So what happens now ?

[DiabloBaal]

Korea is banning sale of virtual items, France and Germany are heating up against blizzard. What will be the outcome? As far as I understand, all these problems are because of the online only DRM and Auction house.
Under all this pressure from governments and stuff, not to mention hacking, duping and cheating proving the DRM already useless, you think they will consider an offline mode?
Don't start how it is very hard to implement offline mode. The thing is, it can be done no matter how hard it is.

TBH a 3 year old could tell that online only was going to bring troubles and was a Bad Idea.

[Sentarius]

It's not over yet. They're trying to be a groundbreaker and increase the monetization of video games, which every developer wants to work out. Rumblings of discontent - which may not lead to any actual government action - won't stop them. Not yet, anyway.

[ael]

It was a very good idea in the sense that blizzard profited from the DRM, even if Korea or France ban the game countrywide.

What happens now is that if you want to play RMAH free d3 all you have to do is move to Korea. :P

[buddah]

As much as I dislike the RMAH I find a law against it somewhat questionable...it would be a patronizing law and without any proper reason. If people want to buy nothing let them. So strangely enough I hope this stuff doesn't lead to anything dramatic lol

[ShadoutMapes]

Global ban on botting and real money trading in games please!

The thing about online only I dont really get. Not like customers weren't informed that it was online only.

As much as I dislike the RMAH I find a law against it somewhat questionable...it would be a patronizing law and without any proper reason. If people want to buy nothing let them. So strangely enough I hope this stuff doesn't lead to anything dramatic lol

In the case of South Korea it is probably for some of the same reasons as Chinas restrictive MMO policies.
They probably dont mind people playing the games, or selling items, they do however mind internet and gaming "addictions", and playing for money increases the likelyhood of "addictions".
Likewise they probably aren't too happy about the whole goldfarming industry, as it is not that useful types of jobs to have in a country - I dont know if goldfarmer companies are as popular in South Korea as they are in China though.

[Damouse]

Under all this pressure from governments and stuff, not to mention hacking, duping and cheating proving the DRM already useless, you think they will consider an offline mode?

Hacking is not happening on blizzard's end.
The only duping that was noticed was caught and stopped almost immediately.
What cheating?

No, theyre not going to implement an offline mode, and im happy about it. .

[Catchafire]

Gone are the days when you bought a game and that was that. Now, developers want to milk the hell out of a game. The countries that have raised a flag against the rmah gets a big thumbs up from me. This is not the kind of **** I want my children playing. If I want to make money playing a game, I'd just go to vegas...

[Damouse]

If I want to make money playing a game, I'd just go to vegas...

Cant tell if serious : )

[Valeli]

Gone are the days when you bought a game and that was that. Now, developers want to milk the hell out of a game. The countries that have raised a flag against the rmah gets a big thumbs up from me.

This is true, and I agree that the RMAH and DLC (spammed DLC, not legitimate infrequent expansions that get put out as DLC) is awful.

But question, especially relating to MMOs (which D3 kind of not really isn't but sort of wants to be). I don't think people are as up for paying subscription fees on those as they used to be, certainly not on the whole. I don't have any statistics on that, just anecdotal evidence. I know the devs from Torchlight (whatever studio that is now) said the same thing in an interview when it came up tangentially though, and I don't think they had any real reason for Bias on that question since they weren't working on an MMO or DLC.

What's a good way to let a long-term MMO type game keep bringing in the income it needs to keep up with a vibrant ever-changing ever-expanding/developing world? Boxed sales alone won't do that, they'll only help pay for the initial part of the game. And if many people don't like subscription based games (because god knows they have enough bills etc to pay on a repeating basis....) that's probably not the best option if companies don't want to alienate part of their potential base.

I'm not arguing anything really. Just curious if you have any good alternatives. I'm not too opposed to games selling random useless vanity items. People still buy them, even if they have no purpose. Or even selling things that have purpose but certainly aren't necessary (start with X character slots, get 2X for $5). I dunno.

[psyadam]

My question is who cares what Korea, China, and Germany do?