Greedy Greedy has long been one of the most popular games in Second Life. One of the features of Greedy Greedy is a pay to play option whereby users can play for the combined pot. This feature had led to people asking whether the game would now run foul of Linden Lab’s new skill gaming policy.
The answer would be appear to be yes, as KR Engineering posted an update to their Facebook Page regarding the new policy. In their post they said :
GOOD NEWS HERE: So what does this mean for all of you? Surprisingly, not much! Before the end of the month, I will be issuing updates to all of my games that remove all money and payout functions from them. With no payout option on the game (no buy-ins and no betting), the games will no longer be subject to the Skilled Gaming Regions policy. You will be able to rez and play them wherever and whenever you like as usual. The new policy ONLY applies to games that have an option to pay the winner of the game a L$ prize. To be in compliance with the new policy, all you will need to do is update your games (which is FREE, as always) before the end of the month, or realistically, whenever you next pull them out. You won’t get in trouble for having them in your inventory, whether they’re in compliance or not.
On the further issue of whether there will ever be a pay to play version of the game in the future, the answer is a little less clear :
According to Gaming.SL, only 1.6% of games played to completion this year involved money of some kind. At the moment, I’m sorry if you’re in that 1.6%, but I will likely not be pursuing becoming a creator of approved gambling games, as it will cost me at least $2000 USD per year to do so, and that’s not counting the up-front costs of hiring an attorney, and paying the application fees and review fees.
So it looks as if KR Engineering will not be entering the skill game creator market, although they do leave that door open.
The issue seems to depend upon on the feedback KR Engineering can elicit from Linden Lab, as they further explain in their post :
Depending on the answers I get from Linden Lab in the coming weeks, I may eventually pursue approval just for Greedy, I don’t think any other games get gambled on at all anyway. Even if I do get Greedy approved for skill gaming in the future, it will not effect anyone who already owns a Greedy table, because it will be a completely separate version of Greedy. From now on, there will always be a “no money” version of my games for general use, any “money” versions will always be separate.
However although people do not often pay to play Greedy Greedy, what of the grid wide jackpot? People who don’t pay to play are interested in that :
But wait, what about the Greedy Greedy Grid-wide Jackpot?! As far as I currently know, that will not be going away, playing any appropriately configured Greedy game will still qualify you for the jackpot even after August 1st. The Jackpot is not considered gambling because you do not have to pay to be entered into it. If this changes, I will certainly make an announcement about it.
For a game that doesn’t attract much pay to play usage, it’s perfectly understandable that they don’t really want to jump through all the hoops to become a skill game creator, but they are leaving the door open. The general message seems to be, install the update when it arrives and carry on playing Greedy Greedy.
Those who have never played Greedy Greedy should seek out somewhere that plays the game or nudge a friend who has the game, it really is a lot of fun.
Hello from Canada:
My partner and I left Second Life for some time now. One of the few things we miss about it is your Greedy Game… You’d make a mint if you could come up with a board version of the game. Should this be an option I hope I hear about it. It is a wonderful entertaining game!