14 DAY TRIAL // Video game developer Blizzard has announced a new feature for its upcoming hack and slash title Diablo III, called Global Play, which will allow gamers to join three different regions and play without restrictions with players from whatever territory they want.
The regions for Global Play are defined as follows:
The Americas – includes players in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia; Europe – for those gamers in the European Union, Eastern Europe, Russia, Africa, and Middle Eastern countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates; Asia – includes players in South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
At first gamers will create a Diablo III character and then play in their own home region, determined by Battle.net based on where they currently live.
After that they can simply choose another of the game regions via the menu before actually logging into the game.
Any characters, friend lists and items earned will remain in the confines of one region which means that gamers will basically be able to experiment in the regions they do not care about while creating primary builds in the region where their friends reside.
Different gold-based auction houses will be used for the three regions and the real-world money auction house will only be available in the home region, the one that is based on actual location.
The fact that auction house use is being limited when using real-world money is probably designed to make sure that scams linked to items and gold farming is limited in Diablo III.
Some gamers will surely be annoyed by the limitations, but the general population will get a better experience and Blizzard will probably have to deal with a smaller number of complaints linked to gold selling and item fraud.