like the fact, that there might be countries not just sucking real money in a digital world concepts.
Let’s see what happens.
Aren’t we all gambling with the precious saccades of our lives?
[/dons colorful robe]
Disable Korean access to RMAH and DIII can still be sold there.
Issue solved.
Can you think of any reason Blizzard doesn’t want to accept that obvious solution? Bobby can…
Obviously.. money talks.. but if the alternative is a complete ban = 0 copies sold, then that doesnt excactly make Blizz a lot of money either. Besides this may never come to this if Blizz can convince the koreans that the Diablo item game isnt considered gambling, and hence not violating the Korean laws.
A side question, will D3 allow players from one region (say people in asia) to play on Europe servers?
As far as I can remember, Diablo 3 will be region locked just like StarCraft 2 was. This may have changed and I missed it though so best to check up on that eh?
well thats a obvious solution – if Rmah is banned in korea – i`ll try to play there
i wish they would ban it in germany too :p
say whatever you want but blizzard will hardly cancel the game for an entire region just because Rmah is considered illegal for whatever reason.
“Which regions will have currency-based auction house support?
We plan to roll out the currency-based version of the auction house in as many regions as possible with the launch of Diablo III. In regions where the currency-based auction house will not be available, players will still have access to a gold-based auction house. We’ll share more details in the future. “
Can someone confirm if bidding in DIII works like ebay, i.e. you don’t get charged unless you win the item. There can only be one winner on an item, and you pay at the end of that automatically I assume, so I can’t see what the Koreans are fussing about, unless their gov wants to track Korean internet SN’s or whatever they’re called. /rant/ Loss of players from their own mmo’s RMT’s maybe? Maybe they should hurry up and release their games over in the UK then. /endofrant/ This bidding takes place on Blizzard’s hopefully secure server’s, so there is no gambling because you pay for the item if you’re the winner. You are buying an item, not playing to win, it as simple as that. Think of it like a micro trade with a ticker. Gambling is designed so you have incrediably slim chance at winning where you have to put money into something to play first, I doubt DIII will do the bid process like that.
There are flat fees for listing items (though players get some number of free listings) and for completed sales, and then additional fees (vary by region) for transferring Bobby Bucks™ into real money.
You misunderstand the gambling claim. The legality of the gambling issue isn’t about bidding in the AH. It’s the RMAH that makes the rest of the game gambling, since in a game with built in support for RMT, item finding becomes gambling, since certain items are worth considerable $$$.
At least in the eyes of some legal scholars.
you mean Bobby Coins™ right?
Flux and you ask yourself w hy they didnt invite you to the press event. With every comment you make it is obvious you still didnt getover that. Bobby this, Booby that. Who cares about Bobby man.
Real money AH is here and its good thing. Who wants to use it let em use it, they would use d2jsp anyway. And I can bet that most of the players who made comment about how they wont use it ever, will use it constantly.
How many people bought items in D3? I can count them with my fingers. There wasn’t enough item buyers to justify the inclusion of the real money bull****. Unfortunately everyone became blind after Blizzard said people can profit from the item selling (lol, ok, good luck).
Besides people buying power with money the second worst part of the RMAH is that you must pay Blizzard even if your auction was not successful. Blizzard said they will most likely give players a flat ammount of free auctions and after that you are on your own. If all your auctions fail, and the chance of that will be high since there will be millions of offers, you will have to start spending real money even if you didn’t want to. If Blizzard charged a % of the selling instead of a fee for each auction them people that don’t want to spend money could trade their items for bobby coins, preventing them from being excluded from the only market that will matter, the real money one.
And about flux not being invited is just because he don’t like to lick Blizzard’s balls. Just look at diablofans and battlenet forums, you can’t find a tiny little critic in them. Are you sure Diablo 3 is so perfect like that??
As for me I hate the RMAH enough to make me not buy the game, even after spending the last 3 year reading news about D3. I’m glad there are ubber hackers out there so I’ll just have to wait a little longer than you to play the game.
You would take a load to the face if it came from a Blizzard employee, would you not?
Taxes. That’s what every government will want out of this.
You know, I really wish governments would get the **** out of people’s lives. Governments exist to protect our rights and serve us – not tell us what we can do with our own money. This is a violation of human rights.
If someone wants to spend their hard-earned money on items within a video game, it is THEIR DAMN CHOICE – not some bureaucrat who “knows best” (and believe me, they rarely ever do know what is best, always ****ing everything up and making it worse).
When are people going to learn that prohibition, anti-gambling laws, etc. are not even the responsibility of government and that they actually make problems worse, not better. I don’t feel all better inside knowing that part of my tax money would be going towards prosecuting people for buying items in Diablo 3.
So let me get this straight – you steal more money from me in order to pay for the bureaucrats to enforce these stupid anti-Diablo 3 laws (which is a violation of my rights – property rights to be more specific), and then you further violate other people’s right to choose what they want to do with their own money!
It just sounds like a power grab – human beings that just want to get off telling people how to live their lives and what they can and can’t do with their own ****ing money.
What a joke.
This is why Anelka, though I have no doubt there PC bangs are a blast and awesome to be at, there is a difference between visiting and living in Korea.
“Governments exist to protect our rights and serve us – not tell us what we can do with our own money.”
Whose money exactly is supposed to fund these governments’ efforts to protect your rights and serve you?
Awwwww YEAH!!!!!!!!! Eat that Kotick, you stupid greedy piece of ****!!!!!!
I hope this could open a precedent and make all countries do the same, but unfortunately this won’t happen =/
If they remove the RMAH from the Korean version of D3 maybe I’ll buy the game if its possible to change the realm. I’ll play with a large latency but what the hell, I can live with that.
I agree that most players won’t loose anything in the AH, they will just sell the items they find, but can Blizzard assure that a good portion of players won’t start buying and selling items just like in the stock market? And at least in the place I live minors are not allowed to make such type of transactions.
How naive can you be Synchrotron ?
Did you run around in Diablo 2 too, and thought people never bought realmoney items there either?
Trust me, people will go to 3rd part sites to trade if the rating dont allow Blizzard to handle the trades.
The question is, what makes anybody think they won’t go to 3rd party sites even WITH the RMAH?
Between the up front charges and sales fees and transaction fees, I would be surprised if there aren’t entrepreneurs who can sell items cheaper than players will have to charge on the RMAH just to cover their listing expenses :p
At least now we know the reason of pushing release to 2012.
As an American expat currently living in China, I’m really wondering what–if any–bastardized form of the game will be available here.
I remember reading China making a huge deal about “naked” skeletons and zombies in the WotlK expansion for WoW to the extent that Blizzard almost never released it and later had to patch all the “naked” skeletons to have clothes on. Don’t know how this will reflect on D3 but fighting rainbow unicorns instead of monsters sounds like a possibility for you unfortunately =P.
Ohhhhh! I remember that! Something about the skeleton being seen on the joints on the undead race was one I heard of.
I think it would make for an interesting joke viral email – goverments and the ridiculous decisions they make to ‘protect’ their people.
Yeah, I remember that. Wasn’t actually playing WoW at the time. The censors here do get a bit… whimsical… sometimes. Or just plain nutty. Thus, despite the fact that probably all of the Chinese native MMORPGs are monetized in all sorts of ways, you never really know what’s going to set off “the powers that be”.
Just as long as they don’t accidentally mistake The Butcher for Mao Zedong….