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Congressional report says you 'may' owe taxes on your WoW income
If you're a World of Warcraft or Diablo 3 player, the federal government would like to have a word with you. Congress's U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), at the request of Senators Max Baucus (D-MT) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), just wrote and filed a 23-page report on the tax implications of earning gold in MMORPGs. Seriously. The report, titled "Virtual Economies and Currencies," focuses on buying, using, and selling virtual currencies like WoW gold. The key takeaway for World of Warcraft players is that the in-game economy is a "closed-flow system" -- because you can't exchange your gold for U.S. dollars, you don't need to worry about claiming those 26 gold pieces from completing a quest on your 2013 income taxes. If, however, you decide to sell your accumulated WoW items through a third-party exchange (Don't do it! It's against the Terms of Service and could get you hacked!), then you "may have earned taxable income from the sale of these virtual goods."
Diablo 3 auction house now has gems and other commodities for real money
Blizzard has pushed patch 1.0.3b live in Diablo 3, and in addition to a few random bugfixes with General chat and the tutorial sequences, the patch brings another wrinkle to real-money spending with the game. You can now buy various in-game commodities (including gems, dyes, and crafting and leveling materials) with real money, which means Blizzard has turned an unofficial black market for items in Diablo 2 into a very official real-money market in Diablo 3.Gold sales still aren't live, but Blizzard says it hopes to enable real-money purchasing of in-game gold in the future. In the meantime, however, you can now put money into your Battle.net account and buy away, or try to sell your in-game items for real money. For better or worse, it's game on.
Blizzard weighs in on Diablo 3 launch issues
Bashiok took some time off from being a Diablo III miniboss to hit the forums and provide some insight into recent issues with the servers. (And by "recent issues," I mean "more popular than free drugs in a crackhouse.") The sheer number of players trying to stay logged in has kept Blizzard working overtime to try to keep the servers stable. These problems have largely been ironed out, but we'll see continued maintenance in each region to make sure that stays the case. The North American servers had one such maintenance period for an hour this morning at 5:00 am PST/8:00 am EST, so it probably won't be too long when it does happen. Two additional points of interest (you'll find the full post past the cut): The launch of the Real-Money Auction House on May 22 has been postponed. They're looking for potential fixes for early achievements that either weren't being recorded or were being lost between logins. And Blizzard -- this is just throwing suggestions out here or whatever -- did you ever try making a game that sucked?
An introduction to the Diablo 3 economy for WoW players
Are you a WoW economy titan, or do you simply dabble? Either way, you'll be in for a treat in Diablo III. Blizzard has created a virtual economy that mirrors WoW's in many ways, giving you the ability to gain (or lose!) a fortune. Before you dive in and lose your virtual shirt, though, it wouldn't hurt to review some of the basics. Gold is king As in WoW, the primary resource that makes the world go 'round is gold. There's no silver or copper here, though; it's gold all the way down, and lots of it. If you're still in the WoW mindset of "Gee, a couple of thousand gold is a lot of money," then you'll want to recalibrate. You can expect to have several thousand gold by the end of the first Act. Your primary source for gold will be drops. Monsters, chests, objects -- most everything drops gold, and the amount increases as you progress through the game.
The Daily Grind: Do you think Diablo III's RMT policy will affect MMOs?
Blizzard made something of a stink in fan circles last week with its announcement of Diablo III's RMT-enabled auction house as well as the lack of offline play (and mod support) in the highly anticipated fantasy action sequel. While hardcore fan- and forum-outrage was palpable, it's likely that the title will shatter sales records anyway, and we'll be that much closer to a gaming world devoid of offline play and festooned with microtransactions. What does all of this have to do with MMOs and Massively? That's where you come in, dear readers. Do you think Diablo III's real-money auction house will affect MMOs? How so (or why not)? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Queue: San Francisco? More like San-ctuary
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. My good buddy Daniel Whitcomb described the Diablo 3 real-money auction house as "the nerd gold rush." I think it's very apt, considering the entire WoW Insider staff is quitting our jobs to go pan for Grandfathers. As for World of Warcraft ... FartyMcGee asked: Has Blizz given any explanation why the Battle Standard of Coordination (and similar) aren't allowed in Firelands? It seems odd to me to exclude its use there but not (to my knowledge) anywhere else.
