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→RMT Fees in Diablo 3
See [[Auction_house#Method_Behind_the_Madness:_Why_RMT.3F|the RMT section of the Auction House article]] for more details.
===No Hardcore RMT===
Since the first announcement of the Real Money Auction House, Blizzard has been adamant that [[Hardcore]] characters will not have access to it. Hardcore characters can use the Gold Auction House, but there is no real money element to Hardcore item trading. From the original [[Auction House FAQ]]:
<blue><b>Can Hardcore-mode characters use the currency-based auction house?</b><br>
No. Hardcore characters will only have the option to buy and sell items together with other Hardcore characters via a separate "Hardcore-only" gold-based auction house; they will not be able to use the currency-based auction house. Hardcore mode is designed as an optional experience for players who enjoy the sense of constant peril that comes with the possibility of permanent death for a character. All of a Hardcore character’s items are forever lost upon that character’s death, so to avoid the risk of a player spending real money on items that could then be permanently lost when the character dies, we decided restrict the use of the currency-based auction house in Hardcore mode. </blue>
This seems to contradict one of Blizzard's main reasons/excuses for adding the RMAH -- that players were selling items for gold anyway (in Diablo 2) and having to use shady third party sites to do so. That players will use third party sites, or perhaps even ebay, to sell items in Hardcore is clear, and Blizzard has not yet addressed this contradiction.
One explanation offered by fans is that Blizzard is worried about the legal issues of permanently lost items. The question is, if Blizzard enabled currency trading in Hardcore, took their cut of the sale, and players then lost (forever) the items or characters so purchased due to a Battle.net realm failure or other technical issue, could players sue Blizzard for the loss of their investment? Sue to regain the transaction fee?
Blizzard has never commented on this issue, but as legal issues pertaining to the the ownership of virtual items remain in an evolutionary state, it's not unreasonable to think this factored into Blizzard's no-RMT in Hardcore policy.
