Topic: Diablo III replace Real-money ah with BTC (Read 4425 times)
hm. the best way would probably be to get in touch with someone at Blizzard that actually has a say when taking decisions.
I can send a proposal regarding Bitcoin directly to the upper-management at Blizzard, without going through the low-level employees. The proposal would have to be pretty convincing, though, because I'd have to put my reputation with them on the line by sending it.
Easy. Cost benefit analysis, how much is saved over using bitcoin versus the percentages paid to Paypal and credit processors. Even better, tell them they can KEEP THE PERCENTAGE themselves since users are already used to their tier structure.
Have to wonder how much profit is eaten up by 'transaction' costs. It adds up, I'm sure.
At this point I think they are looking for a large market, as well as implementation details. For instance, how are things currently handled on the auction house, is it by email or account number? Or by player name? I doubt they will want to switch over to a bunch of unintelligible addresses, because that would confuse the users. Come up with a detailed plan on how to properly implement it, and try sticking as close as possible to what they have created so they don't have to change much. Player experience is going to be of prime importance to them, regardless of how cool this bitcoin thing is.
Bitpay or one of the other merchant sites is no different than paypal imo
At this point I think they are looking for a large market, as well as implementation details. For instance, how are things currently handled on the auction house, is it by email or account number? Or by player name? I doubt they will want to switch over to a bunch of unintelligible addresses, because that would confuse the users. Come up with a detailed plan on how to properly implement it, and try sticking as close as possible to what they have created so they don't have to change much. Player experience is going to be of prime importance to them, regardless of how cool this bitcoin thing is.
Maged: so let's try drafting a proposal here, at the very least it'd be useful as an exercise I think.
I'd like to recommend adding Bitcoin to the Auction House.
Bitcoin is without a doubt in my mind the future of all currency. The unit of account is not issued by any central authority, but moreover exists as the solution to a complicated hashing problem, which makes it immune to any outside intervention of any kind. Because of its unique cryptographic properties, Bitcoin is the hardest currency there is, being of absolute hardness: all transactions are final and irreversible. That's right, Bitcoin has a 0% chargeback rate, and always has, for all merchants.
There exists a significant and active market; daily exchange volume is in the 1 to 10 million range on USD alone, and there's probably about 100,000 people owning at least some coins. More importantly, these owners are typically better educated and more affluent than average IT techs and finance people, and they love it with a passion. There's no doubt in my mind that some people will buy a subscription simply to support Blizzard for dealing in BTC. In any event the likely goodwill benefits from this measure probably surpass any advertising or PR campaign available.
I'd like to recommend adding Bitcoin to the Auction House.
Bitcoin is without a doubt in my mind the future of all currency. The unit of account is not issued by any central authority, but moreover exists as the solution to a complicated hashing problem, which makes it immune to any outside intervention of any kind. Because of its unique cryptographic properties, Bitcoin is the hardest currency there is, being of absolute hardness: all transactions are final and irreversible. That's right, Bitcoin has a 0% chargeback rate, and always has, for all merchants.
There exists a significant and active market; daily exchange volume is in the 1 to 10 million range on USD alone, and there's probably about 100,000 people owning at least some coins. More importantly, these owners are typically better educated and more affluent than average IT techs and finance people, and they love it with a passion. There's no doubt in my mind that some people will buy a subscription simply to support Blizzard for dealing in BTC. In any event the likely goodwill benefits from this measure probably surpass any advertising or PR campaign available.
@norulezapply Your naysaying is really very productive. I don't just mean here, I'm sure it's working wonders in all fields of your life.
It's not naysaying, it's called being realistic, which is working wonderfully in all fields of my life so far, thank you.
If you guys write the proposal and it gets accepted by Blizzard then that's great and I take back my thoughts and previous opinions. I'd love for something like that to happen. But, just being realistic, it probably won't, yet.
3.5 million sales on the first day alone.
I believe that 500 trades/day that use bitcoin might be enough to bring this forward to them.
I believe that 500 trades/day that use bitcoin might be enough to bring this forward to them.
Once there are thousands of people getting chargebacks because of paypal things might be different 
As I mentioned before, now that the game and the RMAH is out, it's too late to just send a simple email. They will need to see actual numbers that show that there is a significant interest in purchasing D3 items/gold with Bitcoins. We really missed our chance, here.
ok, do you have any figures on the number of players of Diablo III?
I haven't seen more than 25-30k people online at any given point of time, but I could believe there are 100-200k "users."
There is ogrr.com (as website based on bitcoins) that has a small community of people playing Diablo III trading for items with bitcoins.
There is the marketplace section of this website where items are being listed & sold for bitcoins daily.
How many people is enough? What type of magical information are you looking for to "wow" them?
heh, that's funny to think we're trying to WOW the people who made WoW...
As I mentioned before, now that the game and the RMAH is out, it's too late to just send a simple email. They will need to see actual numbers that show that there is a significant interest in purchasing D3 items/gold with Bitcoins. We really missed our chance, here.
@Maged Make it happen, how?
I can send a proposal regarding Bitcoin directly to the upper-management at Blizzard, without going through the low-level employees. The proposal would have to be pretty convincing, though, because I'd have to put my reputation with them on the line by sending it.OK, here it goes. sorry I never found this website back in August 2011...
Blizzard Management,
You've aligned your RMAH with paypal. Paypal has had years of controversy in the online gaming community. Many users experience fraud, chargebacks, scams and frozen accounts when dancing around the broad terms & conditions that centralized payment processors adhere to.
Bitcoin brings the security of cash to online transactions. Deposits to your system would be completely irreversible; and withdrawals/transfers of funds would come with nearly zero transaction fees (less than a penny or even no fee).
Bitcoin is made for small transactions which is likely what the average user will be depositing or withdrawing. Traditional payment processors (VISA/Paypal, etc.) typically have a minimum flat fee plus a percentage transaction that cut into your profit margin.
While bitcoin will not replace traditional methods, it is a great idea to include this revolutionary technology into your state of the art game design.
I can get you in contact with industry experts who can help Blizzard capitalize the opportunities that Bitcoin can bring to your business.
Sincerely yours,
XYZ
I hope this is helpful. I haven't completely looked at the RMAH to determine whether it is so strongly tied to Paypal. Please someone enhance from my starting point if it needs refinement.
Feel free to PM me if you'd like me to discuss this with Blizzard Management. I'd love the opportunity and work in the professional services industry. Hopefully, I'd be able to have an intelligent conversation with management.
I'm currently at the Fellowship Admissions Course (for the Society of Actuaries) receiving my final credentials as an actuary, woot!
@Maged Make it happen, how?
I can send a proposal regarding Bitcoin directly to the upper-management at Blizzard, without going through the low-level employees. The proposal would have to be pretty convincing, though, because I'd have to put my reputation with them on the line by sending it.
@norulezapply Your naysaying is really very productive. I don't just mean here, I'm sure it's working wonders in all fields of your life.
Here's something: they put in an update which crashed Wine for Wine players. Nobody on their team said a word about it but the fix came two days later. They have many competent folks there, and I don't think it would fall on deaf ears. It all depends on how many queries they get.
@Maged Make it happen, how?
@Fuzzy More recent than the 14th of June?
Quote
Will they consider it? That depends on who decides really, clueless employees will trash it yea... true dat.
Here's something: they put in an update which crashed Wine for Wine players. Nobody on their team said a word about it but the fix came two days later. They have many competent folks there, and I don't think it would fall on deaf ears. It all depends on how many queries they get.
@Maged Make it happen, how?
@Fuzzy More recent than the 14th of June?
As Maged said, it's probably too much to ask for direct implementation into the AH, but i assume (haven't used it yet) you have to charge your account on their website using one of the current payment processors, they could add bitcoin to that and add 'euros/dollars' to your account at the current exchange rate. Thats not even hard or expensive to implement.
The only reasons i can think of that make an argument for blizzard i think is that they have less overhead costs from the payment processor (none?).
Also enables people who want to remain anonymous to use real money AH. (extra users)
btw; i thought ogrr was bigger, my mistake but still impressive site imho.
The only reasons i can think of that make an argument for blizzard i think is that they have less overhead costs from the payment processor (none?).
Also enables people who want to remain anonymous to use real money AH. (extra users)
btw; i thought ogrr was bigger, my mistake
but still impressive site imho.It would definitely be far easier to implement it as you say rather than directly into the AH, but I think you still under-estimate the amount of research, implementation and testing they'd need to do (all of which costs money). For a small website owner it's fairly trivial to implement Bit-pay or something, but Blizzard needs to test everything to make sure it's perfect and no-one is losing money and hurting their reputation, if you see what I mean.
Also yeah ogrr looks quite cool so I'll probably check it out later
As Maged said, it's probably too much to ask for direct implementation into the AH, but i assume (haven't used it yet) you have to charge your account on their website using one of the current payment processors, they could add bitcoin to that and add 'euros/dollars' to your account at the current exchange rate. Thats not even hard or expensive to implement.
The only reasons i can think of that make an argument for blizzard i think is that they have less overhead costs from the payment processor (none?).
Also enables people who want to remain anonymous to use real money AH. (extra users)
btw; i thought ogrr was bigger, my mistake but still impressive site imho.
The only reasons i can think of that make an argument for blizzard i think is that they have less overhead costs from the payment processor (none?).
Also enables people who want to remain anonymous to use real money AH. (extra users)
btw; i thought ogrr was bigger, my mistake
but still impressive site imho. 
I don't think it'd be profitable for them for that reason. There simply aren't enough Bitcoin users for a major company like Blizz to spend lots of time and money implementing support for it. Same goes for any other 'revoluntionary' payment methods. Major companies aren't interested, unless a lot of people use it, like PayPal for example.
Small companies would be in a different position and more lenient to adopting Bitcoin (they might see it as a way to make their business stand out, whereas Blizzard doesn't need to do that).
Also phishing scams tricking buyers to send BTC to the wrong address.
There already is a huge trading platform for diablo stuff using bitcoin.
IMHO it would be a smart and profitable move from Blizzard to adopt new 'revolutionary' payment methods.
Will they consider it? That depends on who decides really, clueless employees will trash it yea... true dat.
And that's probably where our tickets/suggestions end up, with the clueless employees.
So will Blizzard consider it? I think they would if it gets to the right people.
Does it get to the right people? I don't think so.
IMHO it would be a smart and profitable move from Blizzard to adopt new 'revolutionary' payment methods.
Will they consider it? That depends on who decides really, clueless employees will trash it yea... true dat.
And that's probably where our tickets/suggestions end up, with the clueless employees.
So will Blizzard consider it? I think they would if it gets to the right people.
Does it get to the right people? I don't think so.
What huge trading platform is this? Got a link?
Also, define "huge"? Because Bitcoin's userbase in itself isn't "huge" to start with. Like I said, it's still an infant really.
I don't think it'd be profitable for them for that reason. There simply aren't enough Bitcoin users for a major company like Blizz to spend lots of time and money implementing support for it. Same goes for any other 'revoluntionary' payment methods. Major companies aren't interested, unless a lot of people use it, like PayPal for example.
Small companies would be in a different position and more lenient to adopting Bitcoin (they might see it as a way to make their business stand out, whereas Blizzard doesn't need to do that).
ogrr.com
Interesting site. Quite a decent userbase, but still, 3000 users is not huge.
Not worth all the cost of implementing Bitcoin into the AH to accomodate those people for Blizzard.
There already is a huge trading platform for diablo stuff using bitcoin.
IMHO it would be a smart and profitable move from Blizzard to adopt new 'revolutionary' payment methods.
Will they consider it? That depends on who decides really, clueless employees will trash it yea... true dat.
And that's probably where our tickets/suggestions end up, with the clueless employees.
So will Blizzard consider it? I think they would if it gets to the right people.
Does it get to the right people? I don't think so.
IMHO it would be a smart and profitable move from Blizzard to adopt new 'revolutionary' payment methods.
Will they consider it? That depends on who decides really, clueless employees will trash it yea... true dat.
And that's probably where our tickets/suggestions end up, with the clueless employees.
So will Blizzard consider it? I think they would if it gets to the right people.
Does it get to the right people? I don't think so.
What huge trading platform is this? Got a link?
Also, define "huge"? Because Bitcoin's userbase in itself isn't "huge" to start with. Like I said, it's still an infant really.
I don't think it'd be profitable for them for that reason. There simply aren't enough Bitcoin users for a major company like Blizz to spend lots of time and money implementing support for it. Same goes for any other 'revoluntionary' payment methods. Major companies aren't interested, unless a lot of people use it, like PayPal for example.
Small companies would be in a different position and more lenient to adopting Bitcoin (they might see it as a way to make their business stand out, whereas Blizzard doesn't need to do that).
ogrr.com
PayPal might be against this. Also for 20%, you don't have to deal with PayPal chargebacks which is pretty nice..... steep cost, but nice.
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