New digitally purchased copies of Diablo III

[BellaStrega]

limited to the starter edition for 72 hours

(edited down the topic line so replying hopefully won't cause errors).

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/5889089807

[quote]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.

More information regarding the Starter Edition is available here:
http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/...guest-pass

If you are still encountering the Starter Edition restrictions over 72 hours past the date of purchase, please let Customer Service know: http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/contact/quote]

What on Earth?

This reminds me of buying a second WoW account and having that account restricted to effectively trial status for something like two weeks. Aside from 72 hours being shorter. But I don't see what the rationale is for restricting people from access to stuff they've paid for. Is this an anti-gold farmer measure?

[swirly]

What on Earth?

This reminds me of buying a second WoW account and having that account restricted to effectively trial status for something like two weeks. Aside from 72 hours being shorter. But I don't see what the rationale is for restricting people from access to stuff they've paid for. Is this an anti-gold farmer measure?

The first I heard of this type of thing with D3 was not being able to use the real money auction house for three days after a digital purchase. My thought on that was that it probably had something to do with taking them that long to really verify a purchase as fully gone through. I'm thinking a similar thought process would be involved here. People were probably able to use some kind of fake or stolen information to make a digital purchase and then do something with it (I have no idea what harmful things were possible) before Blizzard would know. This way they get to verify before harmful acts are possible.

[Mavfin]

What on Earth?

This reminds me of buying a second WoW account and having that account restricted to effectively trial status for something like two weeks. Aside from 72 hours being shorter. But I don't see what the rationale is for restricting people from access to stuff they've paid for. Is this an anti-gold farmer measure?

The first I heard of this type of thing with D3 was not being able to use the real money auction house for three days after a digital purchase. My thought on that was that it probably had something to do with taking them that long to really verify a purchase as fully gone through. I'm thinking a similar thought process would be involved here. People were probably able to use some kind of fake or stolen information to make a digital purchase and then do something with it (I have no idea what harmful things were possible) before Blizzard would know. This way they get to verify before harmful acts are possible.

Most likely digital versions being bought with stolen credit cards, used to process/move stolen gold, then let go of when Blizzard gets the chargeback from the credit card company.

[MongoJerry]

Those accounts were also probably used to spam general chat and spam friend requests advertising gold and item selling and power leveling services. I assume that the starter edition does not have access to general chat or the ability to friend people. So, Blizzard is trying to greatly increase the cost of doing business for spammers by making them actually have to buy an account to do it. It's a shame that legitimate customers are caught in the cross-fire, but I understand what Blizzard is trying to do.

[BellaStrega]

Thanks for the explanations. At first it seemed really odd, but now it makes a lot more sense.

[Archon_Wing]

I appreciate the measures taken to restrict cheaters although the delay for some can be annoying. Personally I didn't play the game til a few days after I got it.

[BellaStrega]

This thread also taught me a valuable lesson: Don't use all of the available topic line space.

[MongoJerry]

This thread also taught me a valuable lesson: Don't use all of the available topic line space.

Haha, yeah, I ran into that, too. Kind of funny.

[Mavfin]

As of today (1.0.3a) this restriction was removed on digital copies.