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His bicycle tires don't run flat; they explode. When news breaks, he fixes it. His collection of vintage Blizzard memorabilia could fill a garage... and it does. They made a Diablo creature in his honor, but it was deemed too frightening to include in the game. The people of Orgrimmar love him, even though he plays Alliance. He is the most interesting web content manager in the world. He doesn't always like to be in the spotlight, but when he does, Geoff prefers to be featured in a Day in the Life article.
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RMAH and Region Availability
Official Blizzard Quote:
I'm assuming you're not purposefully misquoting him to try to make your post factual. Let me go ahead and transcribe what he actually says in the video you linked:
"You're just buying Diablo III. You can play it anywhere in the world. So you guys get to choose. Now what we will do is we will lock you down to a specific auction house. So for instance if you're a European national you'll have access to the European auction house, but you'll still be able to play in North America. You can participate in the gold auction house anywhere in the world, right, but you can only participate in the real money auction house in your native country."
Which sort of makes the rest of your post baseless in its conclusions. But that's ok! I appreciate everyone trying to unravel the secrets, and it's fun for me to read, so keep at it.
Linking multiple region's economies?
Characters are still region based. Just like Diablo II. You could log in to USWest, or USEast, or Europe, or Asia, but you had different characters on each. There's no possibility of trading between regions.
I'm sort of taken aback now... How are so many people directly misquoting or misinterpreting things while simultaneously linking to the exact source that proves what they're saying is inaccurate?
What I said was:
We've spent a very long time working with our legal departments around the globe researching regional laws and regulations, if not obtaining government approvals. We announced the feature because we know it to be sound from a legal perspective. If any local or country-specific laws do become an issue we'll of course be sure to let people in those regions know.
All of that is true, and continues to be true to this day.
Can we play with friends on different regions?
You can, but you'd need to log in to the EU region and create a character to begin playing with him, or he'd need to make one in your region. If you're on your character in SEA and he's on his in EU you'd be able to talk to each other using your BattleTag or Real ID, but that's it. You have to be on the same region to play together.
Is the GAH global?
The gold auction house is not global. You can use each region's gold auction house, but they're all separate, as the characters in each region are separate.
You can only use the currency-based auction house of your home region.
Would we be able to switch to a Euro AH when we provide proof that we "moved" to Europe.
That all sounds right to me. I'm not sure of a process to actually flag your account for another region though, even with proof. It's possible that could happen but I'm not aware of any intent to support that.
Switching of regions?
No plans at this time. I would count it among 'pretty unlikely' due to the real currency ramifications.
Charging a percentage or a flat fee for currency transactions?
You're only charged a percentage if you cash out through PayPal.
Making a character in any regional server you choose?
We haven't announced anything along those lines because as far as I know it's not nailed down. We do pursue different business models and prices in different regions, and so we'd want to ensure that those offerings are for who they're intended. I just don't have specifics for you, but it's something we'll need to announce before ship.
How does one get assigned a home region?
That's not something we're ready to discuss, and obviously we'll need to choose the information we do give carefully. Circumventing this wouldn't just be a 'fun trick on Blizzard' it would very possibly be a violation of serious trade laws, so we have to take it seriously.
Access to other region's RMAH
Each region is compartmentalized. Character's on one region cannot play with characters on another region. Similarly, each region has its own gold and currency-based auction houses. Only characters on a region can use that region's auction houses (and of course a restriction from the currency-based if it's not your home region). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Diablo Gaming Peripherals Now Available
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The Diablo III Mouse
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Posted Dec 23, 2011-
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Posted Dec 23, 2011Characters are still region based. Just like Diablo II. You could log in to USWest, or USEast, or Europe, or Asia, but you had different characters on each. There's no possibility of trading between regions.
I take this mean Europeans like me can "Make a character in any regional server they choose"
But the answer to that very same question is:
We haven't announced anything along those lines because as far as I know it's not nailed down. We do pursue different business models and prices in different regions, and so we'd want to ensure that those offerings are for who they're intended. I just don't have specifics for you, but it's something we'll need to announce before ship.
while in this other blue post:
Each region is compartmentalized. Character's on one region cannot play with characters on another region. Similarly, each region has its own gold and currency-based auction houses. Only characters on a region can use that region's auction houses (and of course a restriction from the currency-based if it's not your home region).
I wonder if this mean we will have different shared stash for regional accounts? Or just "flagged" characters (and items)?
Otherwise I could use my USEast WD to buy items in USEast gold AH, put those items in the shared stash, move them on my EU DH and sell them in the EU RMAH.
This way the
There's no possibility of trading between regions.
And this:
How does one get assigned a home region?
That's not something we're ready to discuss, and obviously we'll need to choose the information we do give carefully. Circumventing this wouldn't just be a 'fun trick on Blizzard' it would very possibly be a violation of serious trade laws, so we have to take it seriously.
Is something worth a game delay.
If you can grab two copies of the game and get two different home regions you could effectively link two RMAH and earn money playing on the differences in the markets, at the same time cheating on taxes and local financial laws.
I just hope I'm misunderstanding all this or at least I hope Blizz will make it impossible to move items from region to region.
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Posted Dec 23, 2011Characters are still region based. Just like Diablo II. You could log in to USWest, or USEast, or Europe, or Asia, but you had different characters on each. There's no possibility of trading between regions.
I take this mean Europeans like me can "Make a character in any regional server they choose"
But the answer to that very same question is:
We haven't announced anything along those lines because as far as I know it's not nailed down. We do pursue different business models and prices in different regions, and so we'd want to ensure that those offerings are for who they're intended. I just don't have specifics for you, but it's something we'll need to announce before ship.
while in this other blue post:
Each region is compartmentalized. Character's on one region cannot play with characters on another region. Similarly, each region has its own gold and currency-based auction houses. Only characters on a region can use that region's auction houses (and of course a restriction from the currency-based if it's not your home region).
I wonder if this mean we will have different shared stash for regional accounts? Or just "flagged" characters (and items)?
Otherwise I could use my USEast WD to buy items in USEast gold AH, put those items in the shared stash, move them on my EU DH and sell them in the EU RMAH.
This way the
There's no possibility of trading between regions.
And this:
How does one get assigned a home region?
That's not something we're ready to discuss, and obviously we'll need to choose the information we do give carefully. Circumventing this wouldn't just be a 'fun trick on Blizzard' it would very possibly be a violation of serious trade laws, so we have to take it seriously.
Is something worth a game delay.
If you can grab two copies of the game and get two different home regions you could effectively link two RMAH and earn money playing on the differences in the markets, at the same time cheating on taxes and local financial laws.
I just hope I'm misunderstanding all this or at least I hope Blizz will make it impossible to move items from region to region.
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Posted Dec 23, 2011even if you have two copies, you still can't trade items between. if you set one copy in a different region than another, there's no way to get one regions items to your other copy.
Also if i screwed up this quote i'm just referring to the grabbing two copies statement.
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Posted Dec 23, 2011I just can't figure what happens in a scenario like this:
I buy 2 copies and manage to link one to EU and the other to USEast.
Using the EU account I create a WD on EU and a Wizard on USEast, while with my USEast account I create a DH on USEast.
Then with my WD(EU) I buy "Griswold Edge" from EU RMAH, I let the item in the shared stash, switch to my Wizard (linked to EU account but playable only on USEast, if I get it right) grab "Griswold Edge" from shared stash and put it for sale on USEast GAH, log off, log on with my USEast account, select my DH (USEast) and go on GAH, buy back "Griswold Edge" aucted by myself, switch to USEast RMAH, put up "Griswold Edge" for sale.
RMAH(EU)--> WD(EU) --> Wizard (EU but playable on USEast) --> USEast GAH --> DH (USEast) --> RMAH (USEast)
Do notice that if you can freely swap items between players in a party you don't even need to put it on sale on GAH, you just have to create a game with your Wizard on USEast, invite your DH, join the game and swap the item between characters.
What's to stop me from doing so?
I'd say the best solution is different shared stash for each region you play in, this meaning you can't swap items between a character you created on EU and one you created in USEast.
Probably I'm not getting it correctly, I missed something important amongst the various blue posts about AHouses or I'm just not smart enough to figure it out properly and thus I'm worrying for nothing.
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Posted Dec 23, 2011What Vagelis and Diablofan said is what'll happen: you simply won't be able to accessa a RMAH with characters created out of your home region.
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Posted Dec 23, 2011This meaning we are going to have multiple shared stash, each for every region we have a character? That's what I believe it's the best solution, but have heard nothing about it.
@PhrozenDragon: ok, so I take it I've missed the blue where Blizz stated we will have different shared stashes. Thanks
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Posted Dec 23, 2011-
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Posted Dec 23, 2011It seems like they are trying to prevent that from happening, but they aren't sharing all of the information with us.
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Posted Dec 23, 2011-
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Posted Dec 23, 2011are you serious? the shared stash is shared between all characters on one account regardless of what server your playing on or what your home region is. the home region lock means that you can only sell items on the RMAH in THAT region regardless of where your characters get these items (us east, EU, us west). so you can get items from all three of these servers but only be able to put them on the home region where its locked... its VERY simple... <_<
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Posted Dec 23, 2011-
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Posted Dec 24, 2011As PhrozenDragon said if it works that way you can effectively link different regions economies.
That's why I wrote the long post above.
Since RMAH is subject to trade laws, taxes and such, I think Blizz should be careful about how it's managed since they can be held at least partially responsible for any infringements.
But I'm glad you find it "VERY simple", at least one of us got a clear picture of the whole issue
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Posted Dec 24, 2011did they not say before that GAH is NOT region locked therefor its very obvious that you can trade items this way between regions, just not directly through the RMAH...
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Posted Dec 24, 2011makes sense. so if your using EU server to trade GAH items and then put them on the US RMAH (the one your region locked) thats a way to make items cross regions? because someone using that same GAH on the EU server could be region locked to the EU RMAH?
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Posted Dec 29, 2011just cuz thats axed doesnt mean anything about a sooner release date, they said multiple times the korea RMAH situation was not even a reason for the delay. lol. and with the new beta contest going until the very end of january its definitely not coming out then.