Skill Games - is dumb clicking a skill?!

[JewelsJewelry]

After a long time of hardhsip for the SL support and me, we managed my avatar to enter skill game regions.

What do I find there?

Entertainment of thrilling skill games?

Challenging tasks?

Unfortunately not. Instead there are sims covered with stupid, dumb, bingo-machines. Nothing to calclulate, but dumb clicking ;-( 

Those games which were fun, because they were tricky to play are gone or do not pay money any more. So under the line I can enter skill game regions now, - but there are not skill games. 

 

e.g. These games gave me so many great hours in the past:

Coloto, Gemds, Shrooms, Hiro, Poco Loco, Locomotive, Rails, Gemmy, Gem, ..... and so many more. They all are gone or do not pay any more.

 

Dear Lindens: You protect nobody (so many were free to play!) by forbidding them or their payout, but it takes away so much fun.

 

Warm Regards,

Jewel's Jewelry

 

 

[Freya Mokusei]

The primary effect of the Skill Games Policy is that it ensures approved games will be:-

• Familiar
• Unoriginal
• Uninteresting

There's no incentive to produce unique or interesting experiences - that's not what motivates the players or the operators. Flare and complexity are negatives, as they result in additional risk for the creator (harder to approve and explain the workings), and a harder sell to Skill Games operators (less willingness to invest in experimental games).

My understanding of the current market is that there are no SG-approved scripters who produce Skill Games for any reason other than pursuit of profit. As it was intended.

'Course it could just be that the SGP isn't even quite in place yet, and veryvery few creators/scripters are registered. Takes time to generate a highly-regulated content base, and few appear interested.

[Dresden Ceriano]

Never did I think I'd ever read yet another post complaining about the Skilled Gaming policy and think to myself, "Wow, that's rather refreshing."  But the issue you've brought up is actually rather valid, as least in comparison to most of the multitudes of complaint posts with which this forum has been inundated the last few months.

I realize that the chance to win money can be a great incentive to play a game, but, if the games you've mentioned are as fun to play as you suggest, won't they still be fun without that added incentive?

...Dres (Good luck trying to get a Linden to pay attention to a lowly forum post.  You'd have been better off tweating Ebbe directly.)

[LeonardoMyst]

Exactly.

I see no reason why they couldn't replace the current system with an XP and level system that may give non-transferable rewards for leveling up and kept a leaderboard for bragging rights.

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Those games are illegal now because they have a pay to play and win $ option.  However the creators can update them so it cost nothing to play OR you don't win anything of value just bragging rights and they would then be legal all over SL.  It takes time to update products, so you may yet see them return to SL as just a fun game with a leaderboard.

[Pussycat Catnap]

The interesting and dynamic play games are still in SL. They are just no longer money based. You can get greedy boards, monopoly boards, chess boards, etc... at various places.

I actually never knew Greedy had a money option until this mess showed up - the times I encountered it in SL, the venues had not enabled that feature. Now, you can simply buy it without the feature even in the code.

 

The slot machines - long in SL and suspiciously allowed while other gambling was banned... are now legal - but behind a curtain of requirements set by US law.

"Skilled Games" is some legal term of art, I suspect - that has nothing to do with 'skill' as a normal person would think of that word...

 

This policy is not about protecting us. It is about protecting Linden Lab, and by extension the very existence of SL - from a pack of district attorneys looking to get promotions by filing "took out a San Francisco Tech Company" under a line item on their resumes...

- and you can be sure that that would be the sort of entry on a prosecutor's resume that would get them all the way up the ranks in some states not named 'California'.

 

[Aethelwine]

I would have thought the incentive for the new gaming regions would have been to reintroduce casino games like poker, craps and blackjack. Is there a reason, they haven't?

[Phil Deakins]

You mean gambling? Gambling is prohibited in SL.

Skill gaming is not to bring gambling back. It's to allow games that are decided on actual skill to be played for money. I have no idea how slots got through, because, unless there's something I don't know about them, slot machines require no skill at all.

[Aethelwine]

Poker etc seem much more obviously a matter of skill than the click and cross your fingers games they are designating 'skill games'. Does 'skill game' have a specific definition beyond the composite meaning different from what the two words together normally convey?

[Aethelwine]

I googled and answered my own question 'skill game' is a USA legal definition and doesn't mean the same as it sounds. Dominos is a skill game, but Poker isn't... even though betonline offers Poker. It doesn't make any sense to me but, but where laws are concerned that happens.

[JewelsJewelry]

Very interesting comments.  

Somebody around familiar with California legality? I can think about a illegality of payed games (that the loss of small cent amouts is hardly to name as "loss" is a different topic). So somebody can loose and must be "protected". ok. 

But why not payout of FREE games?

To beat the high-score of somebody else will be completely boring, if I cannot grab "his" money on doing so. Gambling without money is like a soup without salt. Not only to me! All those free games being occupied in the past all time long are now lonely. Nobody is interested in "highscores only"-

Why are those FREE to play payouts finalized as well?

 

[Theresa Tennyson]

---

JewelsJewelry wrote:

Very interesting comments.  

Somebody around familiar with California legality? I can think about a illegality of payed games (that the loss of small cent amouts is hardly to name as "loss" is a different topic). So somebody can loose and must be "protected". ok. 

But why not payout of FREE games?

To beat the high-score of somebody else will be completely boring, if I cannot grab "his" money on doing so. Gambling without money is like a soup without salt. Not only to me! All those free games being occupied in the past all time long are now lonely. Nobody is interested in "highscores only"-

Why are those FREE to play payouts finalized as well?

 

---

You may be surprised to know that freeplay games with payout didn't exist out of the goodness of the sim owners' hearts - I assume they were there to dump a few Lindens into the hands of players who would then put them into pay-to-play machines with "higher payouts" (but not high enough for the sim owners not to make a profit.)

[JewelsJewelry]

... well, why not?

Does Lindenlab offer basic accouts out of love or because they hope on profits?

If attraction of customers is suddenly illegal, world economy has to shut down.

 

[Phil Deakins]

---

JewelsJewelry wrote:

Very interesting comments.  

Somebody around familiar with California legality? I can think about a illegality of payed games (that the loss of small cent amouts is hardly to name as "loss" is a different topic). So somebody can loose and must be "protected". ok. 

But why not payout of FREE games?

To beat the high-score of somebody else will be completely boring, if I cannot grab "his" money on doing so. Gambling without money is like a soup without salt. Not only to me! All those free games being occupied in the past all time long are now lonely. Nobody is interested in "highscores only"-

Why are those FREE to play payouts finalized as well? 

---

If a game is free to play and pays out L$, it is not affected by the skill gaming policy. It can be used anywhere on the grid.

Perhaps you should read the policy before criticising it.

[Theresa Tennyson]

---

JewelsJewelry wrote:

... well, why not?

Does Lindenlab offer basic accouts out of love or because they hope on profits?

If attraction of customers is suddenly illegal, world economy has to shut down.

 

---

You're right - that's why Linden Lab routinely gives free Lindens to free accounts.

 

Oh, wait...

[LeonardoMyst]

I can't see why with all the mobile casino and poker games and similar games (World Series of Poker) on consoles... there can't be something similar here.

 

The biggest draw for me going to the casino in PSHome was seeing the other avatars, socializing and making new friends while having some casual fun.

Apparently, the way they had it set up was legal for everyone.

Really should check into it.

[Poenald Palen]

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Theresa Tennyson wrote:

---

JewelsJewelry wrote:

... well, why not?

Does Lindenlab offer basic accouts out of love or because they hope on profits?

If attraction of customers is suddenly illegal, world economy has to shut down.

 

---

You're right - that's why Linden Lab routinely gives free Lindens to free accounts.

 

Oh, wait...

---

Linden Realms does. You run around and it gives you free linden dollars. You can argue it is an education in how little money there is and that you are being educated to just use a credit card, but I digress lol.

 

[Phil Deakins]

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LeonardoMyst wrote:

I can't see why with all the mobile casino and poker games and similar games (World Series of Poker) on consoles... there can't be something similar here.

 

The biggest draw for me going to the casino in PSHome was seeing the other avatars, socializing and making new friends while having some casual fun.

Apparently, the way they had it set up was legal for everyone.

Really should check into it.

---

Oh. I can solve your problem very quickly. The biggest draw for you is to see people socialise and make friends while having some fun, so I recommend going to dances and events like that. There are plenty of those in SL to make your visits very enjoyable.

For whatever reason, LL has decreed that there shall be no gambling in their house (SL). Get over it.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

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LeonardoMyst wrote:

I can't see why with all the mobile casino and poker games and similar games (World Series of Poker) on consoles... there can't be something similar here.

 

The biggest draw for me going to the casino in PSHome was seeing the other avatars, socializing and making new friends while having some casual fun.

Apparently, the way they had it set up was legal for everyone.

Really should check into it.

---

Do all those games payout in some form that can then be turned into RL money?  If not then its legal.  It's not legal in SL because you can cash out your L's for RL money.

 

[LeonardoMyst]

Easy fix then.

 

Instead of winning L$, have the game give its own currency that can only be used to play the game or redeem for non-transferable prizes.