Diablo 3 Launch Held Up In Korea

[Levethian]

Did you ever gamble? For real sums, not pocket change?
I do frequently (when in season - horse racing is my thing) and it is addictive and it can too "offer you funds if played responsibly" if you know how to bet. You really think that once you'll make some quick buck on few items free of charge you totally won't be willing to come back for seconds, but this time for hard cash?

Selling a 'Mighty Blade of Enroth' is not 'gambling'. The market will define it's value, so you can check over other listings to see what similar items sell for. That's how Ebay works, isn't it? Gambling not so much - you don't even 'lose' your initial listing fee if it doesn't sell, as re-listing items is free.

I take your point about Law being paramount. I just think laws which describe 'selling what you find for market-defined prices' as gambling are a bit misguided.

Oh, and yes I gamble on Tennis.

 

[Karinnare]

Gambling not so much - you don't even 'lose' your initial listing fee if it doesn't sell, as re-listing items is free.

Ok, you're not aware of their plans Lev.
I checked

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/events/diablo3-announcement/index.html#auction:auction-faq

Here's what I found:

>>>
What?s Blizzard?s cut?

As with other online auction sites and real-world auction houses, our fee structure will vary by region. However, we plan to collect a nominal fixed transaction fee for each item listed in the auction house. This fee consists of a fixed charge to list the item, which is assessed whether or not the item is successfully sold, and an additional fixed charge that is assessed only if the item is sold. The listing portion of the fee, which helps encourage sensible listing prices and discourage the mass posting of items that are very low quality or would be of little interest to other players, will be waived for a limited number of transactions per account. For players who opt to have the proceeds of their auction house sales go to their third-party payment service account instead of to their Battle.net account, Blizzard will collect a separate ?cash-out? fee. Specific details regarding these fees will be announced at a later date.
<<<

So listing an item costs. Listing again if it doesn't sell costs. You have a few free listings at first (like a sample), but once they're gone you're left with the listing fee forever, it's not "3 free items per day" or something like that.

It's a bit of a gamble as well.
(when I say gamble, I mean it .. literally ... I'm not referring to any definition or law view on gambling)
You don't know if it will sell.
As with any market people will speculate, there will be attacks on the market, attempts to ruin competition and drive them out of business and so on. Pretty much like in real life.
If you're smart about it, you're ok. If not, and you're a bit unfortunate, you can lose some money just by trying to sell a few items.

It's not like Ebay though, or at least that's my opinion, as the pool of categories for available items is much smaller so attacks on your competition are much easier to perform.

Also, I'm curious, if I list an item, can I modify the selling price before the time expires?
For ex, I list a blade at 14 bucks. You list the same blade 5 mins later for 13 bucks.
Can I change my price to 12 for another transaction fee?

It's complicated.
I still wish they'd remove the listing fees.

 

[Levethian]

It's complicated.
I still wish they'd remove the listing fees.

Indeed. Thanks for that clarification, although it doesn't specifically tackle re-listing fees if something doesn't sell. It only says that the initial fee will be taken whether or not it sells. I'm not sure.

They'd need good automatic filters to weed out spam items if listing fees were removed. Perhaps they could simply disallow players from listing items of low-quality.

Still seems no more like gambling than any other form of goods trading. I sell books, and each book I buy to sell later has an attached risk. A gamble? Yes. 'Gambling'? I hope not.

 

[estro_pajo]

Still seems no more like gambling than any other form of goods trading. I sell books, and each book I buy to sell later has an attached risk. A gamble? Yes. 'Gambling'? I hope not.

There is a big difference between real world goods trading and RMAH in Diablo.
Let me quote an earlier entry in this thread that explains main difference between auctions on eBay and those in Diablo 3:

* eBay does not create all of the items that are sold in the auction.
* eBay cannot control the odds and random chance of user auctions.
* eBay does not sell any products or services that they own themselves.
* users do not sell items that they received through gambling with EBay.
* users do not play games of random chance with EBay directly to sell items or to receive items to sell.
* eBay does not create virtual auction items that have no real value.
* users sell physical items that have real value and depreciate.
* users sell something they own, and are transferring ownership. They are not selling something that EBay owns and continues to own after sale.
* users buy items for less or equal to what they are worth. They do not pay increasingly high prices for zero value items in which EBay profits.
* in EBay, users compete with other users. There is transparency and rules. In the RMAH, you are playing against the House.
* users do not use a proprietary currency created by EBay.
* eBay users know who they are selling to, financials are traceable, and monetary transactions are refundable or recoverable.
* eBay users sell highly unique items. Not millions of the same item.

If EBay were to be run like the RMAH, here's how it would work:

EBay would have their own proprietary currency. Users would buy a license in order to use EBay, and told that they don't own anything. EBay would create virtual items themselves (that are worthless), and users could win these items through games of random chance. Users could then attempt to sell these items on the EBay Auction House, but selling the item would be completely random chance and based on odds that EBay controls. You would be competing against "the House" to sell your item and EBay can make it easier or harder to sell your item. You have to pay for the Insertion Fee every time you lose an auction. All transactions would be anonymous, and you have no idea if you're playing against a real person, a minor, a criminal organization, or an automated system.

 

[Levethian]

*snip*

Agreed, understood.
'No real value' for virtual items is arguable (we pay for software, after all). Plus I wouldn't call most things on Ebay 'highly unique' .

Still, points taken. It's a tough one. It seems like removing the insertion fees would be an easy fix.