About Loot Tournament this Weekend, it's totally not fair !!?

Oraster-Amastacia · 10/18/2007 23:06:59

Just read from the EQ2players that there's going to have a Loot Tournament next weekend. I'm so excited to see that it finally go live. And you will also receive a new Lucan D'Lere card, 3 boosters and a ingame item (Bottled Breath or Scale of Rodcet Nife). But it also said that this participation is limited to U.S. residents only. This totally drive me crazy, that's not fair. We had been through the previous free testing Tournament to make this game better and it's like 2:00 am at our timezone and always end at around 7:00 am. But now we cannot join this Tournament cauz it's limited to U.S. residents only. Just so disappointed for what they make this decision

TroubledAqua

This is just a slap in the face for us non-US residents. Thanks a lot

Delirium

I totally agree. Also, why can't SOE throw us a bone and have a tournament for international players at a time where participants don't have to become daysleepers just to play.

I've heard that SOE rarely check where you are from when the tournament is on, and that it's purely there for legal reasons. What legal reasons? They let Australians pay money for virtual cards, but we're legally not allowed to play in tournaments that have prizes?

Boid

Just for the record, its next weekend.

drtwave

This is unaceptable, i buy the cards i play the game i play in the tournaments.
Now you have the audacity to say we none americans cant play for prizes after we pay for cards and to play eq(insert version here).
Plz refund all of the money i have spent on cards.
ps there is no way to describe how angry i actualy am

ICut

I hope something is done for you guys who live outside of the US, but you had to have expected this.. it's in the eula.

2.1(a) Eligibility (United States). In addition to the above requirements, to participate in a tournament offered through the Game Service, you must be physically located in a U.S. state in which participation in such tournaments is unrestricted by law. Rules governing sweepstakes, contests, and tournaments with entry fees and/or prizes are established by individual states. Based on these fifty (50) sets of laws, we cannot offer fee-based tournaments with prizes to residents of the States of Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, Tennessee and Vermont. 2.1(b) Eligibility (Non-U.S.). Non-U.S. citizens are not eligible to participate in any tournament offered through the Game Service. We may require any tournament participant to provide proof that he or she is eligible to participate according to Sections 2.1(a) and 2.1(b).

Boid

From the EULA:

2.1(a) Eligibility (United States). In addition to the above requirements, to participate in a tournament offered through the Game Service, you must be physically located in a U.S. state in which participation in such tournaments is unrestricted by law. Rules governing sweepstakes, contests, and tournaments with entry fees and/or prizes are established by individual states. Based on these fifty (50) sets of laws, we cannot offer fee-based tournaments with prizes to residents of the States of Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Nevada, Tennessee and Vermont. 2.1(b) Eligibility (Non-U.S.). Non-U.S. citizens are not eligible to participate in any tournament offered through the Game Service. We may require any tournament participant to provide proof that he or she is eligible to participate according to Sections 2.1(a) and 2.1(b). 2.1(c) In compliance with the United States Internal Revenue Service regulations, we send a Form 1099 to any person who wins in excess of Six Hundred Dollars (US$600.00) in any given calendar year. You remain solely responsible for paying all federal and other taxes in accordance with the laws that apply in your state, province, and/or country of residence. 2.1(d) A new law went into effect April 21, 2000 (The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) which imposed new rules regarding the collection of personal information from children under the age of thirteen (13). Because the Game Service is not directed to children under the age of thirteen (13), we cannot provide or extend the memberships of individuals under the age of thirteen (13). If you are under the age of thirteen (13), you may not create an account on the Game Service, shall not be eligible to enter any sweepstakes and/or promotions, and are asked not to provide any personal information to SOE.
3. We may amend this Agreement at any time in our sole discretion. Amendments shall be communicated to you at the time you log into your Account. Such amendments shall be effective whenever we make the notification available for your review.

General consensus is that they don't actually check where you are from (And with top prize of 14 packs, I doubt they will) so you're probably free to join. They are probably covering their butts so if someone from overseas wins one of the spots in the world championship they aren't obligated to deal with the laws and all that. Technically you weren't allowed in the test tournaments either, so I say just go for it.

Querio

Face it. SOE has yet to find a way to go around some stupid law (if they are looking for it at all).
All online World Championship Qualifiers in SGO were US-only.

I believe we have already posted lots of suggestions that would work, but the next WCQ is again US-only.

On the other hand, they never checked "who's who"...and afaik not even the U.S. players have got their money yet anyway.

Lint

drtwave wrote:

This is unaceptable, i buy the cards i play the game i play in the tournaments.
Now you have the audacity to say we none americans cant play for prizes after we pay for cards and to play eq(insert version here).
Plz refund all of the money i have spent on cards.
ps there is no way to describe how angry i actualy am

This is exactly how I feel about this too!

I noticed this morning that there is an announcement about new tournaments, I read through it and its all going great and I'm really excited about it, but then I hit the clause "US RESIDENTS ONLY".

Normally I'd be tempered in my reactions, but this has got me really pissed off. I've enjoyed playing in the stress testing tournaments I've managed to be able to play in (though I'd have love to have made more but timezone differences don't allow it) and I've even had some relative success in them, but now I find out that just because I live in a different country yet again I am treated as a second class citizen by SOE (don't ask me how I feel about the fact that on EQ2 they have delayed give the last update to the EU servers).

I call **BOOM** on the fact that they are doing this for legal reasons (which is undoubtedly the reason they will give), UK gaming laws where I live are much more relaxed than in the US (in fact I remember recently the US threatening to take legal action against UK based gambling websites who allow US citizens to play), I can walk 5 minutes from where I sit here at work and there are no less than 5 places where I can go and legally gamble. Hell my local pool hall holds a weekly poker tournament. I think it is just pure lazyness on the part of SOE where they can't be arsed to find out what laws are applicable in what countrys and make this available to those that allow it, they'd rather just stick to keeping their US based customers happy and screw everyone else over.

I also find it comical that they are announcing a "world championship", not going to be much of a world championship if you're limiting it to US customers only.

I doubt I'll be logging into LoN again now, as the casual games I'd played in where for tournament practice and deck tuning and I doubt SoE will miss my money (I've only bought 3 boxes of boosters), but I just hope that if enough of the playbase do the same it might make SoE wake up and realise the "world" includes more than 50 states.

Spellshaper

Querio wrote:

All online World Championship Qualifiers in SGO were US-only.

Yeah this is very funny. Why they call US only Championship the "World" Championship?
At least I hope they didnt verify location so people can join all over the world.

McFungos

Just join don't care about the Virrago notice :p

They don't have an the ability yet to forbid you to join a tournament if you are outside US.

That said they don't want to start a trench war with non-us players because it will hurt this game reputation who isn't high already.

Thorval

Do it like everyone does, simply take part in the tourney and dont care about the legal crap. Should they really do any form of check if you are eligible for prizes (which I highly doubt) it would be a cause for me to quit playing too.

The fact from Stargate TCG tournaments is this:

If only virtual prizes were involved (boosters, promo cards), they did not check at all if you really live within the US. Only for "real" prizes (real money and badges to conventions etc.) they will make you sign a release form in which you need to prove that you are properly registered in the U.S.

So stay calm... at this point, it is more than likely that it's just a clause to cover their butts like it has been in the past.

Cadden

Im SURE its just some sort of legality issue or something and that if you are out of country i DOUBT some guy from the sky is gonna strike you down for joining the tourney. I doubt SOE will do/have any way to check where you are when you enter the tourney... they are too lazy to do it and probably dont care.... show some civil disobedience and join the tourney.

Bludysky-Emarr

Its called an IP check, pretty easy to tell when someone is playing outside of the US by running a check on the IP they are using... Granted, I doubt they would, but its easy to do.

Vaclav

It's "totally" because of your governments FYI.

Gambling laws are restrictive in many places, that's the reason why that clause exists - but I personally live in one of the US states effected above - and every online TCG has the same "gambling clause" saying that people in my state can't play for prizes since my state says that "online gambling" is illegal with such wide wording that TCGs get lumped with it.

But yet here I am, years after reading that the first time playing MTGO in beta so many years ago - and I've never been prevented from joining a tournament (where it flat out says they'll remove you if you're not playing in a "legal" locality in their client as well) because I'm a resident of my state, and won over a few thousand in prizes.

This mirrors a HG:L discussion I'm in over there about their EULA - EULA's are all about the company covering their rears - 99% of the time none of it ever gets applied.

They put that in there, so that if your local government finds out you did play and **BOOM** at them, they can say "Well, we put that clause right there that said they shouldn't, blame the user!" period.

Basic logic. Have fun with the rest of us next weekend.