{"id":4224,"date":"2014-08-27T18:54:12","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T17:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=4224"},"modified":"2014-08-27T18:54:12","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T17:54:12","slug":"ll-issue-reminder-and-warning-on-skill-gaming-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=4224","title":{"rendered":"LL Issue Reminder And Warning On Skill Gaming Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Linden Lab have issued a reminder :\u00a0<a title=\"New Skill Gaming Policy\" href=\"http:\/\/community.secondlife.com\/t5\/Featured-News\/Reminder-New-Skill-Gaming-Policy-in-Effect-September-1-2014\/ba-p\/2810386\" target=\"_blank\">New Skill Gaming Policy in Effect September 1, 2014<\/a>. The blog post also contains a warning that the new policy will be enforced. Skill Gaming in Second Life is basically defined as :<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A game where the outcome is determined by skill, rather than by chance.<\/li>\n<li>Has the option for payment to participate in Linden Dollars.<\/li>\n<li>Pays out in Linden Dollars.<\/li>\n<li>Is legal according to United States and international law.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That&#8217;s pretty much the gist of it, so if the game allows you to pay in with the option of paying out if your skill allows you to win, then it&#8217;s a skill game. Now if those criteria aren&#8217;t met, say for example you can pay in but there&#8217;s a random chance of the game paying out, such as a traditional fruit machine style game, then that&#8217;s gambling and is strictly forbidden.<\/p>\n<p>Now if you haven&#8217;t been paying attention then you may be wondering how on earth Linden Lab know if the game you play or create meets this criteria. Well that&#8217;s what the <a title=\"Official Skill Gaming Policy\" href=\"http:\/\/wiki.secondlife.com\/wiki\/Linden_Lab_Official:Second_Life_Skill_Gaming_Policy\" target=\"_blank\">Skill Gaming Policy<\/a> is for. Games of skill will only be allowed to be\u00a0played on approved sims.\u00a0Only approved games, created by approved creators are permitted and they can only be operated by approved operators. This means that if your game meets the skill gaming definition, you will still be breaching the rules of the new policy if the game, the land or the person operating the game have not been approved.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Approved games, operators and sims can be found on the Public Wiki :\u00a0<a title=\"Approved Participants For skil gaming\" href=\"http:\/\/wiki.secondlife.com\/wiki\/Linden_Lab_Official:Second_Life_Skill_Gaming_Policy\" target=\"_blank\">Linden Lab Official:Second Life Skill Gaming Approved Participants<\/a>. There will also be a section on the destination guide for Skill Gaming. However as I mentioned earlier, tread carefully because the game, the operator and the land must all be approved for the game to be legitimate.<\/p>\n<p>The blog post carries the following warning for those who are currently operating skill gaming but haven&#8217;t at least applied to be approved :<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Remember: if you are not an approved* Creator or Operator, you must cease the creation, distribution, and operation of skill games (as defined in the <a title=\"Skill Gaming Policy\" href=\"http:\/\/wiki.secondlife.com\/wiki\/Linden_Lab_Official:Second_Life_Skill_Gaming_Policy\" target=\"_blank\">Skill Gaming Policy<\/a>) by September 1, 2014. So if you haven\u2019t already removed any unapproved skill games from your Marketplace shop, for example, or haven\u2019t yet ceased operating them inworld, now is the time to do so. From that date forward, operating and\/or creating skill games with L$ payouts, among other criteria as specified in the <a title=\"Again The Skill Gaming Policy\" href=\"http:\/\/wiki.secondlife.com\/wiki\/Linden_Lab_Official:Second_Life_Skill_Gaming_Policy\" target=\"_blank\">Skill Gaming Policy<\/a>, without Linden Lab approval (and\/or outside of Skill Gaming Regions) will be subject to enforcement measures.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>*As noted in the <a title=\"FAQ\" href=\"http:\/\/wiki.secondlife.com\/wiki\/Linden_Lab_Official:Second_Life_Skill_Gaming_FAQ\" target=\"_blank\">FAQ<\/a>, creators and operators whose applications are under review at the deadline may continue to operate skill games while their applications are reviewed, provided that they have submitted all required documentation and continue to promptly respond to any inquiries from Linden Lab.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The FAQ is well worth a look if you&#8217;re unsure about this. Initially there may be some confusion because some places may stay open whilst they are going through the application process and yet they won&#8217;t appear in the approved participants page on the Wiki. I&#8217;m also sure that some people will not even be aware of this new policy and will continue to operate skill games. However one rule is very clear, Skill Gaming will not be allowed anywhere on the mainland, so if the location is on the mainland, it should not be be operating there come September 1st, even if they have applied for approval.<\/p>\n<p>The enforcement angle will be welcomed by many and this is a policy that needs to be enforced. I know this new policy is going to upset some folk, those who have been happily providing a fun place for other people to enjoy skill games will be particularly upset, as will those who visit those locations. However I still think Linden Lab are doing the right thing by regulating this market. There are some aspects of the policy that I&#8217;m still not keen on, but the policy generally seems to be on the right track.<\/p>\n<p>Time will tell whether this is successful or not but the clock is most definitely ticking for those who haven&#8217;t applied to be on the approved list.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-share-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" data-url=\"http:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=4224\" data-via=\"Ciaran_Laval\">Tweet<\/a><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=\/^http:\/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+':\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Linden Lab have issued a reminder :\u00a0New Skill Gaming Policy in Effect September 1, 2014. The blog post also contains a warning that the new policy will be enforced. Skill Gaming in Second Life is basically defined as : A game where the outcome is determined by skill, rather than by chance. Has the option &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/?p=4224\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;LL Issue Reminder And Warning On Skill Gaming Policy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[19,1022,729],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6rJUK-168","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4225,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4224\/revisions\/4225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sl.governormarley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}