Oh South Korea

Today we are going to talk a little Diablo III mostly because I like many of you are excited for the game and also because there is quite the controversy going on, and we all know how fun those are to talk about. So even if you don't know anything about Diablo III this actually should be a good read.

For those of you who don't know Diablo III is adding something to the game know as a real money auction house or the RMAH. With this auction house you can buy gear with your own money and sell gear to make money. Pretty cool concept. Let's completely get away from the whole argument about if this is bad for gaming and talk about the stir this has caused for South Korea and the Diablo Community.

Back in September when Diablo III beta start it was stated it was going to be a short beta compared to their other recent games, because of this it was expected that Diablo III might actually be out by Christmas time. This was stopped when the CEO of Blizzard said that "soon" wasn't as soon as they wanted and an early 2012 release was expected. This was when people started digging.

Then they found out that the GRB(Gaming Rating Board) in South Korea was not going to rate the game in its current state because of the real money auction house in their eyes was a form of gambling. I am not entirely sure how that works, but that's their view. Anyways all these blogs and forum posts started to make some connections to how Blizzard was releasing material based on dates that the GRB was looking at the adjustments of the game Blizzard had made. Of course, conspiracy theories started. Why? Because Blizzard had committed themselves to a world wide release. If they couldn't release it in one country with that country being one of the most loyal to their games, well this is a problem.

Now, of course, all of this was denied by Blizzard, but there has been no reasons given why the game is actually being delayed. Especially since at Blizzcon they stated it was basically done. Remember Blizzcon was in October and it is now January. Yesterday was another review by the GRB and they postponed their decision till Friday, and to add fuel to the fire earlier in the week they said some news was coming in honor of Diablo's 15th anniversary on the 31st.

With the decision postponed the conspiracy theorist were out again and a blue poster even posted this.

This can only end in disappointment. When a final decision is rendered and game still isn't released, finally people will realize the two weren't linked, as stated. But then the game still won't be out, so still no one is happy. I suppose those are just the ups and downs you have to expect when following something so closely.

The thing is no matter what Blizzard does everyone is always going to view it as the gaming being delayed for 1 country so they can make more money on their world wide release. Or that the game is being delayed because they wont scrap the RMAH. Now I am not sure what to believe and I think anything is possible unless someone from Blizzard comes right out and tells everyone why the game is actually being delayed. Why is it a game that was practically done in October still has no release date in January? The reason people are riding this South Korean wave is because it is the only possible thing that actually makes sense for the delay. If it is the reason Blizzard cannot say because it will be a public relations nightmare, if it is not the reason everyone is going to think it is before they say otherwise. No win if there ever was one.