I'm sorry if the following post comes off as a bit angry. I'm writing this off the cuff and am very aggravated by the situation.
Today I received an email from Google Play Support stating that Luck be a Landlord has been geo-blocked in the following countries: United Arab Emirates,
“Luck be a Landlord is a roguelike deckbuilder about using a slot machine to earn rent money and defeat capitalism. This game does not contain any real-world currency gambling or microtransactions.”
For those curious about the game. Game details from Metacritic.
So it’s literally a slot machine simulator…
And the guy who made it doesn’t understand why it’s being taken down for gambling?
So you think an FPS should be taken down for murder?
Similar to some countries banning games that depict skulls or blood, these countries have banned games that depict gambling. This is different from banning games that contain loot boxes or actual gambling.
No because that’s not killing anyone.
But a slot machine simulator is still gambling even if it doesn’t really pay out.
So a slot machine simulator getting banned in countries that ban gambling makes perfect sense.
But the creator apparently thinks it’s because those countries just love capitalism so much…
I don’t know what’s hard to understand
Uhh, no? That’s not what gambling is?
Didn’t you know that every choice you make throughout the day is gambling?
Every random number generator is gambling, dammit. Right down to quantum mechanics.
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That’s gambling with your life man.
See my previous comment
What about Vampire Survivors, as well as numerous other games, using spinners or other slot-machine-like animations to represent RPG drops? Should all of these games be banned for the same reason? If anything, many of these better re-create the slot machine experience with their flashy effects and more substantial results.
In Super Mario Bros 2 you use a slot machine to get extra lives at the end of each level - I hope they’ve banned that game too.
I’m not exactly up to date on mobile games…
But if their primary gameplay is a slot machine simulator, then yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re also banned.
Although people who play a lot of mobile games would explain the type of replies I’m getting. So it probably wasn’t intentional, but you did help, thanks!
These aren’t mobile games, they’re desktop games, and this isn’t anything new. These same themes and effects have been used for decades. As someone else points out, even the retro Mario games have you use spinners and slot machines. RNG is exciting and helps make a fun and engaging game. I mean, by that same logic, a game like Catan should be banned because one of its primary mechanics is just being rewarded for favorable dice rolls, as you would be when gambling on dice.
There is a metric fuckton of slot machine games on the playstore. This game, which isn’t gambling, is being limited while other slot machine games aren’t.
It would be different if the policy was applied equally to other apps as well.
You’ve been told multiple times it is not.
LbaL is also on Steam btw, I played it there a few years ago
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Well the UAE for instance recently made a deal with a Las Vegas casino. Wynn Resorts.
Exceptions are made, clearly.
I googled that.
It’s set to open in 2027 because they’re confident by then it will be legal.
But it’s 2023 and it’s not legal. So sure, if in 2027 it’s legal and this mobile slot machine simulator is still banned, maybe it would matter
Really, Luck Be A Landlord just needs to call them ‘duty free luck draws’ or something. Or disguise the slots as horse races. Gambling is rampant in places like the UAE, it’s just gamed,(haw). So that’s all LBAL would need to do. I doubt it’s worth the effort for the sales in the countries banning it though.
Except gambling on racing is legal.
Are you just trolling?
The fps isn’t killing anybody and spinning the wheels in luck be a landlord isn’t taking anybody’s money.
Neither is bad.
FPS games aren’t actually killing anyone.
And a slot machine simulator is not actually gambling. Gambling is the wagering of something of value (“the stakes”) on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. (Wikipedia) . If you are not paying or receiving money you are not gambling. You are just playing a game.
Present evidence that fake gambling causes real gambling. Not evidence that it actives dopamine receptors. Actual gambling.
Fantasy and fiction don’t cause maladaptive behavior. One day society will accept that this is still true for audiovisual media, just as it had to be slowly accepted for music, just as it had to be slowly accepted for books.
This is like saying meteorologists who predict the rain cause it…
u wot? It’s not a slot machine simulator either.
Anybody who has played the game will know how much of a dumbass take this is. It’s no more a “slot machine simulator” than Doom is a “military training simulator”.
DOOM was actually used for military training, though.
Uh oh, looks like all the Borderlands games are illegal. Gearbox better watch out
Too bad lootboxes are banned in a lot of countries so you couldn’t make a closer analogy…
The only loot boxes in Borderlands are the actual boxes of loot you find in the game world playing the game like any other box of loot in an RPG. Unless there’s a new one I haven’t heard of that contains MTX loot boxes.
Even for someone with a username made out of emojis…
Come on man, you can’t be that stupid
Edit:
Nevermind, saw that post history. That’s what I get for being an optimist
It sounds like you have no fucking clue what you’re talking about. Have you ever actually played any of the Borderlands games? Or are you like @Detheroth and considering the event/pre-order exclusive codes needed to unlock golden keys as a lootbox, despite them not actually selling them for money? FFS, you can cheat to obtain these things by just copying your save file, since they’re stored locally on your profile.
If you had argued over the season pass shit, you’d have somewhat of a point, though not anything to do with gambling. But you decided to focus on lootboxes.
For someone who calls everyone else stupid, you’re pretty damn ignorant yourself.
The only loot boxes in Borderlands are the actual boxes of loot you find in the game world playing the game like any other box of loot in an RPG. Unless there’s a new one I haven’t heard of that contains MTX loot boxes.
Google “Borderlands Golden Keys”. Been in the game since BL2 and was causing a stink even back then. Sure there is nothing exclusive to the Golden Chests (that I know of), but they are a quintessential Lootbox.
You mean the event exclusive shit you don’t actually have to pay for (outside of attending the events/seeing social media posts/the few that come with a DLC pack)?
Per Gearbox’s official site for the game:
Star Fox has a secret level with a slot machine as a boss and the only way to beat it is to successfully get a jackpot. It’s as much of a gambling sim as this dude’s game is.
His is less gambling. In starfox, it’s purely random. In his game, you strategically select the symbols that can appear on the machine to make combos more or less likely.
It’s not even a slot machine simulator. It’s more like a deck builder card game with a slot machine theme.