Co-Optimus

[Raines]

From IGN:

As of patch 1.0.3, when purchasing a digital version of Diablo III through the online store or your Battle.net Account, players are restricted to the Starter Edition for the first 72 hours (sometimes less). Players on Starter Editions have the following restrictions:

Act I up to the Skeleton King is available
Level 13 cap
Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players
No Auction House access (Real Money or Gold)
Global Play is not available. Players attempting to connect to Diablo III Starter Edition in a region other than their Battle.net Account's home region will receive Error 12. See the Global Play support article for more information.

I haven't been a PC gamer for some time, but this is enough to make any gamer spit in disgust. Publishers nowadays want everything to go digital, yet if you buy Diablo 3 online, then you get f***ed out of playing it for 3 days? People shell out $60 and get this? And you thought EA was evil.

[Shazoo]

THANK GOD! hopefully this will stop/deter/prevent gold spammers, as well as being able to buy gold in the RMAH (when you can that is), seems like everytime I login there is 3-4 friend requests from gold spammers, not sure how that happened to begin with.

[CoopBob]

THANK GOD! hopefully this will stop/deter/prevent gold spammers, as well as being able to buy gold in the RMAH (when you can that is), seems like everytime I login there is 3-4 friend requests from gold spammers, not sure how that happened to begin with.

Is this an auction house type thingie? Cause if so, then Blizzard created that problem to begin with. I'm just asking because I"m curious. Also, how does a 3 day wait period stop gold spammers, won't they just do it 3 days later? As you know I don't have the game and don't really know how it all works but I find it interesting.

[CoopBob]

I just found the answer to my own question. Blizzard wants to confirm credit card info to reduce fraud with fake cards. I'm assuming the offenders use fake cards and then try to lure suckers into buying gold through gold spamming. The credit check means that they won't be able to spam 3 days later because they won't ever get full access.

[txshurricane]

Not a big deal, as long as you know about it beforehand. It's no different than pre-loading on Steam or ordering a hard copy online.

[Shazoo]

Opting for the digital edition of Diablo 3 will no longer place a temporary cap on your progress through the game, Blizzard has announced. Players buying the game on Battle.net post patch 1.0.3 were finding their characters locked at level 13 and limited to Act I until their credit cards were verified, a process taking up to 72 hours. With 1.0.3a, this has been fixed – but there are plenty of restrictions still in place for new buyers.

Unverified digital copies of Diablo 3 will still have restricted access to the auction house, trade, chat, public games, and they won’t be able to change their server region. As Blizzard explained last week, these measures are supposed to combat credit card fraud by making freshly-purchased accounts less useful as spambots, and therefore less attractive to unscrupulous types.

eased up restrictions, but as I thought these measures were to combat the gold spammers that were affecting EVERYONE in the game constantly, not just for 3 days. Some people say the real money auction house was to combat gold spammers by making gold buying a part of the game and allowing players to sell it to one another, but I believe the gold farmers will find another way to spam, like power leveling etc.