I remember when Diablo 3 first launched and announced real money auction house. That was the most hyped me and my casual friends have ever been. Even selling something for as small as 15 dollars (min wage anyone XD?) was SO HEKKIN COOL.
Are people really that against RMT in diablo games? Or are there people like me that thought being able to sell items you don’t use a really hekkin cool idea?
They got rid of it for a reason. They then limited trade further and further to where it is now, for a reason.
D4 isnt quite starting with an AH, but over time, for the same reasons, trade will work just like d3.
No the real money trading auction house was extremely popular. It shut down the exact same day a federal regulation went into place where they would have to send out w2s to everyone. The idea that it was unpopular is just a rewrite of history. It was a really cool motivation to actually be panning for gold in a desk chair.
I never bought anything, but I sold things. Was great.
But if it’s against the TOS for me to sell my items, then I want nothing to do with RMT in games.
I think they will keep the gimped trade, because they want the bots and traffic of those degens buying the game.
where’s my downvote option.
Holy crap, someone that has actually done research.
Yeah fully agree here. It was cool cause it was sanctioned and official.
What is w2s? Did trade laws shut down live money AH?
oh look a troll post. LOL
It’s a tax form. They would be required to report to the IRS and send out documentation so we could pay our taxes on our profits.
Would that not be the players responsibility to fill out their own tax? Or is that not how it works?
Well, that’s the way it would have been before the regulation – kind of the honor system for us to all report on our taxes what we made… But the regulation would have required Blizzard to send out the W-2 forms to every player. That alone would be a massive expense for them. They probably would have had to hire an entire department just to deal with it.
For the RMAH sure, makes sense, but then how do you explain the removal of the standard ah? Also, with that, how would you explain why/how wow still uses one?
Theres more to it than just that, though I do agree it had a large bit to do with the RMAH going away, but not the sole reason, or the reason the ah went away entirely.
I did a little buying and selling on the RMT-AH. Nothing huge, but it was fun “playing the market” a little bit. God some good gear, financed 90% of it with gear I sold myself. 
Simple: without the RMAH to give players who wanted to buy or sell “good loot” for real-world money, RMT botters and scammers would proliferate, because to get anything off the AH you’d need heaps and piles of Gold … and where to get that, without hours of grinding for it yourself?
Third-party RMTs.
Simple: WOW tokens can be bought for cash only from Blizzard, then either used for game time, or sold for in-game currency. This directly undercuts RMT sellers’ ability to make a profit. Why risk trouble with your account (either from Blizz, or from being hacked by the RMT guys themselves) buying from a shady third party, when you can just buy it directly, and legitimately, from Blizzard themselves at zero risk?
This means, Blizzard is the only real RMT seller in town - which sidesteps a huge chunk of account-theft problems (and that, alone, saves Blizzard another pile of money to put next to the pile that selling those Tokens gains them).
You missed a huge portion of the quote and didnt answer it.
Im one thats all for removing trade. You pointing out that people then go to third parties to buy gold, or even items directly does nothing but further support why its a problem.
Yup people think that Blizz removed the RMT AH because it wasn’t popular. They were making money hand over fist until that regulation came into play.
RMT is cancer no matter what. Because, just like D3, they make it so they get a cut and then are financially encouraged to make it as necessary to use as possible by making the loot as bad as possible.
Truer words have never been spoken.
Ok yeah that sounds like insane. Yeah they 100% would need a entire department for that lol. Man kinda just miss it though, RMAH was so cool in my eyes. Happy iam not the only that feels that way.
I never used the real money auction house, but I used the gold auction house all the time and I loved it. Selling and buying on the AH was super fun. I love the economy in PoE and trading and searching for good stuff I can afford. Its cool that items of the same item level can be worth basically nothing or worth a LOT of money based on the stats that is rolled. It makes it even more fun finding one with socket links and colors, especially when you’re broke. I really hope the endgame economy is really big, robust, and has a lot of trading. Trading is super fun.
The RMT AH was great. Made lots of money from it.