gambling
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Arena PVP Won't Be a Spectator Sport
Over on the forums, Tseric has confirmed that while arena spectators would be a really great idea, Blue won't have it done in time for the expansion's release (whenever that will be). It's going to have to go on the list of "implemented at a future date."Which is too bad, because ever since the 2v2, 3v3, and 5v5 matches were announced, I've been excited to see the results live and in person. Sure, technically it's probably not super easy (especially in popular matches, considering the lag in Ironforge when people squeeze into a small space), but when Tom Chiton hinted at the idea of a Super Brawl, I at least figured it was a possibility. Watching big matches live would be much more awesome then having to watch them on FRAPS later.So how are we going to know what happens in these matches? Not that I can't trust the players (although some of them, I probably can't), but Blizzard must be able to somehow show us in game what matches are happening and their outcome. Maybe they can put an Arena Bar in the main cities, with NPCs reporting matches and scores as they finish. Or there can be an Arena Board to show the results of all matches in the past day or so. I guess they could just report the matches and their outcome on a seperate website, but ingame would be much more fun.And being able to check the results of matches ingame means the very next step is gambling on matches, right? I'd be much more interested in which teams are good or bad when I have the option to put my gold where my mouth is (and make others do the same)!
When is a Raffle Considered Gambling?
A guild on Lightbringer decided to start holding different raffles to help increase the War Effort to get the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj open. They were offering great prizes and gold from their guild vault for people who were contributing materials to the Effort and it appeared to be working, as their server began to rise in the rankings. Then a Blizzard Game Master (GM) sent the raffle organizer an in-game mail saying that what they were doing was against Blizzard game policy since it was a form of gambling.In the end, the GM actually ended up placing a warning on the guild leader's account for performing illegal gambling.My take on this? Blizzard is making a mistake. As much as I despised the casinos that were available early in the game and was extremely pleased to see them go, I think Blizzard is significantly over-reacting to this guild's attempts to make the new game content more interesting. While their raffle may be able to be defined as gambling by its literal definition, I really don't see a problem with how they're running the raffle. It's helping their server achieve a goal, providing a better incentive to participate in the War Effort, and increasing teamwork on the server--something that'll be sorely needed once the Gates are opened.There's still no official word from Blizzard (a blue post), but I'll be eagerly watching this thread for an explanation (or apology?).
