Tag: gambling

Jagex Decrees: Gambling Illegal In RuneScape


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The word of God has spoken. RuneScape has been updated today with a strange set of new fixes to various items. The Easter ring now only turns one color, flowers planted by players now grow in one single color, the seal of approval emote now only displays one animation, and the classic cape no longer varies between animations. Why the sudden lack of random play? Jagex has finally put their foot down, issuing an official notice to players running gambling rings: You will no longer be tolerated.

Jagex has added a new bullet point to RuneScape’s rules list:

You must not advertise, organize, promote or participate in player-run games of chance, where game money or items are staked on the outcome of a random activity.

Players caught running gambling rings will be met with mutes and possible permanent bans. As with the bot busting update, the fight against gambling is one that will not end with this update. Jagex will continue to monitor the game and combat other methods as they pop up.

(Source: RuneScape)

Jagex Begins Muting Gambling Hosts


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Jagex is continuing its war on gambling in RuneScape with a recent hidden update to the game. As we’ve talked about before, one of the most popular gambling methods in RuneScape is called hot/cold, that uses an item called a mithril seed which when planted into the ground produces a random colored flower. The gambler makes a bet on which color type (hot or cold) will sprout. There are other gambling methods, again as we’ve talked about, but the hot and cold is one of the more prevalent.

Players are reporting that Jagex is taking a stand against gambling hosts, however, and have not only given the official go ahead for player moderators to begin muting gambling hosts, but they have also implemented an update to pick up on common gambling phrases and automatically mute the speaker for two days. According to a few reports, the phrase is “h/c 2x” which stands for “hot/cold 2x.” The new policy was implemented suddenly and without a public announcement by Jagex, with many players only discovering the new system once they’d been punished.

More to come on Jagex’s fight against gamblers, no doubt.

Jagex Opens (Limited) Members Skills To Free Players


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In 2012, Jagex opened up a 14-day free trial for free to play players. The account is limited in regards to trading and acquiring items, and once the 14-day free trial ends, any items that are members only are unable to be used until that player purchases a subscription. With today’s release of the March developer blog, Jagex has announced some upcoming changes to the way free players are able to experience membership without the need to actually pay. Instead of a 14-day trial, free players will have access to a limited amount of the members world, as well as very limited access to members skills.

Talking of free players, we’re changing the trial system so that new players once again start off as a free player. To do this, we’re making Burthorpe and Taverley part of the free game, as well as the associated quests and training areas within it. We are also allowing free players to train members’ skills up to a maximum of level 5, giving them a taster of the kind of content there is on offer for players who subscribe.

The blog post also details Jagex’s continued fight against player-run gambling outfits.

Other alterations we intend to make this month are changes centred around the flower games and associated ‘risk’ gameplay that currently dominates the Grand Exchange. Exactly what these changes are and what form they take is going to be up to you – we’ve built a variety of solutions from rules changes, content changes and even our own versions of the games – and we’re planning on chatting to you to work out what solution works best for the community. Keep an eye on the news for details.

You can find the full list of scheduled updates for March at the link below.

(Source: RuneScape)

Lockboxes Illegal? Cryptic Would Rather Dump Your Country


It’s been almost two years since Bill Roper has had anything to do with Cryptic Studios, but with some of the recent money-related decisions made by the developer, you would never know he’d left. Not long ago, Cryptic introduced lockboxes, cash shop items that have the chance at offering valuable items to the players who buy them. Apparently the lockboxes constitute gambling in some countries, including the Netherlands, and according to several users on the Star Trek Online forums, are being investigated by various government bodies.

And if your laws do prohibit such gambling, Cryptic’s Borticus wants you to know that Cryptic is listening. Not so the company can react, just so they know which country to ban.

I hope you realize that the most likely course of action here, if any is taken, is that the STO becomes unplayable in the Netherlands. IP blocks, proxy blocks, etc.

And I know what you’re thinking, but you have absolutely nothing to worry about for Cryptic’s bottom line. Your money wasn’t really that significant anyway.

Honestly? Probably less revenue than would be lost by not doing any more Lock Boxes.

And sure, some people might point out that Cryptic’s past monetary decisions didn’t prevent the company from posting six to seven figure losses, leading to them being dumped on the streets by Atari, but those people are missing an important point: Cryptic asked for your money, not your opinion.

(Source: Jupiter Force forums)

Gambling In RuneScape: Just Say Neigh To Gambling


Back in November, I discussed a growing problem in RuneScape: Gambling. The introduction of dice brought with it an underground casino-style ring of players setting up shop by the Grand Exchange (RuneScape auction house) and betting on dice rolls. In order to combat the in-game street dice, Jagex removed the item entirely, at the same time making way for the less popular gambling techniques to fight for control of the market. Enter horsing:

Toy horses were introduced by Jagex way back in 2004 on April Fool’s Day joke, as a gag item for players who had asked for horse mounts. The horses can be played with, where they broadcast one of three phrases randomly. In its use in gambling, a player would offer his wager (trade money or items to the house) and place a bet one which one of the three phrases would appear. Then the house would activate the horse, and the player would win or lose depending on what the horse said. As with the dicing, this carried the risk of the house simply walking away with your money, regardless of whether you won or lost.

In a hotfix today, Jagex removed all three of the horse’s phrases, replacing it with one: “Just say neigh to gambling!” On the forums, Mod Emilee posted to announce the change, reminding players that gambling is not supported by Jagex. Players should be alert for scams, especially in a game like RuneScape where Jagex does not return any coins/items stolen even if the scam artist is found guilty and banned.

Still, this doesn’t stop the multiple other gambling methods in RuneScape:

  1. Flower Game: This uses Mithril seeds. The seeds are planted by a player, and grow into a random color. The gambler places a bet on which color he thinks will sprout.
  2. Dungeoneering Cape: The dungeoneering cape, which can be bought by players at 99 dungeoneering, selects one of three emotes randomly. The gambler bets on which emote will appear. Unlike the other gambling methods, this can be rigged to produce a specific outcome every time. This is also far less prevalent, as it requires over thirteen million experience in Dungeoneering to obtain the cape.
  3. Seal Emote: The “Seal of Approval” emote from RuneScape’s Christmas events. When used, the player turns into a seal with a backpack displaying a random number between 1 and 6. The gambler bets on which number will appear.
  4. Christmas Wand: I may be completely off on this, but this one appears to be based on the holiday item. Using it on another player throws either a Christmas pudding, a bauble, or a snowball, randomly. The player bets on which will be thrown.
  5. Classic Cape: In this method, the Classic Cape generates one of three emotes, and the gambler bets on which one will appear. This is much less prevalent, because the cape can only be obtained by players who have access to RuneScape Classic. In 2005, Classic shut down to new accounts. Since then, Jagex had opened the game up to new players on multiple occasions, with the last event in September last year to be the last ever. Now Classic is only accessible by those who had played it at one point.

These are just the gambling methods I discovered after about fifteen minutes of searching, so no doubt more exist. Jagex is going to have a long fight on their hands to get rid of every easy form of gambling available to players.

(Source: RuneScape forums)

(From MMO Fallout:

Jagex Removes Dice In Runescape: Fights Scams


Back in 2009 when Jagex created the bag of dice, an item that allows a player to roll a set of dice and broadcast the results to his clan chat, they didn’t exactly anticipate that players would take their invitation of emergent gameplay and go ahead and turn the item into a tool for underground gambling systems run by shady, often fly-by-night operators. And when Jagex threw the nuclear switch and knocked all of the bots offline a few weeks ago, the number of players sitting at the grand exchange (and elsewhere) advertising their dicing services rose exponentially. Barring one shattered poodle, Jagex was forced to step in and proclaim that this is why we can’t have nice things, Pepper.

In response to the growing complaints over spam, scams, and shady business, the dice have been disabled and will be removed upon the next content update. Mod Mark commented:

Don’t gamble! There are too many people who will try to scam you or alter the odds in their favour. It’s never supported by JAGEX unless it’s about gameplay (like the duel arena). It’s likely that dice scammers will move over to another method of trying to scam you, so please, be vigilant and remember… if it sounds too good to be true, it’s probably a lie.

Of course, dicing will simply be replaced by another popular method, assuming one hasn’t already. Still, busting bots and blasting a scam method in succession is rather impressive, even if the latter was essentially Jagex’s own Frankenstein’s monster.