During the Server Beta meeting on Thursday August 21st, it was confirmed that the first region to be rated a Skill Gaming region had arrived on the main grid. The region – called “Crunchy”, isn’t actually open for gaming; it’s a test area currently being poked at by Gecko Linden.
In addressing the arrival of the region, Simon Linden pointed to the Skill Gaming Approved Participants wiki page, and I noticed that the first set of Skill Gaming operators and the first batch of games have now been listed.
The test region is already set-up to exclude access to avatars which don’t meet the access requirements, which can be found in the Skill Gaming FAQ and on the Approved Participants wiki page. The access restrictions appear to work, as I was unable to reach the test region with my Crash Test Alt, but could enter it without a hitch with my primary avatar account.
There are some other tests going on in the region which are likely to be readily to performance testing, etc; robots fly and shoot, MOAP boards are displayed (and Gecko Linden seems to be a bit of a space science fan, like me).
Some 45 games (a fair few of them variations on Solitaire) were added to the Approved Participants wiki page on Thursday August 21st, split among a number of operators. In addition, some 30 Skill Gaming regions were listed as approved as Skill Gaming regions, although they have yet to actually be converted to the new region type.
With the revised September 1st deadline looming for the introduction of the updated Skill Gaming policy, these additions are the first sign that people are actually applying to become operators / creators, and it will be interesting to see how many more appear over the course of the next week. As it is, there still seems to be a lot that is still up-in-the-air with regards to the Policy and its associated FAQ – the latter of which hasn’t been updated since August 7th.
One area still to be cleared-up is that of quarterly fees, which may well be delaying some from applying to become licensed operators / creators. The lack of any clear indication of the fees was raised as a matter of concern at the August 2nd presentation Agenda Faromet gave on both Skill Gaming and the July Terms of Service update (transcript and notes to both available here).
In many respects, it is hard to understand why the Lab hasn’t announced quarterly fees. According to the FAQ, they are in respect of are in respect of “processing and compliance-related costs associated with maintaining this program”. Taking this as the case, then it’s not unreasonable to assume the Lab has an idea of the compliance related costs and other fees they are themselves facing in order to allow skill gaming on their platform, and so should have some idea of what the quarterly fees are likely to be.
This is not to suggest the Lab are attempting anything untoward in not revealing the fees; a was pointed out during the SLBA presentation, the likely reason the fees haven’t been announced is because the Lab have (or hadn’t at the start of August) got that far in their thinking. Even so, it is potentially causing people to hold off applying.
What also doesn’t help the Lab here is that Skill Gaming regions already have a higher tier associated with them ($345 + VAT where applicable) “due to the greater degree of ongoing administrative work associated with administering our rules concerning Skill Gaming in these regions”. So applicants are faced with that, the application fee, the cost of converting their existing regions – and then still have a possibly large question mark hanging over their potential total operating costs.
It doesn’t inspire confidence.
There are other aspects of the process that would seem to need clarification or risk confusion. As Ciaran Laval pointed out on August 13th, it has been suggested (not by the Lab, admittedly), that SL-focused stock exchanges are possibly exempt from the updated policy, but at least one is going through the application process (SL CapEx, again as indicated by Ciaran); ergo, further clarification on the status of exchanges would perhaps be welcome.
There is also the requirement (section 9 of the FAQ), that applicants engage a US-based and licence attorney to help with the legal aspects of their application (e.g. provisioning their RLO). However, this hardly seem correct when it comes to applicant from outside the USA, as a US attorney is unlikely to know the gaming laws applicable to another country (or can even give a legal opinion on the laws of another country). So where does that leave applicants from outside of the USA? Again, further clarification might well be welcomed.
In his article, Ciaran notes the fact that the Lab are willing to push back on the date from which the new policy comes into effect is good – and I agree (although like him, I’d also like to se some indication on whether they are also willing to push back the date from whence the nebulous quarterly fees kick-in).
But that said, the fact that more than a month after the updated policy was first announced people are still waiting for clarification on some matters relating to its introduction, does suggest the Lab has perhaps put the cart before the horse (and I admit, I’m tempted to put “again” at the end of that sentence).
Obviously, those wishing to create and / or operate games of skill have little choice but to comply with the new policy. Even so, it would perhaps be nice if the Lab didn’t continue to give the impression that the best way for people to decide whether they want to be or not is down to a roll of the dice, the current batch of applicants listed on the wiki page notwithstanding.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 
The current list of approved operators and creators does not inspire confidence in the likelihood of a robust marketplace for skill games. All of the available games appear to be connected to game operators, and all the operators appear to have connections with the game creators. Dealing with a game operator who is also the game supplier makes me even more uneasy than the entire concept did to begin with.
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I’ve said it before and I say it again. There will be tons of sims lost over this policy, tons of people leaving SL and closing their businesses. And a huge loss in revenue for LL. And the Lab isn’t even willing to clarify their policy. When I asked Support if a shooting game with a prize money needs to apply for a licence, they just answered that I need to hire an attorney. Yeah, I am from Europe, make like no money with that game and I hire an attorney for thousants of USD. Well, it is a full sim game and I shut it down now. So does a friend of mine shut down her 2 casino sims with skill games, because she can’t handle the process from Holland.
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Has anyone played the fun new game of trying to work out why you cannot access Skill Gaming regions yet?
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/BUG-7097 – Provide clearer reasons for entry refusal to avatars who cannot access skill gaming regions
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I tried with my main, and got in OK. Didn’t with my CTA- which is what I expected. Bug report makes interesting reading – ta for the update.
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Sorry to say but knowing that more then 70pct of Sl user base is from outside Usa, it is obvious nobody will care about the new policy and that i do doubt seriously that Linden lab will have the means or the will to look for the oens who will not give a f… about the skill games policy.
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The policy applies to everyone, not just those in the USA.
As it is, several of those attending the SLBA presentation on Skill Gaming were operators / vreators from Europe. In addition, one of those in the first batch of those approved as Skill Game operators is from India, and others in the batch may also be from outside the United States.
So yes, people do in fact care.
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Let’s see, LL will enforce this new skill rule, after removing all its personal to Sl 2 how?
By relying in abuse reports?
So will the game skill operators create a vigilant group?
That is the Sl you wish?
Or would not be much wise to address, before it becomes public, all the legal ,matters that would put All sl users with questions?
The fact remains, Linden Lab is prole to help a few that will benefit of a emporium, over all the rest, cause those will ensure a steady income.
But Linden Lab does still not have a clue about what Sl is all about and not even about the essence of their user base.
Game creathors that will not be part of the lobby will just make sure their creations will not be able to pay Linden, that will exclude them of all the issues.
A wise Sl user will not offer or have any game that will pay Linden in any way,, but tell me, what about offering products, like hairs, skins and so on, and then, let those sell them?
Yes, im speaking about a poker game table that will offer a skin, hair, shape, whatever, non copy but transfer, that would allow the winnder to cah out by selling it to another, even the poker game operator?
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“Let’s see, LL will enforce this new skill rule, after removing all its personal to Sl 2 how?”
-That’s an assumption. There is no reason why complaint processing cannot be handled for both the new platform (if and when that actually has a volume of users) and SL.
“The fact remains, Linden Lab is prole to help a few that will benefit of a emporium, over all the rest, cause those will ensure a steady income.”
– As this is a “fact”, can you supply the data which demonstrates it to be the case?
“But Linden Lab does still not have a clue about what Sl is all about and not even about the essence of their user base.”
– They probably have as clear a view than you or I. Particularly given your view of what “SL is all about” will likely differ from mine, just as mine will differ from someone else’s and their view will differ for someone else, and so on and so forth.
Be that is it may, this isn’t a change LL are making for the sake of it; it is a change they are making in order to better comply with legal requirements, albeit somewhat late in coming.
“Game creathors that will not be part of the lobby will just make sure their creations will not be able to pay Linden, that will exclude them of all the issues.”
– That is their choice.
“Yes, im speaking about a poker game table that will offer a skin, hair, shape, whatever, non copy but transfer, that would allow the winnder to cah out by selling it to another, even the poker game operator?”
– As poker is regarded as a game of chance, whether played for cash or goods, this question would appear to be moot, as games of chance aren’t allowed under the ToS.
Where you are more correct is in the Lab still leaving elements of the policy unaddressed or lacking in clarity (e.g. legal representation required by non-US game operators / creators). One might also question the degree with which they are pricing the new requirements, with the application fees, the additional tier, the (unaddressed) quarterly fees; all of which seem to be somewhat top-heavy. However, we unfortunately have no idea what overheads they ar facing either, so making an accurate assessment on this just isn’t possible.
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i got the message in the chat: “[Second Life: The region you’re trying to visit contains unknown content, but your current preferences are set to exclude unknown content.]”
seems I get excluded bc I don’t know what I don’t know. jejeje (:
+
about the quarterly fee
It might be bc LL remember what happened when they got the openspaces price wrong. So maybe they being more careful before rush in this time
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Hi Everyone – I just wanted to let you know that our sims were converted today to the new Skill Gaming Region. LL has worked out some of the bugs that were plaguing the sims on initial roll out. One key thing that the Lindens have told us to tell our players is that if you are having trouble still reaching the Skill Gaming Regions and meet all the criteria, that you need to delete your current billing information on file with them and put new information in. Then you need to log out of Sl and back in again and should be able to reach the Skill Gaming Regions.
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