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View Full Version : Gambling minigame(s) might cause controversy?


Serath
08-10-2008, 10:35 PM
(Please note this post is NOT to advertise gold farmers, only to realize the harm it can cause.)

Thinking about what other gambling games I'd like to see in The Agency (Poker is quite HARD IMO, especially if you have to play Jacks or Better rule.) a thought occoured to me. Should the gold farmers get their hands on The Agency (or should I say "when") I can almost guratntee it will be almost catastrophic. Not nesccarily because players will get better gear unfairly (if do get end up being able to buy gear) but players will be able to use the gold farmers to GAMBLE. A player can simply spend $10 on a gold farmer, get 10,000 or whatever in game money to start hitting the tables with. Once a particular person has accumulated enough wealth in-game, he sells the account with that character on it at E-bay for more than what he paid for to get the petty cash. He then starts up another account, rinse and repeat.

In other words, if the gold farming and E-bay selling gets out of hand, The Agency will effectively be the equivalent of gambling. And since you only have to be M/18 to buy the game, under-aged gambling.

Although many RPG's have gambling in it, I don't think an MMO has had any gambling in it before. Maybe I reading too much into this, someone please tell me if there is a loophole somewhere.

JonnyG
08-10-2008, 10:41 PM
When I discussed this with the team at fan faire last year it was a real concern. With people spending real life money on accounts, they were worried that gambling laws might take effect. I'm not sure what came of it, but it's a great question to add to my fan faire questions.

Jotun
08-20-2008, 06:41 PM
When I discussed this with the team at fan faire last year it was a real concern. With people spending real life money on accounts, they were worried that gambling laws might take effect. I'm not sure what came of it, but it's a great question to add to my fan faire questions.

I think the only potential concern is the tie to real money. E.g. Fable 2's pub games are online for download from XBLA and there's no uproar there.

JonnyG
08-20-2008, 08:16 PM
Yeah, but no one sells a Fable 2 character to another person for real money. So I agree that the issue would be related to the tie in to real money. Especially considering that they will be allowing RMT transactions between players.